Game-based templates

A game-based template is a themed visual, structural, and behavioural skin applied to a project template, modeled on the tech tree of a specific strategy game and one of its factions. The result is a project that looks, behaves, and feels like the source game while holding the user's actual work. Game-based templates are a Paid feature available on Paid and Team tiers.

What these are

A game-based template combines three things:

• A game: sets the tree's architectural shape (the number and arrangement of branches, the tier structure, the prerequisite patterns)
• A faction within that game: locks the visual style, node and edge rendering, interaction behaviours, and overall feel of the project (Greenskins look different from Empire, Materialist different from Spiritualist)
• An optional project template: fills the graph with placeholder content appropriate to a specific use case, themed to fit the game-faction combination

Without a project template, the user gets a themed empty graph in the chosen game-faction style, ready to be filled with their own work. With a project template, the user gets that same themed graph pre-populated with placeholder nodes for a specific use case.

What gets themed

The faction selection locks several visual and behavioural elements:

• Visual style: colors, node rendering, edge styling, layout density, theme palette
• Behaviour: unlock animations, hover states, click and expand patterns, fog of war defaults
• Feel: the overall atmosphere and pacing of the project's interface

The faction styling is applied as a coherent set. Users don't mix and match Greenskin colors with Empire node shapes; each faction is a complete visual and behavioural system, applied as one.

Why these exist

Tree's whole metaphor comes from strategy game tech trees. Civilization, Total War, Stellaris, and the rest of the genre have spent decades refining progression UX. Game-based templates make that lineage explicit by letting users plant projects shaped, styled, and animated like real strategy game trees.

The use cases break into two categories:

• As starting templates: users clone a game-faction combination as a styled starting point, then fill in their own node titles and descriptions through a chosen project template or freeform
• As reference and exploration: users can browse the templates to study how a specific game-faction combination handles structure, visualization, and progression

Available games and factions at launch

The v1 game-based template set includes:

• Civilization: era-based progression with parallel research branches
• Stellaris: three-branch tech structure (engineering, society, physics) with weighted unlock patterns, multiple government and ethics-based factions
• Hearts of Iron IV: five-branch research with deep specialization paths, multiple nation-based factions
• Empire: Total War: three-branch military, civil, and industrial research with shared prerequisites
• Total War: Rome II: civil, military, and engineering tech with extensive cross-branch dependencies
• Total War: Warhammer: race-specific tech tree patterns, with each playable race producing a distinctly different game-based template

Some games have one faction; others have several. The user picks a game, then picks a faction within that game.

How users pick a template

When creating a new project from a game-based template, users go through three selections:

• Pick a game from the available list
• Pick a faction within that game (some games have only one available; others have many)
• Optionally pick a project template to pre-populate the graph with placeholder content for a specific use case

The result is a new project that combines the game's structural shape, the faction's visual and behavioural styling, and the project template's content scaffolding (if chosen).

What the template doesn't include

Game-based templates use:

• Public information about each game's tech tree structure and visual design
• Visual and behavioural patterns that approximate the source game's look and feel within Tree's UI constraints
• Original placeholder content written by the Tree team, not copied from the games

The templates do not include:

• Game art, fonts, audio, or other proprietary assets
• Specific in-game tech names as node titles (the templates use generic category labels appropriate to the game-faction, with specific labels finalized through game-by-game research)
• Game balance data, costs, prerequisites, or in-game mechanical effects
• Affiliation or endorsement from the game publishers

Game-based templates are a tribute to the strategy game tradition, not a partnership with any specific game publisher.

Future templates

Additional games and factions may be added based on user requests and team capacity. Candidates include other Total War titles, Endless Legend, Old World, Crusader Kings, Master of Orion, and similar strategy games with distinctive tech tree shapes. Users can suggest games and factions via the contact page.

Tier availability

Game-based templates are a Paid feature, available on Paid and Team. Free does not include the game-based template set, though standard project templates remain available across all tiers.

Related

• Project templates
• Projects
• Custom themes
• Custom node types