What a week. After publicly announcing Commander's Gambit, I have been as busy as I could possibly be. I have to admit I love it. No matter how taxing it is to my brain or my patience, I love what I am doing. Frankly, I am proud of Commander's Gambit already.
I shared part of the personal adventure that got me to this point. Had a bunch of stuff done for Commander's Gambit (CG) that made me comfortable to announce. Worked my tail off all week and locked most of the pillar systems down to a functioning status as a game, not a PIE window. Now for the very long boring part :p
I lost track of the hours of thinking, writing design documents, and trying to flesh things out on paper. I want to acknowledge a massive portion of this time was doing just that — thinking, plotting, and thinking about what would work. I love games like this. I love thinking and planning. It's my TV time, or whatever you want to call it.
Before this run, I started a (TERRIBLE) version of this in 2021, I believe. It wasn't fun, so I killed it. I thought about a lot of different project types, started many (some WAY out of scope for a solo dev), and in the end I came back to my original start of the CG IP: the space colony thinking game. Whatever genre you want to put it in, I know it is the culmination of the things I love in this type of game. My people, my faction, my choices.
I also wanted to make sure folks could keep giving it new life by modding it. This was a fundamental reason I didn't hard code data in C++ but rather have extensive use of data tables. Plus, data tables just make sense. Write something into code that you have to change and drive yourself nuts recompiling to the point of nausea.
Make no mistake, sharing this makes me nervous. It also makes me proud, so I openly share where I and the game are.
Commander's Gambit (CG) was announced on August 19, 2026. I felt good announcing it because this is where I was at that time:
Project Start → August 19, 2026
Core Architecture & Simulation
- Core Unreal Engine C++ game architecture established
- Session-lifetime simulation subsystem implemented
- Authoritative game state and calendar system implemented
- Monthly turn/tick system functioning
- Deterministic monthly simulation core functioning
- Real DataTables loading into runtime game state
- Monthly results applied back into persistent runtime state
- Calendar advances correctly after monthly simulation
- Simulation-update broadcasting implemented for other game systems/UI
- Core simulation designed to be side-effect-free and reusable for forward simulation
- Simulation running against actual game data in PIE, not just isolated test calculations
Celestial Bodies, Sectors & Territorial Control
- Celestial bodies and body-sector runtime state implemented
- Sector ownership and territorial-control calculations functioning
- Sector claiming implemented
- Sector abandonment implemented
Factions
- Faction system implemented
- Faction-specific gameplay modifiers implemented
Population, Loyalty & Military Population
- Population simulation functioning
- Civilian and serving population tracked separately
- Population growth and decline functioning
- Population loyalty system functioning
- Population supply/demand calculations functioning
- Population status bands functioning
- Civilian production calculations functioning
- Conscription system functioning
- Demobilization/discharge system functioning
- Loyalty-based faction conscription limits functioning
- Military casualties affecting serving population implemented
Economy, Resources & Production
- Core resource economy functioning
- Element-resource production functioning
- Product-resource production functioning
- Resource stockpiles functioning
- Product consumption and shortages functioning
- Credits generation functioning
- Influence generation functioning
- Research-point generation functioning
- Refinery system implemented
- Factory system implemented
- Data-driven improvement tiers and production rates implemented
- Improvement construction, demolition, replacement & upgrading implemented
Commands, Validation & Reporting
- Full initial command framework implemented
- All 11 planned command verbs implemented and PIE-tested
- Command validation separated from simulation processing
- PlayerController command/debug interface functioning
- Turn reports and simulation-result reporting implemented
Research Foundation
- Research completion notification/plumbing established (the larger research gameplay system was not yet complete)
Player Interface & Solar-System Map
- Core player-facing solar-system map implemented
- Celestial-body selection/highlighting implemented
- Body-detail UI implemented
- Reusable body-detail positioning/selector system implemented
- Faction-summary UI implemented
- Retractable left-side quick-access panel implemented
- PlayerCanvas functioning as the primary player-facing interface
Visual Design & Assets
- Core CG UI visual language established
- Major planet/celestial-body visual assets created and being integrated
Week Ending August 28, 2026
Economy & Production
- Completed the core economic simulation and substantially expanded economic gameplay
- Expanded monthly simulation reporting for factions, resources, research, units, and ships
Ships
- Added and integrated ship construction and ship upkeep
- Created the core ship data system and ship DataTables
Research
- Designed the complete research system architecture
- Established research points, material costs, project duration, categories, and research-slot structure
Combat
- Designed the unified combat system for both ground and space combat
- Established core combat statistics and a persistent unit/ship damage model
- Added the combat and simulation-core C++ architecture
Artificial Intelligence
- Implemented the initial AI Observe/Evaluate/Choose/Action architecture
- Implemented AI evaluation using the same public game information available to the player
- Added AI goals and strategic decision weighting
- Added AI foresight levels
- Added utility, risk, and penalty evaluation for AI actions
- Implemented AI sequential planning across multiple orders
- Added AI economic-consolidation planning
Data & Core Simulation
- Added additional required DataTables and integrated them into game-startup validation
- Continued testing the complete monthly simulation against actual game data
Development, Debugging & Testing
- Added developer/debug commands for inspecting AI decisions and plans
- Identified and documented production-validation issues exposed through live simulation testing
- Identified deterministic seed/state identification and command-history/replay as required development infrastructure
Player Interface & Solar-System Map
- Continued development and refinement of the player-facing UI and interaction design
- Established the Body/Sector Player Action Screen architecture
- Continued integration of the solar-system map with the developing player interface
