Sporefront

A Fair-Play Medieval Real-Time Strategy Game

Sporefront is a hex-based RTS game built with C# and Unity, designed for strategic depth without pay-to-win mechanics. Build your empire, manage resources, train armies, and outmaneuver your opponents through skill and tactics—not wallet size.

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The Vision

Strategy games are about decisions. Tactical positioning, resource management, information warfare, and timing should determine victory—not who spent the most money.

Mobile strategy games have incredible potential: massive maps, diplomacy, resource contention, and bite-sized sessions perfect for busy schedules. But they're plagued by pay-to-win mechanics, loot boxes, and progression systems that favor spending over strategy.

Sporefront is different. One purchase. No microtransactions. No loot boxes. Just pure strategy where every player competes on equal footing.

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Game Features

Hex-Based Maps

• Hexagonal grid system for nuanced movement and positioning
• Procedurally generated terrain with forests, mountains, and resource deposits
• Strategic chokepoints and defensible positions

Building System

16 building types across economic and military categories:

Economic Buildings

• City Center — Main hub for economy and population (upgradeable to level 10, population scales with level: 10/15/20/.../55)
• Farm — Produces food resources with gathering bonuses (+10% per level above 1)
• Neighborhood — Houses population (capacity scales with level: 5/8/11/14/17)
• Warehouse — Stores extra resources
• Market — Trade resources
• Lumber Camp — Increases wood collection (+1.5x bonus, +10% per level above 1)
• Mining Camp — Increases ore collection (+1.5x bonus, +10% per level above 1)
• Blacksmith — Upgrades units and tools
• Library — Boosts research speed (+10% per level) and unlocks advanced research branches
• University — Research technologies

Military Buildings

• Barracks — Trains infantry units
• Archery Range — Trains ranged units
• Stable — Trains cavalry units
• Siege Workshop — Builds siege weapons
• Castle — Defensive stronghold and military command center
• Tower — Defensive structure
• Wooden Fort — Basic defensive fortification

Buildings unlock progressively based on City Center level, creating meaningful tech tree decisions. Military buildings grant +10% training speed per building level above 1.

Terrain Effects on Building:

• Mountain tiles apply a +25% cost multiplier to construction and upgrades
• Cost adjustments are shown in the build/upgrade UI and properly refunded on cancellation

Factions

Choose your faction at game setup — each brings unique passive bonuses, exclusive research, and strategic trade-offs through Tier III research restrictions.

The Morels

An infantry and woodland stealth faction. The Morels thrive in forested terrain, using superior vision and camouflage to control the map and strike from ambush.

Bonus	Effect
Extended Vision	+1 army sight range
Woodland Camouflage	Armies hidden in forest tiles
Wood Gathering	+5% wood collection rate
Extended Lumberyards	Lumber Camps reach resources 2 tiles away (instead of 1)

Exclusive Building: False Morel — a decoy trap that appears as an army to enemies. When attacked, it is instantly destroyed and poisons the attacker (3 DPS for 10 seconds, 30 total damage). Enemies must get adjacent to reveal the disguise.

Exclusive Research: Toxic Spores → Lethal Spores (boosts False Morel poison)

Research	Effect	Requires
Toxic Spores	+50% False Morel poison DPS (3 → 4.5)	Library L1
Lethal Spores	2x DPS, +50% duration (6 DPS for 15s = 90 total)	Library L2 + Toxic Spores

Other Exclusive Research: Burn Areas (demolishing buildings returns food)

Tier III Research Restrictions: Blocked from Tier III Ranged, Cavalry, Stone, and Siege research — forcing a commitment to infantry and woodland strategies.

Amanita Muscaria

An aggressive poison and mountain faction. The Amanita Muscaria thrive in highland terrain, using toxic strikes and mountain mastery to dominate through attrition.

Bonus	Effect
Toxic Strikes	Poison damage-over-time after combat (3 DPS for 5 seconds)
Mountain Builders	-15% build cost on mountain and hill tiles
Highland Movement	+20% movement speed on mountain and hill terrain
Stone & Ore Gathering	+5% stone and ore collection rates

Exclusive Research: Increased Poison Damage, Toxin Accumulation, Spore Burst (Muscaria-only poison research chain)

Tier III Research Restrictions: Blocked from Tier III Infantry, Cavalry, Wood, and Food research — pushing toward ranged/siege compositions and highland map control.

