The Democratisation of Strategy Game Development (Ep.103)

Al is joined by Jack, Adam and Drexy to ask whether it is a good thing that almost anyone can now build, fund and release a strategy game. They weigh solo developer success stories against asset flips, the role of publishers, the economics of flops and hits, and why Civilization clones keep failing.

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This episode looks at how much easier it has become to develop, fund, publish and release a strategy game. Jack opens with a hot take that technical limitations produced the classics, while Al argues that free engines, asset packs and crowdfunding have enabled hits that could never have existed twenty years ago. The hosts discuss the role of publishers as a filter, what indie really means, the difficulty of predicting revenue, why Civilization clones from big companies keep flopping, and the power of fandom. They close with a suggestion for a future episode on bringing new players into the genre.

Critical Moves Podcast: Episode 103 Show Notes

Episode Title: The Democratisation of Strategy Game Development

Hosts: Al, Jack, Adam, Drexy

Episode Length: ~59 minutes

Episode Summary

Al brings Jack, Adam and Drexy together to discuss the democratisation of strategy game development: how much easier it has become to make, fund and publish a strategy game, and whether that is good for the genre. Jack argues that creative constraints made the classics memorable, while Al points to solo and small team hits such as Manor Lords, Mindustry and Shadow Empire as proof that the shift has been overwhelmingly positive. Along the way the hosts debate the value of publishers, what counts as an indie developer, the economics of flops and successes, and the unusual difficulty of drawing players away from Civilization, Paradox and Total War.

Jack’s Hot Take: Do Limitations Make Better Games?

Jack opens by pointing out that many of the games on the wall behind Al, from the late 90s and early 2000s, succeeded partly because their developers had to work around technical limits. His worry is that when anyone can make a strategy game without those constraints or a solid starting idea, the result is a lot of forgettable ones. Drexy partly disagrees, noting that good indie developers are already heavily limited by budget and team size, and that the real problem is asset flips thrown together from freely available assets.

Solo Developer Success Stories

Al counters with Manor Lords, Imperium (the subject of a recent interview with Dan), Mindustry, Shadow Empire and Dwarf Fortress, all released to critical acclaim by solo developers or very small teams. Drexy replies that most of these games actually have publishers, and argues that names such as MicroProse or Hooded Horse provide a marketing budget and a quality filter that self-published titles lack.

Publishers as a Filter

Jack observes that publishers like Hooded Horse and MicroProse do not publish everything sent to them, and notes how Hooded Horse released its major titles one month after another. He asks whether publishers are therefore already looking for the clever, constraint-driven games he described, while Drexy argues that without a publisher it is far harder to get a game seen, often depending on a YouTuber going viral.

Is the Audience the Problem?

Adam suggests the issue may not be democratisation at all but a smaller audience for strategy games than before. He credits easier development with new hybrids such as tower defence RTS games that would not have existed in the era of big publishers only, but argues the market has now come full circle: with so many releases, a game without a good publisher or a viral campaign struggles to make money.

Where Is the Innovation?

Drexy says very few developers are doing anything genuinely new, pointing to the recent Heroes of Might and Magic release and Endless Legend 2, which he says is not doing well despite online claims, as the tail end of a long run of second and third iterations of games from fifteen years ago. He argues the genre will only revive when developers try new things, such as the RTS and tower defence mix.

Why Strategy Games Are So Hard to Make

Al notes that many developers consider strategy games among the hardest to build, given pathfinding, UI complexity and the number of interacting systems. He wonders whether that difficulty is why people play it safe.

They Are Billions and What Couldn’t Happen 20 Years Ago

Al uses They Are Billions as an example of two developers making a hit that a generation earlier would have been impossible without a publisher, backer or purchased engine. He argues the same applies to Into the Breach and Manor Lords, since in the past developers had to code an engine from scratch or pay for one.

Have We Passed Peak Democratisation?

Adam says the sheer number of releases means that without a viral hit or an established name, it is much harder than when They Are Billions arrived, and he admits he skips many early access titles because there are so many.

Is More Choice Bad? The Solo Dev Living Wage

Al sees no downside to choice. For a major studio spending a huge budget, millions of sales are needed, whereas he argues a solo developer selling a hundred thousand copies has a living wage, which lets more people try and gives consumers more options. He calls Manor Lords the poster child for this argument. Drexy notes that going viral set that developer up for life but that most would not get that visibility without a publisher or a streamer.

What Does “Indie” Actually Mean?

The hosts spend a while on the definition of indie. Al notes a school of thought that anyone with a publisher is no longer independent, drawing the analogy with independent record labels, while Jack points out the term is used both for developers without a publisher and for smaller budget studios independent of the big companies. Jack adds that some indie games need a publisher to reach consoles. Al suggests treating independence as a spectrum, from a self-publishing solo developer to someone working with Microsoft or Sony, and leaves it for a future discussion.

What Has Got Cheaper: Engines and Asset Packs

Adam and Al list the main cost reductions: capable free game engines, most of which charge nothing until a developer’s revenue passes a threshold, and ready-made asset packs that remove much of the unit and environment art. Al adds that AI agents can also now generate assets.

