Solar Supremacy: my Game design Journey

HI my name is Micah Perez, and this is my frist in a series of dev diaries that will track the progress of the development of Solar Supremacy. But first, a bit of background.

During COVID in 2020, the world had come to a grinding halt. Like so many others, I found myself with more time than I knew what to do with as lockdowns swept across the globe. But instead of learning sourdough baking or perfecting my Netflix queue, I turned to an old passion that had been simmering in the background for decades: game design.

The Seeds of an Obsession

My fascination with game design stretches back as far as I can remember. There's something magical about the intersection of strategy, creativity, and human psychology that games represent. Growing up, I was that kid who would spend hours poring over the rulebooks of board games, not just to learn how to play, but to understand the why behind every mechanic.

Some of my fondest memories involve marathon sessions of Risk with one of my best friends during our annual ski trips. While other families hit the slopes exclusively, we'd carve out entire afternoons hunched over that familiar map, plotting global domination and engaging in the kind of diplomatic negotiations that would make world leaders proud. Those games taught me about tension, about meaningful choices, and about how the right game can transform a simple cabin afternoon into an epic narrative.

A New Understanding Emerges

As the years passed, my understanding of what games could be began to expand dramatically. The board game renaissance was in full swing, and titles like Scythe were reshaping what I thought was possible. Here was a game that combined economic engine-building with area control, wrapped in a dieselpunk aesthetic that told stories through mechanics rather than flavor text. It was elegant, complex, and showed me that games could be so much more than the roll-and-move classics I'd grown up with.

I started devouring modern designs, studying how contemporary designers approached old problems with fresh eyes. Worker placement, deck building, asymmetric player powers—these weren't just mechanics, they were tools for crafting experiences. The more I played, the more I understood that great games weren't just entertainment; they were systems that revealed something fundamental about decision-making, resource management, and human nature itself.

Taking My First Swing

So when 2020 forced the world into lockdown, I decided to take my own swing at game design. The concept that emerged would eventually become Solar Supremacy—a grand strategy game about competing Earth factions expanding into the solar system. The theme resonated with the times: humanity at a crossroads, forced to look beyond traditional boundaries for survival and prosperity.

The first version of Solar Supremacy was ambitious but raw. Looking back at those 2021 rules, I can see both the kernel of what the game would become and the inexperience that shaped its early form. It was a game about nations competing for 40 Victory Points through military conquest or territorial expansion, featuring complex subsystems for technology research, influence actions, and resource management across multiple celestial bodies.

The Learning Pause

By 2022, I'd hit a wall. Playtesting revealed fundamental issues with game flow, player elimination was creating awkward endgame scenarios, and the complexity-to-fun ratio was out of balance. Rather than push forward with a flawed design, I made the difficult decision to step back. Sometimes the most important thing a designer can do is recognize when they need more time to grow.

For nearly two years, Solar Supremacy sat in a drawer while I focused on Family Life, I had two kids, and would occasionally play games but more through the lens of a player rather than a creator.

The Evolution in Design Philosophy

When I returned to Solar Supremacy in 2024, I feel like I came back with fresh eyes about what makes games truly engaging. The transformation between the 2021 ruleset and the current represents more than just mechanical refinement—it reflects a complete evolution in my understanding of game design.

The most significant change was moving from elimination-focused gameplay to a points-driven race. The 2021 version allowed players to be completely eliminated, which created terrible player experiences and uneven game lengths. The current introduces mechanics ensuring that even defeated players can remain engaged and potentially return to relevance.

The resource system underwent a complete overhaul. Where the original game relied on depleting natural resources tracked on complex territory cards, the new version introduces a cleaner worker allocation system. Players now manage a population of up to 31 workers across different economic tracks, creating more immediate tactical decisions while maintaining long-term strategic planning.

Combat evolved from dice-based randomness to strategic commitment. The old system used simple dice rolls that often felt arbitrary. The new combat resolution boards introduce a risk-versus-reward mechanism where players secretly dial their "engagement level"—how much they're willing to lose to win. This creates genuine tension and eliminates the frustration of lucky rolls determining outcomes.

The victory conditions became more diverse and interconnected. Instead of a single path to gain Victory Points, players can now pursue Military Supremacy through conquest, Economic Supremacy through resource conversion, Planetary Hegemony through territorial control, or Scientific Supremacy through exploration and research breakthroughs. Each path requires different strategies but remains viable throughout the game.

Perhaps most importantly, the game's pacing was completely restructured. The original three-phase rounds (Resource, Development, Action) created downtime and unclear decision points. The new activation system allows players to choose between Resource, Build, or Mobilization activations on their turn, with the restriction that they can't repeat the same activation twice in a row. This creates a natural rhythm while ensuring players always have meaningful choices.

What This Journey Taught Me

The evolution of Solar Supremacy taught me that good game design isn't about having clever ideas—it's about understanding how those ideas create experiences for real people sitting around a real table. The 2021 version was full of innovative mechanics that looked great on paper but created frustration in practice. The Current Version focuses on what actually matters: player agency, meaningful decisions, and maintaining engagement throughout the entire experience.

I learned that complexity for its own sake is a trap. The new version actually has more mechanical depth than the original, but it feels simpler because each system serves a clear purpose and connects intuitively to the others. Elegance isn't about having fewer rules—it's about having every rule earn its place.

Most importantly, I discovered that game design is a conversation between designer and player, mediated by many of hours of testing, iteration, and refinement. The designer's job isn't to impose their vision, but to create a framework that allows players to tell their own stories of triumph, betrayal, and discovery.

Solar Supremacy represents five years of learning disguised as four years of work and one year of stepping away. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your creative work is give it—and yourself—room to breathe and grow. The game that emerged from that process is one I'm genuinely proud to share with the world.

As I continue to playtest and refine, I’ll share more updates, refinements, and photos. I hope to post once a week!