Jan van der Crabben

Game Design

I currently work as a game designer. Find below a list of games and modifications I have worked on.

Empire: Total War (2009)
Developer: The Creative Assembly
Publisher: SEGA

Empire is a historical strategy game set in the 18th century. Total War is a mix of a turn-based campaign map and real-time battles. I am responsible for the campaign map side of Empire, which includes designing the economics, trade, and diplomacy systems. I also determined the world map (regions, towns, landscape), and the balancing of the campaign game, to make it fun, understandable, and exciting.

The Ancient Mediterranean Mod (2006)
Modification for Civilization IV

I started the development of “TAM”, which became one of the most popular modifications for Civilization IV. It was voted the 3rd best strategy mod by Gameflood, and it was mentioned by the official Apple gaming magazine. After starting work on Empire I slowly reduced my involvement in the mod.

War of the Ring Server (2004)
Persistent World for Neverwinter Nights

War of the Ring was a Lord of the Rings themed persistent server for Neverwinter Nights, a small-scale MMORPG so to say. After first having joined this world as a player, I began expanding the world using BioWare’s world editor. I added the Shire, the Black Gate, as well as various lands of eastern Middle Earth to this server. Sadly, the server administrator’s money ran out and the world disappeared.

The Ancient Mediterranean Mod (2002)
Modification for Civilization III

This was my first modding effort, and a successful one at that. After starting out with only a map of the Mediterranean, it became one of the most popular mods for Civilization III, has been used in schools for educational purposes, and caused me to be invited by Firaxis to test Civilization IV during its development.