First, I want to acknowledge that we have not been as active as we should have been when it comes to keeping our community informed about the development of The Glorious Cause.
My goal was to provide weekly development updates, including progress reports, gameplay previews, and insights from our developer meetings. Unfortunately, much of the team has been working day and night to prepare the game for release, and communication with the community did not receive the attention it deserved.
We are working to correct that. We are currently hiring a part-time Social Media Director who will help publish regular development updates, gameplay footage, articles, completed features, and previews of what is coming next.
Those interested in the position can learn more here:
https://thegloriouscausegame.com/Careers.html
Why We Did Not Release by July 4
To properly explain why The Glorious Cause did not release by July 4, I need to provide some background on how the project reached its current stage.
Our original senior programmer, Samuel, developed the earliest versions of the game, from approximately version 0.0 through version 0.3, in an incredibly short period of time. His work allowed us to create a functioning demonstration and begin presenting the project to potential publishers.
Samuel later received an excellent professional opportunity and was no longer able to continue working on the project. Although we were happy for him, his departure meant that we needed to assemble a new development team.
We brought Sophia onto the project to oversee the artwork, sprites, animations, and other visual elements of The Glorious Cause. She had already created the original map artwork used in our first demo, and I could think of no one better to help shape the game’s visual identity.
Sophia has done incredible work and has been an invaluable member of the development team. Much of what gives The Glorious Cause its distinct appearance comes from her creativity, historical attention to detail, and willingness to continually revise and improve the artwork as the game evolves. Here is one of the models in development:
She is currently developing an entirely new collection of unit sprites built from the ground up specifically for The Glorious Cause. These are not simple modifications of the existing artwork. They are being redesigned to better represent the uniforms, equipment, formations, and visual character of the armies that fought during the American Revolution.
Creating these sprites is an extensive process. Each unit must remain historically recognizable while also being readable on the battlefield, compatible with the game’s animations, and visually consistent when viewed alongside the new 2.5D terrain and 3D environmental elements.
We also hired Ben as a programmer. Since joining the project, Ben has consistently gone above and beyond. By the beginning of July, he had completed the majority of the major feature development tickets assigned to him, which was an extraordinary achievement.
Ben was responsible for transitioning the battlefield from a traditional top-down 2D presentation into the current 2.5D gameplay environment. This required rewriting significant portions of the game.
He also successfully combined the 2.5D battlefield with 3D soldiers, structures, smoke effects, and other visual systems. This included solving difficult problems such as making musket smoke appear to surround formations and making buildings transparent so players can see soldiers positioned inside them.
These are only a few of the many systems he has developed during the past several months, and I am extremely thankful to have both Ben and Sophia on the team.
The Challenge of Developing the AI
We also brought another programmer onto the team to focus specifically on artificial intelligence. Because he had experience with machine learning-related work, we believed he would be a strong candidate to develop a more advanced opponent for the game.
Our goal was ambitious. We wanted the AI to do more than simply move toward the closest enemy. We wanted it to understand objectives, terrain, formations, defensive positions, avenues of approach, and the historical tactical differences between the Continental and British armies.
The initial development schedule projected that a draft of the new AI would be ready in late April, followed by testing and refinement during May. Based on that projection, we purchased advertising for June and originally withdrew from the June Steam Next Fest because we expected the game to be available for purchase near the beginning of that month.
By the end of May, however, it became clear that the new AI system was not ready. It produced significant bugs, unusual behavior, and scenario-breaking crashes.
At that point, we asked Steam whether we could return to the June Next Fest, and thanks to the support of the incredible team at Valve, we were allowed to participate. Thank you so much Valve. We really appreciate it. You’re the best!
As Next Fest approached, we made the difficult decision to temporarily return to Samuel’s original AI system. During that process, we discovered that portions of the newer AI remained connected to the game and were conflicting with the original system. Identifying and removing those conflicts required considerably more time than expected.
