Espiocracy News

What's happening / TLDR: This is a small developer diary, a teaser, about Espiocracy - Cold War strategy game in which you play as an intelligence agency. You can catch up with the most important dev diary (The Vision) and find out more on Steam page.

Short intro: as always, we are posting a special dev diary on Christmas Eve. This time, it's a middle ground between previous AARs (after action report) from earlier Christmas specials and a teaser-set from the last special. For today's diary, I played in Vietnam for roughly 1h and recorded the campaign. From the recording, I captured a few interesting snapshots, which are collected below.



Establishing a new station on the first day of the game:




Guerrilla warfare in Iran, in a small battle Azeri militia defeated larger governmental forces:




Chinese Civil War progressing in the middle of 1946, while player chooses specialization in guerrilla warfare, which soon will allow them to establish new paramilitary organizations:




Rare piece of alternate history happened in this campaign: Newfoundland joined the USA.




Pacifist politician won presidential election in France...




...which enabled painless unification of the greater Vietnam. In the aftermath, Vietnamese intelligence community thrived, as can be seen for instance from the roster of spies.



However, there are more influential actors in France than just president - and just mere months later, France decided to retake Vietnam by force.




French forces quickly overwhelmed the country. However, this is not always game over in Espiocracy: given favorable circumstances (such as jungles or antagonized population), intelligence community can go underground and immediately begin insurgency.




And here's a hint at underground gameplay and ongoing insurgency:






Merry Christmas! The next dev diary will be posted after winter break, on February 6th!

What's happening / TLDR: Developer diaries introduce details of Espiocracy - Cold War strategy game in which you play as an intelligence agency. You can catch up with the most important dev diary (The Vision) and find out more on Steam page.



Grand strategy games have no universal objectives or victory conditions (unlike almost all other video games). Instead, players pursue open-ended gameplay, with optional self-imposed and/or externally-suggested goals. In the latter category, special role is played by "achievements": challenging state of the game that can be reached by the player, recognized by the game, and rewarded with notification and a badge.

As always, Espiocracy tries to slightly innovate on various tropes. In this case, objectives are a part of setting up a new game:



You can add custom achievements, based on values and categories (and even roll a new random and custom achievement). You can also mark chosen achievements as your main objectives: these will be displayed in a few places (such as pause menu or quinquennial intelligence report - useful when you return to a save after a break), and upon achieving them, you will be rewarded with a superevent (special flavor event with custom imagery, shape, and music). It's mostly a flavor option for players who prefer achievement-focused runs, it does not influence ability to achieve other objectives.

Speaking of which, achievements generally are not limited to Ironman mode (preventing reloading saves, you are stuck with any mistakes you made), with a few notable exceptions of achievements related to nuclear weapons and one-time actions - so that you can feel the weight of decisions when pursuing, for instance, "Red Spree-Athen" achievement (conquering West Berlin, which has WW3 and nuclear implications).

As you can see from the name of this achievement, the names can get sophisticated. They usually refer to history, phrases, and culture. Another example: achievement for Soviet landing on the Moon borrows a verse from Alexander Pushkin's "Winter Road". We won't explain other references - figuring them out may interesting in itself for our clever future players.

Conditions of achievements focus purely on good gameplay (that is, we reject meme-driven achievements). They are divided into a three main categories, corresponding to gameplay: Espionage, Cold War, "Big Five" (USA, USSR, UK, France, China - countries receiving majority of attention during development of the game).

[h2]Espionage Achievements[/h2]

• Behind enemy lines: Infiltrate a hostile country
  
• Cambridge Five: Run at least 5 high-value spies at the same time
  
• Kim's gambit: Plant a mole inside a hostile intelligence agency
  
• Panopticon: Establish spy networks on six continents
  
• The Puppetmaster: Recruit an actor with influence 25 or higher
  
• Eminence grise: Survive 32 years as a single spymaster
  
• Operation Pimlico: Recover your arrested spy through exfiltration or spy swap
  
• A wilderness of mirrors: Handle a triple agent
  
• The craft: Reach level 100 in any specialization
  
• Grand Slam: Achieve large success in an intelligence operation
  

[h2]Cold War Achievements[/h2]

• Wirtschaftswunder: Increase State Power Index 2x
  
• Critical mass: Become nuclear power as one of the countries that did not develop nuclear weapons in the history
  
• We restored order and constitutional rule: Stage successful coup d'etat
  
• Partisans are dangerous individuals: In a civil war, change side to insurgents and win it
  
