It’s a new year here at Firefly Studios and with it comes fresh releases, projects and updates! We’re kicking off our post-Warlords content here on YouTube with some pretty big news and although we’re light on details for now you can expect much, much more in the coming months (and years) as we dive into our exciting plans for the Stronghold series, Romans: Age of Caesar and more. What plans you ask? Well you’ll just have to carve out seven and a half minutes to watch our ‘Firefly in 2022’ update in full, as we speak as candidly as we can about the future of the Stronghold series and Romans: Age of Caesar, which will be expanding it’s empire onto Steam and mobile platforms this year. Continue reading →

Today we continue our ‘Devs React‘ series with a second reaction-filled episode! This time our veteran Lead Designer Simon Bradbury looks back, using gameplay from the final mission of Stronghold HD to reflect on his history in game dev and how gamers play our titles today. We then examine a few more strategy classics – modern or otherwise – comparing titles in the strategy scene from some of the biggest studios around.

So join us as we delve into the science fiction world of Blizzard’s StarCraft 2, Relic’s recent continuation of a fan favourite franchise in Age of Empires 4 and the bespoke gameplay experience of Total War Medieval. All of which have inspired both Firefly itself and the strategy scene as a whole, to evolve, grow and reach new players.

Today we unveil a brand new community series we’re doing here at Firefly Studios, Video Game Developers React! Using the studio’s wealth of experience and insights behind the video game industry, we aim to educate (and hopefully entertain) video game enthusiasts who want to learn more about design, programming, art and music.

For our debut episode, we bring in industry veteran Simon Bradbury to examine some classic Strategy and RTS games, some of his own creation and others by studios in the same genre. Watch as Simon muses on how they were made, played and what impact they may have had on him and fellow developers at the time.

This week we return to our community series ‘Stronghold Sessions’ to hear directly from Senior Programmer Matt Smith on the inner coded workings of the upcoming Stronghold: Warlords. Matt has been one of the key developers here at Firefly Studios for the last few years, working on everything from Stronghold Crusader 2 to Stronghold Kingdoms. So today you can sit back and relax as he takes you through what it’s like to be working on the systems and mechanics of our historical RTS series.

Our Stronghold Session interviews are intended to bring the fans and developers of the ‘castle sim’ series closer together, by giving you an extended look at who does what for the series and how they do it! We have extra episodes covering Production, Marketing, Programming, Design and 2D Art, so make sure you check out our YouTube channel for more.

Stronghold: Warlords once again takes a break as we return to the Stronghold Sessions. In this episode Marketing Director and video regular Nick Tannahill explains what it takes to steer the marketing ship on a series like Stronghold. From the re-branding of Stronghold as an MMO experience with Stronghold: Kingdoms, to approaching an entirely different area of history with Stronghold: Warlords.

The Stronghold Sessions are intended to bring the fans and developers closer together. By giving you an extended look at who does what for the Stronghold series and how they do it. We have more episodes covering Production, Programming, Design and 2D Art so make sure you check out our YouTube channel for more!

Welcome to Stronghold Sessions. Today marks our second episode in a series of extended, unedited interviews lifted from the ‘20 Years of Stronghold‘ documentary released last year. Join us as we sit down with Paul Harris, General Manager and Producer of many Stronghold and non-Stronghold titles here at Firefly Studios for more than 15 years! Paul discusses the early beginnings of Stronghold 2 including tales from the trenches, design goals and player feedback. We then move onto how ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘His Dark Materials’ inspired Stronghold Legends and even what Paul’s ideal future Stronghold title would look like. Suffice to say the man is a fan of castle customisation! Continue reading →

Welcome to Stronghold Sessions, our new series on Firefly Studios’ YouTube! These videos will be a selection of extended, unedited interviews taken from our ‘20 Years of Stronghold‘ documentary released alongside our initial Stronghold: Warlords announcement. First up is Firefly co-founder and Lead Designer Simon Bradbury, a key architect on every Stronghold title to date. Here we discuss the early beginnings of Firefly Studios, development stories from the Stronghold series and even where Simon sees the games heading in the future after Stronghold: Warlords releases later this year.

Continue reading →