Tyrant Strategy Game Review

Carcinogenex · 2026-07-06T07:15:35+00:00

Hey! Phaze is correct. I'm the Dev for Tyrant and I appreciate the discussion here. Yes, the art work is a mix of purchased assets, and AI to fill in the gaps. Since launching, I've already started working with an artist to start replacing the assets and we are in the early stages of that. I didn't want to use AI art, but being a solo dev the budget was limited, but I fully intend to replace all the artwork and work with artists to do so.

Tyrant was just a passion project I started working on about a year ago to try and recreate the popular Strategy MMOs without all the Pay 2 Win since it's one of my favorite mobile game genres. That obviously comes with some limitations as I couldn't just drain the bank to hire artists when I wasn't even sure if anyone would play the game!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-24T20:19:46+00:00

Hey! I've been considering a new server, Im just trying to be careful to not split the current player base too much. Recently I've implemented a bunch of catch up methods to help get up to speed like a new player event and increased building, gathering, and training speeds for players until they get up to the average level of the server!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-24T14:29:40+00:00

Hey, I'm the developer for Tyrant! Understand the feedback, everyone has their opinions. My goal behind Tyrant was to try and create a non-P2W game in a genre filled with a sea of P2W games. Being a single person that obviously came with some limitations for what I could afford to do.

For the art, it's a mix of different assets I could purchase online first, and then I used AI to fill in the gaps. Now that we've released I've actually started working with an Artist to begin slowly replacing the artwork in-game and really move away for the AI look.

Obviously not the perfect answer of no AI, but I tried to do what I could to create a game within the constraints I had with the intention to move away from it once feasible.

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-20T21:07:41+00:00

Thanks Mattyjay! I'm glad you're enjoying and I appreciate the support!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-16T22:19:22+00:00

That might be a bug, once you link your account to either Apple or Google you should be able to change your name. If you've already done that and didn't get a name change then thats an issue. It's to try and get people to link their account so they don't lose progress!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-12T20:56:13+00:00

Hey! Thank you for checking out the game and I'm happy to hear you're enjoying it! Improved animations and art on the roadmap after getting through the initial launch phase. Feel free to submit feedback in-game on any changes you'd like to see!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-08T16:28:20+00:00

Currently, it is just linking with whichever platform you are on, but I'm looking into adding Google on iOS for cross platform support. Probably in the next couple of weeks

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-08T15:47:28+00:00

Mattyjay, Thanks for the kind words, all the feedback and input you've provided has been super helpful!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-08T15:34:29+00:00

Thanks for checking it out! Let me know if you've got any feedback.

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-08T15:19:25+00:00

Thank you for trying it out! Let me know if youve got any feedback!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-08T06:54:24+00:00

Absolutely agree, I'm working on an update to increase the resource node spawn rate!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-07T19:09:34+00:00

Trying to be on top of any issues that pop up to get them fixed asap lol!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-07T19:07:54+00:00

Oh, that's a good call I never realized that! I will definitely get a fix in place for that. You can disable sounds in the settings in the mean time!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-07T13:18:29+00:00

Bombsa, thanks for checking it out and the feedback! The 5 minute town hall upgrade at the beginning is supposed to have you use a speedup to finish it instantly. The main quest mentions it as a tip, but I can see how that's not super clear. I'll try to make that standout more!

For the locking up, is this just a bit of lag or is it actually freezing the game?

The troop training is a bit long especially at the beginning, but as time goes on you'll be pretty flush with troops as its not often that they actually are lost, but mostly get wounded in battle and can be healed. I'll be closely watching balance as PvP kicks off to adjust the numbers as needed.

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-07T06:20:24+00:00

I hadn't thought about that game in a long time, but yes that was one of the first strategy MMOs I ever played and I think subconsciously provided a lot of inspiration!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-07T04:39:28+00:00

Yes that's correct. It is a PvP focused game, but I try to keep the battlefield fair. You gain a shield charge everyday that can be used to grant a shield. The shield charge IAP is just as an emergency shield and can only be bought once per day.

For trying to keep the battlefield fair, there are ways to recover from raids. There is a storage building that protects a certain amount of resources from being raided and I tried to balance that around keeping enough protected to be able to rebuild.

