PC Gaming Show, Discord server & Development update
Hello!
Today we’ve got a bunch of updates to share, so if you’re interested in what has been happening behind the scenes for the last few months, you’re in the right place :) Let’s start with the most exciting stuff first.
PC Gaming Show
Laysara: Summit Kingdom was a part of this year’s PC Gaming Show with a brand new trailer! If you haven’t seen it already, you can give it a watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyJnA_mehI0
The trailer showcases a feature we have never shown before: building mines on mountain faces/cliffs. While most buildings can be placed only on flat mountain slopes, a few special buildings can be built only on raw resource deposits on cliffs, outside of standard gameplay areas.
Super professional way for building exactly the same road layout while capturing gameplay - arrows taped to the monitor.
Tea bags jenga tower, a side effect of editing the trailer until 4 a.m.
Future Friends Games
We’re also very happy to announce that we’ve signed a publishing deal with Future Friends Games. They are experienced and competent, yet very small - which is just perfect for us, only a 2-person team :) We decided to sign with a publisher for two main reasons: firstly, to secure some funding for the rest of the development, and secondly, to have someone to help us with biz-dev/marketing topics, so we as developers can focus on just making the game.
The process of speaking/negotiating with different publishers was something that has occupied us pretty heavily in recent months. We had no idea how time-consuming it will be, so now we have to update our production schedule. There is still much to be done in terms of game development and it turns out, we won’t be able to finish the game in 2022 as originally planned, so we’re now aiming to release in Q1 2023.
Discord server
And the last piece of news: the official Laysara’s Discord server is now up! If you are waiting for the game, want to chat with us or other folks interested in the game and want to take part in future beta tests - then simply, just join our Discord :)
Let us tell you about a key ingredient to any thriving town and settlement: its population.
In our game, the society consists of three castes. However, the castes aren't aligned in a feudal-like hierarchy, where you can have "low" classes and "elite" classes, clearly differentiating in desirability. In Laysara, no caste is superior to one another - they all have different backgrounds, specializations and likings. Your job is to ensure that each caste members work in a complementary way to each other creating a synergy of different specialities and competencies.
What does it mean gameplay-wise? Your population is divided into three labour pools and every building needs workers from a specific pool in order to operate (tip: look at the roof colour!). You increase the number of available workers by building a specific residential building, different for each caste. Lastly, the needs and requirements of each caste members are slightly different - for example, while all need food, some need less, some need more, and members of each caste have different preferred food products.
Commoners
These are the folks who live in harsh mountain conditions on a daily basis. Their knowledge of mountain climate and environment makes them great farmers and breeders. As they live on the high attitude from generations, they grew accustomed to the heights and can perform even very hard labour for your town.
As a result, Commoners will be the backbone of your economy, responsible for the food production and transportation of goods. They also work in basic processing buildings, such as Cheesemaker (which produces Chees from yaks' Milk) or Charcoal Pile (which processes Wood into Coal), and extraction buildings, such as Lumbermill and different types of mines.
Lowlanders
Lowlanders were living in large, wealthy and comfortable cities in the valleys until they were forced to seek a new home in the uplands. They long for their old ways of life, full of comforts and luxury. Keeping them happy will require a lot of effort from you, but they are worth it.
Lowlanders are master craftsmen and manufacturers. They work in workshops, where they transform raw materials into luxurious goods, which then can be distributed to all citizens (making them more content) or designed for the trade. Lowlanders also operate welfare buildings, such as Inn or Hot Baths.
Monks
And at last, we have Monks. These are people who have sacrificed themselves in the search of inner strength and equilibrium. They tend to the spiritual needs of all of your citizens, which is vital for their wellbeing.
You can find Monks in various objects in some ways related to religious practices and meditations, such as Shrine and Bell. Monks prefer to live in encircled monastery complexes - where they also work in selected industry branches, examples being the production of Incense and growing Herbs.
Summary
As you can see, your towns need all three castes to thrive. Of course, the proportions are not rigid, and sometimes you can rely more heavily on one of them if this makes the most sense in given circumstances, or if you just feel like it. Finding and maintaining balance is the key.
We hope you will forgive us for the somewhat vague and laconic descriptions of castes' backgrounds - the game lore is still forming up, and we'll give you more insight into it in the future :)
Maciek & Michał
Exploring game mechanics: resources and production chains
Hi folks!
Laysara: Summit Kingdom is a pure city-building experience with a high focus on the economy. Building production buildings, transporting the goods, further processing them and finally distributing to your citizens (or using them for different purposes, such as trading) is a backbone of the game. The aspect of transportation in difficult mountain terrain is actually pretty complex and will be discussed in a separate post, but today we'd like to tell you more about resources and production chains present in the game.
Production chains
Our idea here is simple: variety. For some resources, you'll need only a single production building and that's it. Others can be obtained only via a multi-staged production chain with multiple semi-finished products. Some buildings require yaks to operate, some have to be placed near the water source, some can be only built on resource deposits. Each production building requires a specified type of workforce to operate - Commoners, Lowlanders or Monks. With all of these factors obtaining each resource has a unique characteristic of a setup required, so you won't be employing the same building pattern over and over again.
