As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

Kingdom Commander!

TubeTube Registered User admin
edited September 2012 in Indie Games
slider.jpg

About the Game
Kingdom Commander is a turn based multi-player strategy game planned for release on PC, Mac, and mobile devices.

Kingdom Commander pits you against your friends in skill shot strategic turn based combat. Battle against rival kindgoms, destroying everything in your path with an arsenal of cannonballs, magic spells, and so much more. Hone your skills, perfect your strategies, and with a pinch of luck, you can command it all.

Why should I care?
Heavily influenced by a cult classic, Moonbase Commander, considered to be "the best game no one played". We saw hope in bringing back this style of game and infusing it with modern sensibilities, tech, and great new features to really help revitalize this facet of a genre that has been sorely neglected in recent years.

Many over the years, including Tycho, have praised Moonbase's unique combat style and we hope to create what we deem the true Spiritual Successor.
penny-arcade.com/2002/06/10
penny-arcade.com/2005/11/28

Who is making this?
Kingdom Commander is being developed by 3 veteran developers calling themselves Old Owl Games. We worked on a number of great titles including Titan Quest, Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, Dawn of War: SoulStorm, Rockband 2 as well as indie titles Natural Selection2, Overgrowth, and Grim Dawn. We have worked on Kingdom Commander for close to a year and are ready to get some feedback from fans and newcomers.

Can I play this now?
Yes!
The game is still in early pre-alpha stage but definitely playable. Currently, we're hosting these early builds at http://www.kingdomcommander.com. We still have a number of features we want to add to the game but if we don’t have the core working all the new features in the world won’t matter. We only ask you sign up on our forums and let us know how it goes! Better yet we’d love to see live streams or video of you playing with your friends.

Thanks
Old Owl Games

Tube on

Posts

  • parnellparnell Registered User regular
    edited October 2012
    New Build of Kingdom Commander is up online!
    Pre-Alpha Ver. 0.3.3.0

    playnow.png


    epic2.1.jpganti-magic.1.jpg
    plague.1.jpgabsorb.jpg

    Try the Pre-Alpha right now!
    So what's in this build!?
    We have a large set of updates for the latest build of Kingdom Commander.The focus of this build was to pump up the visuals. All the FX have had an overhaul with new explosions, animations, ground decals, new sounds, and a new music track. Another large feature was weather. The player can now pick and choose the type of weather (rain, snow, etc) they want in the game and the amount. The UI is still in progress but we're reworking menus and layout. Finally, with game play we've added the much requested timers to the turn base mechanic, as well as player requested tweaks.In the coming days, we'll be posting our road map for the development of Kingdom Commander. As we'll be diving into AI and exciting new features.

    Thanks again for your support!
    Old Owl Team

    0.3.3.0 Build List:
    [Change] Modify some effects.
    [Fix] Networking issue in Medium_02
    [Add] Timer for player turn.
    [Fix] The cord blink toward to the hub.
    [Add] Weather setting.
    [Add] Popup, "Your Turn" message
    [Change] UI
    [Add] First pass on new sounds and new combat music demo.
    [Add] Improved effects, decals to explosions
    [Add] Range indicator for anti-air


    Steam Community Group:
    http://steamcommunity.com/groups/kingdomcommander

    Twitter:
    https://twitter.com/_KingCom

    parnell on
  • GnomeTankGnomeTank What the what? Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
    I love the start style, a lot.

    I will try this out when I get home tonight and give more feedback.

    Sagroth wrote: »
    Oh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
    Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, NintendoID: Brainling, FF14: Zillius Rosh SFV: Brainling
  • Erin The RedErin The Red The Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMA Baton Rouge, LARegistered User regular
    I was wooed by the giant green button. Also this works on my work internet! I may have to try and arrange some lunchtime shenanigans.
    So far, this is fun! I am also terrible at it. But the only person that knows that is me.

    And I guess you guys, too

  • parnellparnell Registered User regular
    I was wooed by the giant green button. Also this works on my work internet! I may have to try and arrange some lunchtime shenanigans.
    So far, this is fun! I am also terrible at it. But the only person that knows that is me.

    And I guess you guys, too

    That's great! The green button is hypnotizing isn't it?? We're keeping it browser based for now as we push frequent updates to the build. We also find the browser version is much easier for newcomers to try the game without a lengthy install.
    If you like we'd love to hear what you and your co-workers think of the game on our forums.

