All posts by lastregiment

Dev Blog #29 – Building Maps

This week we’ve been playing around with the editor, and looking at the process in which we add new tiles. Take note, there are different types of tiles: walkable tiles, impassable tiles, and structures, and it takes regular playtesting to make sure the maps are fun to play.

For maps with a sporeland type terrain, players need to build a regiment of units that are immune to Infection and other spore effects.

Part of creating the map editor is trying duplicate real world things in the game. However, a lot of the maps are representational, and do not show the real sizes of things such as mountains, oceans, and villages.

Watch Last Regiment Dev Blog #29: Using the Map Editor from boomzapofficial on www.twitch.tv

We’ve also been doing a lot of fixes based on the results of our unit testing last week. At this point, we have made sure that the basic game make sense, decided what features we need, designed the different characters, and built the environment it is set in. We’re almost ready to start working on the campaigns.

Watch Last Regiment Dev Blog #29: What Have We Been Doing from boomzapofficial on www.twitch.tv

We have a bunch of maps already created, but some still need adjustment. Here’s the actual process of creating a map for Last Regiment.

Watch Last Regiment Dev Blog #29: Actual Map Making from boomzapofficial on www.twitch.tv

For our question of the week, we want to ask our players: what do you love and hate about the map editors in other games?

Watch Last Regiment Dev Blog #29: Question of the Week from boomzapofficial on www.twitch.tv

As always, send us your answers and other comments on our Discord.


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Dev Blog #28 – Daily Unit Testing

We’ve been doing our week of focused playtest sessions, going through every unit, power, trait, and terrain one by one. Of course we’ve always tested the game daily, but this time we were looking at specific things.

After testing the powers and traits, we decided to remove powers that we felt would cause more trouble for us in the long run, such as powers that had aura effects. We’ve also added passive traits to summoned units on terrains, and  restored the walker traits to make use of the changes we made to the terrains. We may or may not like it, but for now it stays until further testing tell us otherwise.

Adding new traits to units, such as this lumbermilling bonus

We also tested the new factions that we added last week – Tinkersteel and Khazan. We shifted units around to what we feel would be their appropriate factions.

Dragonfly Snipers from the Khazan faction

The UI is now more accessible through another revamp, wherein we added button support for adding-removing regiments. We’re also making revisions to the current in-game effects to make it more exciting.

New visual effects for Tentaklor

We’re also starting a new thing: the question of the week!

What other games similar to Last Regiment have you seen marketed well, and what did they do? We’re looking at studios that are indie-size, and similar to us not just in terms of genre but in the sense of what our users might enjoy. We’re also doing our own research, but we’re curious about who has done stuff out there that our player like.  Post screenshots, links, and all other ideas on our Discord!

 


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Dev Blog #27 – New Factions, Balancing Issues, and Marketing Plans

Four weeks until closed beta aka Earlier Access! First, here’s a rundown of what we’ve been up to recently.

Development Progress

While the purpose of the beta is to get more players to test the game so we can rebalance the game, it’s work that we’ve already started doing.

Watch Last Regiment Dev Blog #27: Balancing Issues from boomzapofficial on www.twitch.tv

We got a bunch of feedback from the first few rounds of new-unit testing and have been heavily making some major adjustments. We’re adding some powers, moving some others around, and refactoring a BUNCH of the numbers. However, this includes a subjective decision on what we think a unit and its powers are worth.

Watch Last Regiment Dev Blog #27: New Units, Regiment Builder, UI, and Faction Names from boomzapofficial on www.twitch.tv

Recent game changes also include some cool new stuff! We’ve added two new factions, Tinkersteel and Khazan. We’re also discussing some of the faction names, such as changing the Woodspawn to Faeborn, and the Highborne into Elves, which are more direct to the point.

Concept art for Tinkertsteel hero, Gearmage Shelbia

Aside from the new units, we’re also improving the user interface. Last week we added the livestreamer section in the main menu, and we’ll continue to look at more Twitch API integrations. The regiment builder is also now easier to select and sort.

Functional sorting system for Choose a Regiment screen

Changing Our Marketing Approach

One of the questions we received from Discord was: how are we going to market this game differently from Legends of Callasia? Again, we look at the reasons of why it failed, and determine where we got our money’s worth from our past marketing efforts.

Watch Last Regiment Dev Blog #27: How are we going to market this game? from boomzapofficial on www.twitch.tv

For Last Regiment, we’ll be concentrate on improving our Steam page, including our trailer. Paid advertising is also an option for us, and the marketing blitz before launch is also important. But the most essential part is making changes in the game itself, to making sure it is easy to understand and has features that can help improve our marketing.

 

 


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