In today's world, Turn-based strategy is an issue that continues to gain relevance in society. Turn-based strategy has long captured the interest of people of all ages and cultural backgrounds. Whether for its impressive technological advances, its controversial political decisions or its innovative artistic proposals, Turn-based strategy never ceases to surprise and generate debate. Over the years, Turn-based strategy has been a recurring topic in the media and has sparked the interest of researchers and academics from various disciplines. In this article, we will explore different aspects of Turn-based strategy, analyzing its influence today and the possible repercussions it could have in the future.
In 1964. М. Eddis and W. McKay created an educational game called "The Sumerian Game" for the IBM 7090 computer. In this game, the user had to assume the role of a Sumerian ruler who manages the country's resources to boost the economy, deal with the effects of natural disasters, etc. The ideas laid down in The Sumerian Game were developed in 1968. in the game "Hamurabi" for the PDP-8 personal computer by D. Daimenta. These games were entirely text-based, but in essence they were the distant ancestors of modern city-building simulators, whose gameplay can be described as making resource management decisions to develop a fictional economy.
Other distant videogame ancestors of modern turn-based strategy games can be considered games like Invasion. The Invasion game, developed in 1972. for the Magnavox Odyssey console, had a graphical presentation unlike the aforementioned text games, but it could not be considered fully a computer game.
During the 1970s. There are attempts to fully port board games to personal computers: in particular, the first computerized versions of traditional chess appear (the use of computer algorithms to play chess began in the mid-1940s).
in 1995. Van Kaneghem's company New World Computing released the "King's Bounty" inspired first installment of the "Heroes of Might and Magic" series, which was a spin-off of the "Might and Magic" RPG franchise (all of which are currently in development). The great success of these games led to a greater use of RPG elements in strategy, and specifically turn-based strategy, games - for example, their influence is evident in many games in the Total War series.
After a period of converting board and historic TBS games to computer games, companies began basing computer turn-based strategy games on completely original properties or concepts. The presence of a computer to calculate and arbitrate allows game complexity which is not feasible in a traditional board game.
A further market trend is the rise of "Indie" TBS games (games produced by small groups, independent or only somewhat affiliated with the major elements in the computer games industry). These games often extend or refine already existing TBS games. Examples include Freeciv or Golden Age of Civilizations.
Open-source games
Since turn-based strategy games do not typically require vast amounts of art or modeling, developers willing to volunteer their time can focus on gameplay. Directories like Freecode provide large lists of open-source, turn-based strategy projects.
Browser-based games
Online browser-based games do not require users to install files and are often free. The Hex Empire set of games is a good example of browser-based games in this genre.