[Dev Diary #33] A Year in Review: Gilded Destiny in 2025

Season's Greetings, industrialists!

I'm Marc, a Producer on Gilded Destiny. Yet another year has come and gone. As we wrap up 2025, I hope this year has been as gilded, merry, and industrious for you as it has been for us at Aquila Interactive. In this Dev Diary, we will reflect on what has been accomplished this year on Gilded Destiny.

In 2025, both Gilded Destiny and Aquila have had several significant developments. First, as you may be aware, Gilded Destiny partnered with the publisher, Hooded Horse. We also released the Closed Alpha of Gilded Destiny to our backers on Kickstarter and Modian! We have received great feedback and suggestions on Gilded Destiny from them, and look forward to sharing the game with a wider audience soon.

And before we begin some of the updates to Gilded Destiny, I want to express my gratitude, on behalf of everyone at Aquila, to all of you for being part of our growing community over the last year.

And most of all, I personally want to thank everyone at Aquila for making it a productive and enjoyable year. Aquila has grown significantly since this time last year. We've welcomed new designers, programmers, technical designers, content designers, artists, and quality analysts—and, we have built our global publishing and marketing team. To all of my fellow Aquila Interactive clerks, artisans, intellectuals, capitalists, bureaucrats, factory workers, soldiers, and aristocrats, thank you.

If you haven’t already, please wishlist Gilded Destiny on Steam and subscribe to our YouTube. You can additionally join our Discord or Reddit community to stay up to date.

You can find the video version of this Dev Diary here:

Without further ado, let's dive in.

Accomplishments

Sneak Peek of the Military System

First, a sneak peek of an exciting feature that we plan to implement in 2026, which we know is very important to grand strategy gamers—the Military. We have teased the Military UI and army units in recent dev diaries, and plan to share more soon in a dedicated Dev Diary. Specifically regarding the Navy system: A lot of initial design work has been done already, but we're still refining the design and plan to implement it soon. While we cannot show too much in-game at the moment, I can say that the Navy System will largely follow the same pattern and design we use for land-based units.

Summary

• Sneak Peek into Military Feature.

• Initial design work has been done on the Navy system.

Improving the Economy

Behind the scenes, our design teams are working tirelessly on bringing Gilded Destiny's economy to life through a major rework that we hope will bring a never-before-seen depth to grand strategy economics.

Summary

• Implementing the improved economy soon.

Leader Portraits

We recently discussed updates to the Leader system, focusing on our new art style, animations, modding, and the importance of Leaders in the game. Since the publishing of that dev diary a few months ago, we have finalized a few more leader portraits, with many more still on the way.

Summary

• Learn more here: The Faces of History: Leaders Update (Gilded Destiny Dev Diary 30)

• More leader portraits have been finalized in the game, with more still to be finished.

• Leaders will be the men and women you appoint to lead important positions in your country, including roles in government, research, and the military, including both the army and the navy.

HUD

Since the HUD Dev Diary in March, we have updated quite a few things. Whether you're interested in managing your Navy, Army, or economy, you'll be checking the HUD quite a bit. As one of the most visible parts of the UI, we did our best to ensure that the HUD looks good and is easy to interact with. In essence, HUD aims to provide you with all the information you will need to manage your country and make decisions in the game.

Another prominently visible part of the main UI is our Map Modes panel. So, let's check that out next.

Summary

• Learn more here: Heads Up! Introducing the HUD in Gilded Destiny: Displaying In-Game Information

• HUD has since been updated to include:

  • A Menu buttons redesign

  • A new style has been added for the Notification Icons

  • The Warning/Hint icons are now clickable

  • Updated the icons for Money, Authority, and Influence

Map Modes System

A major update to Gilded Destiny over the last year has been the design and implementation of Map Modes. The main idea of the Map Modes UI is to allow players to toggle views without interrupting gameplay. In the default Map Modes UI, you will see eight tabs representing different layers at a time. Depending on what you are focused on at the moment in the game, you can choose multiple different map modes, which we'll be coming back to during this dev diary!

Population Map Mode for North America and Asia:

Domestic Freight Map Mode for the United Kingdom and Russia:

Summary

• Learn more here: Making Map Modes for Gilded Destiny: Vision, Design, and Implementation

• Designed and implemented Map Modes.

