[Self-Promo] Wizards and Warlords

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Ludo
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Joined: April 28th, 2013, 10:28 pm

[Self-Promo] Wizards and Warlords

Post by Ludo »

Hey, I am the developer of Wizards and Warlords, a fantasy strategy game currently in development and getting closer to beta. As you can tell this thread was posted quite some years ago, so I've made some changes to the original post to keep it up to date. I am a programmer with a few decades of experience, some of that in the games industry, and some in other areas of software development. This is a project I work on in my spare time - I have a full-time job and a family, which explains why it's taken some time to get to this point.

The game is turn-based and takes place in a randomly generated fantasy world, represented by a map of hexagonal tiles. The player takes control of a Wizard or a Warlord, starting with a small holding, a few followers and a small army. The world is populated by city-states, tribes, monsters, races, dungeons, cults, religions and ancient evils - and of course, rival wizards and warlords.

My goal is to create a turn-based fantasy strategy game with deep mechanics, flexible game play and a high degree of replayability. The procedural world generation engine is designed to create not just a world map, but entire cultures, dungeons, ancient civilizations, pantheons, planar cosmologies, ancient evils, and more. A rogue-like element applied to the strategy game formula. I am also committed to the support of extensive modding of the game.

I draw inspiration from a variety of sources - Master of Magic, Dwarf Fortress, Europa Universalis (and the other amazing Paradox grand strategy games), Fantasy General, Total War, Fall From Heaven and Dominion, just to name a few. But this is not an attempt to create a successor of a classic, such as Master of Magic, a game many strategy game fans have fond memories of. I am creating a new game, with its own approach and its own way of doing things.

The graphics have gone from mono-colored blobs and a GUI similar to an ancient and user-unfriendly business app, to a jumble of free assets, programmer art and placeholders, and has now finally started integrating proper professional art, mostly purchased through the Unity Asset Store. The plan is to use funding from early access/beta sales to commission even more great art. There is still a long way to go when it comes to aesthetics, but for those of you saw the first public pre-alpha versions, I am sure you agree the difference is massive. But as a single developer with no existing funding, there is no way this game will have the graphics of a AAA game. So it's a challenge to make the graphical side of thing pleasant and stylistically consistent.

Currently, the game is in public alpha, and the core functionality has been implemented. Games can be started, research made, armies recruited, dungeons explored, followers can be sent on diplomatic or covert missions, random events occur, spells can be cast, cities, fortress and mana nodes can be conquered, various structures can be constructed, buildings and upgrades are in, etc. There are bugs. There are unfinished or inaccessible parts of the game. There are balance issues. But the public alpha is a way to see where the game is heading, and a way to suggest/request features and content.

The features planned for release:
  • Randomly generated fantasy worlds, with massive variety and depth, making every game a unique experience. The parameters can be customized so you can have a low-magic human-only world, a "classic" elves/dwarves/orc/dragons world or an exotic one with completely randomly generated races and cultures, not following the usual tropes.
  • Play as a Wizard with enigmatic goals, arcane research, a multitude of spells and summoned/constructed/enchanted armies and followers. The Wizard Tower is a core mechanic, and can be upgraded and improved to suit a variety of playstyles. Customize the traits and magical aptitudes of your Wizard, or select from pre-created templates.
  • Play as a Warlord and command a custom culture and race, forging an empire or legend through conquest, diplomacy, heroics or economic dominance. Customize military units and armies, build great fortresses and lead your culture to greatness, through technological research and cultural development.
  • Interact with other planes - fending off invasions, hiring extra-planar mercenaries or even raiding them for exotic resources and artifacts.
  • A rich variety of random events creating opportunities, threats and interesting stories.
  • Organizations: The world is not only populated by rival realms, independent cities and monstrous threats. Hidden cults plot and scheme. Knightly orders command immense martial power. Uncover their hidden agendas, ally and barter with them, or infiltrate them to make them an unwitting pawn.
  • Command followers of all kinds - priests, warriors, nobles, sages, merchants, artisans, rogues or more exotic personae. Send them to explore dungeons, on covert missions of espionage and sabotage, or as diplomatic envoys securing the support of independent cities and tribes.
  • Your workers can build and work mines, quarries, vinyards, outposts, shrines and other overland sites, providing your realm with resources and gold.
  • Cities evolve according to their culture and what buildings you construct. They gain levels in areas such as martial, spiritual, prosperity, even crime and decadence. This affects events, stability and the properties of characters and military units from the city.
  • Ancient evils slumber. Beware waking them or taking too long to complete your goals. Gigantic oozes, the mad ghoul king, eldritch horrors, and other randomly generated ancient evils provide events to shake up the end game.
I have a blog at http://wizardsandwarlords.wordpress.com/ and webpage/forums at https://wizardsandwarlords.net. The latest build can also be downloaded from there.

