Hello, strategy fans! We are thrilled to present you our first official development diary of Warfactory. This is a passion project born out of our love for deep and thoughtful strategy gameplay, sandbox games, resource and economics management. In this diary, we’ll cover the game’s development early stage, vision behind Warfactory, and dive into the core game design concepts of this unique blend of large-scale RTS and industry automation genres. Let’s spin the cogs!
We began prototyping in mid October 2024, so the game's ~ 3 months in development
Disclaimer: game’s screenshots are pre-alpha WIP and we also included some external image references in this diary, not being from Warfactory. Read image captions
First Steps
Before Warfactory took its current shape, we were exploring the idea of a post-apocalyptic grand strategy game.
Studio’s cofounders, Mykyta (lead developer) and Viktor (product manager and game designer) are huge fans of the 4x and grand strategy genre. We joined efforts to create a political-economical wasteland sandbox based on Mykyta’s previous experience with Simulator of Ukraine and Simulator of Countries, and hugely inspired by Stellaris gameplay loop, the Old World Blues mod for Hearts of Iron 4 and Civilization / Age of Wonders series.
Simulator of Ukraine – our developer’s grand strategy game released in 2023
We envisioned a game where players rebuild civilization from scratch, managing resources, diplomacy, internal politics, research, war and territory expansion in a sprawling, devastated world with dynamically-generated scenarios and events. While the concept was intriguing and some features already developed, we quickly realized we lacked the resources and time needed for such a massive game.
Hexity – our prototype for the core mechanics of Warfactory
Pivot: slow-pased 4X RTS with deep economic system
We asked ourselves: what’s the best part of our game’s idea, how can we cut down the scope of features and create a fun game based on much smaller amount of systems.
Moreover, we went through the core of the strategy genre. What games can we play for countless hours, why so? What’s frustrating for us on the market, what do we lack. After several weeks of deep research and brainstorm sessions, we’ve concluded with these game’s Vision Pillars:
- Massive Scale – our game should feel GRAND in every aspect. Warfare, Economics, Progression should feel epic and player’s actions are meaningful for the whole game’s world. This comes with minimum micro-management and a slow, thoughtful gameplay
- Detailed Economy – one of the reasons we prefer 4x, city-builders or colony-sims to classic RTS, is a lack of proper resource management. It’s not exciting for us to just ‘buy’ units for points and send them to battle. We want to have production challenges: where base-building timing, placing and logistics matter, where players solves an intricate puzzle of creating the most efficient base with limitations on each map
- Customization and Adaptation – we don’t want players to use the same winning strat over-and-over, we need to create a fun everchanging environment and goals which bring to creative solutions, where you should always come up with new tricks. Lack of one resource? Focus your economy and strategy on the ones you have. Build completely different base and army, with unique-to-the-task abilities
- Replayability – one of the pillars we value in 4X or Grand-Strategies is a unique story they allow players to create themselves each playthrough. We’ll create a stage and setting (and a single-player campaign to introduce it), but won’t limit players with our own imagination, or simple skirmish multiplayer battles. We want to create an enjoyable experience of re-discovery of the game over and over again.
A sneak-peak of Warfactory pre-production phase process
Factory Automation meets Army Management
After the Pillars frame being set up, we continued designing the gameplay mechanics and were looking for the juice which would make our game feel right. Then we remembered one important mass-culture reference layering nicely on top of our vision. This hugely influenced us on the way to bring Warfactory to you.
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones – Droid assembly factory
This clicked in our heads. The game idea’s puzzle was solved from that moment.
You build factories. You assemble a robot army part-by-part within complex production chains. You research tech to make your industry and army more efficient. Droids’ parts (weapons, hulls, movement systems, etc) are interchangable to achieve the best design and adapt to the environment. You have formations of hundreds of robots under you command. You control your armies to fight in epic laser-show battles. You expand over dozens of unique planets to conquer the galaxy with your Supreme Warfactory.
WIP gameplay. Common view for a Warfactory commander
WIP gameplay. Closeup to see your beautiful droid army
Setting and Visuals
Although we plan to cover this topic in detail later, it’s definitely worth mentioning some of the concepts early to recieve your feedback. We want to create a unique-flavoured Sci-Fi post-apocalyptic setting for Warfactory, while keeping a room for further content and story expansion.
One of googled reference we don’t have a credit for (contact us)
The game’s set in a distant future, where humanity’s no more. As a player, you take command of an ancient AI programmed to save the galaxy from the terrible disaster. Your first goal will be to rebuild a massive mothership to move around, which allows your robot civilization to traverse space in a search of long-forgotten technologies, recover lost history and find clues on how to stop an existential threat.
We also want to bring a distinct character to how game’s factions look. The good reference for us is Warhammer 40K Necrons, which are influenced by ancient Egyptian culture. We’ve built our robots faction around East Asian culture, both architecture and military.
what can be better than a giant Mech-Samurai anyway?
What’s Next
Warfactory is currenly in the beginning of it’s path. As we mentioned in disclaimer, all the content shown in this diary is very early WIP. Development team is doing it’s best to bring a pre-alpha for you to test in upcoming 1-2 months.
While the game’s being worked on to be in a playable state, we also plan to update screenshots and trailer to represent our current progress.
We are very eager to receive your feedback early on. Follow us on socials and join Discord where we can directly discuss the game and shape Warfactory’s future together!
