Grand Strategy on a Globe, Gilded Destiny: A Grand Strategy Game

Gilded Destiny is a grand strategy game built on a spherical map!
In this video, we are excited to share some of the initial screenshots of our globe in action.
The game is set at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and will allow players to live through the intricacies and challenges of the era. We also discuss three of the key design features for Gilded Destiny: city construction, industrial chain development, and military advancement. Each one of these features is being developed specifically for the 3D hexagonal globe, which can be fully modified however you like. Create your own alternate worlds, or add more detail to our own.
🌎 Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/21...
While most of the images and map layers in this vlog are all still pre-alpha renderings, which will likely change significantly before release, and some placeholders are used, we hope this video gives you a better understanding of where the development is going!
The game's central goal is to transform your chosen country from an agrarian society into an industrial one-where you'll lead your population from subsistence to wealth by controlling key economic, diplomatic, and military factors to achieve your goal.
Let us know if you have any questions or feedback in the comments below. And be sure to wishlist us on Steam to stay up to date!
Join our discord community today!
/ discord

[@aquilainteractive]

Salutations, everyone! We are delighted to announce that the official discord server for Gilded Destiny is now... alive! Pray, doth clicketh the link below to embark upon a splendid journey and join our distinguished community! discord.gg/ENbahmHnp5

[@pohiena2666]

I'm really enjoying the appearance of non-paradox grand strategy games. Hope you all succeed.

[@ShaDoW-uc7bn]

This is interesting. A mix between Victoria and Civilization, it seems. I hope that increased competition in the grand strategy genre will make Paradox step up their game a bit!

[@jefflokanata]

Victoria 3 has serious gameplay competitor . It would make them step up the game, and also yours . Cheers ! Can’t wait for 2024

[@vitorbortolin6810]

Hope for the best! Don't just burn in flame like GE, please 😅. We all need a paradox-killer!

[@wachtwoord5796]

Grey Eminence isnt dead yet! I still think they'll make it through.

[@comradehandersson7859]

Looks good. I hope the "sandbox" element doesn't come at the cost of realism. I'd much rather play a game that gives me a believable experience of running Luxemburg in the 1800's than a game that lets me build Luxemburg into a mighty empire.

[@aquilainteractive]

The "sandbox-ness" mostly comes from the ingame editor / workshop, allowing you to tailor the game however you see fit. While you are playing the game, constraints of game mechanics still exist, where outlandish things are meant to be hard to accomplish. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a game. :)

[@ericescobedo3456]

Game looks amazing! The map editor will add hundreds of hours replayability, really looking forward to it

[@COH4321]

Sounds good, wishlisted it on steam . Good luck and success on your project.

[@aquilainteractive]

Much appreciated!

[@kloon9699]

Looks promising. I know it's early in development, but the borders aren't that accurate. Also, the Dutch East India Company was disbanded in 1799. In 1822 the colony was called the Dutch East Indies.

[@aquilainteractive]

We appreciate your interest in our development! We are aware that the borders aren’t very accurate at the moment, and we will do more passes as the game becomes more complete. We are currently focused on getting the game mechanics polished. That said, we are intentionally developing the game and an editor in tandem to make it very moddable via our editor. If the community is not happy with our content, changing the shape of the terrain, ownership of tiles, name of countries/places, and adding more custom content shall all be easy. We are a small development team, so we most likely won’t be able to get to 100% historical accuracy or populate a huge amount of content right off the bat, but we can strive to build the tools to allow the community to make it their own.

[@lucario2188]

​​​@@aquilainteractive Will Mexico be The Mexican Empire or a Republic? Becuase if it's already a Republic then Central America should be independent has the Federal Republic of Central America. After the collapse of the Mexican Empire in 1823 Central America gained independece. Also the game look cool can't wait to try it out.

[@aquilainteractive]

​@@lucario2188 Thank you for the question. As we mentioned above, we are still making sure that the game mechanics are fully polished before we move on to populating the historical events and borders. This includes political systems of each country and also in game events that each player will encounter. While we will make a determination on specific historical events when the time comes (when we get to that development stage), we will strive to be as historically accurate as possible. However, at any time, players will be able to mod the game via our in-game editor-if they want to create their own alternate history, correct any mistakes we might have made, or feel that they would like to add more detail. We appreciate your feedback and will be sure to look into this during future stages of development. Be sure to follow and wishlist Gilded Destiny on Steam to stay up to date with all future dev diaries and announcements!

[@OmegaTrooper]

Very cool concepts. Looking forward to this.

[@aquilainteractive]

Us too!

[@xXSCDTXx]

I’m sure the subtle digs at Vic3 and Paradox are not intended, but I still laughed when you mentioned Clausewitz.

[@explorminate]

Looks pretty great! Best of luck!!

