AlexanderBall: A Countryball Tale
Dev Blog 5: Our First Regular Update v0.1.010!
The full list of changes in this update is down below!
Improvements:
- New visual indicator for showing damage to walls.
- New asset for the arrow that is used to go from one region to another.
- AI uses more ranged attacks now.
- Macedonian manpower has been nerfed.
- Warning that all unsaved data will be lost has been added to the battle screen after pressing the ‘Exit to Main Menu’ button from there.
- Replaced the placeholder ‘Confirm building’ Icon with a much better icon.
- Tutorial clips have been updated. They were ancient.
Bug Fixes:
- Bug that lets the player sometimes use the enemy units to attack other enemy units has been fixed. Phew…
- Bug when selecting ‘No’ on the retire option has been fixed.
- Random events with battles were not starting the battles correctly. This has been fixed.
- Icon for Alexandria was getting cut around the edges. That’s been fixed.
- Fixed a bug where the birds on the regional maps froze.
Hopefully these changes don’t impact anyone’s saved games. If they do, please let us know. (Yes, you can keep the Macedonian manpower you accumulated - they just won’t be going up at such a high speed anymore).
Early Access is here! v0.1.009
- Build a custom army with various balls (AthensBall, PersiaBall, SpartaBall and dozens more!) 🏹
- Build many, many cities named Alexandria! 🏛️
- Explore and conquer the ancient world inhabited by ancient balls! 🌍
- 100+ random events that can happen any time in campaign mode! 📖
- Manage your commanders, each hungrier than the last! 😡
- Relive iconic moments from Alexander's life in immaculately drawn countryball cutscenes! 🌠
- Face off against an AI trained in the ways of ancient warfare, aware of the special bonuses for outflanking your enemies! 🤖
- Multiplayer coming soon!
Conquer from Greece to the Levant to Egypt in v0.1.009
Expect monthly free updates to progress the story and frequent smaller updates to patch bugs and incorporate feedback!
Dev Blog 4: Update, Roadmap, and Early Access Release Date!
You guys may have noticed that the playtest is no longer available. That’s cause we are in the final phase of testing and bug-fixing before Early Access release! It is in this time that we have decided to announce the release date for AlexanderBall: A Countryball Tale!
So, without further ado, we at Red Thorn Interactive are proud to announce that AlexanderBall: A Countryball Tale will enter Early Access on the 15th of January, 2023!
So what can you guys expect? A host of new additions are coming into the game during early access.
The most important of these are the addition of the diplomacy and building systems. At long last, AlexanderBall can build a bunch of cities named after himself throughout the ancient world. At long last, AlexanderBall can threaten the myriad peoples of his vast empire, demand tributes, send gifts, and take hostages!
The diplomacy tab will allow AlexanderBall to see what his subjects think of him and the exact reasons why they may not want to send their young men to die in his conquests.
We’re adding in 4 new resources - Wine, Salt, Food, and Iron!
You can use Iron for hiring new units, Wine for holding festivals in your different cities, Food to keep your populations fed, and Salt to pay your soldiers in wages (this bit may not be historically accurate… welp).
Siege battles!! (Need we say more for this one?)
The random events system is ready to go!
Over 120 random events have been added to the game. Taking a leaf from many other historical strategy games before us, we believe these random events can add a lot of replayability to our game and make the whole experience more immersive.
We’re implementing a Legacy Point system!
Now players can lose campaigns, secure in the knowledge that they have earned some Legacy Points and can go into the next run with some permanent upgrades.
At early access, the classic campaign will extend up to the Battle of Guagamela!
Players will be able to romp their way through Greece, Asia Minor, the Levant, Egypt, Assyria, and reach the gates of Persia in the upcoming Early Access release.
After the early access release, there will be monthly updates until we reach the summer of 2023 (we hope to enter full release around then). So, after early access release, be sure to drop-by. In the months following January 15th, players can expect more random events, a building system that lets the player customize individual cities, multiplayer battles, unique units, and whatever else fun mechanics we can come up with!
And if you haven’t seen it already, be sure to check out our brand new cinematic trailer!
Minor Fixes v0.0.192
These include:
- Fixed some issues with saving.
- Fixed a crash during battle.
- Improved tooltips in the army management segment of the game.
- Small changes to dialogue and tutorial (more are definitely incoming).
- Fixed issue where battle continued after Alexander died in battle.
- Alexander faces the direction he is moving on the regional screen.
Check out the playtest and keep the feedback coming. We appreciate all the kind words and the encouragement.
Minor Fixes v0.0.18
Hello again! This is a tiny update for some tiny updates. Here they are:
- Fixed music not playing in the 2nd Regional Map
- Fixed an error in the dialogue where apostrophes were messed up
- The bottom-left UI element has been polished up.
Enjoy the playtest that is up right now and please do let us know how we can improve!
Dev Blog 3: Reviewing the October Next Fest & new Open beta!
We have decided that the best thing we could do for the game would be to push back our Early Access release to a latter date - most likely something like 2 months later than planned.
In exchange, we will be adding a couple more features and giving you this - a brand new open beta that you guys can enjoy! It has the same content as the last version with the following changes and additions. Let us know what you guys think. We will be sure to take into account all your feedback and critiques!
You can expect the following changes and bug fixes in the new version of the playtest.
Additions and Changes:
- Reduced the number of tiles on the battlefield so it takes less time to reach enemies.
- Introductory cutscenes have been added to better prime the player before tossing them into the game.
- Improved tutorials.
