John Ayliff's Blog

Apologies for the long silence. Yes, I’m still working on the space empire game. Other things have taken up my time, and when I have been able to work on the game I’ve found myself creatively blocked, so I decided it was better to go silent than post monthly dev blogs where I basically say I’ve made no progress. (This is why I set up this Patreon as per-work rather than per-month, so you don’t get charged when I’m not being productive.) But I think I’ve now made enough progress to be worth mentioning.

Here’s what the game looks like now:

ACADEMIC COUNCIL: …The Council’s most prominent institution was the Imperial Museum, which occupied a hundred square kilometres on Novaion. The musuem held cultural artifacts from across the galaxy, most of them acquired during the millennia of the Empire’s expansion, either as loot during military conquests or tribute from subject nations. In the 12th millennium IE the museum came under increasing pressure to return these to their planets of origin…

—Galactopedia

A dozen crimson-robed priests stand in your throne room for a formal audience. Speaking through an interpreter, the high priest explains that the Imperial Musuem holds numerous holy relics connected with Zho-Te the Lifebringer, the divine creator of their home planet. For several centuries now, their predecessors have asked your predecessors to return the artifacts, and they are hoping that you will be the empress to finally agree.

Your scientific advisor fills you in on the artifacts in question. Zho-Te appears in the history books as a pre-Imperial scientist credited with terraforming several planets. His antique space helmet is one of the more recognizable exhibits in the museum, but more important scientifically are the pieces of terraforming equipment recovered from his personal spaceship and now held in the museum archives. Imperial techno-archaeologists have spent centuries trying to uncover the lost secrets of his terraforming techniques, and without access to the artifacts they will never be able to complete their work.

Options:

Return the relics.

Keep the artefacts. 

I’ve revised the interface somewhat since last time. Down the left hand side we have: the year of your reign, the amount of the galaxy the Empire controls, the strength of each of the six factions (Noble Houses, People’s Assembly, Galactic Church, Academic Council, Imperial Navy, and Guild of Corporations), and then the settings button and the Galactopedia index. Clicking on any of those things brings up the corresponding Galactopedia page (except the settings button, which brings up the settings menu).

Each faction now has a single stat that represents both its strength and approval. I realized that these stats tended to track to one another anyway because choices that made a faction more powerful would also make it like you more and vice versa, so I decided to simplify the game and give each faction a single score. The scores aren’t shown as numbers, but if you mouse over the bars you get a tooltip with the exact percentage value (and this is also what you’ll get if you’re playing with a screen reader).

Here’s what it looks like after you click on an option:

(Text continues) Disappointed but not surprised, the priests visit the artifacts in the museum, where they say a prayer over them before returning home. Thousands of people continue to visit Zho-Te’s space helmet each day, and many of them buy replicas of it in the museum gift shop. Imperial archaeologists continue to publish papers on how Zho-Te’s terraforming process might have worked, without reaching a conclusion.

Like in Seedship, but unlike in Chiron Gate, I’m having options inside the same event add text to the page rather than going to a new page. This does mean that it’ll be possible to “cheat” in the browser version by refreshing the page and choosing a different option, but it’s a single-player game and it’s not like there’s a prize for winning, so cheat if you like.

The faction values have changed, and there are little arrows in the stat bars showing the direction and rough magnitude of the change. Not shown because this is a still image: when stat bars change they also glow briefly, yellow for up and red for down.

You can see that the Church bar has gone down by a lot and the Academy bar has only gone up by a little. This is the main way I’m balancing the game: most of your choices will raise one faction by a little but lower a different one by a lot, or raise one and lower two. As a result, the overall/average level of the factions will tend to go down, and if you want to keep one faction powerful it’ll be at the expense of all the others.

What happens when one of the faction bars reaches zero? This:

ANAGVASTIAN CHURCH: A religion widely followed in a large part of the Outer Arm, where it wielded considerable influence in local politics. It was based on the teachings of the prophet Anagvast, whom followers worshipped as a deity…

…In 11321, the Church’s ruling council issued an edict that it no longer recognised the authority of either the Galactic Kivastian Churh or of the Vaion Star Empire, making the church’s planets into an independent theocracy…

—Galactopedia

The message comes in the form of a golden tablet, delivered by a pair of solemn crimson-robed Angvastian archbishops. In side-by-side columns of both Galactic Standard and Angvastian hieroglyhs, it declares that the Angvastian Church can no longer tolerate the Empire’s impiety, and that its 1891 star systems are now an independent theocratic state.

Options:

Send the Navy to restore control.

Recognize the new government.

If you fail to put down the rebellion, or allow the region to secede, the Empire will lose territory and that top bar will go down.

