HOUSE OF WOLVES
About the Game
House of Wolves is a 2D medieval real-time strategy game published by Louissi in 2013. The player's settlement begins with nothing more than a watch tower and a single settler in the wilderness, from which they must expand and raise an army. The objective is to march east to defeat Lord Vilereck, while simultaneously fending off the endless stream of dark creatures from the west. As of February 2017, the game is one of the 30 most popular strategy games on Armor Games, with a rating of 95% and over 5 million plays.
Busted: No combat units
The worker unit in House of Wolves is the Settler. Like worker units in most RTS games, the Settler is the cheapest and least durable unit available. Unlike workers in other games, the Settler has a ranged attack, while many enemies have melee attacks. Even the cheapest gun on the market can still provide a decisive advantage when brought to a knife fight. This advantage can be capitalized upon using a simple 5-step strategy:
1. Build food-producing structures, gather wood, build Huts to increase the population cap.
2. Fill the population cap by recruiting Settlers.
3. Move all Settlers east.
4. Replenish dead Settlers as needed.
5. Win.
The only tactical consideration is an enemy unit called the Berzerk, whose area-of-effect stun attack can decimate the Settler mob. This can be countered by sending one Settler ahead of the rest of the group, as the enemy AI will always target the closest unit.
The worker unit in House of Wolves is the Settler. Like worker units in most RTS games, the Settler is the cheapest and least durable unit available. Unlike workers in other games, the Settler has a ranged attack, while many enemies have melee attacks. Even the cheapest gun on the market can still provide a decisive advantage when brought to a knife fight. This advantage can be capitalized upon using a simple 5-step strategy:
1. Build food-producing structures, gather wood, build Huts to increase the population cap.
2. Fill the population cap by recruiting Settlers.
3. Move all Settlers east.
4. Replenish dead Settlers as needed.
5. Win.
The only tactical consideration is an enemy unit called the Berzerk, whose area-of-effect stun attack can decimate the Settler mob. This can be countered by sending one Settler ahead of the rest of the group, as the enemy AI will always target the closest unit.
One brave Settler distracts the enemy Berzerk.
With this approach, all tech structures and combat units can be ignored. Waves of dark creatures from the west can also be ignored, since the Settler-only approach can complete the game before those waves become serious threats.
Design Analysis
This game raises an interesting question for designers to consider: what is the purpose of including multiple unit types in a strategic combat game? Prior to playing House of Wolves, a likely answer would have been that variety makes a game more interesting. The busted playthrough suggests a more constructive answer: each new unit should solve a problem that cannot be solved by building many instances of an existing unit.
The game's inclusion of physical and magical attacks would naturally lend itself to physical and magical armor. Enemy units with a high resistance to one damage type would encourage the player to invest in the other. Even without incorporating this layer of complexity, advanced tech options can be encouraged by adjusting the speed at which units are produced. House of Wolves allows units to be produced instantaneously, with the only limiting factor being the population cap. If unit production speed is limited and fixed, and enemy technology increases steadily, the player will never be able to overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers, and must instead invest in higher tech units.
While these articles tend to focus on singleplayer game design, it is worth noting that this concept generalizes readily to multiplayer strategy games: each new unit should either solve a problem that cannot be solved by massing one unit, or create a problem for opponents that they cannot solve by massing one unit. As long as there is sufficient breadth in the problems and solutions available to players, a metagame can emerge which rewards experimentation with the tech tree.
This game raises an interesting question for designers to consider: what is the purpose of including multiple unit types in a strategic combat game? Prior to playing House of Wolves, a likely answer would have been that variety makes a game more interesting. The busted playthrough suggests a more constructive answer: each new unit should solve a problem that cannot be solved by building many instances of an existing unit.
The game's inclusion of physical and magical attacks would naturally lend itself to physical and magical armor. Enemy units with a high resistance to one damage type would encourage the player to invest in the other. Even without incorporating this layer of complexity, advanced tech options can be encouraged by adjusting the speed at which units are produced. House of Wolves allows units to be produced instantaneously, with the only limiting factor being the population cap. If unit production speed is limited and fixed, and enemy technology increases steadily, the player will never be able to overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers, and must instead invest in higher tech units.
While these articles tend to focus on singleplayer game design, it is worth noting that this concept generalizes readily to multiplayer strategy games: each new unit should either solve a problem that cannot be solved by massing one unit, or create a problem for opponents that they cannot solve by massing one unit. As long as there is sufficient breadth in the problems and solutions available to players, a metagame can emerge which rewards experimentation with the tech tree.