• What belongs together is now growing together: Unify with another country as the dominating side
  
• Battle of systems: Switch main ideology from liberal to communist or from communist to liberal
  
• You can choose your friends but not your brothers: Establish client state as non-superpower
  
• When the world sleeps, we will awake to life and freedom: Gain independence
  
• And we call ourselves the human race: Survive one year after global thermonuclear war
  
• Progress into the Unknown: Master any futuristic paradigm before 2020
  

[h2]Achievements For "Big Five" Countries[/h2]

• Star-sprangled world: Create new pro-American views in 25 countries
  
• We flew into space, and we saw God there: Put an American on the orbit before Soviets
  
• Our nuclear sword of Damocles: As the USA, preserve lead in the number of nuclear weapons, until the USSR collapses or until 1990
  
• Nuts!: Win an expeditionary counterinsurgency war as the USA
  
• Domino theory: From the USA, do not allow any state to embrace communism in Latin America for two decades
  
• Red Spree-Athen: Conquer West Berlin, from East Germany or USSR
  
• Through the wavy mists, the Moon makes its way: As the USSR, beat the USA to being the first to land a man on the Moon
  
• We have buried you: As the USSR, overtake USA in State Power Index
  
• Comrades of ours: Establish communist client states in Africa and Latin America
  
• Soviet people are blazing the true way to the triumph: Survive as the USSR until the internet paradigm shift
  
• Our thoughts move across the seas: As the UK, retain Suez Canal and at least 5 colonies through decolonization wave, until 1970
  
• Holbrook: As the UK, pursue domestic ICBM program and introduce its fruits into nuclear triad
  
• Peace in our time: From the UK, do not allow the Troubles to begin, until 1990
  
• E uno plures: Form CANZUK, as the UK, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand
  
• Britannia rules the waves: As the UK, achieve higher diplomatic weight than the USSR
  
• Algerie francaise: As France, establish Algerian client state, and maintain it for 10 years
  
• Francafrique: From France, initiate and dominate a Pan-African organization with at least 15 member states
  
• City of Light: Host headquarters of NATO and EU in France
  
• Force de frappe: As France, develop first nuclear device before the UK
  
• Vive le Quebec libre: Support Quebec separatists in achieving their goal from France
  
• Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?: As China, establish diplomatic relations with both superpowers by 1960
  
• Firm and correct political orientation: As China, develop domestic political ideology and spread it to at least 5 countries
  
• On this tiny globe: In China, ensure full control of mainland China and Taiwan, either as communists or as nationalists
  
• Middle Electronic Kingdom: As China, achieve paradigm shift in electronics in 20th century
  
• Confucian world: From China, develop highest soft power in the world
  

[h2]Other Achievements[/h2]

• Microcenter: As a non-theocratic microstate, reach diplomatic weight of 50
  
• I didn't forget you: Hunt down a Nazi war criminal
  
• Engineer of consent: Control narrative around at least 3 major events at the same time
  
• In search of a better world: Achieve paradigm shift 5 years earlier than the historical date
  
• Master of Bandung: Become the most influential member of Non-Aligned Movement
  

[h2]Your Achievements[/h2]

In addition to 50 achievements above, designed by us, we also plan to include a number (up to 50) of selected best achievements proposed by you, the community. We have already 2000+ (!) nice achievements suggested on our discord server in a "achievement-ideas" channel, from which we are slowly selecting the best suggestions. In addition, we invite you to post your achievement ideas here on Steam Forums and in other places related to the game. The best ideas, in terms of potential gameplay, will appear in the game.



[h2]Final Remarks[/h2]

The next dev diary will be posted on Christmas Eve: December 24th.

If you're not already wishlisting Espiocracy, consider doing it

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1670650/Espiocracy/

There is also a small community around Espiocracy:



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"The best way to achieve complete strategic surprise is to commit an act that makes no sense" - CIA director, Robert Gates

What's happening / TLDR: Developer diaries introduce details of Espiocracy - Cold War strategy game in which you play as an intelligence agency. You can catch up with the most important dev diary (The Vision) and find out more on Steam page.



Nested tooltips, iconic part of UI/UX of modern complex strategy games, were invented by a solo indie developer: by Jon Shafer for "At The Gates". It's no coincidence - innovation thrives in such environment. I often look at development of Espiocracy from this perspective, looking for unusual (perhaps even first in the world) implementations that not only make this game interesting but could even propagate further in the genre. This is a diary about a few such solutions that made it to the build. They are generally optional (can be turned on/off in the settings), rough around the edges, and will evolve following your feedback in the future.

