Hello Future Grove Keepers!
Today, I want to share why we decided to make Beyond the Grove's game a hybrid of real-time tactics, turn-based strategy, and auto-battling. In short: we love strategy games and the challenges they bring—but we don’t always have the time (or brainpower) for the really hardcore ones.
Over the years, I’ve logged thousands of hours in League of Legends, Starcraft (1 & 2), Warcraft 3, the Total War series, XCOM (1 & 2), and countless other strategy titles. But as I got older and my family grew, my time for gaming shrank. These days, I rarely get the chance to sit down and really sink into a deep strategy game. And when I do, I either get crushed by players with way more time... or I just don’t have the same energy and reflexes I used to.
Don’t get me wrong—there are some amazing games out there (especially from indie devs!) that scratch some of the strategy itch. But nothing quite hit all the marks I was looking for. I wanted something that was:
- Strategic and tactical
- Included crafting and discovery
- Had roguelite elements
- Told a charming story
- Not real-time!
So, we decided to build it.
The original spark came from my wife, who has fond memories of a game called Golem Wars (or Golem Madness, depending on who you ask). She pitched the idea of a modern, single-player take on it. With some creative theming from my brother-in-law and a few additions based on everything I mentioned above, Beyond the Grove was born.
But why not make it a traditional real-time tactics with pause?
You might wonder why we decided to have auto-battler-esque sequences instead of making a real-time tactics game with pause? For us, it came down to one thing: we didn’t want the game to matter whether or not you had fast reflexes. There have been countless times I’ve been playing Total War or Crying Suns on 2x or 3x speed, only to pause at the wrong time and lose the match because I barely missed the chance to pause the game at the right time. You might say: "well, get gud" or "play the game on half speed", and then I will say: "give me a break, I only have 15 minutes to play I got 4 hours of sleep last night because my toddler had a nightmare."
This is all subject to change though - we want the game to be fun, and we're willing to make changes to reach that goal.
We hope it becomes something truly special—something that scratches that strategy itch while still being approachable and fun. Thanks so much for reading!