Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty - Prologue 1939 News

Hello

We hope that your holiday is going well and you were able to spend some great time with your family and friends.

If you planned on getting any Strategic Mind games during the Steam Winter Saler all-time largest discount and forgot to do that - here is your chance. The sale ends on January 5th, so there is only a couple of days left.

Here are all our titles and discounts on them:

Strategic Mind: The Pacific - 45%
https://store.steampowered.com/app/991810/Strategic_Mind_The_Pacific/

Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg - 45%
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1200330/Strategic_Mind_Blitzkrieg/

Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism - 40%
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1341170/Strategic_Mind_Spectre_of_Communism/

Strategic Mind: Fight for Freedom - 35%
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1381850/Strategic_Mind_Fight_for_Freedom/

Save up an additional 20% on top of the discounts above if you get Strategic Mind Complete Collection bundle:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/16499/Strategic_Mind_Complete_Collection/

Support us by adding Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty to your wishlist
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1474770/Strategic_Mind_Spirit_of_Liberty/

With Best Regards from Kyiv
Starni Games team

Hello guys!

It’s been a difficult year for everyone in Ukraine. So, our key achievements for this year are:

• Everyone on the team is alive and safe (to the extent you could be safe in a city that occasionally suffers missile strikes)
  
• The company survived - we continued our operations, managed to keep the team together, and returned to our Kyiv office
  

That is already good enough on its own, but we are happy to say we managed to do even more, despite all difficulties we also managed the following:

• We made good progress in the development of Headquarters: World War II and kept working on Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty
  
• We self-funded and self-published a fully free charity project about the war in Ukraine from civilains points of view - Ukraine War Stories
  
• Our team grew from 15 to 25 people. Now we are quite a large team (which we are still getting used to)
  
• Installed a power generator and heaters to make sure we have a power supply and internet connection even if the whole city or our district is out of power - ensured our office is autonomous. This allows us to look more confidently into 2023.
  
• Donated substantial amount of money to help Ukraine both as a company and as individuals
  

Starni Games team

Now let us look a bit closer at our team. Here is a Starni team introductory video made by Slitherine team for the Headquarters: World War II presentation.
We are very excited that despite the war our team has only grown stronger and is ready to deliver more and better content in 2023 than ever before.

Starni Games Q&A #3 - ask us

We remain very open to our community - so we would be more than happy to answer any and all of your questions. Please, send your questions through this form.

We will record a video answering all of your questions in early January.

Previous Dev Q&As:
Dev Q&A #1 Dev Q&A #2

Also, join our Discord server to talk with us and other players at any time.

Headquarters: World War II

Throughout the year our biggest project was Headquarters: World War II and we are making really good progress with it. You can see that yourself if you watch the recent presentation at the Slitherine Next event.
Also, if you like the project and want to help us with the final polish - sign up for the Beta test of the game here.

Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty

We keep working on the project, but we have to admit that we have some difficulties in organizing the VO as most of teh people we worked with are now unavailable for various war-related reasons and we do not have the budget to just order it somewhere, so we are looking to solve these problems while also working on the remaining levels and aspects of the game we could. We have concrete plans for release in 2023, but we cannot announce it yet, as some aspects of the development remain unresolved at this stage.

We will continue to make regular updates about our development progress, Here is one of the historical music tracks from the upcoming Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty for your listening pleasure.

To support us, please, add the Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty to your wishlist:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1474770/Strategic_Mind_Spirit_of_Liberty/

Ukraine War Stories

We are really happy we managed to create a highly reviewed project (88% Positive reviews at the time of writing, which is a miracle in itself considering the sensitive nature of the project) about the war in Ukraine in the middle of the said war. It is a fully free charity project that our whole team is really proud of - so we invite you to have a look and spread the word:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1985510/Ukraine_War_Stories/

Check out our recent report about Ukraine War Stories.

War in Ukraine

While the war in Ukraine continues, we managed to adapt and keep working even in these difficulty conditions. You can learn more about how that went by checking out our War in Ukraine Despatches on the community hub - there is the most recent one.

We hope that Ukraine’s territories will be liberated by UAF and the war will be over as soon as possible. With that in mind, we also should not be overly optimistic or careless and should be ready and resolved to work in wartime conditions as long as it is required.

Stand with Ukraine!

Extra details for newsletter subscribers

We want this report to be concise, so if you are looking for even more details and insides about the Starni Gamers team - make sure you subscribed to our newsletter (Subscribe button could be found in any of the Strategic Mind games, and if you already subscribed you do not have to do anything extra, just wait for the letter) to receive a letter with an extra addition to this report.

The letter will be sent out on 30th January.

Happy holidays!

Our team wishes you all happy holidays and looks forward to seeing you all in 2023. We hope you will spend a great time with your family and friends, while also refreshing your body and soul and getting ready for the new and exciting year 2023.

