Hello everyone! You may have noticed a pause in updates over the last few weeks. After the Early Access release, I needed to take a breather. The Early Access launch was intense and exhausting, and I needed to take this short break. That said, development didn't come to a complete standstill. I took the opportunity to do a major refactoring of the code, to lay a more solid foundation for future updates. This fundamental work was essential to be able to integrate new functionalities more efficiently in the weeks to come. From now on, I'll be updating on a regular basis: you can expect an update every week, or every two weeks for larger features. Thanks again for your support and patience!

[ 2025-05-11 15:46:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Important

Old saves will not be compatible.

Patch Notes

Diplomacy/Factions

• You can now build a throne room (from a throne), which will allow you to unlock the diplomacy menu (more diplomacy-related features will be added later)
• You can send one of your workers on a reconnaissance mission to make contact with other factions.
• Unlocked factions will regularly send merchants (more faction-related features will be added later).
• Merchants will attack enemies within range, and vice versa... so protect them!

Trade

• You can now build a trade room (from a trade counter), which will be needed to buy/sell items to merchants sent by factions.
• Added a new item, Krown, which is the game's currency.
• Every item in the game now has a price.

Food/Hunger

• Basic rations now reduce hunger by 100.
• Fungus, Curmara and Bacca reduce hunger a little more.
• The game now starts with 14 rations, and characters start at 0 hunger (instead of 50).
• The hunger bonus for crafted rations has been reduced (sum of ingredients *1.5 => sum of ingredients *1.1).
• Added a Full belly buff if a worker reduces hunger to 0. This buff prevents hunger from rising for 4 hours.
• Workers will now eat several times in a row to reduce hunger as much as possible, avoiding wasting food (e.g. they won't eat a ration that gives -100 hunger if they only have the hunger bar filled to 10).
• The hungry and thirsty debuffs now arrive 1 hour after hunger or thirst are at max (instead of immediately).

Bugs

• Fixed a bug related to goblin item theft.
• Fixed a bug where, when loading a save, all workers assigned to rooms were set to none by default.
• Fixed a bug related to the deletion of a stockpile.
• Fixed a bug that caused workers to get stuck in walls and disappear from the map when loading a save.
• Fixed a bug related to invisible enemies.

QOL

• Stockpiles now have a darker color
• To move workers in tactical mode, the shortcut is now CTRL + Right-click. The simple right-click is now reserved for cancelling selection or closing windows.
• Sound added when a log is added.
• It is no longer possible to place a torch on a square that is already lit.

???

• Cyclops related event added...

Enjoy the game and have fun :)

[ 2025-04-18 18:14:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Small fix for a bug that caused room types to be reset when loading a game

[ 2025-03-27 14:05:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Important

Old saves are not 100% compatible, the room system has been partially recoded. If you reload a savegame on the old version, all your rooms will lose their type. You can remove furniture or workshops and rebuild them to regenerate the room type, but it's advisable to start a new game ;)

Patch Notes

Rooms

• Added lists of available rooms, with the conditions and type of bonus they give in the room window.
• The maximum size of rooms has been reduced to 150 tiles, instead of 500. The 500 size was far too large, was of no interest in gameplay terms, and could impact performance when the detection script ran.
• Fixed a bug that meant workers almost never had the sanity malus need a room or need a dining room.

Combat

• The combat system is now more dynamic, with characters attacking directly when they get within range.
• Improved auto-targeting system: characters will prioritize nearby characters who are either not yet targeted by another character, or who are the least targeted. This prevents 20 goblins from targeting the same worker, for example, if there are others within range.
• Fixed a bug that made character attack speed almost useless.
• Slight increase in the speed of arrows and crossbow bolts.

Harvesting

• Increased harvesting time for various resources, particularly stone and ores.
• Mining stone now gives one stone each time (previously 50% chance).
• Cutting a tree now gives between 1 and 2 woods (before it was always 2).

