It is time to describe a game design that I was working on in last days. It will be fun to observe what will change. I will start with the story. So here it is...

Story tasting
There was a lonely planet in deep universe occupied by a civilization about 500 000 people. Their technology level was comparable with medieval times on Earth. They were living in peace for last 50 years until something happened.

It was spring evening in April, 2087 of earth time when cargo ship called Thorn accidentally flying near the planet was in trouble. Their crew was forced to emergency landing on the planet. It looked like big black burning hammer from the land. It was so obvious that inhabitants noticed. They can't explain it seriously so they believed that it is a devil sign that indicates incoming war. That opinion was spread through society very soon and it resulted in law that enforces military training from childhood.

The place of landing was far away from residential area. The sad news for the ship-wreckers was that their ship can't be repaired with resources located in their area. So they decided to start a colony. They also didn't know anything about original inhabitants. They didn't have technologies they were used to but the most important thing was that they have the wisdom of their ancestors.

They were founding a new cities and families through the years. So they were able to increase their population from about 500 ship wreckers to 750 in 30 years. They lived in peace with a hope they will be able to fix the ship a visit their lost home.

This was disrupted by unexpected meeting of these two different civilizations. It happened on 5th July, 2117 of earth time. The ship wreckers tried to talk them in peace but this politics failed since the original inhabitants saw the ship. It was clear they must kill the people worshiping the devils sign.. The war just began...

Main mechanics
I hope you enjoyed the small story tasting so now it is a time to describe the main mechanics of the game.

The key aspect is that the original inhabitants are relatively lagged in compare with the ship wreckers. This disadvantage is reduced by the amount of people in ratio almost 1000:1 for the original inhabitants.

This leads to one of the main mechanics that the number of people is limited. It mean that number of ship wreckers is limited and if they all die it means that the game is lost. Well the original inhabitants are limited too but the main effect is on the ship wreckers.

I would like to transfer the number at the end of the mission into another mission in single-player.

So if the player would like to build or repair a building at least one man would be required. The man will be freed after he finishes his action.

For every unit there will be a required number of men that will be present in the unit. If a player will have not enough people it would be possible to abandon the unit which will increase the people resource number.

The next mechanics is city conquering to defeat another player (no matter if it is a computer) it will be necessary to conquer the main city buildings (similar to Rise of Nations).

Resources
It is quite common in strategic games that the player is limited by the available resources. The resources in this game will be: coal, iron ore, wood and people and one special known only to ship wreckers - quadroponium.

Conclusion
I have more design elements such as ages, buildings and units but I guess for one article it is enough. I am also curious what will survive the prototype. It is possible that a lot things will change 🙂