What happens when a faction bar reaches 100%? That faction will demand to become part of the government, permanently changing the Empire and shaping its legacy. For example, the People’s Assembly can become the Galactic Parliament, reducing you from an absolute monarch to a constitutionally limited one, and setting you down the path towards a Galactic Republic ending. But so far I’ve only written placeholder text for that, so no screenshot this time.

I’m going to try to get back on a monthly dev blog schedule for the game. Release date is “when it’s done” but hopefully that’s not too far in the future.

Empire and Legacy will put you in charge of a declining Galactic Empire. But what empire, exactly?

There are various ways that galactic empires have been depicted in fiction, from the relatively benign one of Foundation, to the hotbed of feudal intrigues in Dune, to the fascist police state of Star Wars, to the over-the-top parody dystopia of Warhammer 40K. For Empire and Legacy, I’m positioning the Vaion Star Empire at the “relatively benign” end of the scale. It’s bad in the way that empires generally are bad, but it’s not especially bad on top of that. I want the player to feel attached to it and a little nostalgic when it ends, even if they end up with a galaxy that’s better off without it.

(Feeling a little nostalgic for an empire even though it was objectively terrible is perhaps a very British feeling. I’ve been getting myself in the mood to write this game by listening to Elgar.)

So, what is the Vaion Star Empire?

It rules with a light hand. Subject planets must obey Imperial authority but manage their own internal affairs and get to keep their local systems of government, which range from hereditary dictatorships to democracies. This means I can tell stories about planets with different kinds of governments, and conflicts between them that the Empire must mediate. I also think this light hand is why it could last ten thousand years, because individual planets don’t see Imperial rule as oppressive enough to bother throwing off.

It’s culturally diverse. There is a Vaionian ethnic group and culture, but the Empire actively celebrates the diversity of cultures among its subjects. At least, that’s the official line–unofficially, there’s probably a lot of cultural imperialism going on, which is something I’ll explore in events.

It keeps the peace. In the galactic history I’m constructing, the time before the Empire was characterised by interplanetary wars. The Empire was essentially the state that won these wars and kept growing until it controlled the whole galaxy. Some of the bad endings will involve this “Pax Imperia” collapsing and the galaxy descending into warfare again.

It’s capitalist. Subject planets have to allow imperial-chartered corporations to operate on their planets. In theory, this free trade benefits everyone. In practice, most of the benefits go to shareholders and consumers in the core worlds, while most of the poor working conditions and toxic waste dumping happens on the outlying sectors.

So, we have an empire that’s culturally loose, but economically integrated. It extracts wealth from the outlying regions for the benefit of the core, but it also keeps the peace across the entire galaxy and will step in to deal with problems that an individual planet might not be able to cope with.

*

The poll in last month’s dev blog, about an event where an industrial planet goes on strike, ended with a roughly even split between enforcing a compromise and ordering the corporation to cede control of the planet to the strikers. In the end the option to give the planet to the strikers won out. No one voted to send the Imperial Marines to put down the strike. It’s meant to be the evil option, so I guess no one wanted to roleplay as a capitalist space tyrant!

Anyway, this is the result you’ll get if you pick that option in the game:

The CEO is astonished, but the Empress’s word is final. If a corporation cannot control its holdings, the Empire will take them away.

An Imperial Navy destroyer watches from high orbit to deter violence as  the corporate forces withdraw from the planet. The planet’s barracks and  factories ring with celebrations, and a delegation from the Imperial  Diplomatic Corps arrives to help the strike leaders draw up a democratic  planetary constitution and formally accept Goladrion Prime as an  Imperial member world.

Self-governance movements on other  corporate-controlled worlds will look to Goladrion Prime as an example  of what they can achieve if they stand their ground. Multiplanetary  corporations will become more ready to grant concessions in order to  head these self-governance movements off, while resenting the side that  the Empire took. The Navy shipwrights don’t care how the factory worlds  supplying their parts are governed, but they are somewhat displeased  with how long it takes the newly self-governing planet to get back to  its former level of output.

For this month’s poll, here’s another event. Will you allow tourism on a holy world?

ALADRIA: …a naturally habitable world close to the galactic core, famous for  its rich native biosphere and legendarily beautiful night sky…

…At  the start of the 12th millennium, the planet’s governing theocracy  declared it a holy world and forebade all foreign visitors to the  surface. This put them in conflict with both muliplanetary corporations  and some segments of the planet’s population…

—Galactopedia

The beauty of Aladria has inspired some of the Empire’s greatest artworks. Quolvinagh’s painting The Skies of Aladria is the pride of the Novaion planetary gallery, and the slow movement of Voldraskinor’s Aladria Symphony regularly moves audiences to tears. Holos of the planet itself are even more beautiful—but  holos are all outsiders have seen for ten generations, as the local  theocratic government forbids all landings. No outsider, not even the Emperor, may set foot on the world, and the few locals who leave can never return.