Performance

• Room detection script performance improved
• Improved performance of the automatic targeting system
• General performance improvements when there are dozens of characters (worker or enemy) on the map.

Demo

• Fixed a problem for the demo, where raids were generated ad infinitum and crashed the game.

Enjoy the game and have fun :)

[ 2025-03-26 12:38:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

That's it, ladies and gentlemen, I've finally clicked the button: the game is officially published, along with a demo for those curious enough to check it out! Today marks a key milestone for me: the game is going into Early Access, and I can't wait to get your feedback so I can continue to enrich it with all the content I've got in mind. (and I have a lot) I hope you'll enjoy playing it. And if you're not sure, that's what the demo is for!

[ 2025-03-24 17:05:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello :) 1 month since the last DevLog, that's a scandal! I must say that I spend my days with my head in the code, preparing everything to make the next release as smooth as possible... so I may have forgotten to post a bit, and I didn't have much to say either, except that I'm fixing bugs and rewriting code :p But for the news, I'm currently working with a few testers, the aim being to detect as many problems as possible and fix them before the release of early access! I'm not going to detail everything I've done since last time, but I can tell you that the list is long!

Demo

As I said in the previous news, a demo will be available soon, and I'm still working on it. It'll probably allow you to play for 1 or 2 hours, and it'll be available for the Festival of City Building and Colony Simulation on Steam at the end of March.

Back to coding, kisses and see you soon

.

[ 2025-03-06 17:07:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello :) Here's the news for today, I'm not developing any new features at the moment (which is why I'm a bit behind on the DevLog), but I wanted to post a little announcement to keep you up to date with what's going on!

Steam Fest

King's Keeper has been accepted by Steam to take part in the upcoming Steam Fest Festival of City Building and Settlement Simulation, which kicks off on March 24. This means for me that the game will have to be ready for that date at the latest :)

Demo

I'm currently working on a free demo version of the game, which will probably be limited to X days in-game, for example after 10 days in-game, the demo will stop. I think it's interesting to have a demo version of a global, and for the next Steam Fest it's also recommended to have one.

Other

Lately I've been working a lot on code rewriting (refactoring) to improve certain parts or to plan future improvements. I'm also continuing to test the game, fix bugs and add QOLs... All this to ensure the game's release goes as smoothly as possible!

See you next time

[ 2025-02-03 11:44:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello ! Here's the DevLog for last week, happy reading :)

Materials rework

There are currently several materials in the game (wood, stone, iron and gold) that can be used to build structures (wall, door or floor), furniture (table, chair...) or items (sword, armor...). Material bonuses for items were already in place, for example an iron sword will do more damage than a wooden one, but for the various buildings the bonuses had not been implemented... until now. Gold is the material offering the best bonuses, followed by iron, then stone and finally wood. Here's an overview of the various bonuses: - Bed : Fatigue regeneration - Torch: Radius - Ballista: Enemy detection radius - Table: Hunger regeneration - Chair: Fatigue reduction - Well: Minimum number of squares between 2 wells reduced - ... Regarding floors, the material used will increase the movement speed of characters moving on them (WIP) For walls and doors, no particular bonus.... So why build a wall out of gold and not wood? Because I've also implemented a material resistance system: - Wood: No resistance - Stone: Fire-resistant - Iron: Fire AND seismic resistant - Gold : Resists fire AND seismic fire AND corrosive fire Fire and building destruction are not yet implemented.

Bugs/QOL

As I do every week, I've spent a lot of time fixing bugs and adding QOL when I can, so I won't list them, but I'll mention them anyway.

Thanks and see you soon :)

[ 2025-01-20 10:30:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, and happy new year :) With the vacations over, it's time to get back to the rhythm of one DevLog a week! Happy reading.

Pathfinding

The complete overhaul of the pathfinding system is finally complete. It took longer/more complicated than expected, but it was more than necessary. As a reminder, the new pathfinding system is much more powerful than the old one, allowing you to manage dozens or hundreds of characters moving around the map. So expect to be attacked by a large number of enemies at the same time!

