The idea of the cities, city-base progression, leaders, the passage of time, tile-based, turn-based, building improvements, technologies. Co-lead designer David McDonough described the relationship between the two games by saying 'The bones of the experience are very much recognisably Civ. 1.1 Changes from the traditional Civilization formulaīeyond Earth is a turn-based strategy game played on a hexagonal-based grid, iterating the ideas and building upon the engine of its predecessor, Civilization V.