[@aquilainteractive]

Thank you!!

[@SDM_Arcugos]

This is very cool! Definitely wishlisting!

[@user-xp8nq5mf9y]

fucking awesome, always wanted to make my own game so i could add things i like but i never really tried starting doing something like that. I always wanted a globe for a grand strategy. Very cool.

[@epicnesssss]

Interesting.

[@baileygregory9192]

Imagine how good a turned base civ inspired game would be usual a similar map or engine

[@simko6064]

looks like grey eminence but real lol

[@sutixela]

Lovely game. Wish you the best luck :)

[@PhonicArchaeology]

This sounds (and looks) great. Excited for the beta.

[@Jorleifur]

This all sounds very interesting. I largely agree with all the focus areas that you've chosen, though at the same time I wonder a bit over the large degree of sandbox-focus that you guys have. Will there be any events and large, region/nation specific decisions like what you might find in other grands strategy games? I also wonder how these real-time battles might work in multiplayer, if there are any plans for it. Whatever the case, lycka till!

[@aquilainteractive]

Tack för att du tittade på våran video! Yes, there will be events and decisions for specific nations, although we can't guarantee we will have a lot of events officially, we do make sure the mechanics are there for players to add flavors through modding. When it comes to multiplayer, we do plan to support it, although most likely not at release. That said, many of our developers came from MMO background so we do have a fair bit of confidence in making something that work relatively smooth.

[@blaster5309]

looks good, good luck o7

[@aquilainteractive]

Thanks!

[@epicnessalt]

Is their by chance you guys could create a discord? People who join in could give suggestions to you guys and support you with your development.

[@aquilainteractive]

We are actually in the process of setting it up! Expect it to be up sometime soon. We will share the link when it’s live :)

[@aquilainteractive]

Ask and ye shall receive! The official discord is now up and running! discord.gg/ENbahmHnp5

[@evan448]

can you include a price gradient map and make goods naturally flow down the gradient to their highest value they did that way back with sid meirs railroad tycoon its uterally brilliant yet no one has ever tried to re do it and i cant figure why

[@theobserver6755]

Does the existing country in the simulation will act historically in line with the timeline, or there will be a super expansionalist qing and mexico? I would suggest there are codes to keep nations inside the game to act according to its historical timeline (side eye on EU4)

[@Grothgerek]

Out of curiosity. How is the globe achieved? Are there pentagons on the map, and how did you prevent distortion? Because I'm surprised how good it looks.

[@aquilainteractive]

Thank you! Actually, stay tuned for our next dev diary! We will talk about how our technical artists did it. It's quite complicated, and I am not sure I even fully understood it myself. 😁

[@Grothgerek]

@@aquilainteractive Thanks, I will wait with great interest. And the game is already on my wishlist. Good luck. ^^

[@jackeinessontjader5291]

It looks like it has a lot of potential! Will it have modding support?

[@aquilainteractive]

Yes! We have modding in mind right from the start! We are building an editor alongside the game to make modding even easier.

[@jackeinessontjader5291]

@@aquilainteractive Are you going to use the Steam Workshop?

[@aquilainteractive]

That is the plan!

[@jackeinessontjader5291]

@@aquilainteractive Nice!

[@Very_Silly_Individual]

question, is this game in anyway related to grey eminence? or is the 1,000,000+ hex globe a coincidence?

[@dylanroemmele906]

will there be a mode where you can disable the earth at a certain view? Kind of like how civ 4 did it? Also, the glow from the uncolonize color is blinding! Otherwise, very cool show off and will be keeping a look out for this game, exciting!

[@aquilainteractive]

Hello! What do you mean by disabling the earth? As in disabling the terrain view with fauna or something else entirely? Indeed, we are aware the glow effect could be better optimized. It will be adjusted as we develop!

[@dylanroemmele906]

@@aquilainteractive In civ 4 when you zoomed in far enough the map would revert to being flat instead of curved

[@aquilainteractive]

If I remember correctly, I am pretty sure Civ4's map is actually flat or cylindrical, displayed at a slanted angle, and the zoomed-out globe is just a distorted projection. Our entire map is built from the ground up to be 3D and has realistic distance without projection distortion to allow more detailed logistics. If we project it onto a flat surface, the distortion will look pretty wonky when you zoom in at some extreme. So no, it is not currently something we are going to support.

[@dylanroemmele906]

@@aquilainteractive Ah shame, the globe would be too nauseating for me to play with my widescreen setup. :/ well, hope the game works out for you, hope you find some sort of solution

[@samuwr3984]

this game is very good and whether this game will have a leader, president, king,queen like the world? for example, at that time in 1822 the united kingdom was again led by george iv and after he died would there be a new king. and will the presidential election system be for liberal or democratic countries?

