Salutations, offspring of The First Men.
Much water has flown under Gathering Tree’s bridge, since the release of our vision demo. In this post, we’re going to be unraveling the current state of our game, and the plans we laid out for 2020 and the release of TFM: The First Men.
If you’re not aware of what TFM is by now, you can read our Game Overview Document, watch gameplay footage on YouTube or check out its Steam page. The document especially goes in detail about the stages we’ve been through during the discovery phase of the development, apart from useful gameplay information.
Alas, we’re here to finally talk about up-to-date affairs! We’re aware of the fact that our update section seems kind of deserted, but it’s mainly because of our perfectionist nature. We’ve been swamped by the overwhelming amount of re-iterations due to complicated design decisions, thus we didn’t want to talk about them before we were convinced enough of our baby’s condition.
After Overfall’s release, we’ve encountered a number of publishers and investors who were interested in what we can creatively bring to the table with our projects. While we were meddling with TFM’s design and progress during the discovery phase, there were a lot of negotiations and offers floating around. Finding a partner with good qualities and character is not an easy task, I assure you. The people you want to work with must be open-minded and willing to grow together as partners. They must share the same vision and value as yours. Things like trust, useful skills and productivity are the cornerstones of a good business relationship.
TFM: The First Men has been on Steam’s most wished games list for a long time now. This causes an unbelievable amount of attention if your Steam page says that you’re actually, literally independent of any partners as publishers.
Game development, even for small projects, is a costly and time-consuming endeavor. Independent developers like us have to find ways to cover their expenses for a long, long time. This includes things like salary, rent, food, bills, etc.
While we were in the discovery phase, our latest project Overfall was paying most of these, but even that was not necessarily sufficient, because we were focusing our creative flow to TFM, not Overfall, so the sales were understandably, and simply not enough. When we finished the demo with four members, we immediately realized that the team had to grow in quantity in order to shape TFM into what we have envisioned it to be, as it deserved undoubtedly.
Like I said before, we had multiple publishers who were eager to pay for our costs, however, a healthy developer-publisher association is like a dreamy marriage. It requires attention, common interests, unconditional trust, and respectful communication. We just simply didn’t feel like these conditions were met with any possible partners at that time. Most companies see you as a cash-cow without respecting the fact that you wish to create art and then turn it into something that actually, organically deserves success. Companies like this usually spam offers to games like a berserk miner who strikes his pick blindly. The sad part is that people you interact with usually are not even familiar with the genres you’re interested in. Or worse, not even gamers themselves. It is difficult to describe the meaning of these two factors for us.
But then out of nowhere, something surprising occurred and a thought-provoking investment fund spotted us. Due to our previous experiences, our immediate reaction was skepticism. But this time our interlocutor’s professional approach intrigued us. From what we’ve understood, they both knew how to ensure a project’s financial success, and also understood the advantageous ideas of what makes a game fun and desirable. The interesting fact here is that these people were literally investing in games themselves, not the companies. This is a very underrated business decision and one that should be respected as a very logical move.
Our conversations with them fascinated me. Their energy and vision were bright as daylight, and they explained the idea that the functions of publishing and funding must be separated at the beginning. Their terms were clearly laid out, deliberately short and very straightforward. These guys knew what they were doing. We felt like they were here to actually fix painful parts of our old connections and negotiations. The deal was too good to be true. Even if we had projects in our hands that were generating absurd amounts of money, I would still work with these guys. Because the thing that they bring to the table is what’s called smart money. It causes you to share risks, focus on what you do best, gain access to a great family of game developers under their umbrella, reach connections and possible partners all around the globe and when the time arrives, share your success with them to make yourself and that family bigger, while keeping your IPs and sequel rights. I talked about how TFM is our baby, this last part is especially important for us in that regard.
We are finally super excited and happy to announce that TFM: The First Men is a part of a new lineup of games supported by Kowloon Nights. It is a video game investment fund to make sure we can give TFM all we have as it deserves. The amount of potential this game has in our eyes is of great importance, so this partnership is what we all needed to make TFM much better over a long period of time.
New office, new colleagues, new updates
During TFM’s discovery, we worked in a wonderful, small office apartment. The problem was that if we were to bring our vision into life, we needed more people. That also means more space, a stout infrastructure, easier transportation options, and most importantly fresh air. Where we used to work was a mess with all the construction noises, water spillages, etc.
Finding a proper office in that regard is not an easy task in a city like Istanbul. All of these efforts naturally hindered the development of TFM, but we were confident that we’d find a good home for the Gathering Tree. After a brief time, we’ve found the perfect place.
It has four floors, a private garden near a pine forest, a super silent and safe neighborhood with traffic-free transit. Most importantly, an internet connection as fast as the speed of light.
