Lakeburg Legacies will take part in Wholesome Direct
Greetings Rulers!
It is not every day that we can announce our participation to a showcase, and today, we are extremely happy to officially say:
Lakeburg Legacies will take part in Wholesome Direct this year!
Wholesome Direct is an independent showcase organized by Wholesome Games. Each year the showcase features a selection of indie games that demonstrate the incredible range of themes, styles, and perspectives that games have to offer.
Wholesome Direct 2023 will be streamed live on Saturday, June 10 at 18:00 CEST via YouTube and Twitch.
Mark the date on your calendar and make sure to be there! You do not want to miss this one... š
Thank you for reading, join us on Discord, Twitter & Instagram to chat with the team and other players!
Services and Illicit buildings - DevJournal #13
Hello, Rulers!
This time, instead of reviewing whatās new in the different areas of the game, weāre going to dive straight into one of our most recent reworks!
If youāve played the gameās demo (currently available on Steam), you may have noticed that not all the buildings are available in this version. In our previous dev journals, weāve introduced some of them: the Harvestersā barn, the Ballroom, the Building site... But also, ones whose activity can greatly affect the well-being of the whole town: Services and Illicit buildings.
We noticed during our playtesting sessions that their meaning wasnāt clear to players, so it was necessary for us to rethink their behaviour and the way information is displayed.
Service Gauges
The townās inhabitantsā overall service needs are displayed through four gauges: š Faith, āļø Health, š Entertainment, and š”ļø Protection. They can distribute temporary negative traits whose effects will amplify the lower the gauge is. It is thus extremely important to maintain them as high as possible, or else villagers will suffer the consequences greatly (and yes, that includes dying š)!
The Health gauge, for example, has a chance to distribute a simple cold to a random villager while it is in its highest tier, but that can quickly evolve into the flu, cholera or even the plague if players arenāt careful.
And the Protection gauge can have villagers go from Worried to Robbed if their need for safety isnāt satisfied.
These gauges will evolve based on several factors, one being the current population in town: depending on their class, villagers will have different service needs. Peasants, for example, have a greater need for health, while Nobles crave protection.
Specific buildings will also affect the service gauges, whether it be for the best or for the worst...
Illicit Buildings
As Lakeburg keeps on getting more crowded, the town develops a secret, darker side, and Illicit buildings will make an appearance... They work in a peculiar way: instead of being built, they will emerge seemingly out of nowhere as the size of the population increases, greatly affecting the overall well-being of the village! šØ
Itās difficult for the villagers to have their need for protection satisfied when thereās a Thievesā guild in town... Indeed, each Illicit building will steeply decrease the value of the related service if left unattended:
the Shack affects the villagersā need for Faith.
the Brothel affects the villagersā need for Health.
the Caravan affects the villagersā need for Entertainment.
and the Thievesā Guild affects the villagersā need for Protection.
The final Illicit building, the Assassinsā Guild, affects all service needs at once, making it particularly nefarious!
To lessen the Illicit buildingsā impact on the service needs, players can assign villagers to work there and keep Lakeburgās illicit activities in check. Of course, thereās a trade-off in that the buildings will then unleash special negative consequences on the village, such as resources disappearing or villagers getting highly negative traits. It'll be up to you to find the right balance!
Service buildings
Fortunately, service workers are here to counter the effects of illicit buildings! When villagers are assigned to work in the Church, the Hospital, the Theatre and the Barracks, they can increase the current value of the associated service. The higher the value of their skills, the bigger the impact on the related gauge!
Of course, these buildings require Gold to function, and service workers will stop satisfying the villagersā needs if you run out of money. šø
What do you think? Did you enjoy this insight into one of the most challenging parts of the game?
Thank you for reading, join us on Discord, Twitter & Instagram to discuss with the team and other players!
Lakeburg Legacies Release Date is moving to Summer 2023
Hello Rulers,
The demo of Lakeburg Legacies has been out for a few months now, and we are blown away by your enthusiasm, comments and excitement. Each day, we are more and more surprised by the love you have for our game and we cannot thank you enough for your support, feedback and ideas shared on our socials and Discord.
From Spring to Summer 2023
Lakeburg Legacies was planned to be released in Spring 2023 on PC, and if the past tense is being used here, it is because something has changed: we need a little bit more time to polish and make the best possible version of Lakeburg Legacies.
