Hello to all the Revival fans out there! Work on the Open Alpha build is full steam ahead. Come this June, we will be inviting players, members of press and influencers to try out the latest version. The updated game will feature improved combat, revamped UI, a diplomacy system and an array of smaller refinements to the core game. But not everything went according to plan, as is often the case in game development :)
This is the game’s producer, Vasiliy Tedeev. Let’s talk about upcoming changes and expectations for Revival in the near future.
Diplomacy v1.0 added
Once you start exploring outside of your home region in Revival, you will soon encounter tribe settlements and representatives of other factions. Unlike the Closed Alpha build, where diplomatic interactions were almost non-existent, you will now be able to establish more complex relationships with these entities and turn some of them into your allies or vassals.
We wanted players to use the various tribes under their control as bargaining chips on the diplomatic table. To achieve this, we’ve added a slew of options for manipulating tribe loyalty - trading, sending gifts, spreading rumours, etc.
We’ll go into more detail about this system in future dev diaries, so instead, I want to briefly talk about the reasoning behind implementing diplomacy at this stage of Revival’s development.
The short answer is - repercussions for your actions. If you can run around a game map and conquer every single settlement with no reaction from the game world and its inhabitants, then you aren’t really playing a 4x game, are you? Rather, the experience resembles a wargame or a turn-based combat game whose developers randomly decided to have a global map.
In my opinion, that is the real benefit of having even a fairly standard diplomacy system in a 4x game - it provides feedback to the player and makes the game world feel more alive.
Revamped UI
The Closed Alpha build featured a UI that was temporary at best, and a lot of players noticed that. This time, we had a chance to put more thought into the user experience. You can see a mockup of the new UI below.
While the reworked interface is more informative and easier to use, we are still not completely happy with it. With your help, our team aims to keep improving this aspect of the game over the course of the Open Alpha.
What the future holds
Here’s what our original plans for the launch of Open Alpha looked like:
Combat improvements
Edicts 2.0Diplomacy system
Tribe assimilation updateUX/UI improvements
You’ll notice that not all of the items are crossed off, and deciding what systems to focus on until the Open Alpha launches was tough. Unintuitive UI and tutorial were at the top of the list of complaints from players, with the data matching the feedback we’ve received from you. Thus, priorities were re-adjusted to favor fixing these issues before we start introducing more changes to game systems and adding content.
Most players saw potential in the edict system and the depth afforded by its presence in the game. But we are not there just yet, so our team will be busy refining edicts and making sure they present an interesting toolset for you to play around with in the coming months. The same can be said about tribe management and associated game mechanics. Not to mention new units, improvements to terrain, animations and sounds - there’s more cool stuff coming to Revival ;)
After the Open Alpha launches, we will continue updating the game build at least once a month. Future versions will be made available via the Steam Playtest functionality, so watch out for a news alert with instructions on how to participate.
Finally, I wanted to say thank you for joining us on this journey. Keep playing, keep creating, enjoy life and stay safe!