Hello all Realpolitiks fans!

As you can see, we’ve just announced Realpolitiks 4: Back to the Roots! What might come as a surprise to some of you is that the game isn’t being made by the original creators of the series. Well, the reason is simple - Salient Games has acquired the rights to Realpolitiks, so from now on we’ll be responsible for developing the franchise. We want to bring it back to its best and build its future together with you!

We called it "Back to the Roots" for a reason. Realpolitiks 4 builds strongly on the foundations laid by the original game, the one that received the best response from the community. It runs on a latest version of the engine and we’re putting a lot of work into tidying up the mechanics, improving the UI and making everything fit together better. At the same time, we’re expanding quite a few parts of the game.

There’s more going on in domestic and global politics, with different political ideologies and movements, interest groups and their leaders to deal with. You can fund ideological campaigns, respond to their demands, and watch how public opinion changes as you try to take your country (or even the whole world) in the direction you want.

On the economic side, you’ll have more control over fiscal policy, including taxes, debt, repayment schedules and the costs of keeping that debt under control. You can also invest in the stock market, while keeping an eye on inflation and your country’s credit rating.

There’s also a space program to develop, cooperation with NGOs and much more to do with international organizations such as the EU, CIS, Mercosur, and NATO.

Buildings are getting more attention too. Yes, you could already build things in later Realpolitiks games, but here we want construction to be much more useful for developing your country. You can put several buildings in a province and some options depend on the province itself - a river port, for example. Buildings can be damaged during conflicts and upgraded to give you more resources, tax income, population growth, security, and so on. So there’s a good reason to think about what you build and where.

We’re also expanding warfare. In manually controlled theatres of war, you’ll have more say in how individual operations are carried out, including how aggressive you want them to be. You’ll need to look at the weather forecast and terrain before deciding on your plan, as both affect your chances of success.

Something we’re paying a lot of attention to is stability and balance. We want the game to be fun whether you pick a big power, a medium-sized country, or a small state. Each will have its own situation and challenges, but we want all of them to give you interesting choices and enjoyable ways to develop your nation.

The main campaign starts in 2000, so you’ll be able to change the course of events inspired by recent history and then see where things go from there. We’re also planning more scenarios, including optional mini-scenarios within the main campaign. And you’ll be able to set your own goals for each year, for five-year periods and for the whole 100-year run (some goals will be unique to certain countries), depending on what you want to achieve.

A playable demo will be available soon, so you’ll be able to try the changes yourselves, see where we’re going with the game, and tell us what you think. We’d really like to hear what you enjoy, what needs more work, and what you’d like to see from Realpolitiks.

We’ll also post dev diaries from time to time, where we’ll go into more detail about the new features and bigger changes.

And if you’d like to support us, please add Realpolitiks 4: Back to the Roots to your Steam wishlist - this helps a lot!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5392520/Realpolitiks_4_Back_to_the_Roots/

Thank you for putting your trust in us! We hope you’ll be happy with how the series develops from here. Be sure to give the demo a spin as soon as it’s out. All the best!

Salient Games Team