The demo taught us that you ARE loving the game, even though it is a small part of Lakeburg Legacies and you are slowly but surely building its success with us. We've seen it a few weeks ago: we passed the important threshold of 100 000 wishlists!
We want to release the Lakeburg Legacies that will captivate you and let you pour dozens or even hundreds of hours into, just like some of you did with the demo (yes, we've seen your screenshots!).
To accomplish this, we are slightly shifting the release date of Lakeburg Legacies from Spring 2023 to Summer 2023. In the coming months, we will have a lot of things to show you and we cannot wait to see your reactions!
Localization of Lakeburg Legacies
Today, we also have one more important thing to share with you: the languages officially supported by Lakeburg Legacies!
You will get to play in:
French
English
German
Simplified Chinese
New artwork
Also you may have missed it but Lakeburg Legacies got a brand new artwork, made by Johanna Forster:
Thank you for reading, join us on Discord, Twitter & Instagram to discuss with the team and other players!
As you probably know, we have released a demo for Lakeburg Legacies at the beginning of February, during the Steam Next Fest event. This demo has been played by thousands of you, and weāve spent a lot of time reading your feedback about it (as well as handling some of the issues you reported). It is extremely motivating for the team to see you so passionate about the game, and to read your lovely messages: we canāt thank you all enough for your support! ā¤ļø
These past few months, weāve worked on some new systems and important reworks that we couldnāt showcase in the demo. We felt that the game needed more refinement and comprehensibility, among other things. Letās have a look at whatās been cooking! Brace yourself, because we have a lot to show you! š
New Build Menu with choices!
One of the most important decisions we took was to give players a little more agency in deciding how to expand their village. Before, we could only add buildings in a set order. Now, it is possible to make a choice between three paths: primary resources and prestige, transformed resources, and buildings with various effects.
New buildings...? New buildings!
Among all the reworks, this system stands out because it is a brand new one. Weāve teased it a bit in the previous DevJournal: four new buildings have joined Lakeburg!
These new additions to the town will become the heart of the party: by throwing events such as banquets, balls or jousts, the nobility will bring the town š Prestige ā a very valuable resource that will determine how well you succeeded at the game. Other villagers can take part in the festivities to socialize and perhaps develop new relationships. š
Ernesto the Merchant
If you had the opportunity to play the demo, youāve probably been visited by Ernesto, a cheery merchant who travels the roads alongside his faithful llama Bianca š¦ Before the construction of the Castle and Trading Post, trading him goods is one of the only ways to make Gold. š°
We found his appearances were a bit too random, and players often suffered harshly from the lack of Gold at the beginning of their game. Thus, we decided to rework the trading system to give it its own permanent interface, rather than appearing as a random event. At first, players will have only one trade offer available at once, and two more will be unlocked after the Trading Post is built!
Thus, we decided to revamp our previous menu! The result, we hope, gives a better view of the families in town, as well as the different required actions.
Working Atmosphere
In a previous blogpost, weāve talked about the variety of relationships between the Villagers. In addition to affecting various factors such as their affinity or morale, social connections now directly reflect on the production time!
Workers in the same building can have a production bonus or malus, depending on whether their relationship with their coworkers is good š» or...explosive. š£
Encounters
Lakeburg is bustling with life, and villagers will meet each other even without any action from the players! These random interactions were previously only displayed in the townās Journal, which made it easy to miss them. Now, they will appear directly on the map, showing you which villagers were involved in the interaction, as well as its type. Did they gain an āOffendedā, āCharmedā or āEmbarrassedā trait after meeting each other? Did their relationship evolve from crush to passionate romance? š Or from rival to sworn enemy? āļø These notifications will make it much easier to keep track of everything that is happening in town!
UI rework of the Mentorship system
Life can be tough in Lakeburg, and itās important that kids prepare themselves for their future jobs as soon as they can! Thatās why adult workers can mentor up to three children at once, from the age of 6 until adulthood. However, we found that our mentorship system was often hard to get the hang of. And that was when players managed to find its location in buildings! Thanks to players' feedback, we realized that we needed to rework that part. After an interface rework, we hope itās easier to understand!
Mentees slots can now be seen directly under the related worker slot, as well as information about their status (occupied, free, locked, or when the mentor is missing).
Furthermore, mentees slots now show more information about how well a child is performing at a given job, including whether they have an aspiration towards this kind of work.
Clarification of the Traits system
For a while, it was confusing to understand where traits came from and how they could be transmitted from one character to another. We already had that in mind when we reworked the character sheet a few months ago, but we found it wasnāt enough.
