New 'company' in the catalog: Sergio & Simon for
Hearthlands:
Hearthlands is a real-time strategy game in which you take a role of a king in your own medieval/fantasy realm. You can not control your subjects directly. Instead you focus on city-building, resource management, diplomacy, heroes, magic and other things a typical king deals with on a daily basis. The world of the game, maps, characters and opponents are procedurally generated.
The game is very flexible: you can create a powerful empire and rule your vassals with an iron grip, or establish a humble fishermen's village. Or build an impressive temple complex. Or found a small, bur well-defended outpost. Or be a host of a wizard's manor.
All characters, from a hauler to a hero have their own minds and behavior patterns. If you like games like The Settlers of Pharaoh you know how pleasant and interesting it is to watch people scurry about.
Implemented features
Build a medieval city;
Play the game the way like it: experiment with sandbox settings or try to survive in harsh environment;
Keep your people happy by providing them with necessary resources and services;
Gather resources, produce goods and build industries;
See reports and tune up your economy;
Build an army and protect your city from monsters and invasions;
Trade and conduct diplomacy with neighbor realms, or go to war with them;
Achievements;
English, German and Spanish localization.
Planned features
Heroes and quests;
Better music.
Screenshot
Click to enlarge
World Map
There are two types of maps in the game: world map and local map. World map shows the locations of your city in relation to your opponents. There are also going to be special locations on the world map like ruins, lairs and such. Both types of maps are procedurally generated.
The game has a diplomacy system. Diplomacy allows you to trade with your buddies, conquer your rivals, protect your cities from invasions etc. AI opponents are not scripted and act much like everyone else — based on their own understanding of the situation.
Local Map
Local map will not just be a place where you build your city and gather resources. There can be randomly generated encounters, such as: goblin camps, graveyards, wizard towers etc. Goblins may steal from you, launch an invasion or serve as mercenaries; raveyards may occasionally spawn skeletons; a single wizard may become a powerful ally or a menacing enemy. These are a few examples of how a local map can be enhanced.
You may not have all of the resources needed on your local map, which encourages you to find another way of getting them by trading with other cities, demanding tribute from your rivals, asking your allies for help etc.
Screenshot
Click to enlarge
City Building and Population
One of the important parts of the game is building a prosperous medieval city.
Houses you build attract migrants and provide your citizens with a place to live. Almost every building needs a certain amount of workers, so you need to make sure you have enough houses and population to keep up with your growing economy.
You need to supply your people with food and luxuries. If all the needs of a house are satisfied it evolves to a more advanced house, which has higher capacity, pays higher taxes, but needs even more resources to evolve further.
There are 8 types of food (apples, turnips, fish, honey, eggs, cheese, wurst and bread) each having its own nutrition value, 4 types of alcohol (cider, beer, wine and mead) and 4 types of luxury resources (furniture, boots, clothes, and pillows). Yes, pillows is a luxury resource.
Most advanced houses may also require certain appeal value for the area they are built in. While parks, statues and fountains increase the appeal, production buildings decrease it greatly. No one wants to live near a sawmill or a pigstry.
Resources
The game has a lot of resource types and this number will only increase.
Most of the resources can be spent on different needs. For example, grain can be turned into flour, and then into bread (food), or you can feed it to chickens to get eggs (also food) and feathers. Feathers can then be turned into pillows (luxury) or arrows (military). Also grain is used in beer production (along with hops) and as a fodder for horses.
Other Things
There are four cultures to choose from, each with unique industries and special traits.
The game has several types of units which you can build your army of. Military part of the game is strongly dependant on the economy: you will need a supply of iron, wood, leather, and other resources to equip your soldiers with weapons and armor.
You can research various improvements for industry, ecomony, military and diplomacy.
You will be able to attract heroes, powerful individuals, at your service by complying with their demands. This may include building a special house (for example, Wizard's Tower for a wizard type hero), achieving certain condition with your city, maintain a certain amount of resources, complete a quest etc. Heroes gain XP, level up and have their own inventory. Heroes can be used not only as warriors: for example, dwarven hero can also work in the mine.
Magic and religion is something we're definitely going to add to the game, though we aren't sure how exactly and if those two are going to combine.
Screenshot
Click to enlarge
Platforms
Hearthlands is available on Windows, Mac OS and Linux.