Outside of the Dungeon Keeper series and Unfrozen Studios’ recent Iratus: Lord of the Dead, there aren’t many games that let you play as a truly demonic villain. Filipino developer Maccima Games and publisher Squeaky Wheel Studio want to change all that with their upcoming tile-based strategy title, Ruinarch.
The game puts you in the role of an uncompromising demon lord who is transported to a magical fantasy land. It’s in this land where he’ll be able to unleash all sorts of horrors on the inhabitants, ranging from diseases and curses, to vile armies and undead warriors. The sky is the limit for this emergent strategy title where you attempt to bend the will of the people using all sorts of dastardly machinations.
You can get a glimpse of what the gameplay is like with the trailer below.
The UI and general layout reminds me a lot of Dwarf Fortress. However, the intricacies in the meta-game of being able to manipulate the microcosms of the NPCs’ lives is pretty neat.
The entire scenario that was played out within the two minute trailer could have been an episode on Tales From The Crypt.
But you can do more than just turn spurned lovers into killers; you can also turn heroes into villains by making local knights into diseased freaks. You can strike a family with lycanthropy and have them wreak havoc on the local town. Or you can rely on good old fashioned plagues to dwindle the population.
The highlight of Ruinarch is that each new playthrough generates a random fantasy world, populated across hexagonal tiles.
Your objective is to move through each of the tiles, conquering the regions and building up resources until you can control the world. There are various races to interact with, including monsters, humans, and elves. And there’s even a base-building mechanic where you can carve out demonic structures that can help you spread your evil or corrupt the land.
The game sounds pretty interesting, and it’s scheduled to enter into Early Access on Steam starting this May. According to the FAQ, they have plans on spending at least 12 months in Early Access, and at the most two years refining the gameplay and propagating the core content with more mechanics and features.
It’s an ambitious title but seems worthwhile for an indie studio working on a tight budget. You can wishlist the game right now over on the Steam store page or visit the official website to learn more.
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