Kingdoms And Heroes Development
Advanced AI Studios is a new indie dev studio developing an open-world fantasy RPG with combined survival, city-building, and population management mechanics. The game will be brimming with smart AI that emulate player behaviour in a world that feels alive. You will be able to enjoy this world in singleplayer or share it with your friends in co-op mode.
We've turned to our community for support in creating this dream, and to thank anyone who can help us financially, donors who give $40 or more will receive a copy of the game upon release!
To see our development progress, you can join our Discord server or follow us on social media, where I post updates, screenshots, concept art, etc:
General Game Premise
Our game will be primarily an open-world RPG, but it will also incorporate elements of survival, city-building, and strategy mechanics. Our goal is to make the world alive regardless of player actions. NPCs will go about their routines, settlements will grow and expand, and wars will be fought, all without requiring the player to trigger them. This will ensure that each playthrough is unique, thus allowing for replayability.
Art and Screenshots
To start off, here are some concept art pieces, as well as screenshots of models already implemented and the environment we are currently working on:
In-engine building stages concept:
Armour Icons:
In-engine character:
In-engine environment screenshots:
Armour concept art (orcs, humans, elves):
3D models:
Building concept art (Tier 2 and 3 of orc warchief hall):
Development Cost Breakdown
Below is a pie chart and table outlining our development expenses over the next two years. We are asking for half the amount through donations ($200k) to help us get to a playable product we can release on Steam. I will be providing the other half from my own savings and the sale of my apartment.
Of course, continued support after we reach our goal is always appreciated and will go towards developing further content that we would not otherwise be able to afford.
Our next milestone is to get a playable demo out on Steam, hopefully by the end of this year, and be able to show off some of the systems and mechanics we have planned.
Below I will go into more detail on the different aspects of our game.
RPG
There will be five playable races in the final release (elves, humans, dwarves, orcs, and goblins). The gameplay will not be fully story-driven, like Skyrim or the Witcher, but rather more sandbox-like, where you will have the chance to create your own story as you wish. However, there will be short questlines that help guide the player's story along.
Survival
The game will feature a nutrition system where you will have to eat and drink periodically in order to maintain your character. There will be different types of food, and by keeping your character well-fed, you will gain certain buffs to health and stamina regeneration. Speaking of regeneration, most races will have very slow health and mana regeneration, so it will be important to bring potions with you to replenish after a fight. In time, we would like to add temperature effects as well, but there is currently no concrete plan for that feature.
City Building
As mentioned, the game will feature some city-building mechanics utilized by both the player and the AI. The AI will primarily start off in small settlements. As the NPC population grows, they will expand and upgrade their settlement from a small village with a few houses, to a large town, and eventually to a walled city with shops, barracks, a tavern, and more.
The player will be able to access this functionality in the late game if they decide to start their own kingdom. The menu to plan the construction of buildings within a settlement will be accessed from a map table in the main settlement building (town hall, warchief's hall, etc.).
Strategy
Just like with the city planning mechanic, if the player decides to start their own kingdom, they will be able to access a menu that allows them to send troops to raid/loot neighbouring settlements and trade with other kingdoms. The AI will then gather troops in a predetermined location and set off. At this point, the player can go about their business and let the AI do its thing, or choose to join in with the party.
AI
The biggest thing we believe will set us apart from other role-playing games will be our AI. A lot of other RPGs have triggers that wait for the player to show up before NPCs start conversations, combat, or any number of scenes. Before the player shows up, the NPCs stand there, look lovingly into each other's eyes and wait.
In our game, the AI will continue working, going about their daily lives, and expanding their influence regardless of what the player does. So if you visit a village at the beginning of the game, travel to the other side of the map and adventure for some time, you can return to that same village and find that it has expanded and its population has increased.
Therefore, if the player does not take an active part in the gameplay, the AI will still feel alive, and the game world will change and create a story on its own. This allows the player to be a part of the world, without being the center of attention or the chosen one, like in many other games.
Combat
Combat in our game will be a straightforward affair of click to attack, and scoring several successful attacks in a row will create a combo (and deal more damage). There will be different armour types, each effective against certain damage types. For example, a sword doing slash damage will have almost no effect against plate armour, whereas a warhammer or mace dealing concussive damage will deal more damage against a plated opponent. Magic combat will require mana to cast, and more advanced magic spells will also require reagents.
Map and Environments
By utilizing Unreal Engine 5, we have access to many ultra-realistic graphics, textures and tools to make amazing-looking environments. The large world map will be filled with settlements and NPCs to trade with, monsters to kill, caves to explore, and treasures to find.
User Interface
Tied into the realistic graphics and visuals is the immersion aspect. You will be able to customize the visibility of your UI to your liking and be able to make it disappear when not in use. The inspiration for this is the Immersive HUD mods from Skyrim and Fallout (made by GopherGaming) that allow you to enjoy the graphics without the clutter of menus and health bars.
Crafting
Like with any role-playing game, you will be able to gather ingredients and materials during your adventures and craft items such as armours, weapons, potions, and scrolls. The majority of the items in the game will be crafted by either the player or the AI, with only the most basic tools spawned in to allow for the initial gathering of materials required to craft them. This will create a supply and demand market throughout the map enticing the AI to trade with each other to obtain resources that are scarce in its own area. This should also create an organic economy where events such as caravan raids will create shortages of goods and gear.
Population and Time Progression
The game will have a day and night cycle, as well as time passage. NPCs will age as time passes and can eventually die from old age. With the same token, NPCs will have children who will age up into adults and contribute to the settlement population. This will make conflicts very costly not only in terms of materials but also in terms of reduced population and labour force.
Game modes
Our plan is to have the game playable in singleplayer mode and, if you want to play with a number of your friends, co-op mode. However, we haven't settled on a maximum number for co-op gameplay yet.
Our Team
Our team started off with two Bannerlord modders getting frustrated with constant mod-breaking updates. We then decided to make our own game that incorporates all of the best features we love in other games we've played. Unreal Engine 5 being released this year also presented a great opportunity to utilize the latest tools in game development to make the game we love.
Since we started in May, we've hired several coders, artists, and level designers and have been steadily working away. As I mentioned above, our next immediate goal is to finish our playable demo, release it on Steam, and showcase our product. This will also allow us to get feedback from the community regarding gameplay, balancing, etc.
Why GoFundMe and Not a Publisher
The main reason we decided to go indie is the quality of the game we want to make. Independence from a publisher gives us the freedom and time to pursue the standard of excellence we want to see in a game we play ourselves.
GoFundMe vs Kickstarter
By using GoFundMe instead of a platform like Kickstarter, we are also able to use donations from the community as they come in, whereas with other platforms, we have to raise the full amount, or we will not be able to make use of any of it. This will allow us to maintain our momentum in development without having to pause and wait for a campaign to end.
We also realize that we are new on the game dev scene, and other than our mods, we do not have a history to back us up. We also understand that backers like to support projects at different stages of development. Therefore, we anticipate that we might have a slow start, and if you are not yet ready to support our project, you still have a place in our growing community! We post regular updates on our Discord and Instagram, where you can see the latest stage of the game, get news about the demo, and make an informed decision about when and how much you'd like to support.
Organizer
Andrei M
Organizer
Calgary, AB