Crowdfunding: Kickstarter and Patreon

Drexy credits Kickstarter and Patreon with letting solo developers hire artists and musicians. Al cites Dwarf, a self-published RTS that funded development through Patreon and then a Kickstarter earlier in the year, as an example of building a game without an investor or publisher.

The Downsides: Unpredictable Revenue

Adam argues that although a solo developer can earn a living with fewer sales, democratisation makes revenue much harder to predict, and worries that publishers and mid-sized studios may become reluctant to fund big projects, so there may never be another Warcraft III style campaign. Al responds that crowdfunding gives a degree of predictability, noting that Sanctuary: Shattered Sun raised $985,000 on Kickstarter in August, a year before early access.

The Maths: Endless Legend 2 versus Shadow Empire

Drexy compares Endless Legend 2, made by a team he estimates at 35 to 50 developers and a budget he puts somewhere between five and nine million, with Shadow Empire, a niche solo developer game published by Matrix Games that he says sold around 60,000 copies. He concludes the solo developer could effectively retire on those sales while the larger team would still be far from breaking even, and notes that Humankind 2 was announced soon after and is not published by Hooded Horse.

Do Big Studios Still Make Strategy Games?

Al points out that Total War: Warhammer 40,000, Dawn of War 4, Paradox and Civilization show that major studios still invest in the genre. Drexy replies that each of those companies sticks to its own franchise, and it is hard to imagine a studio such as CD Projekt Red suddenly releasing an RTS.

Civ Clones and Ready-Made Audiences

Al suggests that anyone can now make a Civilization clone and tap into the audience Firaxis relies on. Drexy points out that Firaxis has a ready-made audience waiting, and gives examples of clones that failed.

One Million Sales: Flop or Success? Ara, Millennium, Humankind versus Old World

Drexy lists Ara: History Untold (Microsoft), Millennium (Paradox) and Humankind (Sega) as big company Civ clones that flopped, claiming Ara sold around 50,000 to 75,000 copies on Steam. He contrasts them with Old World, made by a studio of roughly ten people under former Civilization designer Soren Johnson, which he estimates sold between 800,000 and a million copies. Al notes that a million sales is a flop for a major publisher but a huge success for a small independent studio.

Voting with Our Wallets

Al says consumers vote with their wallets, and that one sale matters far more to a small studio than to a large one.

Whose Job Is Discovery? Press, Streamers and Developers

Drexy argues it is partly down to YouTubers and critics to find good smaller games, citing a large streamer who played Conquest of Elysium and sent sales surging. Jack says developers must take responsibility too, since a good game cannot rely on marketing itself and developers cannot be generalists who make and market everything alone.

Why Civ Clones Fail

Jack argues that Ara and Humankind failed because of design problems, copying aspects of Civilization that players did not care about, such as switching civilisations or non-hexagon tiles, while not delivering the innovation the show keeps asking for.

Innovation, Frostpunk and Stellaris

Jack uses 11 bit Studios and Paradox as examples of developers that succeed by having one selling feature or a platform they can keep building on. Adam notes that 11 bit deliberately targets viral themes, and Jack says Stellaris has no true competitor because Paradox built a platform it could add to for a decade.

Are Big Studios Too Risk Averse?

Drexy says AAA studios are now so large and expensive that they avoid risk, and that when they do take one, as with Ara, it often fails. He argues leaner teams with new tools, including 3D model generators, can now get close to the fidelity of bigger studios on a much smaller budget. Adam counters that some strategy games genuinely need a mid-sized team, noting that even Old World’s studio is only around nine people and on the edge of growing.

Genre Fatigue and the Balatro Effect

Adam warns that when a game becomes popular, many similar games follow, as happened after Balatro, and players tire of the genre after a year or two.

Do We Actually Want a Civ Competitor?

Drexy asks why anyone wants a Civilization competitor rather than something new, noting that Minecraft, Slay the Spire and Dwarf Fortress all came from independent creators. Al replies that a good competitor would make Firaxis and others up their game, and Adam notes that space 4X has several strong competitors, such as Stellaris, Distant Worlds, Galactic Civilizations and Terra Invicta, while Age of Wonders has found success among Civilization-style games.

The Power of Fandom

Drexy argues Al underestimates fandom, pointing out that many players only play Civilization, Paradox or Total War, and that even YouTubers who dislike Civ VII keep returning to it. Al accepts the point.

Final Thoughts and Future Episode Ideas

Adam suggests a future episode on how developers can attract people from outside the strategy gaming audience, perhaps with lighter games. Al notes the show now has well over a hundred episodes, and urges listeners to join the community Discord to debate whether democratisation is good or bad.

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This is a lively, good-natured argument in which Al’s unusually upbeat stance is tested by three co-hosts who each find a different problem with the premise. Jack’s constraints argument is the most original contribution, and Drexy’s sales maths on Endless Legend 2, Shadow Empire and Old World gives the debate a useful reality check about what success means at different scales. The discussion of Civilization clones is the strongest section, explaining why big companies fail where small ones thrive. The indie definition tangent is left unresolved, but the hosts at least agree on the shape of the question. The episode ends on a practical idea for a future show about reaching players outside the genre.