Version 1.0.14 Hotfixes and new languages for the artbook.
Bugs fixed
Fixed the game crash during the Great Age of Pyramids;
The effect of decreasing the limit of the population after the fire now will be applied only once when the building is completely destroyed;
Fixed the rare bug of overlapped tooltips;
The early end of the Civil War does not count as a failure anymore.
Balance improvements
The effect of pyramids buildings is added on the Egypt map;
The trade bonuses on the map of Egypt is decreased by 30%;
The Chinese localization is updated;
The Italian and Turkish artbooks are added.
Please note: To avoid possible compatibility problems it's recommended to start a new game.
Version 1.0.13 New part of bug fixes
Bug fixes
Fixed the bug when the game crashed at the beginning;
Fixed the mistakes in the order of pyramids construction;
Fixed the bug when the relationships with a tribe didn't improve despite having enough resources for it.
Fixed the calculation of trading bonuses and its display in tooltips.
Fixed the end of the 3rd trial, the conquering of Upper Egypt's capital manually;
Fixed the end of the 5th trial, in the case of an early victory;
When you're searching for your enemy, you'll automatically see the explored area of enemy's tribe;
We improved the area of selecting a god in the Cults menu;
Fixed the Enemy alliance with the tribe which is friendly to the player.
Epidemic task completion now properly ends the effect of "Cure disease";
Fixed the possibility to assimilate the tribe when the relationship between them hasn't reach 100%;
Fixed the background of warriors during the attack on the city area;
Fixed the completion of the task "Corruption";
Fixed the calculation of bonuses for Domestication of Hyenas;
Fixed the rare cases of flickering tooltips;
Fixed the immediate creation of a pyramid from hurrying the construction and from the architect bonus to speed up construction;
Fixed texts mistakes.
Balance fixes and improvements
5th trial: fixed the mechanic of separatism; added the option to end the trial early; a remake of trial's balance;
8th trial: it is now simplified; if the god of the city is Ptah, pyramids get +10% bonus of efficiency;
3rd trial: the effect from "Fortify" and "Bribe" is lowered from 5% to 3%;
Improved the compatibility of saves between the different versions;
Improved the scaling of tooltips on the map;
The abandoned settlement now gives a random bonus of resources; it also can appear on the map of Egypt;
Tooltips in the Battle window now will appear under the actions buttons;
Game settings: new options "the speed of movements" and the dragging of the camera;
The map of Egypt: the chance of war declaration now increasing for each explored tribe;
The action of Seth to "Call a sandstorm" now costs 30 of luxury (before it was 20) and destroys 20% of enemy's troops (before it was 30%);
Improved the visual side of the map uploading process;
Splash screen of CESRAS added;
Small improvements of balance during the battle with other tribes.
Thank you to all the players and volunteers who helped us with localizations and bug reports.
Special thanks to Aleksandr Rusakov for his help with fixing the bug when it was impossible to continue the game after 180 turn.
Trading cards for Egypt: Old Kingdom are now available!
Here comes the long-awaited day - we finally added Egypt: Old Kingdom trading cards! While the rest of the team fixed bugs and updated the game, our artist Max Yakovenko created 12 trading cards, new Steam backgrounds, and badges. As you probably know, only popular games on Steam are allowed to add trading cards, so it would not be an exaggeration to say that it's all your deed. Catch 'Em All! ;)
Version 1.0.12 Bug fixes and balance adjustments
Shortcomings and bug fixes
Flickering icons and tooltips;
We can't fix the black screen problem, because it's Unity engine's problem, but there are a few ways to fix this bug;
Now the Unification of Egypt can be launched without the discovery of Chiefdoms;
Fixed the unintended press of some buttons off Spacebar;
Fixed the maximum score count in the final window of the game;
Numerous text mistakes fixed;
Discoveries menu sound fixed;
Fixed the bug of workers animation, when one animation overlayed another;
Ancestral duty is now counted by the average value of 10 turns, not by the value of the last turn;
On the map of Egypt we turned off Subjugation and Patronizing;
Riots now can only happen in the area with workers;
On the map of Egypt we fixed the tooltip for the "Capital" task;
Fixed the scaling problem in the Stats texts;
Buttons in the trials dialogs are now inactive if the player doesn't have enough sources;
Fixed the camera rotation bug;
Fixed the event of the Lower Egypt exploration.
