What Makes a Strategy Game Successful?

Games of the strategy genre have been an important part of video game history and have certainly evolved over time. The success of games like Armello, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Xcom 2 shows that the strategy game market remains strong to this day. But what separates a boring strategy game from an ageless classic? And how do you start bringing your game idea to life?

In this article, we will discuss some mistakes that developers can make in the quest to create the next great Age of Empires or Command & Conquer, as well as some important steps to take to achieve that.

Let's start with the basics. What is a strategy game? In the simplest terms, strategy game development is the creation of a decision-making contest in which the player's use of available resources, positioning, and planning are pitted against the actions of another player or artificial intelligence.

It's not just a random selection from a list of dialogue options or a gear change. The choices are deeper and require planning. Should I move my archer into the forest to provide cover, or is it too close to the enemy? Should I spend resources on building a second city or strengthen the city's defenses now while I have the chance?

In a strategy game, success is determined by every decision you make. Usually (though not always) they are played on a grid; they can be turn-based or real-time. But they all have one thing in common. Your wits are the greatest tool at your disposal.

So now you might be wondering, what makes a strategy game successful? By what criteria are they judged? I believe it comes down to three things.

High Risk vs. High Reward

First, high-risk, high-reward decision-making. In Civilization VI, for example, early on after building your first settlement, you face a series of critical choices. There are resources to gather, areas to explore, and many things to build if you want to gain an advantage over your opponents.

The problem is that you will almost never have the time or resources to do everything you want. You have to choose. If you immediately gather resources, you may gain more wealth than your opponents, but you may also leave yourself without defense. Any successful strategy game that has stood the test of time will be filled with such choices.

Gameplay Loop

Second, a constantly changing gameplay loop. Two rounds of a good strategy game should be completely different, even if you are an experienced player. Sometimes this means having random elements like a changing map or different starting locations.

But even if the maps are static, the actions of opponents must differ enough that each session feels entirely unique. If rounds start to feel too similar, it's only a matter of time before the player loses interest in your game.

Schemes

Third, schemes. In strategy games, there is nothing more satisfying than watching a plan come together. Seeing your opponent lured into direct fire range or finally capturing the territory you've had your eye on is very rewarding.

Of course, it wouldn't be satisfying if it were easy, and learning the game's mechanics, then mastering them to the point where you can outwit your opponents, is what makes it engaging. In a great strategy game, you cannot achieve this through luck alone. Only through a carefully thought-out plan can you bring your forces to dominance. It's a feeling unmatched in any other video game genre.

So now that we've covered what a strategy game is and what makes it great, here are some tips to help you start creating your own.

First, Make a Board Game

Game development is an expensive and time-consuming process. But unlike a platformer or role-playing game (RPG), for a strategy game you can do a lot of preparatory work before a single line of code is written. Board strategy games and video strategy games are both decision-making contests. In fact, many video strategy games started as board games.

Using simple tools like pencils and paper, a few cardboard cutouts, and a bit of imagination, you can create a rudimentary version of the video game you want to make at almost no cost.

Gather a group and test it. Write down what works and what doesn't. Tweak factions or units that seem unbalanced, and test them again. Draw some maps and note which ones stood out to you and other players. Most importantly, try to gauge how much fun everyone is having.

If your group isn't bugging you about when the next session will be, something is wrong. The idea is to save time and money. If you have a good understanding of how your strategy game works as a prototype, it will be easier to turn that prototype into a functional video game.

Accept That Everything Will Change

Planning helps, but all the planning in the world won't shield you from the realities of game design. Even if you followed the last step and made an undeniably fun board game, video games are still a different medium. Not everything that was fun in the prototype stage will work as effectively in a video game.

Furthermore, anticipate that you will need to cut content, and focus on implementing the most important and interesting aspects of your game. Once that's done, it will be much easier to figure out how much effort is needed to add everything else.

Balancing

Balancing a strategy game is much harder than it may seem at first, and every designer faces this challenge. But balancing doesn't mean you have to make every game against every faction or character absolutely equal. No matter how hard you try, that will never happen, and perhaps it shouldn't.

Take, for example, the Starcraft series, a pioneer of real-time strategy games. In this game, players developed "Rush", "Boom", and "Turtle" strategies that are still used in most real-time strategy (RTS) games today.

In short, "rushers" build their armies and attack quickly, causing problems for "boomers" who prioritize economic development and winning in the late game. "Turtles", who are half-focused on building and have a small army, can counter rushers but struggle against boomers.

If this system were perfectly balanced, Starcraft would become a game of rock-paper-scissors. However, Starcraft is interesting because a smart player can turn the tide and win even if the opponent is using a strategy that they are weak against.

The game is not perfectly balanced, and that's okay. Small maps favor rush players who can reach enemies faster, but that makes their victory more satisfying. In other words, when balancing, don't aim for perfection. Aim for interesting gameplay.

If sometimes the odds lean in favor of your opponents, that's not a problem, but sometimes they will lean in your favor, and as long as victory is still possible. The trick to balancing a game and making it memorable for generations is this: too much balance makes the game boring. Too little makes it frustrating and unfair. Keep this in mind as you design your game and try to find the right balance.

In addition to this advice, here are some common mistakes developers make when creating such games.

How to Play?

The main obstacle to developing strategy games that appeal to a mass audience is that strategy games can be complex. Designers can fall into a trap: they put so much effort into making their strategy games competitive, intense, and challenging that they forget they also need to be accessible.

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