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Real-time strategy · iPhone

Wavefall — a real-time strategy game for iPhone

The map hasn’t decided yet.

A real Wavefall battle: a blue city at the bottom and a red city at the top, grown into roads, houses, farms and forest, with most of the map between them still dark, undecided ground.
A real battle, played by the game’s own engine · clicktap the map to plant your banner

Real-time strategy for one thumb, played upright. Every battle starts on undecided ground, a faint wave of maybes. As your city grows, the wave collapses square by square into roads, farms, forests, towers and barracks. You never place a building. You steer.

Coming soon to iPhone

  • Real-time strategy
  • Roguelike campaign
  • Eight civilisations
  • Plays offline

Wave function collapse

Every square starts as a maybe

The battlefield is built by wave function collapse, live, while you play. Each square of the map begins undecided: it could still be grass, forest, rock, water, a road or a building. Every time your city grows, one square makes up its mind.

There is one rule: a road only ever meets a road. Every combination of road and no-road edges has a tile, so any square can always be decided, and the map never contradicts itself or backtracks. Roads only grow from roads, so a city spreads along its own streets.

When an army breaks a square, it doesn’t become rubble. It falls back into the wave, and either side can claim it again.

What a square can become

  • GrassOpen land, cheap to claim
  • ForestWood
  • QuarryStone
  • WaterFood
  • RoadMeets only a road
  • HouseTownsfolk, and faster growth
  • FarmFood for an army
  • BarracksSoldiers, and room for more
  • TowerShoots rival soldiers
  • KeepBreak theirs to win

One thumb

You never place a building. You steer.

Tap the map to plant your banner, and your city grows toward it. Choose what the wave becomes. Decide when your soldiers leave home. That is the whole control scheme, and it is enough to win a war.

The blue city is playing itself. Touch anything to take it.

Tap the map
Plant your banner. The city grows toward it and your soldiers rally to it. Tap it again to take it away.
Grow
Cheap land and houses. Houses bring townsfolk, and living townsfolk make the city grow faster.
Gather
Forests, quarries, water and farms: the wood, stone and food everything else costs.
Fortify
Towers that shoot rival soldiers, and growth that leans toward the enemy border.
Muster
Barracks, and the farms to feed an army.
Hold or March
Hold keeps your soldiers at home. March sends them at your banner, or at the rival keep.
Power
Every people has one power button with a cooldown. The Nameless have Surge: six squares collapse at once near your banner.

Dynasty · the roguelike campaign

A roguelike campaign on a new continent every run

Every run of Dynasty is a fresh continent, with its own coasts, mountain ranges and deserts. Each turn you make one move on the map, and most moves lead to a real battle whose rivals, terrain and keystones come from the ground you chose to fight on.

  • Barbarians hold the wild land.
  • Rival realms show you their plans, then go to war, make truces and fall. A fallen realm’s land dissolves back into the wave.
  • When several realms aim at the same province, the battle has three or four sides, and rivals can choose to join yours.
  • Win a battle, take a boon. Lose your capital, and the run is over.
The Dynasty campaign map on turn one: a green continent in the fog, realm shields across the top, and a province card for Stillley, held by barbarians, with the Crossroads Great keystone and a Claim button reading good odds.
A new continent every run
A four-way battle: blue, red, amber and violet cities in the four corners of the map, grown toward each other around a still-undecided middle, with a four-colour territory bar across the top.
Three- and four-way battles

Keystones, and the Great keystone

Keystones are sites on the battlefield that change the battle for whoever holds them. The Great keystone runs at double strength from the first second, and its relic travels with you across the continent for as long as you hold its province.

  • Old Fort
  • War Camp
  • Gold Vein
  • Sacred Spring
  • Forge
  • Watchtower
  • Great Granary
  • Crossroads
  • Relic of Kings
  • Standing Stones

Civilisations

Eight civilisations, eight powers, and the Nameless

Rome, the Mongols, the Norse, Persia, Han China, Egypt, Byzantium and the Aztecs each build their own-looking city, and each has its own power button. Some are made for the campaign map, others for the battlefield. Every crest and building below is drawn by the game’s own code.

  • Rome

    Map specialist

    Via. A straight paved road runs from your roads to your banner, free, and building beside roads speeds up for a while.

    Roads of Empire. In Dynasty, bring an extra soldier for each of your provinces beside the battle.

    Paved roads, red tile roofs, shield walls.

  • Mongols

    Map specialist

    Horde. For a few seconds every soldier runs twice as fast and cuts down townsfolk from further away.

    Steppe Reach. In Dynasty, attack or claim provinces two steps away.

    Yurts and horse riders.

