I've decided to do something a little different. I've finally got the build of the game to the point where you can play it for awhile without it crashing and most components are playable. So below is my first TRUE play-through of the game. The question is, how long can I go before game over? I've set up a separate screen, so I'll be writing the below as I play.
Start
The level starts with 3 peasants and 1 mason. I've been play-testing with about 25,000 Gold starting which allows me to build most things. For this play-through I've only given myself 5,000 gold.
I only have five minutes until my king arrives. He requires a throne room and a bed. Not to mention peasants will starve in about 5 minutes unless you start a wheat production going. So first things first I purchased a few wheat fields, an oven, and a table (which is where the food get sent to once it's cooked so it can be consumed).
Once these things were set up I had to quickly make some beds (peasants get upset without a place to sleep). So I had to purchase a few of those, this left me with very little to put down a solid foundation for a throne room for the king. I quickly promoted one of my three peasants to a mason so I could finish production of a basic structure for the throne room. I also built it with the cheapest material (wood instead of stone).
My king didn't have long to rule his kingdom. With my lack of funds I was scrambling to hire an archer (250 gold). However, my wheat farms had already run out and needed to be re-planted. I was in a dilemma. Hire an archer to defend me from an attack I knew must be coming in the next few minutes (I have enemy spawning set to a random 5 minute ranged interval after your king arrives) or replant. Without replanting my wheat fields my peasants might begin to go hungry and revolt. So in either light I faced armed enemies. I opted to re-plant the wheat and hope my peasants would prove a sufficient force to hold back any attack.
Sadly, my peasants proved too little against the three knights which showed up to wipe out my tiny kingdom. Running through a play-through like this really shed light on my development goals. It's one thing to add and tweak individual features, but really trying to play through as a complete game makes it so much more clear what needs to be worked on.
Suffice to say the 5,000 gold really made me cut it close on producing everything at the beginning. So at least it seems my initial monetary limits are decent. I still need to make some requirements (you shouldn't be able to place beds outdoors for example).
Enemies appeared way too soon given the lack of funds. I was able to get the basic built, just barely. However, definitely not enough money left over to defend the kingdom from attack. There are also so issues I need to iron out with how feeding the peasants is handled, so I'll have to re-visit that old coding.
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As you can see in the above photo one of my peasants also died, trapped between the walls of the keep where he starved to death. Here's to you, Keith Sterling.
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