Strategy (RTS/TBS)

Development of real-time strategy (RTS) and turn-based strategy (TBS) games

Strategy games are one of the most popular and enduring genres in the gaming industry. They entertain, provoke thought, and generate excitement, thereby providing a deep gaming experience, emotional engagement, and long-term interest, creating a unique atmosphere that can retain players for months and even years. These projects often attract large communities and even become a platform for esports activities.

Developing RTS and turn-based strategy games is an investment in a project with long-term monetization and a long lifespan. This is why such a task should only be entrusted to qualified specialists—the stakes are too high for experimentation. Preparation, technical expertise, and market understanding are key here.

Who orders RTS and TBS strategies and why?

Our turn-based and real-time strategy development service is relevant to a wide range of clients:

• Publishers order them to obtain a finished product or some part of it (balancing, network modules, AI);
• Startups see RTS and TBS games as an opportunity to enter the market with a serious, niche product, including innovative solutions;
• Brands use casual and mobile strategies for promotional campaigns (branded titles, educational simulators);
• Educational companies order the development of RTS and TBS to improve and implement interactive mechanics in educational programs and various trainings;
• Investors see these genres as an opportunity to launch a large-scale product with long-term monetization.

Custom development of RTS and turn-based strategies allows you to clearly define your target audience, attract and retain their interest, monetize the product using models relevant to the target audience, increase loyalty, and turn the project into a source of stable income. The main advantage of custom game development is technical compliance with customer requirements, target platforms, scalability, and adaptability.

A characteristic feature of RTS and TBS games is their long project life cycle. They require regular updates to meet target audience expectations and maintain retention. Therefore, custom development with post-release support is the optimal solution.

Strategy games are a genre that revolves around resource management, planning, battle tactics, and a series of decisions to achieve long-term goals (usually defeating an enemy or successfully developing your base/empire/army).

Features of strategies:

• management of resources, units, technologies;
• the need to plan several steps ahead;
• competitive and/or storyline component;
• high level of involvement, long playing time.

Unlike action games, where reaction speed and dynamics are crucial, strategy games emphasize tactical thinking and forecasting. While quests and puzzles emphasize problem-solving and the plot itself, this category of game projects prioritizes long-term planning and systematic management. Players must not simply solve individual tasks but rather develop an entire development model. This could involve economics, military forces, diplomacy, or territorial conquest strategies.

There are two major subgenres: turn-based strategy games (TBS) and real-time strategy games (RTS). Each has its own unique characteristics that are important to consider when developing and building a promotional model.

What are RTS games?

RTS (real-time strategy games) are a genre in which players make moves simultaneously, meaning decisions must be made quickly.

Peculiarities:

• Continuous gameplay without division into turns – gamers simultaneously build structures, give commands to units, and manage resources;
• the need for quick reactions to enemy actions;
• Manage your army, resources, territories, technologies and/or construction process in real time.

In such projects, the gameplay is quite dynamic, requiring both reaction time and strategic thinking.

Examples: StarCraft, Age of Empires.

What are TBS strategies?

TBS (Turn-Based Strategy) is a turn-based strategy game where players take turns, giving themselves time to consider each next move. Tactics and prediction are paramount here. The turn-based nature of TBS games is similar to single-player games, which is a big advantage, as they can be played both online and offline.

Peculiarities:

• players act in turns, planning their moves;
• For success, careful development of tactics and analysis of the opponent’s actions and intentions are important, just like in chess;
• Often the gameplay contains deep tactical and strategic elements.

Examples: Civilization, XCOM.

RTS games require quick reactions and are dynamic in their gameplay; turn-based strategies emphasize tactics and are more leisurely. Regardless of the subgenre, strategy games always revolve around logic, analysis, and the ability to think several steps ahead.

How We Create Strategy Games: Development Stages and Features

Creating engaging gameplay for strategy titles is a multi-layered process that requires an understanding of the niche, target audience, engagement and retention mechanics, and, most importantly, a deep understanding of IT technologies. This is why it's crucial to delegate the development of custom turn-based and RTS strategies to qualified specialists capable of creating a technically high-quality and commercially successful product.

