The Battle of Polytopia

The Battle of Polytopia
Developer(s)Midjiwan AB
Publisher(s)Midjiwan AB
Producer(s)Felix af Ekenstam
Composer(s)Robin af Ekenstam
Platform(s)
ReleaseFebruary 2016
Genre(s)Turn-based strategy
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The Battle of Polytopia is a 4X turn-based strategy game developed and published by Midjiwan AB. Players play as one of sixteen tribes to develop an empire and defeat opponents in a low poly square-shaped world. Players can play against bots or human opponents, local or online. The game was initially released in February 2016 and November 2016 in USA.[1]

Gameplay

The Battle of Polytopia is a 4X turn-based strategy game with isometric graphics and a colorful, low poly art style.[2][3] Each game is set in a procedurally generated square world made of tiles.[4] After choosing one of sixteen tribes to play as, players start each game with a single city and one warrior. They can expand their territory by sending units to unexplored tiles, obscured by clouds; capturing unclaimed villages; and battling enemy tribes to take their cities.

Each city generates an in-game currency called stars for their tribe every turn. Players can use stars to train more units; harvest resources and create buildings on captured tiles; and research upgrades on the tech tree,[4][5] enabling them to make new types of units and buildings and harvest different resources. Resource-harvesting and buildings level up cities' "population", which makes them generate more stars and be able to train more units.

There are three single-player game modes with AI enemies: Perfection, where the player aims for the highest score in 30 turns; Domination, where the goal is to destroy all other tribes as fast as possible; and Creative, an endless mode. Players can also face off against other players online.

While four of the tribes are free-of-charge, the rest require purchase. They each have different designs and biomes and start with different technologies.

History

The Battle of Polytopia began as the personal project of Felix Ekenstam, a Swedish freelancer who developed Flash games. Ekenstam started the one-man indie studio Midjiwan AB to work on the game.[6] In 2023, he said that, starting out, "I wanted to create the kind of game that I would enjoy, that wasn’t already available anywhere else." Ekenstam envisioned Polytopia as a strategy game which adopted mobile games' "simplicity and accessibility" but not their "aggressive monetisation". He used Adobe Flash to create the game.[7]

In February 2016, the game was first released on the App Store, titled Super Tribes. The first version only had the thirty-turn mode.[8] In June 2016, the game's name was changed to The Battle of Polytopia due to trademark issues.[9] The game was released on Android on December 1, 2016.[10] Online multiplayer was added on February 15, 2018.[3] A desktop version using Steam was released on August 4, 2020.[11] The game was added as a feature to Tesla cars on December 25, 2020.[12]

The game was released for Nintendo Switch in October 2022.

In 2020, a new version of the game called Moonrise was released. Moonrise uses the Unity game engine, while previous versions used Adobe AIR. Moonrise was released first on Steam with the desktop version's release on August 4, 2020 and then on mobile on November 23 the same year.[11]

In 2023, the Path of the Ocean update was released.[13] This update saw the addition of new naval units such as the Raft, Scout, and Bomber, as well as new buildings such as Bridges and Markets (a notable rework to the former Custom House).

Reception

In The Battle of Polytopia's first year, reviewers thought the game was enjoyable despite its flaws.

Reviews for the mobile version of The Battle of Polytopia were positive. Chris Carter of TouchArcade gave the game 4.5 stars out of 5, calling it "a great city building game that's free of the shackles of 'freemium.'"[14] The PC port of the game received "mixed reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.[15] In a review for Cubed3, Eric Ace gave the game a 6 out of 10 saying, "For some casual players it is a fun romp, but anyone looking for depth or longevity won't find it here."[16]

Environmental initiatives

All revenues from sales of the game's "Zebasi" tribe on mobile are invested in loans for solar power projects in rural Africa with the Swedish company Trine. Over €150,000 has been invested since October 2021.[17]

Midjiwan AB has donated to EARTHDAY.ORG's The Canopy Project in support of its reforestation efforts.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Battle of Polytopia (Video Game 2016)". IMDb. 13 April 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  2. ^ Newton, Thomas (18 December 2017). "The Battle of Polytopia - PC Mag UK's mobile game of the year". PCMag UK. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
  3. ^ a b Purewal, Sarah Jacobsson (29 March 2017). "Take over the world (over and over and over) in The Battle of Polytopia". Macworld. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  4. ^ a b Eddy, Max (30 December 2016). "The Battle of Polytopia (for iPhone) Review". PCMag. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  5. ^ Vega, Sin (27 July 2022). "The Rally Point: The Battle For Polytopia is this summer's low-intensity strategy game". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  6. ^ Cook, Paige (14 November 2023). "Christian Lövstedt on The Battle Of Polytopia's journey to 20 million downloads". PocketGamer.biz. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  7. ^ Rees, Lewis (27 September 2023). "The Battle of Polytopia celebrates a milestone 20 million mobile downloads". PocketGamer.biz. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  8. ^ "Cult Turn-Based Strategy Game 'The Battle of Polytopia' Getting Online Multiplayer February 15th". TouchArcade. 8 February 2018. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  9. ^ "Civilization-like Super Tribes is now called The battle of Polytopia, updated with new UI and tribe". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  10. ^ Sowden, Emily (1 December 2016). "The turn-based strategy game The Battle of Polytopia has finally come to Android". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  11. ^ a b Gregson-Wood, Stephen (23 November 2020). "The Battle of Polytopia's mobile version has now received the Moonrise update that launched on Steam earlier this year". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  12. ^ Paukert, Chris (25 December 2020). "Tesla's Holiday Update software includes a noisy and controversial new feature". CNET. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  13. ^ "Path of The Ocean". The Battle of Polytopia (Official Page). Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  14. ^ Carter, Chris (24 May 2018). "'The Battle of Polytopia' Review – Global Domination, Bit by Bit". TouchArcade. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  15. ^ "The Battle of Polytopia". Metacritic. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  16. ^ Ace, Eric (16 March 2021). "Battle of Polytopia (PC) Review". Cube3. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  17. ^ "Polytopia continues to invest game revenues in Solar Energy". hype.news. 22 October 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  18. ^ Lovstedt, Christian (22 April 2020). "Polytopia donates to reforestation". Retrieved 18 February 2021.