• This will allow players to toggle views without interrupting gameplay.

POP Automation Tool

The POP Automation Tool was designed and implemented to help our designers fill buildings proportionally according to the distribution of cultures and religions in a province. The tool takes the ability of certain cultures/religions to work certain jobs into consideration. For example, Irish and Catholic POPs could only work lower-class jobs in England. The tool allowed for this kind of detail in every province across the world, while also greatly decreasing the overall workload.

Summary

• Learn more: Province Mechanics in Gilded Destiny - Dev Diary 24

• The POP Automation Tool was designed and implemented to help our designers fill buildings proportionally according to the distribution of cultures and religions in a province.

• The tool takes the ability of certain cultures/religions to work certain jobs into consideration.

• The tool allows for greater POP detail in every province across the world, while also greatly decreasing the overall workload.

Resource Points

The Resource Points System was designed and implemented over the last year to bring the hex map to life, allowing players the ability to find resource deposits on the hex map via the Resource Points map mode, and then extract them with buildings they place on top of the deposit. Gilded Destiny offers a unique opportunity for more granular detail than other grand strategy games. This means we don't just tell you a resource exists in a province; we show you its actual, true location.

Another key and unique aspect of the Resource Points system is our design philosophy of scarcity and specialization. For example, during this period, Sicily was the number one source of sulfur, providing more than 90% of the world's demand until the end of the century. This specialization highlights the importance of individual provinces in the game.

In the game design, we weigh gameplay balance against the fact that part of the fantasy of this period stems from these resource monopolies. In our design philosophy, we want to cater to these hyper-specialized expectations, where every country, every province, has a specific part to play in the global economy. So, if you're out of sulfur, perhaps a diplomatic agreement, vassalization, or even the conquest of Sicily might be the most efficient way to satisfy your demand.

Summary

• Learn more here: Fueling Your Economy: Resource Points Explained in Gilded Destiny (Dev Diary 29)

• Resource points have been designed to bring the hex map to life, allowing players the ability to find resource deposits on the hex map via the Resource Points map mode, and then extract them with buildings they place on top of the deposit

• A key and unique aspect of the Resource Points system is our design philosophy of scarcity and specialization.

• We want to cater to these hyper-specialized expectations, where every country, every province, has a specific part to play in the global economy.

Building and Construction UI interconnections

We have implemented a major revamp of building-related interfaces, including the Construction UI and the Buildings UI, where you can now build rural and city buildings in the same place. Also, the Construction UI now supports new construction, as well as upgrades and demolition—plus, a new bulk-upgrade option and clearer build-time info. The Buildings UI now shows more information at-a-glance that will clearly show how each building operates, displaying current revenue performance, workforce status, and production status.

Finally, we have streamlined building ownership in the game—previously, buildings owned by capitalists and those owned by the state were separate buildings. Now, we have consolidated varying ownership types into one building, where different stakeholders can own shares. For example, a cement factory that is level 15 might have 10 shares owned by capitalists and 5 owned by the state. Stay tuned for more updates in a future dev diary.

Summary

• You can now build rural and city buildings in the same place

• The Construction UI now supports new construction, as well as upgrades and demolition—plus, a new bulk-upgrade option and clearer build-time info

• The Buildings UI now shows more information at-a-glance that will clearly show how each building operates, displaying current revenue performance, workforce status, and production status.

• We now have consolidated varying ownership types into one building, where different stakeholders can own shares.

New Country, Province, and City UI Panels

We have also updated the country, province, and city UI panels. Our artists have recently created illustrations representing the terrain of various climate zones for the Province UI and illustrations for the City UI depicting cities in different regions of the world. These new designs aim to ensure that all the information you need is easily accessible. In general, you have several different tabs that will show specific information about your POPs, the economy, your government, and so on.

Summary

• updated the country, province, and city UI panels

• These new designs aim to ensure that all the information you need is easily accessible

Sound Effects for Gilded Destiny

One exciting feature to keep an eye out for in future builds of the game, if you're an Alpha tester, or in future Dev Diaries, if you're otherwise anxiously awaiting the game, is the implementation of sound effects. In 2025, we collaborated with the composer for Gilded Destiny's soundtrack to create a first set of sound effects for major UI interactions and game events.

