Games have the power to connect us to more than just fantasy worlds and futuristic adventures. War games are one area of gaming where the source material often relies on real things that have happened in the past, where real people have lost their lives.
Threads of War, a new roguelite strategy game from father-son development team KoS, takes things further, by taking us into an abstract reimagining of a war that is happening right now.
Andriy Kostiushko and his son are Ukrainian game developers. In this collaborative project, which infuses classic arcade gameplay with contemporary roguelite elements, the pair are using art to explore the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Threads of War has another interesting element, and that’s the game’s distinctive art style. KoS used a needlework-inspired tileset that aims to capture the spirit of traditional Ukrainian craftsmanship, and the results are a rather striking.
I’m not gonna lie, it does take a little bit of getting used to, especially when viewed on the smaller screen of a Steam Deck (where it played just fine), but it’s also a truly unique-looking game, which is something that not many can claim these days.
Anyway; Andriy’s insights are much more interesting than mine. Read on to find out more about the game, its origins and inspirations, and how this father-son duo has worked together to create a game full of surprises.
RL: Please, tell us about your game, Threads of War.
AK: The main idea of the game is that we take the mechanics of Battle City, seriously rework and enrich them to make the game fun, modern, and offer different ways to play. We then combine this with roguelite progression, allowing the player to create their own builds, learn from their mistakes, improve their skills, and progress further.
At the same time, the game contains an internal narrative about the war in Ukraine, featuring modern weapon types and a meaningful message.
Finally, it delivers a modernized version of the classic 8-bit game atmosphere, infused with Ukrainian vibes.
The game was made in two years by a 13-year-old programmer and his father, a game designer/artist known for the successful turn-based football management game Football, Tactics & Glory.
This is clearly a deeply personal game to you. Tell us a little bit about why you wanted to explore the Russian invasion of your country in this particular way.
AK: In the first year of the war, I lost some people I knew closely – people with whom I shared interesting and fun memories. They had dreams, ambitions, and ideas. But at some point, they just vanished. The news reports say we lost some territories or liberated some cities, but behind those headlines are hundreds and thousands of such universes – not units, but people.
In 2023, my 11-year-old son, who is a programmer, released two of his games on itch.io. He realized how hard it is to make a game alone. Players could play through his games in five minutes, but he wanted to create a game where players could have fun for at least five hours.. So I decided it was a great opportunity to give him practical experience in programming and finishing a complex game, help him release a longer and more engaging game, and also say something about this war that I’d been meaning to express for a long time.
Once we decided that the core mechanics would be similar to Battle City, I realized that my message could be conveyed through the roguelite gameplay. For example, the constant failure in the roguelite campaign can reflect the story of many people who fought but died. The mechanic called “The Towel of Life” can show who these people were. Later on, players unlock profession-based bonuses, which tell the story of how people from various civilian professions found ways to apply their experience in the war. And finally, there’s the Military Cemetery, which is also part of this narrative.
As an experienced game designer, I didn’t struggle with learning how to make games, balance progression, combine mechanics, or structure the development process. My experience allowed me to have a complete vision of the whole idea from the early stages of development.
I think I played Battle City a couple of times back in the early ‘90s. What was it about that particular game that you wanted to re-capture and modernise?
AK: When you play Battle City today, it feels boring. I tried to recall why I had fun with it back in the ’90s. Step by step, I distilled the feeling I liked – Battle City wasn’t about aiming or fast reactions; it was about decision-making and setting the right priorities in a dynamically changing environment. Once I realized this, it became significantly easier to make all the other design decisions. Every new unit and every new mechanic should affect how you make decisions and how your priorities shift during battle. And this is what is fun in Threads of War.
Initially, when you first start playing our game, you might think, “Oh, it’s a very simple game – just move through a maze and shoot things.” However, as you try to complete the game, you’ll encounter different enemies and emergent situations. You’ll see that the bonuses you collect influence how you approach battles and make decisions.
So, generally speaking, we took the core idea of moving through a dynamically changing, tile-based maze and defending the base, but we redesigned and invented many new mechanics, so it’s a completely new game that’s only similar to Battle City in its core concept and atmosphere.
A follow-up to that, then: how did you use roguelite game design and progression to evolve the gameplay?
AK: There are two types of bonuses in the game: active and passive. They have a very diverse set of effects, and the combination of bonuses defines your playstyle.
My son and I are very different players. I like turn-based and card games, while he prefers fast-paced, real-time gameplay. So, we designed bonuses that support the playstyles we each enjoy, and we also included options that fall somewhere in-between. Additionally, I wanted the bonuses to synergize with each other in different ways.
