Dear Vikings,
Welcome to our very first devlog! In this first issue, we'll talk about how we got started on Land of the Vikings, the development process, and some hidden (👀) features.
The Team
Before going into the details, let's introduce you to our developer team. Our team consists of 3 heroes: Onurhan Akçay, Mustafa Burak Gören, and Erhan Yılmaz. A three man squad of 1 software developer, 1 character artist, and 1 environmental artist. In typical indie studio fashion, everyone had to learn additional skills to make Land of the Vikings work. All programming is done by Onurhan, the software developer. Character, animation, and UI works belonged to Burak, and Erhan was responsible for level design, 3D solid models, assets, effects, and music(!).
The developer team (Burak, Erhan, Onurhan)
Why Land of the Vikings?
We wanted to develop a more organic and living game and we thought how well it would go with the Viking theme. We love Viking culture and its deep mythology. All of their Gods, stories, and creatures have created a huge universe that we can translate into the game. After a development process that lasted for about 2 years, it already came in a concrete form via the demo.
We want to make the game as free, dynamic and fantastic as possible, so it's not a game based on history. There are supernatural events in the game, gods you can ask for help and seers who will tell you what will happen at a price!
Let's Choose An Engine
Today, when it comes to game engines, two of the most well-known game engines come to mind: Unity and Unreal Engine. Instead of comparing 2 game engines here, we would like to briefly tell you why we chose to develop in Unreal Engine. The biggest reason we chose UE is simply experience; our team was more experienced with UE, so we went with the more comfortable choice.
Onurhan previously developed games with UE4, Erhan's works in the UE marketplace for more than 6 years and Burak has 2 years of experience working with UE4. "But what about Unreal Engine 5?" you ask. We'd like to say that it was a decision we made after much deliberation, but in reality we had already gotten to work on the game before UE5 was announced. So we decided to stick with the latest version of UE4.
UE4 was working successfully in many aspects such as lighting, navigation, etc., but I cannot say the same for modding support. We didn't want the players to only use the models we made in the game. That's why we've also developed a building editor where players can use their own decorations and buildings in-game... (oops, can you keep that a secret between us? We promised not to tell anyone yet...)
Why Early Access?
City-building games are very detailed and have many different mechanics. Therefore, it is very important that each mechanic works in harmony with each other. At the same time, the in-game balance needs to be adjusted very well for the player to enjoy the game more.
We want to add much more content to our game, fix any bugs that pop up, and most importantly, we will continue to improve the game while keeping your feedback in mind. To get continuous feedback from you, we decided Early Access was the best choice. Thankfully the wait won't be too long. (Soon™)
That's it for our first devlog Vikings, we will continue to explain our game with new blogs very soon!
Skål!
