Design Philosophy Behind Beyond Space - Devlog 2

Hey y'all,

Before we jump into the nitty gritty of game mechanics, features, showcasing the gameboard, and really getting into the gameplay breakdown, I wanted to start at the top and work down. I want you to understand the design decisions behind Beyond Space — where I’m coming from, what I’m thinking about, and how I’ve approached building this game.

Today I want to talk about the design philosophy behind Beyond Space: why I’m making this game, what sparked it, and the core ideas that shaped its direction.

Why Most Wargames Didn’t Work for Me

Beyond Space is the game I wished existed when I first got into miniatures and wargaming. I’ve always loved the idea of large army tabletop games — the scale, the art, the universes built around them. Seeing two fully painted armies face off, each built by players with different strategies and styles, is something I’ve always found inspiring.

But in practice, the gameplay was almost always slow, bloated, and overly complicated. Every time I tried to get into a system, it felt like it cared more about simulating reality than creating something fun, fast, and engaging.

Why weren’t there any large army wargames that didn’t lean so hard into the simulation aspect? Why wasn’t there something where the models were exciting, the lore was immersive, and the gameplay just focused on being fun?

I totally understand — that kind of simulation-heavy design appeals to a lot of people. If that’s you, you already have tons of options. But for the rest of us? Options are almost nonexistent.

I remember watching this video from Goobertown Hobbies where he talks about trying to enjoy Warhammer with his friends. He loves the models, the hobby, the universe — but just couldn't force himself to play the game because he thought it simply wasn't fun. That really resonated with me. I felt the same way, years before.

From Blender Helmets to Building a Universe

That’s where Beyond Space started to take shape. It began as me just learning Blender so I could make some custom helmets for 3D printed miniatures. But as I kept going, the ideas kept growing. Eventually, I committed to making my own universe — and the wargame I wished had existed all along.

Simplicity Doesn’t Mean Shallow

One of the core ideas behind Beyond Space is that complexity doesn’t equal depth.

Touring the wargaming scene, I kept running into games that were overloaded with rules in an attempt to create strategy and meaningful decisions. But that approach often backfires. It creates so much overhead that the actual fun gets buried beneath the rulebook.

To me, depth isn’t about how many modifiers you can stack. It’s about how many decisions actually matter.

That’s what I mean when I say Beyond Space is “simple but deep.” The surface mechanics are clean and fast to learn. But once you’re in, the game opens up — because the depth comes from how everything interacts, not how much you’re forced to memorize.

Games like Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics made a big impact on me early on. They weren’t complicated, but they had structure. They gave you meaningful options that felt great to use. You’d build your squad, equip your units, learn their strengths, and hit the battlefield. Suddenly everything clicked — positioning mattered, roles mattered, and the choices you made before the fight shaped how things played out.

That’s the feeling I’m chasing in Beyond Space.

Real Choice, Not Illusion

Simplicity is only one part of the puzzle. Another pillar of Beyond Space is choice — real, meaningful choice.

Nothing’s more fun to me than building a large army. But in most games, that freedom is often an illusion. If you want to build a “competitive” army, you're usually forced into whatever the current meta is. And if you build what you like? It probably sucks, and that never feels good.

When a game is driven by pure math and optimization, there will always be a “meta” — the combination of numbers (units) that statistically gives the best results. You can’t escape it.

So I asked: how do you design around that? How do you create room for real variation and still keep things balanced?

I ended up with a tag and resource system. Units have different loadout options (like weapons), but each comes with pros and cons. There are tradeoffs. A loadout can’t just do more damage than another. That’s lazy design, and it leads straight back to meta-chasing.

Instead, I made it so that each combat action interacts with specific tags — like flesh or armor — and has different resource costs and effects. The goal is to create real decisions at both the loadout phase and in moment-to-moment gameplay.

Example: Loadout Design

Let’s say a unit can take either a longsword or a greathammer as its loadout.

If you give it the longsword, it might deal bonus damage to units with the flesh tag. That gives you an edge against weaker, core infantry. But when that unit hits the board, it still has decisions to make. It has 4 combat actions. Which one is best against the target? Maybe only 1 of them deals bonus damage. Do you go for that? Or use another combat action with a different effect? That’s where gameplay starts to get interesting.

Or maybe you choose the greathammer instead. Now that unit is better at dealing with heavy armor — but the weapon comes with a completely different moveset and combat style.

This kind of design forces you to make meaningful choices before the match even starts. How does this unit fit into your army? Do your loadouts cover your weaknesses? Are you ready for different scenarios?

It discourages spamming a single unit and trying to cheese your opponent. And during gameplay, you’re constantly making tradeoffs. Each unit gets to use one combat action per turn. Do you use the armor-piercing strike? Or go for the shoulder charge that knocks the enemy out of position?

