Vangaro Tactics News

Hey, it's Daniel the dev behind the game,

✨ I'm Happy to announce Vangaro Tactics is participating in TurnBasedThursday Fest!
400+ Games! From AAA hits to ground-breaking indies.
The event will run for one week from the 2nd of June to the 9th. 📅

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/TurnBasedThursdayFest2025

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Try the Updated Demo 💽 if you haven't yet:
- 🛩 Spot enemy units with the Recon biplane
- ⚔ Battle Vera and her "Glacial Shield" ❄

Hi, I'm Daniel the dev behind Vangaro Tactics.
Here's a new patch for the demo.

[h2]Patch notes:[/h2]
- Enforce resolutions of 16:9 aspect ratio (from Options menu dropdown)
- Enforce 16:9 resolution after startup (in case wrong one is set from older build)
- Fixed "Reset Video Options" from Options menu
- Added Enter/Backspace to Accept/Cancel Button Prompts
- Fixed bug where ButtonPrompts would not display properly after changing from keyboard/mouse to controller
- Changed Level 1 dialog to display the game view as background. Also added numbers near the Factory and Barracks so it's easier to notice where to go first.
- Fixed bug where OverlayIcons would not be reused each level.

Hi, I'm Daniel the dev behind Vangaro Tactics.

There's a new patch for the Demo Update 💽
I intended to upload it last week but got a strange bug in the build that made the player's Recon planes invisible during combat (it's fixed now).


(the most stealthy plane ever in action)

[h2]Patch notes:[/h2]
- Improved dialogues
- Added tutorial for Recon planes, AA Truck, Healing infantry, Joining units, Mechanic (repairs vehicles)
- New sky backgrounds (during combat animations)
- New damageUI icons: attack, spot, repair, joinUnits

Hello officers!
I'm Daniel, the dev behing Vangaro Tactics.

I'm here to announce there's a new Demo Update for Steam's Wargames Fest.
✨It includes lots of fixes, QoL and new stuff that comes together on the improved Level 5: "Vera's Tank Counterattack".

I was planning to publish it earlier this week but it started with a national power outage here in Spain and then it's been mostly animating the AA/Transport Trucks (the vehicle plus the passenger defending it). Just a few hours ago I've hit a roadblock exporting the build, some textures looked glitchy with every build new, but it's fixed now, just needed to tidy up some space for the game engine to do its job :)

⚔ Battle against Vera and her "Glacial Shield" power.
🛩 Use the Recon biplane to Spot enemy units with flares and get a damage boost.
🚛 Beware of the Anti-Aircraft trucks.


🚚 Also new art and combat animations for the Transport Truck.

• 💂‍♂️ Sniper Auto-path: Hover over an enemy in range and the computer will decide a good ranged position to attack from (can also move to your desired position manually).
  
• Improved Shop UI: for each unit it now shows the ones it's Effective and Vulnerable against
  
• Improved the Options Menu.
  
• 🔊Audio notification when Commander Power is ready. If the power fills up at the end of the turn it will wait a bit until changing turn to make it easier to notice it.
  
• Faster New Turn animation on Stealth Missions: when no outpost is alerted it plays the shortest animation, when there's patrol units it shows the enemy UI but minimal; when an outpost is alerted it will show the full animation (like in non-stealthy levels).
  
• 📃 Commander Power tooltip: When your power is ready a description shows up when hovering over the button on the turn menu.
  

Buildings can Heal/Repair units

• Heal infantry in Factories.
  
• Repair ground vehicles in the Barracks.
  

• 🔧Mechanic unit ready to Repair 🚛.
  
• Also adding the ability to Join damaged units 💂‍♂️+💂‍♂️.
  
• When Healing/Repairing/Joining units a heart icon shows up when the unit reaches full HP.
  

[h2]Extra:[/h2]

• Snipers get extra range from mountains (also Mortar and ATSniper but not playable in the demo).
  
• Computer buys units and Repairs vehicles with its Mechanic.
  
• Computer captures buildings and mines resources.
  

[h2]Bug Fixing:[/h2]

• Fixed button-smashing/double click in the turnMenu and actionMenu.
  
• Fixed bug that caused the Power Bar animation to not play.
  
• Fixed bug where the HQ's keylock would't dissappear after defeating all units from that outpost (Stealth Missions).
  

Hi, this is Daniel, the dev behind Vangaro Tactics.
Today I will share how I came up with the game :)


It was summer 2018 and I was finishing my final project for uni, a VR procedural maze "game" in Unity. I had already made most of the procedural maze generation earlier but couldn't make it in time for the VR part so I would be evaluated in September.

Screenshot from my VR final project

I didn't own any VR headset, but thanks to my uni I got some limited time with an Oculus headset with the Touch controllers (the latest version at that time). So I could implement the VR navigation and gameplay: shooting arrows, grabbing objects, slashing enemies, etc. The visuals would not be evaluated as it was for a Computer Engineering degree, so I made some minimal 3d models in blender but the focus was on the technical part.

Procedural maze from the air (golden rooms are locked)

A key to open those locked rooms

I couldn't take too long to make it work as I had to return the VR headset and some time later I would be travelling.



In early September I went on a family trip to Scotland, which would plant the seed for Vangaro Tactics. I was already somewhat into world war 2 before, but there it was present in bookshops, monuments and there were some cool planes in the National Museum too.

Scotland's national museum

I was so inspired I ended up getting a book about the Royal Air Force's innovations during its 100 years and a novel about British special forces that infiltrated behind enemy lines in the north of Africa (during ww2).

Trip to Stonehaven (Great War and WW2 memorial on the right)

Dunottar castle ruins in Stonehaven



Back home I read part of the novel and started sketching and thinking how I could make a game about infiltration. At one point I remembered I had played some Advance Wars when I was younger and that's when I though I could add my own spin on the idea with the Stealth Missions.

A few weeks later I presented my final project and the same afternoon started working on the pixel art prototype that would become Vangaro Tactics.

Vangaro Tactics prototype from late 2018 (notice the first design of Spitfire)


Thanks for reading!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2221530/Vangaro_Tactics/