We moved into our new office last November and began searching for new people, so we could invite them to our home and grow the team. Our goal was to have a 10-men squad working on TFM full-time. A producer, three designers, three artists, and three programmers. As of now, we have a family of nine, rallying around our literal Gathering Tree. Yeah, we have a real Gathering Tree!
I wish to offer my gratitude to our Discord community for supporting both us and a giant of a game; TFM. Their enthusiasm and input matched with our energy so fittingly that the idea of having an actual Gathering Tree inside the office was actually theirs! We’re enjoying it a lot, hope you’re excited about how tall this tree of ours can grow. If you end up in Istanbul one day, you’re very much welcome to join us for a cup of coffee (and maybe an inside look at what TFM is up to).
Enough backstory, now it’s time to talk about TFM. What has changed, blossomed, how and when we’re hoping to release the game through several distinct updates.
After what we entitled to “The Vision Demo”, or the Alpha update, we’ve decided to re-write all of the code from scratch, because we have been iterating and meddling with too many design variations. Naturally, this caused the code to not carry a healthy structure for our future plans of multi-player, procedural generation functionalities, modding tools, etc., which we think should be in the released version of TFM. Because we strictly established the design decisions of the game, we don’t need any of the discovery phase elements inside the game anymore.
Let’s talk about four main updates of TFM: The First Men and what they cover up in terms of gameplay and development tools.
Ways of Life
This update’s main purpose is to provide us with editing tools that we call “Makers”. These makers will be implemented in, and designed for the game application itself, inside a scene called TFM Builder. This is done for the purpose of easier modding by our community. Our designers will also use these in-game Makers for the game’s “Base” mod.
There are four main features involved within this update that we expect to finish until the end of March. We’re already half-way done with these and are getting ready to start creating new and importing old content. These features are;
Map Maker
It allows us and users to design maps, using our biomes brushes and other helpful tools. Including our main scenario map, all maps will be made with this maker. It is specifically designed to be able to work around the concept of “regions”. A new map with a specified width and length will be loaded with a single Ocean region. The user will be able to create new regions on top of this ocean region, slowly turning his world setting into TFM. We already had a Map Editor in our Vision Demo, but this one’s getting a redesign too.
Map Objects
These are Constructions and Doodads. They are considered tile-based objects unlike characters and items, which are not restricted to fit within a tile, or a tile group. By using their specific Makers, the user will be able to create new ones or edit existing ones by duplicating them to make their own versions of the Base game’s assets. We, of course, will be able to create new content for the Base database and consider it as the Mother Mod.
Doodad Maker
Next to Map Maker, we’ll be able to interact with the Doodad Maker. It allows us to fill our world with decoratives, path-alterers, resources and findings as loot.
Construction Maker
It follows the same pattern as the Doodad Maker and is used to place constructions on the map. These constructions could be natural, or unnatural. Outside of the player’s starting region (which is the only Grassland biome region), AI dwelling entities will use these constructions to obtain a home for their own.
Database Maker
From items to character traits, every inch of functioning data inside the game will be edited through what we aim to produce as our Database Makers. These will have a similar feel like a spreadsheet and will make seeing the huge amount of content much easier to handle.
Decision Maker
This will be our node-based flow tool. It is mainly designed for the character AI activities and will grant designers the ability to create work time and downtime activity flows for the settlement’s characters. During our brain-storms in front of the whiteboard, we figured it would be a very useful tool to use for our combat behaviors, world events, etc.
Heart of Battle
At this point, our maps will be filled with immovable map objects. Heart of Battle’s main purpose is to create characters and items. Not just placing them, but their mechanical counterparts too. Everything a character needs to live and breathe in a TFM world will be implemented in this update. They’ll have primary stats, secondary stats, traits, skills, indicators, activities, etc.
As the name suggests, this update will also cover our real-time combat system after the characters are implemented with their stats and skills. Let’s examine what we wish to accomplish and play by the end of May.
Characters
A character in TFM is a mobile unit that can move around the map and perform various functions. Since we start the game with our so-called “Adam and Eve”, any character from that point on will be born, raise and serve their settlement as best as they can (if they’re not filthy traitors of course!). Since we have five primary stats for our characters, numerics of these stats will be determined by their traits. Traits determine primary stats, primary stats determine secondary stats, secondary stats determine how effective a character is both in or out of combat.
Each character’s main progress is through their Experience indicator, and their need is determined by their current Energy. Each primary stat (Body, Mind, Heart, Soul, and Self) has its own Experience and Energy indicator. Energies are depleted by natural needs through traits and must be fulfilled by gathering downtime activities when they become idle after finishing up a work time activity. Energy indicators are designed to reduce their respective stats one by one over time, causing an imminent death to a character whenever one of his stats reaches 0. Experiences are filled by finishing up worktime activities, increasing their related stat each time they’re filled.