[h2]Double Tooltip For Decisions[/h2]



Slightly extrapolating on Jon Shafer's idea, Espiocracy features nested tooltips for decision-making. When you hover over a button leading to a significant decision, you can get a comprehensive prediction of consequences, calculated for this particular decision, enumerating gains and costs (including opportunity costs and long-term effects!). The tooltip tries to highlight consequences that are not be obvious to people unfamiliar with the world of espionage - for instance, above you can see that establishing relations with Czechoslovakia will grant diplomatic immunity to Czechoslovak intelligence officers in our homeland.

[h2]Map HUD[/h2]

Moving the cursor over map generates standard tooltips like in any other map game:



However, you can change it in the settings to HUD (heads-up display) that follows your cursor:



It shows basic data, visualized with horizontal bars for quick comparisons, and a list of available decisions with associated shortcuts. It is an initial simple implementation that certainly could feature more inspirations from real world HUDs used in aircrafts and other vehicles.

[h2]Picture-in-picture[/h2]



Speaking of vehicles, prevalence of mirrors and cameras in vehicles suggests that we, humans, are well-adjusted for visual multitasking. Espiocracy allows such approach: you activate picture-in-picture of any selected part of the world (for instance an ongoing revolution in Indonesia, as seen above), so that you can play zoomed in far away without missing the action elsewhere on the map.

[h2]Off-Screen Visualization[/h2]



To expand further on not-missing-out part, there is also an option to activate off-screen visualization inspired by navigation software: glyphs at the edge of the screen which point to events that would otherwise never show up on your screen.

[h2]Declutter Mode[/h2]



As you could see on the previous screenshots, the interface of the game can get very busy. Borrowing an inspiration from aircraft HUDs, the game allows you to declutter the interface. All parameters except for critical ones are now hidden, number and density of elements on the map is drastically lowered, outliner or widgets are hidden unless manually opened. It also calms down notifications and popups, following EEMUA guideline of less than 1 interruption per 10 minutes under normal conditions, and less than 10 interruptions per 10 minutes during crisis situation (notifications exceeding the limit are queued up and can be acknowledged collectively). Apart from manual activation, this mode is also suggested for "relaxed" mode, new/casual players, and optionally you set auto-activation for overwhelming events (similarly to declutter mode auto-activating in an aircraft when it is sharply banking, likely due an emergency).

[h2]Drawing on the Map[/h2]



Simple & quick feature: you can grab a marker and draw directly on the map (and later erase it). So far, I found it useful for instance for marking countries of interest.

[h2]Trajectory of Parameters[/h2]



One more aircraft inspiration: optionally, you can activate an attitude-indicator-like (navball-like) background behind parameters. At a glance, it shows current value (horizon position) and future value (horizon rotation). Importantly, it is smoothly animated on change (and predicted change) of either, so that it captures your attention like an attitude indicator.

[h2]Two-Step "Intelligent" Validation[/h2]



Manuals about designing complex interfaces dedicate a lot of space to eliminating user-introduced mistakes. Here's one of such solutions that made it to the game: certain important decisions are checked against logical conditions, and if they look like a user-introduced mistake, the player is asked to confirm the decision with attached explanation.

[h2]History of Relevant Decisions[/h2]



When you select a country, an actor, or a unit (more kinds of entities in the future), you can inspect history of your own decisions with regards to this entity. It's a simple log that allows you to verify what and when you did or didn't, and convenient help when you return to an older save. There is also a global list of all decisions made by the player.

[h2]Ledger[/h2]



Now a standard feature for grand strategy games - a sheet comparing all countries in the world - but with a slight iteration, featuring also available actions (so you can launch a battery of decisions from this screen alone).

[h2]Low Intel Mode[/h2]

Espiocracy wouldn't be Espiocracy if you couldn't see the world from the confusing perspective of intelligence agencies denying each other access to real information. You can activate an optional mode in game rules - certainly only for hardcore players - which approximates how much realistically an intelligence director knew at the time. Depending on your intelligence community (huge difference between, say, Irish and British capabilities), many values will be hidden, approximated, or even have attached bias modifying real value. Majority of actors is unknown by default, unless you acquire relevant intelligence. Availability of decisions is generally unknown and so are costs associated with decisions. There is even a realistic delay of events, news, and feedback arriving to your screen - for instance, a resolution of Chinese civil war may become apparent a month after it happened. If it sounds frustrating, I must admit that it indeed is, and this mode is more of an optional curiosity.



