[Dev Log] Tourney: The medieval tournament sim

[Tusky]

Other than how incredibly bored the crowd look here, I am quite happy with how the musician came out.

I wanted it to look lively and troubadour-like, and easy to spot in a crowd or when zoomed out. However she might be a bit anachronistic as a result. i.e. I'm not sure if female musicians of the day would have had a massive floppy hat like that. Or strummed the lute like that. I have not clue what song she might be trying to play there!

I will definitely have to do some dancing animations for the spectators.

[Jubal]

Yeah, a clapping along anim or something for the crowd might help.

I don't know enough about medieval hat design to comment, but in any case it's not as if we're going for the highest level of realism here and it looks cool - and if anyone would get to wear a hat that silly, entertainer feels like be a good bet. Certainly I think one could link it to e.g. jesters wearing bright colours and motley. Lutes generally aren't strummed AFAIK, but the style I've usually seen them played in is finger-picking which would be invisible on this scale, so I agree with the choice to make it a strumming anim.

[Phoenixguard09]

Hope the Kickstarter is successful mate. I've backed it, unfortunately not as high a tier as I wanted to, but work has been a bitch lately.

Good luck!

[Tusky]

Hope the Kickstarter is successful mate. I've backed it, unfortunately not as high a tier as I wanted to, but work has been a bitch lately.

Good luck!

Thanks very much! No worries, it all really helps!

[Tusky]

2021 is well underway, and the dust from the quite frantic end to December has well and truly settled.

kickstarter

I suppose that the main culprit for the dust I mentioned being kicked up was the kickstarter - which was successfully funded! So first off I wanted to say a big thanks to those of you that supported the campaign. It turned out to be a very close thing in the end - so that Tourney can go ahead as planned this year is fantastic, and really makes me want to make the game as fun as possible for everyone.

I will be doing some more in depth updates for kickstarter backers - but I will of course post progress updates here as well

So the wheels have been put in motion from a third party perspective, and those folks will slowly start churning out content. I, on the other hand, was already up and running - so here's what I've been up to:

Top tier gear

The level I am moving on to work on next will be the first level in which some of the visiting knights will have all of the best gear on. So I have had my modelling hat on for the last few weeks. Here you can see the highest tier of armour. I decided to go with the names: simple, crusader, paladin (thanks Jubal!) and the top one I decided on was "gothic", since it felt more like a type of thing you could buy from someone. It's also the one name which is a real armour style, although this is a heavy reimagining.





To go along with it I needed to create a sword, bow, shield and lance that you can see in the top image.

I realise that some of those things are nothing like the equipment that would have been available in medieval times. That sword, for example, is more like something from a JRPG! I just couldn't help myself.


Nobles

Something I have pretty much completed a while back but not really mentioned here is the implementation of nobility. Essentially visitors in the game are divided into 2 classes: peasants and nobles. Each class has a version of anything that you can build that they prefer. For example nobility stands, a jewellery wagon and pastry stand, all of which are favoured by the higher class. Here is my favourite, the jewellery wagon (with a few of the toffs wandering around in the background):



The amount of buildings & staff you put down for each class determines how many visitors of that type you attract. Ostensibly this just means that as a player you will want to build a range of things to ensure each dropoff vehicle is delivering a good amount of visitors.

Next:

Guards and robbers

[Tusky]

I didn't post an update here last month D=

Sorry! To make up for it.. Here is a run down in what's been finished since my last post...

Guard & Robbers

I've completed work on a new member of staff & mechanic. It's a guard with some stocks.
The reason for the guard is to watch out for robbers. These more usavoury visitors will wander around your tournament outlets and steal a cut of your profits! You can send the guard off to catch them.
Then the visitors can have a lovely bit of target practice...



Wine Merchant

This is a vendor I implemented into the game a while back. The wine merchant provides slightly posher drinks to visitors than the humble ale wagon. This is one of several that nobles prefer to use - along with the jeweller and luxury pie seller.



Archery

A third event type to compliment the joust and the melee: archery. Pretty self explanatory, not much I need to explain about this, really. The mini game that goes along with this will be what I'm working on next - so the player can play the event insead of the AI. I was in two minds about how to implement the minigame. Whether to have is actually a skill based aiming mini game, or something to do with selecting tactics & so on like you do for the joust. I think that I'm going to go for something skill based, though.



