An enormous supply / Volume
New games ship every day. Getting noticed is already a feat.
An AIgen conceptual challenge
Novarchy. A consulting test, in one of the hardest markets.
We analysed gaming, one of the most crowded markets, and with our agents we defined, designed and developed a product able to compete. The game is the evidence. What it proves is the consulting work we bring to clients.
Free to play, with optional in-game purchases; some packs give combat advantages. Played in the browser, on computer and phone.
01 / The challenge
Why gaming: enormous supply, scarce attention.
Contested attention / Time
Everyone is fighting for players’ time: social media, video, other games.
Loyalty to the classics / Habit
Strategy players have stuck with the same titles for years and do not switch easily.
The question: can an agentic method take a product from zero to a live game, able to compete where players have already made their choice?
02 / Game Design Benchmark
Before designing, we studied who was already there.
A comparative study of the genre’s reference titles, with a simple grid: what we take, what we don’t adopt.
- OGame
- Travian
- EVE Online
- Stellaris
- Clash of Clans
- Rise of Kingdoms
What we take
- EVE Online
- The map as a political chart: territory and sovereignty visible at a glance.
- OGame
- Coordinates as the players’ common language.
- Travian
- Zoom by levels: each level shows only what it needs to.
- Clash of Clans
- Guild events over long windows, open to players in different time zones.
- Rise of Kingdoms
- Guild donations: cheap to give, rewarding for the giver, and they build shared research.
What we don’t adopt
- EVE Online
- Wormholes, regional markets, security tiers: complexity that this scale does not need.
- OGame
- A galaxy made only of coordinates, with no territorial map.
- Travian
- The uniform square grid: space wants star systems, not a board of squares.
- Stellaris
- Fixed lanes between systems: our galaxy is open, divided into sectors.
- The genre
- Events at a fixed time: people at work or in another time zone cannot be there.
The names cited are trademarks of their respective owners. Novarchy is not affiliated with or endorsed by them; the references describe design choices.
The positioning we chose: strategy for people with day jobs. Short sessions, several times a day. Timers from minutes to hours, never days.
03 / Design and development
Written rules, verified code, continuous releases.
Economy, combat, map, guilds, seasons: every system has written rules; the main ones have a dedicated design document. The code is checked against those rules.
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Written rules
What each system does, why, and within which limits.
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Stated references
The main choices name the model they start from and the one they move away from.
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Recorded decisions
When a rule changes, the decision and the reason are recorded.
Need
An idea, a request, a player’s report becomes a clear task.
Development
AIgen agents write the code and the tests. Our team supervises and decides.
Verification
Automated tests and adversarial review before anything is merged.
Release
Continuous releases, straight to the browser.
Our team sets the direction, AIgen agents carry it out with discipline.
04 / What it means for you
The same phases, in your industry.
These are the phases of our method, applied to your industry instead of a game.
Analysis
In the game, the Game Design Benchmark. For you, processes, data and competitors.
Design
Written specifications and agreed acceptance criteria, before the code.
Development
AIgen agents and our team together, with automated tests and frequent releases.
Real-world validation
In the game, real players. For you, real users and real processes.
05 / The game
A space strategy game that lives on when you are not playing.
Novarchy is a space 4X strategy game (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate), multiplayer and persistent. Every season ends with the Eschaton, a cyclical cataclysm.
Base
An empire to grow: buildings, research, colonies.
Fleets
Ships to build and command, from interceptors to titans.
Combat
Every battle has its own 3D replay, to watch again whenever you like.
Espionage
What you can see decides what you dare.
Guilds
Shared research, raids and recurring events to take on together.
Synthetic empires
AI-controlled empires populate the galaxy. Each one wears an AI badge.
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The base -
The hangar
New players start out protected: for the first three days, no one can raze you. Played in the browser, on computer and phone.
Free to play, with optional in-game purchases; some packs give combat advantages.