Late last week, recently formed Swedish developer Colossai Studios announced their first project: Frontline Nation, a turn-based strategy game for the PC. We had the chance to pick the brain of the game's lead programmer, and designer Joakim Långberg about the project, discussing the game's units, politics, and challenges. Read on to learn more.

Platform: PC
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy
Publisher: TBA
Developer: Colossai Studios
ETA: 2nd Half 2006

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Preview: Frontline Nation (PC)

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Frontline Nation Q&A

Conducted by Mr. Nash

February 17, 2006

Can you tell us a little about Colossai Studios? How did the company get formed? Does the staff have previous experience in game development, either indie or pro?

Colossai Studios has 7 employees, all with a game related university education and specialized in either computer science or in graphics. Some of us have previous experience as computer professionals. The company was formed in August 2005, and we are now well on the way with our first title Frontline Nation.

Will there be any sort of specialist units specific to certain nations?

All countries will basically be able to build the same types of units. Graphically there will be a variety of different models and textures. All infantry units will use the actual camouflage pattern of their country.

Will nations excel in different areas of combat? (ie. Certain countries are renowned as sea powers, or as an air power.)

We’re evaluating letting some nations have better stats on specific unit types. Whether it makes it to the final game or not remains to be seen.

Can Special Forces units be controlled in battle, or do they operate in a manner similar to spies in that players drop them in a region outside of the game’s tactical mode and let the unit do their thing?

The main purpose of special forces is to destroy important buildings like bridges, factories and power plants on enemy ground. When executing covert operations and moving in enemy land, there’s always the risk of getting discovered and attacked by enemy units. If this happens, the special forces will be controlled in battle just like other units (with the exception of spies). Special forces are quite weak on the battlefield though, so normally they will just try to escape.

How large of a scale are you planning for in terms of the size of battles?

The size of the battlefield will vary depending on how many countries and units are involved. In a very big battle with lets say 3 countries, and 25 different unit stacks, the area will be approximately 12 * 12 hexes. While if it's a small skirmish just involving a tank and an infantry unit, the area will be just 5*5 hexes. This makes sure small battles ends quickly.

Will combat focus on pitting one army against another, or can players assault enemy nations in order to destroy infrastructure (ie. Send a bombing raid to wipe out roads and factories)?

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All buildings, factories and cities will be valid military targets.

There’s mention that the UN will play a part in the game. Is this the only force with ties outside of Europe that will be in the game, or will other members of the international community also appear in Frontline Nation?

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UN will be the only outside influence that appears in the game.

Since Frontline Nation sees a number of tyrannical despots rise to power, it suggests that Europe is in for some dark times in the game. Do all of the countries have a

dictator in charge, or just some? Does allowing players to control an evil nation open the door to design ideas that you may not otherwise have been able to implement?

Every leader has full control over their country, which pretty much makes them a dictator. That doesn’t necessarily imply that they are evil, but it does mean that they are free to develop weapons of mass destruction without meeting any domestic resistance. Using them, on the other hand, might stir up some opposition…

Leaders will have different personality traits - some will be easy to cooperate with, some will be harder, and some will stab you in the back. They also have different ways to make up strategies and tactics, which will make sure that things are kept interesting.

Are there any specific influences in creating Frontline Nation?

I haven’t played any games that are very similar to Frontline Nation, but games in genre I’ve enjoyed in the past includes Risk, Axis & Allies and Civilization.

Are there any facets of the turn-based strategy genre that you are not satisfied with, and hope to address in Frontline Nation?

Yes, we want to create a TBS game where the strategic and tactical gameplay levels both are enjoyable and important to the overall success. Also, many wargames take a long time to learn which turns off many potential players. We want to avoid this by making our game easy accessible. One of our ways to achieve this is to use a clean GUI where you always find what you are looking for.

At the same time we want to keep the depth of many wargames. On the tactical level we do this by letting the attack and defence values, range and the movement for units to be affected by terrain types, weather, morale and the time of the day. We also generate the battlefield dynamically each time, to always provide a new battle experience. The player can also use different types of tactics like crossfire, ambush and assault to affect the outcome of the battle.

On the strategic level the diplomacy system offers the player the possibility to negotiate with other nations about money, technology, weapons of mass destruction, intelligence information, treaties, alliances and more. What’s unique with the diplomacy system is that you can negotiate with many countries at the same time, which for example can be used to create big alliances in a flexible way.

The research system provides the possibility to develop ballistic missiles and different types of weapons of mass destruction. Producing a nuke doesn’t only give a military advantage, but also help you when negotiating, since other nations will have more respect and fear for you.

The covert operations system let the player send special forces and spies into foreign countries to gather secret intelligence information. This can then be used as a basis for strategic decisions, or be traded with other countries. They can also execute more dangerous operations like sabotaging buildings, stealing technology or starting a revolt.

All in all, we think Frontline Nation adds a whole new dimension to diplomacy, research and covert operations.

Thank you, Joakim, for taking the time to answer our questions.


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