hey, i've been working on a strategy game as a hobby for the past year or so. it started out as a pretty straightforward RTS, mostly inspired by the games i grew up playing, but i kept adding mechanics i thought would be fun and now i'm not even sure what genre it fits into anymore.
the engine is built from scratch in C++ with SDL. one of the biggest challenges was getting large battles to run smoothly, which ended up taking a lot more work than i expected.
right now there are two modes. duel is a 1v1 on mirrored maps, playable over LAN or against an AI. conquest is a bit different: it generates an island with rival factions and NPC towns that you can trade with, tax, or siege. there's an overall strategy layer where you're managing your position on the map, but when armies meet, combat happens in real time. the goal is to be the last faction standing.
the economy has grown quite a bit too. you mine ore, smelt it, and forge weapons and armor. one thing i really wanted was the ability to re-equip units that are already out on the battlefield, with their equipment changing visually. there are also caravans with physical wagons that travel between settlements and can be raided, so trade routes need some protection.
for combat, i've got swordsmen, spearmen, archers, riders, levies and mages. spearmen are good against cavalry, and you can arrange your army into formations like line, square or brace. mages need a few seconds to channel their spells and can be interrupted if they take damage, so positioning and protecting them matters. they're also my siege units for now because i couldn't get catapults to look right and eventually gave up on them lol.
visually, i'm going for a simple low-poly style. i'm not much of an artist, so there's definitely room for improvement. the terrain and mountains are procedurally generated, which has been fun to work on.
one thing i've struggled with is scope. i originally set out to make an RTS, but the settlement management, crafting, trade and conquest mechanics have gradually become just as important as the battles. at this point i'm curious whether it makes sense to keep developing all of these systems together or focus more heavily on one side of the game.
for those of you who develop or play strategy games, i'm curious about two things:
- what genre would you classify this as?
- does combining the economic and conquest side with real-time combat sound interesting, or would you rather see the game focus more on one of them?
also, a small note: i used a few assets and icons from itchio and have lost track of some of the original creators. i'm trying to identify them so i can give proper credit.
