Mastering minimalism and layering complexity with strategy game Thronefall

gamedeveloper.com:

Thronefall, which comes out in Early Access on August 2, aims to simplify strategy games by offering a minimalist experience in building and defending your kingdom. Game Developer spoke with Jonas Tyroller and Paul Schnepf of Grizzly Games to discuss how their own dwindling gaming time inspired them to simplify such a complex genre, the importance of layering complexity to make things more approachable for players, and how subtracting a simple (but core) element of strategy games opened up a wealth of interesting design possibilities.

Game Developer: Thronefall aims to streamline and simplify city-building strategy (while throwing a little hack and slash in there). What appealed to you about making this complicated genre more approachable to people who find them daunting?

Schnepf: This urge for minimalism is something that has been a theme for everything we have done so far at Grizzly Games. I suppose it developed for a couple of different reasons: First of all, we just found ourselves having less and less time to actually play games. Getting older and caught in the usual swamp of work and responsibilities, we realized we don’t have the 100 hours to sink into the next super complex game anymore. We felt there was a need for wholesome and deep, but also less time-consuming, experiences.

The other great thing about making those kinds of accessible games is that they are—surprise!—very accessible. This means that something that was reserved to a more core audience before is suddenly experience-able for many more people, including those that have had no prior gaming experience. Sharing what we love with people we love, no matter their background, just feels great.

How did you distill the core elements of a strategy game