What is Shellfall

Shellfall is a cozy artillery game, seen from far above and painted like a soft watercolour map. You command one heavy railway gun, Old Marta, far behind the lines. Three armies fight a living trench war beyond the horizon, in real time, and your shells are the only thing that tips it.

The idea

The front is 4 to 15 km away, out of sight. You see it only through recon: a fogged map table that fills in where spotters, balloons and planes have looked, and that remembers what they saw. You work out a solution, fire, and wait most of a minute for a spotter to radio where the shell fell. See The shot.

Every shot also tells the enemy a little more about where you are. So Old Marta has to keep moving along the rails, and every move changes what she can reach. See Exposure and moving the gun.

Five pillars

1. One gun, total ownership. No units to command and no base to build. The gun is your hands, and moving it is its only defence. See Old Marta.
2. The war breathes without you. Soldiers shoot, grenades pop, enemy guns fire back. Do nothing, and your line breaks. See The living battlefield.
3. You only know what recon saw. The front hides under fog of war. Every shell is a calculated guess until a spotter or a plane confirms it, and the map remembers what was seen. See Fog of war.
4. Shells shape the land. Every impact leaves a lasting crater, and trenches are carved, collapsed and rebuilt by what you do. See Terrain that remembers.
5. Cozy irony. A warm palette, toy-soldier framing, gentle music between salvos, tea on the gun wagon. The war is the backdrop; calm, careful craft is the feeling. See Art direction: watercolour war, clay gun.

The player fantasy

I'm the old gunner on the hill. I can't win the war alone, but every careful shot I make lets my side dig a little further forward.

In the campaign you are Tilly Brandt, a retired gunnery instructor called back to command Old Marta, with a small crew and a cat called Pip. See The crew.

One continuous war

There are no separate stages to pick from a menu. The Lowmarch is one valley at war, and the war never pauses. Where Old Marta stands on the rail network decides which stretch of front you are fighting. Story operations and officer requests wait as pins on the map, and you take one on by driving within range. See One continuous war and The Lowmarch.

At a glance

Where to read next

• Old Marta and The shot: the gun, and the shot at the heart of the game.
• Fog of war and Recon: spotters, balloons and planes: how you see the war.
• Questions and answers: the questions people ask first.