Now,  multiplanetary tourism company Empire Cruises is requesting that you to  overrule the local government so that it can bring tourists to the  planet. The CEO assures you that the tours will be respectful of the  native religion and do minimal damage to the ecosystem. Many members of  the High Noble Houses have already pre-booked tickets, and the opening  up of this new, exclusive tourist destination would breathe new life  into the Galactic economy.

The Aladrian theocracy is adamant in  its refusal: the original colonists were the divinely chosen guardians  of the planet, and their desendants must not allow outsiders’ feet to  touch its hallowed soil. The Galactic Church, guardians of all Galactic  faiths, takes their side. Environmental scientists from the Academic  Council also express concern that any tourism would contaminate one of  the galaxy’s few remaining unspoiled wildernesses. The planet’s  population appears split on the issue, with true believers agreeing with  the theocracy’s policy but others wishing for more contact with the  wider galaxy.

> Overrule the local government and grant corporations full access to the planet (+100qc)

> Allow limited tourism in select areas of the planet (+50qc)

> Let the ban on visitors remain in place

The (+100qc) note after some of the options refers to the amount of money you’ll make for the Imperial treasury when you pick that option (q.c. = “quadrillion credits”). I’m adding an Imperial Treasury stat, which you’ll have to spend on public works projects, and if you run out you’ll have to raise taxes and/or cut spending which will annoy one of the factions. So, in the game, you might find yourself picking “bad” options just to raise money you’ll need to pick “good” options later.

Overrule the local government and grant corporations full access to the planet (+100qc) 7%

Allow limited tourism in select areas of the planet (+50qc) 64%

Let the ban on visitors remain in place 29%

This month I’ve been working on the content for Empire and Legacy. Here’s one of the events I’ve written:

Here’s the text of the event, since Patreon doesn’t give me a way to add alt text for images:

GOLADRION PRIME: …a factory planet located towards the inner end of the Perseus Arm. Originally a mineral-rich world with a carbon dioxide atmosphere, it was terraformed in 9437 IE by Utopian Industries…By the 12th millennium IE, it was a major supplier of parts to several Imperial Navy shipyards.

…In 11485 IE, Goladrion Prime was the site of a planet-wide strike, the emperyx’s response to which would set a precedent for labour relations during the last decades of the Empire…

—Galactopedia

Industrial disputes on corporate-owned planets are not uncommon, but they usually resolve themselves before they reach the notice of the Imperial Palace. This time, however, an entire factory world has downed tools, and negotiations have stalled. Not only that, but this is a planet that supplies vital ship components to several Imperial Navy shipyards. If this issue is not resolved swiftly, ship construction and repairs will fall behind schedule.

The CEO of Utopian Industries requests your help in putting down the illegal and unreasonable strike. The corporation has already offered every practical concession, he says, including higher wages and more thorough safety protocols, but the strike’s ringleaders refuse to negotiate. The strikers demand nothing less than democratic governance of their own factories—an absurd request, since those factories are the property of the corporation.

The People’s Assembly representative for the planet’s population, meanwhile, shows you videos of workers toiling away in squalid, dangerous conditions. The strike is not something the population have undertaken lightly: the factory world is reliant on imported food and medicine, which the corporation has been withholding since the start of the strike, but the strikers still feel like starvation and disease is less evil than continued corporate rule.

The Guild of Extraction Companies and the People’s Assembly each ask you to take their side. The Imperial Navy, meanwhile, merely wants you to get the ship components flowing again, one way or another.

Options:

* Send an Imperial Arbitrator to enforce a compromise

* Send Imperial Marines to put down the strike

* Order the corporation to cede control of the planet to the strikers

It’s somewhat longer than a Chiron Gate event because I’m going for a slower pace of game, with more reading between each choice. Like most events, it starts with a Galactopedia entry to set the scene, and then goes into the normal second-person narration. You can click on the Galactopedia link to get the full entry, and if you view it again after the event you’ll see the effect of your choice.

Many of the events will be disputes between two or more factions, where your choices will end up pleasing one faction at the expense of another. There will often also be a compromise option, which no one will like, but no one will dislike as much as if you’d definitively sided against them.

Unlike in Chiron Gate, where you’re trying to choose the best option for the situation you’re in, the choices in this game are more about roleplaying. Any one of these options could be the best, depending not only on the current state of the game but also on what kind of emperyx you’re trying to be.

As I write these events I’m gradually filling in the setting, which will be the most detailed one that I’ve done for a game. For example, the Imperial Arbitrators show up in several events, and are an institution that’s important but doesn’t rise to the level of a proper faction. I might write another dev blog focused on that later.