That’s what I mean by real choice — not the illusion of choice.

So, What Else Sets Beyond Space Apart?

Okay — the game’s easy to learn. It has real strategic choice. But you might be wondering: what else makes Beyond Space different?

I'm glad you asked! (You probably didn't.) But the gameboard is what really brings it all together. We'll be covering it in depth in the next devlog, but I want to briefly talk about why Beyond Space plays on a printed gameboard — instead of just setting up minis on your kitchen table.

The gameboard reinforces the simplicity of the system. Movement is tile-based — no rulers, no tape measures. Personally, I think that style is outdated and clunky. The gameboard achieves two major goals I had in mind: simplifying movement and attacks, and creating more visual customization for players.

The board itself can be as minimal or detailed as you want. You can play on a clean, simple field of tiles — or a sprawling battlefield filled with terrain and environmental storytelling, if that’s your thing. The board adds a ton to immersion, and we’ll be diving deep into visuals and gameplay in the next devlog.

Accessibility and Cost

These two topics are close to my heart. Wargaming isn’t cheap — and Beyond Space won’t be a $20 game either, as much as I’d love it to be. But it will be far more affordable than most large-scale wargames, where prices for models have gotten... borderline criminal.

A single battletank for another game might cost $180–300. That’s wild to me. Beyond Space is fully 3D printed, so if you have access to a resin printer, you can print full armies for less than the price of someone else’s tank.

That means everything is digital. You want to repair a model? Print another one. Want to expand your board or options? Grab a new file pack. It keeps costs low while letting me release modular expansions like bit packs or terrain sets without bloating the price of entry.

But there’s a flip side. You need a 3D printer — and not everyone has the space, budget, or desire to learn printing just to play a game. I totally get that. It’s a tradeoff I’m aware of, and for now, Beyond Space will only be available to players who have access to a printer.

No Resets — Just Expansions

Another foundational goal for me was avoiding the reset cycle that’s so common in wargaming. You know the drill: a new edition drops, and suddenly your $700 army and six $40 rulebooks are invalid or nerfed into the ground. That sucks.

In Beyond Space, future editions are meant to be expansions — not resets. I want each new release to complement what already exists, not replace or overwrite it. Of course, there may be occasional reworks or balance changes. I can’t promise perfection. But I’ll do everything I can not to ruin your army or force you to start over.

Here’s a weird but useful analogy: think of World of Warcraft vs Old School RuneScape. WoW has vertical progression — every few months, new content drops and your old gear becomes useless. It’s always chasing the next thing, and your hard work fades.

But Old School RuneScape has horizontal progression. You can quit for years, come back, and your character is still viable. The game grows outward, not upward. That’s the design approach I want for Beyond Space.

If you spend hours crafting a custom Araashi Knight Order army, I want you to be able to use that army forever — no matter how many years pass or expansions drop. That’s the kind of respect I want to give players: for their time, their creativity, and their wallets.

Again, this is the plan. And plans change. But this goal — of building a lasting foundation, not chasing the next shiny thing — will always guide me.

Supporting Both PvP and PvE

Accessibility isn’t just about price. It’s about how easy a game is to understand, re-learn, and actually enjoy.

I wanted Beyond Space to support both competitive and solo wargaming from a single ruleset. That’s possible thanks to the game’s simplicity. If you’ve played wargames for a while, you know how hard it is to get regular games in. We don’t all have the space or schedule to play all the time.

That’s why solo play matters. PvE isn’t just an afterthought — it’s a core part of what I’m building. You’ll be able to fight hordes, encounter multi-phase bosses, and play full solo campaigns using the same rulebook you’d use for PvP.

Imagine playing an epic game with your friends, then running solo missions when you don't have the time to commit with your friends. That’s what I want. That’s what I’ve built. And we’ll dive deeper into this system in a future devlog.

Respecting the Player

Everything I’ve talked about — simplicity, choice, cost, expansions, accessibility — comes from one recurring question I ask myself at every step:

If I were the player or the customer, would I like this? Does this respect my time, my money, and my effort?

If the answer is no, it doesn’t make it into the game.

Moving forward, we’ll be diving deeper into the actual systems — mechanics, factions, armies, and more. But I wanted to lay out the foundation first. This is where I’m coming from. These are the principles guiding everything you'll see next.

I hope all of this resonates with you. And if it’s not what you’re looking for — that’s okay too. Beyond Space is for people who want something a little different. The rules will be free, so no harm in giving it a shot.

Thanks for reading. I’ll see you in the next devlog, where we’ll explore the gameboard in detail — how it works, what it looks like, and why it’s such a core part of the game.