Hey everyone!

It's been over a year since the release of Those Who Rule, and some of you may have already had an idea why I've been quiet on announcements. I'm excited to confirm the poorly kept secret - I'm hard at work on the sequel, Those Who Rule 2!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4299520/Those_Who_Rule_2/?utm_source=twrhttps://store.steampowered.com/app/4299520

The first game was in development for over 4 years, shaped by constant feedback from the community and play-testers. With your help, I made something I'm proud of, but as with any first endeavor, it's far from perfect. Over the past year I've had amazing conversations with you all about what worked and what didn't, and I've consolidated that feedback into systems designed to address the most pertinent issues.

The core gameplay of Those Who Rule 2 will build off of the foundation laid by the original. I'll be keeping favorite mechanics like flanking, zones of control, shield mechanics, and the trade-off between 1 vs 2 handed weapons, while adding new twists to the formula.

One mechanic that I think made Those Who Rule particularly interesting is conditionally gaining extra actions. It allows for more player agency and rewards planning the small details to squeeze the most out of each turn. However, these were mostly locked to classes, gating exciting abilities behind what should be the most interesting customization decisions of the campaign. To capture more of that same feeling without drastically shifting the power level, I'm introducing a new class of abilities: Tactical Abilities. You can use one tactical ability without ending your turn, in addition to regular and special attacks. These will focus on positioning, buffs/debuffs, and actions that aren't quite powerful enough to warrant a full turn on their own. With this simple addition, the paths available each turn expand significantly, giving more room for satisfying skill expression.

Varied deployment counts, side and primary objectives, as well as map/level design are all things I'm paying special attention to in each chapter. I always love hearing your ideas on these, so please share them with me below!

Meaningful positioning is paramount in tactical RPGs, and terrain plays a huge part in that. The sequel will introduce new terrain types, but also new ways to interact with them. Displacement effects, like kicking an enemy back one tile, will now trigger special effects based on the terrain. Kick an enemy into a pile of rocks? They're staggered. Thorns? Damaged. Quicksand? Rooted. I'm also experimenting with abilities that shape the terrain itself: building 1-turn barricades, throwing caltrops to slow enemies, dropping supplies to heal allies. These systems combine with tactical abilities to create fun combos, and give you extra options to recover when a plan goes unexpectedly awry.

In Those Who Rule 2, I'm creating new customization systems that give you more control over how you build your characters. Expect limited cross-class ability mixing, as well as access to other characters' personal abilities. There will be returning classes with altered abilities, as well as brand new classes to introduce new playstyles. With 200+ planned abilities, and 40+ classes, those of us who like spending hours in the base menu min-maxing characters will be eating well.

One of the biggest additions will also be generic units. Those Who Rule will always be a franchise that focuses on character-driven storytelling, but I know the joy of crafting your own emergent storylines. That's why TWR2 will include a system for recruiting generic units that you can name, stylize, and build a story around through your playthrough.

The base layer was serviceable, but had a lot of room for improvement. TWR2's base layer has been rebuilt from the ground up to reduce the amount of inputs required in the most common flows. Managing equipment, comparing characters, and tweaking loadouts should feel as fast and effortless as possible.

The story of Those Who Rule 2 is one very close to my heart. It's heavily inspired by the rise and fall of Yugoslavia, while keeping to the series' low-power, grounded, medieval fantasy roots. The story is set overseas from the story of the first Those Who Rule on the continent of Kalystra, over a century after our original story ends. We follow Luka, a young captain of the local militia, as he tries to hold together the life he built as his nation fractures around him.

I've replaced the old asset loading system with a smarter one that uses significantly fewer GPU resources. This has already enabled higher polygon count models and more vibrant rendering, while keeping frame rates similar to or better than the original.

I never dreamed that Those Who Rule would be played across every continent, but even with English as the only supported language, 40% of sales come from countries where English isn't the primary language. For TWR2, I've rebuilt systems with localization in mind from day one. Given the large word count, localization is expensive, so I'll be using wishlists to gauge which translations to prioritize. If you want to see TWR2 in your native language, spread the word! I'll share more details as I approach the public demo, but my goal is to have at least the demo translated into 8 languages before making a decision.

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There is still a long way to go in development, but I wanted to share progress on the game in it's early stages because I think the strength of small indies comes from being able to listen to the passionate communities they make games for. If you're reading this, I'd love to hear what you think of the current direction, and to have you come along for the ride. Whether that's in the Steam forums, X, Reddit, or the game's Discord, I need your feedback to make Those Who Rule 2 the best that it can be. Wishlist and follow the TWR2 page to get updates regarding playtests and demo releases!

I want to thank each one of your from the bottom of my heart for making Those Who Rule successful enough to even get a sequel. SRPGs are my passion, and I hope I get to bring you many more iterations over the years.

Cheers,

Eldin T.