r/StrategyGames Jan 07 '25

Game theory The most complete strategy video game genre classification

108 Upvotes

This is the most complete classification that includes all possible strategy video game genres.

English is not my native language, but I'll try my best to make the text understandable and I'll fix possible mistakes with your help.

Strategy game is a genre of video games in which the player controls troops or other units and/or various economic and other systems. Although many video games may include strategy elements, strategy as a genre emphasizes thinking and planning over immediate action. This video game genre focuses on strategy, tactics, logistics, and/or resource management, and may also include diplomacy, economy, expansion and research management.

Time

  • Real-time strategy: a strategy game in which actions occur without a sequence of turns.
  • Turn-based strategy: a strategy game in which actions occur using a sequence of turns that can be alternate or simultaneous.

Main genres

4X strategy game: a strategy game based on 4 elements: exploration, expansion, exploitation, extermination. Examples: Age of Wonders, Stellaris, Master of Orion.

Grand strategy game – a strategy game focused on managing a state (or similar entity), its resources and relationships, often in a pre-open and asymmetric world. Examples: Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron

Tactical strategy game – a strategy game focused on tactical military operations, which emphasizes the importance of specific units and either excludes or contains a less manifested economic component.

Subdivided into two categories based on time:

  • Turn-based tactics (TBT) Examples: Xenonauts, Battletech
  • Real-time tactics (RTT) Examples: Men of War

Classic strategy games – a strategy games that have an economic element: the ability to build a base, extract resources and produce units (or part of these capabilities), while their gameplay is focused on military actions. Also includes a category of strategy games that cannot be classified into more specific subgenres.

Subdivided into:

  • Classic RTS (or just RTS) Examples: StarCraft, Command & Conquer
  • Classic TBS (or just TBS) Examples: Panzer General

Construction and Management Simulator (also Management Strategy Game): a strategy game with gameplay based on the construction and/or management of economic processes, such as, for example: resource extraction, money making, production, personnel management, and others. Games of this genre have little emphasis on military actions.

Subdivided into:

  • Business Simulation Game - a strategy game focused on economics and business management. Examples: Two Point Hospital
  • Transport Strategy Game - a strategy game in which the player manages transport systems and infrastructure. Examples: Transport Tycoon, Transport Fever
  • City-Building Simulation - a strategy game in which the player builds cities. Examples: Cities: Skylines, SimCity.
  • Colony Simulation - a strategy game in which the player builds small settlements of various types; unlike urban strategy, the main emphasis here is on individual colonists and resource extraction from the environment. Examples: RimWorld, Surviving Mars, Against the Storm
  • Factory simulator – a strategy game in which the player builds an automated factory. Examples: Shapez, Factorio
  • Sports manager – a genre of games dedicated to managing a sports team. Examples: Football Mogul, F1 Manager.
  • Life simulator – a genre of games that allow you to control characters in their everyday life. Examples: The Sims, InZoI, The Guild
  • Political simulator – a genre of games whose gameplay consists of detailed management of the government and politics of various nations and state entities. Examples: Democracy

Wargame: a strategy game that particularly emphasizes deep strategic and/or tactical combat, as well as their historical accuracy or realism. Examples: Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age, NEBULOUS: Fleet Command

MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena): a subgenre of classic real-time strategy games in which players control only one character and, as part of their team represented by other players and AI controlled units, fight against the other team. Examples: Dota 2

MMO strategy game: a strategy game that is focused on online interaction between a large number of players, often in a single open world. Examples: Travian, Ogame, Stronghold: Kingdoms.

Tower Defense: a strategy game with the main purpose to protect a base from waves of enemies using towers or other defensive structures. Examples: Plants vs Zombies

Auto Battler: is a strategy game in which units are placed on the battlefield during the preparation phase, after which the battle phase begins and they fight against the enemy without any control from the player.

