Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles, The Building Sandbox

INTRODUCING A CREATIVE SANDBOX BUILDING GAME:

I am a solo developer who makes unconventional games and this one is no exception. Bulwark is a sandbox builder with light management and strategy elements, the core mechanic is building and designing great fortress cities.

This is not a goal-driven game you can win, this is about designing your fortress and seeing how it responds to the environment. Bulwark has a minimalist interface with little hand-holding. If you play to be creative, you will enjoy it, however, If you play to win, you will miss out on most of what it has to offer.

This is a CREATIVE SANDBOX, not a strategy game. The light strategy elements are there to enrich the design process, not a core mechanic.

Game goals:

Design a fantastic ocean fortress settlement, invite the populations of various factions and unlock new building options as you creation grows and expands. You unlock new building options by growing any faction's population which unlocks encounters that appear in the open world, there is no min-maxing, and no ‘campaign’ to complete.

Challenge:

The world will present friction and challenge - resources will deplete and setting trade routes and hiring captains to transport them will become a necessity - faction allegiances will change the opinion of others in the game world and raids will force you to balance your expansion and growth, with ensuring your settlements have adequate defences - yet your goal isn’t to conquer but to build a great civilisation in a world that feels more alive than a standard sandbox.

Resources:

The game has a resource system that works on distance, not cost. You transport resources along your network of towers. Towers within range of the resource can be upgraded, those out of range cannot. Ship captains and smart design can expand your range dramatically.

Combat and War:

A fortress sandbox, especially in this bleak universe, is meaningless without threats. So the game has units and combat. You can declare war or find yourself in the crosshairs of another faction. This aspect is best described as a light strategy that adds excitement to your play session and allows you to see how your bulwark would fare in a conflict.

Game Length:

This game was designed to be light on grind and optimising behaviour but heavy on fast and satisfying creation. Game sessions are intended to be 4-5 hours per faction, but there is no practical limit.

Future development:

As a developer, I thrive on user feedback and community and whilst Bulwark is a well-rounded and ‘complete’ experience, it continues to evolve too. Content is regularly being added, sometimes updates to mechanics, sometimes whole new features - but your opinions and input matter, so please reach out on Twitter or Discord with your thoughts!