Dev Diary #4: Hard, Moral decisions as Core Mechanics of War Hospital

Greetings Major,

War Hospital is not your typical military strategy game. While supporting war effort is present in the game, its focus lies somewhere else. In each soldier’s life. As a major Henry Wells, revered and experienced military medic your role is to do everything possible to save as many soldiers and civilians as possible. But then again, it is not possible to save everybody.

You will have to carefully manage scarce resources and overworked medical staff, facing constant difficult moral choices to do as much as possible. Each patient comes with their own story and in different condition requiring different treatment. It’s up to the player to meet both gameplay challenges and morally difficult choices.

World War I in the eyes of Hospital Crew

Hospital Crew consists of doctors, nurses, medics and engineers. They all have a unique role to fulfill in the medical cycle. Out of all of them, doctors are most involved in patient treatment. Each operation consumes their energy, time and takes a toll on their mental health. Dealing in constant uncertainty of patient wellbeing is not a mere accomplishment.

And in this cycle there is winners. Rehabilitated soldiers go back to the front to face a new danger of death and physical or psychological harm. Each success of saving life is only temporary in the grand scheme of things, that’s why medical effort is so difficult to endure for Hospital Crew. But despite the uncertainty and inevitable doom of the future, one can only do what’s best in their effort to bring temporary respite to those in need.

Because medical assistance is not just about statistical results. It’s about bringing a light of hope to those in need, and sometimes this is what matters the most. In War Hospital player will micro manage their crew and one of our goals was to display that hardship throughout meaningful narrative elements.

Medical Equipment and healing methodologies in War Hospital

World War 1 was a breaking time when it came to innovative ways of harming enemy soldiers. Deadlier machine guns, artillery and even chemical weapons. There were no boundaries in sinister effort during that time. Because of that medical discipline had to catch up rapidly.

During that time medics had to come up with a variety of effective, yet cost efficient methods of treatment. Throughout playing War Hospital, you will have to smartly put into use a broad range of medical devices and methods of operating patients for best possible outcome.

Each of them brings different modifications, not always positive and introduces a variety of possible complications. Risk management and tough calls are present in each patient operation.

Why British Hospital? How we approach to nations diversity in War Hospital

War is a hellish phenomenon. It brings destruction and suffering upon all people involved. The reason why we decided to set up a War Hospital in Britain is due to the fact that British allied forces had the highest diversity of soldiers among them.

Our goal was to show that war tragedy is common for every human, regardless of their nation, age or their history. No matter where does one originate from, the suffering is universal. And that hardship is universal for everybody and in some way it brings people together. They face terrible horrors together and that brings them together. Small acts of kindness, honorable actions, unity.

Interface as key part of narration

While the game revolves around the tragedy of wounded soldiers, player faces gameplay challenges on both micro and macro levels of managing the whole hospital complex. Managing patient operations, assigning best doctor in a given situation and proper tools while under constant scarcity of resources is the core of War Hospital experience.

In order to make all elements as clear and accessible to the user as possible we emphasize iconography, color coding and best design practices to offer a smooth experience for all of you.

Ordinary day in War Hospital

No day in War Hospital is ordinary. Each day brings new challenges and obstacles to overcome. Constant warfare at front lines, incoming ambulances of wounded soldiers, hunger among citizens and never ending threat of death are present in every moment of gameplay. Player will have to manage all the different systems to keep things going to succeed, to the best of their ability in these harsh conditions.

Finally, we are pleased to share that development of the game is moving forward & well, we shall give you a glimpse of War Hospital gameplay during at Nacon Connect (the conference of our Publisher) on July 7 at 7:00pm CEST, be sure to follow them on their YouTube channel to be notified once the conference starts!