Release

The game's release date on Steam has been changed from Coming soon to Q1 2025. I wish to remain cautious and not announce a release date too close that I won't be able to keep. What I can say, however, for the impatient, is that it's possible that the game will be released sooner than expected!

Trailer

The game's trailer has been updated, so check it out!

Bugs

As every week, a number of bugs have been fixed! The game won't be released until all the bugs have been corrected, just so we're clear :)

Thanks and see you next week

[ 2025-01-10 16:39:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! Just a quick message to let you know that I'm taking a break for the end-of-year vacations, resuming work next week after the new year! Happy holidays to all :)

[ 2024-12-25 13:27:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello :) I've only been working on the implementation of a new pathfinding algorithm (HPA*), more efficient than the old one (simple A*). I still have some work to do before it's 100% operational, but as it stands, the performance gain is already quite impressive. With the old one, on a 200/200 map with hundreds of enemies, FPS simply dropped to zero. Too many calculations. Characters had to constantly recalculate paths, and the impact on performance was enormous. With the new implementation, under the same conditions, the impact on performance is minimal. Here's a short video demonstration for those interested! [previewyoutube=RDXKNPT50QI;full][/previewyoutube]

See you next week :)

[ 2024-12-15 17:59:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello :) Here's this week's Devlog, and what I'll be working on next week, as there's a big job in progress!

Ballista

I've added the 1st stationary defense weapon, the ballista. It lets you fire bolts that do great damage to enemies (for the moment, it one-shots enemies, and I'm thinking of making it so that the bolts can pass through enemies to kill several at once). The tiles must be crafted (from wood, stone, bone, gold or iron), and the ballistas recharge automatically if bolts are nearby, so it's advisable to build a stockpile nearby :)

Raid/Enemy

Goblins and Cyclops now have their own sets of armor and helmets. Nightwalkers can use any armor or helmet, but the material used will always be dark leather (goblins and cyclops use classic materials such as wood, stone, gold or iron). I've also increased the number of enemies in each raid, as there will now be more powerful means of defense (like the ballista).

Name generator

I've added a name generator for each enemy type, for example: - Goblins: Grimrak, Kragmok, Thrakzub, Drakmur, Zarrok - Cyclops : Baadum, Throrag, Gromol, Uggbog, Maazug - Night Walkers: Necgor, Morath, Xarith, Vhorak, Zahlor I'm still thinking about worker names.

Pathfinding

The current pathfinding system works well, but is performance-hungry. On a small map (100/100) performance is acceptable, but on a large map (200/200 or more) and if there are a large number of enemies on the map, performance drops drastically. The system is very poorly scalable: the larger the map and the more enemies there are, the worse the performance. So I've decided to completely overhaul pathfinding, by implementing another, more efficient algorithm for what I want to do, called HPA*. This new algo should enable me to manage a large number of characters moving across a large map. It's quite a big job, and should keep me busy for part of next week, if not the whole week.

Thanks, see you next week ;)

[ 2024-12-06 13:21:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello! Like every weekend, here's a non-exhaustive list of development progress :) (I'm going to call this a DevLog from now on, because that's exactly what it is!)

Pathfinding

The pathfinding algorithm (which allows characters to move from point A to point B) has been greatly improved: - More powerful - More intelligent - Now tracks moving targets - Keeps a target at a distance - ...

Combat

The combat system has also received its fair share of improvements (given that pathfinding is used during combat) - Improved damage display - New SFX when an enemy dies - Ranged fighters will now keep their target at a distance, and avoid shooting through a wall (yes, that was a bug) - ... The aim is to make combat more dynamic, less messy, and to improve the feeling when a character takes damage or dies. There are still a few details to work out, after which I'll update the trailer.

Performance

I'm currently pushing the game to the limit (spawn hundreds of enemies, for example) to see what it can take and what it can't, in order to sort out performance issues. The aim is to be able to spawn a very large number of enemies without any problems!

