On behalf of the Battle Nations dev team, we’d like to wish you all a (belated) Happy New Year! With this new year, we’ve taken a moment to reflect on the project’s challenges and determine how best to overcome them in the coming year. We have thought long and hard about solutions and the path we have ultimately chosen is not a choice we take lightly but one we believe is best for the project’s long-term success.
Before getting into the details, some background is in order. As you all know, we have been dealing with King’s counsel over the past year which has been a long and costly process. It ultimately has left us developing with one arm tied behind our back and has forced long pauses on our development timelines. We were also compelled to pull distribution of our completed sandbox due to the confusion of ownership over the graphical assets to Battle Nations of which King has still not provided evidence affirming ownership. From a development perspective it is very disappointing as we have poured our heart and soul into giving you all the best possible game experience and now you the players are forced again into limbo.
We, however, are a very optimistic and opportunistic team. Where most probably saw an impossible challenge to overcome with legal challenges halting development, our team instead saw an opportunity to branch out and develop its skills. We have been hard at work over the past few months developing an internal project which we hope to release in the near future. This has been a project that has allowed the development team to stretch its legs with creative freedom and become far more experienced with the Unity editor to create a new mobile title. We won’t go into much detail until we are closer to release, but we are very excited to get it launched.
This internal project was also the turning point for the Battle Nations project. Watching the development of this internal project was eye-opening due to the sheer talent of the team we’ve built and fostered over the last few months to support the development of our new title, a team we intend on carrying into Battle Nations development in the coming months.
This finally leads to the major announcement for Battle Nations: Our team will produce its take on a decidedly distinct and improved version of what Battle Nations can be. This version from our team will not be marred in legal issues. Despite its distinction, we are confident it will still impress long standing fans of Z2s iteration while also attracting new players to the game.
Again, this is not a decision that we take lightly, it is something that has involved countless hours of strategizing and internal discussions. The more we debated each of our options though, the more obvious it became that this is the right move for the community in the long term.
If we really take a moment to step back and think about what Battle Nations represents, it isn’t the exact original assets we remember from the 2010s, it’s the fond memories we’ve made over the years, the friendships forged, and ultimately the sense of community that even today we see grow ever stronger. After seeing what our team is capable of in our internal development project, we are fully confident that our team is ready to rise to the challenge and deliver to you a compelling game that exceeds the quality you found from Battle Nations. The new project and branding is only a taste of what’s to come.
What does this mean for you? From a game standpoint, you will find a NEW storyline, NEW characters, NEW music, and NEW art! This likely sounds like a scary change, but we believe this will actually allow us to deliver a BETTER game to you. From a project administration standpoint, as we finally return more control of the project outcomes into our own hands, we seek to be more transparent throughout the development process, aiming for more frequent info updates as they become available. We will also be taking public feedback so that YOU have an opportunity to directly shape Battle Nations. Keep an eye out for surveys in the announcements channel as this will be our way to get direct feedback from you and allow us to adjust our direction accordingly.
Today marks the start of a new beginning in Battle Nations. While it may not be exactly how you remembered it, we strive to provide you with an experience that you will cherish. Our team is super excited to be heading in this new direction and cannot wait to get started. We hope that, with an open mind, you will share the same enthusiasm that our dev team has for this new direction. Here’s to new horizons for Battle Nations! 🥂