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Series · 5 parts · 28 min read
Building Empire Builder
How Empire Builder: Digital came to be.
- Part 1 Getting Empire Builder off the ground How two developers who could never find time to play a board game ended up building the digital version, and what we got wrong about "the rules are already written." Oct 7, 2026 · 5 min read
- Part 2 Multiplayer for a board game Why no off-the-shelf networking solution fit a digital board game, how we ended up rolling our own messaging on top of PlayFab, and why the messes were worth making. Oct 14, 2026 · 6 min read
- Part 3 Two years to find a path A* was the obvious choice for Empire Builder's pathfinding. Making it trustworthy took the better part of two years, a river that cost players millions, and a lesson about who owns what on a two-person team. Oct 21, 2026 · 7 min read
- Part 4 When your engine flips the table Unity's 2023 pricing change landed when we were halfway to launch. It mostly blew over, but it changed how we think about every dependency we build on. Oct 27, 2026 · 5 min read
- Part 5 Choose your partners with care Building a game alongside another company is the reason Empire Builder exists. It's also the reason we sometimes sit on our hands. A few things we've learned about being in a partnership, and being a good partner. Nov 3, 2026 · 5 min read