Support the Game

War of Fantasia is free and stays free. Why it asks for support at all, and what the money is for.

War of Fantasia is made by one person. Supporting it is voluntary, it is not — I repeat, NOT — required to play, and it does not buy an advantage of any kind.

Why I am asking

My motivation is to build a game that is fun. Plain and simple. I have been playing games my entire life, and with the rise of AI it is now possible to be a one person dev team. It is easier than ever to turn vision and creativity into reality.

I have worked on everything myself, from how the game works to the art to the music. It has been an incredibly satisfying experience going from how the game looked during pre-alpha to how it looks, feels and sounds now. If anyone is ever interested in seeing the first version, I can show it, or put it somewhere on the website to play. It really would be the perfect illustration of how far the game has come.

The thing is, though, I am not close to finishing. I have not been able to add all the game modes I want, and there are definitely tweaks to be made to what is live now. The one live mode, 1 v 1 TD, works fine — but it is far from perfect.

I would like to build a community around this game. One that comes to love WoF and keeps driving it forward. I want people to come up with janky strategies that should not work, break them against each other, and turn what is left into a meta nobody planned.

Now that the game is playable, I want to sit down and expand the lore properly. What are the origins of the world? Where do all the races come from? Who are the original heroes who established the world order that has recently come into chaos?

It would be amazing if from there the community started drawing things from the game — their favorite unit, or an evolution they invented. Things we have not written yet, that the playerbase helps build. I want arguments about whether the Karseesh or the Kieerah are superior, and I want somebody to be right.

I want people to have fun. If it eventually makes a little money too, that would be alright — but that is the order those go in, and I would rather say so plainly than pretend otherwise.

How War of Fantasia was born

The world itself comes from an idea I had more than a decade ago. At the time I was playing a few of what are called text-based RPGs. If that sounds like nonsense, the simplest version is this: a group of writers playing D&D over a forum or a chat. You create and maintain a character with stats, gear, skills and accomplishments. You write stories on your own, fleshing out the character you have made up — and then the best part of the whole experience, writing with other people. We would throw our characters into separate scenarios that eventually converged into a single narrative, ping-ponging ideas back and forth as we went. Battling other players is even a thing.

It was a great time, and during it I chose to create and run my own RPG on an Invisionfree forum. One of the RPGs I played had released a book that broke down how to build a world's rules and ideas. From there I invited a few friends and made a fantasy world of my own — one where species like the Aa'gar and the Karseesh already existed, in appearance and in history. There are other details from it that I plan to add to the game eventually. It has just been a bit difficult wearing every hat in the company.

That is where the world of Fantasia came from, but the idea and the gameplay came from somewhere else altogether. War of Fantasia draws on the custom-map culture of Warcraft III, where community-made maps experimented with strategy, tower defense, hero defense, RPGs and a great many other creative ideas brought to life. The most obvious example is DotA, which started as a Warcraft III custom map and went on to shape and popularize the MOBA genre. Another, much closer to how this game plays, is the original Legion TD map, whose concept was later built into the standalone game Legion TD 2 by AutoAttack Games. I want to avoid any confusion here, so to be completely clear: War of Fantasia is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or officially associated with Blizzard Entertainment, Valve or AutoAttack Games. Although — if any of you are reading this and would like to sponsor the continued development of WoF, it would make me incredibly proud and happy.

What your money actually does

It pays for the things that have a bill attached: the servers that run matches, the domain, the mail that signs you in, and the art and sound made for the game. Beyond that it buys development time, for me to keep improving the game and to add the modes I have envisioned.

It does not buy power. No supporter gets a stronger unit, a cheaper send, or a better hand.

What you get

A small crown beside your name, everywhere your name appears.

Your name in supporter gold on the boards and in matches.

Crowns to spend in the cosmetics store — 100 for every dollar.

More to come — supporters will get first look at what is being built.