Testing combat - enemy corpses with scenic backdrop

Looking sick Med, cant wait to get my paws on this one…
I’ve alwaysd loved builders and this is looking amazing

Fundamentally it is similar to Banished - I’d say they’re in the same sub-genre of more intimate town-builder. I’ve wanted to make a town-builder like this since I got into the game industry as I played a lot of early ones growing up. When Banished came out, I felt like someone beat me to it, because, on the surface, it looked a lot like what I wanted to make and I was a bit disappointed by that but also excited to play it. While very impressive for a single developer, I was a bit relieved that Banished didn’t quite do it all. I had a similar impression as you and felt like it still gave me an opportunity, with the resources of a larger team, to create something with more complexity and multi-tiered economy / building progression.

I honestly am a bit worried I may have strayed a bit too far from the “easy-to-learn” end of the spectrum but I think it shouldn’t be too hard for people experienced in the genre to figure out the basics - some of the systems though are maybe a bit over-designed and we’re working to try to make them more clear with tool-tips and such. What I can say though, this was kind of a self-indulgent project. We did well enough with GD that I don’t have to worry about trying to maximize sales with Frontier. I think it will still do fine though.

Its funny though - no big ARPGs had come out for years when I started GD, then suddenly Torchlight, D3, PoE and others emerged. We released into probably the most competitive ARPG market ever.

Then for years I wanted to do this smaller scale, cave out a town from the wilderness style town-builder and there hadn’t been many for a long time, but Banished released and did well, now suddenly it seems like everyone is making one.

Now we’re working on an RTS, where the major competitors are 10 and 20 year old games, and suddenly AoE 4 is in the works and two groups of ex-blizzard employees have announced they’re making RTS… wtf?

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could it be that great minds think alike… or everyone’s jumping on the bandwagon :upside_down_face:

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Well, lets cross them fingers then that FF emerges from the dog-pile much like GD and becomes/remains a relevant part of its genres conversation.

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Thanks for sharing! This was a very interesting read.

But fucking LOL! Man… you are like the king of bad timing - I feel bad for laughing but it’s like from a marketing perspective they are all out to get you :rofl:

I can’t speak for others but for me personally the most important thing with a city builder is the joy of progress and seeing your city grow. Both aesthetically and in gameplay. But from an aesthetical perspective, that’s where I felt banished both lacked building options late game. In the end it just became “The same but bigger”. In a game like Rimworld, I actually managed to get this itch scratched properly by making cities with district. So I’d have a residential district, industrial district, palace district, crops and farming etc. It’s not really the size of the city and such that’s important though.

Another problem with banished was that mid-lategame, it didn’t actually became harder. And the gameplay loop was pretty much the same. Need food? More crops. Need more storage? More storage houses. So it was still a bit too simple, just a larger management requirement.

Pacing is also a problem not many people mention. For example in the game Frostpunk, the pacing is great early to mid game. But the pacing exponentially accelerates towards the end. Suddenly you don’t need 4 more houses or a medical tent, but 25 houses and 2 hospitals - NOW. And it felt very rush’y.

The thing that excites me the most about your project here is the fact that you can get attacked and need to defend. Not only does this feel cool thematically and gameplay-wise, but also in terms of difficulty.

I’m somewhat of a hardcore gamer. So having to equip or train villagers, defensive structures (I’m not sure how complex that part actually is), is very appealing to me. I’m also not a fan of “if everyone can make it easily, the game is too easy - and thus boring”. So the possibility of failure and losing, hard but fair, is something I personally like. This might not be appealing to most people though I don’t know.

Good luck with this one, looking forward to playing it :slight_smile:

37 posts were split to a new topic: Crate’s RTS project

Well I’m keen to see how Farthest Frontiers turns out and hearing about an RTS makes me quite intrigued.

The screen shot looks pretty good. I can actually see people managing to get inside said buildings as opposed to Age of Empires 4 giants living among a miniature golf course.

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Maska’s nailed it. :smile:

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Thank you for the little bit of behind the scenes knowledge Medierra, its always a pleasure to find out about things that could have been or were planned for, for the games i know.

Yeah, it’s great hearing all the little bits of background info about stuff. That’s why you need to finish off the Crate story so we can all read it - when we’re not playing GD or FF. :wink:

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GD dating sim. :scorv:

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If I can date Anasteria I’m in. She is supposedly “an old crone”. But the same was said for that witch in Game of Thrones and she was crazy hot: Youtube link - Maggy the frog

Careful for what you wish for, you just might get it! :grimacing:

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Getting Spellforce vibes from the screenshot. Really liking this style of graphics.

Anyone know if Medierra take bribes?

I really want to play this early. I mean… I have two kidneys, while I really just need one of them. Aaaah I’m so excited.

I don’t think so…

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What about 2 kidneys then? :stuck_out_tongue:

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Loving the look of the game. Can’t wait to give it a try.

Are the training dummies all lefties :grinning:? Shouldn’t they hold the weapons in the right hand.

Looks like they’ve mis stepped into a territory they were unwanted. Pests…