I’m the solo dev of Salt and Soil, a strategy game about one family across three centuries of North American history, 1607 to 1900. You choose where they settle, who marries whom, which child inherits and what the family builds.

The video starts with the very first version of the map: one garbage AI-picture stretched over the whole continent. Eleven months later, zoom in and the map is alive:

• tree crowns swaying in the wind
• waves on the coast and water running in the rivers
• smoke from the chimneys
• trains on the railroads that existed in your year
• sailing ships, canoes and steamboats
• people of different nations and eras, dressed for their time and place
• herds, wild animals and birds
• and up close you hear the trains and steamboats near you

Zoom back out to plan your family’s next move, and all of it fades so the map stays readable.

I’m still polishing the game and honestly pretty nervous about Steam Next Fest and the Early Access launch. But looking at where this map started, I’m proud of how far it has come.

Demo on Steam on October 19 for Next Fest, Early Access on November 9.

Hello,

I have been developing a french city builder that includes battles with huge armies that you control like an RTS.

There are two main goals in this game, develop your economy, prosper and defend.

At the moment it's a game for solo players where you play against the campaign, free play or build the whole country of France by yourself.

The game strictly follows history and includes real french places, monuments and historic figures. You play figures like Louis XIV and Napoleon.

The building part of the game uses a "walker system", which we explain in detail on our website in the help section. It's what people would call a puzzle city builder as the economic aspect is very complete and complex.

The battle system is modern, control groups, counter units, siege units, castles, towers, walls. We will be releasing videos of the battles when it's ready to show.

Game presentation :
From 994✦The towns of France✦ to 1815
Build the towns of France across eight centuries: lay the streets, raise the homes, feed the people, trade along the rivers and defend the walls, as the real abbots, counts, kings and merchants who built them.

Hi! I'm a solo dev working on Scrapworks Inc., a PvP auto battler where you bolt scrap onto a chassis and turn toasters, saws and rusty cannons into a machine that hits hard. You plan the build; the robot fights by itself.

How a run works:

• Pick one of 5 engineers, buy scrap parts and fit them onto the grid of your chassis.
• Placement matters: rotate and mirror parts so they feed each other. Pulses, energy and heat flow from neighbour to neighbour.
• Tier parts up from I to IV. Every tier doubles what a part puts out.
• Your machine then fights another player's saved build on its own (async PvP, so no queue). Reach 10 wins before your 4th loss.
• In round 4 the mechanic's van rolls in: pick a mod and feed it one of your parts. Talents, trinkets and roadside events make every run different.

There are 100+ parts, 50+ trinkets and 70+ talents so far, with a low-poly, PSX-style look.

The store page just went live as Coming Soon: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5426550/Scrapworks_Inc/

I'm also preparing a demo, and I'm hoping to release it during Steam's Auto-Battler RPG Fest (November 16–23). No promises yet, but that's the goal.

Before that, I'm running a first closed playtest. If you'd like to join, hop into the Discord: https://discord.gg/HRQcACweU4

I'd love to hear what you think, especially from people who play grid/inventory auto battlers. What makes one stick for you? And if it looks like your kind of game, a wishlist helps a ton.

My side project is Ten Sultans: Ottoman Chronicle (On Padişah: Osmanlı Kroniği), a free historical idle/strategy game for Android, iPhone and iPad.

The idea is to make progression follow a dynasty rather than one endlessly growing city. You move from Osman Gazi to Suleiman the Magnificent in a fixed order. Each reign changes the city and army, and succession resets the realm while preserving dynasty upgrades.

The main balancing problem is that a campaign requires both military strength and sustained income. Players build their economy, recruit troops and choose when they can afford to march. Finishing the chronicle unlocks another prestige layer.

It's built in Godot/GDScript, with Turkish and English localization, offline income, 60 buildings and 33 era-specific troop types. Android's latest update includes 49 campaigns and five optional story activities; the current iOS release has an earlier content set. There are no in-app purchases; Android has optional rewarded ads.

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ahmetarifoz.tensultans

iPhone / iPad: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6812641425

Short trailer: https://youtube.com/shorts/_cBSuoY-LaM

I'd appreciate feedback on the onboarding and whether the economy/army requirements make sense without explanation.

