Falling Stars: War of Empires is a single player and multiplayer turn-based strategy game, where players vie to control the galaxy through politics, space warfare, exploration, bartering with planetary inhabitants and more. Players start in an unexplored galaxy that is randomly generated, and you have to travel to different star systems to see if they have any planets you can colonize, or inhabitants you can barter with. It has a balanced tech tree of 30 technology upgrades, and different "Strategic Actions" you can choose once per round that can give you a huge boost in a single area that you need it. For example, if you see a weakness in another empires defenses, you can choose the "Bloodlust" strategy which allows you to attack with your fleet an extra time that turn, along with other bonuses.

I've been developing Falling Stars for the last two years or so, and it's really started coming together over the past 6 months. with some great graphical and UI improvements already implemented, and more on the horizon, I'll probably have a lot of updates to post here about the project.

What separates Falling Stars from other strategy games is the level of strategy it focuses on. There is no micro-management, no AI to run your empire for you, it's all about making big decisions that have a huge impact on the game. Every action you take can have vast consequences, whether it be choosing to work with the inhabitants of a planet to form barters in lieu of outright conquering them, or being forced to hold a planet in enemy territory and loses trade agreements with their allies, the strategy can be very intricate.

Heres a short trailer:

And a more recent and extended gameplay video with developer commentary(he's hungarian but does a great job!):

Heres some of the races

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/4536...

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/4536...

We also have some community forums and a closed beta test going on currently, so check it out!

http://forums.lnlpublishing.com/forums/falling-sta...

Hey everyone, back with a status update! The game has been in closed beta testing, and after a ton of great feedback from players the game is really starting to take its final shape. With all brand new 3D models in the game, almost all of our UI complete, and dozens of details here and there, we are going to open it up to more testers. Our forums are here, create an account below and post anywhere or PM me directly to get it in to beta testing.

http://forums.lnlpub...-of-empires.38/

As for recent progress, we've made the galactic council far more engaging and informative. Players can see exactly how much influence each player has in the council, you can minimize the agenda and take a look at the galaxy to see how it affects you, and the resolution screen has been completely redone to show exactly what the outcome is.

The technology tree has also been updated with descriptions, requirements, a little bio about the tech, and the UI itself is working much more seamlessly.

Also, we've had music for the game for some time now, and have finally got it put in the game. It has all been composed custom for our game, and I'm happy with how it's turned out! Check it out below:

https://soundcloud.c...ires-main-theme

Until the core version of Falling Stars: War of Empires is released (which I will remind you is FREE!), it's hard to appreciate some of the major things we are introducing to our game and the 4x genre. The extended preview I linked above does a good job of going over the general flow and mechanics of the game, but each of those features have very deep strategic purposes.

So, why did we feel this particular game needed to be made when there are a plethora of other 4x games out already, or coming out soon? The simplest reason is that we wanted to offer a game that has as much strategic depth as many of the current games have vast complexity. To clarify, I think complexity is a great thing. Distant Worlds does an amazing job of giving you so much content and so many different moving pieces that it really feels great when you get it all working in perfect harmony.

But to me, strategic depth is what happens when in a single round, you are faced with a decision tree that forks off into dozens, if not hundreds of different directions, each having vastly different long term outcomes. There is no micro management in Falling Stars, plain and simple. Every decision is an important one, and it's key we make that distinction off the bat so players know what kind of game we're getting into. It's going to kick your butt the first few times you play. The AI will effortlessly choose pretty good strategic paths that have long term goals, while you're still struggling to decide which ship you should purchase for your fleet in a far off system.

But as you continue to learn about the game, your decisions will become more rewarding and your ability to plan ahead will increase. This is precisely where our "Strategic Actions" come into play. Every round, you get to choose a one-time game-changing effect that can steer you out of danger, help you discover another planet to get an edge on the AI, or make technological advancement a breeze. Even better, it allows you to gain an increased advantage if you consistently choose that particular Strategic Action. Players who like to win by pounding other empires in the ground can do that. Players who want to exploit the galactic council and win via political authority can do that. So how exactly do these "Strategic Actions" work?

Before each round of play, you choose one of 6 Strategic Action paths. Each of of these give you a boost in a particular area. "Warfare" will allow you to engage with one of your fleets multiple times in a turn, when normally you can only attack with them once. Every time you use that particular action, you unlock another step of "Supplementary" actions. These allow you to choose from another bonus that gets added to your strategic action. Each supplementary you unlock is stronger than the one before it, and there are 4 to unlock. but you can choose 1 of any of the 4 to add, so you don't get all of the bonuses but you also don't have to pick the "strongest" one. It really depends on what your current situation is. So while the most basic supplementary gives you a few small fighters added to your fleet during the battle, the most powerful one allows you to ignore diplomatic relations and attack a previously allied empire.

So that's a lot of text to digest, and I'll leave it at that for now, but there is much more I could talk about with Strategic Actions, or another of the many unique features we have in the game, but if you want to see this in action, there is a quick overview at the 4:20 second mark in the video above.

The strategic depth in Falling Stars really sets it apart—no micro-management, just impactful, empire-shaping choices. The “Strategic Actions” mechanic is a great twist, offering real replayability. I’d love to see analytics on which paths players choose most often. In my own projects, I use Phonexa to track behavioral trends like that—it makes optimizing engagement much more precise.