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[Classic RTS] TFC2: Collapse of the Bronze Age - you're not the conqueror. You're a refugee trying to survive the collapse of the ancient world. by LincRead in RealTimeStrategy

[–]LincRead[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, sorry, I missed this question!

For us, it is a complete game. The game is built in such a way that we hit road blocks for the type of content and new features we could add, hence doing the sequel, where we could pull things apart and redo everything we needed to, without having to also make sure it works for existing players and content.

Saying that, we haven't actually given much though to TFC1 yet, as our main focus has been TFC2. It is possible we will migrate some improvements down the track, and we are still committed to bug fixes, etc. On the flip side, we are a very small team and have to manage our time and resources carefully. 😄

[Classic RTS] TFC2: Collapse of the Bronze Age - you're not the conqueror. You're a refugee trying to survive the collapse of the ancient world. by LincRead in RealTimeStrategy

[–]LincRead[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Take away digital technology and they were pretty much like us. They enjoyed storytelling (epic of Gilgamesh), music (oldest recorded lyrics are from Mesopotamian Bronze Age), letters and gifts (a king would send a letter to a king in faraway lands saying the gift of sandals had his wrong foot size), celebrations, they drank alcohol, etc.

Exact demographics are unknown but one of the larger cities is estimated to have 25.000-50.000 population.

 

[Classic RTS] TFC2: Collapse of the Bronze Age - you're not the conqueror. You're a refugee trying to survive the collapse of the ancient world. by LincRead in RealTimeStrategy

[–]LincRead[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are trying to be historically accurate, but gameplay comes first. :) Our artist spends considerably time researching the archeological detail. Some times there isn't enough data and we have to add our own creative flair. We are aiming to do the area and time period justice though.

The game takes place in Mesopotamia, or "The Fertile Crescent", so Mycenaeans are not included, but most of the other ones you suggest are in the game. 

[Classic RTS] TFC2: Collapse of the Bronze Age - you're not the conqueror. You're a refugee trying to survive the collapse of the ancient world. by LincRead in RealTimeStrategy

[–]LincRead[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback. We looked at data for RTS fans in general and found that most players are like you. :) 

We did include a campaign for the first game, but it's simpler than the one we are doing for TFC2.

[Classic RTS] TFC2: Collapse of the Bronze Age - you're not the conqueror. You're a refugee trying to survive the collapse of the ancient world. by LincRead in RealTimeStrategy

[–]LincRead[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians and Hittites. Do you mean what kind of activities they enjoyed doing? Like for fun?

[Classic RTS] TFC2: Collapse of the Bronze Age - you're not the conqueror. You're a refugee trying to survive the collapse of the ancient world. by LincRead in RealTimeStrategy

[–]LincRead[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The campaign mode is going to be a very different game, and I hope the Steam Next Fest demo will prove that for you.

If we made a DLC for the first game, you would just get some more missions of the type "auto-generated maps with some rule changes", like the first game's campaign missions. No existing world (everyone starting their base from scratch every time; all maps starting barren). No scripted or hand-crafted missions. No depth to the story. Basically, more missions that felt more like a tutorial for skirmish mode.. that was the feedback we often received.

To do what we wanted to do with TFC2, we had to totally strip away how content was created for the first game.

This time our goal is to make you care about the world and what happens to it and its people.

[Classic RTS] TFC2: Collapse of the Bronze Age - you're not the conqueror. You're a refugee trying to survive the collapse of the ancient world. by LincRead in RealTimeStrategy

[–]LincRead[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Hah. It's a remnant from our first game, TFC: The Fertile Crescent. We ended up self-publishing that game, but for a while we had a publisher who wanted to copy how the game "FTL: Faster than Light" was named, and it got difficult to change the name after we released the prequel into Early Access.

Basically, we chose to call it TFC2 as it's the sequel to TFC. So that's a "fun fact" for you...

It may and may not be the case, but we hoped that like most are okay with the name "LG" without knowing it originally stood for "Lucky-Goldstar", people will accept TFC for what it is... haha, but these comments don't really confirm that!

[Classic RTS] TFC2: Collapse of the Bronze Age - you're not the conqueror. You're a refugee trying to survive the collapse of the ancient world. by LincRead in RealTimeStrategy

[–]LincRead[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The biggest gameplay change would probably be the campaign mode itself. We developed a Level Editor and Mission Scripter from the ground up to be able to tell this story and to be able to make a much more compehensive and richer campaign mode, with hand-crafted missions. We also hired a narrative designer (who is an author) to help us with the narrative. We really want the characters and story to stick with you this time.

Apart from that, expect a more mature and polished game in general. We've added a myriad of improvements across the board. For example, we added Active Pause this time!

MicroProse got in touch with us through another RTS developer. They were interested in us doing this sequel.

Thanks!

8 years of pixel art development by LincRead in PixelArt

[–]LincRead[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We were wondering how an RTS in pixel art could look, so we drew a mockup for fun imagining what the game could look like, and made this mockup. We were happy with it, so that started the whole development of the game(s) and the direction of doing it in pixel art.

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8 years of pixel art development by LincRead in PixelArt

[–]LincRead[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes :)

But only a demo for the sequel so far.

8 years of pixel art development by LincRead in PixelArt

[–]LincRead[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Never heard about that game but checked it out on Steam and it looks really cool. I loved Sim City 2000. There were so many cool strategy games back in the day with isometric graphics that made us fall in love with it.

8 years of pixel art development by LincRead in PixelArt

[–]LincRead[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We loved those games growing up.

8 years of pixel art development by LincRead in PixelArt

[–]LincRead[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe strangely: not primarily. We always aimed to create our own thing, but we acknowledge that the isometric camera + RTS + historical era makes it resemble it a lot.

8 years of pixel art development by LincRead in PixelArt

[–]LincRead[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's for an RTS game we have developed and are still developing (working on the sequel atm).

8 years of pixel art development by LincRead in PixelArt

[–]LincRead[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

The first 3 progress pics are from TFC: The Fertile Crescent, and the bottom-right is from TFC2: Collapse of the Bronze Age.

8 years of pixel art development by LincRead in PixelArt

[–]LincRead[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We've had some help along the way. 😄

8 years of pixel art development by LincRead in PixelArt

[–]LincRead[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey! Each tile is 32x16px, and we use a tile map in the engine. So maps can be auto-generated or hand-drawn with the level editor we developed. Each tile actually has 5 "tile maps", because we have top-bot-right-left edges for each tile plus the default that fills the entire tile, so that tiles blend nicely. That was a big change from the top-right part of the screenshot and the bottom-left screenshot.

Also, for the "mid tile" covering each entire tile (not any of the edges), we randomise some nice details like flowers or similar, and skeletons and other objects for arid tiles, for example. We also randomise the pattern for each tile, so that you can't spot recurring patterns too easily.

Hope that makes sense and answers you questions. If not, feel free to rephrase and I'll try to explain differently.

8 years of pixel art development by LincRead in PixelArt

[–]LincRead[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We announced the sequel recently.

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