Developer Diary #1 – The “Story” behind our first Expansion Pack

Anyone who’s played our game knows that the possibilities to change the underlying story line for new play experiences are limitless.  And there’s always something going on in the world that, thanks to human nature, can easily escalate into a conflict. 

Putting aside the precipitating economic factors that we’ve used for our story lines in both Supreme Ruler 2010 and Supreme Ruler 2020, there are many recent real world events that are, to say the least, ominous:

In recent years Russia has renewed its willingness to intimidate its neighbors over seemingly minor slights; launching a two week Cyber Attack on Estonia in response to their relocation of a World War II Memorial to Russian soldiers; frequently threatening to stop natural gas shipments to Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States, over a myriad of issues; being suspected of involvement in poisonings; threatening Poland directly with an attack should they sign the Missile Defense agreement with the United States; and of course not withdrawing their troops from the Republic of Georgia and officially recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. 

 The wealth of natural resources that are currently being developed in Central and Eastern Russia are providing hard currency that Russia did not have during the Cold War and it is definitely giving them a new sense of power.

In addition to pressuring their immediate neighbors, Russia is once again flexing its international muscles, whether it be with its claims on the arctic regions, or by conducting joint military exercises in the Caribbean with Venezuela.

To all of this, add the “Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation” that Russia signed with China in 2001 and in essence which provides a military alliance between the two nations, and one could easily theorize that the next Cold War could turn hot at any time…

This is the story behind a new “Sandbox / Campaign” that we are finalizing for our first ever expansion pack.  It will generally incorporate a new mix of alliances and influences along this idea.  As well, many more additional international relationships that were not incorporated into SR2020 will be added; from the tensions between Greece and Macedonia, to the military cooperation between France and Brazil, to the growing influence of China in many African nations, and much more.  Obviously this sandbox / campaign will not be the only new content to our game, but it provides a new slant to the story that will also be incorporated into many new Single Player and Multi Player Scenarios!

- David Thompson, Lead Designer / Co-Founder, BattleGoat Studios