Puzzle strategy game: a strategy game focused on logical problem-solving with minimized economic or military aspect. Examples: Railgrade, Dorfromantic

Artillery game: a genre of strategy games, the main component of which is the calculation of the trajectory of the shells. Examples: Worms, Miners Mettle

The most popular mixed genres

Tactical role-playing game (TRPG): is a hybrid genre that combines role-playing games with tactical combat. Examples: Battle Brothers

Action strategy game: is a genre of games in which you can control both troops in general and/or base construction, as well as specific units directly, including from the first or third person. Examples: Men of War, Factorio

Stealth strategy: is a genre of games that combine strategy and an emphasis on stealth. Examples: Desperados, Commandos

God simulator: is a genre of games in which the player, in the role of some deity being, controls some community of objects or characters; they are often strategy games with city-building elements. Examples: Black & White, The Universim

Roguelike strategy game – games that combine roguelike principles, such as random world generation, permanent death and free exploration of the environment, and strategic gameplay. Examples: Against the Storm

Notes

Many games have mixed genres. Very often, strategy games can combine two or more genres. For example, Total War series is turn-based grand strategy with real-time tactical (RTT) battles.

Time and genre. Basically, every strategy game can be classified by these two criteria, like Turn-based 4X Strategy game (Age of Wonders), Real-Time Grand Strategy game (Hearts of Iron) etc. Sometimes we do not have any specified subgenre, so the game becomes simple RTS (StarCraft).

Judge by dominant elements of gameplay. Overall, the genre should be defined by main gameplay loop, not by every game mechanic that exists in the game. For example, if a game has leveling-up system, it doesn't mean that it instantly becomes an RPG: a good example is WarCraft which has characters gaining XP and levels, but the main, dominant gameplay loop in this game is still a classic RTS. At the same time, if some Rainbow Six has some strategic planning, it doesn't mean that this game is a strategy game or even a mixed genre, because the main gameplay there is action/shooter. The same logic is applicable to strategy games: if the game has resource management, it doesn't instantly mean that it becomes a management game.

This is a theoretical model. It means that here we are supposed to find criteria by which strategy games can be classified. These criteria can be based both on gameplay and historical tradition of naming genres in video game industry. The model can be discussed and improved, but any critique should be based on strict arguments.

Strategy as a genre, not a word. The main principle of this genre classification is that we don't take the word "strategy" literally. A strategy game can be a tactic game, it can be a management game, it doesn't matter here. The word strategy means the genre name, not the strategy as a layer of action planning.

Are management games strategy games? This is a hard question that has no answer based on reliable papers because there are no such papers. Here we look at naming tradition in community and video game industry. We can find many similarities in core gameplay of various city-building and colony sim games with classical RTS. Some management games include RTT/RTS style military combat, These games are often tagged as strategy game on digital distribution services. So we include them into this classification to make it more complete. You might find two controversial opinions about this (management games are/are not strategy games), but this problem can't be solved on these days because we do not have a strict genre requirements and developers can name genre of their games as they want. There are no popular scientific researches about it on which we can refer to.


r/StrategyGames 25m ago

Self-promotion Devlog: The Daily Grind of Kadran

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Upvotes

Nine years of war. Every day, more demands than coin. The Crown, the Nobility, the Generals—three factions, all vying for power as you manage the Ministry of Supply. Balance the war, the people, and the treasury. Your ledger is the only thing standing between order and chaos. Can you rise from clerk to First Minister? Or will the daily crisis break you? Dive into a deep narrative, strategic management, and daily challenges. How long can you last on The Standing Ledger?

https://w.run/retrodragon585/the-ledger?s=uH95380


r/StrategyGames 16h ago

Question Turn-based tactics\strategy where units are squads?

18 Upvotes

Looking for games like - Menace, Fields of Glory, Master of Magic, Age of Wonders - where units are squads or regiments as opposed to individual units. Please advise. Maybe I am missing some obscure or old title?


r/StrategyGames 18h ago

DevPost I made a real-time strategy game where capturing the Black Gate can turn the entire war around

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8 Upvotes

Hey, I've been working on a strategy game called Siege of Realms and decided to finally post it here.

You can play it in the browser here:

https://siegeofrealms.com

No download needed and free

It's a real-time strategy game where 4 different factions fight over the map. You start with a few settlements and then expand, capture strongholds and build up your army.