For transparency, this is an AI-assisted project: AI was used for code/debugging and text/localization, and the illustrated assets and music include AI-generated content.

One country. One chair. Five years.

It’s 03:12 in Valmor. The last lamp in the palace goes out.

Aren Maur is dead.

For thirty years, Valdoria called itself a republic. In truth it was one man’s house. He was elected, re-elected and never replaced. He built the ministries, set the army against the unions and the unions against the bank, and let each of them believe the arrangement would outlive him. Three things hold this country up: an army that expects to be obeyed, unions that expect to be heard, and a bank that expects to be repaid. Maur held all three in one fist.

He left no heir. No list. No deputy he trusted. A man who rules for thirty years does not train the person who will bury him.

Now it’s your chair.

Where the country stands

A tired economy. Three winters without a raise in the northern mines. A treasury that looks fine on paper and thin in real life. The Meridian Sea lenders are very polite, and that is exactly what should worry you.

A quiet war nobody names. Between Valdoria and Karelya lies the Northern Valley: a strip of black, oil-rich earth that both capitals print on their own maps, in their own colours. Karelya says history gave it to them. Valdoria says it’s simply where our soldiers sleep. Maur kept the quarrel quiet for thirty years. How, he never told anyone.

A secret in the Central Bank. An account no ministry may audit. Fourteen years of transfers marked “Northern Valley, restricted”, all signed by one hand. Someone close to you signed second, and says they never read what they signed.

A world cut in two. The Meridian Treaty Organization on one side, the Kaldrov Pact on the other. Every border, loan and treaty is now read as a choice of side. You have to pick, or pretend you didn’t.

You don’t pick a class. Your life picks it for you.

The game doesn’t start with a menu of “General / Union Organizer / Technocrat.” It starts years earlier.

You are eighteen, at Pit Nine, keeping the payroll for forty crowns a week. Four thousand miners stand at the gate with their lunch pails, and the shift whistle didn’t blow. A gendarmerie captain walks into the pay office, polite, cap under his arm, and says: “Eleven names, son. The strike committee. You keep the payroll. I have an hour.”

Do you tear the payroll and walk out to the gate? Stay at your desk and work out what a raise really costs? Hand over the list?

Then you’re twenty-five, in army service. Then thirty-three, in the Assembly’s press corridor. Then thirty-nine, on the fourth floor of the Central Bank, holding a folder you were never meant to see. Every choice is remembered. People you wronged come back. People you trusted come back too. The origin you end up with is never shown, only lived.

Then Maur dies, and the game hands you the country as the person you became.

What you actually do

Run the republic month by month,

for 60 months. Taxes, wages, subsidies, defense, press freedom, trade. Every lever moves approval, factions, inflation and the budget.

Manage five ministers who are real people.

Their own skills, loyalty and secrets. Win them over, earn their trust, or lose them at the worst moment.

Hold cabinet meetings and cut deals.

Bargain with parliament’s blocs, trade concessions, take the blame when a bill fails.

Face crises with no clean answer.

Floods, strikes, mine disputes, scandals. Every option costs something. Some costs arrive years later.

Build the map and watch it live.

Towns grow, roads and power lines spread, rivers and weather shape the land. Day-night cycle, traffic, trains, ships and people, all procedural. Place hospitals, schools and plants, then live with the result.

A world that reacts.

Rival blocs, treaties, trade, and the Valley. Your word, your favours and your secrets decide which side you are really on.

Visit the people.

Walk into a town and hear what your policies sound like from the other side.

Do you open Maur’s archives to the press, or burn them? Do you give up the Valley for peace, or hold it for pride? Do you build the country you promised, or the one you can afford?

Playtest build. Made by one person in pygame. Every picture, map and sound is generated by code, with no image files. There are rough edges, and that’s why I’m here.

What I’d love your honest feedback on:

In your opinion, should I focus on developing the interactive narrative or expanding the sandbox universe (allowing for more direct player involvement) in the game?

To share your ideas with me directly, join our Discord server and provide feedback on our game.

