Post by Pr1nted in 1.3.1b — running on a phone, fog of war introduction, and a new map comments

Strength still decides a battle - there’s deliberately no surprise bonus. A fight resolves the same whether or not the defender saw it coming.

What intelligence changes is which battle you pick. A spy network shows you every province a country holds for six turns, so you hit where the garrison is actually thin and know a fort level before you commit, not after. A weaker power can win by only ever taking fights it’s already winning - it still can’t win one it would otherwise lose.

The better half: you can hide strength from the AI, but you can’t fake weakness. A province it has never seen doesn’t read as empty, it reads as the median of what it has seen elsewhere - so bait doesn’t work on it. Starving it of information does.

Fair warning: right now information is worth more than it should be, because the AI is held to the fog but its model was trained on worlds where it could see everything. That gets retrained next.

Micah6 days ago

That’s a really thoughtful way to handle intelligence in a strategy game. I like how you’ve made information about enemy and fort levels more better than simply giving surprise attacks

damage. It makes the player’s decisions before a battle feel just as important as the battle itself, and I appreciate that you’re also being open about where the AI still needs work.

with so much thought going into these mechanics, how has getting Open Doctrines noticed by players outside itch.io been going so far? Have you been exploring other platforms or using social media to reach strategy game fans?

Pr1nted6 days ago

I mean, there is Bluesky, sometimes I post stuff on reddit in tech communities when it is apropriate, like when the game was ported to TempleOS, or when Open Fly and Open Animal Stage launched. Plus there’s always Discord! (the community is there, and I am pretty active there)

I’m also planning on putting it to Steam, but that will be on an actual release of the game, which will be a major event for the game, current game has only been 8 days in beta, which is not enough for me to determine when will I actually will release. The whole project was made as an experiment innitially that went WAY out of hand at some point (I’m not complaining though)

About openess, to me personally it is something that is relatively cheap time wise to do, that’s kinda what the whole game’s idea, hence the name Open Doctrines!

Micah6 days ago

I love how an experiment turned into something much bigger than you originally planned. The openness behind Open Doctrines is a great part of its identity, especially with you sharing the development process and being honest about what still needs work.

I think TikTok, X, and Reddit could help you reach more strategy game fans beyond the people already finding you through itch.io and Discord. TikTok could showcase interesting gameplay mechanics in short clips, X could help you share development updates and connect with strategy game communities, and Reddit could bring valuable discussions when you share relevant mechanics, design decisions, or development challenges in the right communities.

I do offer video edtition and scoial media management,I helps games reach the right audiences through content and community engagement, and I can see opportunities to build on what you're already doing without losing the open, experimental spirit of the project. Have you considered having someone help you manage that side of things while you focus on developing the game?

Pr1nted6 days ago

Well you are probably right about the fact that the game could get bigger audience, it’d be more intersting to develop when there are more people for certain, I might think of what I’ll do.

For now it is a fully solo project, even though it is open to contributions, for now I just probably want to actually get even more knowlage on how to properly develop games on this project, and then after release to move on to something much bigger, I might do some work using X or something in that spirit, but for that I’ll think for some time. I’ll think of what to do with it for sure

Micah6 days ago

I completely understand that, especially since Open Doctrines is both a game and a way for you to keep learning and improving as a developer. I respect that you want to build your experience with the project before moving on to something bigger.

You don't have to take on everything yourself, though. I offer video editing and social media management for indie games, helping developers turn their gameplay, development progress, and unique mechanics into content that can reach more players. If you decide to explore X or other platforms later, I'd be happy to help with that side of things while you focus on developing the game.

When you feel ready to put more attention into growing the game's audience, would you be open to discussing how we could work together?

Pr1nted6 days ago

I’ll think about, thanks for the offer, for now I’ll keep jdoing my thing, if I consider expanding my audience in that way, maybe we’d work together, but for now I’m improvising, and an not ready to put money in the game like that! But again, thanks for the offer

itch.io

Viewing post in 1.3.1b — running on a phone, fog of war introduction, and a new map comments