[@aquilainteractive]

Yes! We are planning to implement a leader system. More details will be shared in future dev diaries! :)

[@SebastianRoczz]

how much is the game going to be or at least how much are you thinking of making it?

[@aquilainteractive]

Hello! Thanks for asking! We have yet to finalize the pricing for Gilded Destiny as we are still quite a bit away. However, we intend to price it meaningfully below comparable games.

[@Paoaka]

This game is very beautiful and good, and I want to ask if the game is possible to make the country that we lost in the war become our puppet country? and also will this game have a state feature that can collapse, for example like the Austrian Empire of Hungary in 1918 and the Soviet Union in 1991 and also the German Empire in 1919. Will the feature I mentioned earlier be there?

[@aquilainteractive]

Hi! Thank you for the questions! It is certainly possible to create subjects/vassals in our game. Depending on the country's particular history, the breakup can be realized in many ways. Pre-scripted events, peace demands creating several smaller nations and etc. The game is also designed to be very moddable, so events and decisions can be made by players and shared on Steam workshop as well.

[@Paoaka]

​@@aquilainteractivemay I ask again, I want to ask whether this game will have a focus tree or a national focus?

[@aquilainteractive]

Not in a format of a tree. We will have events and decision mechanics that fulfill similar goals though.

[@Paoaka]

@@aquilainteractive okay its great

[@Paoaka]

@@aquilainteractive in this game, the Russian king Alexander will change to Nicholas 1 after he died in 1925? will there be such an event in this game?

[@ngokngok8253]

this game looks promising, and I want to ask if this game can create its own faction. and whether there will be other scenarios such as during the cold war, ww2, and ww1. and whether this game will have an accurate leader like in the real world?

[@aquilainteractive]

Thanks for your interest. The timeframe for the game is currently set to end right around WWI, however this is not set in stone. However, the game will not cover WWII or the Cold War. Although, we intend Gilded Destiny to be highly moddable, so the player community can always extend the timescale through mods and content outside of the time period. However, at this point we have no plans to do so with the official game. As to creating factions, head on over to look at the Dev Diary on population on Steam. That may answer your questions.

[@ngokngok8253]

​@@aquilainteractive ok that's great

[@ngokngok8253]

​​@@aquilainteractive I want to ask a few more questions, can we use generals from the country we use to lead troop units in the game? and is the war mechanism like hoi4 the troops are free to go anywhere through the province?

[@aquilainteractive]

@@ngokngok8253 Short answer is yes on both. We are building a leader system that will work for generals and other types of leaders. As to how war mechanics work, troops can go anywhere. However, there will be differences that we will cover in our future dev diaries! Stay tuned and join our discord to stay updated on the news!

[@ngokngok8253]

@@aquilainteractive Is this game very modabble and if so, when someone has made a Cold War mod, can every USSR leader change like history from Lenin to Gorbachev? and it is so modabble like you said?

[@degoose2447]

I have one question can you form the roman empire?

[@Magnus181]

I think the way you are showing off the "cities" and adding districts to them looks really scuffed as it is now. I personally think I prefer the provinces style of rendering and interacting with the map. Maybe you could blend these styles together to find a compromise. Right now is reminds a little too much of civilization or other digital "board game" style games.

[@aquilainteractive]

Thanks for commenting! The terrain view is by no means final. We intend to overlay more information like borders, nation colors, and names to make it more functional. As we explained in our first vlog, the decision to go with a hex-based map is really to push even further on the moddability. Having a hex-based map allows us to give players a very easy-to-use toolset to modify the map.

[@loudradialem5233]

Why do all grand strategy game devs come from Sweden?

[@mamutakada]

any plans for diplomacy?

[@aquilainteractive]

Diplomacy is undoubtedly going to be a big part of our game. Stay tuned! We will have more details to share in our future dev diaries! :)

[@user-rv4xj8sy5y]

Will this game have a production system and weapon factory ?

[@aquilainteractive]

Thanks for your question. In short, the answer is.... yes!

[@fredrikjonsson-bj5ru]

I think the border do look ugly especially in Central Europe I think you need something like Victoria 2 map or something every similar

[@janmayenese]

I think a lot of immersion is lost if you don't have close-to-real-life sizes, shapes, and names of provinces, borders, coastlines, etc. That's why 4X games suck so much. I consider varied provinces vs hexes as one of the things that separates GSG from 4X.

[@gavincowan8630]

Xbox?????

[@gasmaskgaming9343]

It looks very nice but as a Michigander the way Michigan looks on the map has me cringing

[@aquilainteractive]

Hi! The borders in the game are still being finalized. As we shift focus from mechanics to content, we will rework the map to more closely resemble reality!

[@Miran-wi6wm]

Make wariors like in Civilization 5 or like Knights of Honor