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KickStarter Forged of Blood - turn-based tactical fantasy RPG

CritiestBunny

Critical Forge
Developer
Joined
Oct 19, 2016
Messages
94
Thank's for posting the trailer!

We're gearing up for another showing at Game Prime here in Jakarta and we just reworked our website homepage and uploaded a few new screenshots:
http://forgedofblood.com/

The plan is to build out a few more pages as more mechanics get implemented and we'll do detailed breakdowns on any of the more complicated ones - magic, crafting, etc...
 

CritiestBunny

Critical Forge
Developer
Joined
Oct 19, 2016
Messages
94
Hey guys, below is our first post-campaign update for the Kickstarter backers.

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Hello backers and friends,

It’s been a few months since our last update and the end the of the campaign so we’re popping out of our little hole to make sure people know we’re alive and kicking. We want to start by finally sharing out some of our original music tracks that we’ve developed over the past few months with a young composer here in Jakarta.

We started with the main theme at the end of last year and then went on to score the cinematic trailer we put up in preparation for the campaign and PAX. With those tracks done, we moved on to the battle music which we tiered into three separate tracks that will play at predetermined stages in the battle. You can listen to our first four tracks below and in our SoundCloud playlist.



For the most part we’ve retreated back to our regular production schedule - churning out tactical maps and making headway with a lot of the more complicated mechanics we have planned. We’ve also been hard at work refining the tactical UI and gameplay, setting up rules for the visual pieces on the map as well as reorganizing the flow of information to the player.

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Still needs some work, but we've narrowed down the information presented to the player quite a bit from our first iteration.
The new UI and updated visual rules were publicly tested during our exhibitions at a couple local events (more on that later) and while we’ve headed on the right track, there is still room for to polish it up a bit more. All in all, the tactical gameplay is more or less there, with all nine weapons and their ability trees along with the six general ability trees implemented. We’re now just waiting on the final implementation of the magic before going through what we expect will be months of balancing for the final game.

f3c86b30c69dc24f130129834240e3c2_original.jpg

Updated castle model with a selection of the upgrades.
On a parallel track, we’re starting to implement the Strategic and Castle Layer while also writing in quests for the open world strategic map. We’ve also finally found the best way forward for the story that allows for more exposition of the world lore while also keeping the focus of the main story tied with the mechanics of the game. To that end, we’ve decided that the main story featuring the two brothers will be entirely optional - in that players will be able to win the game without ever following the through the main quest thread. Of course, completing the main quest line will significantly help the player to win (or not), but we want to give the agency of participation in the story entirely in the player’s hands.

Finally, we’ve ventured out into the public again for a couple local exhibitions and to give the studio some much needed public perspective. We were lucky enough to be invited by the Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy and their partners at Duniaku.net to attend this year’s Game Prime Asia 2017 where we were able to have a large space with two build stations. The event was an exhausting but exciting two days of a constant stream of players trying out the build and also gave us the chance to meet a fan who kept coming back for more.

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This guy (blue shirt) brought his friends back and then explained the game and the mechanics. We love this guy!
Naturally, the excitement did not end there for the studio. We were then nominated and chosen to be one of four upcoming local games to exhibit at Jakarta’s largest convention: PopCon Asia 2017 as part of the Archipelageek booth.

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Crowd at PopCon Asia 2017.


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Best and brightest Indonesian gamedevs!
This was a true honor as the Archipelageek booth was a selection of the Indonesian game industry’s best and brightest divvied up into three categories: Upcoming, PC/Console, and Mobile. This event was a blast, and the chance the to mix it up, shoulder-to-shoulder with our peers was awesome - oh and we’ll cap off this post with this:

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Milo and I and a little something shiny after setting up our booth at PopCon Asia.
A completely unexpected surprise to close off two weeks of back-to-back events, Forged of Blood was award the Most Anticipated Game award at PopCon Asia. This awesome light up trophy now keeps company with Bahamut and BB-8 at the office.

808dd8f9d75ef944ad7af8f7106c6c72_original.jpg

Sitting pretty with Bahamut and BB-8.
Thank’s for reading, and please comment below on any specific features you might want us to cover next.

Cheers,
Igor
 

CritiestBunny

Critical Forge
Developer
Joined
Oct 19, 2016
Messages
94
With all the work going into the tactical layers and the unit archetypes, you'd almost think we had scrapped that whole "strategic layer" thing entirely... Thankfully, that's not the case:


Took a little time from our TGS prep to put this together. We got the UI updated, the quest system mostly implemented, and the tug-of-war region claiming mechanic working. Sometimes we let the build run in the Strategic Map without our faction getting involved just to see who wins out - actually really interesting to watch because we Blue (the Rebels) more starting regions which should increase their chances to expand and Purple (the Claimants) a higher percentage chance to take a region based on number of territories owned. We based our rules and starting region count both on the the lore needs (humans being more numerous but weaker, Claimants being fewer in number but stronger) and how we want to push the player progression.

