We started building games. We accidentally started building a game platform. Multiplayer kept bringing us back to work that more than one game would need.
The work around the game
A multiplayer strategy game needs to know who is playing. Matches need to survive someone closing the app. Players returning after a few days need to find their match and understand where they left off.
Battle for Velune gives us a reason to solve those problems. Its tactics belong to the game, while accounts and saved matches are useful across projects. We would rather avoid rebuilding that surrounding work every time.
Build against a game
Our own games give us a way to judge a platform feature: we should be able to explain what it does for a player or a match.
For Velune, correspondence play is one of those needs. Someone should be able to make a move, leave and return later. That sounds straightforward from the player's side, which is how we want it to feel.
Some work still belongs in the game. A rule, a screen or a pacing decision may be specific to Velune. Sharing it only helps if it makes another game easier to build.
Leave room for another game
Building around one game has a risk: its assumptions can become requirements that other games must follow. We need to notice when a supposedly shared feature is really a Velune decision.
Even among turn-based games, the pace can vary considerably. People sitting down to play together have different expectations from opponents taking turns over several days. We want games to keep control of that pace while sharing the work around it.
Our games help us test those choices. They cannot tell us everything another studio will need.
Work with other teams
Nerdino Platform is in active development. Design-partner conversations can help us find needs we have missed while we can still change the boundaries.
We want to start with how a game plays, what players need to come back to and where multiplayer is causing trouble. From there, we can decide which work is worth sharing. The aim is to give teams more time for their games while leaving them in charge of the rules and presentation.