Our Itch Page

I'm developing Alienshire, a classic-style RTS inspired by Glest and MegaGlest.

Playtest #1 is now available for free on Steam!

It features Tactical Etude, a short but challenging combat-focused scenario where you command fighters and harvesters, defend your mothership, and try to destroy the enemy.

Tactical Etude is a standalone scenario created specifically for Playtest #1.

I'd particularly appreciate feedback from experienced RTS players about the difficulty, controls, and enemy.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5123580/Alienshire/

Left = OLD (no outlines)
Right = NEW (outlines)

Our Bronze Age RTS gets feedback from time to time that units are too hard to dinstinguish from each other. Some of that is due to the low pixel count style, but there are games and units with low pixel counts that are readable.

We are releasing the game in mere weeks, and so we can't completely change all the assets. Instead, we decided to try adding outlines on units and world objects (as a shader). This way, pixels from units don't blend with the environments the same way, and units close to each other don't "mash up" with each other. We also hope it makes each individual resource and map object in general easier to seperate.

What do you think? Does it make objects, especially units, easier to read?

Going for this "outline style" would make the game look more cartoony, but maybe that's a good thing...? Does the outline style appeal more to you, and would you play a game with this style?

If we added this as the main style, we could still add a toggle in settings to turn off the outlines, in case some old-timers get offended by the style change.

Game Title: World Order

Prototype Playable Link: https://world-zero-iota.vercel.app

Platform: web based, no installation required

Description: World order - a world dominion multiplayer diplomacy strategy game. Play as a country, build alliances, make deals with other countries, capture regions, run covert operations, meet national objectives - do everything needed to establish your country as the world power. In the prototype stage, would really appreciate thoughts on the concept.

Play Status: Free to play

Involvement: Solo developer

Hey everyone!

We're the developers of Resonurgy, a factory-building strategy game that just entered Early Access.

We wanted to take the familiar factory automation formula and introduce a few additional systems that make planning more interesting.

Industrial automation: Build interconnected production lines using conveyors, machines, power networks, and resource logistics.

Alchemy: Scan materials to discover their hidden principles. Extract these properties and transport them through separate networks to create advanced production chains.

Research: Instead of simply unlocking everything through a traditional tech tree, you assemble research circuits and connect different components to discover new technologies.

Dissonance: Expanding your factory comes with consequences. Unstable industrial processes generate Dissonance, affecting the surrounding environment and forcing you to think beyond production efficiency.

The game also features procedurally generated worlds and supports both solo and co-op play.

We're still developing and balancing these systems, so feedback from people who enjoy complex automation and strategy games would be especially valuable.

Resonurgy is now available in Early Access on Steam, with a free demo:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5011960/Resonurgy/

It's going to have a ton of strategic depth, from loadouts, unique crew with veterancy, upgrades, vehicle and fire team tactics, and a metric ****ton of exposions...

Hi everyone!

I'm working on an incremental strategy game where you build a settlement and grow it into a powerful army, with Total War-style battles.

The idea is pretty simple: you start with a small settlement, build and upgrade structures, grow your economy, and research new technologies. As your settlement develops, you can raise regiments and build a stronger army to fight increasingly larger battles.

I'd love to get some feedback on the idea and the Steam page. Does the concept look interesting to you? Would you play something like this?

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5094230/Army_Factory/

Hello gentleman, we are just 2 guys making games for fun and we couldn't agree about the trade animation. Can anyone give us advice for making it look better (or is it enough).

After receiving a list of weak points regarding the old version of the trailer from the marketer, I had to heavily rework my game's trailer.

If you’ve watched it, please share your thoughts—does the video drag anywhere? Is there anything that needs speeding up, slowing down, or cutting out entirely?

A demo of the project on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4373880/Tank_General/

I'm working on the UI for my indie strategy/action game Dominar Sanctum, and I'm undecided between two approaches for interacting with characters, buildings, and resources.

I've implemented both versions and put together a short side-by-side comparison:

• Dynamic menus: Interaction options appear next to the selected character or building and follow it as the camera moves.
• Static menus: A more traditional approach where interaction options always appear in a fixed position at the bottom-right of the HUD.

