Deliberately simplisticIs my first answer when someone asks me what the game is. The idea behind the game is to leave out as many unnecessary details as possible. There are no novels with lore, no sub-sub-menus to read through in order to understand what a unit does and no convoluted descriptions padded with filler text for flavour.
Argebe cares less about the micro-management aspect of strategy games, and instead focuses on grand strategy.A battle of equal opportunitiesEvery player gets the same selection of units for their fleets, builds the same types of nodes on the map and is at no point bound to a dice roll. The thrill of the game comes down to individual playstyles and strategies. Every player prepares their actions for the round, which get executed at the same time once everyone is done. Predicting your opponents’ next move is just as important as subverting their anticipations of your tactics.Deterministic, calculated, yet hard to predictFleets consist of three unit types, which all interact with each other in a very clearly defined and predictable way. Nodes will always function the way you expect them to. You know this as much as your opponent does. What your opponent however doesn’t know, is your next move. Will you pull in fleets from your surrounding nodes to prevent an enemy attack? Wouldn’t that leave your other nodes undefended? Could your opponent make a move on those nodes instead, leaving you to reinforce a point that was never their true focus? And what if your opponent takes advantage of that possibility and attacks the center node anyway, thinking you’d rather not risk a potential flank? But what if…Simple by design, complex by choiceBeneath the conceptual and abstract artstyle of Argebe lies a core filled to the brim with balancing systems like logarithmic falloffs, negative feedback loops and carefully designed multipliers for every action. But those systems are merely suggestions; You can use rule presets to tune board-, game- and complexity settings to your preferences, or dive into every single settings value with a fully customizable rule setup.Transparency as a key mechanicSince everything is calculatable and deterministic, there are several information panels in the game that will provide stats and information during your matches. The stat-info panel looks intimidating at first, but shows all relevant data neatly categorized and in the most minimalistic way possible. The fleet fight simulator allows you to put together previews of potential fights and see exactly who would win each encounter. Just watch out, your opponent has the same tools available and might not play into your hand like you want them to.Recap and replayOnce a match is over, you have the option to save a replay of it to your system. You can then see all sorts of statistics about that game, like map control or fleet density over time. You can also load up the full replay file and rewatch the entire game, or step to specific moments you’d like to revisit and analyze.Duel or free-for-all, in private or with spectatorsArgebe was originally designed as a 1v1 duel type game, but after much deliberation (And repeated requests) it’s now capable of play in a group of up to 6 players and even supports spectators that get to see actions as they’re being set up by the players!Responses!The game has a quick chat system that allows you to choose the punctuation of the message, to really get your point across. After all, there’s a difference between “Nice one!”, “Nice one?” and “Nice one…”