Oh yea - we're going to the Tokyo Game Show next week! We're going to be part of the selection of Indonesian game developers in a booth sponsored by the government to foster the creative industry here. I'll upload our new trailer next week.

Cheers!
 

Arulan

Cipher
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Messages
313
Do you know yet if you're going to be at PAX East again next year?
 

CritiestBunny

Critical Forge
Developer
Joined
Oct 19, 2016
Messages
94
Do you know yet if you're going to be at PAX East again next year?

Still not sure about PAX. Ideally we do go because that should be around our launch window, but everything is a little tight right now. PAX was a ton of fun but it did come at a huge cost to us personally, so it might be tough to swing again..

! We're going to be part of the selection of Indonesian game developers in a booth sponsored by the government to foster the creative industry here. I'll upload our new trailer next week.

Cheers!
didnt know they have such program here

Yeah, so far we've only been going to events that are free for us - whether by invitation of the event runners themselves or through the BEKRAF (Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy) like PopCon and TGS. Actually really impressed with the selection of devs they've picked out and the support their giving in getting us a spot at those events.
 

CritiestBunny

Critical Forge
Developer
Joined
Oct 19, 2016
Messages
94
Thank's for posting that Infinitron! As you guys can see the castle layer is built out, we're just tightening the UI for that now.
 

CritiestBunny

Critical Forge
Developer
Joined
Oct 19, 2016
Messages
94
Womp womp, but I get where you're coming from.

Fortunately (or unfortunately for us I suppose) abandoning the project and not releasing just isn't an option for us. Speaking personally... well I'd rather not deal with the emotional, mental, and financial ramifications of throwing away the last two years of ours lives and savings. That's what lootboxes are for man.
 

Iznaliu

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 28, 2016
Messages
3,686
Speaking personally... well I'd rather not deal with the emotional, mental, and financial ramifications of throwing away the last two years of ours lives and savings

Some people seem to treat that as an everyday task comparable to cooking or something.
 

CritiestBunny

Critical Forge
Developer
Joined
Oct 19, 2016
Messages
94
Heyo - just put up a blog post on our new fog of war system. Still rough around the edges, but so far it's changing things up for the better, link here: http://forgedofblood.com/2017/11/10/fog-war-good/

Fog of War. What is it good for?
Hey everyone,

I’ve been super lax with these updates – the schedule is getting tighter and the pressure is definitely on to get Forged of Blood over the last few months here. However, we do have a cool new update to share so here we go:

Over the last couple years, we’ve had some hazy discussions internally over the implementation of a Fog of War system in Forged of Blood. Should we? Would we? Could we? It was one of those things that we unanimously agreed that we “would” with the “should” and “could” of all up in the air until we’ve developed the rest of our mechanics.

Early on in the development process, we had designed the basic tactical mechanics around the idea of being able to survey the battlefield and the enemies in it right away (this goes back to the “meaningful choice” design pillar we chose). Over innumerable playtests in the last couple years, the tactical game loop had largely revolved around two steps:

  1. Scrolling around the map to find the enemy spawn.
  2. Reacting and moving units accordingly.
Internally, and in the builds we’ve showcased at past public events, the tactical order of operations had been very predictable with players positioning their units like pieces on a chess board leading to the eventual engagement flashpoint. Positioning and turn efficiency carried the day and giving the player a full overview of the map and tactical situation made the battles feel more like a tactical puzzle. In that iteration, Forged of Blood was already a challenging game for most (less than a third of our public playtesters win, and a flawless victories were counted on one hand per event) and we realized just what a curve ball a fog of war system would do to the tactical layer. That said, we also still had a few mechanics (spells and the like) that were contingent on the nailing down whether or not we would be implementing a fog of war system, so we finally took the time to test it out.

CascadingWaterfall_FOW1.jpg


After some tinkering, Pandu flipped off the lights and we had fog of war to mess with. Our fog of war system is pretty basic (as described by Pandu) and works by overlaying a textured grid over our base game grid to obscure the map with a fog of war. He then applied shaders to the character sight range that effectively cuts a swathe in the overlaid grid to remove the fog of war as characters move through the map. In the image above (time of day color lighting differences aside) you can see just how different the game feels visually, and once in-game we’ve noticed that our play also evolved to match the new aesthetic.

Long-ranged builds that once dominated the battlefield (and were ruthlessly nerfed by Milo) immediately felt their limitations without the benefit of map-wide visibility, and we naturally approached the engagements a lot more cautiously. Mobile-striker builds became more effective as scouts and tankier builds started to shine a bit more in the dark. Obscuring enemy starting positions and actions at the start of the battle added a layer of discovery into the tactical layer that we just didn’t have before.

