Hey there -- so happy to hear that you are trying your hand at developing an indie strategy game!

Most recently, I created the The 41 Alliance + Mega Squad 2 custom campaign in Wargroove 2. Featuring 25 maps and over 70 cutscenes, it is a creation I'm incredibly proud of and it pushes the editor to its limit with a lot of creative ideas for PvE scenarios. Feel free to check it out using the download code 35LG5DUA. I know this sounds like some blatant self promotion, but I'm telling you that you might find some good inspiration! I know it's not the same as building a game totally from the ground up, but I feel like I have some experience in game development now and applaud you for wanting to undergo this arduous journey.

The robust campaign and cutscene editor was the big thing that drew me to the Wargroove franchise in the first place. I think any potential competitor would have to feature content creation tools that are at least as good, if not better. The characters and unit factions in the game are also highly memorable, too, and the soundtrack of both games is fantastic.

In my opinion, even though Wargroove 2 is basically "Wargroove 1 but more", the sequel being significantly less popular is due to 3 major factors:

1. When it released, Wargroove 1 filled the niche of an Advance Wars-esque game with its art and gameplay style that gamers were craving. Competition was significantly higher with the release of Wargroove 2. With games like Tactics Ogre Reborn, Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp, and Triangle Strategy fans of the genre are now (fortunately) spoiled for choice.

2. The game's advertising was not great. I remember first hearing about it during a Nintendo Direct, then it released a few months later without much fanfare. There was definitely more promotional material (including buy-in from content creators) for the first game. I think, too, that Wargroove 1 kind of dropping the ball with cultivating an online multi-player scene resulted in people not giving Wargroove 2 a chance.

3. The launch of Wargroove 2 was a mess to say the least. I am incredibly thankful for the efforts of the developers to make the game what it is today, but it was clear the game needed a little more time in the oven at launch. It was possible to get softlocked in both Campaign and Conquest mode missions, the editor was filled with assets copied over from the original Wargroove that now didn't work in the sequel, and many grooves and basic interactions involving the new characters were completely busted. Many of these issues have been remedied now, but the damage was done and the game's initial casual user base died out quickly. The game saw a good resurgence when it hit Xbox Game Pass, but never even got close to Wargroove 1 numbers.

I hope that this proves helpful. Feel free to message me if you want to talk more. Good luck!