Castleyard Dev Blog 1: Our Journey Begins…

Welcome to the first development blog for Castleyard! I’m the solo developer behind this exciting new medieval castle management game and I’m thrilled to have you here on this journey. Today, I want to give you an overview of what Castleyard is all about, share some insights into our development process, and discuss what you can expect in the coming months.

Overview of Castleyard
Castleyard is a unique blend of narrative-driven choices, resource and council management, and turn-based strategy. In the game, you take on the role of a medieval lord, tasked with managing your castle, making strategic decisions, and navigating the complex political landscape of your realm.

Key Features

Narrative-Driven Choices: Choose wisely. Every decision you make shapes the story and affects the characters around you.
Council Management: Discuss opportunities to raise favor, approve requests to improve trust , or plan a coup to gain influence.
Resource Management: Balance resources and manage your people’s focus areas to maintain stability and prosperity.
Realm Diplomacy: Heed your council’s strategic advice to manage relations with other Kingdoms and garner favor with your people.
Scroll Management: Personally sign your stamp of approval to craft friendly trade proposals or threatening messages.
Immersive RPG Elements: As your story and decisions unfold, you will gain skills and traits that impact your people and the realm.
Turn-Based Strategy: Plan out events and decide your priority focus areas for each month ahead.
Seasonal Events: Opportunities to host feasts and other events arise based on the season, weather, and state of the realms.
Noble Guard Command: Take full control of your knights and rise the realm’s jousting ranks in medieval tournaments!

Inspiration and Vision
The inspiration for Castleyard comes from my fascination with medieval times and love for deep, immersive gameplay depth. I wanted to create a game that not only challenges you strategically but also attaches emotional engagement to your decisions. The vision for Castleyard is to immerse you in the life of a medieval lord, where every choice you make has consequences and your relationships truly matter.

Here’s a short list of games that have inspired me:

Crusader Kings II
Domina
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Kingdom Two Crowns
Manor Lords
Medieval II: Total War
Mount and Blade
Papers Please
Reigns
Yes, Your Grace

Development Journey So Far
The early development has been filled with challenges and triumphs. Here are a few milestones achieved so far:

Core Mechanics: We’ve established most of the core gameplay mechanics, including resource and council management, the monthly turn-based system, branching dialogue plot development, most castle area bones, and the basic jousting mechanics. However, integration, depth, and cohesiveness for a playable version are still in progress. This leaves ample time to incorporate community feedback in the future!

Branching storylines: As mentioned, I wanted choices to feel meaningful, impacting almost every facet of the game. The goal is to make each playthrough unique, offering a fresh role-playing experience based on your lordly personality. Players won’t feel pigeonholed by their initial choices, unlike traditional RPG archetypes.

The idea is for players to develop skills over time based on their focus areas and dynamically change traits based on significant decisions. For example, in the initial story, your father is nearing the end of his life. Choosing compassionate dialogue options might trigger certain traits and dialogue choices, while a more malevolent approach leads to different paths.

Each choice may subtly affect council members or create larger challenges with your people or other kingdoms. If you gain the loyalty trait but later get caught plotting against a council member, your loyalty may be questioned, leading to a shift in traits. However, circumstances can change over time, especially if certain witnesses are silenced or persuaded!

Immersion:The art style of Castleyard is mostly 2D, focusing on UI dialogue and scroll menus, along with point-and-click exploration around the castle. While a dynamic castle-walking experience was considered, the first-person point-and-click style offers a calming uniqueness. You’ll still be able to see your Lord in the throne room and other areas, making character customizations worthwhile.

Dynamic backgrounds, sound, and weather effects enhance the immersive experience, aiming to capture the essence of medieval times. The turn system represents a month of realm world time, allowing major events to unfold in a single session while still providing a self-paced experience that doesn’t feel rushed.

As you progress, random events may occur to add an element of realism. Your personal Master of Ceremonies will assist in planning monthly priorities and focus areas. Depending on the status of the realm, events such as feasts and medieval jousting tournaments may be hosted!

Challenges and Solutions
Like any game development journey, I’ve faced plenty of challenges and discovered ways to improve efficiency:

Experience: This will be my first publicly released game, and game development wasn’t part of my studies or professional experience. I enjoy the process of learning through trial and error, as well as leveraging YouTube and AI based tools. My background as an electrical engineer provided enough C# knowledge to ease scripting, but ramping on the Unity engine and integrating everything into the editor effectively has been the biggest hassle.

Assets: In all transparency I’ve used many free and paid assets as starting points, customizing them over time to fit my vision. Generative and editing AI tools have been instrumental for inspiration and efficiency. I believe AI will be a significant part of the future whether we like it or not, so it’s essential we practice merging our humanity and personal creativity into the final product.

Visualization: I prefer starting with assets and shortcuts to visualize scenes or mechanics at runtime, then refining them with some back engineering work. It’s an ongoing process to fine tune visuals and gameplay so things are always subject to change.

What’s Next?
Depending on interest and time, I’d like to share more behind-the-scenes content as development progresses, showcasing early concepts and the evolution towards the final experience. The next big milestone is releasing a short (~1 hour) free playable demo, likely during one of Steam’s Next Fests. This demo will highlight core gameplay elements and provide a taste of the strategic decisions, resource management, and character interactions that define Castleyard.

My primary goal is to build a game that I and hopefully others enjoy. i’m looking forward to sharing with a passionate community willing to provide constructive feedback. As a solo developer, I ask for patience and positivity! As of now I plan to self-publish and market the game, releasing content when I feel it’s ready rather than a preset schedule.

Closing Remarks
Thank you for joining me on this journey. Your support and enthusiasm mean the world to me, and I’m excited to continue sharing the development progress with you. If you’re as excited as I am, please consider wishlisting Castleyard on Steam and following us on social media. Together, we can make Castleyard an unforgettable medieval adventure!

Join Us on Our Journey
Stay tuned for exciting updates and news about Castleyard and our upcoming projects. Follow us on our social media channels and be sure to receive Raven Letters be the first to know about new developments, releases, and opportunities within Castleyard Studios.

I believe that community involvement is crucial to the success of Castleyard. Your feedback and support are invaluable to me. As we move forward, I’ll be sharing more updates and behind-the-scenes content. I encourage you to join our community on Reddit and follow us on social media to stay up-to-date and share your thoughts.