Faction Design Philosophy

Both factions share a cavalry Tier III block, ensuring no faction dominates with late-game cavalry. Each faction's blocked research forces meaningful strategic choices: Morels lean into infantry and forest control, while Muscaria leverages poison attrition and mountain dominance. AI opponents can be assigned a different faction from the player in game setup.

Military Units & Commanders

• Entity-based system — Armies and Villager Groups instead of individual unit micromanagement
• Commander system — Leaders with 5 stats, 10 specialties, 6 ranks, and leveling progression
• Unit composition — Infantry, archers, cavalry, and siege weapons with rock-paper-scissors counters
• Garrison mechanics — Station units in buildings for defense
• Unit upgrades — 3 tiers of upgrades per unit type (+ATK, +ARM, +HP) from production buildings
• Army entrenchment — Dig in for +10% defense bonus; entrenched armies defend all 6 adjacent tiles
• Stack combat — Multiple armies on a tile fight as a layered defensive stack (entrenched first, then regular, then villagers)

Resource Management

Four core resources drive your economy:

• Wood — Construction and unit training
• Food — Population upkeep and growth
• Stone — Advanced buildings and fortifications
• Ore — Military equipment and upgrades

Resources can be gathered from map deposits (with depletion mechanics) or produced via buildings. Population consumes food over time, creating economic pressure.

Fog of War

• Three visibility states: Unexplored, Explored, Visible
• Memory system: Previously seen areas show last-known building positions
• Diplomatic vision sharing: Allies and guild members share line of sight
• Entity-based vision: Buildings provide 1-tile radius; mobile units provide 2-tile radius

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Game Mechanics

Military Units

9 military unit types across 4 categories:

Infantry (Barracks)

Unit	HP	Move Speed	Attack Speed	Training Time	Cost
Swordsman	50	1.40s/tile	1.0s	15s	50 Food, 25 Ore
Pikeman	35	1.60s/tile	1.2s	14s	45 Food, 20 Wood, 15 Ore

Ranged (Archery Range)

Unit	HP	Move Speed	Attack Speed	Training Time	Cost
Archer	30	1.40s/tile	1.0s	12s	40 Food, 30 Wood
Crossbow	40	1.52s/tile	1.5s	18s	50 Food, 40 Wood, 20 Ore

Cavalry (Stable)

Unit	HP	Move Speed	Attack Speed	Training Time	Cost
Scout	30	0.88s/tile	0.7s	18s	60 Food, 20 Ore
Knight	60	1.00s/tile	1.1s	25s	80 Food, 60 Ore
Heavy Cavalry	80	1.12s/tile	1.2s	35s	100 Food, 80 Ore

Siege (Siege Workshop)

Unit	HP	Move Speed	Attack Speed	Training Time	Cost
Mangonel	70	2.00s/tile	2.5s	45s	60 Food, 100 Wood, 40 Ore
Trebuchet	120	2.40s/tile	4.0s	60s	80 Food, 150 Wood, 60 Ore

Siege units cost more population space than standard units (mangonels: 3, trebuchets: 5 vs 1 for all other units). Pop space is accounted for across army composition, garrisons, training queues, food consumption, and training UI slider limits.

Combat Stats

Unit	Melee Dmg	Pierce Dmg	Bludgeon Dmg	Melee Armor	Pierce Armor	Bludgeon Armor	Special Bonuses
Swordsman	2	0	0	2	1	0	—
Pikeman	1	0	0	1	1	3	+8 vs Cavalry
Archer	0	2	0	0	1	0	—
Crossbow	0	2	0	1	2	0	—
Scout	2	0	0	1	0	0	+1 vs Ranged
Knight	4	0	0	2	2	1	+1 vs Ranged
Heavy Cavalry	5	0	0	3	3	1	+1 vs Ranged
Mangonel	0	0	8	2	10	3	+20 vs Buildings
Trebuchet	0	0	12	2	15	4	+30 vs Buildings

Resources

Four core resources drive your economy:

