The Wargamer

October 16, 2006

Supreme Ruler 2010 is now officially behind us, and we’ve begun work on prioritizing the changes and additional features for our recently announced sequel… Supreme Ruler 2020. We will be focusing on many of the features that our players requested from 2010. We learned a lot during the development of that project and we intend to use that knowledge to make Supreme Ruler 2020 even more successful.

On the business of developing…

Before I get into the details of the game, I thought I’d briefly touch on BattleGoat’s renewed business philosophy. Like in our game… it’s time that WE take control! Our intention moving forward is to ensure that marketing dollars are spent where most helpful, that any distributor we sign with will be enthusiastic about the game and will help us make the game as widely available as possible, and lastly, that localization for Europe and the European release dates are tied as close to the North American release as possible. These were all significant issues with the release of Supreme Ruler 2010 and we pledge to do our best to correct them.

Now on to the game…

As previously mentioned, we intend on incorporating many of the suggestions that were made by players of the first game into the next generation of the Supreme Ruler franchise. One of the most challenging aspects at this stage of development is deciding what new features will add to game-play and what, although interesting, will just increase the complexity without adding much to the experience. This will be an ongoing task during the course of development. We’ve added some exciting elements to the development list, but as they are implemented, they will be continually evaluated to see if they make the game better! We used our forum heavily during development of our first title to garner feedback on ideas, and we will certainly be continuing that practice.

It was also clear from the feedback that Supreme Ruler 2010 was not as approachable to beginners as it should have been. If players got past the learning curve, they really enjoyed the game, but that was a pretty fair hurdle.

We will get into more exacting details of individual features in future Developer Diaries, but some of the key features that have been strongly requested and are on our development wish list are; “Covert Operations” (something that was in the original design for the game but didn’t get past the first title’s cutting room floor), enhanced diplomatic interaction, a better tutorial, more extensive scenario customization to address difficulty levels and much more!

Here are some of the more notable changes we’re already implementing:

• Improved Graphics with Higher Resolution Maps and Units
• Improved Sound and Music, including Region-specific background music
• Next Generation AI
• Streamlined Interface for easier play options
• Advanced “Single Map” Design
• Play in a small Region or Play the Entire World!
• New, Higher Resolution Satellite Imagery courtesy of NASA.
• Exciting new Sandbox mode that lets Players customize gaming experience!

At the same time, we will of course be keeping the main features that set our game apart from so many other games of the same genre in the first place… a detailed and realistic game (including a full economic model), heavily researched real-world environments and situations, and an overall unique game experience. Don’t let that level of realism scare you though… we’ll make it entertaining!

Accomplishing all that we’re hoping to for Supreme Ruler 2020 will not be an easy task, but we are committed to doing our best. The ongoing vision of BattleGoat Studios is to continue to evolve the Supreme Ruler gaming experience and make the best games we possibly can - the ultimate in strategy wargaming!

David Thompson
Lead Designer / Co Founder
BattleGoat Studios
www.BattleGoat.com