Weāve reworked the way identity traits are displayed so it is much clearer which are hereditary (transmittable to offspring), and which are personality traits (transmittable to children and mentees).
Animations!
Weāve started to bring more life into the game by animating parts of it. For example, cute little animals on the map...
... newcomers joining the town...
... and good olā Tindra doing her magic! š®
We hope all these changes are making you as excited as we are! The game is now much closer to what we had in mind, and it is very satisfying for the team to see that almost all systems have been implemented. We have a lot more balancing and polishing to do, but we feel like weāre getting there! āØ
The demo is still available, so donāt hesitate to give it a try and tell us what you think!
We will be live on Lakeburg Legacies during the Steam Next Fest on February 7th at 17:00 CET. We will try to make the biggest village possible!
And don't forget: starting February 6th a demo will be available for you to try the game!
Follow us on Twitch so you don't miss any livestream!
Play the demo on February 6
Hello Rulers!
Yes, you read the title correctly: a demo of Lakeburg Legacies will be available starting February 6!
In this demo for the Steam Next Fest, you will get to create your very own kingdom, pair villagers together and experience the first hour of gameplay, up until the creation of the castle.
And in addition to this wonderful news... We have a new gameplay trailer to show you!
Enjoy, and see you on February 6 to play the demo of Lakeburg Legacies ā¤ļø
We wish you all the best for 2023, and to start the year off right we will make a livestream on Lakeburg Legacies on January 11 at 17:00 CET!
We'll show you all the progress we've made on the game, the things we've worked on, the new features we created, all the cute animations on the map and of course: how to build the best kingdom!
Character Sheet and social relations between villagers - DevJournal #11
Hello, Rulers!
The end of the year is almost upon us, and we have some good news to bring you before saying goodbye to 2022! As you may have read in our previous post, Lakeburg Legacies is going to be released in only a few months, in Spring 2023. We hope youāre as excited as we are!
In the meantime, we will keep you updated with our progress. And there is a lot to show you!
Rework of the Character sheet
As we refined most of the gameās systems to bring them closer to our vision during the last few months, the old character sheet became more and more obsolete. And now that all changes have been implemented, itās normal that we completely revamp its interface too! š ļø
The āLifeā page will give you all the information you need about a villagerās current state, strengths and weaknesses, personality, and needs. This is where youāll want to go to figure out in what buildings a villager would perform the best, understand what negative traits are affecting their stats, or see how much life expectancy they have left. šÆļø
And finally, there is one new addition to the character sheet, in the form of the mysterious āRelationshipsā page. š
Social relations
Drama and social interactions are at the core of Lakeburg Legacies, and as such they deserve their very own space!
The Relationship page of a villager's character sheet will show you the other villagers they have encountered, as well as the type of relationship they share. Are they simple acquaintances, secret lovers, besties, mentor and student, or even nemeses? āļø This is where you can watch all these relationships evolve, and even generate some new ones yourself to increase the chances that your favorite villagers appear in the same events!
New interface for the Houses
Following the rework of the Dating system, that weāve dived into in the previous dev journal, weāve felt the need to rework the Housesā interface to display more information about the state of a coupleās relationship. Players can now directly have an impact on the evolution of a family, by making the couple interact to improve their relationship, making them have a baby, or having them break up. š
We also had new backgrounds made for every time the house grows to host more children! šØāšØāš¶āš¶
New buildings?!
Could it be... Yes, there are indeed some new buildings we havenāt shown you before! They are going to join the town of Lakeburg to entertain the population. We should be able to tell you more about them very soon, but for now you can enjoy this first background! Will you be able to guess what the purpose of this place is?
The answer will be revealed in the next dev journal. š
Until then, we're sending you our best wishes for the year to come! May 2023 be filled with joy, laughter, just a little touch of drama...and perhaps some time spent playing a certain game!
Today is an important day for Ishtar Games as weāve announced three titles we will release in 2023 under the banner of Ishtar Games Publishing: Spirited Thief (Koi Snowman Games), Worlds of Aria (Ludogram) and of course, your beloved Lakeburg Legacies!
As announced in this trailer, Lakeburg Legacies will be released in Spring 2023! Since the Closed Beta in June, weāve worked on the game a LOT and dozens of things have changed. We cannot wait to show you more things about the game, up until the official launch (without spoiling you too much of course)!
