They Are Billions campaign 'like a full new game,' but will take longer than planned to arrive

They Are Billions developer Numantian Games has laid out its plans for 2019, which will see continued improvements and expansions made to the level editor and two new maps added to the Survival Mode. It also provided an update on the status of the campaign, which is taking longer than expected to finish but is still on the way.

The developers will continue to add "more features, assets, and interesting new elements" to the editor, including interactive and ornamental assets, and of particular note, the ability to mod game rules. An option to create a campaign-like series of levels that must be played in order is coming, to ensure players are "following the levels and the narrative in the order decided by the designer," and an option to enable branching stories through some kind of persistent state is also on the table, although that's not carved in stone—the developers are currently "considering" it.

Success in Early Access has convinced the developers to make a more ambitious campaign

Speaking of campaigns, They Are Billions' is still in the works, but the plan has been changed somewhat. Success in Early Access has convinced the developers to make a more ambitious campaign than they'd originally envisioned—"like a new full game with 40-50 hours of content"—but of course that means more time is required to pull it all together. Interestingly, they've decided against putting it out as part of the Early Access release, but will instead hold it back for the full launch.

"We've just got one chance to release the full finished game, and we would honestly prefer to be known as the ‘slow developers’ that have released a great RTS, than the ‘rushed developers’ with an average game," it wrote. "We will perform all the testing internally here with our team of testers and, of course, we will keep on updating you about the campaign details here. We believe is better not to release the campaign 'in pieces' as it would delay the development, and it would spoil everything. We want to surprise you with the full campaign."

Two new Survival Mode maps, one the easiest and the other the hardest in the game so far, are coming soon, and will be the biggest expansions until full release. New Infected units have been completed and Empire Heroes are being made (they're being held back for the campaign, though), as are new research upgrades such as the Laser Titan, which certainly sounds intriguing.

"Once the Campaign is released we are thinking about adding new game modes and integrating some elements of the Campaign to the Survival," Numantian wrote. There's no indication as to when that will happen, but there is a handful of new screens that you can check out down below.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.