© Oliver Keppelmüller 2017-2018
Developer’s blog
Design Philosophy
6th August 2017 by Ilja Varha
FROM ART OF WAR TO GAME DESIGN
I am Ilja Varha, titled game designer in Grand Tactician -project. We came up with the big
picture together with Oliver, and now my role is ironing out the details into form that lets
Oliver keep his coding going. This means descriptions of concepts, that will eventually build
into a coherent game play.
We are both, Oliver and me, interested in line warfare and strategy games. We are also
intrigued by the bigger picture behind the conflicts of this era: the armies meeting in the
field of battle was simply the outcome of a lot of planning, many decisions, calculations and
even mishaps. Rarely did simple field battles alone decide the outcome of a conflict.
As a student of military history and art of war, I am fascinated by the military theories
trying to describe warfare. The two best known western military theorists are Jomini and
von Clausewitz. Their view of warfare in general is greatly influenced by their own
experiences in service of, or fighting against, one of the world’s greatest military leaders,
Napoleon, or examples set by other great generals, such as Frederick the Great. Their work
has since been an important part of the military thinking in west, forming a commonly
accepted foundation on which modern theories are usually built on, or tested against.
Antoine-Henri Jomini fought for, and against, Napoleon. One of his theories is the
superiority of interior lines, as utilized by Napoleon in the battle of Leipzig. In his early life
he was working in the world of banking. Same as Oliver. Hmmm…
The ideas for Grand Tactician game play were born, when examining the work of these
theorists, together with historical battles and campaigns of the era. These theories and
observations are then translated into game design choices. Many great computer war
games do the same, but in our opinion only partially. We feel the strategic layer cannot be
slaved to outcome of the battles alone, or battles turned into mere mathematics as a
calculated outcome when two great armies meet.
That would be a simplification in the light of what Clausewitz and Jomini among other
theorists described, and how real wars turned out.
We want to give the player a taste of what the theorists described, as experienced by the
real commanders of the time. Game design wise this is no small task, as all wars are
different. But we believe that digging into the works of these theorists will help us to create
a historical atmosphere, where the nature of warfare is present in the choices the player is
challenged with, and in the tools the player uses to achieve his strategic goals.
And that is where we hope to deliver something new to the genre of strategy games, as the
game will not only be about strategy or tactics alone, or focusing more on the other (like
using strategic layer as merely a backdrop for tactical battles), but will combine these
levels in a way that can be described in the words of Jomini, as Grand Tactics.
Later on, I will describe some of the game design choices in detail.
Ilja Varha
Frederick the Great of Prussia was, and still is, one of the most inspiring grand tacticians of
his time. His actions greatly influenced other commanders, and military theorists alike.
Warfare during the 17th-19th centuries has been, and still is, a well covered topic in
strategy games. There are a lot of great games and series out there, from battlefields of
Sid Meier’s Gettysburg to grand strategic point of view in multiple AGEOD titles, from big
AAA games like Total War to smaller and more focused titles like Scourge of War, and from
turn based board game -style of Pike and Shot to action packed real time combat in
Ultimate General. Seems like almost everything is covered, so what drives our small team
to create a completely new game? And how will it be different from all the other titles?
To give you some insight to what Grand Tactician is trying to achieve, Ilja Varha discusses
the design philosophy behind the game.
