Stellar Throne Development Newsletter

Major Systems Complete: Ground Combat, Ship Upgrades & First Contact

Week of July 8-15, 2025

Welcome to this week’s Stellar Throne development update! This has been an incredibly productive week with major milestones achieved across multiple game systems.

🎮 Game Renamed: From “Stellar Hegemony” to “Stellar Throne”

This week marked an important branding decision as the game was officially renamed from “Stellar Hegemony” to “Stellar Throne,” better reflecting the game’s focus on galactic dominance and strategic conquest.

🚀 Major Feature Completions

Ground Combat System ✅

  • Complete planetary invasion mechanics with 6 unit types and 5-phase combat
  • AI ground combat integration allowing computer opponents to conduct invasions
  • Ground Combat UI with visual feedback and tactical options
  • 58+ passing tests ensuring system stability

Ship Upgrade & Retrofit System ✅

  • Complete ship modification system allowing fleet customization
  • Retrofit mechanics for upgrading existing vessels
  • Integration with economy and resource management
  • Full save/load support for persistent upgrades

First Contact & Diplomacy ✅

  • First Contact system with camera centering on new civilizations
  • Enhanced diplomatic options and trade negotiations
  • Supply line mechanics connecting distant colonies
  • AI diplomatic behavior for computer empires

Exploration & Scout Ships ✅

  • Comprehensive scout mechanics with exploration and discovery
  • Fog of war system hiding unexplored regions
  • Sensor range visualization with smooth border rendering
  • Scout ship indicators with triangle fleet markers
  • Toggle exploration overlay (E key) for strategic planning

🎨 Visual & UI Improvements

Star Map Overhaul

  • 16-planet texture atlas for diverse planetary visuals
  • 16-icon star system representing different star types
  • Modular renderer architecture improving performance and maintainability
  • Enhanced fleet indicators with clean triangle shapes
  • Territory border rendering with organic, smooth shapes

Technical Architecture

  • Major code refactoring from camelCase to snake_case throughout codebase
  • Modularized star_map.zig breaking 800+ line file into focused modules
  • Extracted game.zig modules following Test-Driven Development principles
  • Performance optimizations and memory leak fixes

📈 Development Metrics

  • Over 540 passing tests ensuring code quality and stability
  • Zero memory leaks in current build
  • Clean compilation with no warnings
  • Comprehensive test coverage across all major systems

🤖 AI-Assisted Development

This week also saw the creation of CLAUDE.md, a comprehensive specification that helps AI coding assistants understand the project architecture and generate code that matches the project’s standards. This innovation was detailed in the blog post “Why CLAUDE.md Exists” and represents a new approach to human-AI collaboration in game development.

🎯 Victory Conditions & Game Balance

  • Complete victory conditions system with multiple win paths
  • Economic victory balancing preventing premature wins
  • Enhanced AI empire behavior making computer opponents more challenging
  • Fleet composition analysis for strategic planning

🔧 Technical Highlights

  • Fuel and supply mechanics adding strategic depth to fleet movement
  • Notification system unification providing consistent player feedback
  • Asset management improvements with Git LFS for binary files
  • Orbitron font integration for modern sci-fi aesthetic

📝 Community Updates

The development blog at blog.mrphilgames.com featured several detailed posts this week:

  • Technical deep-dives into ground combat mechanics
  • Insights into AI-assisted development workflows
  • Architecture decisions and code organization principles
  • Visual design choices and sprite generation processes

🔮 Looking Ahead

With ground combat, ship upgrades, and first contact systems now complete, development focus is shifting toward:

  • Enhanced diplomatic complexity
  • Advanced AI behaviors
  • Performance optimizations
  • Beta testing preparations

The game continues to evolve as a sophisticated 4X strategy experience built with modern development practices and AI-assisted coding tools.

Stellar Throne is a turn-based 4X strategy game built in Zig with SDL2, featuring tactical combat, diplomacy, and galactic conquest. Development updates are posted weekly at blog.mrphilgames.com