A strategy game with only two resources?
Hey Unreal Devs,
Resources and Resource Management is a crucial part of every Real-Time Strategy game.
To keep it simple and easy to learn we chose to have only two resources. One that you gather passively (
Energy) which is used for all kinds of gameplay actions.
Having multiple resources would require more upfront game knowledge and more focus on resource management and balancing 
. This would increase the overall entry barrier for players which we try to avoid.
And a managing resource for the number of units on the playground (
Commando Points).
Energy
Energy is used for Up- and Downgrades, Unit Production, and to keep certain abilities active, e.g. the Watchtower attack mode. Energy is passively produced every couple of seconds. A fixed amount gets generated by certain Smelogs. The ones that can produce energy are the Menhir, Tog, and Watchtower. The last one only generates energy in economy mode.
Commando Points
The Commando Points are a managing resource. With a current Commando Point count (x) and a maximum possible count (y) x/y. To produce new Smelogs the current Commando Points count has to be lower than the maximum. Every Unit Smelog (moveable) counts as one Commando Point. Buildings like the Tog and Menhir increase the Player’s maximum amount of Commando Points. So the player has to manage and balance the number of buildings to ensure the army limit (Commando Points) is not reached and new Smelogs can be produced.
It’s possible to go over the maximum amount, for example by downgrading a building into a unit. This will stop the production of new units, similar to other RTS games like Age of Empires, SC2, and so on. The difference to other RTS games is that Smelogs Playground doesn’t have a hard upper limit for units. The Player is only limited by the amount of space on the Playground.
Endnotes
Mechanics to generate or use resources can easily be added later in the development process. We prefer to start small and build on a solid base. Later we can evolve the game as we learn from player feedback. This could also mean adding new resources.
If you have any questions or are interested in the game, let us know on our Discord about what we should post next.
