I've been working on the Spice Road prototype - taking pains to focus on the gameplay rather than the graphics. Spice Road is about trading across alt-18th century central Asia. You follow the adventures of a trader working their way up a merchant company. You can play the roles of caravan master, governor, sheriff and more as you make your own mark on this open world.
Combat in Spice Road is fast and brutal. I've simplified the controls down to Charge/Rally/Flee and the action plays out automatically. Your preparation for battle, party condition and morale has a big impact on outcomes - but you can also avoid encounters by playing smart and hiring good scouts as outriders.
Towns along the Spice Road provide opportunities for Commerce, Recreation and Culture. In the shadier districts this means Smuggling, Vice and the Slave Trade. Towns live in symbiosis with the trade routes - by taking on challenges on the routes you can improve the wealth and prosperity of the towns, and by improving the towns with new businesses and careful policies you can make better profits from the routes.
Spice Road takes place in a large world of deserts, mountains and hilly steppe. You must plan your journeys around dangerous lands, jumping from oasis to hilly stream over scorching hot sands. Your capacity for trade goods is balanced against your stocks of water and supplies - if you run out of either your party's morale will fall and and so will their condition. Many a trader has fled from bandits into the deep sands only to die of thirst instead.
Spice Road is still in early stages of development - for more info see Aartform Games
