Indie Dead Monarchy: Open-World | Turn-Based | Mercenary Management | RPG - Fully Released May 19th 2023

[Bantichai]

As someone who's no clue about game developing, I often wonder why so much time is spent on aesthetics?

Don't get me wrong, I like a game to look nice, but the first things loads of folk do when they get a game is minimilize the graphics output so they can actually play it, and interesting gameplay can have me hooked way quicker than how something looks (Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday the perfect example)

Well from a game developer's point of view, first impressions count and can grab a user's attention. Anything from the name, a screenshot or video is all it takes to put off a potential buyer. From a player's point of view especially someone who exclusively plays "indie rpgs", gameplay is paramount to me as well. At the end of the day you walk a very fine line between gameplay and "graphics". Although to me I don't simply label it as "graphics", rather it is world building and setting the tone of the game. Spending a little bit of time can actually enhance the gameplay, at least it does for me.

I played over 200 hours of Battle Brothers and it's a 2D game with hardly any animation. The gameplay was great but honestly what got me hooked at the start was the world map and the hand painted look they gave to it. They could of gone with something more simplistic and I probably would of looked over it and come back 2 years later to play it.

I'll always prioritize gameplay over graphics, having said that since it is a PC game you will have options so if you don't want the shadows you can disable them easily and get extra performance. The other thing is if you spend time on graphics you will always pick up methods of optimization which can translate into better gameplay IE me being able to render 50+ models on the screen at a pretty decent rate. I easily get 60fps, but I will have to test them on older models before I am really confident. Not that I am saying more is better and fielding 25 units is better but it is something I've never seen before gameplay wise and something I'm always hungered for.

Long story short, I think to some extent graphics will always go hand in hand with gameplay

Also thanks for the feedback!

-I forgot to mention, I'm glad you set everything to minimum and focus on gameplay. When the demo comes out, feedback like this will also be helpful for framing decisions during game development.

 

[Falksi]

As someone who's no clue about game developing, I often wonder why so much time is spent on aesthetics?

Don't get me wrong, I like a game to look nice, but the first things loads of folk do when they get a game is minimilize the graphics output so they can actually play it, and interesting gameplay can have me hooked way quicker than how something looks (Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday the perfect example)

Well from a game developer's point of view, first impressions count and can grab a user's attention. Anything from the name, a screenshot or video is all it takes to put off a potential buyer. From a player's point of view especially someone who exclusively plays "indie rpgs", gameplay is paramount to me as well. At the end of the day you walk a very fine line between gameplay and "graphics". Although to me I don't simply label it as "graphics", rather it is world building and setting the tone of the game. Spending a little bit of time can actually enhance the gameplay, at least it does for me.

I played over 200 hours of Battle Brothers and it's a 2D game with hardly any animation. The gameplay was great but honestly what got me hooked at the start was the world map and the hand painted look they gave to it. They could of gone with something more simplistic and I probably would of looked over it and come back 2 years later to play it.

I'll always prioritize gameplay over graphics, having said that since it is a PC game you will have options so if you don't want the shadows you can disable them easily and get extra performance. The other thing is if you spend time on graphics you will always pick up methods of optimization which can translate into better gameplay IE me being able to render 50+ models on the screen at a pretty decent rate. I easily get 60fps, but I will have to test them on older models before I am really confident. Not that I am saying more is better and fielding 25 units is better but it is something I've never seen before gameplay wise and something I'm always hungered for.

Long story short, I think to some extent graphics will always go hand in hand with gameplay

Also thanks for the feedback!

No probs, appriciate the reply

I totally get the fact that visuals help sell a game. I guess I just think we've gone a bit too far worrying about stuff like shadows & shading, especially when a lot of the time players disable such things in order to make them run.

Looking forward to seeing how the game turns out.

 

[Bantichai]

As someone who's no clue about game developing, I often wonder why so much time is spent on aesthetics?

Don't get me wrong, I like a game to look nice, but the first things loads of folk do when they get a game is minimilize the graphics output so they can actually play it, and interesting gameplay can have me hooked way quicker than how something looks (Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday the perfect example)

Well from a game developer's point of view, first impressions count and can grab a user's attention. Anything from the name, a screenshot or video is all it takes to put off a potential buyer. From a player's point of view especially someone who exclusively plays "indie rpgs", gameplay is paramount to me as well. At the end of the day you walk a very fine line between gameplay and "graphics". Although to me I don't simply label it as "graphics", rather it is world building and setting the tone of the game. Spending a little bit of time can actually enhance the gameplay, at least it does for me.

I played over 200 hours of Battle Brothers and it's a 2D game with hardly any animation. The gameplay was great but honestly what got me hooked at the start was the world map and the hand painted look they gave to it. They could of gone with something more simplistic and I probably would of looked over it and come back 2 years later to play it.