With the current iteration of our fog of war system, the tactical loop goes:

  1. Scroll to survey observable terrain for cover and environment line-of-sight utility.
  2. Defensive posturing and scouting around the map to find enemy position.
  3. Reacting and moving units accordingly.
There’s still a few more things to work out internally that may change that loop depending on the rulesets that we implement, but in its basic form the fog of war system already adds a lot to Forged of Blood. The overall weapon balancing needs to be reconsidered slightly as the different builds find their inherent advantages and disadvantages in the context of an obscured battle map. We’d also have to update the AI to behave within the parameters of any new rulesets we decide for the new fog of war system. Finally, we also have some pretty drastic ripple effects going on to the art side of the studio.

Obscuring the map in darkness and finally being able to implement the edge of map systems we’ve been waiting on means that we can finally review the maps as they will finally look like in-game. One of the biggest issues that was immediately solved was the question of our skybox – or to put it simply: what skybox? The screenshots below show how one of our maps look in-engine in contrast to how it looks in-game with the fog of war on.

Sauras_DayEngine.jpg
Sauras_DayFow.jpg


The visual blend between the black areas outside of the play area and the fog of war meant that we can close the edges of our maps a lot tighter in – saving on map size and overall resource consumption in the build. Our varying times of day also got a big visual boost, with our night maps feeling much darker without needing to actually reduce visibility, while the day maps ended up feeling much more vibrant in the contrast to the undiscovered areas.

Sauras_NightFow.jpg


Implementing the fog of war system is a huge milestone for the production, allowing us to progress the evolution of our gameplay mechanics and solving many of our visual hurdles at the same time. We’re really glad we took the time to explore it and in the end: Fog of war, what is it good for?

Absolutely everything.

– Igor
 

SausageInYourFace

Angelic Reinforcement
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I'm a bit sceptical tbh. Fog of war in a tactical game with small maps seems somewhat gamey; if sight is not far enough it could be annoying to have enemies pop out of nowhere. I guess its an effective measure for the problem you described, though.
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
2017 Wrap-up & Personality System
Hey guys,

The studio will be going on break for the winter holidays but with the updates we just rolled out on the front page I thought we’d take some time to talk a little bit more about the Tri-Axis Philosophical Index we have for Forged of Blood.
UI_Exploration_PersonalityPlot3.png

The last time we talked about the personality system we touched more on the inspiration of the system. To recap: we really wanted to create a system that reflects the “grey” nature of our world and goes the beyond the usual binaries of good vs. evil, light vs. dark, etc. With our focus on choice and consequence, we also felt that it was important that the system have some very real consequences for the player beyond simply being a narrative tool for my whims. So we’d like to take this time to show a bit more of what the system actually entails.

In its current iteration the personality system is divided by three “philosophies” as opposed to “personalities” as to give the fairest interpretation between the three axes that the player will be measured against – and to try our best in removing overtly positive or negative connotations. Lorewise, the three philosophies represent three schools of thought that have shaped the world and upon which the denizens of Attiras are judged.

Altruism, Hedonism, and Rationalism make up the three axes of the circular index in which players will be plotted. The player, every playable character, Leivan (the brother King) and every conquerable region will have their own Philosophical Plot Point (PPP) that may shift throughout the duration of the game through direct and indirect player actions. With player’s parties and decisions acting as the unequivocal representative of the crown, Tavias’ plot point will act as the central point against which all decisions and consequences will be measured. Around this plot point is drawn what we call the: Philosophical Distance Threshold (PDT), which is a radius drawn around Tavias’ PPP that will denote the moral latitude that the different characters will accept. This plotted point will shift according to the player’s actions as they complete quests and advance the storyline.

This is where the mechanics of the system gets a bit more interesting to us. Playable characters within the radius will remain loyal to the player and be available for use in their parties, while captured regions within this radius will be loyal to your faction and slowly move their PPP towards the player’s over time. Conversely, characters that go beyond the player PDT will leave the player’s faction permanently and regions will have a percentage chance to rebel against the player’s control as time passes. Throughout the duration of the game, the player’s primary goal (aside from the chasing down quests) will be to retake territories throughout the world. As mentioned before, conquered regions will slowly shift their PPP towards Tavias’ PPP as time passes in the game. This leads up to the end-game in which the regional PPPs relative to the player’s will determine the player’s fate in the world.

FoBSiteAsset_PDT_tabs.png

So how does this all translate into the game loop? While the tactical combat and character progression systems remain core to our game, the added layer of the Tri-Axis Philosophical Index bring in some political choices and management to the non-combat related sections of the game. Your characters and soldiers are key to winning in battle – but if your choices pushes them beyond your PDT then you will quickly lose your effective fighting force. On top of that is the emphasis of the Philosophies’ impact on the world at large. Regions – controlled by a regional lord will have their own PPP like we mentioned, but doing a quest that gets the lord killed or replaced will give an entirely new PPP for that region, and this may or may not work in the player’s favor.