Summary

• We collaborated with the composer for Gilded Destiny's soundtrack to create a first set of sound effects for major UI interactions and game events.

Events and Event System

Behind the scenes, a lot of work has been done to increase the power and scope of our event editor (which will be released to players as a modding tool, of course). More changes are planned for the new year.

Major event design work has been done for Prussia and Qing. Some event design work has also been done for France, the UK, and the US.

Summary

• Work has been done to increase the power and scope of our event editor

• Major event design work has been done for Prussia and Qing. Some event design work has also been done for France, the UK, and the US.

Financial Interface Optimization

Over the course of 2025, we have been continuously adding more details of expenditure and income to give you a clearer picture of what is happening in your country's economy. We have made great progress here, but this is still a work in progress. We look forward to sharing more details with you in a future dev diary.

Summary

• Added more details of expenditure and income to give you a clearer picture of what is happening in your country's economy

• Implementing the improved economy soon.

AI Behavior Additions and Optimizations

Several economic and political AI behaviors were added, and the AI's military performance was optimized. For example, some of the behaviors added or optimized were government and military leader management, province edict management, construction of state-owned buildings, management of finances and taxation, and much more.

Summary

• Several economic and political AI behaviors were added, and the AI's military performance was optimized

Political Parties

In a recent dev diary, we discussed our progress on Political Parties, including enacting Policies, leading Political Parties, holding Elections, maximizing Party Attractiveness, forming governments, adopting Policy Stances, and making compromises to stay in power.

Summary

• Learn more here: Coalitions and Elections: Political Parties in Gilded Destiny (Dev Diary 31)

Rebellion System

In our last dev diary, we discussed how rebellions have been modeled in Gilded Destiny, including how government support and POP happiness affect public unrest, how different kinds of government can deal with growing unrest, and what happens when the populace breaks out in open rebellion.

Summary

• Learn more here: Are Your POPs Rebellious? Modeling Unrest & Revolutions in Gilded Destiny (Dev Diary 32)

Development Update

November

• Missing flags for the German countries of 1822 have been added.

• Created an effect type used to grant technologies to specified countries.

• Implemented new generic leader head graphics for African and East Asian Leaders.

• Implemented new leader clothes graphics: military uniform variants.

• Improved leader generation code (readability + performance).

• Implemented cultural naming taboo for the leaders' names of selected cultures.

• Fixed the Leaders glitch, which appeared on their portrait frame in the recruitment UI.

• Imp l emented province status concept (territory / state / colonizable / uninhabitable).

  • POPs in non-state provinces don't have political power.

  • Status information is displayed in the overview tab of the province window.

• When rebels establish or overthrow a government type with an election, the election process starts from the beginning, instead of continuing from the country's previous election cycle.

• The pop-up message that you received when rebels secede from your country now includes a list of the provinces that they took.

• Fixed an issue that occurred with the method that determined whether rebels support the governing party.

• Fixed the issue where separatist and nationalist rebels didn't disband upon success.

• Fixed the issue where Rebels "occupied" uncolonized land.

• Fixed the inconsistent display of a province's most popular rebel type between the unrest UI in the politics window and the unrest bar tooltip in the province window.

• Fixed the issue where text tooltips appeared for any texts that automatically add a line break

December

• Began refinement and iteration of Policies, including sources of Political Power.

• Began iteration on Colonization system mechanics.

• Began work on the Design of Religious Convictions.

• Began work on UK events.

• Began work on the Unrest system events.

• Continued work on the Technology icons art.

• Continued designs and fixes for Economy refinement for implementation next year.

Postamble

That's probably a good note to wrap up this Dev Diary—with wrapping paper and a bow, of course. We hope you've enjoyed it, and as always, if you have any questions or comments, let it snow ❄️

As the season of joy and giving is upon us, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel, so you can stay warm and cozy watching Gilded Destiny Dev Diaries over the holidays. And, if you haven’t already, add Gilded Destiny to your Steam Christmas wishlist, and be sure to check it twice.

Until our paths converge once more, we bid thee farewell with tidings of comfort and joy.

May your destiny shine as brightly as the gilded star on top of your tree.