Delivery Ship

Atlantis is sinking! So instead of a horse and cart, the visitors will come aboard this:



Will try not to leave it so long next time!

[Jubal]

I like the use of the stocks They're one of those "underused in games" things I think, given they appear pretty often in medieval illustrations.

[Tusky]

I like the use of the stocks They're one of those "underused in games" things I think, given they appear pretty often in medieval illustrations.

Glad you approve! They are underused, now you mention it. There are some in the town square of rattay in KCD - but I can't think of any others.

[Jubal]

Which is weird when you think about how many e.g. gibbets every fantasy game seems to have. It gives a very weird view of medieval punishment really, you have these odd worlds where the only crime ever committed is murder and the only punishment is death (and in which there will always be precisely one thief, who will be a companion character to the player and will never actually steal anything during the game).

[Tusky]

Which is weird when you think about how many e.g. gibbets every fantasy game seems to have. It gives a very weird view of medieval punishment really, you have these odd worlds where the only crime ever committed is murder and the only punishment is death (and in which there will always be precisely one thief, who will be a companion character to the player and will never actually steal anything during the game).

That's true. I suppose not so many are attempting to accurately represent life at the time (well except for some notable exceptions like Kingdom Come). More are concerned with the fantasy or RPG side

--

Update Time!

Atlantis

I've got all of the building models done that I wanted to do for Atlantis. The one that took the longest - and that I am most pleased with is this (aquatically appropriate) big statue of Amphitrite - who was wife to Posiedon. This is to go with my take on the Atlantean mythos - that it may have been an ancient Greek island lost to the sea.



I also implemented some missions to complete in the level.  This means I've completed 3 of 4 environments, and 4 of 6 levels. Just the city of flowers left to make before I'm done with level building!

Thoughts

A lot of comments and questions I was getting concerned would I be referencing x or y thing in the game. I had indicated that there would be "pop culture references", although beyond the cast of knights being recognisable I had not yet implemented anything else.
Well this month I implemented "thoughts", or rather: things the knights and visitors say to eachother from time to time. These include:

• "You seem like a decent fellow, I hate to kill you"
• "Tis but a scratch."
• "I'm not superstitious, but I am a little 'stitious"

I want to make them quite infrequent but well timed and varied enough that they are amusing - but not annoying and repetitive.



Archery minigame

I needed a minigame for the archery - like there is for the other events. This one is a fairly simple aiming minigame.



Main Theme

The composer working on the project recently completed work on the main theme for the game which I think is really great. He's done a video for it which is not on youtube so can't share easily but here it is on instagram and twitter

Next

3 stand alone scenarios / stories (one that is a bit more involved, and has 2 different conclusions) based in the 3 environments I've completed

[Jubal]

Sure... I'm not so much interested in the "realism/accuracy" thing as the fact that it's weird that this is our fantasy. Especially because humiliation-as-punishment has a ton of both storytelling and comedy potential.

Liking the Amphitrite statue and the theme music, all good stuff

[dubsartur]

I like the idea of a mostly-flooded Atlantis.

Sure... I'm not so much interested in the "realism/accuracy" thing as the fact that it's weird that this is our fantasy. Especially because humiliation-as-punishment has a ton of both storytelling and comedy potential.

Liking the Amphitrite statue and the theme music, all good stuff

Stocks and pillories often show up in an eroticized form in US pop culture, but usually different kinds of pop culture than computer games

Burning people at the stake is also a trope in fantasy.

I guess a jousting sim is an alternative to the good old ultraviolence in many of our fantasies about the middle ages.

[Phodex Games]

I saw your game every here and there and I have to say I really like the idea and the art style. Reminds me a bit of Stronghold 2, but more stylized. Also, the plot of participating in a medieval tournament sounds really interesting. Looking forward to seeing more!

[Tusky]

I saw your game every here and there and I have to say I really like the idea and the art style. Reminds me a bit of Stronghold 2, but more stylized. Also, the plot of participating in a medieval tournament sounds really interesting. Looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks!

In other news the steam store page got approved today! (or more likely, last thing on Saturday) (unless there is no human involvement in the approval process)
Anyway: I'm very pleased.

Check out the new vid, and add to your wishlist if you are so inclined!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1631600/Tourney/

[Clockwork]

Congrats mate, already wishlisted!