Their uniquely generated (or given by hand) names, ages, appearances, etc. are always subject to time and activities. More detail on each subject individually will be provided in future updates.
Activities
By using our Decision Makers, we’re able to create a gigantic amount of AI activities that a character can receive when they’re idle. Since the personal progression of an individual character is dependent on how the player designs his settlement, our characters will be limited to their traits, surroundings, their settlement’s constructions, chosen traditions, stat numbers, indicators, etc. to choose a proper activity for themselves.
By the power of individual activity weights and how they’re modified by every inch of data in the game, a character will smartly be able to create a list of activities to pick from. And then he’ll roll for an activity to start. The nature of this “weight” system grants a character the ability to pick more appropriate activities with their increased weight while allowing other ones with lesser chances to occur too. This system will provide a seamless settlement flow as your characters will always find logical activities to complete. If you look at the big picture as a player, it is your responsibility to choose your characters’ destiny by placing constructions, choosing traditions as you deem fit for your people.
Completing these activities will allow characters to increase their individual stat experience indicators, fulfill their energies, earning new traits and granting points to their settlements so that the player can spend these to create new opportunities for their growing settlements.
Parties
While all characters pick activities when they’re idle, some of them will be the chosen ones to go out and explore, fight and return items, other loot, and glory to their settlement. Characters specifically tailored to obtain class traits and become adventurers will be the only candidates to become party members.
A party is a group of characters with class traits that can be raised as a controllable unit by the player. Party members can be picked and kicked individually. Once a party is “raised”, the characters will stop trying to obtain activities and obey their player master, waiting for orders. At that point, the player may control any of his parties by ordering them with the classic RTS unit actions. They’ll also ignore their energies, so it’s your job to proceed and choose wisely what you want to achieve with your party within a certain amount of time. In the future, we also want to establish the design of resting mechanics, but let’s not get into that at this point.
Traits
Using our Database Makers, we’ll be able to implement character traits. Even being a “Human” is a trait, a racial one. So every piece of appearance and stat altering data for an individual character will be used as a “trait”.
Skills
With the same structure, we’ll be implementing skills for both combat and non-combat situations. Our characters inside raised parties will use these skills through player input and try to get out of difficult situations because they’ve been training hard for it!
Combat
This is probably one of the most iterated parts of our game. With a lot of brainstorming over the discovery phase, we finally decided to ditch our turn-based iterations and turn TFM’s combat into a classic real-time one. Since we had the ability to pause the game prior to this decision, it fitted perfectly like a cRPG combat. Not just how it flows, but the depth of characters’ skills and items will be very familiar too. So we know exactly what we want from the combat right now. Also, our postponed project “Battle Commanders” (also on Steam) helped us a lot with this while considering this decision, because we have experience in real-time combats.
To give a brief introduction a “combat” actually means; whenever a character is issued an attack action against another character, two associated parties enter into a combat state as soon as their attack radius intersects with each other. This transforms two parties' characters into individually controlled characters for their controller, unlike their traveling state where they moved together as a cohesive unit, not individually.
Until this state ends without player input, each character automatically chooses a target according to the hardcoded combat AI behavior and starts using his Auto-Attack skills against him. Whenever he wants, the player can issue movement and active skill commands to his controlled party members.
Bloodmoon
This is the part where the high-level scope of TFM is focused on. Combined with everything prior, we’ll focus on creating logical “entities” as our controllers. An entity is a symbolic thing with independent existence, with a group of assets (Points, Constructions, Characters, and Operations) controlled by a single player. This player can also be AI.
These are the things we expect to finish before PAX West, 2020. Dates have not officially been announced yet, but if this year’s event follows the tradition, it will take place over Labor Day weekend, which is September 4 to 7 this year. The most exciting part about this milestone is the fact that we’ll be able to play our very first gameplay demo there!
Points
Points are five collectible resources of an entity. A settlement or a dwelling's main point income source is its characters. Characters start and finish worktime activities (as we discussed before) and provide points to their entities. Then, the entity spends these points to invest in its settlement or dwelling's development through operations. There are five points in TFM: Prosperity, Industry, Influence, Unity & Amenity. Our approach to the “color wheel” helped us shape both our points and characters because each character stat is mainly related to one of these points, which helps determine a character’s ability to perform activities with such outcomes.
