Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown’s Dev Diary #1

Hello Founders and Supporters of Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown (HLtC),

Welcome to our first DevDiary!

This diary will be updated every two weeks with what we’re working on. We’ll share as many details and updates about the game as we can and keep you in the loop about how development is coming along. Who knows? Maybe there will be a sneak peek or two along the way?

So, here’s what the team’s been up to:

Update from Greg Forsyth | Game Design and Project Manager | Development Team

I have identified two priorities for the updated Proof of Concept release coming in Spring 2020:

1. Create encounters in the world that will give players a reason to explore the map. Complete production chains.
2. Collaborate with the programming team to build an editor to create events and determine when and where they will occur. As well, event authors can determine if they will be randomly generated or related to a specific occurrence. This opens the world up and allows us to finally explore the moral decisions players will need to make.

We want to complete production chains already integrated in-game before we create additional ones. We decided to add a Mill, Tailor and Tanner. The Mill will grind flour and bake bread. The Tailor will then turn materials such as leather and wool into clothing. The Tanner will create leather from the hides you collect from hunting/gathering. It’s exciting to see the game move forward. I look forward to testing and tuning the new buildings and the events editor soon! 

Cheers,

Greg

Update from Garrett Hau | CTO & Lead Programmer | Development Team

Here are the things I have worked on lately:

1. Fixing bugs in the proof-of-concept
2. Implement Random Events
3. Create an editor for anyone to author in-game random events

The work I’m doing will allow anyone to author random events in-game and add a story to the world of Thrive: HLtC. I’m excited! Stay tuned because the next steps are to implement some basic random events in the game to fuel decision making and have our players able to find out whether they rule with an iron fist or a peaceful hand. I am looking forward to hearing about the other awesome things the team’s up to.

As well, I am looking forward to spring and finally being able to see the sun!

Best Regards,

Garrett

Update from Kevin deCoverley | Programmer | Development Team

I am implementing the Enemy Kingdom for the player to defeat. The enemy will advance on its goal-based system, with its goal being complete and utter domination. The Enemy Kingdom will help create a purpose for players to explore and use the world map.

The things I have worked on lately are:

1. Create goal-based Enemy AI systems
2. Create AI resource systems
   • Treasury for managing taxes and the enemy’s income
   • Population Simulator to grow the army’s and villagers’ sizes
   • Resource Manager to use for the storage of necessary items.
   • Building Manager to maintain the Enemy Kingdom’s buildings. These are necessary to create certain units.
   • Store to transfer funds, resources and villagers into items/units or buildings.
3. Enemy World Map Ui
   • A new tile meant for the Enemy Kingdom
   • A display that shows the progress of the Kingdom
   • Shows Enemy Kingdom
   • Villager Population
   • Army Population
   • Wealth
4. Help the Art Division with tasks such as how world map art is currently implemented so they can best design non-placeholder assets.

Signing Off,

Kevin deCoverley

Update from Mike Amat | Programmer | Development Team

My focus is to make the Real-Time Strategy (RTS) combat fun and engaging. As well, I am trying not to get distracted by Doom Eternal or Half-Life Alyx! They’re just one click away since I am working from home! It’s so tempting…

What if I just played a little right now, and worked on the weekend?

Hang on… I am making lunch and will be right back!

*Goes for ‘Lunch’*

Okay, I’m back, and lunch was fun! I mean…tasty.

 Anyways, I've been building a system so enemy towns on the world map can spawn units in our kingdom. Putting enemy units into squads and giving them an AI controller makes the units a little bit smarter.

As well, I've also been playing some Realtime Strategy games to distill what makes combat fun. What makes combat fun for you? Leave your responses in the comment section below!

Talk to you soon!

Mike

Update from Robert Tsang | Creative Director | Art Team

I finished creating the female common workers, variations of skin tones, clothing and hairstyles.

As well, I was working with the Development team to see if we could streamline the textures below the buildings.

Currently, I’m working on a second pass at all the User Interface treatments. This process will be ongoing because it requires a ton of testing and readjusting. As well, I am finishing off the building overlays and everything looks amazing.

I’m excited to have everyone test it out and hopefully, it will help improve the user experience.

Enjoy!

Rob

Update from Ryan Padayas | Lead Concept Artist/Illustrator | Art Team

There’s a couple of items on the go lately that we're tackling right now from concepts of evil buildings to the look of the neutral units. For the evil buildings, the focus is on creating visual interest and upgrading the core materials from wood to stone etc.

I’m focusing on are Swordsmen, Cavalry and the Archers. What I have below is a snapshot of the EARLY stages of the Art Department’s process. We start with research, sketches, comprehensive roughs, colour and final design.

My duties go together with Rob’s, who turns my concepts into 3D assets that they can be used in-game content or for promotional material. The whole process as you're about to see soon is very much a collaborative effort and your feedback is essential for all of us creating something that works in a video game.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Thrive experience :)

Ryan Padayas 

So, there are some things that Team: Thrive: HLtC is working on this week! Drop a line to steven@zugalu.com if you have any questions.

Want to get the latest news and chat with the developers in real-time? Join our Discord Channel for all the latest updates!

That’s it for now. See you soon!

We have the honour to be your obedient servants,

The Thrive Scribes