Who doesn’t want to rule the world? This is the simple premise behind Territorial.io, a game I’ve revisited time and time again ever since I first discovered it several years ago. Similar to many other online .io games (agar.io, slither.io, paper.io, etc.), Territorial.io’s mechanics revolve around growth, as the objective is to be come the largest player on the map.
You start off as a small speck on a large map with hundreds of players, and as time goes on you receive income proportional to your current size and wealth. You can then use this income to grow and attack other players, or simply accumulate to increase interest. Interest starts high but dwindles over time. This creates a fun, strategic dynamic: In the beginning, the game rewards those who expand slowly and play it safe. However, later on, it starts to reward those who have grown the largest, forcing the player to find a middle ground between expansion and patience. This, in turn, creates a fun element of fellowship/competition, where you must strategize to ally with or outwit other players in order to survive.
While I am a fan of the default maps they offer, my favorite mechanic of Territorial.io is custom maps. This small feature grants the game massive replay-ability value, as there have been countless times when I have been watching some show or documentary, seen a map on screen and thought “This could be fun to play on!” Custom maps change the dynamics of the game, allowing you to add features like country borders or play around with the size of landmasses. This adds a whole new level of fun, as you can play out fantasy scenarios (i.e. play as the fire nation on an Avatar-themed map) or introduce new strategies for effective fellowship and competition.