• Wood — Construction and unit training
• Food — Population upkeep and growth
• Stone — Advanced buildings and fortifications
• Ore — Military equipment and upgrades

Resource Points on the Map

Resource Point	Yields	Initial Amount	Base Gather Rate	Notes
Farmland	Food	Unlimited	0.1/sec	Requires Farm building
Trees	Wood	5,000	0.5/sec	Requires Lumber Camp
Forage	Food	3,000	0.5/sec	—
Ore Mine	Ore	8,000	0.5/sec	Requires Mining Camp
Stone Quarry	Stone	6,000	0.5/sec	Requires Mining Camp
Deer	Food	—	—	Must hunt first
Wild Boar	Food	—	—	Must hunt first
Deer Carcass	Food	2,000	0.5/sec	Created after hunting deer
Boar Carcass	Food	1,500	0.5/sec	Created after hunting boar

Hunting Mechanics

Animals must be hunted before they can be gathered:

Animal	Health	Attack	Defense
Deer	30	2	3
Wild Boar	50	8	5

When killed, animals become carcasses that can be gathered for food.

Villager Gathering Rates

Formula: Base Rate + (Villager Count * 0.2) * Modifiers

• Per-villager rate: 0.2 resources/second
• Max villagers per resource: 20
• Building bonuses: Lumber Camp (+1.5x wood), Mining Camp (+1.5x ore/stone)

Example calculation:

• 10 villagers gathering from Trees (base 0.5/sec)
• Near Lumber Camp (1.5x multiplier)
• (0.5 + (10 * 0.2)) * 1.5 = 3.75/sec

Adjacency Bonuses

Strategic building placement provides bonuses:

Source Building	Target Building	Bonus
Mill	Farm	+25% gather rate
Warehouse	Lumber Camp	+15% gather rate
Warehouse	Mining Camp	+15% gather rate
Warehouse	Farm	+15% gather rate
Warehouse	Barracks	-10% training cost
Warehouse	Archery Range	-10% training cost
Warehouse	Stable	-10% training cost
Warehouse	Siege Workshop	-10% training cost

Bonuses stack if multiple source buildings are adjacent.

Research System

75 total technologies organized into 7 branches with cross-branch dependencies and building gates.

Tier Requirements

• Tier I: City Center Level 1 (30 sec research time)
• Tier II: City Center Level 2 (60 sec research time)
• Tier III: City Center Level 3 (120 sec research time)

Branch-Based Building Gates

• Gathering & Logistics: No gate building required
• Commerce: Requires Library (Tier II+)
• Infrastructure: Requires University (Tier II+)
• Melee/Ranged/Siege Equipment: Requires Blacksmith (Tier II+)

Research speed is boosted by +10% per Library level.

Research Branches

Gathering (Economic)

Research Line	Tier I	Tier II	Tier III	Bonus Type
Farm Efficiency	+10%	+15%	+20%	Farm gather rate
Mining Efficiency	+10%	+15%	+20%	Mining Camp gather rate
Lumber Efficiency	+10%	+15%	+20%	Lumber Camp gather rate

Commerce (Economic — requires Library)

Research Line	Tier I	Tier II	Tier III	Bonus Type
Better Market Rates	+5%	+10%	+15%	Market exchange rates
Trade Routes	+10%	+15%	+20%	Trade speed
Efficient Rations	-5%	-10%	-15%	Food consumption

Infrastructure (Economic — requires University)

Research Line	Tier I	Tier II	Tier III	Bonus Type
Improved Roads	+10%	+15%	+20%	Road speed bonus
Urban Planning	+5	+10	+15	Population capacity (flat)
Construction	+10%	+15%	+20%	Building speed
Fortifications	+10%	+15%	+20%	Building HP

Logistics (Military)

Research Line	Tier I	Tier II	Tier III	Bonus Type
Forced March	+5%	+7%	+10%	Army movement speed
Tactical Retreat	+5%	+7%	+10%	Retreat speed
Swift Villagers	+10%	+15%	+20%	Villager movement speed
Military Drills	+10%	+15%	+20%	Military training speed
Field Rations	-5%	-10%	-15%	Military food consumption

Melee Equipment (Military — requires Blacksmith)