    Thanks!
    Parnell

  • GnomeTankGnomeTank What the what? Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
    Finally got around to playing a game this morning. There weren't any games up, so I just played a hotseat against myself.

    My first thought is that I love the concept, though I wonder if it wouldn't be more fun and tense with timed turns. Perhaps as a "tournament mode"? I think timed turns, perhaps with times based on how long the game has gone on (adjusting upward, as people get more and more things they need to do per turn) would add a really nice sense of tension to the game.

    The only complaint I have, if you want to call it that, is that I feel like the mouse interaction with the aim circle is odd. I know what you were going for (the aim circle rotates around the axis of the mouse as it moves), but I find myself wanting to place the mouse on the screen where I wanted the pointer to go. Perhaps this could be added as an alternate input mode, because I feel you're going to find players who are veteran gamers are going to want that sort of input. It's much more precise in a game where skill shotting matters. That said, it's also easier to aim and perhaps that's why you left it out. My counter argument to that would be that if people wanted to line up perfect skill shots anyway, they could just use a ruler or piece of tape on the screen. Extreme, but people do crazy things to win games. I think the addition of the power meter also offsets the advantage of click-to-aim wold give. At any rate, something to think about.

    Overall, great job so far, and I'll be keeping an eye on this.

    Sagroth wrote: »
    Oh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
    Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, NintendoID: Brainling, FF14: Zillius Rosh SFV: Brainling
  • PrimePrime UKRegistered User regular
    GnomeTank wrote: »

    The only complaint I have, if you want to call it that, is that I feel like the mouse interaction with the aim circle is odd. I know what you were going for (the aim circle rotates around the axis of the mouse as it moves), but I find myself wanting to place the mouse on the screen where I wanted the pointer to go. Perhaps this could be added as an alternate input mode, because I feel you're going to find players who are veteran gamers are going to want that sort of input. It's much more precise in a game where skill shotting matters. That said, it's also easier to aim and perhaps that's why you left it out. My counter argument to that would be that if people wanted to line up perfect skill shots anyway, they could just use a ruler or piece of tape on the screen. Extreme, but people do crazy things to win games. I think the addition of the power meter also offsets the advantage of click-to-aim wold give. At any rate, something to think about.

    I had issues with the rotation system too. Felt...unnatural. But I loved the concept and the game has potential.



  • Erin The RedErin The Red The Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMA Baton Rouge, LARegistered User regular
    For some reason, I'm unable to make a game. Probably due to work internet being dumb. :(

  • parnellparnell Registered User regular
    Great feedback! I have some questions for those that tried out the game.

    Gnometank: You want the ability to click on the circle and where you click the arrow will line up. Right?

    Prime: Can you explain how this felt unnatural?

    TheRoadVirus: So you were unable to get the game to load? Or unable to create a game from the lobby? If you can't find someone online to play with, you'll need to try "HotSeat" mode as that allows you to play locally against yourself. I'd recommend finding a co-worker to play against during your lunch hour;)

    Thanks!
    Parnell

  • Erin The RedErin The Red The Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMA Baton Rouge, LARegistered User regular
    edited September 2012
    It loaded fine, and I could do the hotseat game without difficulty. When I went to create a game, I named the room, set the # of players and the map, and then when I would click "create," nothing would happen. It may be because of the firewall that is set up at work to block certain types of traffic.

    (I just tried it now at home, and it works fine. There go my plans for a lunch hour showdown! Maybe I can still figure something out...)

    Also, @Parnell, if you want to get someone's attention, simply put the @ and then their name (use quotes around names with spaces in them, like @ "example name"(minus the space between @ and ")) and it will give them a notification, even if they don't have the threat subscribed. May make it easier to ping people for their input on things.

    Cheers!

    Erin The Red on
  • GnomeTankGnomeTank What the what? Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
    I was actually paying attention to this thread, but yes, the @ thing is great for future reference.

    @parnell: Effectively, though clicking right ON the circle is probably cumbersome. More effective would be, when I click, simply draw a straight line from where I click to the center of the circle, and line it up to that.

