The Tactical RPG for Busy Players - Devblog #9
We love grand tactical RPGs, but who has grand tactical time to sink into one campaign anymore? So, we set ourselves a challenge:
Could we build a roguelite that gives you that full-scale tactical adventure before bedtime?
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[h3]Keep It Simple, They Said[/h3]
Condensing a tactical RPG into a shorter game is like reducing a sauce, you have to boil away the excess until only the richest flavors remain. Except the sauce sometimes catches fire, yelling about pathfinding bugs, but we digress.
We started cutting everything that didn’t feel essential. Menus. Filler maps. Endless grinding. At first, it felt great; fast, clean, focused. Then we realized we’d also sliced half the tension that makes strategy games fun. The “epic” feeling was slipping away.
So we rebuilt. And things caught fire. Literally, once.
Metaphorically, every time the AI refused to walk around a rock.
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Making the game shorter wasn’t enough. What makes tactical RPGs special isn’t just progress, it's that heartbeat moment when one risky move flips the whole fight. The feeling that your judgment shapes your playthrough, rather than your stats.
We needed that feeling, every run.
So we rebuilt the combat again. Every attack now triggers an enemy reaction. Miss, and they adapt. Land a crit, they panic.
The battlefield shifts in seconds, and suddenly every choice you make matters.
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[h3]Boss Fight: Enter Real Life[/h3]
And then we hit the real boss fight: real life. The pasta's boiling over mid-fight. “Just one more turn” somehow becomes 2 AM. We wanted an adventure that respects that reality.
So, we built it for your rhythm. Each run tells its own story through short bursts of strategy, choices that hit fast and epic moments that stick.
You can step away, come back, and still have that full campaign experience.
Real life wins sometimes, and that’s okay.
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After months of testing, trimming, and yelling at our code, we finally did it. A full playthrough from dinner to bedtime.
And it felt awesome.
[h3]A New Kind of Epic[/h3]
Valor of Man is our take on those big adventures we all grew up with. Only this time, you can finish one and still get some sleep.
A run that starts after dinner and ends before midnight.
And, if we’ve done our job right, still lingers when you close your eyes.
![]()
Could we build a roguelite that gives you that full-scale tactical adventure before bedtime?
[h3]Keep It Simple, They Said[/h3]
Condensing a tactical RPG into a shorter game is like reducing a sauce, you have to boil away the excess until only the richest flavors remain. Except the sauce sometimes catches fire, yelling about pathfinding bugs, but we digress.
We started cutting everything that didn’t feel essential. Menus. Filler maps. Endless grinding. At first, it felt great; fast, clean, focused. Then we realized we’d also sliced half the tension that makes strategy games fun. The “epic” feeling was slipping away.
So we rebuilt. And things caught fire. Literally, once.
Metaphorically, every time the AI refused to walk around a rock.
Making the game shorter wasn’t enough. What makes tactical RPGs special isn’t just progress, it's that heartbeat moment when one risky move flips the whole fight. The feeling that your judgment shapes your playthrough, rather than your stats.
We needed that feeling, every run.
So we rebuilt the combat again. Every attack now triggers an enemy reaction. Miss, and they adapt. Land a crit, they panic.
The battlefield shifts in seconds, and suddenly every choice you make matters.
[h3]Boss Fight: Enter Real Life[/h3]
And then we hit the real boss fight: real life. The pasta's boiling over mid-fight. “Just one more turn” somehow becomes 2 AM. We wanted an adventure that respects that reality.
So, we built it for your rhythm. Each run tells its own story through short bursts of strategy, choices that hit fast and epic moments that stick.
You can step away, come back, and still have that full campaign experience.
Real life wins sometimes, and that’s okay.
After months of testing, trimming, and yelling at our code, we finally did it. A full playthrough from dinner to bedtime.
And it felt awesome.
[h3]A New Kind of Epic[/h3]
Valor of Man is our take on those big adventures we all grew up with. Only this time, you can finish one and still get some sleep.
A run that starts after dinner and ends before midnight.
And, if we’ve done our job right, still lingers when you close your eyes.