Operation Tempest – Devlog #1

Hello and welcome to the first devlog post for Studio Nugget’s first game, (working title) Operation Tempest!

My name is Jacob and I am the project lead for Operation Tempest. I’m writing this first of many (sporadic) blog posts to document our project’s journey from the beginning stages to a fully developed game. All of us here at Studio Nugget are now working on this game full time and we’re very excited to begin sharing information about it. The team is comprised of just four people with Billy (An Ly) and Patrick on art and programming along with Craig and I as co-game designers and resident historians. We’re all very passionate about video game development and are excited to collaborate on making something interesting.

Operation Tempest is a single player strategy game set during World War II. In this game you will control the leader of the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and work with your fellow resistance members to fight off the German invaders in a desperate fight for the survival of your country and its people. How you will succeed, or if you will succeed, comes down to how well you can manage your resources, people, and diplomatic relations. In this desperate struggle, you are the underdog. You must fight for every loaf of bread, every rifle, and every soldier—all of which are held by the Nazi regime that is occupying your territory.

Tempest has three different interdependent modes of interaction. In the narrative mode you can walk though your campsite to speak with your fellow soldiers and get updates on how your people are doing. This is where most of the dialogue occurs and it’s where you can spend time seeing how your actions are improving (or worsening) the lives of your fellow soldiers. Another mode involves controlling your characters in a grid-based, tactics-style combat scenario. Here is where you will raid supply trucks, free prisoners, assassinate officers, and much more. Finally there is the large scale strategy mode, where you can look at the map of Poland to see an overview of how the war is going. This is where you can get accurate figures on how your army is doing in terms of manpower, rations, ammunition, etc. and it is also where you will make decisions on where to strike next. All of these levels affect one another in various ways, as where you decide to spend your time and resources will affect how certain people view you, how well you will do in your next battle, and much more.

By now you may have gleaned that this is an alternate history game that is somewhat grounded in reality. For those of you who are into learning about this time period, you know that the Armia Krajowa—despite their great amount of bravery, skill, and determination—were unable to succeed in fully throwing off the shackles of the Nazi regime on their own. It took the Soviet Union pushing the Germans back to Berlin for the fascists to finally be expelled from Polish territory. However, once the Germans were driven out of their country the Armia Krajowa and Polish civilians were promptly suppressed by the Soviet Union, and Poland was forced to cede their eastern territory and become a puppet of the totalitarian regime.

The reason why we chose this time and place to be the centerpiece of our game is because we were inspired by the tenacity and resilience by these people. The Armia Krajowa attempted to fight off the invaders despite the evil and genocidal intent of the Nazi regime. I personally feel as though the story of Poles during this time period doesn’t get its fair share of representation outside of Poland itself. It is one of the countries that was most devastated by the Second World War and it has so many stories left to tell about that destructive era. So even though we are twisting the real history of the time period to suit the narrative of our game, we are including well researched articles throughout. We will not only give you a history of the region and its people, but will also attempt to portray how the war truly went for the Poles, including those belonging to persecuted groups like the Jewish and Romani people. We hope to be as considerate as possible where the real history of Poland is concerned, as it is truly one that deserves more and more of our attention these days.

Overall our goal in making this game is to present you with difficult choices, to reward careful planning, to allow you to interact with interesting characters in a unique setting, and to provide you with the history of the places and people that you liberate throughout the course of the game. We think that the game should be hard, but manageable if you make the right decisions. Obviously it should be fun, but it should also require focus. What I’m trying to say is that we feel that Operation Tempest should allow you to feel strong in the face of extreme adversity if you play your cards right. I think that videogames are one of the best tools at inspiring empathy and passion if done right. I hope that we are able to achieve that. For now, I think that’s all I’ve got. Be sure to stay tuned for the next devlog for more information on Operation Tempest!