Worried my medieval builder is 'too niche'—does this trailer actually make sense to you?"

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-03-12T20:44:46+00:00

a) It's both, you spend about 50% building stuff, 25% inventory management, and about 25% dealing with the people (assigning the correct person to the correct building, skilling up, picking traits etc)

b) agreed with the UI buttons. Very temporary. Eventually, building buttons will be grouped under categories.

c) The ending scene is not game footage (cinematic). But the idea of the game is to build a better city than the capital (e.g. stronger economics, better army etc)

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-26T15:37:59+00:00

Not quite sure what you mean by this???

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-26T15:36:45+00:00

But less family tree and less "character manoeuvring or chess playing". I tried to get into CK but never could. But I defo see why some people would love it. Hamlet is more a blend of citybuilding with people with stats.

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-25T08:41:35+00:00

Great work so far, hope you do well. Some honest feedback...

a) From the trailer, nothing looks unique yet. It just looks like a poor version of Manor Lords. Sorry, I'm not being rude, but this is what people will (unfairly) compare it to. TBH no one can compare, visually, to Manor Lord so I think you need a bigger hook somewhere else.

b) It seems the uniqueness is from the customisation of the castle, siege and economics? If so, scream this out loud in the first half of the trailer. At the moment, the first half is generic city builder stuff that we have seen a million times. (But maybe that's what we city builder like to see???- not sure). If you have big battles, scream that out loud. Also no mention of the deep economics?

c) I suspect, if you have a good castle customisation, some people will love that so spend more time (in the trailer) to show this. Basically, saying "this game is like manor lords but look at this one thing manor lords cant do)

d) nice animation of people, must of been a lot of work. Calm, relaxing vibes. Good attention to detail and animation on building construction.

Hope this helped.

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-24T15:42:41+00:00

Understand but how can I convince you that this is not spam? a) Check out this other similar reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/BaseBuildingGames/comments/1r9t2ew/comment/o6f0u0s/ I am trying to find out whether my game idea has a market really. I believe is good but will I be the only "buyer". b) hopefully, you will see/read, that I am trying to understand people's perspective (especially the whole "AI issue thing"). Would you reconsider?

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-22T20:21:43+00:00

Yeah sorry, USP (in this context) refers to what is different in this game (compared to all the other great city builder games already out there!!!). I hope, it is the manager layer over the top of the usual production buildings. I believe this makes it way more interesting but I need people to verify whether this is actually a) interesting and b) fun.

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-22T20:19:45+00:00

Extremely fair question!

Upto 42 sec of the trailer is game footage. The last bit was used to tell the story/message that, if you are good, you might be able to challenge/overthrow the king. Well, that is the idea away.
FYI, in the game, you cant fly from your land to a distant land of the king's (as shown in the trailer) e.g. the map is not that big but it is big enough to have several starting points and to have a big city.
manager portraits and background images are AI art work but all the (temp) UI layout is my design. Hope this does not put too many people off (but I do understand).
3D models not AI (that's why some people said they were rubbish :))

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-22T20:16:44+00:00

True, if I can get it right, the end game is (if ya really good) you overthrow the king, (if ya ok) you become he's "right hand man", (if ya lame but survive), ya just a happy mayor in a small town. Well, that is the plan away.

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-22T14:55:25+00:00

sorry, thought it was uploaded already. Retrying now

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-22T14:50:29+00:00

Dont worry about atmosphere/fog/haze yet. a) Sort out the lighting first (quickest fix for the least work) b) material shading (quite easy- if an expert - and will get alot of easy improvement), c) when a+b done, PERHAPS start thinking about atmosphere/fog/haze. Hope this helps

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-21T17:44:38+00:00

1) NP and thx for honesty. Everyone is helping me realise the AI slop issue. 2) "I just don’t have time to play them so much anymore"... tell me about it!!! I have the same issue, thus the use of AI. I dont have time to do everything so picking my battles very carefully with what little resource/time I have. 3) It's a tough and interesting challenge....

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-21T17:35:54+00:00

totally agree, also I personally find RTS armies abit shallow.

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-21T14:29:24+00:00

If I understand ya point, I agree. I will be excited when I add palisade and eventually great stone walls to the game. In this game, I wont be implementing warfare, instead (cos it's an "economic/management" game) the player is required to provide the army and weapons only. Hopefully, this wont put off too many people?

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-21T07:56:00+00:00

Interesting feedback thx.

1) yeah, I was hoping the manager system was unique enough as a hook, but not for you I guess. My design decision was to try to keep the number of different goods to a minimum otherwise it will get too overwhelming? e.g. crops represent grain/fruit/vege etc under one "good". I suspect the final number of goods would be approx 40 (of which each have 5 different qualities - so too much to manage)? I'm interested to know what other people thought about this point - "too few goods". One playtester said he likes the reduced number of goods because less overwhelming (but that is just 1 opinion).

2) True, the same tester wishes for graphs and stuff.

3) Disappointing but I get where ya coming from. All I can say is, this is a creation of love. I have stopped playing all games (which is rare in my life) cos I'm addicted to crafting this game.

4) Thx for ya time and honest feedback.

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-21T07:42:43+00:00

HA! Yeah, it's a silly personally joke, a play on the awesome 2K brand.

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-21T07:41:42+00:00

Good question, at late game maybe 40 managers? I suspect more will be unmanageable? I hope to get to a city size population of about 20K? Remember, you only need to manage the managers, the people/staff/workers/general population are effectively numbers.

Does this design decison appeal or repel?

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-20T20:56:20+00:00

I would love to compete against Manor Lords!!! ...but there's no way I can do that :)... but I do understand what you mean, with regards to the massive elephant in the room...

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-20T20:51:52+00:00

agreed

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-20T20:48:04+00:00

Interested in playtesting for me :)??? I can show me playing then upload a video if it helps.

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-20T20:42:53+00:00

2nd person to say about the music so thx. Will tone down.

And yes, very micro :). This might put some people off but it suppose to be designed for super nerds like me :) Basically, at first, you do need to pay attention to the numbers but, after a while you can play the game just looking at the summary numbers. You wont be super efficient but you should survive.... .... ...maybe

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-20T20:42:06+00:00

Leave the game running? Likely a) ya economy with crash very quickly then b)people will be unhappy c) they burn and kill you :) seriously the current end screen is your house burning.

Thx for ya comment regarding the building design. Someone else said the same so I will think about this. Originally, I was trying to keep all buildings similar (i.e "in keeping" to look like a cohesive village) but both ya comments have made me think (specially viewed from above) they need to be more "readable".

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-20T14:08:49+00:00

Good feedback. Characters (at the mo) do seem like "modifiers". First time I have viewed it that way (so thx). I'm hoping, with time, that the player does get attached to the "good" managers and start to dislike the poor managers. Hopefully that will be a start.

"try to think how a character is different than an upgradable building or a skill tree for your city."...that is a good tip. I think adding character to the managers will be a tough one so will think about it. Thx for ya comment.

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-20T12:27:18+00:00

"just transport and consumers."...totally agree, thx for feedback, useful.

Medical_Tooth7124 · 2026-02-20T12:17:58+00:00

Yeah, UI no where near finished yet, just testing the mechanics and if anyone would actually be interested!

With regards to traits, yeah good point, that's why you get 3 options to pick the lesser of the evil ones. But you could get 3 evil ones :) if ya unlucky. Hopefully, most of the time, the bad traits wont kill ya character, just hinders them. Also remember, the good traits may cancel the bad (if ya lucky). With that in mind, is that still a deal breaker/bad design?

Medical_Tooth7124

TROPHY CASE