Inspired by classic titles such as Heroes of Might & Magic III, Songs of Conquest aims to bring the same enjoyment players had back in the late 1990s and early 2000s to modern gamers.
“It’s the stuff we loved doing when we were younger and we would just try to make a game,” Lavapotion community manager Anders Edgar said. “[S]o we made our version and put all the stuff that we love right back into it. It’s fantasy. It’s turn-based versus monsters versus economy versus city building versus glorious combat and lots and lots of beautiful pixels.”
The first ideas for what has become Songs of Conquest began over seven years ago. Starting as a different game called Adventures of Conquest, it was brainstormed because of the gap in the industry for traditional turn-based strategy games.
“[The team] sat down and said, ‘This is a nice gap’,” Edgar said. “Why don’t they do the games like this anymore?”
With that mindset, the team at Lavapotion began to conceptualize what a game like this could be. What features would it have? What elements from classic titles would it build upon, and what would it avoid?
Some of those features include the ability to be on a different level than other creatures during battles, providing an advantage or disadvantage based on the terrain. Another involves the game’s essence system which is used for magic and spells.
Rather than being able to mix and match factions, creatures within a faction are kept together to generate the essence used for the spells.
“You get essence based on the amount of stacks of units that you have and based on what sort of unit is in that stack,” Edgar says. “It’s not based on how many it is in that stack, it’s based on that the stack exists.”
Each of the four current factions within the game specializes in specific types of essence produced and used. That essence can then be used as much or as little as you’d like in battle to cast spells.
What Does The Future Look Like For Songs of Conquest?
As far as the game’s growth is concerned, Edgar thinks that the way the AI within Songs of Conquest has improved has made for a much better experience for everyone.
“A couple of months ago we launched a major update on AI, which makes it a lot smarter than it was,” Edgar said. “For the average player like me, because I’m a very casual gamer, seeing the change in tactics from the enemy AI, you know, I could fool them with some nice spells, stuff like that. But finally having those spells turned against me, it felt good. But you know, also it didn’t feel good at all.”
Currently, the game remains in early access with the fourth campaign along with numerous other features slated for a launch later this year. There’s also a planned release of version 1.0 for Q3 2023. That said, Edgar was honest about the fact that the team will sit down later this summer to determine exactly where things stand, and whether the game will be fully launched at that time.
“We will probably after summer, look things over a bit, yeah, because that’s how the business works,” he said. “Roadmaps are fluent creatures at the best of time. I mean, the most important thing for us is, is 1.0, is that going to be a finished product? Because that’s the most important thing and we won’t release anything that’s not something we’re proud of.”
For more on Songs of Conquest, including how the art style and music was decided upon you can watch and listen to the entire interview with Anders Edgar in the latest episode of The Indie Initiative above or on our YouTube Channel.