Even after restoring the earlier AI, another problem remained: it had primarily been designed around Trenton and was not capable of properly handling Princeton.
During Princeton testing, British units often remained passive until the Americans approached them. We were eventually able to make the main British column move toward its objective and assign additional tasks to supporting units, but the system still reacted poorly when the player blocked roads, interrupted its intended route, or approached from an unexpected direction.
Some people suggested that we release the game in that condition and improve the AI afterward. I ultimately refused to do that.
I did not believe it would be right to ask players to purchase a historical strategy game when the opposing army could not provide a reliable or meaningful challenge.
Building a More Intelligent Battlefield Opponent
For Trenton and Princeton, we are developing scenario-aware AI designed to recognize the changing conditions of each battle and respond in ways appropriate to the forces involved.
Rather than following a single predictable route or repeating the same actions during every playthrough, units will evaluate threats, defensive positions, nearby support, battlefield objectives, and the condition of their formations before deciding how to respond.
The Hessians at Trenton and the British at Princeton will each behave according to their unique circumstances, responsibilities, and historical tactical situation. We do not want to reveal their specific objectives or reactions in advance, because discovering how the enemy responds should remain an important part of the experience.
This scenario based work is intended to provide a stable and challenging foundation for Trenton and Princeton. However, it is only the first stage of our larger AI plans.
With the addition of our new senior programmer, who has a strong background in game development as well as artificial intelligence, we plan to construct a much more fluid and responsive tactical AI framework. Rather than being designed for only one battle, this system will eventually be capable of being placed into a wide variety of scenarios and responding dynamically to the situation it encounters.
Our goal is for the AI to evaluate terrain, formations, morale, organization, casualties, lines of advance, defensive opportunities, nearby units, and changing battlefield conditions while making decisions consistent with eighteenth-century warfare.
Different armies, commanders, and unit types will not necessarily behave in the same way. Their decisions will be influenced by their training, doctrine, battlefield role, available information, and the historical circumstances of the scenario.
The long-term objective is to create an opponent that does not merely follow instructions, but appears to observe the battlefield, recognize opportunities, react to the player’s decisions, and employ historically appropriate tactics without becoming completely predictable.
Moving Forward
When July 4 arrived, people across the country were celebrating the 250th anniversary period leading toward American independence. I wanted The Glorious Cause to be part of that moment, and missing the release date was personally devastating.
For several days, I seriously considered whether the project should continue.
After taking time to reflect, I decided that I was not willing to abandon the game, the team, or the community that has supported us.
The programmer who had been assigned to the AI has since resigned from the project, and I accepted his resignation. We have since continued working, designing and implementing new features to the game as well as developing new AI systems.
In the meantime, We have been working extensively on the Trenton AI. We are building the decision-making systems that determine how units identify threats, select objectives, defend positions, reinforce nearby battles, counterattack, and withdraw when their situation becomes unsustainable.
We are now completing the final testing of the new Trenton AI system, and we plan to release an updated version of the Trenton demo today, July 18.
This new build will give players the opportunity to experience the progress we have made, from the incorporation of new units such as Riflemen, Dismount Dragoons, Grenadiers and Artillery to creating a more responsive, challenging, and historically grounded opponent. The demo will also provide us with valuable feedback as we continue refining the AI and preparing the systems that will eventually support Princeton and future scenarios.
Although the Trenton demo is moving forward, we are not yet announcing a new release date for the full game. We have learned that the most responsible approach is to establish firm dates only after the game’s most technically demanding systems have been tested and proven reliable.
What I can promise is that development is continuing, the project is not being abandoned, and we remain fully committed to building the game that we originally envisioned. We will not release the full game merely to meet a date if we do not believe it offers a stable, challenging, and worthwhile experience.
Thank you for your patience, encouragement, feedback, and continued support of The Glorious Cause. Your support deserves more frequent communication, and we are committed to keeping you better informed as development moves forward.
Now head over to Steam and try out the new demo and tell us what you think!