Game Night Gets Competitive: ‘Demeo Battles’ Combines Turn-Based Strategy & Combat
Since its launch in 2021, Demeo has been bringing people together to roll dice, fight monsters, and free the world of Gilmerra in round after round of tabletop board game fun. And today, the Demeo Action Role-Playing System evolves with the highly anticipated launch of Demeo Battles. A turn-based strategy game in which two teams face off in combat, Demeo Battles offers fast-paced engaging gameplay with depth. We sat down with Resolution Games Producer Gustav Stenmark to learn more.
Gustav Stenmark: I started in the industry as a programmer making games for mobile phones, back before the days of smartphones. I eventually found myself on these titles as a producer at Jadestone, a company founded by Tommy Palm, who would later go on to create Resolution Games.
GS: Tommy knew I had been working on a fishing hobby game dev project for years, so when Resolution decided to create Bait!, he reached out and it was a dream come true. I’ve been with Resolution Games ever since and had worked on nearly every game in one form or another before heading up all things Demeo.
As the producer overseeing the Demeo franchise, I’ve been involved with Demeo Battles since its first prototype.
GS: When we were designing the original Demeo, we thought it had the potential to be more than just a game. We liked to think of it as a toy box filled with familiar pieces that could be played with in different ways—kind of like a deck of cards. Demeo Battles is our first game to test this theory, taking the pieces that made for a compelling cooperative adventure and rethinking them for competition.
While we learned a lot during the development and did a fair bit of exploration to land on a winning formula, this vision remained the same from inception to release.
GS: Demeo Battles was in production for more than two years, and it might surprise you to learn that rethinking Demeo as a PvP experience was a complicated process! We quickly discovered that the more we changed, the less it felt like a Demeo game—and that’s the opposite of what we wanted to deliver. Through trial and error, we began to get a real sense of what makes Demeo feel right, and we made an effort to keep those elements sacrosanct while twisting the gameplay around them. The end result is something both incredibly fresh and instantly familiar for existing players but also very approachable for new players hungry for tactical multiplayer battles.
GS: Demeo Battles features PvP play, monstrous armies serving the players, an ever-encroaching lava flow to avoid, and matches lasting 15 – 20 minutes These are all things that were previously unheard of in the world of Demeo. But Battles core gameplay mechanics? Card-based actions, the luck of the die, the synergies between heroes—it’s all there for players familiar with the earlier Demeo experience.
In fact, synergies between heroes is one of those Demeo fundamentals that I was talking about. Being able to find strategies between teams of heroes is core to what makes Demeo great. And so even in the PvP-focused world of Demeo Battles, competitions always happen between pairs of heroes rather than solo champions. After all, what good is a bard with nobody to buff?
GS: Social play that brings people together no matter where they are in the world is something we pride ourselves on across nearly our entire library of games, and we believe Demeo Battles is no exception. The multiplayer mechanics of gathering around a virtual table to strategize with others is just as crucial here as it is in Demeo—though you’ll want to turn on “team chat” if you don’t want your opponents to know what you’re thinking!
GS: Players are gathered around a virtual table and interact with miniatures, dice, and cards to try and dominate the map that’s presented in front of them. What’s great about this stationary, table-based approach is that we can seamlessly bring people in and out of the real world through the magic of Passthrough. In MR, the board easily anchors to your real-world table—and Demeo Battles also takes advantage of hand tracking to let players play cards, move miniatures, and roll dice just like they would with physical components.
GS: That finding new ways to play with the things you love can be really exciting!
GS: It’s possible that my answer is based on how important it was during the development process, but I really like The Burn. It’s a flow of lava that slowly creeps in from all corners of the board, forcing players closer together with every turn. Not only did it solve the problem of players running away from each other endlessly all around the board, but it flipped the script on what types of characters have the upper hand, ensuring everyone has their time in the sun. When the board is big, ranged players can stay safe and deal damage—but their squishy situation can be tougher to maintain when The Burn eventually pushes melee players within striking range.
GS: In December, we’ll be launching Racket Club, an all-new virtual sport designed from the ground up for play in headsets. Racket Club couldn’t be more different from Demeo Battles, but we’re confident that anyone who enjoys VR and fun will love picking up a virtual racket and stepping onto the court. As for Demeo Battles, we’re working to bring Ranked Mode to the game soon, as well as some additional single-player challenges.
GS: Don’t think that your experience with Demeo will give you the upper hand against new players. As the great and wise Master Yoda once said, “You must unlearn what you have learned.” Playing competitively in pairs of heroes is a very different experience, and a lot of cards that you might have considered disposable in Demeo’s first game may prove far more useful here. But don’t worry: Whether you’re new or experienced, we’ve included dozens of single-player challenges to help you practice your skills and develop the kinds of fierce new strategies you’ll need to survive in the arena!
Grab a friend (or foe) and check out Demeo Battles today on Quest 2, 3, or Pro.
