Barrage News

Howdy Folks,

Welcome back to another in-depth insight on our beloved Barrage.

Last time, we talked about the challenges of fitting a large board game onto a smaller screen. Today, we’re pulling back the curtain on the core mechanics that make Barrage tick, so that players who are not familiar with the board game know what to expect.

Let’s dive into the heart of the game!


A worker placement mechanic is a game system commonly used in board games where players assign limited action tokens (often called "workers") to various spaces on the game board to perform actions. Once a worker is placed in a specific spot, it usually prevents other players from using that space for the round, creating competition for key actions.

(Courtesy of BoardGameQuest.com)

Worker placement is the core mechanic of Barrage. In this game, players control 12 Engineers and need to assign them to various action spaces on the central board or their own personal boards. These actions allow them to:

• Construct structures (Dams, Conduits, Power stations) to control water flow;
  
• Upgrade technology to improve efficiency in future turns;
  
• Generate energy to fulfill Contracts and earn rewards;
  
• Manage limited resources (Machinery and Credits) that are required for building and/or other effects.
  

A game of Barrage consists of 5 rounds - every round, Engineers go back to their owner and action spaces become available to be used once more.

[h2]The Infrastructure[/h2]
One of the most critical aspects of Barrage is the construction system, which allows players to build Dams, Elevations, Conduits, and Power stations—the backbone of energy production. Unlike other worker placement games where actions provide immediate effects, construction in Barrage is a long-term investment that requires careful planning, resource management, and strategic positioning on the board.



The elements you build on the map through the Building action spaces create the infrastructure for energy production, which is the main mean through which Victory Points are awarded.

[h2]Generating Energy[/h2]
At its heart, Barrage is a game about managing water flow to generate energy efficiently. Players must carefully plan their actions to maximize energy output while blocking opponents from doing the same.

Each round, players can access some action spaces to activate their infrastructure, thus generating energy. The process works like this:

1. Select a power station – Choose one of your built power stations to produce energy.
   
2. Choose a dam that has stored water – Only dams with actual water drops can be used.
   
3. Ensure a valid conduit connection exists – Water flows from the dam through an available conduit to the power station. The conduit’s power value determines how much energy you produce.
   
4. Energy is produced! – The game tracks how much energy you’ve generated, contributing to the round goal and endgame scoring.
   

[h2]Why Barrage is about building an economic Engine[/h2]
Just below the surface, you will find that Barrage is all about optimization. Unlike traditional economic games that focus on accumulating currency, Barrage challenges players to build an infrastructure-driven engine that efficiently converts limited resources into energy production and long-term success in the very short lifespan of a single match.

As the game progresses, the best economic engines aren’t just making more energy—they’re doing it faster, with fewer wasted actions, and with greater flexibility than their opponents.

Building up infrastructure to unlock incomes, managing Machinery to make sure it’s always available for construction, scaling up in time to get the juicy rewards and just generating the right amount of Energy to unlock Contracts are what make Barrage so challenging.




Worry not: if you want to see how all of this works inside the game, we have a demo available for you to try! Just head to the game page and download the demo: you will find a short, interactive tutorial that will explain all the basics for you.

Until next time,
Amintiri

Howdy, everyone!

Today, we are thrilled to share some behind-the-scenes insights into our journey as we bring our beloved board game to life in the digital world.

Board games and video games share a love for strategy, creativity, and fun, but they’re fundamentally different beasts. While a board game thrives on tactile pieces, face-to-face interactions, and the simplicity of pen and paper, a video game must translate those elements into something intuitive, immersive, and dynamic for players sitting in front of a screen.

From reimagining mechanics for a digital interface to preserving the “feel” of the original while embracing the opportunities technology offers, every decision we’ve made has been about balancing faithfulness to the source material with the potential to enhance the experience in new and exciting ways; a necessity which clearly emerged in our previous work with Lorenzo il Magnifico.
We’ll explore some of these key challenges and share how we’ve tackled them—from redesigning complex systems to ensuring that every player, whether new or familiar with the board game, can enjoy what we’ve created.

So, put on a cozy blanket and join us on this multi-part journey!