  • Norse

    Map specialist

    Berserk. Soldiers run faster and hit harder for a few seconds, but take more damage.

    Sea Raiders. In Dynasty, attack any coastal province from any of yours. Norse soldiers walk on water.

    Longhouses, longships, round shields.

  • Persia

    Map specialist

    Immortals. For a few seconds your soldiers can’t drop below 1 health.

    Satraps & Spies. In Dynasty, see inside every province and the exact strength of every rival.

    Turquoise domes and the Immortals.

  • Han China

    Battle specialist

    Raise the Wall. Squares of wall rise across the enemy’s way in. Roads become gates, and rivals must break through.

    Great Wall. Towers reach further and last longer, and walls are twice as tough.

    Pagoda roofs, walls, crossbows.

  • Egypt

    Battle specialist

    Flood. Squares near your water become farms, free, and farms yield far more for a while.

    Breadbasket. Farms and water beside water yield more, and soldiers cost less food.

    Sandstone, obelisks, a pyramid keep, irrigated farms.

  • Byzantium

    Battle specialist

    Greek Fire. A line of fire runs from your nearest tower or keep toward the banner and burns rival soldiers.

    Cataphracts. Tougher soldiers that cost more, in a smaller army, behind a keep that shoots faster.

    Purple domes and cataphracts.

  • Aztecs

    Battle specialist

    Flower War. For a while, each rival soldier killed pays food and heals your soldiers nearby, and growth doubles.

    Levies. Cheaper, faster-trained, weaker soldiers, and a bigger army.

    Step pyramids and jaguar warriors.

  • The Nameless

    No specialty

    Surge. Six squares collapse at once near your banner.

    No trait and no weakness: the plain game, in your own colour.

    Plain roofs in your own colour.

Between runs

What carries between runs

Skill trees

A skill tree for every civilisation, three branches each, spent between battles and kept for good.

Renown

Your first people is free, and yours for good. Renown, earned in every run, unlocks the next.

Heat

For when winning gets easy. Win a run and the next level of Heat opens.

Skirmish

Set up a single battle: two to four players, your civilisation and theirs, the terrain (plains, river, lakes, coast, islands, highlands or forest), keystones, and who attacks. The battle at the top of this page is a Skirmish, rolled fresh each time.

Looks

Switchable Looks restyle the whole interface, from stone plates and a brass console to a chronicle on vellum. The pixel art underneath is all drawn in code.

  • The Dynasty home screen: a three-by-three grid of shields for the Nameless and the eight civilisations, Rome selected with its power described, and a Heat row beneath.
    Eight peoples, eight powers
  • Rome's skill tree: three branches named Legions, The Via and Centuries, each a column of ranked nodes, none spent yet.
    Skill trees that carry over
  • The Skirmish muster screen: two Nameless shields facing each other, Plains, a line describing the battle, and buttons for Change settings and March.
    Set up any battle you like
  • A battle in the Chronicle Look: a vellum title bar reading The battle on the plains above the same pixel map, with a round red Surge button.
    Play it in a different Look

What you get

Wavefall at a glance

Genre
Real-time strategy, with a roguelike campaign
Played
Upright, with one thumb
Modes
Dynasty and Skirmish
Peoples
Eight civilisations and the Nameless
Battles
Two to four sides, against computer opponents
Network
Plays offline
Price
Free
Language
English

No account. No ads. No purchases. Anonymous play statistics, which you can switch off. The privacy policy is the long version.

Questions

Questions about Wavefall

Is Wavefall free?
Yes. There are no ads and nothing to buy inside it.
Does it need an internet connection?
No. It plays fully offline, against computer opponents.
What does it collect?
No account, no ads, no purchases. The app sends anonymous play statistics, which you can switch off in Settings. Your progress and settings stay on your phone. The privacy policy has the details.
Is it turn-based?
The battles are real time, and you can pause or play at double speed. The Dynasty campaign map moves one turn at a time: each turn you make one move, and most moves lead to a battle.
How long is a battle?
A few minutes.
Do I build the city myself?
Not by hand. The city grows by itself, one undecided square at a time. You steer it: plant a banner, choose Grow, Gather, Fortify or Muster, and decide whether your soldiers hold or march.
Is it multiplayer?
No. It is single-player, against computer opponents, in battles of two to four sides.
When is it out, and is it on Android?
It is coming soon to iPhone, and this page will link to the App Store the day it is out. Android is not announced yet: iPhone comes first.

The map hasn’t decided yet

Neither have we, quite: Wavefall is being play-tested now, on its way to the iPhone.

Coming soon to iPhone

Questions before then? Support and common questions · support@bendigogames.com