Warzone of Destiny 95

Does Warzone of Destiny 95 sound familiar to you? If so, you probably hung out at the schoolyard of Önneredsskolan, a school in western Gothenburg, Sweden, around 1996. This was the birthplace of the original Warzone of Destiny 95 for Windows, created using Visual Basic 4.0 and MS Paint by primarily one 14-year old kid with the help of some friends, and the floppy disks holding the game were a coveted treasure.

27 years later, the game has been reimagined for the Playdate. Warzone of Destiny 95 is a casual and fast paced strategy game about building units, managing resources, exploring the map, battling enemies, and capturing the enemy city. You play against an AI opponent on procedurally generated maps filled with various terrain, villages to capture, as well as special hidden units that you can recruit for your army.

Beloved features carried over from the original version:

• Simple, fast paced 4X gameplay: constructing buildings and training units with the goal of destroying the opponent's city.
• Glorious MS Paint artwork, painstakingly remastered for the 1-bit Playdate screen.
• Original MIDI soundtrack, recorded by Gunnar's dad's friend Kiddi.
• Find hidden special units scattered across the map.
• Play as one of the arch enemies Uzi Kingdom or Cyber Fighters, both with their own visual style.

Brand new features for the Playdate version:

• Play against an AI opponent. (The original only supported two player hotseat, that mode is no longer supported).
• Procedurally generated maps.
• Explore the terrain hidden behind a fog of war.
• New resource management: capture villages to create revenue.
• Faster gameplay: streamlined battles and unit construction. A game usually takes less than 10 minutes to complete.
• The game is now in English instead of Swedish.

Hope you'll enjoy playing this casual and fast paced strategy game as much as I did making it!

How do I get the game onto my Playdate?

Check out these instructions on side loading on the Playdate website.

Manual

This manual can also be found inside the game, under the "How to Play" menu item.

Moving around

You move your units with the d-pad. When your unit is out of moves, you enter Selection Mode, where the d-pad instead moves focus between all the units on the map. Press Ⓐ to select a unit and move it around, or Ⓑ while a unit is selected to enter Selection Mode again. Pressing and holding the d-pad while in Selection Mode pans around the map and focuses any unit that comes into view. Pressing Ⓑ in Selection Mode ends your turn.

When a unit is selected, use the Ⓐ button to view detailed unit information and select unit tactics. If a city is selected, you will enter the city view where you can use money to build buildings, warriors, and vehicles.

Money

Your money is shown in the sidebar and measured in generic currency (¤). You collect more money by capturing villages on the map (generates ¤ 25 per turn) or defeating enemy units, which gives a one-time reward based on how powerful the defeated unit was.

Battle

Move onto an enemy unit to attack it. Your unit will deal an amount of damage based on the unit's Power rating, current HP level, and other factors. The attacked unit will retaliate with some damage as well (but there is a sizable attack bonus, so the defender generally deals less damage). The unit tactics factor in here: if the unit is in Kamikaze mode, it has a 20 point Power bonus, but stands an 80% risk of dying in the attack. If the unit is in Try to Escape mode, there is a 50% chance to escape the battle altogether, but if that fails, there is a -20 Power penalty.

Special units

Scattered around the map are some hidden special units. If you move onto one of these squares, you will get the option to recruit them to your army.

Winning

You win by capturing the enemy's city.

Credits

Original version for Windows © 1996 Alfakrull Games (Anders, Joakim & Gunnar).

Playdate version © 2023 Alfakrull.

Programming: Anders Lilienthal
Graphics: Anders Lilienthal
Music: Kiddi
Sound effects: Kenney
General complaints: Christopher Bäckström