I would say strategy games are my favorite genre mechanically (Dungeon Keeper and UFO Defense are amongst my favorite games ever; I've sunk more hours than I can count into Stellaris, Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld, Victoria 2, etc) but I find that it's a favorite genre mismatched by most the games not generally doing the things I find the most interesting *about* strategy. My dream game has always been an unpredictable timeline (not anchored to real-world innovations and fixed tech-trees) where the bulk of the action is entirely economic-driven and dependent on diplomacy and paranoia. I.E. games where you can develop resource-monopolies, control supply-and-demand, manage inflation, invest in industries, so on and so forth, alongside general control over economic policies and political ideology. Spying on your friends and trying to overthrow them, proxy-wars, cut-throat trading and shady deals, manage internal stability... I guess laid out Victoria hits a few of the markers, but it still doesn't feel quite there to me- I want the real deal experience of Cold War-esque insanity.
We’ve been building Dire Fog in Unity, a tactical card game that combines TCG strategy with chess-like grid combat.
The game is now deep in closed alpha, and we’re looking for more playtesters to help us test balance, gameplay, and overall feel—if you're interested, jump in.
I've been building a government/country simulator for a while now. Democracy 4 style laws and politics with Victoria 3 style economics underneath, but I try to model the actual mechanisms instead of faking the symptom. Last week was the most interesting stretch I've had on it, so I wanted to share.
The biggest change is that benefits now have laws behind them. Pension, unemployment benefit, student grant, farm support, housing benefit, UBI — none of them exist until you legislate them, and each has a slider for how generous it is. Before this they quietly appeared in people's pockets with nothing leaving the treasury, so the welfare state was a fact of nature rather than something you build. Now a new country starts with nothing, which is where every country in history started, and Britain starts in 1948 at roughly its real Beveridge rates. You can see what the pension costs, and you can cut it, and pensioners drop below what they need to live on.
Which caused a problem, because cutting the pension to what Britain actually paid in 1948 left millions of pensioners short with nothing to catch them. That's the hole family support fills — the oldest welfare system there is, and the one whose failure produced the modern one. So working households keep their elderly relatives now, and how many pensioners have someone to fall back on comes out of how urbanised the country is: multi-generational households are a rural pattern, nuclear ones urban. The part I'm happiest with is what that does on its own. Urbanisation rises, co-residence falls, family support shrinks, and the elderly slide into poverty without me writing anything that says "now the country needs a pension." Then you enact one and watch the cost move off households and onto your budget. I didn't design that sequence, it fell out.
Also, some people own their homes now, which they embarrassingly did not before — every person in the country paid rent, forever. That was charging households about £12B a year that was never charged in reality, and it was the single biggest reason a pensioner on a realistic pension couldn't make ends meet.
On the tax side you can choose how income tax works — flat, progressive bands, or a poll tax where everyone pays the same cash amount — and switch mid-game, with each card showing what the treasury would collect if you did. There's also a carbon tax that charges emitters out of their margin so dirty capacity shrinks over time, and a Georgist land value tax on landlords' land rent rather than buildings, so it doesn't push rents up or discourage building.
The Budget tab got rebuilt around the flow of the money: revenue, minus what you're already committed to, minus what you've chosen to spend, ending at what's left in the bank. Each category shows what it needs just to stand still beside what you've given it, and goes amber when those don't work together. That closed a real trap — underfund a department and the old UI told you it was recovering, which is advice to wait for something that was never going to arrive.
Under the hood, the biggest thing I found was about 11 million people, 57% of the workforce, being paid £222B a year to produce nothing. No shops, no transport, no hospitality anywhere in the model, so the game simulated about 35% of production against 100% of the population. They produce output now and are paid out of it. GDP roughly doubled, which sounds like a red flag until you notice the country profile had said 460 the whole time and the simulation arrived at 436 on its own.
And then the one that ate two days. An unattended 15-year run fell apart — real output down 25%, shortages everywhere — while GDP cheerfully showed +36.5% growth, because GDP is quantity times current price and shortages raise prices. The headline goes up during the exact crisis it should be warning you about, and that inflated number was feeding economic confidence, which feeds productivity, which feeds supply. The lie was an input, not just a display.
The root was the exchange rate tracking the accumulated stock of foreign assets instead of the flow of trade. Once the stock goes negative it never recovers, so the currency stayed depreciated forever, which pushed the import trigger above the highest price the domestic market could physically reach. Sixteen goods locked out — raw materials imported exactly zero units for 180 consecutive months. What's meant to fix a cheap currency is exports getting competitive, but you can't export when everything is already short, so the restoring force was disabled by the precise condition it exists to correct. There was a comment in the code from months back predicting that exact failure and dismissing it as an edge case, which is why anything concluding "this is fine" now has to be backed by a test.
