pleroma 2.10.0
Here are four screenshots of early dev builds for Age of Empires 1. The graphics, UI, and gameplay all went through huge amounts of iteration over 2+ years of development, and my new book recounts the journey: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gabedurham/age-of-empires-how-ensemble-studios-made-history/
At one point the Age of Empires developers considered adding natural disasters to the game. But it wasn't consistent with their presentation of an inviting, sunshine-drenched world or their player-centric design philosophies.
(On a related note, there's an anecdote in my book from Bruce Shelley about Bill Gates trying the game and asking if it's meant to be educational -- it wasn't, and Shelley had a great explanation for why.)
The Age of Empires tech tree from October 1995, two years before the game came out, was already much simpler than Rick Goodman's earliest attempts to distill ancient history into a research + upgrades progression system, but still way more complex than the final version—which was rooted in the idea of "ages" in history.
A render of the chariot unit from Age of Empires that was included with the E3/June 1997 press kit for the game. (The game was in beta at the time.)
