Questions on Writing

[brazen light]

Hello there! I've just started playing the game and after the huge disappointment that other horde defense RTS have been, I really, really love where this game is going. I haven't played much yet, but I'm already fascinated, delighted and at times confused by many choices, especially concerning worldbuilding and lore. First time I've ever joined a video game Discord channel, hoping my thoughts might be useful.

I'm a low-tier professional writer, with a formal education in the subject, and have been a hobbyist all my life. I'm really interested in seeing how the lore and story elements of the game will progress, and if you guys would like any feedback or input that might help you along the way, or if you're already all set and clear in that department.

Right now I have two main questions:

1. What general tone and mood are you going for with the game? The premise screams "post-apocalyptic dark fantasy with tons of mystical elements", but stuff like the tool tip flavor texts are obviously aiming at levity and laughs.

2. What flavor of setting are you aiming for? I love the fantasy-African vibes of the setting, which has a lot of potential to be fresh, unique and just all around cool, but then why are all my units white and dressed like traditional fantasy tropes? Are you intending to focus on stuff like theme and setting more strongly later, or is this kind of mixed cultural approach what you are aiming for?

[fierce wigeon]

Hi @brazen light, what an interesting question! I also read the thoughts you shared in the general chat. That is a lot of fun to read and see evolve. Also very interesting how much you can already read into the lore of the world even though we only give so little right now.

I'll try to answer some of your questions. I also can't share too much, as we do have plans for the future to expand on the lore in the game.

You are spot on with your premise. It is a low technology universe that is in an industrial age, where more advanced technology is achieved through harnessing Arcana. The general tone of the game is serious, however we do like to step out of that where a tongue-in-cheek can be isolated. Examples of that are indeed the tooltip flavor texts, or certain voicelines of the units. We draw inspiration from Warcraft and Starcraft in this topic (among others).

For the setting, that is still evolving in the background. It is not yet where we want it to be and we will use the Early Access period to make changes and to nail it down. The game has gone through many changes over the years. RTS games have a large challenge in readability. We feel that is now in a great place, but in some places at the cost of identity. This is an ongoing process for us to improve over the months to come.

[brazen light]

I see, thank you for the response! Are you interested in input on writing ideas that go beyond just general feedback and into specific propositions like the one outlined in the general conversation, or do you at this point have an established aesthetic vision and lore that would not necessarily benefit from entirely new concepts and ideas?

The mention of Blizzard games is remarkable, because while I was personally going over more feedback you guys might be interested in (or not) in my head, ways to isolate levity that came up in my mind were War Craft and Star Craft - but exactly because they don't do what the game currently does.

They have those hilarious lines forming a beautiful contrast because you have to go out of your way to find them, whereas tooltips and flavor texts are one of the first and most profound exposures to lore and worldbuilding a player will have. I was considering straight-up suggesting doing the Blizzard thing and doing funny lines when you bother units enough. That way you can go for full, all-out epicness in the base game feel without having both moods dilute each other.

When I think of using tooltips for worldbuilding, stuff like Kasedo Games' Ixion or Frostpunk come to mind, as well as Heroes of Might and Magic VI (terrible game, but I adored the lore) - but most of all the Total War games. Shogun II's "I'm not so good at healing wounds in the back. There is no cure for cowardice." as a simple flavor text for a field medic goes unbelievably hard and sets the mood of feudal Japan better than any story beat could, and it's literally just a line of text.

Take the packed quarters. "99.9 percent chance of someone snoring", at least to me, feels less like a moment of levity and more of a strong mood- and immersion-breaker because it brings the player to a real-life, everyday mindset. It also incurs the opportunity costs of taking the place of a flavor-text like, say, "For the honor of joining a Reaper's expedition, a tithe of blood is paid. Those too weak to give as much may pay instead in comfort."

In this example that would establish various elements of lore at the same time as creating a dense, immersive atmosphere, inviting the player to imagine what life in those buildings must look like and also ideally just being plain cool.

I definitely get readability in RTS games. I think the work that has been done clearly shows - like I said in reviews, this is already by far the best horde defense RTS I've come across. At this point, especially with me not knowing if any of my input would even be helpful to you guys at this stage, I'm just throwing stuff at the wall that I think would be cool; and having a bunch of African-inspired units, or even something like African Steampunk, just felt like it could make for very distinct and unique as well as fucking awesome aesthetics.

The knight's startled little 'N-uh!' is another example, because I both love that line but feel that hearing it all the time means I never get the chance to really get immersed in an epic fantasy world where heroic warriors fight for the survival of humanity - because I'm constantly reminded of the funny idea of this knight being a nervous coward. Imagine if this was something that showed up with some literal poking around instead, where suddenly that heroic figure turns out to be just faking it because they're actually shaking in their boots. That would make for a hilarious moment of levity before allowing you back into the stringent epic mood of the base gameplay loop.

[fierce wigeon]

You're pointing out a very interesting distinction with Warcraft indeed. In fact these lines are meant as "pissed" lines that are only played when you click the unit often, like in Warcraft. We even have many more recorded for this, just haven't found the time and priority to put it in yet. Interesting to hear how different this now hits for you, I wasn't aware of the potential immersion break there so that's very nice feedback.

I like how you find the African inspiration in the current version of the game. It's not a very deliberate direction to have that in right now. But we had a good bunch of Caribbean inspiration a while back (it was a phase), even working on the concept of a Baron Samedi inspired unit/hero.

I'm very interested in input on ideas and your enthusiasm already sparks ideas in me too. We are a low budget, low time, dev team, so any help we can get is very much welcome. Maybe we should start chatting in private soon though as we are starting to hit on topics I'm not yet ready to share!