I'll always prioritize gameplay over graphics, having said that since it is a PC game you will have options so if you don't want the shadows you can disable them easily and get extra performance. The other thing is if you spend time on graphics you will always pick up methods of optimization which can translate into better gameplay IE me being able to render 50+ models on the screen at a pretty decent rate. I easily get 60fps, but I will have to test them on older models before I am really confident. Not that I am saying more is better and fielding 25 units is better but it is something I've never seen before gameplay wise and something I'm always hungered for.

Long story short, I think to some extent graphics will always go hand in hand with gameplay

Also thanks for the feedback!

No probs, appriciate the reply

I totally get the fact that visuals help sell a game. I guess I just think we've gone a bit too far worrying about stuff like shadows & shading, especially when a lot of the time players disable such things in order to make them run.

Looking forward to seeing how the game turns out.

Honestly, I was not going to worry about shadows at all after seeing Unity's take on shadows. Battle Brothers, Skyshine's Bedlam, Xenonauts and Banner Saga (Shadow Blob) all don't have shadows. I was peeking at some screenshots of AOD and I noticed during the early days they didn't have shadows either, I think they were having massive issues with their Torque engine. Rest assured, I'll always focus on gameplay. Feedback like yours actually puts me at ease knowing there are players that always prioritize gameplay over everything and won't have a cardiac arrest with they notice their character doesn't have shadows.

 

[Falksi]

Honestly, I was not going to worry about shadows at all after seeing Unity's take on shadows. Battle Brothers, Skyshine's Bedlam, Xenonauts and Banner Saga (Shadow Blob) all don't have shadows. I was peeking at some screenshots of AOD and I noticed during the early days they didn't have shadows either, I think they were having massive issues with their Torque engine. Rest assured, I'll always focus on gameplay. Feedback like yours actually puts me at ease knowing there are players that always prioritize gameplay over everything and won't have a cardiac arrest with they notice their character doesn't have shadows.

Good to hear mate. Smooth performance is FAR more important to me, and I personally think great music & sound helps immerse/absorb a player way more than visuals.

 

[Bantichai]

Honestly, I was not going to worry about shadows at all after seeing Unity's take on shadows. Battle Brothers, Skyshine's Bedlam, Xenonauts and Banner Saga (Shadow Blob) all don't have shadows. I was peeking at some screenshots of AOD and I noticed during the early days they didn't have shadows either, I think they were having massive issues with their Torque engine. Rest assured, I'll always focus on gameplay. Feedback like yours actually puts me at ease knowing there are players that always prioritize gameplay over everything and won't have a cardiac arrest with they notice their character doesn't have shadows.

Good to hear mate. Smooth performance is FAR more important to me, and I personally think great music & sound helps immerse/absorb a player way more than visuals.

I can definitely agree with that. Nothing sets the tone and atmosphere like music does. I'm hoping to eventually hire a composer to create some a soundtrack but that'll be further down the track. Sound is also very important, it definitely had an impact on BB's combat as I thought the sounds were done really well. I haven't really done sound justice, in my video footage yet but in my own internal build it definitely sells the impact of the animation across to the player.

 

[Elhoim]

Before shadows were pretty taxing but I've gained quite a bit of performance by essentially projecting a low poly model in place of the actual model.

Yep, that's what we did with AoD, along with that low poly model using a single texture to reduce drawcalls.

 

[Bantichai]

Before shadows were pretty taxing but I've gained quite a bit of performance by essentially projecting a low poly model in place of the actual model.

Yep, that's what we did with AoD, along with that low poly model using a single texture to reduce drawcalls.

Yeah that has definitely been a life saver. Did you guys do that with trees as well? I noticed while the trees sway slightly the shadow remains static. Also I'm honored to have a developer from one of my all time favorite RPG's respond to my thread :D

 

[Bantichai]

Did you want padded armor or a padded guy? The character system that I'm working with allows body morphing which means I can create different body shapes. I think it adds a little bit more realism as opposed to everyone having a body sculpted by the gods. Gluttonous trait?

 

[Elhoim]

Yeah that has definitely been a life saver. Did you guys do that with trees as well? I noticed while the trees sway slightly the shadow remains static.

Yeah, in that case we actually used imposters (2d planes with a "picture" of the tree)

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Did you want padded armor or a padded guy? The character system that I'm working with allows body morphing which means I can create different body shapes. I think it adds a little bit more realism as opposed to everyone having a body sculpted by the gods. Gluttonous trait?

View attachment 8335

Is that armor texture too shiny or can I not into realism?

 

[Bantichai]

Did you want padded armor or a padded guy? The character system that I'm working with allows body morphing which means I can create different body shapes. I think it adds a little bit more realism as opposed to everyone having a body sculpted by the gods. Gluttonous trait?