At Arionis Games, we work on projects iteratively, with the production process consisting of the following stages:

1. Analytics and preproduction. We research the client's objectives, product features, audience, and competitive landscape. We develop a concept, determine the genre and key mechanics, and create a technical specification and game design document outlining project details, including the timeframe and pricing for creating a turn-based and/or real-time strategy game.
2. Prototyping. We develop basic functionality and gameplay, testing hypotheses using simplified prototypes of the future product's key elements.
3. Production. We develop graphic solutions – 2D / 3D character and environment modeling, architecture programming, level design, game AI, etc.
4. Testing and balancing. We check all product systems, including their stability, compatibility with target platforms, and resistance to load fluctuations, cheats, and more. You can read more about the methods and sequence of tests we perform before launching games on Testing page.
5. Project release and support. We launch a verified title, transfer all rights and access to the client, and provide training. By agreement, we provide post-release maintenance – updating content, adding new levels, characters, and features.

Specifics of developing RTS and TBS strategies

Creating strategy games, whether turn-based or real-time, requires well-thought-out game mechanics that define the theme and dynamics of gameplay. In the former, players can calmly plan their actions and calculate their moves, while in the latter, they must make quick decisions and multitask.

Strategy games, like simulators or RPGs, have complex, multi-layered logic, which distinguishes them from clickers, arcade games or casual games. They require carefully thought-out mechanics for resource and army management, diplomacy, and technological advancement.

What else should you consider when developing custom turn-based and RTS strategies?

• balance of resources, economy, maps and units;
• implementation of AI for NPCs and enemies;
• multiplayer (there are RTS and turn-based strategies for two, cooperative);
• support for large game worlds;
• progress system;
• a well-developed script (this is especially important for the TBS genre to maintain interest).

When creating turn-based strategies, it's also important to maintain a balance between factions, ensuring each has both strengths and weaknesses, and that these are clearly visible. Setting is also important. The most popular are fantasy or historical eras, but projects that span too broad a timeframe will take up a significant amount of memory, so if you're targeting the mobile market, you need to be careful here as well.

🔧 Technical features

RTS (real-time strategy):

• Network architecture. It's essential to ensure high synchronization and minimal latency so that player actions are displayed correctly.
• AI optimization. AI-controlled enemies and allies must react and act quickly in a changing context, without getting stuck—complex AI is needed.
• Performance. It's important to make the product resilient to load (especially if it involves a large number of units, buildings, and effects), and for controls to be responsive even during intense battles.

TBS (turn-based strategies):

• A system of moves. It's important to develop a clear sequence and hierarchy of actions, timing, and restrictions.
• State handling. The project must store and quickly restore the positions of troops, effects, resources, etc.
• Complex AI algorithms. AI in turn-based strategies may work slower than in RTS, but for high-quality gameplay, it must be able to calculate risks and moves ahead.
• Data storage . When performing sequential actions, it's critical to correctly save progress, especially during long games.

🎮 Game Features

• Balance. RTS games prioritize resource extraction speed, upgrade timing, and unit costs, while turn-based strategies prioritize faction balance and the influence of randomness (critical hit chance, dice rolls, etc.).
• UI/UX. In RTS interfaces, the walkthrough simplifies quick access to economic and military management; the ability to control many aspects simultaneously is essential. In TBS, however, user-friendly information panels—maps, tech trees, and units—are more important.
• Scenarios and Maps. RTS strategy development is typically built around large maps with resources and control points, while turn-based games tend to feature turn-based quests, civilization development, and global maps.
• Visualization of processes. While RTS development emphasizes dynamics, spectacular battles, and animations, TBS shifts the focus to the clarity of strategic decisions—tables, maps, and miniatures.

To retain gambling audiences, it is also useful to implement the ability to review games for analysis.

⚙️ Other important points

• Network technologies . Support for servers, anti-cheat systems, and cloud saves.
• Modding . Strategy games often have a long lifespan due to active gaming communities, custom scenarios, and map editors.
• Collecting analytics. Maintaining a balance when developing strategies (both turn-based and real-time) is aided by statistics on which factions and tactics players choose and why.

