Dev diary #1: Location, location, location

The political landscape of the ancient Greek world was complex, made up of countless cities and towns, many of which formed their own political unit - the "Polis" (city-state). The game tries to capture some of this complexity with a world map centered around the Aegean sea containing over 150 playable historical cities. If that isn't enough you can also found your polis in a custom location of your own choosing.

A view of the world map, with the island of Crete in the foreground

When you've decided on a place to call home, the other cities will be controlled by the computer. You can interact with them and they can interact with you, offering goods to trade and diplomatic actions. For all the old school city-builder fans out there: think of "Zeus" or the other classic Impressions titles.

It's not just your neighbours you need to keep in mind however – your location also determines access to resources. Flat coastline will have plenty of fish and grain, but might lack enough stone. On the other hand, mountainous regions will be rich in stone, but will probably need trade partners to get enough grain.

Let's take a look at the famous polis of Sparta and it's location.

A bird eye's view of the Spartan map in "build-mode", resources are shown (red areas indicate where the land is too steep to build on)

Sparta has both flat land, hills, and mountains in its map - making it quite resource-rich. It notably has access to copper, which can be made into bronze, an essential ingredient in weapon production (but why would peaceful Sparta ever need weapons? Hmm...)

The map has its challenges too - it lacks sea access which rules out any fish production and makes it harder to trade (more on that in a later dev diary). It also lacks some resources, like marble for example.

That's it for this dev diary, thanks for taking the time to read it! Please note that the game is still in development and thus subject to change.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2745040