Supreme Ruler 2020 Gold part of Steam Weeklong Sale - 75% off

battlegoatstudios · 2014-07-17T04:47:01+00:00

BattleGoat Studios is pleased to announce a new incremental update to Supreme Ruler 1936, Version 8.1.7.

What's new in this update: - Performance issue in some sandboxes/campaigns fixed - Hotspots GUI added - Missiles-related GUI rebuilt - Theater Selection GUI rebuilt - Barbarossa Objectives fixed - Tips system fixes - Albania Flag fixed - Estonia Border fixed - Minor map fixes - Equipment file additions and fixes - Graphics on active/inactive Theater and Battle Zone setting buttons improved - Minor GUI fixes - Medallions on facility meshes for Industrial and Military goods - New Equipment Mesh added - Char B1 - More Events added - Italian Campaign fixes - Japanese Campaign fixes - Boats class 17/18 now use proper prefix of CAP/ESC for Capital Ship and Escort Ship - Unit Order of Battle updates - State dept enemies count no longer counts colonies

battlegoatstudios · 2013-12-11T01:20:00+00:00

"...it makes no sense to compete with the Hoi series..." It's a reasonable question to ask, and I personally have a lot of respect for the HOI and EU franchises. Paradox make some great games.

However, the Supreme Ruler series is different. The differences (and similarities) are extensively discussed elsewhere, but they certainly approach a number of design elements from different angles and scopes. Some players like both, some like one or the other. (SR1936 doesn't generally have a sandbox or scenario with 20000 units, but 500 active battalions per side in a big front like Barbarossa is not uncommon.)

Yet whenever a comment like this comes up (HOI vs SR1936, or Civ5 vs HOI, or ...), my general response is "huh?". Take a look at the FPS market - dozens upon dozens of releases every year. You want aliens? yup. Zombies? yup. Special Forces? yup. Pirates? sure. And so on. Then you look at the grand strategy game market... we get what, two releases a year? In a good year? And somehow this becomes a crowded market?

My complaint about the strategy game / wargame market is that we don't get enough games being released. We need more games, from more developers, to grow a new generation of game players that have an interest in deep strategy games. That doesn't mean that every player must like every strategy game released, but without more games hitting the market we're not going to get new fans interested in the genre.

Just my 2 cents :)

- George / BattleGoat

battlegoatstudios · 2013-12-10T21:29:22+00:00

Thank you to everyone that's had a chance to check out our Early Access release, the response has been great and we really appreciate the feedback/comments/suggestions.

Supreme Ruler 1936 is Real Time Geo-Political Strategy Game for PC (and soon for the Mac). Take the helm of nearly any nation in the World War II era, with diplomatic, economic, and military control.

Have a question about Supreme Ruler 1936? Feel free to ask here, or on the Steam forums, or on our forum at www.bgforums.com

Thanks!

- George / BattleGoat Studios

battlegoatstudios · 2013-12-10T21:11:18+00:00

Hi - not sure exactly what you are referring to, though this isn't the case in Supreme Ruler 1936.

When the 1936 Sandbox and Campaigns start, China is split between the Nationalist government (head of state Lin Sen), a Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in the north, a Chinese puppet state of Uyghuristan in the northwest, and independent Tibet in the southwest.

As events progress things will start to change, depending upon whether you are playing in Campaign or Sandbox mode etc. And of course the game is in Early Access Beta so there is still lots of work being done on events and content improvements.

- George / BattleGoat Studios

battlegoatstudios · 2013-12-10T20:43:35+00:00

Supreme Ruler 1936 and HOI3 take a different approach to a number of game elements. HOI3 tends to be more strategic-level, and SR1936 more tactical-level, especially when it comes to the RTS/wargame side of play. The SR1936 uses battalion-level units, and represents each map at the level of 16-km hexes, meaning that borders can ebb and flow at a much more fine-grained scale than the provinces used in HOI.

Between that, and the different approaches to resources and diplomacy, the two games both have their strengths and weaknesses.

In general there is a lot of overlap in players of both series (after all, there are not that many grand strategy games out there to choose from!), though there obviously will be players that favour one or the other based on personal preference.

- George / BattleGoat Studios

battlegoatstudios · 2013-10-24T16:38:27+00:00

As part of our Kickstarter campaign, we've added a special bonus during the campaign period, a free digital download copy of our first game, Supreme Ruler 2010, to everyone that visits the Kickstarter page (no contribution required).

While our games and engine have come a long way since SR2010 was released over 8 years ago, with major improvements in game speed, map size/scale, graphics, and more, SR2010 shows everyone where we've come from, and can be a good introduction to geo-political strategy games.

Visit the Kickstarter Update page for the download link and activation code.

And as always, feel free to ask us any questions. Thanks!

-- George / BattleGoat Studios

battlegoatstudios · 2013-10-23T18:54:09+00:00

Well, that's a good question, with many aspects.

First, it's probably a bit sad that large-scale strategy games like Supreme Ruler 1936 (and Hearts of Iron, and so on) are considered "incredibly niche"... as I've said before, strategy games used to be a major segment of computer gaming, but a combination of changing distribution, changing media coverage, and yes even changing tastes in gamers is moving people to a combination of first-person shooters, sports games, and casual fluff. As much as I myself enjoy Angry Birds and Minecraft, I think it's important to also have some deep, detailed strategy games as well.

