Blog - Page 5

Extra Knights and a Stable

Here's an update for August!

Level 2

I have finally after nearly 3 years of development started work on level 2! The good news is that most of the mechanics are in place so each new level wont (I hope!) take 3 years. It is a castle perched on the tip of a tall cliff. The 3d artist has resumed work after a few months off, so will be building this castle up over the next few months.

However I encountered a problem. 

Initially the maximum number of knights in a level was just 8. During the development of level 1 this limit made sense in terms of how long it took to have all the knights compete on a single jousting tilt. 

I knew that subsequent levels, (starting with this one), there would be extra event types introduced: melee and archery. So with 8 knights how could you have more than one thing go on at a time? If you did, you would at some point have to wait one one of the events when you got to someone competing as the finalists in another event going on. 

So after some thought I came up with a good solution. Up the number of knights to 16. So now you can run 2 events at a time with two groups of eight. This opened up a few interesting options. You can select an event for each group to do, and if its the same type of thing (e.g. they are both jousting) then the winner of each group competes in a grand final. The scheduling menu needed some work, but that is done now. I need to work on the graphics but here is how it looks:

 

Stable

Now that a player can have 16 knights I needed a faster way to invite them. In level 1 you have to build a guest tent, which triggers a knight to be invited - but I thought that doing that 16 times would be tedious, and need to much actual space to place them in the tournament ground. So I came up with a new model: a stable! Now you build this one building and it triggers 6 invites.

Tourney medieval stable building

 

Testing

You could say that the game is in alpha in a way. In that a friend came over and ran through the first level to see how it played. It went quite well! It did highlight some parts of the game are not particularly clear, such as the clarity of the mini game to determine tactics for your knights in a joust. I redid this so that it is much more straightforward, and quick to do. It was clear this needed to be simpler since there is a lot going on in the game.

Next up...

 

  • complete the jousting and scheduling menu graphics
  • melee combat arena

 

 

July Update: souvenirs and sounds

Time for a long overdue Update!

If you're here for the first time and have no idea what this is... this page will give you an overview!

Souvenirs

Visitors to the tourney ground have lots of things to choose from. Before it would only be when buying something to eat or drink would they get a physical item to wander off with. Well now it does that for shops too. There are a few little souvenirs available to buy. You can see here a screenshot where many little hats have been acquired!



Cost Management

I made quite a large change, related to the above. The shop outlets also used to be linked to how you got upgrades for the knights that you are in charge of. e.g. if you wanted a new bow then you needed to put up a carpenter first. Although in practice I don't think it worked.
So instead all of that was put in the knight menu, and shops are now just another sort of outlet you can put down to make some gold.

I added a finances menu section where you can get a fun* report on how your income is doing, since you can now also mess with prices, so I thought it would be sensible to have a way to observe what effect that had!



Sounds

I have done the first implementation of an audio manager which handles sfx and music. It works quite nicely and I added in a good range of effects to be going on with, like applause and chatter from the crowds. A trundling noise from the drop off wagon etc. To make the crowd chatter amongst themselves I recorded myself a bunch of time which I have found more than a little weird when testing!

Next up, work is going to start on the second area map, which is going to be pretty awesome.

Look forward to sharing progress on that.

* If finance reports are not your idea of fun, read: Dull
 

Blacksmith, Carpenter, Filth Collectors and Toilets!

Welcome back, tourney fans!
Here is the very first post of the new year, and of the new decade - since we've got to the 2020's! Ever further from the circa 12th century setting for Tourney.

Anyway, There have been quite a few additions to the game since the last update!

New Blacksmith & Carpenter outlets with equipment menu

Two key buildable structures have been completed: the blacksmith and carpenter. As with most of the shops they provide an important function other than just generating money from the medieval visitors. These ones in particular unlock the ability to purchase new gear for your house knights. As such a new menu has been created to facilitate this.



New staff member: the filth collector

The final staff member that will be available in level 1 / demo of tourney: the medieval tournament simulator. It is a character that I created drawing inspiration from a couple of sources. the filth collectors that appear in a scene of Monty Python & the holy grail, crossed with the junk lady that features in labyrinth.
Functionally he wanders about gathering medieval trash. However as with most things in this game, they also have another important function. In this case they can lob mud at people. Ostensibly just a bit of fun - but can be useful if you want to annoy your competition!

Here is a picture him (along with the aforementioned blacksmith)



Toilet

A while ago I added a need to the visitors to "relieve themselves" - but with no way for them to actually do it! It was a little cruel. I felt a little guilty watching them wandering about secretly hiding full bladders. Well they need suffer no longer! I've now completed a medieval outhouse for them to do their business:



Vendors in the Outlets

All of the tournament outlets now has someone manning them, so they aren't like vending machines now, they get served by a butcher or a blacksmith or whatever other appropriate person there.

A Shrubbery!

Yep. It's another Python reference.



Script

Whilst this is a simulator style game, there will be a story mode as well as the sand box. In December I finished writing the script for It! I'm pleased it's done since now I know the characters, and goals that will happen in each level.

That's all for now folks! Stay tuned for some more regular updates. I will henceforth be updating at least monthly!