View attachment 8335

Is that armor texture too shiny or can I not into realism?

It's mainly just the lighting, if you scroll up and look at the previous picture the armor in that (first set) is darker. The plate sections of the second set more or less share the same texture. Having said that I can quite easily adjust texture color regardless. I'll post a few pics of the armor "in game" soon

*You are right about the shininess though, I wouldn't leave it that bright regardless. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Bantichai]

Yeah that has definitely been a life saver. Did you guys do that with trees as well? I noticed while the trees sway slightly the shadow remains static.

Yeah, in that case we actually used imposters (2d planes with a "picture" of the tree)

Ahh I see, yeah I'll have to do more tweaking on the trees. Perhaps reduce the sway so the differences in shadows isn't too noticeable.

 

[Tavernking]

That name~ It's not very inspiring or catchy

"From the ashes of dynasty...
Deads of Dynasty...
Fall of Dynasty...
Dynastic Demise..."

Something a little bit catchy or tickle our tender sensibility.

Not that bland name monarchy

Funny, I had the complete opposite reaction. Dead Monarchy sounds unique and is actually catchy, not many games use that word in their title.

 

[Bantichai]

That name~ It's not very inspiring or catchy

"From the ashes of dynasty...
Deads of Dynasty...
Fall of Dynasty...
Dynastic Demise..."

Something a little bit catchy or tickle our tender sensibility.

Not that bland name monarchy

Funny, I had the complete opposite reaction. Dead Monarchy sounds unique and is actually catchy, not many games use that word in their title.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

 

[Bantichai]

The latest set is on the left, this will be the last armor progress pic for a while as I am now turning full attention to tidying up the combat demo. You can see how existing pieces from the first set trickle down into other sets of armor. There will no doubt, be plenty of customization options in Dead Monarchy

 

[Bantichai]

Well I lied, this one will be the last. To round everything off, an example of armor progression for the first 3 sets in Dead Monarchy. Quite happy with the variety I got from only 3 sets

 

[Bantichai]

Hey guys, I have an update on the interface today. This is the equipment/stats/item inventory. I've decided to merge the two together to make use of screen-space but to also give the player quicker access to a global overview of the units under his/her command. For starters, the menu is split in half, you can more or less operate in one half then the other half as everything is sorted into equipment | stats.

Everything is still WIP and some icons are still placeholders. Going from left to right, top to bottom excluding the obvious model view on the left and right.

1. Unit name and stat/skill points.
2. Unit selection.
3. Unit status effects or buffs/debuffs. You can hover over the icon to bring up a tooltip.
4. Unit acquired abilities. This box will display what abilities the unit has learnt.
5. Unit stats, tooltips on hover.
6. Unit equipment screen. There are 6 slots in total. Head, chest, arms, legs and weapons. Icons are not completed.
7. Inventory screen, displaying all the items. Items will be stacked to prevent clutter, but I just wanted to fill out the screen.
8. Unit skill trees. Here all abilities are split into their weapon category.
9. Skill tree abilities. Here you can view all the abilities in the skill tree. Abilities are color coded, green is valid, red is invalid, orange is acquired. Tooltips on hover.

Let me know what you guys think, any feedback is welcome

 

[SmartCheetah]

I like it overall. It would be awesome if you included some sort of backstory for every other guy (You know, to get that UFO/Xcom/Battle Brothers vibe where you actually care about your lads)
Apart from appearance, it might be a profession or whatever else that would make him(or her) stand out in the flock.

Ofc it's not a priority thing and can be added down the line.

 

[funkadelik]

I see a feminist archer. Would not buy.

 

[Bantichai]

I see a feminist archer. Would not buy.

Some icons are definitely still placeholder. I'm not sure I can think of a status effect that could be represented with a half naked female holding a bow, so unless I can think of an appropriate effect I doubt I'll put it in.

 

[Bantichai]

I like it overall. It would be awesome if you included some sort of backstory for every other guy (You know, to get that UFO/Xcom/Battle Brothers vibe where you actually care about your lads)
Apart from appearance, it might be a profession or whatever else that would make him(or her) stand out in the flock.

Ofc it's not a priority thing and can be added down the line.

100% agree with you on biographies and professions. Currently they are displayed in a tooltip when hovering over the portrait but I will probably change it to be part of the main interface. Glad you are liking the interface and thanks for the feedback!

 

[ERYFKRAD]

You hire sser to write the bios for you, even.

 

[sser]

Just cleared my calendar.

 

[Bantichai]

Just cleared my calendar.

Well, I am honored that you've decided to grace my humble thread. I'll definitely be keeping all my options open in the future

 

[Bantichai]

You hire sser to write the bios for you, even.

That is a good idea, I will keep that in mind.