This is the scheme of all available production chains in the game. Please note that we're still working on it, so things may change, and this scheme is taken directly from our internal development documentation, so it's not pretty :)
(click for zoom in)
Resources
As you can see, while there are many "standard" goods present here, like Fish, Cheese, Wood and Beer, the game also features some more exotic ones, such as Tsampa or Butter Lamps for example.
Tsampa is basically barley flour, which can be turned into a nutritious meal. This dish is quite popular in the Himalayan region, partially due to the easy way of preparing it. In our game producing and distributing Tsampa is one of the basic ways of providing food for your citizens. It's especially desirable for Commoners and Monks, who are used to the simpler ways of life than Lowlanders.
Butter Lamps requires Butter and Copper Utensils to produce. Again, Butter Lamps are actually used in Tibet as an aid for meditation and religious practices. In Laysara they serve the same purpose, helping people tend their spiritual needs. It should come as no surprise that they are desirable the most for Monks.
Ending the topic of resources, we'd like to show you something we`re actually very happy with. When carriers are moving goods from one place to another, there are adequate visualizations for every single resource they can carry. This way you don't have a crowd of clones with generic-looking packages walking on the streets, but rather a colourful mixture with distinctive resource shapes.
Supported languages update
Jumping to real-world topics for a moment: we find the Russian full-blown invasion of Ukraine outrageous and disgusting. As Polish developers, we're doing what we can to help privately, and as a studio, we're dropping a Russian localisation of the game and we'll do a Ukrainian one instead.
That's all we've got for you today, as always, we remain open to your question and suggestions! See you next time.
Maciek & Michał
Exploring game mechanics: vegetation zones
Hi folks!
So, it's about time to start sharing some more info on how do you actually play the game :) Let's start with something fundamental that will affect your building strategy from the very beginning: vegetation zones.
The concept is pretty simple: the mountain landscape changes with height. The higher you go, the more rough and unwelcoming the terrain becomes. The idea is represented by distinct vegetation zones you will encounter in (almost) every game level:
Green zones
The lowest playable areas, just above the dense mist covering the mountain basis. Full of flourishing flora, bushy forests and fertile ground. Farms produce the most barley in this environment, grazing yaks produce high amounts of milk (which can be then further processed into cheese, butter, butter tea, etc.) and hot baths require minimal quantities of fuel for heating.
Building in green zones has also one other benefit: it's quite rare for snow avalanches to come down this low... but not impossible!
Temperate zones
Above green lowlands, you find a little less bushy and fertile areas. Farms produce more hay alongside barley, lumbermills work with smaller trees, decreasing their efficiency. However, only in these areas, you can encounter cedar trees - a resource valuable especially for monks (one of three citizen castes), as it is used to produce incense. At this height also minerals start to show up, be it salt, copper or gold.
High zones
The third and last kind of gameplay areas. Very scare vegetation, inhospitable terrain, rough conditions. Farming doesn't make much sense here, stumped and dead trees are a poor source of wood. Yaks can barely produce any milk at this height - however, due to the low temperatures, they grow extra thick layers of fleece, which boosts your wool production.
The most important reason for expanding your town into this hard terrain is mining - most of the natural minerals can be found only at this height. High zones with their harsh, unforgiving conditions are also very appealing to your monks, who prefer to live in monastery complexes as close to the mountain peak as possible.
One more thing: I don't need to describe how being just below the snowy parts of the mountain affects the probability of avalanches, right? ;)
Snow zone
The peak of the mountain and the glacier areas below - the snow never melts in here, all life forms just freeze here within a couple of hours, the terrain is steep and often features ridges and huge vertical cliffs.
The conditions are just deadly and there is no rational reason to ever go there. However... is the reason the only thing that can drive humanity? :)
Summary
And that's about it! To sum it up, all of the three available types of gameplay areas are different and best suited for different uses. There are no better or worse ones, all of them have their pros and cons, which you should consider when planning your town. A lot of building work the same way despite the zone they are located in, but you really can't ignore zones if you want to create an efficient town. And believe me, you want to do exactly that :)
If you have any thoughts, don't hesitate to shoot us a comment. Also, suggestions for our zones mechanics are highly welcomed at this stage - we are still trying things out, maybe we can change/add a thing or two ;)
Maciek & Michał
So, the journey begins...
Hi folks!
We're Maciek and Michał, two guys behind Quite OK Games. We're extremely excited to be here on Steam and finally show you what we're up to.
The game is far from being finished, so expect updates! A lot of updates :D In the upcoming months, we'll tell you more about game mechanics and features, we'll also share some behind-the-scenes materials showing what we're currently working on. Every single time feedback is much appreciated, we'd love to know your thoughts :)
Also, did you see our Reveal Trailer? It was a pretty intense ride to put it together, but hopefully, it was worth it :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d86Yqrv81jQ Let us know what you think :) Cheers!