Like in other roguelite games, there’s a map where you build your path based on the kind of build you’re trying to create. Since Threads of War is an action-packed game, I decided that the map progression shouldn’t be overly complex – but you still need to plan ahead if you want to increase your chances of success. To some extent, it was more inspired by Monster Train than Slay the Spire. I like how the relative simplicity of Monster Train’s map gives you the control on your build.
Eventually, you unlock bonuses that either enable new playstyles or synergize with existing ones, expanding your tactical toolkit. At the same time, while bonuses give you some power, they are primarily about tactics and decision-making – not raw strength.
When adding in new mechanics, what were the biggest surprises in terms of new emergent elements and how they changed up the gameplay?
It wasn’t that there were surprises, but rather interesting moments in the development of certain mechanics. Here’s a good example: when we implemented the tank-miner, the mines exploded when the player’s tank moved over them or shot them. But then we asked ourselves – would it be fun if the neighbouring mines exploded in a chain reaction? My son was 12 years old at the time, and this was quite complex for him to program. His code architecture didn’t allow for it. But he put in the extra effort, and indeed, it turned out to be very fun and tactically useful, since you could shoot once and clear a series of mines.
Then we asked ourselves – would it be fun if enemy tanks moving onto already exploding mines also took damage? That was even more complex to implement because of the different synergies and score calculations that depend on who killed each tank (all mechanics should work equally both for single and co-op modes). But again, my son made it work, and yes – watching a chain reaction that destroys one or even two enemy tanks was hilarious. So the mine mechanics unexpectedly developed into something more fun, with the potential for emergent situations. We hadn’t planned to spend so much time on it, but in the end, it made the game more enjoyable.
As someone who grew up with a stitcher, I appreciate the art style that you’ve gone for, even if it is quite unconventional for a game with so many tanks in it. Please tell us why you went in this direction, and what interesting design decisions were provoked by the tileset you’ve created.
At the very early stages of development, I had several requirements for the game’s style:
- It should convey Ukraine and its fight for freedom, because I wanted the graphics to also tell the story.
- It should have a unique graphical style, so the game would look distinctive.
- It should be in pixel art, because I wanted to recreate the experience of the old Battle City.
When thinking about all of this, I realized that Ukrainian embroidery checked all the boxes. It was like a eureka moment for us 🙂 It influenced the entire course of the game’s development. In Battle City, when you broke bricks, you could destroy them piece by piece. However, when one block is a piece of embroidery, dividing it into many smaller pieces makes it unreadable for players. We had to be extra careful about how players perceive the battlefield, since for some it would take time to get used to embroidery.
Therefore, in Threads of War, unlike Battle City, the “brick” blocks have only two conditions: whole and damaged. However, this turned out not to be a drawback – the game’s dynamics improved, and a player’s decisions became more meaningful.
I’ve only tried the single-player mode, so what can you tell me about the co-op and how it changes things?
We wanted co-op to be more than just two tanks fighting enemies on a level. There had to be an element of competition, where depending on who you play with, you might help each other, play fairly, or mess around with one another. We knew that pure scores are rarely enough motivation to play better, so we designed the co-op to also follow the roguelite formula. After each level, the player who scored higher in the previous round chooses the next bonus first.
Like in single-player mode, there’s a map (simplified a bit so it’s easier for two players to follow) where you can see upcoming bonuses. If you think the next bonus is worth fighting for, you can not only kill more enemies but also steal ammo, coins, shields, and active bonuses your friend might want. This makes the fights fun and chaotic. However, when you reach harder locations, it’s better to cooperate by discussing positioning and planning moves together. We also found ourselves helping each other – for example, when my son didn’t have enough shields, I helped him get some.
It’s worth mentioning that players should play the tutorial in single-player mode first (or one player should explain the mechanics to another player), because there are some important things to know. For example – how shields are earned, how they affect the game and what a special bullet is.
What future plans do you have for the project?
It totally depends on the feedback and interest of the players. We’ve already released several updates based on feedback, and if we see more interest, we’ll add some fun new features. But since we’re a bit tired from working after our day job and school, we also want to take a break from the game for a while 🙂
One final question, if you don’t mind me asking: what’s next for you both personally, beyond your work on Threads of War?
My son wants to take a break from programming such a big project and just play games or work on his smaller ideas. Releasing a polished roguelite game with many synergies, complex systems, and carefully crafted moment-to-moment dynamic combat mechanics that work in both single-player and co-op modes is no small feat, even for adults. So he doesn’t want to think about making another big game in the near future 🙂
As for me – I’m the director of the indie studio Creoteam, where I also work as a game designer. Currently, we’re developing Football, Tactics & Glory: World – a very ambitious turn-based football management game. So I haven’t stopped creating games. I love creating experiences. However, now I have free time in the evenings to play the games I missed over the last two years 🙂
Threads of War is out now on PC (Win).
