New Game: They Are Billions!
Greetings!
We are excited to announce the latest project we have been working on all this time, They Are Billions.
What kind of game is They Are Billions?
Imagine a world devastated by billions of infected humans after a zombie-like apocalypse. You must build colonies for the few surviving humans. The colonies must defend themselves against swarms of the infected that roam the world using retro technology because all knowledge has rewound back to that of similar to the XIX century.
They Are Billions is a strategic game where you build colonies and armies and manage resources. As with Lords of Xulima, there is no single game as the main inspiration. It shares aspects from the classic RTS like Starcraft, city building and resource management like Anno or Age of Empires games, army management and tactics like war games, and even some tower defense games. Combined, you get a unique playstyle, just like how Lords of Xulima was.
What? A Real-Time game from Numantian?
They Are Billions
Yes, it is a real-time strategy game, but don’t get too nervous. You can pause the action to make the best strategic and tactical decision. In Pause Mode, you can place structures to build, give orders to your army, or consult all of the game’s information. This game is all about strategy, not player performance or the player’s skill to memorize and quickly execute dozens of key commands. Just pause the game, take all the time you need to decide what to do and then unpause it to watch the show.
Technology
They Are Billions
Our main goal with this game was to simulate a realistic scenery of a zombie-apocalypse. We have worked hard to evolve our old Lords of Xulima game engine to become an ultra-performance machine. The engine can move up to 20,000 units simultaneously smoothly. And every unit has their own AI and personality. The infected have a natural behavior: they react to sound and activity, they watch what other infected do, and share their tension and feelings like a swarm. Just imagine, when you start a new game and begin to build a colony, the world generated already has thousands of infected roaming.
We want the player to feel that oppressive atmosphere, feel the colony is surrounded by thousands of infected, and consider that every step to expand the colony to reach a new resource or to grow the colony can be lethal. Combine that oppression with the constant fear that it only takes one infected to break into the colony and cause the infection to spread exponentially.
As you already know, we love hardcore games. They Are Billions in this regards is similar to Lords of Xulima – it has a lot of depth, is fairly easy to play but very difficult to master. We are sure that LoX fans will love it, give it a try!
Art
They Are Billions
Our artists have worked very hard to give a unique style and feel to the game. The action is set in a distant future but with a level of technology comparable to the XIX century. As a result, the game has a steampunk and Victorian look. Just imagine crazy steampunk machines combating against a legion of zombies… And everything with a nice hand drawn touch and ultra-detailed, just watch 4K screenshots of the game.
Development
The game has two main game modes: the survival mode that it is already working and the campaign mode which is what we are working now. In the survival mode, a random world is generated with its own events, weather, geography, and infected population. You must build a successful colony that survives for 100 days against the swarms of infected. It is a fast and ultra-addictive game mode.
For the campaign, we want to create a very in-depth, single-player campaign with lots of options and an extensive variety of different development paths such as researching new structures, units, upgrades, and improvements. We also wanted deep strategic options, as you are free to choose the missions you want to do but the world will change depending on your actions.
We expect to launch the game as Early Access this fall. There we will polish and balance it better with the feedback of the users. We hope to release the final game after only a couple of months of Early Access.
The Steam Store page is now available so you can follow the game updates there. Here we will continue talking about the sequel to Lords of Xulima.
And the Lords of Xulima sequel?
We continue conceptualizing the game in parallel with the development end of They Are Billions. We know we are very delayed, but making a deep game is a lot of work. But here are some positives:
First, LoX 2 will use the new evolved engine that will allow us to create better graphics and atmosphere. This will create a world that is much more alive. We will be able to implement many more mechanisms and challenges that we could not do in the original game. In another update, we will talk about these new features.
Second, They Are Billions is a much more commercial game. It is truly fun and addictive – even the developers spend hours and hours playing just for fun (with the excuse of finding bugs…of course 🙂 …). If this game is successful enough, we will be able to make a serious investment in the production of LoX 2. Perhaps then we can make the perfect game we have always envisioned with the quality that it deserves. Imagine what we could do with a high budget.
If you have followed us and our game posts during this time, you will surely know that even if They Are Billions would bring in billions of dollars, we would continue working on the LoX sequel with the same passion and will – because our story with Lords of Xulima is a love story.
See you soon!
- Posted by Julie
- On May 31, 2017
- 1 Comments
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