Grand Strategy Historia Realis: Rome - A character-driven historical simulation of Roman life and politics

[AD1337]

Hi, I'm Lucas. I'm a former history teacher who's been making indie games for about 10 years. I made an account here a long time ago but never posted.

My newest game is Historia Realis: Rome, a blend of simulation, strategy and RPG inspired by Crusader Kings, Rome: Total War (the original one) and many other sources such as tabletop RPGs.

You play as a Roman, and can be elected to offices in the Cursus Honorum such as Consul, Tribune of the Plebs and so on. You get married, have children, get divorced and live your life however you want. Make friends, rivals, become a priest, a Stoic philosopher, whatever.

You can see screenshots and read more about it on the Steam page. In fact, I just published the first dev diary there, explaining the 'action system', the core mechanic of the game.

I'm working on it mostly by myself right now. I write the code, paint the artwork, design the gameplay and do the historical research. Though a volunteer programmer has recently been giving me a hand and a writer should also join us soon. Might increase the team size if we decide to go with a publisher, so if you have any relevant skills you can sign up here to join us.

FAQ

When will Historia Realis be available to play?
No release date yet, sorry.

You can wishlist the game on Steam if you're interested. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you!

 

[Fargus]

Can you bang slave girls and fight in the arena in this game?

 

[The Wall]

Hi, I'm Lucas. I'm a former history teacher who's been making indie games for about 10 years. I made an account here a long time ago but never posted.

My newest game is Historia Realis: Rome, a blend of simulation, strategy and RPG inspired by Crusader Kings, Rome: Total War (the original one) and many other sources such as tabletop RPGs.

You play as a Roman, and can be elected to offices in the Cursus Honorum such as Consul, Tribune of the Plebs and so on. You get married, have children, get divorced and live your life however you want. Make friends, rivals, become a priest, a Stoic philosopher, whatever.

You can see screenshots and read more about it on the Steam page. In fact, I just published the first dev diary there, explaining the 'action system', the core mechanic of the game.

I'm working on it mostly by myself right now. I write the code, paint the artwork, design the gameplay and do the historical research. Though a volunteer programmer has recently been giving me a hand and a writer should also join us soon. Might increase the team size if we decide to go with a publisher, so if you have any relevant skills you can sign up here to join us.

FAQ

When will Historia Realis be available to play?
No release date yet, sorry.

You can wishlist the game on Steam if you're interested. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you!

Do you need artistic, programming, design, promotional or financial help?

World needs more games like this

 

[Maxie]

Hi, I'm Lucas. I'm a former history teacher who's been making indie games for about 10 years. I made an account here a long time ago but never posted.

My newest game is Historia Realis: Rome, a blend of simulation, strategy and RPG inspired by Crusader Kings, Rome: Total War (the original one) and many other sources such as tabletop RPGs.

You play as a Roman, and can be elected to offices in the Cursus Honorum such as Consul, Tribune of the Plebs and so on. You get married, have children, get divorced and live your life however you want. Make friends, rivals, become a priest, a Stoic philosopher, whatever.

You can see screenshots and read more about it on the Steam page. In fact, I just published the first dev diary there, explaining the 'action system', the core mechanic of the game.

I'm working on it mostly by myself right now. I write the code, paint the artwork, design the gameplay and do the historical research. Though a volunteer programmer has recently been giving me a hand and a writer should also join us soon. Might increase the team size if we decide to go with a publisher, so if you have any relevant skills you can sign up here to join us.

FAQ

When will Historia Realis be available to play?
No release date yet, sorry.

You can wishlist the game on Steam if you're interested. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you!

congrats G. you've come up with the most smegmatic game on this website, and we have eroge developers posting here

 

[AD1337]

Do you need artistic, programming, design, promotional or financial help?

World needs more games like this

Sure, all of those, if the right partner comes along. You can fill this form and I'll get in touch with you, or email me.

 

[thesecret1]

It seems to promise a lot of the same things as Crusader Kings, and we all know how that turned out – hundreds of characters one can make like/dislike him... and practically no consequences to either. Will this game shake up the formula so that the only reason to befriend someone is not "I want him to agree to X, after which I can forget him forever"?

Also, since the game seems to mostly be happening in various menus, I suggest taking extensive care to make sure the UI is perfect. Lots of these indie one-man projects underestimate UI, not realizing that shit UI can easily destroy first impressions of their customers.

 

[Axioms]

It seems to promise a lot of the same things as Crusader Kings, and we all know how that turned out – hundreds of characters one can make like/dislike him... and practically no consequences to either. Will this game shake up the formula so that the only reason to befriend someone is not "I want him to agree to X, after which I can forget him forever"?

Also, since the game seems to mostly be happening in various menus, I suggest taking extensive care to make sure the UI is perfect. Lots of these indie one-man projects underestimate UI, not realizing that shit UI can easily destroy first impressions of their customers.

Other characters are far more important than in CK3. Of course the bar for that is super low.

 

[AD1337]

It seems to promise a lot of the same things as Crusader Kings, and we all know how that turned out – hundreds of characters one can make like/dislike him... and practically no consequences to either. Will this game shake up the formula so that the only reason to befriend someone is not "I want him to agree to X, after which I can forget him forever"?