What types of strategy games can be ordered?

Strategy games are one of the richest and most diverse genres. RTS and TBS have many subtypes. In terms of setting, there are interesting turn-based and RTS strategies set in medieval times, World War II, modern warfare, post-apocalyptic settings, zombies, aliens, space, fantasy, economics, and more.

RTS options:

• Classic military games – with the construction of bases, resource extraction, and the development of the army and technology.
• Tactical (RTT – Real-Time Tactics) – with an emphasis on troop management, the economy in them fades into the background.
• Hybrid MOBA-RTS with RPG elements are strategic role-playing games with role-playing mechanics and control of a single character.
• MMORTS – multiplayer options with thousands of players, global alliances and wars.
• RTS with simulation elements – with an emphasis on managing colonies, cities or ecosystems.

Arionis Studio will develop interesting strategy games in the RTS genre of any of the listed types for you, including computer games, games for phones (iPhone, Android), console games, web games and games for VR/AR devices.

Types of TBS:

• Global strategies (4X) dedicated to research, development, diplomacy and war.
• Tactical games feature battles on limited maps. They emphasize positioning and unit control.
• Military – complex simulations with maps and multi-level logistics.
• Collectible (card) games – with battles and tactics built on decks and card mechanics, where each card is responsible for a game action, unit, spell, item, or event.
• Turn-based strategy games with RPG elements – with character upgrades and turn-based battles.
• Asynchronous TBS – with the ability to make moves not just one at a time, but with a break of several hours or even days, they are also called correspondence games.

There are also hybrid varieties of strategy games, such as RTS/TBS titles, which feature a turn-based global map but battles are fought in real time. There are also casual, simplified versions with short sessions (an excellent adaptation of the genre for mobile devices). You can also order strategic business games, titles for children, hyper-realistic, pixelated, and mini-formats.

Technologies and tools

Creating browser-based turn-based and real-time strategy games for PC, mobile (Android, iPhone), and consoles (Nintendo Switch, etc.) requires a variety of tools and programs. We utilize a broad stack, as the genre itself requires extensive technical expertise, covering the title's logic, UX/UI, and network architecture.

Basic tools:

• Engines – Unity, Unreal Engine.
• Language: C#, C++, Python, Java/Kotlin, Swift.
• Network technologies, multiplayer – Photon Engine, Mirror/Netcode, PlayFab, Firebase, AWS GameLift, WebSockets, REST API / GraphQL.
• AI – machine learning TensorFlow, PyTorch, behavior tree, Pathfinding (A* and Dijkstra algorithms).
• Monetization and analytics – Unity Analytics, GameAnalytics, Firebase, AdMob, Unity Ads, IAP.
• Design and graphics – Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, Photoshop, Illustrator, Figma, Substance Painter.
• Testing – Selenium, Appium, NUnit, TestFlight, Google Play Console.
• Project management – Jira, Trello, ClickUp.

Regardless of the chosen subgenre and setting, developing RTS and TBS games requires powerful engines, flexible server architecture, advanced AI models, and an intuitive UX/UI to ensure the project is engaging and scalable.

4 reasons why it's profitable to order RTS and TBS games from Arionis

Arionis Games has been creating IT products for over 10 years and game development for over 5 years. We work across a variety of genres, from simple casual projects to complex simulators and open-world RPGs. We utilize cutting-edge technologies in our solutions, including blockchain, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Why trust us:

1. Experience in game development, web development, and strategy genres.
2. A well-coordinated team of specialized specialists – we employ experienced game designers, Unity developers, Unreal Engine programmers, artists, testers, and animators.
3. Transparent collaboration – iterative format, reporting, adherence to deadlines.
4. Flexible work formats – project-based, outsourcing, outstaffing, and we also offer dedicated IT team services.

When developing turn-based TBS games and real-time strategy games, we balance complexity and gameplay, considering ROI, the specifics of our clients' business models, and their audiences. We offer a full-cycle approach and tailored solutions.

If you'd like to commission the development of RTS and turn-based strategy games from an experienced team, please contact us. We'll discuss the details, develop an action plan, and ensure the successful launch of your idea.