Changes in the balance and gameplay
More freedom of choice in the tutorial with the animals and societies;
The final trial became easier;
Change of the combat balance for different gods (Ptah: 5 turns, Horus: 2 simultaneous combats 4 turns each);
The longevity of cults worshipping is increased by 1 turn;
The cult of Ra is more effective;
Expeditions now bring 25% fewer resources;
Sacrifices during the royal crisis are now more expensive;
Raids of the devastated areas now bring fewer resources.
Thank you to all the players and volunteers who helped us with localizations and bug reports.
Special thanks to Constantine Savenkov for his help in fixing the Subjugation of Egypt trial and special thanks from our programmers for the detailed bug report.
Version 1.0.11 Urgent fixes of game's logic bugs.
We fixed the exploit which allowed breaking the tutorial on turn 3 and 4;
Added the option to turn off the tutorial in the tutorial dialog window about society;
Fixed a bug in the Flood event;
Fixed the window of decentralization unblocking;
Fixed the bug when the uploading of the save file made on the 1st turn of the game was broken;
Fixed a few bugs in the Conquests of Nubia and Egypt;
Fixed a group of bugs in various events, connected with non-existent tribes.
Attention, please! In the new version, you might see the warning window saying that your old save file is incompatible with the new version. Please ignore this warning, everything should work fine.
We also can see some other bugs, we’ll fix them asap. Also, expect the improvements of balance in various quests and actions!
Egypt: Old Kingdom - everything is ready for the release! Really? Aaaah!
The state of the developers 24 hours before the release can be compared to passing exams to the university: you feverishly trying to make sure you prepared as good as you can in order not to fail the exams, you worry about the grade you're going to get, etc. Players for us are like the strictest judges and teachers, and we're passing our exam tomorrow!
But we have a few things up our sleeve to impress the judges! This time we decided not only release the game but also added two DLCs.
Deluxe version of the game will include two DLCs: the first one is artbook in which you will find all of our concept art and game art, and the collection of soundtracks from Predynastic Egypt and Egypt: Old Kingdom. You can check the preview of the soundtrack on the DLC's Steam page!
The price of the game will be $15 USD, each DLC costs $5 USD and the Deluxe package with the game+2 DLCs will cost $20 USD.
The date of release and the launch of demo version!
After this long time of waiting and delays we’re finally ready (and very happy too!) announce the final release date! Egypt: Old Kingdom will be released on Steam on May 24th, 2018! Hooray!
10 days is quite fast, but we have a way to make them pass even faster ;) Ladies and gents, we present you our new video, which should have become an introduction video at the beginning of the game. Due to some technical problems, we couldn’t insert it in the game, but we think it’s a must-see video! It presents the cosmogony of our world the way Ancient Egyptians from Heliopolis have seen that. You’ll understand a bit more about Ancient Egyptians, and it’ll help you during the game.
And the last but not least! Every single one of you now has the chance to test and try the free demo version of Egypt: Old Kingdom, which includes the first 53 turns of the game!
Links:
For Windows: http://clarusvictoria.com/files/OldKingdom_0.4.1_demo_w32.zip
For MacOS: http://clarusvictoria.com/files/OldKingdom_0.4.1_demo_mac.zip
Enjoy your week and don’t forget to share your impression about the game!
Cheers!
May News: Demo version and 2 conferences.
Dear friends! Lina is here. I wish you all happy holidays if you celebrate May 1st like we do here in Russia. If you don't, then I just wish you to have a fun spring :)
And using this chance I'm going to make a quick update about everything we do now.
