A Nation of Wind

By: Derek Yu

On: July 28th, 2012

A Nation of Wind is an action sim where the goal is to control obelisks in levels composed of floating islands. To control an obelisk, it has to be surrounded by four temples, which are expensive in resources – you’ll have to start by building an infrastructure that includes farms, saw mills, and mines. Enemies will attack your colonies by land and air, however, so you’ll also need walls and turrets to defend. Direct attack is possible with your airship, too, using a variety of weapons that are fired with the mouse.

In a system that evokes god games like Populous, temples enable four elemental magics, each with a major and minor spell associated with them. Earth magic, for example, allows you to create new land masses or level mountains. Fire lets you dry up lakes or attack the enemy with devastating meteors. There are also spells to speed up time or heal your units.

The game’s website touts it as a cross between “arena shooters” and “real time strategy games”, but the action is fairly tame compared to Geometry Wars or Starcraft. Instead, it should appeal much more to a fan of Populous or the simulation portion of Actraiser. If that’s you, I recommend a look, as among management sims I think it may rank fairly highly. Just be prepared to spend some time getting to grips with how everything works – this game could really use some mouse-over help or at least a better tutorial.

TIGdb: Entry for A Nation of Wind

Posted in Action, Freeware, Real-Time Strategy, Sim, Strategy, Windows | Tags: JamesonWilkins

http://twitter.com/AndreYin Andre C.

I saw this game being developed, and I’m really impressed with how it came out to be!
dantronlesotho

It seems that the downloadlink is broken?
Anonymous

Where are you located at? I just checked the link and it seems to be working fine, but I have heard that some countries outside the US (specifically Asian territories) don’t seem to be able to download from Gamefront! Sorry about that.
Anonymous

Thanks man! I’m glad to hear people enjoy it, it’s been a solid 2+ years of work at this point!
Anonymous

I’m sure you get this pretty often Derek, but Spelunky was a huge influence on my work, it was one of the first indie titles that really pushed my own pixel art from “just a hobby” into something that I wanted to take further. It’s really great knowing that you played my game, and I’ll be adding Unit Descriptions into the game soon, hopefully in time for the next update!
dantronlesotho

Ah, the link works now. I’m in Florida so it wasn’t an international issue. Not sure what happened there; probably just a hiccup. I’m enjoying the game so far! Well done sir!
Anonymous

Oh! A fellow floridian then! Haha, glad you’re enjoying it, I plan on doing some much needed updates to make the game more accessible, as well as include content that I didn’t originally have the time to add, so be sure to sign up for the newsletter (Main Menu>Social/Credits>SIgn Up for Newsletter.)
News

chuff nation represent
Napie

no way to change the keyboard controls ?
Anonymous

Editing the controls while using Drag and Drop in Gamemaker (which this game is 95% comprised of) is very difficult. I doubt I’ll ever be adding that functionality in this free version of the game.
Grabulous

So awesome that the third tagline in the trailer has a prominent typo. Artist developers 4tw!
shipwreck

I want to go to there.
anonymous

The main menu is really annoying
Anonymous

Had me at “Simulation portion of Actraiser”
motusada

the description made me think of netstorm, island at war but the actually game is quite different
motusada

actual game that is
sultansNdragons

Yes I agree…then again cut the guy a bit of a slack he didn’t sit through 10000 meetings and focus groups to make the game and that’s why we’re here right?
http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

That means a lot to me. Thank you!

Also, glad to hear you’re planning on updating ANoW. It’s a fun game and I’m impressed that it’s made in GM (using Drag n’ Drop, no less).
Anonymous

I’ve already released the first update, it makes the game a bit easier at the beginning and adds descriptive text to the units and spells, along with some other tweaks and fixes!
mtarini

Interesting gameplay, with many nice mechanisms and concepts.
Controls could be a little smoother. Fun to play overall.

Biggest downside: the pixel art. I usually love pixel art but in this case I would have much preferred a more conventional graphic, higher in resolution, easier to interpret and to enjoy. Maybe a 3D rendering (but just as a shortcut for the artist, game concept needs stay as 2D as now).
w3pm

Any NetStorm: Islands at War inspirations? I personally loved that game growing up… not sure why but it stuck with me.
Falcor

Ran into the dev on Reddit. Man, he’s an arsehole. The game was really intriguing until now. Indie games are so much about the people behind them, their passions, their identity, their character. Knowing the guy who made this game is, to say the least, rough to deal with, devalues the game in a huge way.