The Wargamer

Introduction

Timo Hannukkala is a Finn working on a labor of love.  His creations, Westfalen and the new War of Enlightenment, are products of his own hard work and personal interest in history.  He's not under contract working for a publisher, nor does he have any immediate expectations of selling his historical strategy game for millions of dollars.  Instead, he's an independent developer who demonstrates all that is good about computer game developers: he's passionate about his product and selflessly works on the project with virtually no compensation.  Although we've never met Hannukkala in person, his obvious passion for his work came across plainly in the numerous emails we exchanged with him over the past month.

What are Timo Hannukkala's games?  In 2003 he released Westfalen, a turn-based strategy game set in the Middle Ages.  His latest game, War of Enlightenment, was released just a couple months ago: like Westfalen, it is a turn-based strategy game, played almost entirely online against other opponents vying for control of Europe.  The game plays out a lot like a board game: it's played among friends in which the interaction of the players is as much part of the gameplay as is managing troop deployments or economic resources.  Players choose from one of twenty countries from the 17th century in Europe and attempt to outwit and outlast their opponents until victory is declared.  

But even if the concept doesn't excite you, the price should: War of Enlightenment is almost entirely free. Hannukkala only asks for a donation if you wish to play the full-fledged version of the single player game, but the multiplayer game is 100% free and can be played at a leisurely pace of three turns per week.  The game's concept really caught our attention, so we decided to ask Timo some questions to learn more about his labors of love.

The Interview

The Wargamer (WG): War of Enlightenment looks to be an ambitious game. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into game development? 

Timo Hannukkala (TH): I have always loved diplomatic strategy games with multiple opponents, not so much with single player games. There are not many diplomatic strategy games on the net, so I decided to make one. The game I developed was Westfalen, a free light strategy multiplayer game that is still running today. After Westfalen, I wanted to do something different, so I started to design a more challenging diplomatic multiplayer game.

WG: Can you introduce War of Enlightenment?

TH: War of Enlightenment is a turn-based strategy game for 20 human players with a single master server. War of Enlightenment consists of a user client program and an independent server program. The user client program is for players and it allows the users to give orders for the game and send messages to other players. The server program just handles the turns, messages, and orders all the while making new gamefiles for the players. The multiplayer gaming is complete free to play.

In War of Enlightenment, players control one of 20 countries in 17th century Europe. The game itself includes many features, such as trade, factories, different unit types, individual experience level and soldiers to command at the battalion level.

War of Enlightenment includes a single player game that let’s the player practice the game before they join a multiplayer game. The single player game demo is also free, but you can only play Austria with it. If you want to play all countries in the single player game, it does cost 30 euros. I don’t expect many people to make the donation, but that’s ok since I wanted to keep this game a free multiplayer experience. Fortunately, a few experienced players have donated to the project. Also, there are no banners in the game and it doesn’t have any other commercial outlets.

Currently there is a seven turns per week game and a three turns per week game. A new game starts when 20 players have joined into game.

WG: Why did you choose the Victorian Age as your setting for War of Enlightenment? Is the game very historically accurate or is it flexible with actual events?

TH: After developing Westfalen, which is set around the time of the Thirty Years War, I tried to find a different era for the game.

First I thought World War II, but there are only a few strong countries during that period. This doesn’t work if I want a balanced game for 15 to 20 players. If the Soviet Union and Germany made a strong alliance, they could wipe out the opposition. Nobody wants to play Poland or the Baltic countries in these games, because those countries are too small, and they would die every time in few turns.

Then I looked many other eras, including the 100 Years War and the 12th century, but I always felt there were only a few strong countries and too many weak  countries. So I eventually I came back to the Thirty Years War, which I thought was best for the large-player multiplayer game.

The game is historically accurate to a point. There are only a few really non-historical things:

1. Scotland is part of England, otherwise Scotland would be too small and weak a country. I first tried to do an independent Scotland, but it was not possible.
2. Little German states are in two different larger countries, Saxony and Brandenburg. Brandenburg could also be called Prussia, but it's called as Brandenburg in the game.
3. Naples is not part of Spain; if Naples would be part of Spain, Spain would be too powerful of a country. Besides, during the Thirty Years War, there were a lot rebellion movements in Naples.
4. Tunis and Mamelukes (also known as Egypt) are independent. The Ottoman Empire ruled them both, but as in Spain’s case, the Ottoman Empire would be too large country. Besides, Egypt was only a vassal of the Ottoman Empire during those times, and it was ruled by Mamelukes.
5. Transylvania is little larger than it should be.
6. The ship list for Muslim countries and Christian countries are same.
7. Little Northern Italian states are under the "papal states" country.

Otherwise, The game is quite accurate. All these changes are done for the balance of the game, which I believe is very important for the multiplayer game. Balancing doesn't mean that all countries must have the same powers, tax incomes, armies, but designers should use common sense to decide what is best for gameplay.