Battle Brothers-inspired turn-based tactical RPG Dead Monarchy released on Steam Early Access
Battle Brothers-inspired turn-based tactical RPG Dead Monarchy released on Steam Early Access
Game News - posted by Infinitron on Tue 18 June 2019, 20:13:16
Tags: Dead Monarchy; Dead Monarchy StudiosTurn-based tactical RPGs, everybody's making them these days. Kevin AKA Bantichai is a young fellow from Australia who has been working on his own tactical fantasy game for several years now. It's called Dead Monarchy and it's inspired by XCOM, Jagged Alliance and especially Battle Brothers. The game's not too heavy on lore right now. You have a town and a roster of warriors, and you need to go out and kill the bad guys before they kill you. I'm sure the game still has a long way to go, but it's come along far enough for a Steam Early Access release. Here's the trailer and an excerpt from Bantichai's rather personal launch announcement post:
Three years ago, I decided to try my hand at game development. Prior to that, I had graduated from university with a Multimedia degree which was more or less useless. It taught me a few things, but in hindsight I probably could have just googled most of it.
That said, my end results were mediocre at best as I was just too preoccupied with gaming. After all, I've been gaming all my life, I was about 6 or 7 when my parents bought me a gameboy to play Pokemon, since I had traded away all my tuckshop money at school for Pokemon cards. This was only the start though, my first foray into PC gaming was Age of Empires which I fished out of a cereal box. Cereal has never quite been the same since then. I remember spending hours in the scenario editor creating "spectacular cities" which were really just a load of houses arranged on a square grid and then I remember having my childlike mind break down when my beautiful walls were destroyed by catapults.
Then when I was about 12, my parents finally bought me an Xbox and through a friend I got my hands on a little game called Morrowind. I honestly didn't know what I had gotten my hands on at the time. However, I had also been simultaneously playing Runescape, spending my days in world 2 trading rares, hoping to one day get a party hat and grinding it out on mudcrabs through the scorching Australian summers. Then one day, my account got hacked, I lost my santa hats, I cried and then I quit in a fit of rage.
I then set my sights back on the Xbox and I decided to finally delve into Morrowind. Prior to that, I had never truly played a game like Morrowind before let alone held an Xbox controller in my hand. The trip from Seyda Neen to Balmora felt like the journey from the Shire to Mount Doom as I was so uncoordinated that I couldn't even figure out how to navigate with the map. I also had a penchant for stealing from shops and then promptly getting killed by guards.
I played Morrowind alone for nearly a whole year. Morrowind left a lingering desire in me for more, so I played most of the games that Bethesda released after that and I delved into modding when Fallout 3 came out. I made a few private mods and then gave up on them and repeated this cycle for New Vegas and Skyrim.
After Skyrim, I went into a lull, I just couldn't find a game like Morrowind again. I also found myself slowing becoming detached from gaming and not finishing games anymore. I don't quite remember how but I eventually found myself playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown and when I discovered what "Ironman Mode" was, it reinvigorated me. I'm not sure what the exact connection was, but you could probably say it was the challenge that reminded me of my Morrowind days. XCOM then became the gateway that led me into digging up all the classic games and then I eventually hit Battle Brothers. To this day, I still haven't found a game that handles turn-based melee combat better than BB.
But I digress, all I really wanted to say is that I truly love gaming and it's a shame that the industry is changing too much for my own tastes. That is the main reason why I got into game development, I just want to do my part to better gaming for the future.
When the store page first went live, I mentioned that I was finally at the starting line. In hindsight, I was wrong. Only now, am I truly at the starting line, prior to that you could say I was just warming up.
We all have stories like this one, but not everybody decides to go all the way and actually make their own game. Good on you, Bantichai. Dead Monarchy is available on Steam now for just $10, with a 10% launch discount until next week. For more details, check out the game's thread on our forums and the official YouTube channel, where Bantichai regularly posts development updates and gameplay videos.
Three years ago, I decided to try my hand at game development. Prior to that, I had graduated from university with a Multimedia degree which was more or less useless. It taught me a few things, but in hindsight I probably could have just googled most of it.
That said, my end results were mediocre at best as I was just too preoccupied with gaming. After all, I've been gaming all my life, I was about 6 or 7 when my parents bought me a gameboy to play Pokemon, since I had traded away all my tuckshop money at school for Pokemon cards. This was only the start though, my first foray into PC gaming was Age of Empires which I fished out of a cereal box. Cereal has never quite been the same since then. I remember spending hours in the scenario editor creating "spectacular cities" which were really just a load of houses arranged on a square grid and then I remember having my childlike mind break down when my beautiful walls were destroyed by catapults.
Then when I was about 12, my parents finally bought me an Xbox and through a friend I got my hands on a little game called Morrowind. I honestly didn't know what I had gotten my hands on at the time. However, I had also been simultaneously playing Runescape, spending my days in world 2 trading rares, hoping to one day get a party hat and grinding it out on mudcrabs through the scorching Australian summers. Then one day, my account got hacked, I lost my santa hats, I cried and then I quit in a fit of rage.
I then set my sights back on the Xbox and I decided to finally delve into Morrowind. Prior to that, I had never truly played a game like Morrowind before let alone held an Xbox controller in my hand. The trip from Seyda Neen to Balmora felt like the journey from the Shire to Mount Doom as I was so uncoordinated that I couldn't even figure out how to navigate with the map. I also had a penchant for stealing from shops and then promptly getting killed by guards.
I played Morrowind alone for nearly a whole year. Morrowind left a lingering desire in me for more, so I played most of the games that Bethesda released after that and I delved into modding when Fallout 3 came out. I made a few private mods and then gave up on them and repeated this cycle for New Vegas and Skyrim.
After Skyrim, I went into a lull, I just couldn't find a game like Morrowind again. I also found myself slowing becoming detached from gaming and not finishing games anymore. I don't quite remember how but I eventually found myself playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown and when I discovered what "Ironman Mode" was, it reinvigorated me. I'm not sure what the exact connection was, but you could probably say it was the challenge that reminded me of my Morrowind days. XCOM then became the gateway that led me into digging up all the classic games and then I eventually hit Battle Brothers. To this day, I still haven't found a game that handles turn-based melee combat better than BB.
But I digress, all I really wanted to say is that I truly love gaming and it's a shame that the industry is changing too much for my own tastes. That is the main reason why I got into game development, I just want to do my part to better gaming for the future.
When the store page first went live, I mentioned that I was finally at the starting line. In hindsight, I was wrong. Only now, am I truly at the starting line, prior to that you could say I was just warming up.
We all have stories like this one, but not everybody decides to go all the way and actually make their own game. Good on you, Bantichai. Dead Monarchy is available on Steam now for just $10, with a 10% launch discount until next week. For more details, check out the game's thread on our forums and the official YouTube channel, where Bantichai regularly posts development updates and gameplay videos.