Operations
An operation in TFM is a process in which a number, quantity, expression, etc., is altered or manipulated according to game rules, such as those of addition, multiplication, and differentiation through a game panel. All operations are managed by entities to utilize their points for the purpose of providing minor and major progressions to their respective settlements and dwellings. These operation panels will be organized and designed uniquely with fluid user experiences in mind and each will have a specific purpose to organize a player’s settlement and its characters. A couple of examples would be; Path of the Warrior where the player trains characters to obtain class traits so that they can enter parties, Path of the Mother where the player causes female characters to become impregnated, and so on.
The interesting part about these operation panels is that whenever the character spends his points to give an order to their characters, they’ll still be using the activity system, but this time the activity will be forced to them by the player’s will. And their tailored nature will allow the player to develop each operation decision differently, with unlocked features through Traditions and Bragging rights (unlocks).
Traditions
These can be taken on through spending Unity points. Although the traditions system is based on a familiar tech tree structure, it does away with its standard progression in favor of a shuffled approach. This injects a semi-random element into unlocks, making it somewhat less predictable as well as more non-linear. Whenever the player collects enough points to unlock something new for the settlement, they are presented with a set of possibilities to choose from.
By deciding which traditional path to take, the player naturally transforms his operation panels and thus, his characters at the end of the cycle.
We’ll be focusing on what unique mechanics and content database we can bring to the table with this system thoroughly.
Bragging Rights
Mechanically works similar to Traditions, but as you can tell by the name, these are the things that your settlement brag about inventing. The player will be presented with multiple choices tailored with an intelligent weight system (every asset of your settlement matters for the change of these outcomes), chose one and get a hold of that choice. Each choice will be unique to an entity, and no other entity will be able to obtain what others are bragging about.
Paths
Paths allow the player to invest the points they have collected in individual characters. They contain several choices, each resulting in different bonuses for characters. Investing in paths may result in stronger characters, as well as the potential for population growth and building new constructions.
From training children to decide which construction activity you might want to provoke on your characters, these path panels will work differently than each other to bring a unique feeling to them. They’ll have socket-able UI elements so that the player can tailor however he/she likes a path decision before ordering it.
Side Operations
Other operations like saving the game, utilizing the party panels, how the game timeline works, etc. will also be implemented in this update.
Zenith
When the Bloodmoon is over, we’ll have a build-in our hands that’ll be the closest thing to our Early Access release. Polishing, balancing, bugs, core features, and mechanics will be done and tested here. Their final shapes will be given according to feedback. This feedbacks will mainly be from our community aside from internal team members and close friends. Because we don’t have the necessary budget for a proper in-house Q&A department, we surely must give our 120% on the matter.
We’ll have to work extra for our main scenario map of The First Men, which covers the story of the beginning of the human race and their struggle after arriving in the world as a foreign species with a divine purpose and background. (p.s; there will be a killer intro cinematic too!)
We hope to finalize these touches before November arrives, but the nature of game development may sometimes cause friction on your timeline. Let’s see what specific topics will be covered here in this update apart from all the matters I’ve mentioned above before Early Access knocks our door on Steam.
Kismet
Our living, breathing, dynamic worlds will need a set of decision-making features that will determine the beginning of local and global events throughout the map. These features will partly be connected with our timeline mechanics, characters, spawns-timers, etc., and everything else related will be covered in our Kismet AIs.
Reputation & Relations
While playing TFM, sooner or later, the player will have to meet other entities (both the dwellings of non-human races, and other human settlements) who will have reputation statuses every entity they meet with. These statuses and how we react to them in terms of game mechanics and roleplay will determine our trustworthy allies, undecided neutrals, and hated enemies.
All related panels, logics, and decisions will be covered and implemented here.
Entity Agendas
These entities will differ from each other according to their racial, territorial cultures and specific goals. They’ll have low-level, spontaneous goals and high-level, grand goals. Doesn’t matter if they’re a bunch of bandits in a cave, a dwarven mining company or a hill giant city. They will have desires, survival instincts (because every character on the map will also have energy and experience indicators), and dreams.
Done with our Decision Maker tools, well-constructed AI flows and diagrams will help us differentiate one Orc tribe from another or one human settlement from the other. Everything related to the decisions of the creatures of our maps will be covered and implemented here.
UI Overhaul
We’ll have our mock-ups for every piece of game panel implemented and tested at this point, but they’ll have to go through a revamp for a better user experience.
Ambiance Improvements
Soundtracks, sound effects, every piece of art, including icons, character appearances, weapons, how the skill effects look or ambient sounds, etc. will be polished here too.
You can always check our development progress by looking at our Trello development board. Please do not hesitate to write in Steam discussions or Discord server, we love comments and feedback a lot, it motivates us and helps us understand your expectations.
On behalf of the Gathering Tree team, I thank you for reading so far. Until the next update, stay safe!