Hey Toucharcade! Some of you might already know about me from the previous games I designed, 100 Rogues, and AURO which isn't finished yet (but is close)! Today I'm here to announce a new game that I'm designing has just reached its alpha phase. Concept art by our artist Martijn Holtkamp The game is called EMPIRE, and it's a super-elegant, no-nonsense, quick 4X strategy game. So, imagine Civilization, but without the late-game slowdown/bloat. Where Civilization gets long-winded and slow, this game gets increasingly tense, and in EMPIRE, all empires eventually fall. It's just a matter of whether you can create one of the greatest civilizations in history, or if you'll be wiped out quickly and forgotten. In this way, it's kind of like the roguelike of 4X strategy games. By the way, Martijn, our lead artist, is a veteran of the genre, having worked on Age of Wonders 2 and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic! Alpha screen-shot. Ignore the temporary HUD and stuff Behind the scenes is a deck-building mechanism, not terribly unlike that of the card games Dominion, Thunderstone or Puzzle Strike. These cards are used in tactical combat to win battles, which is the way points are achieved. If you want to read more about EMPIRE, check out this link: http://keithburgun.net/introducing-empire/ BETA SIGNUPS We'll be doing a beta in the next month or two. If you're interested in it, please sign up here: http://www.dinofarmgames.com/forum/index.php?threads/empire-beta-signups.388/ If you wanna stay tuned for updates, follow @keithburgun on twitter (that's me) and go interact with us on our forums. Otherwise, we'd love to hear from you guys. What would you like to see in the project, etc. Thanks! More concept art! A tiger-riding fellow.
To sign up for the beta, leave us an email address HERE: http://www.dinofarmgames.com/forum/index.php?threads/empire-beta-signups.388/
Keith: I really like how you are melding deck builder boardgame mechanics with those of strategy/resource games and love the "fallen empire" premise. I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops from here! You've got mad game designer skills and I'm proud of you for dabbling in the finer side of strategy, my friend.
Can I pm you my email? I don't really want to make an account.. Edit: That's not to say that I won't if I have to
I gotta say, I'm loving the philosophy behind this game. I'm a fan of the genre, and would LOVE to see it paired down to it's essential elements. Can't wait. REALLY looking forward to Auro's release as well!
In case anyone else is wondering this question: Beta testing doesn't mean "play the game for free early". It's actually work, it's sort of being a part of the team. If we're giving you access to the game for free it's only because we need your help. Also, anyone who has ever run a beta for a game knows that out of the people you get to sign up, about 1/10th of them will actually become active beta testers (the other 9/10ths simply play some unknown amount, could be a ton, could be never at all, and we never hear from them). So, the reason we want beta testers on our site is specifically so that we get people who are willing to become part of the process. If you're not willing to sign up on a forum, which takes like 1 minute, then probably we shouldn't waste each other's time. Hope that makes sense!
Dino Farm Games has been on a roll lately with Auro and now Empire. This looks very promising and I'll be curious to see future details.
Just to clarify, this isn't a Dinofarm Games game. I'm the only common member (the game designer) between AURO, 100 Rogues and EMPIRE. EMPIRE is being made by a new team that includes Martijn Holtkamp (who himself worked on AGE OF WONDERS II and SHADOW MAGIC), who will likely be posting some new art here later on.
Oh hi there, guys. Martijn here, signing in for the first time. And I have a small update ready to show you. We here are going to try to bring you some artwork or news on EMPIRE every few days. For now I have a screenshots from today's early (very early) build. What we have here is a starting city with 3 upgrades, owned by player RED. Around it, the fields, forests and mountain are being worked by the city. In about 20 turns or so, however, this drain on the land will create the scarring desolation... which will lead to monsters spawning. Uh oh... We're working on improving the looks of the world map, and then combat. The UI is placeholder Unity stuff, as you can see. Next week: Conceptart for units, monsters and leaders! Thanks everyone for your interest in Empire. It's going to be a fun few months! Marty EDIT:typo (woopsies)
Hello again, Empire enthousiasts! We're now a month later, and although things have been a little slower (mister programmer senior dude was on a roadtrip of the USA - that lucky gimboid ), we've still made quite a lot of good progress on Empire. So, I'm proud to show you this little snippet here: a first view of the combat screen! What you see here is the units, left and right. The player's units are always on the left. In this case, an attack is launched on an enemy (also 'humans', not monsters) city. The city is shown on the right edge. If your units can sneak by the enemy ones, you can attack the city directly. The enemy can do the same, however, and attack your army camp on the left. Lose your camp and your assault will be nipped in the proverbial bud. This screenshot will probably create more questions than it answers, but hey that's what teasers are for! pic in attachment - how do I place it in the post again?
Update on world map. New fog of war, cities work fully, and have smoke. Also: PWETTY PWETTY CWOUDS! next post: MONSTERS!
Sup? Here's a quick update. Showing off some monsters and new combat markers. Meanwhile, the game's overwold now lets you explore enemy cities and monster hives.
Thanks! The alpha is almost done, which means the real work of balancing the rules and making everything work and be deep and interesting has only just started. We have some signups for the beta HERE: http://www.dinofarmgames.com/forum/index.php?threads/empire-beta-signups.388/ If you find any good game in the world, it meant that there was not only a good designer but equally important, at least a few really good testers. Looking forward to working with some of you.
Hello everyone! Here's a new update on Empire. In the meantime, we've added a lot of gameplay and systems. On the graphical side, we've included a first draft of the interface. It's got handy little information all over. M