One of the first challenges we faced was translating the sprawling board game layout into the limited space of a screen. In a board game, the table is your canvas — there’s room for large boards, detailed player areas, and all the physical components that bring the game to life. In a video game, however, the screen is finite, and every pixel matters.

Our primary goal was to maintain clarity and functionality while staying true to the visual and thematic elements that make the board game special. This meant rethinking how information is presented. Instead of a single sprawling board, we explored breaking it down into interactive sections, allowing players to focus on specific parts of the game without feeling overwhelmed. These parts were: the map, the personal game board, the opponents boards, and the action boards, which were redesigned and recombined in different arrangements to find which one best suited the available space.



We started working on the horizontally tightest aspect ratio we decided to support, which is 3:2, as it’s default for many productivity-focused devices, such as Microsoft’s Surface series and certain laptops and tablets. Other resolutions would then have the content to be more spaced or stretched, to increase readability and reduce the “clumsiness”— something close to a responsive UI, where elements scale well across different devices, whether you’re playing on a widescreen monitor or a smaller laptop screen.

It was immediately clear that not all information could have made it to the final cut, but we wanted to ensure the player’s experience remained smooth and intuitive nevertheless, especially for the first-time user experience. This meant implementing tooltips, hover effects, popovers and easy navigation to let players interact with the game interface without getting lost or frustrated.



In short, squeezing a big board into a small screen was like solving a puzzle. A big, complex puzzle that likes to gnaw at your fingers.

If you made it this far, thank you! We’re excited to keep sharing our progress and can’t wait for you to see how it all comes together.
And if you have any questions, feedback, or just want to share your excitement, let us know in the comments!

Until next time,
Amintiri

Hi Folks,

Steam Next Fest is finally over, and with that, along with some celebrations, it's time for a little sum up.


We'd like to personally thank everybody who took some time to try out the demo. We've been flooded by feedback both here and on our social media pages, and we are grateful for all the attention.
[h2]Key takeaways[/h2]
Among the heartwarming feedback you guys have shared, we have pinpointed some common elements we'd like to address.
[h3]The graphics[/h3]
Many players raised concerns over how the graphics were rendered, either being too dark or too old-school. Keep in mind: Barrage comes from a pretty dark setting, where the Great War still looms over the population and the world is desperate for resources. The board game itself follows this art direction, with dim images and gloomy buildings that recall a quasi-dystopian past.


While this is no excuse to make UI and/or interactive elements too shady, we'd like for this theme to emerge as much as possible (which is not easy in a story-less game lol).
However, we'll still try to improve on the general aesthetic by making UI elements look less like they came out of a bad simulation game.
Needless to say, the final version will be more polished and will feature more hovers and informative popups, to make the game clearer and more understandable.

[h3]The AI[/h3]
Some questions were raised about the AI strategy and general ability to play.

The AI was tailored to the needs of the small tutorial, which means:
- it was not supposed to hinder the player's strategy
- it was designed to access to a small set of actions
- it was generally easy and had no particular strategy hardcoded.

The final version of the game will feature a more competitive AI, hopefully with two difficulty levels. If you are a PRO of the board game, feel free to share your strategy!

[h3]The Tutorial[/h3]
Some players found the tutorial to drop too much information at once without leaving the time to "swallow". Unfortunately, trying to condense both how the game works and how the interface works in a single game session is no easy task.
What works best in these cases is to provide smaller tutorial sessions focused on a specific topic, just as we did in our Lorenzo il Magnifico.


The final release of the game will feature a similar approach to the tutorial, with 5-6 topics to cover all the knowledge about the game.
And as previously mentioned, we will enhance the hover system to include more information to help new players settle in.

[h2]What now?[/h2]
We will eventually bring down the demo while we keep on working on Barrage. As there's still a llot more to do, we feel like the demo would remain in a state which is not representative of the final gameplay. Worry not, though - it's still possible to get in touch and tell us what you think, while we'll do our best to keep you guys posted about new updates and changes.

[h3]The bestest best[/h3]
How did the demo go? How many Victory points were you able to score?
My personal record was 55, but word on the street is somebody was able to reach 70...


Thank you again for playing and for interacting in the community!

Cheers,
Amintiri