Mojang Brings Us Surprise Strategy Game – Crown and Council

Even though it might seem like there are many types of video game companies out there, with different and varied design and release protocols, the really aren’t that many when you stop to think about it. So let’s quickly talk about all of them before we dive into today’s main topic, a new video game.

First of all, we’ve got the triple-A companies. Greedy, they make as many games as possible in as short a time as possible, without caring about the quality. The exception here would be Take-Two, who owns the GTA, Bioshock, Mafia, Max Payne, and XCOM franchises, all objectively good titles.

Second of all, we’ve got moderately high-budget companies, which put out games ranging from horrible to masterpieces. In this category we’ll find all the titles that are between triple-A and indie, and they generally do a good job with a couple of titles before being taken over by a bigger company, or they just shut down.

Last but not least, we’ve got indie game companies. These can be split into three categories. We’ve got the bad ones, that just pump out bad game after bad game in the hopes that something will catch on. Then, we’ve got one-hit wonders, which put out one brilliant game and then either completely stop or mess it up. And finally, we’ve got the perfectionists – those indie companies that only publish great games, albeit very spaced out over time.

I had to go into the subject so that you can understand the next better. Mojang created Minecraft. Notch, the man that owned the game, sold it to Microsoft for two billion dollars, and is now pretty much retired, although not quite. The company is still up and running, albeit without its number one title.

And now, years after Minecraft first came out, Mojang brings us a surprise strategy game – Crown and Council. Oh, and it’s free. And if you’re wondering how a game could have been a surprise, well, nobody actually announced until the day it was released on Steam.

Similar in gameplay to Risk or Civilization, Crown and Council is a strategy game that looks very promising. With its 16-bit pixel art and MIDI sound effects, it’s definitely a throw-back to a much simpler time in video game history. But while many fail to see how it could be used properly other than as a gimmick, Crown and Council actually integrated the format perfectly into the gameplay.

Like pretty much all games in the genre, it revolves around conquering kingdoms while keeping your own safe from invaders, but the way Crown and Council is played is where it truly shines. And since it only requires 1 GB of RAM, 300 MB of storage space available, and it is absolutely free, I’m going to stop here and just recommend that you play it.

Image source: YouTube