With Best Wishes from Kyiv
Oleksandr and the Strani Games team

Hello

Last two months have been rough for our team, same as for just about everyone else in Ukraine, due to the constant missile and kamikaze drone attacks on the power supply system across entire country. As I explained in previous despatches this led to working from home with a very unsteady working hours (often at night) and communication delays as different people would be available at different times.

To be able to participate in Headquarters: World War II live presentation I had to go to coworking space with my laptop, as there was Stralink internet access unaffected by unpredictable power cuts. This was necessary to make sure I would not drop out in the middle of the livestream.

Now, all these problems are tackled, as we finally got ourselves a decent power generator installed near our office. It allows us to run all PCs and a couple other devices while there is no power, and then switch back to main supply when its back up, There is still problem with the cold though, as the temperature outside could go as low as -10 *C, while the centralized heating in the office building does not work this winter. When the centralized power is up, we can use various heaters to make it nice and warm, but when the power is off and we run the generator - we cannot use much more than our PCs alone. So, to counter that we installed a powerful gas heater as well. The first few days it was cold, while we were still working out everything with the heating, but now the situation should improve.

The best thing though, is that we are together again and can work out any issues and discuss things very fast and efficient as before. That means we should be back to our normal production speed after the holidays period, despite the ongoing war. We often lack the power at home, which is uncomfortable, but at least now our work is secured and we can continue uninterrupted.

Starni Games news

Sign ups for Headquarters: World War II Beta now open

Make sure to watch the recent Headquarters: World War II presenation during the Slitherine Next event and if you want to help us make the game better before the official trelease - make sure you sign up for the beta here.

The Headquarters section of the event had the following structure:

- Intro video
- Strani team presentation
- Single-player operation gameplay video with dev commentary
- 4-players multiplayer match highlights with dev commentary

So, there is really a lot of juicy content there and a quite in-depth discussion of the game. I think that is the first time our team prepared a footage of a multiplayer match by 4 Devs recorded by each person to create the shortened “highlights” version and present the multiplayer to the audience.

Please, let us know what you think about the project and its presentation. Your feedback is really important for our team

Submit your questions for Dev Q&A #3

We will soon hold end of the year Q&A, so if you have questions about any of our projects (Strategic Mind series, Headuarters: World War II, or Ukraine War Stories) or about our team – please send them to us through this form.

Ukraine War Storiers 2 months after release review

Check out how our fully free charity project covering the war in Ukarine from civilians point of view is faring here.

Scenario overview #2: The Battle of Tolvajarvi

If you have missed our recent Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty scenario review, you can found it here.

Steam Winter Sale has begun!

Last but not least, Steam Winter Sale is ongoing with all Strategic Mind titles at there all-time biggesrt discounts up and running until January 5th. We know that Strategic Mind could be a very tricky Chirsmas present to figure out, but if you know some hardcore wargamers (including yourselves) who are up to the task, consider making their holidays even more exciting.

See all discounts

Save up an additional 20% on top of the discounts above if you get Strategic Mind Complete Collection bundle:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/16499/Strategic_Mind_Complete_Collection/

Support us by adding Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty to your wishlist
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1474770/Strategic_Mind_Spirit_of_Liberty/

Merry Christmas!

Our whole team wishes you, your family and friends Merry Chistmas and hopes you will have great time during the holidays.

With Best Regards from Kyiv
Starni Games team

Hello

Christmas holiday is about to start, it’s high time to expand your collection by taking advantage of the all-time largest discount on all Strategic Mind series titles.

Our team is living through difficult times in Ukraine, so we would truly appreciate if you support our team by grabbing one or two copies as a gift (only if you think that would be a good gist, of course). We will keep you updated on how we work in these difficult times for our country in the follow-up Steam community news.

Strategic Mind: The Pacific - 45%
https://store.steampowered.com/app/991810/Strategic_Mind_The_Pacific/

Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg - 45%
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1200330/Strategic_Mind_Blitzkrieg/

Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism - 40%
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1341170/Strategic_Mind_Spectre_of_Communism/

Strategic Mind: Fight for Freedom - 35%
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1381850/Strategic_Mind_Fight_for_Freedom/

Save up an additional 20% on top of the discounts above if you get Strategic Mind Complete Collection bundle:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/16499/Strategic_Mind_Complete_Collection/

Support us by adding Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty to your wishlist
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1474770/Strategic_Mind_Spirit_of_Liberty/

Stay tuned for more news from Starni Games and our end of the year summary.

With Best Regards from Kyiv
Starni Games team

Hello

We will soon hold end of the year Q&A, so if you have questions about any of our projects (Strategic Mind series, Headuarters: World War II, or Ukraine War Stories) or about our team – please send them to us through the form below:
https://forms.gle/sSXz2uxpzazifJZa9

We will also have more news and end of the year news updates for you in the coming days.

With Best Regards from Kyiv
Starni Games team