Hello, Rulers!
We hope you’re doing great! Spring is (finally!) coming to the north of France and we at Ishtar Games, have started enjoying it in our new office, which we moved in a few weeks ago. We’re keeping on improving Lakeburg Legacies for our next milestone, and we hope we’ll soon be able to tell you more about it. 👀 For now, let us dive into about what the team has been working on lately!
Non-Playable Characters
Manon, the Art Director on Lakeburg Legacies, has been having a lot of fun lately creating Non-Playable Characters for the game! They will help the villagers in developing Lakeburg into a thriving town.
Our Game Designer Chloé has made some addition to the Dating system: players are now assisted in matching villagers by a matchmaker (code name: Tindra), who can feel if love really is in the air between two lovebirds! 💗
Moreover, until it has grown enough and can have its very own Trader, the village will regularly be visited by a hawker offering to trade Lakeburg’s resources for Gold. This is a good way for the village to enrich itself, as Gold will become a pretty important resource! 💰
Rework of the Birth System
Frédéric, one of our Game Programmers, has been implementing some changes to the villagers’ birth system. We initially wanted to design a specific adoption system for same-sex couples, but we eventually decided it would be more fair to give them the same chances of getting a child as other couples. Same-sex couples can now automatically adopt babies who will be randomly generated.
Service Buildings
Some buildings, instead of producing resources, directly affect the villagers. For example, the Bard’s Hut boosts their morale, while the School facilitates the children’s apprenticeship.
Of all the Service Buildings that you can build in Lakeburg, there are four which serve a greater purpose by increasing the villagers’ quality of life: the Healer’s Hut, the Barracks, the Church, and the Theater. Indeed, the population of Lakeburg need to be healthy, feel safe, have faith and stay entertained. These needs are represented by four gauges (Health, Safety, Faith and Activity) which are continuously affected by the villagers.
Illicit Buildings also have a negative influence on the four gauges. These buildings automatically appear when the population increases, and can have various effects on the resources and villagers when they're left unattended. Letting these gauges reach certain values will have a negative effect on the population of Lakeburg, so make sure to have enough workers in the corresponding buildings as a countermeasure!
Our Game Artist Justine has worked on illustrating them: you can discover below the Theater (which has a positive influence on the Activity Gauge) and the Church (which increases the villagers’ Faith).
The Workshop
Another particular building is the Workshop. This one produces a very special kind of resources: Builder Tickets that will allow the player to decrease the price of constructing new buildings or buying new workers slots. Simon, our Lead Game Programmer, has been making sure that this new addition to the game’s interface is extra shiny! ✨
New backgrounds for the events!
Our Narrative Designer Ambrune has been secretly brewing some new events in her magic cauldron, while Justine has created gorgeous environments to foster drama among the villagers! Lakeburg sure does look peaceful, but beware of what could happen during a nice walk at the village square or during a date at the market…
That’s all for today! A lot more exciting surprises are on the way, and we can’t wait to tell you more about it! 👀