Press Kit
The shareable one-pager. Pass this to a publisher, a hiring candidate, or a partner. For the deeper dive, hand them Pitch & Core Loop next.
Fact Sheet
- Title
- AxonRush working title
- Genre
- Real-time strategy · Hex territory · Logistics · Auto-battler · Light MOBA
- Players
- 1–24, FFA default. Any mix of human and AI.
- Match length
- ~30–60 min on small maps; multiple hours possible at 24-player marathon scale.
- Platform
- PC-first
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5.7 (C++)
- Status
- Engineering active. GDD v0.6 locked. Foundation phases A–G shipped (CL 598); Phase 1 redesign now in flight.
- Target window
- To be set after Phase 1 playtest signal
- Studio
- Internal · solo developer + collaborators TBD
Elevator Pitch
AxonRush is a 1–24 player real-time strategy game where you don't move soldiers — you design the flow. Claim hex tiles, set rules on each from a 9-rule enum (Pass-through, four Spawn-X variants, Resource Producer, Upgrade, Tower, Home Base), draw per-unit-type weighted paths, and watch your unit-network auto-march into enemy territory. A single hero buffs nearby soldiers, taxes enemy supply lines, and hunts opposing leaders across the map. Win by destroying every other home base.
The Hook
Most strategy games punish you for taking your hands off the keyboard. AxonRush rewards it. The skill ceiling is in routing — designing a tile network that produces the right army, at the right place, in time to push. Moment-to-moment play is reading the board, redirecting weights, and committing your hero to the flashpoint that matters.
Three-Bullet Summary
- Risk meets Factorio meets auto-battler. Territory control on a hex grid, network design as the core puzzle, and stat-based combat that resolves automatically once the army shows up.
- Supply lines persist through captured tiles. Cut an enemy's path mid-route and their own supply line becomes a damage-soaked corridor — logistics warfare is a real strategic axis.
- Scales 1 to 24 players. Tight 1v1 for the competitive shape, 24-player FFA for the social shape. Comeback bonus scales defense as your territory shrinks, so being last-place doesn't mean instant elimination.
Reference Points
| Reference | What we take |
|---|---|
| Risk | Territory map, comeback-friendly board state, FFA shape. |
| Factorio / Mindustry | Network design as the core puzzle. Routes, throughput, conversions. |
| TFT / auto-battlers | Stat-driven combat. Composition wins fights, not micro. |
| DotA / LoL | Single hero, on-demand abilities, escalating respawn timer. |
Selling Points to Different Audiences
For RTS players
Strategy without 300 APM. The skill is routing, reading, and timing commitments — not click-speed.
For factory-game fans
Network optimization with adversarial pressure. Other players cut your supply lines.
For MOBA players
Your hero matters inside a bigger strategic frame. Hunt opposing leaders across the map without abandoning a strategic role.
For Civ / 4X fans
Real-time pacing on a Civ-style hex board. Match in 60 minutes, not 8 hours.
Current State
- GDD locked to v0.6 — Phase 1 redesign complete: 5 unit types, localized economy, 9-rule tile enum, faction bootstrap, Tower rule, dormant- tile occupation capture, per-type combat. Combat model, tile system, path system, leader rules, fog-of-war, pacing, and HP curves all spec'd.
- Foundation phases A–G shipped — gameplay context, reactions, providers, triggers, verb system, tile primitives, visibility services, combat ticker framework, AI personality plumbing — all submitted and PIE- smoke-tested. Codebase at CL 598: 1,310 files / ~122k LOC / 18 production gameplay systems. See the codebase audit for the full snapshot.
- Active work: Phase H/I close-out (lobby, match lifecycle) and
the
PostArchitecture.md12-phase plan targeting a 4-AI watch- mode demo as the first end-to-end milestone after foundation.