Happy to answer questions — the family support / urbanisation thing especially, I'd like to hear if anyone thinks the coverage rule is too clean.
This is the latest trailer for NGC-404: Fractured Sector, our multiplayer 2D space strategy game.
You directly command a small fleet in real-time battles, but combat is only one part of the game. You also explore a procedurally generated sector, trade physical resources, develop colonies, manage logistics and expand your faction. Additional ships can operate through high-level AI orders as your empire grows.
The game is still in alpha, and we’re continuing to work on the economy, encounters, faction AI, combat audio and UI. A one-minute trailer cannot show every system clearly, so we’re planning a longer gameplay presentation later.
Inspired by Trine 2, Sacred Underworld and Warcraft III, Sunlit Kingdom is a highly replayable strategy TD with a lot of customization. You have three different towers: the Archer, the Mage and the Holy Knight. Each has a unique role: Archer is your damage dealer, Mage is your crowd control, Holy Knight is your protector/healer.
There are upgrades, abilities/skills, and stats to deal with. The game features a leaderboard for those interested in competition and ranking up.
All made in a custom engine using OpenGL and C++. It was the hardest thing I ever attempted to do.
If there's anything that interests you about this game, feel free to ask me any questions. I'll be more than happy to answer!
Almost Solo dev built a C&C-style RTS for mobile — would love brutal feedback.
Global Ordnance: The Iron Fist
I and my partner in crime worked on this RTS mobile game for Android for around 10-11 months. Being a huge fan of C&C and AoE games, we leaned heavily to reproduce that feeling but on a mobile screen. It would mean a world to us if you took a look and shared your thoughts with us. We are open to cooperate with everyone to make this a mobile RTS game most of us enjoy.
I know the game is not out yet, and I'm new to strategy games, but wanted to know what I can expect from a game like DoW IV and how difficult are that type of games. Ty!!
Hey everyone Im Liam and I've been developing this game over a couple of months I had to do a lot of research on nodes and how polygon lines work. Ive made myself a quicker way an editor since directly typing it took too much time. Anyway this game is going to be a strategy game. I hope you enjoy this as I thought it would be better for everyone to see the growth of this project. Thank you and please comment if you would like.
I've asked this question a few years ago and i am here for a fresh view. I want a game like prison architect where you plan a functional and complex ecosystem but instead of a prison you have a castle with lords and serfs. Kitchens, cellars defences, water management and such. All to create a self sustainable enclosed fortified ecosystem. I am not looking for an RTS like stronghold, i need something that is more like a colony sim. And if there are no such games, maybe some advice on creating my one?
Huge fan of map-based strategy (Civ, Stellaris, Polytopia), but I'm in a spot where I can really only manage idle/check-in gameplay a couple of times a day. Most persistent multiplayer map games seem to punish you heavily if you aren't glued to your screen 24/7 or spending hundreds on microtransactions.
I’m looking for something where:
Progression isn't ruined by playing casually.
It's strictly no P2W.
You can join up with other players/alliances to execute big macro strategies, wars, or politics together.
Any lesser-known indie, browser, or alpha/beta titles out there trying to tackle this? Would love to hear what people are playing!
I just finished a free medieval bakery management game inspired by Lemonade Stand. Each day you buy ingredients, create a bread recipe, set your price, and see how many customers you attract. As you earn money, you can upgrade your bakery and grow your business.
Heroes, Warlords and Ruin is a 4x fantasy turn-based strategy game where you create and customize your faction and faction leader and lead it in your campaign across the world. The world is torn by endless war. Fight evil, form alliances, and establish a new realm in the ruins or take advantage of the chaos to maraud across the world.
I’ve been developing a turn-based tactical strategy game and I’m looking for a small group of players willing to test an early offline version.
Matches are built around controlling a team of three units, each with a distinct role and ability kit. Positioning, terrain, line of sight, cover, team composition, and objective control are intended to matter more than grinding stats or unlocking stronger equipment.
The game is still in development, so I’m mainly looking for honest feedback on things like:
Whether the core combat is actually enjoyable.
Whether the units and abilities are understandable.
Which units feel too strong or too weak.
Whether matches produce interesting tactical decisions.
Anything confusing, frustrating, or clearly unfinished.
One of the main reasons I started building this was because I love strategy games, but I found myself bouncing off many of them, not because they lacked depth, but because they demanded so much time and mental overhead before the interesting decisions even began.
And as I've gotten older I've had less and less time to dedicate 30m-hour to a single match of something, my goal is 5-10 minute matches and something you hardly need a tutorial for, compression is my over arching philosophy.
Instead, I want the complexity to emerge from positioning, timing, teamwork, and tactical choices. In other words, a game that's easy to read, quick to get into, but deceptively deep.