Research Line	Tier I	Tier II	Tier III	Bonus Type
Infantry Weapons	+5%	+7%	+10%	Infantry melee attack
Cavalry Weapons	+5%	+7%	+10%	Cavalry melee attack
Infantry Shields	+5%	+7%	+10%	Infantry melee armor
Cavalry Barding	+5%	+7%	+10%	Cavalry melee armor

Ranged Equipment (Military — requires Blacksmith)

Research Line	Tier I	Tier II	Tier III	Bonus Type
Bodkin Points	+5%	+7%	+10%	Pierce damage
Archer Padding	+5%	+7%	+10%	Archer melee armor
Infantry Mail	+5%	+7%	+10%	Infantry pierce armor
Cavalry Mail	+5%	+7%	+10%	Cavalry pierce armor
Archer Mail	+5%	+7%	+10%	Archer pierce armor

Siege & Fortification (Military — requires Blacksmith)

Research Line	Tier I	Tier II	Tier III	Bonus Type
Siege Ammunition	+5%	+7%	+10%	Siege bludgeon damage
Reinforced Walls	+5%	+7%	+10%	Building bludgeon armor

13 cross-branch dependencies connect the tree (e.g., Lumber Efficiency II requires Construction I). The research tree UI displays branches with color-coded nodes and dependency lines (solid within-branch, dashed orange for cross-branch).

Construction System

Construction uses an incremental HP accumulation model with diminishing builder returns. Multiple villagers can work on a building, but each additional builder contributes less (0.8x diminishing factor). This makes initial builders highly valuable while limiting the benefit of over-stacking.

Army Home Base Capacity

Armies require a home base (Castle or Wooden Fort) with available capacity:

Building	Base Capacity	Per Level	Example (Level 3)
Castle	3 armies	+1/level	5 armies
Wooden Fort	1 army	+1/level	3 armies

• Deployment checks base capacity before assigning; falls back to nearest base with room
• Retreat logic uses capacity-aware base finding

Terrain Bonuses

Combat terrain effects based on defender's position:

Terrain	Defender Defense Bonus	Attacker Attack Penalty	Movement Cost
Plains	0%	0%	3
Hill	+15%	0%	4
Mountain	+25%	-10%	5
Desert	-5%	0%	3
Water	N/A	N/A	Impassable

Strategic considerations:

• Hills and mountains provide defensive advantages
• Desert terrain slightly penalizes defenders
• Mountains slow attackers and reduce their damage
• Roads negate terrain movement penalties (cost reduced to 1)

Entrenchment

Armies can entrench on any tile to create a defensive position:

Property	Value
Build Time	10 seconds
Cost	100 Wood
Defense Bonus	+10% (stacks with terrain)
Coverage	Entrenched army defends all 6 adjacent tiles

• Movement or retreat cancels entrenchment
• Cannot directly attack an entrenched tile — must attack from an adjacent tile
• Entrenched armies fighting on multiple fronts suffer a stretching penalty (-15% DPS per additional front)

Stack Combat

When multiple armies occupy the same tile, they form a defensive stack that engages attackers in tiered priority order:

Defensive Tiers:

1. Tier 1 — Entrenched: Entrenched armies on the tile + entrenched armies on adjacent tiles covering this position (sorted most-recent-first)
2. Tier 2 — Regular: Non-entrenched armies on the tile (sorted most-recent-first)
3. Tier 3 — Villagers: Only exposed after all military armies are eliminated

Engagement Rules:

• Attackers pair N-to-N against defenders (A1 vs D1, A2 vs D2, etc.)
• Each pairing runs full 3-phase combat (ranged, charge, melee)
• Unmatched attackers join existing fights as reinforcements
• When a pairing ends, the winner chains to engage the next enemy or reinforces an ally
• Tiers advance only when all defenders in the current tier are defeated

Defeat Outcomes:

• Same-tile defenders defeated: destroyed
• Cross-tile entrenched defenders defeated: forced retreat to home base (not destroyed)
• Up to 5 entities can stack on a single tile

Unit Upgrades

Each of the 9 military unit types can be upgraded through 3 tiers at their production building:

Tier	Building Level	Research Time	Cost Multiplier	Bonuses
Tier I	Level 2	20s	2x training cost	+ATK, +ARM, +HP
Tier II	Level 3	40s	4x training cost	+ATK, +ARM, +HP
Tier III	Level 5	80s	8x training cost	+ATK, +ARM, +HP

• Bonuses are cumulative across tiers
• Only one upgrade can be active per player at a time
• Upgrades apply to all existing and future units of that type

Commander System

Commanders are leaders assigned to armies. They level up through combat experience, gain ranks, and provide meaningful gameplay bonuses through 5 core stats.

