Strategy Games

Overview

A turn-based strategy game where the economy is the real game — every unit built, building placed, or technology researched is a choice not to build, place or research something else.

The Problem

Most turn-based strategy games converge on one dominant opening strategy once players learn the economy, because the trade-offs aren't real — there's usually a clearly-best build order. The brief was a resource model where early choices visibly narrow or open later options, with no single dominant path.

• Early prototype playtests converged on the same opening build order within a handful of games, exactly the flatness the design was meant to avoid.
• AI opponents that optimised purely for combat were beatable with the same trick every time, once a player found it.
• Turn resolution in the multiplayer prototype left three players waiting on whichever one was slowest to act.

How We Solved It

We built a resource model with genuine trade-offs and a tech tree where early research decisions have consequences ten turns later, not just immediately. The harder problem has been the AI opponent: an AI that only optimises combat is straightforward, one that convincingly trades off economy against military is not, and that's where most of the current build effort is going.

• A resource model with real trade-offs, not one dominant strategy that wins every game.
• An AI opponent that plays for the economy, not just for combat.
• A tech tree where early choices visibly narrow or open later options.

Key Decisions

• Rebalance after every playtest round, not on a fixed schedule. A dominant strategy gets patched within days of being found, not the next planned update.
• The AI evaluates economic and military options on the same scoring scale, instead of two separate systems bolted together.
• Simultaneous turn resolution for multiplayer, so players commit moves in parallel rather than waiting on each other in sequence.

The Result

The economic core and single-player AI are playable today, with real trade-offs that don't collapse into one best strategy. Multiplayer turn handling and the campaign are the current build, so a full head-to-head experience is next rather than shipped.

The most recent balance pass moved playtesters away from a single dominant opening — win rates across the three viable early strategies are now within a few points of each other.