Welcome to the inaugural post in a series of King of the Castle dev logs, within which I - your humble servant Harry Tuffs, the Narrative Lead for Tributary Games - will take you on an in-depth tour of game mechanics, lore details, and other such kingly delights.
But first - have you wishlisted King of the Castle yet? Because for any unreleased Steam game, wishlists are the foundation that keep the castle standing strong. So help out us simple devs - give that button a click.
Today I wanted to talk about something that is pretty much the first in-game choice a Monarch has to make after starting their Dynasty. Should they choose to play a Party Game, or should they Play on Twitch?
In our current beta version, these modes are called “Browser Game” and “Twitch Game” respectively, but we’re renaming them as these terms seem to be causing some confusion.
Game of Phones
In the Party Game mode, a small group of friends (up to 24 players) can join in the Monarch’s game and play along. All they need is access to a web browser. By going to www.kotc.app, they can enter the lobby code, choose their name/pronouns, and play the game!
On their browsers, players will instantly see what region they’re in. They can also review their Schemes at a glance, tracking their stat goal and how close they are to achieving it.
One misconception we’ve already noticed about King of the Castle is that it’s a streamer-only game, but that’s not the game we set out to make at all. King of the Castle shines in smaller groups - where people can sit around a laptop or TV, or join a Discord channel, and play along together!
We imagine it working like a board game group, or a D&D party. If one Noble wins the game, the they can even take over the save file from the current Monarch and continue the Dynasty. That way, seizing the throne becomes very literal - making victory all the sweeter!
Schemes within Streams
In Play on Twitch mode, a streamer can play the game with their whole audience. All that’s needed from chat is a simple “!join” (followed by pronoun) typed in the chat box. This way, up to 3000 players can jump into the game all at once!
(Check out Lomadiah’s King of the Castle streams to see a Twitch-integrated reign going characteristically off the rails.)
We’ve already noticed that especially big streams cause some confusion when it comes to players working out what region they’re in. Don’t worry, though - this is an issue we’re actively working on right now, and a solution is in reach. Expect the fix to go live very soon!
Thanks for watching! Next week we’re going to be talking about the core mechanic of King of the Castle - voting.