As you probably already realized, the date of release is delayed again... We apologize for making you wait even longer. Don't repeat our mistakes and don't announce the date of release until you will have the full beta version of your game. Honestly, we didn't expect it will take so long to fix bugs and make all necessary improvements, but every day is precious and even during the holiday we work to improve the game.
The full version of Egypt: Old Kingdom is almost ready, but I'd rather refrain from telling you the final date until our beta version will go from being "almost ready" to being "completely ready". We're going to announce the final date of release during the next week.
Besides, we're going to upload the free demo version of Egypt: Old Kingdom on Steam very soon!
***
We're preparing for DevGAMM conference in Moscow. Besides the game itself, we were busy making business cards, souvenirs and some other surprises for other participants and guests. We're going to showcase our game on the first day, so if you'll swing by the conference - welcome to come to our table and chat! :) Besides the conference, I and Mikhail are planning to visit the Center for Egyptian Study and meet with our scientists' friends. I'm very excited about it and I promise to take pictures and record some videos for you!
***
Another exciting news - we're going to participate in the Game Access'18, an international conference which will take place in Brno, the Czech Republic, in June! We're lucky to have one of our programmers, Egor Piskunov, to live nearby Brno, so he'll be able to go there and to present the game at the conference. By the way, we've got a free invitation from the conference manager, and we are of course very pleased by this fact. :)
That's it for now! Huge thanks to all of you who keeps waiting, asking and believing in us!
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Check out new trailer of Egypt: Old Kingdom!
A trailer is such an important thing for any game! It should demonstrate the best features of the game, but not reveal too much. It also should attract and intrigue more players. No wonder it takes some time to figure out how to create the best trailer for your game. We're also experimenting. We came up with the idea that two trailers would show off the game better than one. Our first, "historical" trailer is finally out!
Check it out on our YouTube channel
While our second gameplay trailer is in progress, the creators of "historical" trailer will reveal how did they come up with the idea.
Ilya Terentyev, the original author, consultant and assistant:
Why does the trailer look like this?
It's important to understand that our game is unique and unlike any other game. Of course, there are games with a similar gameplay, but the idea to introduce the history through a game, to teach the player about the history, culture, traditions and other aspects of life weren't implemented by anyone else before. Assassin's Creed came close enough by demonstrating all these things through an action game, but our game is of the strategy genre, closer to the reality, more scientific.
The goal of a trailer is to intrigue the viewer by the idea of a game. He may look at the pictures, read the description, watch the gameplay trailer, and the first thing that should happen is that (s)he will be emotionally hooked by these things. "Wow! What's that? Interesting, let's find out more!" The first impression is very important. It's not necessary to watch the trailer until the end, but it should interest the viewer and impress him. Regarding "interest and impress" here is the secret. There are two approaches: the first one if rational and second one is emotional. With the rational approach, we would step by step explain everything about the game, what possibilities there are and so on. A constant narration about "how does this game works". This kind of approach is more suitable for a TV show when someone wants you to tell more about the game. But when you have a customer coming to your page, you must interest him immediately. Of course, there is no 100% guarantee, but lots of people purchase things impulsively, emotionally. Theis choice is based on their likes or dislikes. When you go to the store, your first impression is not based on how a certain clothing item is sewn, what kind of threads are used, what fabric. The first impression is always "I like it" or "I don't like it", and then some will also pay attention to details, but not everybody. So the main purpose of the trailer is to evoke the right reaction from the viewer, which is "Oh, I like it!"
So what's the idea of our trailer? Our game is a historical one, there are no made-up events. The trailer should reflect this. We used the same idea as in our teaser: we didn't want to make up the scenario or the text, we wanted to find something that would position the mystery of Egypt, something unknown, intriguing, enigmatic. Something that would catch viewer's eyes and make him want to find out more. In short, the task was to visualize somehow the essence of Ancient Egypt for an average person. And the usual level of knowledge about Egypt for such person is a set of stereotypes - pyramids, pharaohs, Cleopatra, etc. We wanted our text to transfer the emotional message as well as consisted of something real because everything real is more attractive than made-up stuff.