Also, since the game seems to mostly be happening in various menus, I suggest taking extensive care to make sure the UI is perfect. Lots of these indie one-man projects underestimate UI, not realizing that shit UI can easily destroy first impressions of their customers.

Yes, I understand your concerns. I'm doing my best to make relationships meaningful and to make the UI clean and usable. Thanks for the input!

 

[Aemar]

It looks like a very ambitious and intriguing project, based on this screenshot alone I should say.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Wow. This legitimately sounds and looks like the game I've dreamed about for decades. A history graduate myself I angrily and furiously detest what developers depict as "historical" these days. Especially about Roman history.

 

[Deflowerer]

Just curious, what engine are you using? Otherwise looks cool.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Looks very promising!

 

[Tavernking]

I remember this guy asked everyone to sign up for the alpha 5 years ago and we're still waiting (Don't fret, I pulled the same move on my own audience). Now that it's on Steam I'm crossing my fingers that your game is in a somewhat playable state, though the absence of any videos on the store page raises some concerns. Good luck!

 

[likash]

 

[Malakal]

Wow. This legitimately sounds and looks like the game I've dreamed about for decades. A history graduate myself I angrily and furiously detest what developers depict as "historical" these days. Especially about Roman history.

Yea it looks great AND it even has some art! I'm definitely sold too.

 

[Aemar]

How many shekels btw?

 

[AD1337]

Just curious, what engine are you using? Otherwise looks cool.

Godot! Great engine for this kind of game.

I remember this guy asked everyone to sign up for the alpha 5 years ago and we're still waiting (Don't fret, I pulled the same move on my own audience). Now that it's on Steam I'm crossing my fingers that your game is in a somewhat playable state, though the absence of any videos on the store page raises some concerns. Good luck!

Thanks! That's true, the game has been in development for a long time. More than anyone, I wish I could somehow develop it faster. Alas, it takes the time it takes. I was always upfront about this and was careful to never give a release date, because I honestly knew it was going to take an indefinite amount of time. So while it has been taking years, there were never any delays. And I still don't have a release date, but I'm making progress!

If it's any consolation, I have actually released 3 other games on Steam, so I've proven I'm able to ship games. It's just that this one is quite ambitious, as somebody said above.

How many shekels btw?

No price yet, will depend on how good I'm able to make the game and how much content I'm able to put in.

 

[Aemar]

historical research.

I'll just leave this here. Highly recommended for this sort of game, and a great read in itself.

 

[Beggar]

Hi, I'm Lucas. I'm a former history teacher who's been making indie games for about 10 years.

Neeerd!

 

[Malakal]

Hi, I'm Lucas. I'm a former history teacher who's been making indie games for about 10 years.

Neeerd!

Definitely a better career path tho...

 

[Tyranicon]

Wishlisted.

 

[Zariusz]

Seems interesting, i hope i will remember about this when it will finally release.

 

[kris]

How much is simulated as far as possessions go? Do you own houses/mansions? Weapons? Slaves?
Are slaves around as characters or not at all?
Do you make your own character or is it randomly created?
do you have any information about how the war part of the game is? Or is the game set sorely in Rome?

 

[AD1337]

How much is simulated as far as possessions go? Do you own houses/mansions? Weapons? Slaves?
Are slaves around as characters or not at all?
Do you make your own character or is it randomly created?
do you have any information about how the war part of the game is? Or is the game set sorely in Rome?

Great questions. I'll answer one by one.

How much is simulated as far as possessions go? Do you own houses/mansions? Weapons? Slaves?

Right now, possessions are a type of trait. There are personality traits like Brave and Calm (and their opposites, like Cowardly and Hotheaded) and there are possession traits like Farmlands, Agricultural Slaves or Domestic Slaves. This doesn't mean that possessions are static or boring, though. Beyond giving you passive bonuses, you can actively use your possessions to do things. You can plant and harvest grapes to sell them or make wine, you can perform agricultural rituals, you can overwork your slaves to make more money (and get discontent slaves in the process), and so on. And a rival can burn your growing crops, or your villa, or someone can buy your slaves, and so on.

Are slaves around as characters or not at all?

Not right now, maybe not ever. If slaves exist as characters, they need to have things to do, and that would require a lot of content creation, because slaves can't do what regular elite Romans can. Since the focus of the game is playing as the kind of Roman who could conceivably be elected to public offices like Consul, creating a whole bunch of content for slave characters becomes not worth the development cost, as it's just not the focus of the game. It would be like creating content for playing as a Gaul. It's just not the focus. However, I don't discard giving slaves at least some life, like giving a random name to your prized gladiator.

Do you make your own character or is it randomly created?

Right now characters are randomly created. I'm going to add historical characters for sure, and probably a character editor at some point so you can make your own.

do you have any information about how the war part of the game is? Or is the game set sorely in Rome?

The war system is too nebulous right now to share much, but I do intend to have one, seeing as war was so important to social advancement. But it will be framed in that way: war will be yet another way for characters to advance socially. There won't be graphical battles like Total War games or even troop movement like Paradox games. War will be about the personal roles of characters and what they can get out of it.

 

[deama]

Looks nice, when's the plan to release this bad boy? Next year? Next decade?