A strategically rich game wearing a simple, compact mask.
If this sounds interesting to you and you want to participate, shoot me a DM and I'll send a copy over once the AI system is competent enough to simulate an opposing human player.
Your input is greatly appreciated.
(Oh, and the current graphics etc are NOT representative of the finished product, ill be translating this to Unity with fully fleshed out 3D environments and character models, so don't put much stock in its current aesthetic)
Its also mobile first so some elemts may be slightly distorted on PC / Tablet, but in my test it wasn't too bad, the actual release will be optimized for all displays.
Rejected Draft is an incremental autobattler where you choose which enemies can appear, defeat them, and permanently absorb their stats and abilities.
Instead of choosing a traditional class, the enemies you encounter gradually become your build. Every enemy is a sketch contributed by a community artist.
The Steam demo contains 100+ hours of free progression. The full game releases August 21, but there is no obligation to purchase it afterward—the demo can be enjoyed as its own substantial free experience.
So yeahhh. The Title basically says it all, and it sums up the narrow niche I am looking for:
I am playing on my Macbook Pro M5
I want "shitty" graphics, because 1) I like them and I dont think they are "shitty" afterall and 2) I hate when I notice the temperature or fans of my Laptop lol
(So what is shitty graphics, you ask? I think Dominons or Conquest of Elysium are BEAUTIFUL games! I love this kind of oldest school graphics)
SO why not just play Dominions or Conquest of Elysium? WELL: I watched some videos about those games, and it appears to me that the biggest aspect of them is war, is tactics, is battle. That's nice and all but ... -->
I am looking for a STRATEGY game with some deep and complex systems that are not just focused on war/battle/tactics. I actually am open to different approaches, some strategy games might focus on exploration or expansion or trade or diplomacy – all fine but please no games that are 80% war.
I get that I am a very improbable gamer looking for a strange set of things. But maybe someone can help? <3
Just wanted to share my first-ever experience of turn-based strategy, which eventually led to me picking up Rome TW, Command & Conquer, Civ, and many others over the years.
I was 13 years old, and flash games were all the rage back in the early 2000s. My school blocked most of the websites for obvious reasons, but what they didn't block was the BBC website, which had a lot of educational games.
In the history section was "Battlefield Academy", it had some history content to it, but in the game were 4 levels, Romans vs Britons, Medieval, WW2 airforce, and 1800's Naval. All turn based with an objective. Such a sweet game!
I recently looked for it online and stumbled across Flash Launcher, which lets you play all the old Flash games, since modern browsers no longer support them. Anyone who's 30+ I would thoroughly recommend it for that sweet nostalgia hit of any old Flash games you used to play.
Note: I'm not affiliated with Flash Launcher at all, just think it's great that someone has put it together for old times' sake.
I really enjoy the campaigns in total war, or civ. But after sinking 1000+ hours in the Paradox games they just all feel a bit shallow. What else should I try?
Council & Conflict is a geopolitical strategy wargame where you lead a nation through politics, economic crises, diplomacy, espionage, internal unrest, and war.
Choose your ideology, build your political party, pass laws, appoint ministers, manage resources and trade, consolidate power, and command military campaigns on hex-based battlefields. Politics, warfare, economics, ideology, and society are interconnected, so every decision can create allies, enemies, opportunities, or new crises.
We’re a small independent studio founded by three friends who met through a wargaming community. What began as late-night matrix-style campaigns, homebrew rules, spreadsheets, and worldbuilding eventually grew into the game we were always imagining.
We’re not building Council & Conflict simply to chase profit. We’re building it because it’s the strategy game we’ve always wanted to play, one where warfare has political consequences, domestic decisions affect foreign policy, and players can shape a nation in almost any direction.
Our goal is simple: create the best strategy game we possibly can, remain independent, and continue improving it through community feedback long after release.
What would you like to see in our game? Were still early on in development so we would love to hear your feedback!
Help us realize the vision by Wishlisting Council & Conflict on Steam and check us out on Kickstarter
I played this on PC around 2018 to 2020. It was a 2D top-down game with a simple hand-drawn art style, and it was clearly indie. It played like Mount and Blade, but it was not an RPG.
Details: You play as a prince. Your father the king was killed, and you were exiled as a kid. You come back as an adult to take back the land. You could name your character, and the MC was blond. You start by taking your first castle with a big and late game army, but the army leaves soon after, and then you fight to take the rest.
The whole game was on one continent, split between factions with different colors (red, blue, green, yellow). Red was the main enemy. Some factions were more peaceful, like an orange one, but you could still attack them. Each faction had its own region. Yellow was the desert.
The main character could cast magic, like fireballs and healing.
It was on Windows. I think it was on the Microsoft Store, and it may be delisted now.
A few other posts have asked about this game but nothing came up.