That's why in our first trailer we got the idea to use quotes from the real Egyptian texts which were found in pyramids and sarcophagus. These texts are deciphered by the Egyptologists and they are mostly of a religious, sacred and mythical character. They were used during burial ceremonies. According to one version, the priest entered the tomb and walked around, reading the necessary texts all the time. In both of our videos, we used the text from Unas' tomb. There is an official translation of it made by Egyptologists. We had to select the right sentences and to compose the scenario, to write a story which will convey a certain image, certain message. Eventually, after long hours of reading and selecting the right sentences, we composed the text we needed.
In the trailer, pharaoh's counselor addressing the pharaoh, the god. The counselor introducing to the pharaoh his position, his land, and telling him how his power made other gods silent. He's showing to the pharaoh his land and telling him that he must cherish, protect and improve this land. This is the purpose of our game, where the player will understand what does it mean to be a pharaoh, to be the king of the great country. This trailer is addressing the viewer as if he is the pharaoh.
Maxim Yakovenko, the artist, director, and editor of the trailer:
We were getting closer to the release, and we had to make a trailer for Steam. Ilya was the creative force behind the video. He's not a member of the team, but he helps us a lot with various tasks.
In the beginning, he wanted to direct and edit the video, but he had his own urgent matters. So he came to me and said: "Max, listen, I'm going to Japan now, but could you meanwhile make the scenario for the trailer?" The original plan was that I will be responsible for the scenario and graphics, and that's it.
Then I figured out that the video will not show off the gameplay, but instead, it will be a short movie based on Ancient Egypt frescoes. We had a disagreement about it in the team, I thought such video will not impress rational people who don't want to spend their money in vain. Nobody is going to pay for a perfectly CGIed video not knowing what this game is about. In the end, I agreed there are people who might be impressed more by something emotional, rather than rational. That's how we decided we're going to make two videos: one for Egyptian myths, another one for gameplay, the record of the gaming process. It was decided.
I started to work. I got the music and voiceover materials done by the professional actor. That's when it hit me how interesting this experience can be for me, and that the damn video might actually be really interesting and inspiring. I've never worked with the professional voiceover before. That's probably why I had difficulties with the scenario. I assembled the video complete with directing and editing part. Forgot to mention, in the scenario we used different parts of pyramid texts, but Ilya composed them in a way which gave us a comprehended story. When I read the text, listened to the music and the voiceover, I already had a complete video in my head and felt very inspired. All that's left to do was to start necessary programs and distribute the graphics across the timeline.
In a couple days I assemble the first version of the video and sent it to Ilya. He praised me and told me I did such a good job that he doesn't have to do anything at all. I can't judge my own work objectively, so I'll leave it to the audience, to all of you. But I really hope you will like it.
Mikhail Vasilyev, leader and game designer of Clarus Victoria:
Just as theatre begins at the cloakroom*, the game begins with the trailer. That's why we decided to pay a special attention to the first impression of players. However simple this trailer may appear, around 50 people contributed to the creation of it. Out of these 50 people, 5 were direct creators, around 10 people were editors and translators, the rest were testers and consultant. So this video truly is a result of teamwork, and we want to thank them all.
In the beginning, I turned for help to Ilya Terentyev. It wasn't the first trailer for him, he already has a considerable experience in trailer making. He came up with the idea of our trailer, created first storyboards. But the rest of the job was done by our artist Maxim Yakovenko, who directed and finalized the video. I was only helping by offering comments when needed. Other people whose help was essential for the video are another artist, Ivan Beshkarev who did all of the 2D drawings for the game and trailer, Nadezhda Gurskaya and her team who created the soundtrack. Josh Bloomberg did the voiceover. It seemed like everybody was inspired by the idea of the trailer and did their job exceptionally good.
Since Max and Ilya already told you about the creative work behind the trailer, I only want to add one more thing. We wanted to make this trailer better than the one we did for Predynastic Egypt, but we know we can't please everybody. There will be another video revealing the gameplay for those people who don't like introducing videos and want to know more about the game.
