![]() Resource gathering is more complicated here and you need to be thinking about your castle economy just as much as your military strategy. Each game in the series may lean toward one of these genres more than the other, but they’re all a mix between the two and shouldn’t be played like a regular RTS. Ultimately if you’re new to Warlords or any Stronghold game you can take it slow with the tutorial, first few missions and of course Free Build mode, which just lets you build to your heart’s content!Īdding to that, what’s one thing gamers unfamiliar with the Stronghold series should know before they play Stronghold: Warlords?Īll Stronghold games, perhaps with the exception of our MMO Stronghold Kingdoms, are a mix between RTS and city builders. We try to offer something new each time while keeping as much of the core Stronghold appeal as we can, so that both Stronghold veterans and genre fans have some new gameplay to learn. Likewise if you’d played the original Stronghold coming into Stronghold: Warlords would require rethinking tactics with the new warlords system in mind. If someone played Crusader they’d have to change up their tactics significantly in Stronghold Legends. If someone loves the city builder/RTS niche, wants a new game to play and has never played Stronghold before we obviously still want that person to have a good time. With a series that’s lasted two decades there’s a lot of variety in there and we try to make each title unique. It’s a delicate balancing act between giving long term series fans enough depth, complexity and challenge and creating a game that won’t scare off newcomers. We try to design each Stronghold game with new players in mind, as well as 20 year veterans of the series. Should gamers play other Stronghold titles first, or can they jump right in with Stronghold: Warlords? We were really only able to overcome these issues because we own the IP and, as a self-publishing developer, we had the freedom to delay until we were happy with our launch version. Luckily as a PC developer most staff also already had a decent enough home setup! So we managed to avoid some technical challenges on that front too. When kids can’t go to school and staff are stuck at home, the situation obviously becomes more difficult. ![]() The longer term impact of COVID was definitely felt toward the end of development. We were all so used to what was effectively remote working that it didn’t impact us immediately. ![]() So when the pandemic hit all that really happened was our London team dispersed slightly. Testing, some art and production is handled from our Scottish office in Aberdeen. Marketing is based in London along with design, code and art. Pre-COVID we already had our programming lead in the states, who is out there with one of our co-founders. We were also lucky in that our Warlords team is already quite dispersed geographically. As such we were among the lucky ones, in that we were small enough to avoid the technical challenges some of the bigger studios faced. While we wouldn’t call ourselves ‘indie’ we’re definitely on the smaller end in terms of headcount, especially for a studio doing real-time strategy. How many are working on Stronghold: Warlords and how long was the game in development for prior to release?įirefly is a moderately-sized company of about 30 total, with 10 developers working on Stronghold: Warlords and others supporting multiple projects including our MMO Stronghold Kingdoms.ĭid the team face any challenges with the game’s development due to the pandemic? If yes, how did you overcome these challenges? If you’re wondering how Stronghold: Warlords compares to previous Stronghold titles, why the team picked East Asia for the game’s setting, and more, read on for our full interview with Firefly Studios! Stronghold: Warlords | Interview With Firefly Studios To help shed some light on the development process of Stronghold: Warlords, we sent a batch of questions over to developer Firefly Studios who were kind enough to walk us through the ins and outs of Stronghold: Warlords. With so much content to dig into, it makes sense there’d be questions that pop up regarding Warlords and the future of the Stronghold series. Taking the ‘castle sim’ to East Asia, Stronghold: Warlords lets you recruit and command cooperative AI called warlords. Not only will you be able to strategize around a variety of different warlords during each campaign mission in Stronghold: Warlords, there are 31 campaign missions on offer in the game alongside other features like multiplayer, skirmish, and free build modes. Each game in the Stronghold series brings something new to the table for RTS fans to enjoy, and Stronghold: Warlords is no different. Stronghold is a real-time strategy series with a storied legacy that spans two decades with the first game releasing back in 2001.
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