Dead Monarchy - Medieval | Turn-Based | Mass-Tactics | Survival-Simulator | RPG

[Bantichai]

Alright, your plan sounds solid enough. Good luck!

One last note. It's something that I deem an integral part of development, even though many devs usually neglect it, and try to "glue it" in, after the game is made. It is this: Does your game have a distinctive character? Will people that briefly glimpse it, e.g. while scrolling through their Steam/Twitter/Twitch/YouTube feeds, instantly recognize it and say: "oh, this is DM"? I know that games relying on commercial engines (e.g. Unity) tend to feel "carbon-copied", but there are surely things you can do to imprint something special on all visuals of your game. It doesn't need to be something really special (difficulty-to-make), or really fancy; but it does need to be distinctive/recognizable.

The Banner Saga is a very example in this aspect. Apart from the visual art style (which is surely hard to do), it's got some more recognizable elements: The long banners, the caravan, the vikings (which weren't so "mainstream" at the time).

I once again agree on the distinctive theme or style for a game. The downside of using Unity or perhaps a common trend is to use asset store assets, which I have used as well IE for terrain and some buildings, which is probably why after a while people start noticing the similarities, if not the lighting etc. Eventually I'll replace them as I create more exclusive models but for DM, I'd have to say right now the most distinctive thing is the armor. The armor is all exclusive and custom and is grounded in reality. Inspired by history but not historically accurate, I can't think of too many games that really embrace this idea outside of Mount and Blade, Battle Brothers and probably a few other games inspired by Mount and Blade that I can't put my finger on.

I'm going for a realistic style so I won't be able to do anything Banner Saga did (which was great), so I'll be intentionally including my armors into future screenshots as I think they are quite unique, other than that as I start to turn more towards world building, I'm trying to create a world that feels grounded yet alien at the same time, Morrowind was a great example growing up as a kid.

In any case, your advice has started turning the cogs in my mind, cheers!

[Aleonymous]

Glad to have been of help. Keep us posted Cheers!

[Khatie]

Good luck with it!!

[Bantichai]

Thanks guys!

[CandyMissy]

Kudos to you. These are awesome!

[Bantichai]

So it has been a busy month as I've been working away on the demo. Still aiming for an end of year release if not very early into the new year. Also preparing a trailer that hopefully should be dropping at the start of next year. I've got a few screenshots of how tournaments will look, the armor sets you see will also all be available in the demo.

Also yes, that is a Katana and as such there is samurai/eastern inspired armor. I'll be giving more details on the setting in Dead Monarchy towards the end of the year however it is safe to say that I am not sticking strictly with a medieval European setting and will be eventually branching into different cultures

The pictures below are showing the grand melee tourney which takes place outside of the town, there will be smaller tournaments with less combatants and more space to maneuver around in.

[Bantichai]

Mainly just showcasing the updated lighting, really gives depth to the scene. Also designed the tournament space which will hold most of the combat in the demo. Don't mind the missing heads :P

[Aleonymous]

Looks nice! That melee (in your previous post) is a bit crowded though :P

[Bantichai]

Looks nice! That melee (in your previous post) is a bit crowded though :P

There will eventually be bigger and more open battle fields, however tournament combat is intentional

[Bantichai]

Winding up the year, with a trailer for the upcoming combat demo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFLXvbvAR_4

- How does one embed video? :P

[Aleonymous]

- How does one embed video? :P

I did the embedding in your previous post. Here's how it's done:
[youtube]lFLXvbvAR_4[/youtube]
where "lFLXvbvAR_4" is the string after "watch?v=" in the video URL

Video looks really cool, btw. Love the "minimal" medieval music too!

[Bantichai]

I did the embedding in your previous post. Here's how it's done:
[youtube]lFLXvbvAR_4[/youtube]
where "lFLXvbvAR_4" is the string after "watch?v=" in the video URL

Video looks really cool, btw. Love the "minimal" medieval music too!

Thanks a lot for embedding! Glad you like the music too!

[Bantichai]

Hey guys, so I'll be doing a short series of videos on the upcoming demo. The first episode is pretty info heavy as I'm explaining the current state of combat mechanics and overworld gameplay. I've got time stamps in the description if there are specific parts you want to skip to. Over the next few days, I'll be releasing a few more videos until the entirety of the demo is more or less covered. I should be dropping the demo very soon, fingers crossed

I'm open to all feedback, good and bad, especially the bad as I need to know which areas to continue to improve upon!

[Aleonymous]

Wow, this is big Will try to have a look and provide feedback (most likely next weekend).

[Bantichai]

Wow, this is big Will try to have a look and provide feedback (most likely next weekend).

It is pretty beefy and there is more to come. Looking forward to your feedback and really appreciate you taking the time. Some elements of combat are influenced from one of my favorite RPG's, Banner Saga :P

[Bantichai]

Episode 2 is out, I go into a bit more detail about combat tactics

[Bantichai]

Episode 3 is out! Admittedly I don't do much commentary in this video however things get very interesting towards the end. Definitely something I didn't expect!

[Bantichai]

Demo is out guys, please let me know what you think. Be as critical as you like because it only helps improve the game

Also will be greatly appreciated if you post your specs and average FPS, there is a counter in the top right hand corner.

https://www.indiedb.com/games/dead-mo...o-pre-alpha-01

[Bantichai]

If you experience low/unsteady FPS, for testing purposes it may be suitable to play on Medium or lower with V-sync disabled. The skeleton/rig for the models is currently using an unnecessary amount of bones which is putting more stress on the CPU. I am waiting on an update for a 3rd party tool I am using so I can bake away the extra bones.

[Bantichai]

Hey guys, first written devblog is up on Indie DB, it talks about armor progression and armor design direction. It also has some pictures of the updated Gambeson armor set.

https://www.indiedb.com/games/dead-mo...sign-direction