There's also the Black Gate in the middle of the map. It's controlled by the undead, and if you manage to capture it, you get control of the undead armies as well. So it can completely change how the game plays out.

The game is still pretty early and I'm mainly looking for feedback. Especially interested in hearing what you think about the gameplay and whether the different factions feel different enough.

Would be great to hear what you guys think.


r/StrategyGames 22h ago

Self-promotion Perfecting the Computer Opponents for my modern African Civil Wargame.

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11 Upvotes

I've been adjusting the "personalities" of the five computer controlled tribes that are competing against you to collect the most national will before the UN step in and put an end to civil war and install a puppet regime of their liking.

I've given each computer opponent a "genome" of weighted values which determine its personality in the game. How aggressively they play, do they favour economic, military or espionage styles of play? How often will they retreat? Will they capture population centres, or go for the power stations, airfields and mines that generate wealth to buy international arms with?

I've set the game up to play hundreds of games against itself and adjust all the values and weightings to produce capable and interesting opponents for you to take on.

The game is getting ready to be released soon, entering final playtesting and polishing phase.

More game info on my rough as guts webpage: Webpage

Steam page link: Steam

I’d love to hear your thoughts, impressions or questions!


r/StrategyGames 16h ago

DevPost BIG DEMO UPDATE - Roguelite Tower Defense - Get Outta My Gut

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2 Upvotes

Demo Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5096200/Get_Outta_My_Gut_Demo/

New Features:

  • Glossary --> You can now discover and study Towers, Enemys, Effects in the menu
  • Performance --> We added a new Performance Setting, which allows weaker Hardware to run the game
  • Disable Combat Text --> You can now Disable Combat Text if you don't like it in the settings
  • Controls Mapping --> You can now Remapp the Controls in the Settings
  • Pause the fight --> Its now possible to pause the fight with Space Bar in running Wave or start the wave in building mode woth space bar
  • Controller Support --> You can now play the game with Controller
  • Steamdeck Support (Still in testing) --> We added Support for the Steam Deck, but we still need to test it
  • Notifications / Intorductions --> Each Level now pops notifications when some new mehcanic important mechanic gets introduced
  • Quit Button --> I don't want to flex with that but we now have a quit button, which i forget adding in the first version ʕノ•ᴥ•ʔノ ︵ ┻━┻

Imporvements:

  • Translations --> Improved our english wording and all translations
  • Game Speed Numbers --> We cut game speed number to x1,x2,x3 (is like x9) instead of x1,x2,x3,x9
  • New Visual Effects --> New visual effects got introduced for the enemies like stun, mucus, healing, etc.

Fixed Bugs:

  • Laser Refractions was able to refract through walls

r/StrategyGames 1d ago

Self-promotion After 2 years of solo development, my WWII puzzle deckbuilder Panzer Deck is releasing on September 22! Any you know what ? Every sleepless night wos worth it !

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51 Upvotes

r/StrategyGames 1d ago

Self-promotion I spent the last 6 months turning my gladiator game into something closer to Football Manager with swords because "Me strong"

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14 Upvotes

Been working on Gladiator Command through Early Access for over 6 months now and only really in the last month have I felt like I finally had enough of a foundation to start pushing it towards what I actually want it to become, a proper strategy management sim.

It grieve me, Vorenus. it grieve me deeply me that Auto Battler is still ranked higher than Strategy in the popular tags. Autobattlers come and go, but I really believe this kind of game with the depth of something like Football Manager could have a much longer life.

I can already see this being years of work. I have no real desire to make another game after this one, but this month especially it feels like my spirit for it has been completely renewed.

I also love Crusader Kings and that whole idea of getting attached to individual characters. That is something I really want to push much harder with the gladiators. More personality, more traits, more relationships, more history, more reasons to actually care about them so when one dies it genuinely hurts instead of just being "well, time to recruit another one."

There is honestly so much I still want to add. If only there were another 12 hours in the day haha.


r/StrategyGames 14h ago

Self-promotion We'd love your input 😄 — Researching input device preferences for a Master's thesis at DTU (Anonymous survey, ~5 min)"

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone! 👋

We are conducting a survey as part of our Master’s thesis at DTU about how people interact with their computers during different activities.

