Apollo4X is a turn-based space business tycoon puzzle with card based tactical combat. Connect import and export demands of colonies, meddle in politics, and invade enemy planets with your deck of troops.

Apollo4x is a game of transporting 5 resources between planets, and you have limited fuel to do so. It’s a bit puzzle, a bit resource management, and some tycoon strategy. There are no build queues, and you are having meaningful interaction with your economy every single turn. There are no “other players” to compete against, but we’ve instead used a “time pressure” type enemy that consumes planets as it spreads across the map – because a fun game needs a challenge component, and we find symmetric AI opponents problematic in other games, so this was the best solution. Difficulty is fully in your control, and ranges from zero-challenge to something the creators can’t beat, so you’ll find your own best settings with experience.
Apollo4x has “4X” in the title, but this is not an indicator that we’ve made a “traditional formula” title like Master of Orion, or the games that follow that economic and combat model. Steam has a multitude of games that do, and do it so well that there’s no point in us making a competitor to them.
The Idea
What we did is toss out the economic model of exploring a hidden map, having AI opponents that attempt to play the same game as the player (because they generally fail, and obviously cheat) and long build queues where you just hit “next turn” 100 times before anything significant happens. Rather than have you build a navy of spaceships and militarily conquer other simulated players, we made more of a tycoon puzzle economy. Each planet has three “exports” and you put two “imports” on them. Money is made by matching exports on one planet to imports on another, with the limitation of fuel availability, which is dependent on how upgraded each planet is.
The Enemy
Since we don’t have simulated players to compete against, we decided on using a “creeping doom” style opponent. The enemy spreads out organically from their homeworld(s) at a pace you determine in the difficulty settings. You can, and will have to, slow their spread and defend your own planets from this steadily encroaching threat. Each enemy colony adds +1 army to their homeworld defense, so the player is encouraged to keep the enemy from growing into an impossible strength and speed of expansion by “pruning” their colonies. If your chosen win condition is to cleanse the galaxy of them entirely, you’ll have to weaken them first through attrition.