Developer’s blog

Introducing Grand Tactician 1st May 2017 by Oliver Keppelmüller

MORE THAN JUST A SEQUEL First and foremost we decided not to go for a sequel, but to create the new project from scratch. The old design and engine of TSYW were such, that there was not much room for improvement. For example the game engine would have been a major obstacle, as it was built around DirectX 7.1, and support ceased during the development of the game. Instead, we decided to build on a new engine, even if this means there will be a lot of work that has to be re-done, and code to be re-written. Though taking with us the good features and ideas from TSYW will speed up the process considerably. From a design point of view, we are creating the new project into a strategy game series, instead of simply one title. This means the design, when ready, will allow portraying other wars from the same period with only little work, as everything needed is already in place. Feedback from players of TSYW has been very useful when coming up with the design choices for Grand Tactician. We have a good idea about the strengths and weaknesses in the old design, so we can avoid the same potholes this time around, while further improving the good bits. This will allow us to take a leap in design and playability, that would have been impossible if building on the old groundwork. THE GRAND IDEA BEHIND GRAND TACTICIAN What has been my main motivator as a strategy game developer, has been the aim to portray warfare in sufficient depth. This means not only recruiting and moving armies to fight battles and conquer enemy territories, but to interlace the different factors that played role in the real wars. Wars can be won or lost before firing a single shot, and money plays at least as big a role as the skills of the generals. What we are trying to achieve with Grand Tactician, is a model of warfare, that works with the same rules as the real war, placing player in situations faced by the real commanders at the time. Everything should count, from the strategic decision to go on the offensive, to raising, managing and maneuvering the armies, all the way down to the actual engagement in the field of battle. Failure or success on one level should have its consequences on the others. For us this will be a big task to achieve, but we are confident we got the right ideas to eventually deliver this ambition into a strategy game, that is like no other. Work on the first title has been ongoing since late 2016, and we will announce details about the setting later this year. But before revealing the theater of war for the first title, we will reveal more information as the project progresses, so stay tuned! Oliver Keppelmüller

Planning the first steps of a new strategy game at casa Keppelmüller.

Having worked on the strategy game The Seven Years War (1756-1763) for four years, and learning a great deal about developing a game, now it’s time to take the next step. I have teamed up with Ilja, whom I met after the release of TSYW. We started our cooperation in late 2015, working on and improving TSYW, and eventually releasing two DLCs, of which the latter, Pomeranian War, was co-designed by Ilja. At that time we also started having ideas about a possible new project. We sat down in late 2016, reflecting on the experiences and feedback from TSYW, and at that meeting the general concept for a new strategy game series, later named Grand Tactician, was born.

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