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- Jan 28, 2011
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Tags: Dead Monarchy
Nearly six years ago, a fellow by the name of Bantichai showed up on our forums to talk about a game he was working on, a Battle Brothers-inspired open-world tactical RPG called Dead Monarchy. Today, nearly four years after it went into Early Access, the game's full release is finally here. Bantichai was pretty young when he began working on Dead Monarchy so many years ago. His release announcement reflects on how far he's come since then and what he has planned for the future. But first the release trailer, which has a heavy focus on visceral combat animations.
Initially, when I set out to create Dead Monarchy, I thought I could work on this one game forever. I know, it sounds naïve, a large amount of developers that go into early access don't finish their games and countless games don't even make it into the early access stage. I felt confident that I could do it though.
I have to say, that after 6 years, it does feel like forever, especially when it's just you. Day in and day out, solo development becomes extremely "insular". I say that because at least for me, it feels like I stuck my head in the sand and popped out half a decade later. Everyone and everything around me has changed and moved on but I still remained the same. To me, time stalled but the reality is that time keeps flowing.
After that realisation, I took some time off and realised that I myself had also changed, I had become more experienced, but I never realised that until I took the time to think about it. While I still have those lofty ideals and the same amount of enthusiasm and passion, I also now have a more realistic plan to achieve my dreams.
I have decided that I will create a series of games, essentially standalone expansions. They will all relate back to Dead Monarchy, as in they will all share the same setting but they are separate games. Combat will be the one consistent thing that will improve upon each game. I will continue to add new perks, new weapon types, new armours and new enemies and they will be built upon each new game. So the combat system will remain intact and be expanded upon each new game but other features such as the open-world exploration, may be removed and other major features added in such as base management.
The reason I am doing this is because I realised that it is impossible for me to balance and design the game that I want in a single game. It also isn't exactly financially viable.
My dream is to just be able to make a living from creating games, to be able to work on my games full-time. If I made a modest 50k AUD a year from games, that would be enough to go full-time or if Dead Monarchy somehow made a million that would secure me for life and I would have all the time in the world to just work on a single game.
Both scenarios still seem so far away and deep down I knew that going in as Dead Monarchy is a niche game, but that's why dreams exist, so you can chase them and in my case, gives meaning to my life.
Once I have created a few more games and the major features that those games will be based around have received adequate feedback and have been polished, I will then combine all the games into the "ultimate" version and that game will then ultimately be my "dream" game and the game I will then continue to work on.
That is the plan and the route I have decided to take. I need to be able to work in sections, if the game gets too big, it becomes too unwieldy, sections need to be locked down, if I have multiple things that need my attention all at once, it becomes extremely messy.
Thoroughly inspiring stuff. Dead Monarchy is available on Steam for just $10, with a 40% launch discount until next week, which means it's practically free. Give it a try if you like what you're hearing.
Nearly six years ago, a fellow by the name of Bantichai showed up on our forums to talk about a game he was working on, a Battle Brothers-inspired open-world tactical RPG called Dead Monarchy. Today, nearly four years after it went into Early Access, the game's full release is finally here. Bantichai was pretty young when he began working on Dead Monarchy so many years ago. His release announcement reflects on how far he's come since then and what he has planned for the future. But first the release trailer, which has a heavy focus on visceral combat animations.
Initially, when I set out to create Dead Monarchy, I thought I could work on this one game forever. I know, it sounds naïve, a large amount of developers that go into early access don't finish their games and countless games don't even make it into the early access stage. I felt confident that I could do it though.
I have to say, that after 6 years, it does feel like forever, especially when it's just you. Day in and day out, solo development becomes extremely "insular". I say that because at least for me, it feels like I stuck my head in the sand and popped out half a decade later. Everyone and everything around me has changed and moved on but I still remained the same. To me, time stalled but the reality is that time keeps flowing.
After that realisation, I took some time off and realised that I myself had also changed, I had become more experienced, but I never realised that until I took the time to think about it. While I still have those lofty ideals and the same amount of enthusiasm and passion, I also now have a more realistic plan to achieve my dreams.
I have decided that I will create a series of games, essentially standalone expansions. They will all relate back to Dead Monarchy, as in they will all share the same setting but they are separate games. Combat will be the one consistent thing that will improve upon each game. I will continue to add new perks, new weapon types, new armours and new enemies and they will be built upon each new game. So the combat system will remain intact and be expanded upon each new game but other features such as the open-world exploration, may be removed and other major features added in such as base management.
The reason I am doing this is because I realised that it is impossible for me to balance and design the game that I want in a single game. It also isn't exactly financially viable.
My dream is to just be able to make a living from creating games, to be able to work on my games full-time. If I made a modest 50k AUD a year from games, that would be enough to go full-time or if Dead Monarchy somehow made a million that would secure me for life and I would have all the time in the world to just work on a single game.
Both scenarios still seem so far away and deep down I knew that going in as Dead Monarchy is a niche game, but that's why dreams exist, so you can chase them and in my case, gives meaning to my life.
Once I have created a few more games and the major features that those games will be based around have received adequate feedback and have been polished, I will then combine all the games into the "ultimate" version and that game will then ultimately be my "dream" game and the game I will then continue to work on.
That is the plan and the route I have decided to take. I need to be able to work in sections, if the game gets too big, it becomes too unwieldy, sections need to be locked down, if I have multiple things that need my attention all at once, it becomes extremely messy.
Thoroughly inspiring stuff. Dead Monarchy is available on Steam for just $10, with a 40% launch discount until next week, which means it's practically free. Give it a try if you like what you're hearing.
