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Hello everyone!
I'm very interested in your opinion on how to make an indie strategy game appealing to fans of "Heroes," especially HOMM I - III.
If you're too lazy to read the text, you can get a general idea from this 50-second trailer and a detailed How to Play.
The main question: Would you play a game like this? Why?
My apologies if this post is off-topic — I am new to the Heroes World forum, although I've been playing the Heroes of Might and Magic series since 1996 and especially love the second part (visually and in terms of atmosphere, of course, and not because of the AI :) ).
For a little over a year, I've been solo-developing a turn-based strategy game called Fireside Hero.
It's a game inspired by HOMM, but much more compact (I don't have Jon Van Caneghem's team :) ) and with original gameplay.
In Fireside Hero, you play as a tavern keeper who buys and sells rumors, as well as hires and manages heroes. The lands where the tavern is located are threatened by deadly danger, and you have 20 days to find and defeat 5 legendary monsters — otherwise, all surrounding villages and castles will be destroyed, and the tavern will close forever. The difficulty is that the monster's location is unknown, and you have to buy and analyze fragmented information. After you mark a suspected lair with a flag, you can try to attack that tile with a hired hero. If the location is guessed correctly, the battle mode starts. The day after a victory, a new, stronger monster appears on the map — and so on until you defeat them all (or until you end up in debtors' prison or time runs out). Artifacts are "hidden" on the map in a similar way.
Similarities to HOMM:
- Turn-based adventure mode, turn-based battle.
- Several hero classes with different growth rates for their primary stats.
- A 2D map consisting of square segments.
- Different terrain types affecting hero movement speed.
- Interactive locations (temporarily increase hero stats, add money, etc.).
- Artifacts with mini-stories.
- The ability to exchange items between heroes.
- Enemies borrowed from mythology and folklore (Minotaur, Medusa, Hydra, Cerberus, etc.).
- Soundscapes tied to the type of terrain the hero is on (sea, desert, lava, mountains, etc.).
- Additional consumables that can be used in battle. In Fireside Hero, these are various herbs; in HOMM, these are scrolls or spell mana.
Differences from HOMM:
- The entire map fits on one screen.
- No castle development or construction.
- No opponents actively moving across the map. Instead, there are main monsters (hidden until discovered by the player), secondary monsters (visible on the map as abandoned mines and caves), and calamities (temporary events in certain areas of the game world — drought, plague, peasant uprising, etc. — displayed on the map after purchasing the corresponding information and checking a specific hero stat).
- No troop recruitment; instead, the focus is on hero development.
- Battle is based on "rock-paper-scissors" rules. There are three types of attack: prowess (sword), charm (harp), and knowledge (book). Sword beats book, book beats harp, harp beats sword. When attacks of the same type clash, the higher value wins. There is also the option to pass a turn (restoring 1 unit of a random attack type), defend (reduces damage from enemy attack by 1 unit), use an herb, or flee (essentially a separate mini-game with multiple escape attempts, like rolling dice).
- A more significant role for procedural generation — monster types, locations, and stats, artifact locations, hero stats and names, and several other parameters.
Basically, the main question: would you play a game like this?
If yes, why? If no, why?
P.S. If you're interested in trying out the current alpha version of the game, the archive is here.
The build is currently only for Windows, but Mac and iOS/Android tablets are also planned. I can also provide access to a closed Steam build.
I would be grateful if you could participate in the project as expert players.
Thank you for reading!
I'm very interested in your opinion on how to make an indie strategy game appealing to fans of "Heroes," especially HOMM I - III.
If you're too lazy to read the text, you can get a general idea from this 50-second trailer and a detailed How to Play.
The main question: Would you play a game like this? Why?
My apologies if this post is off-topic — I am new to the Heroes World forum, although I've been playing the Heroes of Might and Magic series since 1996 and especially love the second part (visually and in terms of atmosphere, of course, and not because of the AI :) ).
For a little over a year, I've been solo-developing a turn-based strategy game called Fireside Hero.
It's a game inspired by HOMM, but much more compact (I don't have Jon Van Caneghem's team :) ) and with original gameplay.
In Fireside Hero, you play as a tavern keeper who buys and sells rumors, as well as hires and manages heroes. The lands where the tavern is located are threatened by deadly danger, and you have 20 days to find and defeat 5 legendary monsters — otherwise, all surrounding villages and castles will be destroyed, and the tavern will close forever. The difficulty is that the monster's location is unknown, and you have to buy and analyze fragmented information. After you mark a suspected lair with a flag, you can try to attack that tile with a hired hero. If the location is guessed correctly, the battle mode starts. The day after a victory, a new, stronger monster appears on the map — and so on until you defeat them all (or until you end up in debtors' prison or time runs out). Artifacts are "hidden" on the map in a similar way.
Similarities to HOMM:
- Turn-based adventure mode, turn-based battle.
- Several hero classes with different growth rates for their primary stats.
- A 2D map consisting of square segments.
- Different terrain types affecting hero movement speed.
- Interactive locations (temporarily increase hero stats, add money, etc.).
- Artifacts with mini-stories.
- The ability to exchange items between heroes.
- Enemies borrowed from mythology and folklore (Minotaur, Medusa, Hydra, Cerberus, etc.).
- Soundscapes tied to the type of terrain the hero is on (sea, desert, lava, mountains, etc.).
- Additional consumables that can be used in battle. In Fireside Hero, these are various herbs; in HOMM, these are scrolls or spell mana.
Differences from HOMM:
- The entire map fits on one screen.
- No castle development or construction.
- No opponents actively moving across the map. Instead, there are main monsters (hidden until discovered by the player), secondary monsters (visible on the map as abandoned mines and caves), and calamities (temporary events in certain areas of the game world — drought, plague, peasant uprising, etc. — displayed on the map after purchasing the corresponding information and checking a specific hero stat).
- No troop recruitment; instead, the focus is on hero development.
- Battle is based on "rock-paper-scissors" rules. There are three types of attack: prowess (sword), charm (harp), and knowledge (book). Sword beats book, book beats harp, harp beats sword. When attacks of the same type clash, the higher value wins. There is also the option to pass a turn (restoring 1 unit of a random attack type), defend (reduces damage from enemy attack by 1 unit), use an herb, or flee (essentially a separate mini-game with multiple escape attempts, like rolling dice).
- A more significant role for procedural generation — monster types, locations, and stats, artifact locations, hero stats and names, and several other parameters.
Basically, the main question: would you play a game like this?
If yes, why? If no, why?
P.S. If you're interested in trying out the current alpha version of the game, the archive is here.
The build is currently only for Windows, but Mac and iOS/Android tablets are also planned. I can also provide access to a closed Steam build.
I would be grateful if you could participate in the project as expert players.
Thank you for reading!
