Speaking of the former, you can expect a story-rich RPG with a refined turn-based combat system, and a number of strategic meta-systems reminiscent of Conquistador, the first entry in the series, but on a larger scale.
Ave! Welcome to our very first DevDiary for Expeditions: Rome. After being quiet for so long, we are very excited to finally share more about the next instalment in our Expeditions franchise. This is the first in a series of DevDiaries where we’ll be sharing insights and behind the scenes looks at Rome and its development process. To start, we’d like to share with you our vision for Rome, and maybe a little more on what the game is all about.
Expeditions: Rome is a single player Turn-Based Tactical Role Playing Game set during the Roman Republic era roughly between 100BC and 40 BC, around the time when Rome was slowly starting to turn into an empire. At its core, Rome is an RPG, where you play the role of either the son or daughter of a patrician family, leading your Praetorians and Legions in battle across multiple regions while navigating the intricacies of Roman politics.
This leads us to our first vision statement. With Rome, we want to create an immersive, story-rich RPG with player driven choices. Right out the gate, you can choose to play either a male or female hero, and that choice has a major impact on how the story unfolds. That is just the first of many decisions you’ll make, many of which can alter how your missions unfold, what types of quests you can take, and much much more. For anyone who’s played previous games in the Expeditions franchise, you’ll have some taste of what we’re talking about here, but for Rome, we’ve really aimed to take the impact of choices to the next level. Expect to hear much more about this in upcoming DevDiaries.
We also wanted to bring an even more immersive experience when it comes to how we tell our story, and a big part of that was going for a fully voiced experience this time around. We can’t even tell you how much time and care went into casting each character and making sure we can get the best performances we can, but we think you’ll be excited about the outcome.
Our next major vision statement is about our turn-based combat. We feel we’ve learned a lot from our previous games. With Rome, we really focused on bringing exciting turn-based combat with a wide range of tactical options, driven by loot and character growth. There’s way more variety in the weapon and class based skills this time around, not to mention a wider selection of items to use. We’ve also gone through countless iterations on the core combat system and encounter design with a focus on keeping combat fresh as the game progresses. And wait till you hear about our epic Siege missions, which we’ll talk about later! There are almost limitless options for you to explore as you level up and equip your party to fit various playstyles.
This also connects with our next vision statement. While turn-based combat is at the center of how you play Rome, we also wanted multiple meta-game systems focused around growing and leading your legions in conquest of foreign lands. While you personally engage in turn-based combat with your Praetorian squad, you are also leading an army of Rome, growing your forces and ordering your troops to conquer new territories.
We’ve brought back the world map that some may remember from Expeditions: Conquistador, where you can both actively explore with your party as well as dispatch your legions to conquer new territory and unlock new resources. As your conquests expand, you can use these new lands for many different purposes, like improving your legion’s warcamp or crafting new weapons and equipment for your party to use during turn-based combat. We want you to enjoy both the visceral, tense excitement of leading your troops in turn-based combat while also providing the strategic fantasy of leading the roman war machine. We think we’ve struck a fun combination between the two, and we’ll share more about each as our DevDiaries continue.
The last major vision statement really comes down to style. While we are making a game, it was very important for us to use a historically inspired framework to create a believable, fun world. We did a monstrous amount of research on Rome that we leveraged across every aspect of the game. To start, our visuals reference library is filled to the brim with weapons, historical locations, armors, and more, to help provide a solid grounding for the visual games. At times we took liberties to bring the art to life, but we made this decision carefully to help keep ourselves grounded.
We also looked into many historical figures in Roman history and tried to bring them to life in a way that both worked for our game while still reflecting some of their key traits. We don’t want to divulge too much now, but some of you probably already picked up on some of this from our first trailer, where you’re debating philosophy with Cato, otherwise known as Cato of Utica, a famous orator known for his integrity and strength of character. We’ve done our best to weave historical figures into our narrative in a way that enhances the story and brings a level of reality to the game. We want you to feel like you’re in a living, breathing alternative version of Roman history, one where your choices shape how Rome’s future is forged.
So, to quickly recap, we have 4 primary vision statements we’ve talked about so far:
- Immersive, story-rich RPG with player-drive choices and fully voiced dialog
- Exciting turn-based combat with a wide range of tactical options driven by loot and character growth
- Multiple meta-game systems focused around building and leading your legions in conquest of foreign lands
- Historically inspired framework to create a believable, fun world
These vision statements are guideposts for us, goals we keep in mind while navigating the complexity of making a game of this size and magnitude. Each one is critically important, informing our decisions and helping us keep our eye on the game we’re trying to make.
There is so much more we’ll be talking about in the weeks to come. In future DevDiaries we’ll dive into the details of every aspect of the game as we lead up to launch.
We’ll also be actively engaging with you throughout that journey! This coming Wednesday May 12th at 1:00 PM Eastern / 5:00 PM GMT, we’ll be hosting our very first DevStream on the THQ Nordic Channel: http://twitch.tv/thqnordic, where you’ll be able to hear from our Senior Producer Brad Logston and Creative Director Jonas Wæver. They’ll be talking about our vision and answering your questions. We’ll also be taking questions directly from this DevDiary and answering them on stream, so make sure to tune-in and watch!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this first DevDiary, and stay tuned in a few weeks where we’ll delve into our core combat functionality, discussing the details of how it works with a tease into our class-based systems.
Until next time, Vale…
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