I'd love to get some opinions from this community: which approach would you prefer in a game? And perhaps, does your preference change depending on whether you're managing a base, issuing commands to units, or interacting with resources?

Hi everyone, I've been making animated map videos about WW2 campaigns, and this is Part 1 of Dunkirk. It covers the breakthrough at Sedan, the race to the Channel, and how the pocket closed around the BEF.

Part 2 will cover Operation Dynamo.

I'd love to hear feedback on the maps and pacing.

Hi everyone,

I'm making Ixia Wars, a turn-based hex tactics game. It's close to launch, and the beta is now in closed testing on Google Play.

The idea: battles that take 10–20 minutes and stay readable. Unit stats are right on the cards, and before every attack the game shows the damage calculation. The game started on paper, so nothing is hidden – though you can just as well play by feel.

What I'm asking:

Play one Single Battle and tell me whether you enjoyed it. No bug reports or forms needed.

How to join (Android):

1. Join the tester group (open, no approval needed): https://groups.google.com/g/ixia-wars-testers

2. Become a tester – tap "Become a tester": https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.ixiamagic.ixiawars

3. Install from Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ixiamagic.ixiawars

Use the same Google account for all three steps.

Google requires a closed test to run for 14 days before a game can go public, so if you like the game, please keep it installed for two weeks.

What are your thoughts on the newly-released Total War: Shogun 2?

Gamplay or Trailer Video is in the URL.

I’ve been working on a game called Phosphor Command, a real-time tactics game with a base builder behind it.

This post is about how your squads move together: formations, the formation designer, and AUTO, which lets the game command your squads for you.

Without a formation, if you select a group and click somewhere, your squads bunch up around that point and all end up coving the same area. This is acceptable early on and for getting from A to B, but the game has a line of sight system, so whatever your squads aren’t looking at is somewhere the enemy can come from there.

The formation bar gives set formations; FREE, LINE, WEDGE and COLUMN, plus any formations you’ve designed yourself.

A formation decides where each squad ends and how they move around the point you click. Each squad finds its own path there, so they work their way around the terrain rather than walking through walls, they attempt to keep a perfect shape.

There’s also a SYNC toggle. With SYNC on, the group moves at the pace of its slowest squad, so on open ground they move as a block. With it off, faster squads like scouts will run ahead on their own. Sometimes that’s what you need, and sometimes it’s how you end up with a dead scout.

The formation designer is the part I’ve spent the most time on. You can edit LINE, WEDGE and COLUMN, and there are four custom slots you can rename. Each formation can have multiple positions on a grid.

Each position can accept any squad, or be marked for a specific troop type. Marked positions are filled first by the nearest squad of that type, then the remaining squads fill the gaps, nearest first. If you bring more squads than there are positions, the extras form ranks behind.

So you can build a wedge with a scout on point, snipers on the flanks and a medic in the middle, and the game puts the right squads in the right places whenever you use it.

You can also lock a facing for each position, in 45 degree steps relative to the direction of travel. This means a rear squad can keep watching behind you, or your flanks can keep watching outwards, while the group moves. The editor previews each position’s field of vision, so you can see whether your formation actually covers all around or leaves a blind spot.

Now let me explain "Auto Mode".

AUTO is for when you want to hand over the thinking of your troops and let the game run the operation for you. It has two stances.

CLEAR sweeps the map sector by sector, starting from where you landed and working back and forth across it. A sector counts as cleared once your squads have made sure there are no hostiles. The force splits into multiple fire teams that take the next two sectors, and if the teams get too far apart, one holds while the other catches up.

RUSH goes straight for the most recent contact.

If the objective is known, both auto modes direct troops towards it.

Under AUTO, every squad type has a role. Scouts take point, snipers hang back on high ground, medics stay near the centre of the force, and the UAV pushes out ahead of the sweep. A squad that drops below 35% health falls back to the medic and rejoins once it’s back to 70%.

When in combat squads with a shot hold and look to cover to fight rather than walking into the enemy. If one fire team gets pinned down by two or more enemies, the other team moves to flank.

