Devlog 001

Devlog 001

Welcome to the devlog for Corsican!

Corsican is a turn-based strategy game inspired by the classic KOEI strategy games, Shadow Empire and Emperor of the Fading Suns. The idea was inspired by some conversations on Reddit and X and various game forums which bemoaned the lack of a strategy game that fused strategy and tactical gameplay in the Napoleonic setting with the notable exceptions of KOEI's L'Empereur and Total War: Napoleon. I think anyone interested in this series would love for Game-Labs (of Ultimate General fame) would get it done but they have their hands full with the American War for Independence currently. Besides the aforementioned games, there are many games that focus on either the strategy level or tactical level (like the excellent games from Wargame Design Studio) but nothing recent that combines the two.

Regarding the Total War series in general, I found their representation of the Napoleonic battles did not capture the period well and felt frantic and rushed and could also take a long time. The strategic layer also did not feel particularly period appropriate. On both matters I think the KOEI games do a better job of presenting interesting and accessible battles and capturing the personas and historical flavor of their setting. 

Emperor of the Fading Suns (EOTFS) is another venerable grand-strategy in which you fight for control of planets each of which is represented by a unique map. You could have battles occuring in multiple planets at once giving the game an epic scale and feel. The core EOTFS is fairly simple and straightforward and what makes the game interesting is scope along with the diplomacy between factions. The latter I think overlaps with the KOEI games as well.

 From these inspirations, I have set out the following goals for Corsican:

1. Capture the diplomatic machinations that define the period at the strategy level

2. Capture the Rock-Paper-Scissors of combined arms at the tactical level

3. Accessible and fast-playing

4. Single-player focus, with the possibility for MP in the future

The first two goals are straightforward in that the game overall needs to feel Napoleonic in the decisions and challenges it provides. The third goal is equally important because the game needs to be approachable by enthusiasts and newbies alike. A napoleonic game that brings new people into the period is a win all around.

Lastly, in my previous projects multi-player has always been a priority, but that easily doubles the technical requirements and quadruples the balancing and design challenges. Furthermore, the majority of people play games single-player. I will always keep an eye towards an architecture and design that could be expanded towards multi-player but its too big of a risk until some measure of success has been achieved.