I'm making a video game. 3 of them actually. maybe more.

This is not the official announcement; that comes in August of this year (2020)

However, I wanted to let you all know that I'm making a video game. Three of them actually. Maybe more.

What are they?

Well; I'm sure you've heard of the fabulously successful Stardew Valley.

That game is made 'in the tradition of' an old SNES game I enjoyed called Harvest Moon.

So, what does this have to do with me?

Simple.

I want to make a game in the tradition of old SNES games; in particular:


Liberty or Death, a strategy game about the American Revolution

L'Empereur, a strategy game about the Napoleonic Era, and

P.T.O., a strategy game about WW2 in the Pacific.


PTO is what kicked the idea off. For a while now I've wanted a game that fixes some of the flaws PTO has, but PTO2 is not that game. PTO2 does fix a lot of the flaws, but in the process, introduces new flaws. PTO3 was never translated, and PTO4 moved in the complete opposite direction than I'd like to see; it is far more tactical (moving ships around), and much less strategic (moving fleets around) than PTO or PTO2.


I like games where I can get up, go to the bathroom, come back, all without pausing, and be doing better than I was before I left. (Based on a true story from the game Europa Universalis III where I inherited another country while on the toilet)


Despite PTO kicking off the idea in my head, it is Liberty or Death and L'Empereur which are more likely to be completed first; in large part because both are similar in how they operate (take cities, move armies, run the civil government) and are set in a similar era (start dates of 1775 vs 1798) whereas PTO uses different mechanics (move fleets, build ships, take ports, build planes, etc) and is set in a different era (1940s, well within the time period fully protected by copyright)


So, why am I not announcing these until August?

Cause the expected release date for these games is August 8th, 2030. That's right, 2030. As such I officially announce on August 8th 2020.


I don't have names for any of these games yet, nor am I 100% certain these will be the first 3 games. It occured to me the Spanish American wars of independence take place at near the same time as Liberty or Death and L'Empereur, and as such, it could be fairly easy to make a game about it as well.


One thing I am aiming for is to better balance the "Getting it right vs getting it done" balance of accurate history. Liberty or Death in particular seems to suffer from this with some outright fictional officers, some officers fighting for the wrong side, cities having totally illogical stats (Charleston not being the largest city in the south, for example) and some in-game cities simply not existing at the time (Atlanta comes to mind)

As a result, these games should be way more historical than the SNES and NES games that have inspired them. One thing to keep in mind is I still am cognizant of the need to balance gameplay with history, and, it is my intent to make any non-historical parts based on balance, and not based on "I couldn't find the true historical stats." which is something I'm sure the Japanese speaking game developers, tens of thousands of miles away from the North Atlantic, suffered from in the 1990-1995 period they made these games, long before even Wikipedia existed.