    Sagroth wrote: »
    Oh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
    Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, NintendoID: Brainling, FF14: Zillius Rosh SFV: Brainling
  • PrimePrime UKRegistered User regular
    parnell wrote: »

    Prime: Can you explain how this felt unnatural?

    Parnell

    Ignore me, I gave it a little bit more of a play and realised that I could click and drag anywhere INSIDE the ring to rotate, originally I was trying to grab the thin radius loop (been using 3D modelling programs a lot recently...thats my excuse anyway.)

    Played some hotseat and actually had a blast. One recommendation for anyone with a vs hotseat system. Between players turns have a screen blackout for 3-5 seconds. Just makes keeping things easier to hide.

  • Erin The RedErin The Red The Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMA Baton Rouge, LARegistered User regular
    OH! I remembered a thing I thought!
    Asynchronous play!
    I'm not sure how hard it would be to implement, but a turn-based game like this would be great for it.
    Maybe have a game name/password and be able to "register" a password for whatever team you're playing. Then you can just type the game name, enter your password, and see if it's your turn or something.

  • kimekime Queen of Blades Registered User regular
    OH! I remembered a thing I thought!
    Asynchronous play!
    I'm not sure how hard it would be to implement, but a turn-based game like this would be great for it.
    Maybe have a game name/password and be able to "register" a password for whatever team you're playing. Then you can just type the game name, enter your password, and see if it's your turn or something.

    I haven't played this yet (planning on it though!), but for turned-based games, asynchronous play is a really nice feature. Also, as I think someone mentioned above, being able to specify (before the game starts) a time limit for turns is also nice.

    Battle.net ID: kime#1822
    3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
    Steam profile
  • Erin The RedErin The Red The Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMA Baton Rouge, LARegistered User regular
    I really enjoyed the fact that it was implemented in Frozen Synapse when I played it. It really helps if you have a situation where your friend has a wierd schedule compared to yours and you can still play together.

  • GnomeTankGnomeTank What the what? Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
    edited September 2012
    I don't think you can just set a turn time fire and forget style. For a game like this, as the turns go forward, the game requires you to do more and more each turn. I think for the system to work well, you'd need to put together a reasonable algorithm that scaled the turn sizes up as the game got longer and more complex. For user input, I'd rather see them select from broader categories like "Short", "Medium", "Long", where the game then uses those values to scale the algorithm and figured out the turn times.

    Chess, probably the most popular "timed turn" game, is different in that the set of things you can do each turn is relatively fixed.

    GnomeTank on
    Sagroth wrote: »
    Oh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
    Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, NintendoID: Brainling, FF14: Zillius Rosh SFV: Brainling
  • kaliyamakaliyama Left to find less-moderated fora Registered User regular
    @gnometank, you on now? wanna play?

    fwKS7.png?1
  • GnomeTankGnomeTank What the what? Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
    @kaliyama: I am not, I'm at work. I'll probably be down for a game sometime this weekend though.

    Sagroth wrote: »
    Oh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
    Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, NintendoID: Brainling, FF14: Zillius Rosh SFV: Brainling
  • donkyhotaydonkyhotay Registered User regular
    Moonbase Commander is one of my favorite games ever. I've actually been trying to keep a FOSS project to remake Moonbase Commander afloat with limited success (we have a lack of really good coders) and seeing someone developing a Moonbase Commander style game is really exciting. My biggest concern about this is since it appears to be browser based only if something happens to the company then the game is completely inaccessible. They don't mention what the cost (if any) will be for the game and if it's free (and supported by online advertising) that is one thing I but I am very uncertain about actually buying Kingdom Commander. I bought Moonbase Commander when it first came out and when the (limited) online play finally died I could at least play LAN with my friends still. Had the original Moonbase Commander been browser based then when the site went down I wouldn't have been able to play even solo/LAN the past 10 years despite paying for it. It's something that makes me hesitant about buying any online only game anymore.