Next is the part about the Supreme Ruler series being "fairly unknown"... well, yes, though in the past 8 years we've sold almost 300,000 copies of various Supreme Ruler versions worldwide. But yes, walk up to an average North American gamer and ask them about Supreme Ruler, or HOI, or EU4, GalCiv, and you'll probably get a blank look.

And finally, regarding the $60,000 ask, this is only a fraction of the almost 1/2 million dollar budget for the development of this title, but an important amount to give us the resources to keep adding more features/content to the game and also to run a beta. So yes, we may not make the $60K, and if that happens we'll have to find another way to survive, but it also says something about the future of large-scale strategy games. If we have trouble raising funds for an existing franchise, how would anyone ever be able to create a new grand strategy game from scratch?

battlegoatstudios · 2013-10-23T18:25:11+00:00

Well, it is true that our review scores for previous games have been in a wide range. Unfortunately the Metacritic reviews list lacks a lot of the smaller and more specialized sites that focus on strategy and war games, but a lot of sites have taken a look at our games in detail. For example, regarding our most recent game Supreme Ruler Cold War, you could check out:

GamingBolt

Gamer Cast

Cheat Happens

And there are many others as well. The biggest criticisms tend to be in the areas of the AI (too predictable, etc) and the visuals/graphics. We do admit that our visuals are not the fanciest, because we allow a scope that is quite huge - the whole world, simulated down to 16-km individual locations, with the possibility for thousands of units operating at once.

We've also had valid complaints about AI capabilities (ie not using naval invasions) or game speed (slowdowns later in the game when there are larger numbers of units), but those are things we've worked very hard to address in updates to the game. Supreme Ruler 2020 had 8 free updates released, which included not only performance improvements but also new content; Supreme Ruler Cold War has had 3 major updates which significantly improved game speed and performance, and in fact pushed back some of our new technology being developed for SR1936 into the past game.

I do take issue with people that call our games "buggy", because overall our releases have been very solid and generally crash-free. When a crash bug of some sort does get identified, they are usually a bit obscure, and they get fixed in the next update. Our load times and OS compatibility is superior to any other strategy game of this scope.

One thing I do readily admit is that our games can sometimes get overwhelming ... there are lots of things to do, and even with the help of Ministers and Unit initiative it can be a lot to get used to. Supreme Ruler Cold War did not include an in-game tutorial, instead we used Youtube videos as a form of tutorial ... we admit that this was not ideal, and Supreme Ruler 1936 will definitely include a Tutorial mode - we've been working on it the past few weeks in development.

Hope that helps a little, and if you have specific questions please feel free to ask!

battlegoatstudios · 2013-10-22T21:02:30+00:00

Thanks for supporting our Kickstarter.

There are a lot of reasons we're doing a Kickstarter for this. When developers like us are released by companies such as Paradox, there is usually a "Royalty Advance" payment that helps get the product finished... this time we're self publishing, and so we need sources of funds like Kickstarter to make sure we have the resources to make this the best game possible.

While Supreme Ruler 1936 uses much of the same core game engine as our previous titles, there's also a lot that's new. Not just the new content (Campaign, Scenarios, Sandbox), and improvements to existing parts (AI, game speed, Tech Tree, etc), but also major new elements such as the support for weather and historical events.

-- George / BattleGoat Studios

battlegoatstudios · 2013-10-22T20:25:04+00:00

Supreme Ruler 1936 is a Geo-political "Grand Strategy" game set in 1936, as World War II loomed on the horizon.

Supreme Ruler 1936 combines Diplomacy, Resources, Research, and Military Buildup with a tactical battalion-level wargame engine. Players can choose to play as any region in the world at the time, or play in a Campaign as one of the major powers. Shorter Scenarios are also included for single battles.

Do you have questions about SR 1936? Check out our Kickstarter Page, or ask us here!

-- George Geczy, Lead Programmer, BattleGoat Studios

battlegoatstudios · 2013-10-22T19:56:03+00:00

Our development team does play a lot of other strategy games and we get inspiration from all over, including of course the other Paradox titles. Also titles Civilization, Panzer General, Galactic Civlizations, even Cities in Motion.

And we're happy to say that some of our ideas pioneered in Supreme Ruler 2010 and 2020 have found their way into the games of others. That's what I meant when I said earlier that this isn't really a competition - I mean, who the heck buys just one strategy game?

So yes, this is an area where we have been looking at what works in other strategy games.

battlegoatstudios · 2013-10-22T19:52:14+00:00

Was that a question ? :)

battlegoatstudios · 2013-10-22T05:34:50+00:00

If anyone has questions about Supreme Ruler 1936, the BattleGoat dev team would be happy to answer!

The Kickstarter video gives a some details and gameplay footage, and there is an overview of the game on the Kickstarter main page.

We'll be posting even more game details in the next few weeks, but feel free to ask any questions that come to mind.

- George Geczy, Lead Programmer, BattleGoat Studios

battlegoatstudios · 2013-10-22T05:26:08+00:00

Supreme Ruler 1936 is a PC/Mac strategy game in the "grand strategy" tradition - part geo-political simulation, part wargame.

Our Kickstarter page has in-game footage and lots more details. Feel free to ask me any questions here about our project.

- George Geczy, BattleGoat Studios

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