Greetings, future heirs of fantastical realms!
Today, we are publishing our first development journal to provide you with more details about the game's content and keep you informed about the progress of the development.
At this stage, we plan to release a devlog every month until the game's Early Access launch. Feel free to ask us any questions in the comments of this post or on Discord. Your input will help us determine which topics to prioritize.
What is our intention in creating Rise From the Ashes: A Fantasy World Simulator?
In many creative fields, authors often begin with a "statement of intent" to clarify their vision, desires, and goals. Let's engage in this exercise.
As avid fans of fantasy novels, from J.R.R. Tolkien's foundational "The Lord of the Rings" to the literary masterpiece of Patrick K. Dewdney's "The Syffe's Cycle," there isn't a work that hasn't ignited within us a burning desire to imagine a world. Not one that hasn't, between its pages, plunged us into a blissful reverie where we contemplate our fellow beings of the moment, women and men belonging to a civilization born from our own imagination.
That is the main ambition of this project: to bring that imagination to life by allowing each player to create and lead their own fantastical civilization through a strategic 3D city-builder.
Empowering players to create their own fantastical civilization involves being able to shape it down to the smallest details, such as defining architectural styles or the appearance of military uniforms.
That's why Rise From the Ashes: A Fantasy World Simulator will feature integrated content editors, including a building editor that will allow every player to create their own architectural style and share it on the Steam Workshop.
You can choose to build a city with grand half-timbered structures, small semi-subterranean houses, or even Nordic-style homes, for example. The possibilities are endless!
How can we summarize the gameplay in a few sentences?
You embody the heir of a once glorious fantastical people, whose remnants consist of a small town controlled by a foreign people.
This foreign people extracts a portion of the wealth you produce through taxes and consider your lands as a colony.
Your goal is to liberate your people by leading them to independence.
To achieve that, you must progress through the steps of the independence tree, gradually freeing yourself from the oppressor's yoke and moving closer to victory.
Simultaneously, you must attract the scattered members of your people back to your city by increasing its prestige, with a special focus on utilizing the building editor to enhance its architecture.
What is the current state of game development?
The development of the game began approximately one year ago. The game is currently in an alpha version, even pre-alpha for some features. Several individuals are involved in the game's development, including testing, but currently only one developer is working on it full-time.
At this stage, we do not plan to release a roadmap as some elements still require further consideration.
However, here is a non-exhaustive list of some elements we have worked on thus far:
- Map generator (final state) (including plains map, lake map and forest map)
- Biomes (alpha) (including temperate and cold)
- Terrain tool (alpha)
- Characters (alpha) (including appearance/animations (pre-alpha) and pathfinding (final state))
- Building editor (alpha)
- Building system (pre-alpha)
- Core gameplay (alpha)
- UI (alpha)
- Basic systems such as save, languages, inputs, camera, etc. (final state)
- Game design, lighting, etc. (alpha)
- Steam integration (final state)
- And more...
We are working tirelessly to create the best game possible and to fulfill the promise that every player can create their own fantastical civilization!
We will be back soon with new information to share about the progress of development.
See you soon!
The Thousands of Daggers Team