Thank you, see you next week ;)

[ 2024-11-29 17:32:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! I'll be able to resume the schedule I'd set myself at the start, i.e. one news per week presenting the progress of development. Over the last few days, I've been busy working on the game's sound design, which is now complete :) So here's an overview of what's new since last time, enjoy your reading.

Sound Design

So I've been working on the game's Sound Design, interface sounds, in-game sounds (when you cut a tree, forge an item... or combat sounds), ambient sounds and some music composed by a musician I worked with. The result is pretty cool, and I'll try to update the trailer soon to include in-game sounds and music, because right now there's no sound at all and it's a bit sad!

Combat

I've reworked the combat system to make it a little less cluttered. Workers will be less likely to crowd into the same tile, for example. I've also changed the behavior when workers are in combat mode: instead of targeting a character and attacking him until one or the other dies, they'll now be able to switch targets between each attack, which makes the combat system a little more dynamic, less punishing if a worker gets targeted by several enemies at once, and it feels a little more like a free-for-all, which is what I had in mind at the start. For the record, once a character is in combat mode, you have no control over him, and he'll attack anything within range... until he dies.

Blood

I've added a little blood effect that spurts out when a character is killed, which is always nice!

QOL, bugs

I spent most of the week fixing bugs, adding QOL and improving performance, especially on a large map with lots of enemies.

That's all for this week, thanks for reading! Kisses

[ 2024-11-22 18:15:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello! It's been 2 weeks since I posted any news, as I'm currently working on the game's Sound Design, in collaboration with a composer/musician. So no new features to report at the moment! I think next week there'll be some new stuff. Thanks, kisses

[ 2024-11-08 17:20:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! Like every Friday until the game's release (soon), here's the (non-exhaustive) list of things I've been working on this week, from new features to redesigns/improvements of existing ones.

Skills

Now each worker will earn XP by completing a job, which will allow them to gain levels and become more efficient at the job in question. There are 5 levels: Novice, Apprentice, Competent, Professional and Master.

Workshop improvements

It is now possible to order the recipes selected in a workshop to make them more or less of a priority. The Craft until you have X feature has also been added.

Adding/deleting jobs

Generic jobs such as Craftsman or Material Manufacturer have been removed and replaced by jobs specializing in one type of material: Carpenter, Stonecutter and Bone Carver.

Crossbows, Bolts and Maces

A new weapon, the crossbow, has been added. (as well as bolts as ammunition). The crossbow does more damage than the bow, projectiles are faster, but take longer to reload. A new melee weapon, the mace, has also been added.

WIP

Sound design in progress :)

[ 2024-10-25 14:26:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Skill system is almost done !

You can now see the skill level from the priorities panel

You can see all skills and bonus for a selected worker (with floating text when a worker gain XP or Level Up)

See you :)

[ 2024-10-21 16:42:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone and welcome :) I'm happy to finally be able to publish the first announcement in the Features of the week series! The aim of this series is to bring you weekly updates on development progress, be it new features, tweaks or anything else. Happy reading ;)

Thirst

A new need has been added for workers, Thirst. In addition to food, workers will also need to find something to drink. They can drink from watering holes on the map (not very healthy), or from a well you can build. You can also craft and equip flasks to allow them to take water with them.

Nightwalkers, Goblins and Raids

I've implemented the Night Walkers, powerful enemies who are invisible in the dark and will primarily seek to kill your King. They also practice necromancy...
I've also reworked the Goblin AI, which will now behave more randomly during raids. The aim is to make a mess of things when goblins attack you: assaulting your workers, stealing items, destroying buildings...

Door animation

Doors will now open and close automatically when your workers walk through them!

Tactical mode: groups

You can now assign your workers to groups, so you can select them quickly when tactical mode is activated! A group for archers and another for tanks would be a good start!

WIP : Skills

See you next week ;)

[ 2024-10-18 16:32:12 CET ] [ Original post ]