Hey just wanted everyone to know our game has been greenlit on steam! I'm personally excited about this because there really aren't any other games on that platform like Falling Stars, and the volume of players should work out really well for ranked multiplayer! If you want to check it out look here:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=387410923

Congrats on being greenlit that is a huge part of being successful because now you can get a gauge on the excitement level for your game and your perspective customers. Plus if you do any crowdfunding down the road I think being greenlit is almost necessary. Game is looking great from what I have seen on steam and here, so congrats on the achievement. It's tough these days to make a successful space/scifi game just because of the rush of those types of games to the market in the past 2yrs. Take your time and do it right and the gamers will be there to buy your game.

Thanks 🙂 We have had funding campaigns in the past (one failed, one I canceled), and we will no longer be going that route as the game is almost finished.  Currently, beta testing has shown us what gamers are looking for as far as features and usability goes, and we're really happy with what people are saying about it.

Prior to the full launch, we will release the core game for free so people can try it.  This will include one race, and all of the features, just less content (less technology, that sort of thing). We're hoping the feedback from this will be helpful in making the game as enjoyable to space strategy gamers as possible 🙂

I'll keep everyone updated.

We've got our first extended gameplay showcase out, our lead developer Daniel did a fantastic job with it! Let me know what you think 🙂

https://twitter.com/ArkisVir/status/670273899779657728

Hey everyone, back with a status update!  The game has been in closed beta testing, and after a ton of great feedback from players the game is really starting to take its final shape.  With all brand new 3D models in the game, almost all of our UI complete, and dozens of details here and there, we are going to open it up to more testers.  Our forums are here, create an account below and post anywhere or PM me directly to get it in to beta testing.

http://forums.lnlpublishing.com/forums/falling-stars-war-of-empires.38/

As for recent progress, we've made the galactic council far more engaging and informative.  Players can see exactly how much influence each player has in the council, you can minimize the agenda and take a look at the galaxy to see how it affects you, and the resolution screen has been completely redone to show exactly what the outcome is. 

The technology tree has also been updated with descriptions, requirements, a little bio about the tech, and the UI itself is working much more seamlessly.  

Also, we've had music for the game for some time now, and have finally got it put in the game.  It has all been composed custom for our game, and I'm happy with how it's turned out!  Check it out below:

https://soundcloud.com/fallingstarswoe/falling-stars-war-of-empires-main-theme

Online Multiplayer and why we felt it was a critical part of Falling Stars

As we saw from the Online Multiplayer thread  a while back, most people are reminded more of the huge issues that online multiplayer brings to a 4x game rather than what it adds.  There's a good reason for this.  4x games are balanced towards solitary play (if they're balanced at all), they require a lot of time to manage your empire and each turn can take up to an hour to finish, if not more depending on the game and the player.  Micro level games, where you are in charge of production for each system, or even each planet, are simply not geared towards fluid multiplayer games.

Even ruling out turn-based games, RTS or pausable RTS have the same problems.  Most of the games require you to either stop the game in order to decide on what you want to do (which would be horrible in a multiplayer setting).  If they don't require that, they are just so darn long that 100 turns would take weeks or months to finish with another player.  That kind of commitment is not reasonable to expect.

So, why did we decide to have multiplayer in spite of these hurdles? Because the game was balanced to have the features of a contemporary video game, while also relying on the type of macro strategy and back stabbing that makes board games so enjoyable to play in one sitting.  While I have personally been inspired by MoO and SoaSE, this is not the exact same type of game as those.  You play a commander who makes 5-10 major command decisions per turn, which can take anywhere from 2-5 minutes, and each of which carries a huge impact and rewarding gameplay.  All games I've played have required careful set up and strategic decisions in order to block another player, or make a huge play.  I'm not spending tons of time reading through long tech trees, or checking up on every planets production, or even setting up governors.  I'm planning how I can overthrow the leader of the galactic council, or flank the strongest military thread!  These are BIG decisions that don't require dozens of turns to plan, it all happens fast.

Ok, so that being said, how long does a typical game last? I've mentioned this before, and the only real limiting factor is how many AI opponents you have.  A 4 player game against other human players will take 60-75 minutes, whereas a single player game against AI can be over 45-60 minutes.  An hour seems to be about as long as most people can allot from their day, and we've tried to stay true to that.

Now, what about those players who want a game they can drag on, and come back to later? There are multiple victory conditions you can choose from, some much longer than others.  What I referenced above is our "vanilla" ruleset, which is what the game is balanced towards.  This is a 20 victory point game where you gain VPs from technology advancement, battle, politics, and other in-game missions.  But if you just want a total extermination variant, or a larger galaxy with more victory points, these are totally configurable, so never fear!

Alright that's my spiel on multiplayer, I'll get back to the tactical actions next time!

Falling Stars: War of Empires is now on Steam!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/439960

Falling Stars: War of Empires is a fast-paced 4x turn based strategy game where each decision you make forces the game to evolve differently every time you play. Command hundreds of ships in battle, resolve intricate political agendas, and discover the deep interplanetary relations of the galaxy.  With customization options for galaxy size, galaxy resources, technology advancement rate, victory conditions, game length, and more, you can choose how you want to play the game.  Game lengths can range from 1 hour, to 40 (or more) hours.

With a fully interactive tutorial, you will be commanding your empire in as little as 30 minutes.

Utilizing similar mechanics to popular 4x board games, Falling Stars mixes the deep strategy and dynamic rule set of a board game with the vast scope and complexity of a video game. 

The original soundtrack, composed by Nolan Markey, who interned and later worked for Emmy-winning composer Bear McCreary, (Agents of Shield, The Walking Dead, Outlander), and currently serves as orchestrator for Disney's Star Wars Rebels, brings you right into the space opera universe of Falling Stars.

Congrats on the Steam release!

The feedback on your game has been great. Finally got around to listening to that main theme music and it sounds great. And a tip of the hat to ya for taking in all the user feedback and reducing your price on the game.