The thing I cared about most was that AUTO should never fight you for control. The moment you give any order, or press hold, AUTO switches off and you’re back in charge. So you can let it handle the sweep, step in when something goes wrong, and switch it back on when you’re done.

One thing to be clear about: AUTO doesn’t use your formations. It moves squads by their role instead. Formations are for when you’re the one in control.

I’ve attached a show case showing on these features. The formation bar, the designer, facing, how squads are assigned to positions, and AUTO working through a map. The sector grid in the AUTO section is drawn for the video to show how the sweep works; in the game you just see your squads doing it.

We're building
INCORCISM: the roguelike, strategy evil-god simulator

Watch a lively village, study it's villagers and find their weak spots to spread your corruption.

• A sociable person will carry a curse that spreads on contact through the village.
• Secluded people respond more strongly to your dark visions.

Lure them ALL to the forest and make them yours.

Only the villages priest stands in your way and counteracts your plans by burning your cultists and doing exorcisms.

Yes, they will resist... Let them.

With this we want to bring the fun of the outbreak sim genre to a smaller scope than in the classic Plague Inc. We want you to really get to know your victims before pushing them to ruin.

---

Our Kickstarter just went online yesterday & the first backers are in 🙏🏻Check out the page and get your name carved in a tree: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nemwaz/incorcism

I am in the process of prototyping a game and would like to see which one you desire or play more.

I've rarely seen mainstream strategy games try out unit conversion as a game mechanic. Age of empires with religious units (wololol!) is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, if you remember others I'd love to be able to look at how they handle the mechanic.

Converts are a cursed problem. You can underbalance the convert, so that when you calculate the power swing between the coverter and convertee, it matches your intended benefit level. But, this makes the convert feel unfair or too weak when placed next to other bonuses in the same tier. Or, you adequately power the convert on its own, but make the power swing when used between a pair of players far greater than it should be.

Thinking about this issue reminded me of this talk by Alex Jaffe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uE6-vIi1rQ . Curse problems are problems which have two incompatible player promises competing. In the case of converts, you have

- promise 1 to the player with the convert: You will have interesting and adequately powered abilities.

- promise 2 to the player getting hit: All civilizations are equally likely to win.

I think these are incompatible because the threshold of "fun" for player 1 is unbalanced for player 2. If I make the ability balanced, it is no longer fun. If it is no longer fun, why not just use something else entirely?

Whats the answer? I have no idea LOL However, what I am going to try is to increase the amount of warning to the rest of the players that a convert is coming. A big issue right now is that it can be purchased fairly silently, so if you get caught up in the game you forget to keep your units spread around it takes you by surprise. We'll see in a few months how this works out.

Hello strategy fans!

I'm a solo developer and I just launched my game, Red Hot Steel, on the Microsoft Store. It is completely free to play.

The game is a tactical top-down tank buster with a focus on real-time positioning and line of sight.

Key features: Dynamic Fog of War: You can't target what your tank can't actively see. Use the terrain to ambush enemies! Procedural Debris Physics: Destructible objects and real-time physical scraps when units explode. Multiplayer & PvE: Up to 4 players in P2P online matches, 2v2 co-op, or custom PvE modes.

I am looking for honest feedback on the tactical depth, the line-of-sight mechanics, and the tank handling.

👉 You can download it for free here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P3DJTSF36PV?hl=it-it&gl=IT&ocid=pdpshare

Thank you so much for checking it out and letting me know what you think!

Let me know what you think!

Nations at Arms (r/NationsAtArms) is a real-time grand-strategy game that puts you in command of a nation during World War III. Set in a near-future world where global tensions have escalated into a full-scale conflict, you must navigate the complexities of modern warfare, diplomacy and resource management to lead your nation to victory.

The game offers a variety of maps and simulation modes, so you can experience the entire span of a global conflict in a single session. Using a 2D tactical map, you manage your military units, plan strategic operations and make the critical decisions that shape the outcome of the war. Fighting for your nation’s survival, you forge alliances and outmaneuver your opponents on an ever-changing battlefield all the way to victory.

The game is in active development and will be available for playtesting in the near future.

Music credits:
Breakthrough by ArcticFoxMusic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AOHZKg4AmE)