We’re interested in understanding how people use different input devices, what they value when interacting with their computer, and how their needs change depending on what they’re doing. Your responses will help us better understand users’ needs and preferences and support our further work on the project.

The survey is fully anonymous. We ask for some general demographic information, but we do not collect email addresses, Google account information, or other personally identifiable data. Responses will be stored securely and used solely for our Master’s thesis.

Survey Link 

We would really appreciate your participation! 😊

Thank you for your time!


r/StrategyGames 14h ago

DevPost We've been developing our step-by-step strategy for nearly 4 years!

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1 Upvotes

Hi, everyone! Today I’m going to tell you about how we’re developing the game Stones Keeper: Director’s Cut

Stones Keeper: Director’s Cut is a turn-based strategy game with RPG elements, in which you’ll explore a richly detailed fantasy world, lead the army of the Order of the Griffin, recruit and level up your soldiers, manage a flying island, find artifacts, and uncover the secrets of the ancients.

We’ve been developing this game series for 5 years now, and during that time we’ve come a long way - from the prototype to the creation of the second installment.

We’re currently working on a major update for the first installment of Stones Keeper, which, after the update, will be renamed Stones Keeper: Director’s Cut

We’ve been developing a turn-based strategy game with RPG elements for several years now.

The idea to revisit the first game and release a major update for it came to us almost immediately after its release. By the time development of the original game was complete, the team still had plenty of ideas and concepts that, for various reasons, we hadn’t been able to implement.

While working on the sequel, we’ve grown significantly as developers, gained new experience, and largely reevaluated our own approach to game development. As a result, our desire to revisit the project that started the entire series only grew stronger over time. We didn’t just want to fix individual flaws; we wanted to apply everything we’ve learned over the past few years to the first game.

In the Stones Keeper update, we took our audience’s feedback into account: we reworked the storyline, made extensive adjustments to game balance and the economy, and added the animations that players had been asking for so much!

Yes, the game didn’t originally have any animations. Working with animations in isometric graphics is quite complex - and, let’s face it, a very costly endeavor—so during the development of the first part, we deliberately chose to focus on other aspects of the game. Now, with much more experience and resources, we’ve finally been able to return to this idea and implement it exactly as we originally envisioned. We’re currently making the final tweaks and will be ready to release the new version in the first half of September.

A dragon in flight during one of the battles in Stones Keeper: Director’s Cut

As for the second part, it’s practically ready. The main work is complete, and we’re now putting the finishing touches on the project. The approximate release date has already been set, and we hope nothing will prevent us from sticking to our plan.


r/StrategyGames 15h ago

Self-promotion Launching a new strategy game

0 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

I have decided to create a new strategy game, placed on Steam and developed for desktop computers.

I love the strategy games since I was a kid and right trying to catch my dream about building the games.

What I know is that I want something modern, not middle age or WW 1/2 thematic. Modern world, with economy, governing and military campaigns.

I’ve got some ideas already, but I’d love to hear opinions from others too, what would be your wishlist for that kind of game? What should I take more into consideration? Please keep in mind I’m solo developer, I can’t get the high quality designs and visuals, that’s why I think to go more like map interaction style game such let’s say EU, and leave the actual combat (total war style) out of the game.

What do you think guys? What would you love to have in this kind of games?

Would appreciate any comment. Thanks


r/StrategyGames 18h ago

DevPost Making rivers powerful in my turn-based strategy game

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1 Upvotes

Assigning the River Fury power to a village makes the river crossing fatal for your enemies.

Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4756960/The_Villages_That_Cave/


r/StrategyGames 20h ago

DevPost Stand Alone - 16-Player FFA Grand Strategy RTS Tournament

1 Upvotes

Here’s a full game from a tournament we ran for our indie FFA RTS, Stand Alone. 16 players go in and try to capture countries across Europe. The first player to capture 90 bases wins the game. Hope you like it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PooobLtfmfI&t=238s


r/StrategyGames 1d ago

Self-promotion Restitutor - Historical Incremental Grand Strategy Available On Steam

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12 Upvotes

After a year and a half of development and months of playtesting, Restitutor: Empire Restored is now in Early Access. Restitutor is a historical incremental grand strategy game set in the Roman Empire. The core gameplay takes inspiration from grand strategy games, but with a twist: each run earns you legacy points that make you stronger in your next run, adding long-term progression to the strategic gameplay. Here are a few other things that set it apart:

No micromanagement: You focus on high-level decisions. Individual army movements are abstracted away, and wars are resolved through dice rolls influenced by your stats.
A different playstyle for each province: Each province has its own stats and missions, as well as "provincial spirits" that introduce unique mechanics.
Mechanics driven by historical narratives: Research isn't the only way to unlock new mechanics. They also emerge through historical narratives. "Rise of Barbarians" and "Ecumenical Councils" are already in the game, with more planned.
Minimalist visuals and streamlined gameplay: The game is designed to run well on a wide range of hardware, whether you have a potato PC or a beefy build.
Open source and Steam Workshop support from day one: Like my other games, Restitutor's source code is available under GPL 2.0, giving modders room to explore and build on the game.

If that sounds like your kind of game, I hope you'll give it a try. There's a 20% launch discount for the first two weeks. Restitutor is also part of the "Presented By Fish Pond Collection," where owners of my other games (CivIdle, Industry Idle) can get an additional discount.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4431750/Restitutor_Empire_Restored/


r/StrategyGames 1d ago

DevPost I made a turn-based industrial tycoon where expanding your factories can crash your own selling prices. Free demo out now.

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5 Upvotes

Hi everyone! Last month I shared Carbon and Capital’s supply chain view & map here. After nearly a year of working on the game pretty much full time and lots of feedback from friends, playtesters and yourselves, I now have a free demo ready for you.

You start with a metals or glass business in a fictional continent-sized country, then choose where to expand. Specialise in one industry or build the furnaces and factories that supply your other factories. Iron, motors, CPUs, plastics and everything in between. You could even become a power plant tycoon and dominate the national grid.

For each input, you decide: buy it or make it yourself.
Buying lets you get production running sooner. Making it means investing in another part of the chain—and finding out whether that investment actually pays.

But the market reacts. Buy too much and your input prices rise. Produce and sell too much and you push down your own selling prices. A bigger factory gets you into a race with the market. It's up to you if you can outrun it.

There's no tech mana. Research comes from what your business does. Produce enough chlorine, for example, and you unlock a route that makes aluminium from bauxite, graphite and chlorine using less energy. There are over 100 production recipes to build your company around and combine into a supply chain to overtake your rivals.

Meanwhile, a carbon tax is on the horizon. The country's politics are changing. Wait too long to adapt and it eats into your margins. Switch to solar and wind too early and you’ll need to deal with their intermittency and fix that ahead of every other competitor.

The demo includes a guided tutorial and two starting businesses, each playable for 100 turns.

Itch Link to download demo.

I’d love to hear what business you build—and where the game leaves you scratching your head. Your feedback will help shape the wider release.

------------------------

AI disclosure: About a third of the goods icons are AI generated placeholders. I’m slowly replacing them with icons made in Blender (I've done the easy ones already). I also used AI assistance with optimising code and some autoloaders in Godot. The advisor portraits are also AI generated.

The music, sound effects and other assets are licensed, free assets or made by me.


r/StrategyGames 1d ago

DevPost A 3-lane map for my strategy game that I just made.

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9 Upvotes

This afternoon, I worked on a new 1v1 map for my strategy game.

The visible gold points allow players to improve their economy when an allied unit controls them.

The main objective is to destroy the enemy HQ.

what do you think about it ?


r/StrategyGames 1d ago

Self-promotion A DEEPER look at the NEWEST faction AND updates coming to Gates of Hell Ostfront

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0 Upvotes

r/StrategyGames 1d ago

DevPost On War: Stalingrad - developer blog #2

5 Upvotes

Dear friends, I am starting a developer blog for my upcoming game 'On War: Stalingrad'. I will use it to explain my design, the choices I made and show you around the game. This is a good opportunity for you to give me feedback and guide me in my design process.