Anyway, I’ve made this post into a poll so you can vote for what you would do! The Empire awaits your command…

Send an Imperial Arbitrator to enforce a compromise 42%

Send Imperial Marines to put down the strike 5%

Order the corporation to cede control of the planet to the strikers 53%

After a bunch of false starts, overcomplicated prototypes, and other things preventing me from working on it, I’ve finally made enough of a start on my next game that I’ve got something to show.

Empire and Legacy will be a random-event-based narrative game about being the last ruler of a declining galactic empire. My idea is to explore what happens after the end of an empire-building game like Civilization or Stellaris, when the empire that won the game inevitably declines.

The Legacy part of the title refers to the outcomes the player can guide the game towards. You can’t save the empire, but you have some control over how it falls and the long-term legacy it leaves.

Galactopedia

The story is told in two ways. There’s the normal second-person present-tense narration in which you make your decisions, and there’s also the Galactopedia, which is written centuries after the events of the game, when you and your empire have become history.

The start of each section of the game (i.e. each new random event) is set off by an excerpt from the Galactopedia. These are meant to evoke the Encyclopedia Galactica excerpts in Asimov’s Foundation series, and they have a similar purpose: to provide extra detail about the setting, and give a sense of historical inevitability to the events being played out.

You can also view the entire Galactopedia in a separate tab. This Galactopedia grows over the course of the game, with more entries appearing as they become relevant, and the content of the entries changing and expanding based on the player’s actions. The player is literally as well as figuratively writing history.

At the end of the game, the player will get a final Galactopedia excerpt summarising their empire’s legacy, be able to view the complete Galactopedia of the galaxy whose story they’ve played out.

Factions

The main stats used to model the Empire are six factions, each of which has a Power and a Support score. These are shown as badges down the side of the screen, and you can see their power and support going up and down as you make your decisions.

(These are placeholder images; I’m thinking I’ll eventually commission some custom icons.)

The factions are:

• The Noble Houses
• The People’s Assembly
• The Galactic Church
• The Academic Council
• The Imperial Navy
• The Guild of Corporations

Almost every decision you make will please some factions and displease others, so the factions’ support scores will change often. The factions’ power levels will change less often, and will generally trend downwards, representing the Empire’s gradual decline.

Future Plans

The main thing I’ve got to do now is write tons of content. Now that I’ve got started, I’m going to try to do monthly dev blogs until the game is ready for launch, which I’m optimistically hoping will be early next year.

See you next month, probably with some examples of the game’s random events!

Now that Chiron Gate is out and I’ve fixed the urgent bugs, I’ve started working on a new game. The working title is Empire and Legacy.

I’m a fan of strategy games where you control a nation or civilization. Beyond the Chiron Gate was in part an attempt to take one part of those games–the initial exploration stage–and make it into a whole game in itself. Empire and Legacy is also inspired by those kinds of games, but this time it’s about what happens after the game has finished. Usually, if you win the game, the story of your empire ends on a high note, with the empire conquering the whole world or acquiring the most points. But in real history, the story of a nation doesn’t end like that. One way or another, every empire ends.

Empire and Legacy will be a game about imperial decline. You play as the ruler of a Galactic Empire that, at the start of the game, encompasses the whole galaxy. You make decisions that affect the empire in various ways, but the game is balanced such that the empire will inevitably fall. The rot started long before you took to the throne; the empire at the start of the game is apparently prosperous but actually corrupt, decadent, and in terminal economic decline. But you have a lot of control over exactly how the empire falls, and the legacy it leaves behind.

(Because a lot of you will be thinking it: yes, Asimov’s Foundation series is another inspiration for this game. The This and That form of the title is a call-back to the Foundation and Whatever titles of many of those books. Also, I want to say that I’ve been thinking about this idea since before the Apple TV adaptation came out!)

I’m still deciding exactly what stats the game will use to model your empire, but I think a lot of it will be based on factions, each of which has scores representing how powerful the faction is and how much it supports you. As the factions lose power, that’s your empire getting less powerful. As they lose support for you, that’s your empire becoming less politically stable. A lot of decisions will be about pleasing or strengthening one faction at the expense of another.

As well as galaxy-spanning policy decisions, you’ll also be controlling your ruler’s personal life, including some possible romance content as you look for a spouse. (Will you marry for love, or for political advantage?) Of course everything you do is political, and choices about your private life will be a source of events that affect the approval of different factions without greatly affecting their power.

I’m planning for this to be a medium-sized project: smaller than Chiron Gate, but larger than most of my other games. Hopefully it’ll have a total dev time of months rather than years. I’ll take a break from it to release at least one Chiron Gate content update and possibly other small games, but I don’t have any good small game ideas right now.

I’m still in the very early prototyping stage of the new game so there’s nothing to show yet, but I’ll let you all know more as I make progress.