"We decided to re-re-re-restart the XCOM project..."

The just-released XCOM has - along with the potentally cancelled other XCOM game - had a weird development. Jake Solomon was put in charge of it, as a decade-plus veteran for Firaxis who worked most notably on Civilization, and a huge, huge XCOM fan. So it's interesting to see the 'untold story,' so to speak, of the development, -- as seen in this Eurogamer interview -- such as the terrifying moment two years into development where he decided to reverse the entire project's direction.

"That was a one-off meeting," lead producer Garth DeAngelis tells me. "He pulled us in, saying, 'we've got to sit down and talk.' We immediately knew something big was going to change."

"I was like, well... I think we should go back closer to what the original game was," Jake says. "That was a moment where I was pretty confident it was the right decision, but, you know... obviously they supported me but they were like, come on man. Seriously?"

There's no Indie Game: The Movie sweeping emotional moments to read, but if you hold XCOM dear to your heart, know that the development team was just as tortured over it - probably moreso - as you were.

Julian "Mirai" Williams