    Do not be afraid to joust a giant just because some people insist on believing in windmills.
    Free Moonbase Commander remake @ http://code.google.com/p/tether
  • parnellparnell Registered User regular
    edited September 2012
    Hi Donkyhotay!
    It's always great to see more MBC fans. I've tried my best to track down as many of the original fans as I could, so my apologies as I was unable to reach you earlier. If you have friends that liked MBC please let them know about Kingdom Commander:) We have a steam group too that we hope to get some more fans on.

    http://steamcommunity.com/groups/kingdomcommander

    The pre-alpha version of Kingdom Commander is browser based because we find it's a more streamlined way for us to update builds while we test the initial versions. We want anyone to be able to play when they like without having to worry that they are not up-to-date or need to download a patch, etc. It also makes it a bit easier for us to track bugs and get feedback, as the log files we receive from players that submit them are the same version # with the build we are testing. Currently, we're planning for PC/Mac and mobile. We originally began development for this on IOS and shifted to PC as fans we talked with requested PC over IOS. We still like it on touch based mobile devices and want to release there too. However, at this time were focusing on getting the game tested and feature complete.

    Thanks!
    Parnell

    parnell on
  • donkyhotaydonkyhotay Registered User regular
    edited September 2012
    parnell wrote: »
    Hi Donkyhotay!
    It's always great to see more MBC fans. I've tried my best to track down as many of the original fans as I could, so my apologies as I was unable to reach you earlier. If you have friends that liked MBC please let them know about Kingdom Commander:) We have a steam group too that we hope to get some more fans on.

    http://steamcommunity.com/groups/kingdomcommander

    The pre-alpha version of Kingdom Commander is browser based because we find it's a more streamlined way for us to update builds while we test the initial versions. We want anyone to be able to play when they like without having to worry that they are not up-to-date or need to download a patch, etc. It also makes it a bit easier for us to track bugs and get feedback, as the log files we receive from players that submit them are the same version # with the build we are testing. Currently, we're planning for PC/Mac and mobile. We originally began development for this on IOS and shifted to PC as fans we talked with requested PC over IOS. We still like it on touch based mobile devices and want to release there too. However, at this time were focusing on getting the game tested and feature complete.

    Thanks!
    Parnell

    Glad to hear that there will be a client, I'm a little hesitant in investing in online only games. Although the project itself is in hibernate the one and only remaining Moonbase Commander "fansite" I know of is Project Tether (it's in my sig) which has been working on writing an open source version of Moonbase Commander the past five years. Sadly the one result (MoonPy) is pretty sad and development has stalled looking for more developers before doing a rewrite which is why it's in hibernate status. This is why it's currently little more then a fansite and mailing list even though thats not the intention. They are currently aware of Kingdom Commander by the way. I doubt it but any hope on opening the source code? That'd *really* get project tether going again! (c;

    donkyhotay on
    Do not be afraid to joust a giant just because some people insist on believing in windmills.
    Free Moonbase Commander remake @ http://code.google.com/p/tether
  • DrakhadesDrakhades Registered User regular
    dunno what to say. nobody to play with, and no single player choice.

  • parnellparnell Registered User regular
    Hi Drakhades.
    Thanks for trying out the pre-alpha build. We're still early in development and hope you understand that we're still fleshing out the game. We've been working on a new build update and should have it out in the coming weeks. If you can't find any friends to play with I'd suggest trying out the "HotSeat" setting as it is a simple way to play against yourself, or with a friend locally.
    Thanks again.
    Parnell

  • Kane Red RobeKane Red Robe Master of Magic ArcanusRegistered User regular
    edited October 2012
    Noted typo when I fired off an Energy Syphon, "Energy Syphon can't land on slop" Probably supposed to be slope.

    Actually a lot of the descriptions seem like they could use a once or twice over to make them less vague.

    Kane Red Robe on
  • parnellparnell Registered User regular
    Hi Kayne Red Robe.
    We'll get that fixed. Actually, I believe it's already fixed in the new build we're planning to roll out. (hopefully this weekend)
    Any specific descriptions that you feel could use work?
    Thanks again.
    Parnell

  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    Oooh I loved MBC. I picked up a couple copies for cheap many years ago, and gave one to a friend and we both played the heck out of it for a while. I'm gonna link him this.

    steam_sig.png
  • parnellparnell Registered User regular
    Thanks so much Tofystedeth! We've been pretty heads down working on the next build. It should be pushed out this week. We've added a number of fixes as well as fairly substantial FX updates, new music sample track, new sounds, as well as new initial UI layout. I'll post a more detailed changelist once the build is up.
    As always, we want your feedback so feel free to post on our forums, what you like, dislike, etc.
    -Parnell

Sign In or Register to comment.