We are back in action! After a well-deserved summer break, enjoying the unstable Swedish weather, we are now hard at work with the game once more. As we are focusing on the final stretch of development before release there is a lot going on, in all the areas of development. We are still targeting an early 2022 release and that means making hard decisions, ensuring that everyone shares the same vision for the final product, and generally just kicking ass and taking names.
I’ve primarily focused on the marketing aspects of the upcoming release, making sure that we are utilizing our communication channels as effectively as possible. This might seem like a boring part of game development, but for me it is kind of like an exciting metagame, where Wishlists, followers and likes are something like XP. The more you get, the better prepared you are for the final boss (release day!).
BAM! It’s hard not to notice the new level up effect.
Other than marketing I’ve looked more into translations along with Niklas. We have quite a lot of text in the game and we are both working to refine the copy (some of it isn’t used anymore, but still remains in the localization document) as well as creating explanations for all texts. We are basically trying to give translators a good sense of what texts appear where in the game and what they represent. There are a lot of details to consider in the translation process: like creating a glossary for in-game words, technical documentation, and integration with Crowdin, a community translation tool. We hope to get the actual translation work going within some weeks, focusing on one language first, as a trial translation (ты можешь угадать, на каком это языке?).
Christian has updated the UI for the online games and the player lobby. Additionally, he’s been working on the Wielder sheet with stats, active modifiers, inventory, and skills. He also supported David with the implementation of a new purchase interface for recruiting Wielders and reviving dead Wielders. David did a whole lot of tweaks and improvements besides a whole new Wielder purchase menu. The movement system has undergone a big change, where you’ll have to double click to move, as opposed to our previous single click interaction. The inventory has changed from “you can only use as many slots as we can fit into the UI” to “your backpack is a magic endless backpack, cram everything you want in there!”. David also tweaked the level-up notification, making the VFX much more visible.
Behold the new Wielder purchase screen! Compared to the old one this gives a much more detailed overview of the Wielder and allows the player to make a more informed decision (as well as just looking much better!).
Niklas got right into the online mode when he got back from his vacation. This means that we now have a much more stable game experience when we challenge each other in our weekly online play sessions of the game. One of the great new additions to the online multiplayer features is host migration, meaning that if the host of the game can’t stay for the full game, someone else can take over hosting. We’ve also had troubles with games crashing if one player gets a disconnect, but this is now fixed. And perhaps one of the most sought-after features by the development team members who prefer to play long games: Saving and loading online games. It is now possible to pick up an online multiplayer game exactly where you left it.
Niklas did not settle for only multiplayer development but thundered on with adding a basic version of Rich Presence in Discord. We have an active Discord community and we are sure this will be a useful feature, meaning that people can see when other members are playing the game, looking for an online game, or creating something in the level editor. If there are any specific things you’d like to see, do let us know! We can’t promise it’ll be done before release, but it is always good to know what our users are asking for!
The one-man-army called Niklas also changed a few things in the level editor and improved the UX on how to select and change map entity properties. And lately, he’s also been working very much on the third option when you take over a town or a settlement. Phew. You are a true inspiration to the rest of us, Niklas! I’ll consider utilizing your effective work methods for the next sprint, but I’ll just take a short nap first.
Our artist Andi has redrawn the faction banners, giving them a bit more realistic textures and patina. The flags now look like they have seen some battle action!
Robin on the other hand told me he’d almost completed the work he started before the vacation. And to be fair, he got back to work just a few days ago, while Niklas started working a few weeks ago. Anyhow! Robin focused on getting neutral enemies on the map to have a chance of fleeing or joining you if your army is much bigger than theirs. He also started working on "scouting intel", where you get differing amounts of intel about enemy armies depending on how far away they are and how good your vision range is.
Can I keep ALL the artifacts mom? Yes, son. Yes, you can.
Moving on from the coders to the graphic artists I’d like to point out that if Niklas is our one-man army I would dare to say that Patrik is our Swiss army knife, a jack of all trades! Though he recently started working he has already solved quite a few problems and quality of life improvements for other developers. Patrik has been working on almost every part of the game: everything from the AI to online multiplayer and he is now heading the art team focusing on technical art (shaders and cool stuff like that). This week he managed to solve team colors, which had been hardcoded to team numbers and wasn’t interchangeable. Furthermore, he started experimenting with allowing team colors to extend not only to buildings but also to the troops in your army.
Anders started off with going over some of the campaign maps, as well as wrapping up a few buildings that were in an unfinished state. Kordian has focused on the Barya faction buildings and we are kind of starting to figure out how they should look and fit together with the rest of the faction buildings lineup.
Martí has been producing a ton of new Wielder sprites and is wrapping up the final troops for the Barya faction. When he is done with that, ALL troops in the game are DONE. Will someone bring us a bottle of champagne and please spray it like a racecar driver in our face when we hit that milestone?
The Faey nobles are fashionable and won’t settle for just one pair of loincloths, oh no, they will keep on trying until they find JUST the right color.
Carl tells me he has been working hard on the campaigns and reworked game mechanics in general and spell systems in specific, much of it is based on the feedback we’ve been getting from the Alpha testers. It feels good to have a small crowd of people playing the game as it highlights a lot of problems and possibilities for the team!
And finally: A lot of you have asked about how we develop Songs of Conquest. What game engine do we use, how does the level editor work, and how do you combine 2D pixel art with 3D environments? Well, look no further! Besides the blog posts, we will start to share short, mostly unedited, clips from behind the scenes of the game development process. If you are curious about the development, feel free to check this new YouTube channel out and subscribe for more updates!
That’s it for this week, see you soon and as always: Comment and let us know what you think! We truly appreciate all the amazing feedback we are getting and it helps us make a better game!
Please note that this is a dev blog. Features and graphics mentioned or displayed above may or may not change during the development process.