- Battles have been made more responsive and faster.
- Buttons that can be pressed multiple times but were not intended to be used as such have been fixed.
- Much better AI.
- Symbols to indicate a city is under Macedonian rule has been added.
- Commanders now regenerate Unit Size by 5 per month until they reach the maximum of 300.
- Regular units now regenerate Unit Morale by 5 per month until they reach the maximum of 100.
- Improved hotkeys.
- A UI has been added to the battle screen that tells the player how much damage will be inflicted by an attack and why.
- Added screens to tell the player which part of the story they are in.
- Added auto pausing and unpausing based on events and story dialogue.
Bugs Fixes:
- Fixed the issue of the army formation mat messing up when a general is added and then removed from the mat.
- Tutorials now show up at the right times and right places.
- AI units no longer spend more action points than they are supposed to.
- Fixed issue of Thessalian manpower reserves not increasing according to conquered cities.
- Small data and data-display related issues have been fixed.
SO, with that out of the way, we proudly present, our brand new Open Beta/Playtest!! Please, please, please, let us know what you guys think. We need good feedback so we can make the most possible game and story for everyone.
Playtest v0.0.16 'was' Out!
The gang at Red Thorn had a tiny playtest that was up and announced on our Discord channel. We got a couple good pointers and had some glaring bugs pointed out. Those fixes had to happen immediately and would have affected the functionality of the playtest.
We have been slogging away at these fixes and have taken the opportunity to incorporate all of the feedback before the Steam Next Fest and the subsequent demo release date.
But, as we said in the subtitle, the new version of the playtest will be up on the 2nd of October and will be ready to be announced as far and wide as we can.
There will be another announcement/update soon that will basically let you guys know of all the changes that we implemented will essentially also act as a dev blog.
Thanks for your patience.
Hopefully Steam Next Fest goes well! Seeya then!
Dev Blog 2: Demo Details!
The demo is incoming. The whole team has been putting in hard shifts to bring you Red Thorn Interactive’s first title. As said before, the game takes the player through the various regions of the known world. Alexander and his army will grow, conquer, and live through iconic moments that have travelled down to us even in this day and age.
All this said, the demo will let the player play through the initial stages of Alexander’s conquest (there will be an accompanying post on #history-time in our Discord channel to elaborate on the time period). This opening part of the story start’s with the death of Philip the 2nd (father of Alexander) and the young king’s troubled accession to the Macedonian throne. The player will be given access to the first 2 regions of the 17 in the Eastern/Classic campaign. This will entail beating down the tribes in the northern frontiers - PaeoniaBall, IllyriaBall and ThraceBall! After that, the player will turn south to tackle the various Greek cities.
There will be cutscenes that show some of the historical moments that made Alexander such an enigma (one famous incident involving a certain ancient Greek philosopher will be amongst these early cutscenes). In the demo, the player will be introduced to the intricacies of our battle system, the story, the objectives system, the army building and army management system and will have a couple dozen random events to experience as well. Two of the eight commanders under Alexander will also be deployable, alongside AlexanderBall himself! We are hoping to include a siege battle in the demo, but I’m not sure we can promise that so early. Most likely, there will be a second version of the demo that includes a siege battle!
Thanks again for your patience. Also if anyone is interested in take part in some QA testing, be sure to message us on twitter (@RedThornInterac) or reddit (u/redthorninteractive)!
Thanks again for your patience. We would also like to extend a special thank you to everyone who has wishlisted our game on steam and/or joined our discord server! Your support means a lot to us and we can’t wait to get out a great game for you guys!
Dev Blog 1: Update and Tentative Roadmap
Welcome to our first big developer’s blog. There’s a number of things to go over. We want to let you guys know how much has been done and what is currently in the works. Once again, a quick reminder that Early Access includes a single campaign, the one that recounts the historic adventures and conquests of Alexander the Great as he conquered the Achaemenid Empire.
This first campaign, and many of its underlying systems and required art and animations have kept the team busy over the last 6 months of development. Building a good turn-based combat system is quite a task and the team has done fantastically well in this department. The design team has been slogging away at crafting the story, the 100+ random events, and the many, many tooltips that make a strategy game easily-digestible. And of course, bugs are being squashed.
As this dev blog’s title implies, we will set out a bit of a roadmap for the future of this game and its development. A beta version for testing will be our first big and holistic milestone. Then we will hope to release a demo which will allow those interested to download a concatenated version of the game and see if they like what we offer. Finally, the game will then enter early access where folks can pledge their support, play through the first campaign and enjoy multiplayer battles. Purchasers and followers can expect further updates and free additions through the Early Access period and then expect a full version of the game with all 2 additional campaigns that explore alternative historical outcomes had Alexander chosen a different direction to undertake his conquests.
Our followers, well-wishers and wishlisters can expect improvements being made in every aspect of the game at all times. We do not intend to stop until the product we have on our hands gives our audience their money’s worth and also provides dozens of hours of entertainment.
Wish us luck and don’t forget to wishlist our game!
Introducting AlexanderBall: A Countryball Tale
Our game makes a unique set of promises.
As much historical accuracy as can make this game fun and replayable.
As much immersion as our beginner team can muster.
As much complexity in the battles as our AI team can juggle at a reasonable processing power.
Hundreds of random events.
Dozens of epic battles and side-quests.
Billions of possible ways to complete our limited set of campaigns.
Wishlist our game and join our discord server. We thank you for taking the time to check our game. We hope we will not disappoint.
Join our discord in the meantime!