Storm Founders is a strategic settlement-building experience driven by automation, resource management, and environmental adaptation.
Players oversee a living village where autonomous villagers gather resources, build infrastructure, and respond dynamically to seasonal changes. Through intelligent systems and player-driven decisions, the settlement evolves in a world shaped by time, scarcity, and environmental challenges.
Genre: Strategy / City Builder / Survival
Engine: Unity
Core Focus: AI Automation, Infrastructure Planning, Dynamic Economy
Key Technologies: Grid-Based Pathfinding, A* Routing, Event-Driven Systems, DOTween
The Villager class forms the backbone of the settlement’s functionality. Each villager operates through a state-driven behavior system (Idle, Gathering, Depositing, MovingToWorkplace), responding dynamically to game events under a deliberate “you-move-they-move” mechanic that reinforces strategic pacing.
Using grid-based navigation powered by the GridRouter component, villagers move toward assigned workplaces, gather resources over a defined GatherTime, deposit them into storage, and repeat their task cycle. The system relies on compute-efficient coroutines, event-driven interactions, and DOTween-powered animations to create smooth, responsive automation. If needs are unmet or resources become scarce, villagers may grow dissatisfied and ultimately abandon the settlement, adding management pressure.
Efficiency depends on infrastructure. The RoadPlacementSystem enables real-time road sketching with placeholder visualization, path validation, and dynamic tilemap updates. Roads remove environmental obstacles such as trees and reinforce exposed edges with structures like palisades. Integrated with A*-based pathfinding, the road network defines optimal routes for workers and merchants, directly influencing productivity.
The resource system operates within a dynamic economy where availability fluctuates based on seasonal modifiers, consumption rates, and passive income. Resources may become temporarily “busy” during ongoing tasks, locking access until work is completed. This layered economy forces players to plan ahead, stockpile during prosperous periods, and prevent shortages that could destabilize the village.
The SeasonManager governs the progression of in-game days and transitions between distinct seasons, influencing resource availability, villager behavior, and survival difficulty. Harsh seasons introduce scarcity and increased environmental pressure, requiring strategic preparation.
The SeasonalLight component enhances immersion through DOTween-powered transitions between day and night cycles, shifting from warm summer tones to cold winter atmospheres. Lighting dynamically interpolates intensity and color saturation, while storms reduce visibility and increase challenge. The passage of time becomes both a visual and systemic driver, shaping exploration, economy, and long-term settlement growth.
