Polder is a real-time strategy-building game where the player's primary goal is to settle new villages across the North of The Netherlands and build them up to prosperity. A church acts as the central point of every village and the player must work to develop and defend it from a litany of hazards and natural disasters while efficiently managing resources and funds.

The game begins in the 11th century A.D. and will advance roughly fifty years further in time throughout each level or scenario. As time advances, villages will continue to change in style to reflect building methods, materials, and architectural styles of that respective time period while the churches will remain the same to reflect the strong roots in culture and values that they provided to their communities.

Polder was nominated for the best graduation assignment of 2023 at Hanze University of Applied Sciences.

The core gameplay loop takes place over the course of two different gameplay modes that roughly represent a “round-based” system. In each mode the player focuses on different aspects of either building or maintaining their village.

It was important to me to craft a fun and engaging entertainment experience for a majority of users that follows industry standards and best practices for casual games. During gameplay, players learn about the development of churches in the North of The Netherlands and are guided to be more engaged with their current development. Through this, players learn about modern uses that Groningen churches fulfill in order to benefit society and develop an improved view of churches in the North of The Netherlands.

Aside from those goals, my development of this project aimed to launch Indietopia's first commercial game under a new BV branch and expand the company's portfolio. This has also allowed me to further develop and improve my practical skills as an Unreal Engine designer and developer to a more professional level.