First of all, sorry for the lack of updates recently. I've been busy with quite a few things behind the scenes, including some organizational work that I couldn't really talk about until now. Fortunately, one of those things is finally far enough along that I can share some news.
You may have noticed a new project appearing on the Talking Drums Steam page recently, so to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding, I’d like to share a little more information about what it is and how it relates to Trench Tales.
The new project is called Violence of Action.
Violence of Action is a small-scale tactical strategy game focused on squad combat, combining real-time strategy, tactical pause, and direct control of individual soldiers. The design has existed on paper for quite a long time, but until recently I didn't have the resources or the right team to move it into production.
A small team made up primarily of people I have worked with in the past is now developing the game. I own the IP and will remain involved in its direction and marketing, but my role is closer to that of a creative director and publisher rather than its primary developer. The game will be released under the Talking Drums banner.
I want to make one thing particularly clear: this does not replace, slow down, or redirect resources away from Trench Tales.
Violence of Action has its own development team and production schedule. My day-to-day development work remains focused on Trench Tales, and the resources currently dedicated to TT are not being moved to this project.
The reason I believe this can actually benefit Trench Tales in the longer term is that it gives us another way to grow without putting additional financial pressure on TT itself.
If Violence of Action performs well, part of the revenue can be reinvested into Talking Drums and Trench Tales, allowing us to bring in additional help, commission more work, and potentially increase the pace of development.
There is also a direct benefit from the team itself. The developers working on Violence of Action have stronger technical and programming backgrounds than I do. Once their project is completed, there is a possibility that some of them can move on to support Trench Tales, particularly with programming and more technically demanding systems.
The two projects can also share experience, tools, technology, and production knowledge where it makes sense. In other words, the goal is not to divide the existing TT team between two games, but to gradually build additional development capacity around it.
This is also part of a longer-term idea for Talking Drums. Rather than trying to build a large traditional studio, I would like it to become a collaboration space for small independent teams working on different projects while sharing technology, experience, resources, and support. Violence of Action is the first attempt to make that model work in practice.
Since this page is focused on Trench Tales, I won't be reposting further Violence of Action development updates here. I mainly wanted to explain why another game has appeared under Talking Drums and reassure everyone that Trench Tales remains my main development focus.
If Violence of Action sounds interesting to you, feel free to wishlist it on Steam and follow its dedicated social channels, where the team will be sharing future development updates.