Previous Games Compared

How is City States different from our previous games?

This is one of the most commonly asked questions, so let’s dive into it.

First, a small disclaimer: this is a passion project. I handle most of the development myself, with two helpers. It is not profitable and does not come close to minimum wage.

My goal is to improve and expand with every new title. Each game explores a different historical period and tells a new campaign story (one of my favorite parts of development is researching and learning about these eras).

City States: Medieval is designed both for players who have spent many hours with our previous games and for those discovering them for the first time.

It is a major evolution of our previous games rather than a complete reinvention. This is a common approach in the strategy genre, especially for a very small indie project.

Now, let’s look at some visual comparisons between Medieval Kingdom Wars, Knights of the Crusades, and City States: Medieval to highlight the improvements to the graphics and UI.

World Map - France

This shows same location on the world map from Medieval Kingdom Wars, Knights of the Crusades and City States, includes all the UI as well.

Medieval Kingdom Wars

Knights of the Crusades

City States: Medieval

RTS City

Here’s a look at same RTS city, including buildings and units. In City States: Medieval, every main player city has been redesigned from the ground up and is significantly larger than any city featured in our previous games.

Medieval Kingdom Wars

Steam post image

Knights of the Crusades

City States: Medieval

Other Stuff

The differences go far beyond updated graphics and a redesigned UI.

Most of the artwork is completely new, including the buildings and units. There is also much more variety: City States: Medieval features 35 building types, compared with 14 in Medieval Kingdom Wars, along with a significantly larger unit roster.

A few elements have been reused:

• Some sound effects remain the same, although these are barely noticeable. Sounds such as arrows, sword strikes, or an archer shouting “Fire arrows!” do not necessarily need to be replaced.

• Some artwork has been reused, including ship models and a few natural objects such as rocks and bushes. Ships saw very little use in our previous game, while naval gameplay is much more important here.

• Level design has been expanded and reworked, although some cities may still look familiar. Many of the original layouts were already based on real-world maps of locations such as Orléans and Dover.