Yesterday I released the Steam page for my solo-made game Villages on Wheels. I have worked on it for 20 months now.
Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5066610/Villages_on_Wheels
I made the Steam page public this morning, and sent the email right away.
I would never have guessed that they release the trailer on the very same day.
I have gained 12 wishlists so far today, lets see if this video has any effect on it!
The email was as simple as it can get:
Hi!
I just released the coming soon page for Villages on Wheels, a strategic horde survival game.
Would you want to upload the announcement trailer for it?
Trailer & Press kit: <link>
Steam Page: <link>
Have a great weekend!
What my press kit had:
So fellow indie devs: always shoot your shot! Keep it short and simple, let the game do the talking.
The trailer: https://youtu.be/klBD49UD0QE?si=-JoN2tnktk1cwQZ8
the game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5066610/Villages_on_Wheels
Hi, I just released my coming soon Steam page for Villages on Wheels, a strategic horde survival.
In the game you expand your moving village while destroying monsters coming at you, and build synergies with blessings, orbs & levelups.
Does it look interesting?
Steam page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5066610/Villages_on_Wheels
I wanted to do everything content related myself, so along with Godot, I had to learn vector graphics (Inkscape), 3D modeling (Blender), creating music (FL Studio), and game design.
Still a long way to go! If you want to support me, you could watch a few of my Youtube videos, link is in bio or search for channel "Villages On Wheels"
If any of these are your cup of tea:
Then this video might interest you!
What do you think of the concept? And what abilities would be cool to see in the game?
As an indie dev with limited budget, you got to make the best of any resource you can find.
Skeleton bones sfx was fun to make, and it sounds pretty decent in my opinion!
If it interests you, I have a link to my youtube channel where there is more devlog stuff about the game
Since adding a monster horde chasing you, I felt it was time to pivot the genre.
What do you think would be fitting genre to describe the game?
Sorry for the dramatic intro, it was for my next devlog :)
At first my game was created from RTS perspective, but without armies, you only control the village (Ballistas automatically shoot enemies, gatherers go to resources when close).
I have mechanics like click terrain to move, minimap, gather resources, build buildings, buy building upgrades (10% movement speed in platform, more space for villagers in house), similar to RTS.
But I also have abilities and buffs always visible on screen like in MOBAs.
Initial idea was to have just 2-8 villages that play with same rules (others are computer controlled), much like in RTS.
I called it "Hero Unit RTS"
Now last week I added monsters to the game, that chase and try to destroy your village, which introduced this survival element to the game.
The game is now heavily pivoting towards that, the story mode will also have monsters, while the vil vs vil has its own mode.
But what would be the best genre to describe it? I was thinking "Mobile base survival", but is there a chance for confusion with the "eat/drink to not die" survival games?
What would you say is the most fitting genre? Is my new idea ok?
I improved my computer players by upgrading the code from simple if-else logic to weight based decision making.
So I store all the possible actions in an array and select the best one (or some other, if I want to create lower difficulties make worse decisions).
This devlog explains how the code works.
What are your thoughts on the matter or the game concept itself?
Hi!
Short pitch: Villages On Wheels is a Hero Unit RTS, where you control only your village. Move, gather, build, expand, and destroy other villages to win the game.
For the past 2-3 weeks, I have been busy with the most challenging programming task in my project so far: create a smart game AI (the decision making of computer player, not LLM)
There is still a lot of ToDo comments in the code, but I am pretty happy with the results, so here is a clip of 4 of the AI players fighting it out!
What I did in a nutshell: I switched from if-else logic to weight based decision making. I stored all the possible actions in an array, and at the end chose the action with most points.
I also added support for alternative actions, so after selecting the best one, we can check its type and do another superior action (for example, if moving, we can use teleport ability to move towards the point faster)
This new logic makes it possible to also choose less optimal actions, so I can make lower difficulty levels take worse actions.
I also added strategies for the AI players (Ballista Rush, Early Boom etc.), which define what buildings it should build, what building upgrades to buy, and when to update to larger village size (2x2->3x3->4x4)
The computer player can do the following:
The ToDo comments have more advanced actions, like remembering how strong the enemy was, take clans of the game into consideration and much more.
If you are interested in hearing more, I released a video about the topic yesterday (implementation with code snippets included): https://youtu.be/oRERbsx58ws
Have a great week!
