Rise of Nations is a historical real-time strategy (RTS) game for the PC platform from Big Huge Game. Players begin with a small state in ancient times and construct an empire of multiple cities through military conquest, diplomacy, trade, civic and scientific development. Rise of Nations (RoN) will feature many configuration options for both single-player and multiplayer online games. It can be played in as little as an hour. The game will be officially released in spring 2003 and it will be published by Microsoft Game Studios.