Ranks

Commanders progress through 6 ranks as they level up:

Rank	Level Required
Recruit	1
Sergeant	5
Captain	10
Major	15
Colonel	20
General	25

Leveling requires level * 100 XP. Each level and rank increase boosts all 5 stats.

Stats

Each stat directly impacts gameplay:

Stat	Effect	Formula
Leadership	Max army size	20 + leadership * 2
Tactics	Scales terrain combat bonuses	Multiplier on terrain defense/attack modifiers
Logistics	Army movement speed	1.0 + logistics * 0.005 speed multiplier
Rationing	Reduces army food consumption	1.0 - min(0.5, rationing * 0.005) cost multiplier
Endurance	Stamina regeneration rate	1.0 + endurance * 0.02 regen multiplier

Stats are computed as: base + (level - 1) * perLevel + rankIndex * perRank, where base values and scaling rates come from the commander's specialty.

Specialties

10 specialties across 4 unit-type pairs plus 2 standalone:

Specialty	Bonus	Boosted Stats
Infantry (Aggressive)	+1 infantry attack	Endurance, Leadership
Infantry (Defensive)	+1 armor	Leadership
Cavalry (Aggressive)	+1 cavalry attack	Endurance, Logistics
Cavalry (Defensive)	+1 armor	Logistics
Ranged (Aggressive)	+1 ranged attack	Endurance, Tactics
Ranged (Defensive)	+1 armor	Tactics
Siege (Aggressive)	+1 siege attack	Endurance, Rationing
Siege (Defensive)	+1 armor	Rationing
Defensive	+1 armor	Tactics, Rationing, Leadership
Logistics	—	Leadership, Logistics

Aggressive specialties provide +1 base attack to their matching unit type. Defensive variants (and the standalone Defensive specialty) provide +1 armor to all units.

Stamina

Commanders have a stamina pool (max 100) that is consumed by issuing commands (5 per action). Stamina regenerates over time at a base rate of 1/60 per second, scaled by the Endurance stat.

Flexible Time Formats

Designed for real-life schedules:

• Quick matches — 10-15 minute tactical battles
• Async games — 1-day turn-based for thinking strategists
• Offline progress — Constructions, training, and gathering continue while away (capped at 8 hours)

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Architecture

Command -> Engine -> StateChange -> Visual

All game mutations flow through the IEngineCommand interface (Validate -> Execute -> emit StateChange events). The visual layer processes state changes to update Unity GameObjects and UI.

Key commands: MoveCommand, BuildCommand, GatherCommand, AttackCommand, EntrenchCommand, RetreatCommand, UpgradeUnitCommand, and AI-prefixed variants.

GameEngine Subsystems

GameEngine coordinates:

• CombatEngine — 3-phase combat, multi-army stack combat, garrison defense
• MovementEngine — Hex pathfinding and movement
• ResourceEngine — Gathering and production
• ConstructionEngine — Building and upgrades
• TrainingEngine — Unit training queues
• VisionEngine — Fog of war
• DamageCalculator — Damage resolution with armor types

AI System

AIController orchestrates AI via a state machine and 4 planners:

• AIEconomyPlanner — Building, villagers, resource camps, scouting
• AIMilitaryPlanner — Army deployment, target scoring, coordinated attacks
• AIDefensePlanner — Towers, forts, garrison, entrenchment
• AIResearchPlanner — Technology research selection

Also includes SimulationAIController and ArenaSimulator for AI-vs-AI evolution via EvolutionEngine with AIGenome configurations.

Entity System

Rather than managing individual units, Sporefront uses aggregate entities:

• Army — Groups of military units led by a Commander
• VillagerGroup — Civilian workers for gathering and construction

This reduces screen clutter while maintaining strategic depth.