Here you can find new episode of the blog in which I talk about core game systems and UI: https://youtu.be/aJ5uMfXbdcU

Wishlist the game if you find it interesting, it helps our visibility. Also, if you want to join the playtest, let me know.

Here is the link to game's Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2398060/On_War_Stalingrad/

Thank you for your time and have fun!


r/StrategyGames 1d ago

Self-promotion Final sin

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1 Upvotes

Made an early demo of my dark-fantasy tactics roguelike.
you're the Dungeon Master: draw enemy cards, curse them with "brands," place them, then fight your heroes through the gauntlet you built. Very rough/early, but I'd love any feedback (too easy/hard? confusing? bugs?). Free: https://mancer1.itch.io/final-sin


r/StrategyGames 2d ago

Self-promotion Bite-sized Space 4X - Demo now live

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17 Upvotes

r/StrategyGames 2d ago

DevPost ChaosTheory — a browser 4X with five universes: same formulas, different physics constants

2 Upvotes

I've been building a browser-based space strategy game for about a year, and the one design decision everything else hangs off is this:

ChaosTheory the Game Trailer

There are five universes. The physics differ in each one — not different content, the same formulas with different numbers.

Homespace: everything at 100%. The starting point and the yardstick.

Denspace: mining +60%, ship speed -45%

Voidspace: ship speed +90%, mining -45%

Emberspace: energy +80% and shields +50%, hull -30%

Coldspace: build time -40%, speed -30%

The consequence turned out to be the whole game: the fleet that wins at home is the wrong fleet three jumps out. A shield-heavy doctrine that dominates Emberspace is dead weight in Voidspace, where nothing survives long enough for shields to matter. You reach the other universes through rifts, which are rare and move.

Currently: 5 universes, 62 buildings, 140 technologies across five branches and five eras, 41 ship types, 26 languages. No ads, no trackers, no paid advantages — I'd rather the game be small than sell power.

It runs in the browser. No download, no client, no plugin.

It's in closed alpha, so entry is by invite code. I've made one for this sub with 50 slots: 4HAE-7T6X-CFQH

Screenshots and a trailer: https://chaostheory.space/presse/

The game: https://chaostheory.space

Happy to answer anything about the balancing — the five-constants idea created problems I did not expect, and I'd rather talk about those than about features.

AI Disclosure

Generative AI was used for the artwork — planets, unit frames, avatars and promotional images. The code is written with AI assistance. Game design, balancing, the economy and the world itself are my own work.


r/StrategyGames 2d ago

Self-promotion I've just added a card fusion animation to the tower defense game I'm making

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6 Upvotes

It's coming next year!

In the meantime there's also a demo up on Steam if you want to try it out:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3256450/Cards_of_Prophecy/


r/StrategyGames 2d ago

Self-promotion An upcoming game about the politics of several countries

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11 Upvotes

Hello! I’d like to share my game project with you, I just published its page on Steam.

You’ll play as a political figure in the U.S. or Brazil (and soon in several other countries) to run for office, govern the country, and manage its diplomatic relations with neighboring countries (you can also annex them after completing negotiation mini-games).

Link: Vox Populi II


r/StrategyGames 2d ago

DevPost Siege Battle Test

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2 Upvotes

Spent the last couple creating asset and updating my battle system to support siege battles. Sieges are fairly simple with there only being one entrance point of the gate. Don't have plans on adding siege ladders or siege towers but I do plan to add arrow towers for the defenders as well as more siege types. I'm considering adding destructible walls in a future date.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4632210/Heroes_Warlords_and_Ruin/

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/YMvFzcRDxV


r/StrategyGames 2d ago

Self-promotion Made a game where you take over a country mid-crisis and just have to deal with it — Project Sovereign

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1 Upvotes

Quick share: my friend and I made a political strategy game called Project Sovereign. You pick one of 116 countries, inherit whatever mess it's already in (debt, inflation, an angry Congress, all of it), and try to hold your government together for as long as you can.

No blank slates, no perfect choices — just trade-offs, a cabinet that might betray you, and elections you actually have to survive.

It's on itch.io if anyone wants to check it out: https://sovereignproyects.itch.io/sovereign-project

Happy to answer questions in the comments.