The endgame comes down to how many regions are in “favor” with the player’s PPP – calculated simply by distance between the three Faction PPPs. So while conquering regions is important, managing your PPP – and thereby the consequences of your actions – is key to effectively win the final end-game conditions. I won’t give away anymore than that as we do have a few things planned for the storylines that work in tandem with this mechanic, but I hope that does help paint a better picture as to the system we’re building out.

(If you’re not interested in the philosophical definitions and the reasons why we chose the three “philosophies”, stop here – continued wall of text below.)
FoBSiteAsset_PDT_icons.png

I’ll now touch on the three philosophies that we chose to form the three axes of the index. This was a subject that we discussed at length, starting with our first iteration of the three as: Empathy, Hedonism, and Wisdom. Empathy meaning the ability to understand the feelings of others, Hedonism being the pursuit of self-indulgence, and Wisdom being the exemplar of good judgement, knowledge, and experience. While those worked well in the beginning, I began running into problems in writing them into the world, especially when we are writing for a singular character whose actions reflect how an entire faction will be viewed.

That line of questioning eventually led to the shift from Personality to Philosophy. It’s a schematic difference, but one that allowed me to write in a plausible reason as to how the player’s actions will impact his faction as a whole. Tavias – the player character – is in essence the face of the crown to the world while his brother Leivan secrets himself away to find other solutions to the conflict at hand and any hidden knowledge that might save his family line. Therefore, the PPP of player/Tavias that we plot on the Tri-Axis Philosophical Index is a reflection of the world’s view on his actions in accordance to the three philosophies.

Using the three Personalities as a base, we finally went with Altruism, Hedonism, and Rationalism. As a whole, the three words actually fit better. As we see it: Rationalism is a more neutral version of Wisdom, and Altruism is a more detached form of Empathy. Hedonism had always been the challenge as it has some inherent connotations to it, but in principle is still all about finding the option that benefits the self the most. When put into the three axes, each philosophy works out to be the direct opposite of a combination of the other two.

For example: Altruism – selflessness, concern for others – is both characteristically the opposite of hedonism and not very rational. Hedonism – pursuit of self-indulgence – is both the opposite of altruism and is actually rather rational if you think about it. While Rationalism, is a direct counter to both Altruism and Hedonism as it is all about reason over emotion,

At the risk the drawing you into a full blown debate, I will give a cursory explanation of the definitions we set for these and the reasoning behind them. So let’s start by defining Rationalism and certain priorities that we might agree can be defined as the practice of Rationalism. Self-preservation is a biologically rational line of thought, as is the sacrifice of something small for a larger purpose, that’s just math and basic sense of self. Now, when we add in the complexities of human emotion and societal morals, we can see some shortcomings in pure and cold rationalism. So in that regard we can also measure the other two philosophies. Altruism is the practice of selflessness, and in the contemporary moral compass, is perhaps the highest ideal in which we can aspire to. However, if we were to measure it against Rationalism, it is inherently counter to the idea of self-preservation and we start to have some moral grey areas when it comes to sacrifice for the greater good. Hedonism on the other hand is the pursuit of self-indulgence, while this goes well with self-preservation, hedonism will inherently clash with the idea of the greater good and working for the benefit of others.
FoBSiteAsset_PDT_break.png

This gives us a stage in which we can set in motion the various faction ideals and motivations in the game. If we were to look at the direct opposites of each axes we can come to a few short generalizations. Rationalism is the direct opposite of the pure emotion that comes with Altruism and Hedonism, while Altruism is the direct opposite of cold self-serving efficiency. On the other end of the spectrum is what we define as the traditional hero complex: that almost fantastical notion of the perfect balance between selflessness and reason. In the most pedestrian narrative trope, the hero’s journey is one that follows a righteous path that is often difficult and downright foolhardy. Therein lies the commentary I’d like to make with this game. The edges of the index represent the extremes – and in each extreme we see the obvious negative connotations.

The edges of the index represent the extremes – and in each extreme we see the obvious negative connotations while still having their own merits. War, politics, and society as a whole are awash in grey areas, and Forged of Blood is no exception. We are trying to design an experience that will put players into situations where certain decisions might clash against their own moral code but are necessary to retain their followers. We want players to decide between mechanical efficiency and their own views, while also thinking about the objectives put forth in game’s storyline.

Personally speaking, I think our morality system works well, with the PPP and PDT mechanics interlaced nicely within the core game loop. However, the onus now falls on the narrative content to bear the weight of the mechanics, and I hope that my team and I can live up to the lofty goals we’ve set. So I’ll leave it here for now – thank you for reading and indulging my wall of text.

Happy holidays from the Critical Forge team and we can’t wait to see you in 2018.
 

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