I am very interested in feedback and ideas, and I hope that this game at some point will give people a good experience and some memorable games.
Last edited by Ludo on May 16th, 2016, 6:22 pm, edited 6 times in total.
Blarumyrran
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Joined: December 7th, 2006, 8:08 pm

Re: Wizards and Warlords - Indie Strategy Game (In Developme

Post by Blarumyrran »

That's a lot of MoM-likes popping up lately :o

Your blog would be a lot more readable if you had screenshots of new features. Even if the graphics are ugly, it's often easier to see how features work from screenshots than from textual descriptions.

EDIT: I tried the game, and it was unplayably confusing. I understood almost nothing (How do I attack? How do I recruit? How do I move army? How do I explore fog-of-war? Is the wizard a special kind of army by itself, or something else? Where does the list of sites under "assign tasks" come from? etc); I can only assume it's not meant to be playable at this point

EDIT2: Okay, discovered right-click. Since a player turn seems to be entirely about scheduling orders to be run between turns, I think you should have a bar that shows all currently scheduled orders & lets you change/cancel them.
Ludo
Posts: 3
Joined: April 28th, 2013, 10:28 pm

Re: Wizards and Warlords - Indie Strategy Game (In Developme

Post by Ludo »

Hi, thanks for trying it out. Yes the game is in a very rough state at the moment, and the interface is rather unintuive. It is a lot better than it was a month or two ago though ;) This is a one man effort so unfortunately I have to split my time between making UI and "moving parts". I probably tend to focus too little on the UI, so it is good to be reminded that there is a lot of room for improvement.

It is not really meant to a MoM-like. I am greatly inspired by MoM (among others), but I am going for a somewhat more complex game, with more "simulation" elements thrown in. Also procedurally generated worlds and high moddability is a big part of the game.

Thanks for your suggestions on screenshots on the blog and a better overview of orders. The bar next to the map is the prototype version of a "messages and stuff you might want to react on" UI - showing armies that have no orders, warning you if you have no research, etc - and giving a shortcut to selecting them by double-clicking on the messages. The idea for an order outliner is a good one, I will try to get that in as soon as possible.

Again, thanks for taking the time to try it out and give me some feedback. I hope in time this will turn to be an enjoyable game, and these old builds will be a fun reminiscence :)
Ludo
Posts: 3
Joined: April 28th, 2013, 10:28 pm

Re: [Self-Promo] Wizards and Warlords

Post by Ludo »

I have updated the original, and now somewhat ancient, post. I am still working on this game and getting ever closer to a beta release. Very interested to hear any ideas and thoughts that people might have to share.
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Nikita_Sadkov
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Re: [Self-Promo] Wizards and Warlords

Post by Nikita_Sadkov »

"Talk is cheap. Show me the code." (c)
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Yomar
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Re: [Self-Promo] Wizards and Warlords

Post by Yomar »

Ok I tried out your game Ludo, and I managed to figure out most of the things.
Your ideas are awesome, of course its clear that the game is still in an alpha phase, if you will be able to add more graphics, the game has the potential to become a very nice and interesting piece of software.
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