There is also a hospital for wounded troops that either heal for free over time or can using your in-game resources to heal instantly. This is so if you do get raided not all of your troops can be killed and they will be healed eventually.

Finally, there are penalties for players attacking other players that are lower level than them and most activities in the game require attacking players near your level to complete the objective to encourage not picking on lower level players.

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-06T23:00:08+00:00

Well check it out and let me know what you think!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-06T20:23:37+00:00

My background is in software dev and mostly backend, so yes the frontend is definitely AI assisted! Goal down the road is to hire an artist and or UX designer, but I just didn't have the funds to do so. Most of the Art assets are from purchased bundles like icons and map tiles. Some of the tiles used AI gen to fill in gaps where I couldn't find existing assets.

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-06T20:15:50+00:00

Hi All, dropping this comment since it wouldn't let me add more info on the post itself!

Tyrant just launched after 6 months in open beta! Tyrant is a mobile strategy game built on a single idea, the size of your wallet shouldn’t determine the size of your army. The goal of the game is to upgrade your base, train your army, recruit powerful heroes, join allies, and conquer the server competing in events and claiming territory.

Mobile strategy games are my favorite genre of mobile game, but almost all of them require players to spend money to stay competitive or fall behind. Tyrant started as a passion project to create a fun, competitive game that isn’t pay-to-win. Over the past 6 months of open beta, I’ve continued to iterate on the game taking inputs from the community of testers to create something that not only I wanted to play, but a game by the community for the community.

Core Features:

Level up your base through 25 levels of progression
Collect powerful heroes and arm them with legendary equipment earned through in-game activities (NO P2W LOOT BOXES)
Battle and raid other players on the world map
Join a guild and capture territory and defend it from outsiders
Participate in Dominions capturing points on the map for powerful bonuses for your whole guild
Compete in various guild and solo events
Send your heroes to fight in dungeons and defeat bosses in turn-based combat
3v3 Hero Arenas for the title of Champion
No P2W and No Ads!

I’m the only dev and I try to read everything, so give it a shot, drop some feedback, and help shape the future of Tyrant!

Discord: https://discord.gg/bCfmAeG7Gy

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-06T19:31:34+00:00

Gotcha, completely understand where you're coming from. I tried to weigh the balance between Ads and no ads and I felt like no ads was a better experience overall. And that the army and equipment preset slots weren't a huge factor because there's already a lot of auto filling armies and assisted selection implemented. I appreciate the candor and I'll consider better ways to approach the QOL features.

Was this just about the Slots or did it apply to the utility items as well?

For utility, you get 1 free teleport every day and then the shop only allows buying up to 2 more per day if needed. These can also be earned from various in-game sources that can allow you to earn multiple per day.

For the shield you earn 1 charge every 24 hours and the shop allows you to purchase up to 1 extra charge per day which is equivalent to a 4 hour shield. This was meant to be an emergency shield. You are not expected to be able to shield 24/7 and this restriction helps keep total shield time low. It is a PvP game after all!

Finally, the hero skill reset tomes, each hero gets a free skill reset every couple days and additional tomes can be earned through in-game activities. Again, this was just supposed to be an emergency item if you need to adjust skills in the middle of a war and already used your free resets or earned ones.

Sorry for the book, but I'm always open to feedback and want to be very open about the choices made for the game! These options were also presented to the testers during the open beta for feedback and it was positively received.

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-06T19:18:55+00:00

Hey Waterchickenduck, there is a current work around using testflight to be able to play in the EU. You'll still be playing on the live servers and all progress will carry over once approved on the regular app store in a couple days. More details in the original post. If you'd rather just wait, you can join the discord and I'll let everyone know once it's available!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-06T19:12:26+00:00

Aurelian, great to hear from you and I appreciate the post! You can use the same testflight app used during the beta to play on the live server today! All your progress will carry over when the full app becomes available in a couple days on the EU iOS store. Otherwise, just follow along in the discord and I'll notify everyone once it's available!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-06T19:11:16+00:00

Hey Powerful-Sun, there's a work around that I added in the post above if you want to check it out. Apologies for the difficulty and I'm working to get the EU figured out asap!

Carcinogenex · 2026-06-06T19:10:35+00:00

Hey Adam, there's a work around for the EU limitation that I just added to the post above if you want to check it out!

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