30 Minutes of AoE Facts (ft. [Age of Empires designer] Sandy Petersen)

Sandy Petersen made DOOM. He co-designed Age of Empires. Across three long conversations, he's shared stories from behind the scenes at Ensemble Studios - the balance decisions, the accidents that became features, the corporate chaos.

Here's 24 of them in one place.

The Korean incident that nearly got Microsoft reps arrested. The balance decisions made on pure vibes. The bugs Ensemble decided to keep as features. The plan to fire the entire studio the day Halo Wars shipped. The mangonels that chop down forests - and what they were originally allowed to destroy. The bridges the programmers refused to build.