Visual Layer

Unity-based rendering and UI:

• GameSceneManager — Top-level scene orchestration
• HexGridRenderer / HexTileView / HexMeshUtility — Hex map rendering with HexMetrics
• CameraController — Camera movement and zoom
• UIManager — Central UI coordination
• ActionPanel / EntityListPanel — Player interaction panels
• ArmyDetailPanel / BuildingDetailPanel / TileInfoPanel — Detail views
• ResourceBarPanel — Resource display
• PathRenderer / SelectionRenderer — Visual feedback
• NotificationPanel — In-game notifications
• SporefrontColors / UIHelper — Shared styling utilities

Core Components

Sporefront/
├── Assets/
│   ├── Scripts/
│   │   ├── AI/                — AI controllers and planners
│   │   │   └── Commands/      — AI-specific command implementations
│   │   ├── Commands/          — Command pattern implementations (C#)
│   │   ├── Data/              — Pure data models (GameState, PlayerState, ArmyData, etc.)
│   │   ├── Engine/            — Game logic (CombatEngine, MovementEngine, MapGenerators, etc.)
│   │   ├── Models/            — Game enums and types (BuildingType, MilitaryUnit, ResearchType, etc.)
│   │   │   └── Combat/        — Combat models (CombatState, DefensiveStack, StackCombat)
│   │   └── Visual/            — Unity rendering and UI (HexGrid, Panels, Camera, etc.)
│   ├── Scenes/                — Unity scenes
│   ├── Settings/              — URP and render pipeline settings
│   └── Packages/              — Unity package manifest
└── ProjectSettings/           — Unity project configuration

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Current Status

Implemented

• Hex map generation and rendering
• Complete building system with construction progress and diminishing builder returns
• Resource gathering with villager capacity, depletion, and camp level bonuses
• Military training queues with slider-based quantity selection and building level speed bonuses
• Commander system with 5 stats, 10 specialties, leveling, and rank progression
• Fog of war with diplomatic vision sharing
• Branch-based research tree (7 branches, building gates, cross-dependencies, Library speed bonus)
• Save/load with offline progress calculation
• Entity-based army and villager management
• Command pattern architecture
• AI opponents with state machine (Peace/Alert/Defense/Attack/Retreat) and 4 specialized planners
• Army entrenchment with cross-tile defensive coverage
• Multi-army stack combat with tiered defensive engagement
• Unit upgrade system (3 tiers per unit type)
• Notification system with priority-based toast banners
• Mountain terrain +25% building cost multiplier
• Siege unit pop space (mangonels: 3, trebuchets: 5)
• Scaling population capacity (Neighborhood and City Center scale with level)
• Army home base capacity system (Castle/Fort with per-level scaling)
• Next-level benefits preview in building upgrade UI
• AI evolution system with genome-based simulation
• Faction system (Morels and Muscaria) with unique bonuses, exclusive research, and Tier III restrictions

In Development

• Balance tuning and playtesting
• UI/UX refinements

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Roadmap

Phase 1: Multiplayer Foundation

• 1v1 online matches
• Matchmaking system
• Real-time and async game modes

Phase 2: Seasonal Campaigns

• Structured competitive seasons
• Persistent rankings
• Special campaign maps and objectives

Phase 3: Expansion

• Additional unit types and buildings
• Expanded commander abilities
• Map editor tools

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Technical Details

• Engine: Unity (URP 2D)
• Language: C#
• Architecture: Entity-based game objects, Command pattern for actions, Engine subsystem coordination
• Rendering: Hex mesh generation with Unity MeshRenderer, programmatic UI
• AI: State machine with specialized planners, genome-based evolution via arena simulation
• Persistence: JSON-based save system with offline progress

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Development Philosophy

1. Fair play above all — Every player has access to the same tools
2. Decisions matter — Strategic choices should outweigh grinding
3. Respect player time — Flexible formats for busy schedules
4. Iterate systematically — Test, measure, improve

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Contributing

This is a personal project in active development. If you're interested in following the journey or providing feedback, stay tuned for updates.

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License

All rights reserved. This codebase is not open source.

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Building something better, one hex at a time.