[h2]Before Final Remarks: 2026[/h2]

The release date of Espiocracy is no longer planned for 2025. As we are working hard on delivering the best game possible, we are looking currently at 2026 as the potential release year.

[h2]Final Remarks[/h2]

The next dev diary will be posted on the first Friday of the next month: December 5th.

If you're not already wishlisting Espiocracy, consider doing it

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1670650/Espiocracy/

There is also a small community around Espiocracy:



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"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things" - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

What's happening / TLDR: Developer diaries introduce details of Espiocracy - Cold War strategy game in which you play as an intelligence agency. You can catch up with the most important dev diary (The Vision) and find out more on Steam page.



Today we're continuing our journey through the interface of Espiocracy. While the title of this diary is "User Interface", in practice it's just a continuation of the previous diary, since distinction between UX and UI is rather blurry.

[h2]Interface Hierarchy[/h2]

Grand strategy games are commonly known as "map games". The map, naturally, is central part of the interface of these games, including Espiocracy.



We already explored the map in a separate diary (DD#35). Numerous other diaries showcased various map modes and data layers. For instance, you can click on any country to immediately see its alignment with all the other countries in the world:



Here, we can embed the map in the wider context. From the perspective of the whole interface or even by observing the evolution of the genre in recent years, it can be deduced that maps in map games are usually superficially central (sometimes also situationally, eg. during a war - but this a Cold War game!). More often than not, the map is just a comforting central background. Like... the TV set for Al Bundy.

Paradoxically, this point of view does not make the map (or the TV set) any less important. Instead, it allows us to avoid mistakes that would actually make the map less important: less intelligible and less useful. In this game, the map has clear position in the interface hierarchy: the map -> widgets -> windows -> full-screen overlays.



Widgets on both sides of the screen feature summary interfaces (such as above), allow inspecting details (such as below)...



...and provide more advanced tools for exploring the world:



If an interaction requires more thought, it usually takes the form of a window:



And if it's a critical game-stopping interaction, it can take over full screen, as in this screenshot from DD#63:



[h2]Buttons and Icons[/h2]

Speaking of full screens, the simplest way to communicate the vibe of the game is usually its main menu. You can see all the characteristic "physical" buttons, panels, screws, and pins right away:



There are many sets of such buttons in various shapes, all the way to "pointy" radial menu:



In addition to precise tooltips for every button, majority of them have labels on the screen. Even square buttons, where there is place only for a small visual symbol, often display a side label that appears when player moves cursors towards them.

Symbols themselves are simple and flat, with game-wide color coding (eg. orange = actions, white = parameters, green = espionage assets; note that it's not yet implemented in full on the screenshots). The game has currently more than 500 distinct symbols and the list will certainly grow.



[h2]Visual History[/h2]

The Cold War was the era of photography. Pulitzer Prize has been extended to photographers in 1942, the White House created the office of official photographer in 1961, Kodak grew to 150 thousand employees in the 1980s. Everyday life and almost every historical event has been immortalized by cameras. Espiocracy draws from these rich historical sources directly. A few examples below (non-exhaustive list).

Every nation in the game has a set of historical photos showing ordinary life roughly around the current year in the game:



Events are accompanied by relevant historical photos and documents, which can be inspected on hover:



Operational steps are tied to frames from real training videos for intelligence and law enforcement officers (right-hand side of the screen):



[h2]Scaling[/h2]

The interface can manage all the most popular screen resolutions, from Steam Deck's 1280x800 all the way to 4K:



Widescreen works as well!



[h2]Audio[/h2]

Last and the least, audio layer of the game is so simple that it can be described by one paragraph in this diary. In addition to standard sounds effects that you can hear in any game, the game also features fully moddable radio with songs divided into stations that can be turned on/off. Playlists can be influenced by tags of songs defined in text files, such as "communist", "nuclear_war", or "YYYY" (year in the game, so that period-based music mods are possible).





[h2]Final Remarks[/h2]

The next dev diary will be posted on the first Friday of the next month: November 7th.

If you're not already wishlisting Espiocracy, consider doing it

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1670650/Espiocracy/

There is also a small community around Espiocracy:



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"Colonel in charge invited the entire Berlin press corps to a briefing and tour of the tunnel and its facilities. As a result, the tunnel was undoubtedly the most highly publicized peacetime espionage enterprise in modern times prior to the U-2 incident" - CIA report on discovery of an eavesdropping tunnel between West and East Berlin. Journalists were allowed to take photographs inside the tunnel which were then caused sensation and were printed by the newspapers around the world