Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit News

Hey friends,

I am Žilvinas, I am the tech lead and producer of Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit. It’s an exciting but also weird time for us right now! Only three days till Crowns and Pawns will be released, and that’s cool – don’t get me wrong. It mainly feels good. But we have worked on the game for more than 5 years now, and it feels a bit strange “to have to let go” after such a long time. No matter how long you work on a game, you always find things that you could a) change, b) improve or c) expand. But this will come to an end this Friday at the latest!

When you grow up as an adventure fanboy with classics like Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Broken Sword or Beneath a Steel Sky, your heroes have names like Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, or Dave Grossman. And there are so many more names from the golden era of classic adventure games, and some we have had the honor of meeting during the development of Crowns and Pawns! It's such a cool feeling to meet these icons in person and get feedback from them for your OWN adventure.



Since we all are big fans of the Broken Sword series and were starting to create our own adventure back at the time, we really wanted to meet with Charles Cecil. He is the founder and CEO of Revolution Software, the studio behind both Steel Sky adventures and the Broken sword series. I had the chance to meet him during gamescom in 2015, where I started the conversation of Charles coming to Lithuania.

And so, in 2016, we invited Charles to come to Lithuania for “GameOn Vilnius”, where he did a presentation. During his stay in Vilnius, we also got the chance to show him our demo and talk more about the story of Crowns and Pawns. We got some great feedback about the game and the plot, and it was an amazing experience overall to get acquainted with Charles. We couldn’t be happier about his feedback: “With beautiful graphics and a fascinating story, Crowns and Pawns is looking like it will be an excellent point and click adventure.” Print, frame and hang on the wall.



The story with Bill Tiller is quite similar. For those of you who are not familiar with the name: Bill worked for LucasArts on several adventure games (Full Throttle, The Dig, The Curse of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine) and founded his own studio Autumn Moon Entertainment with releases like A Vampyre Story or Duke Grabowski.

We were in contact with him for some time from following him on social media and talking about point and clicks. So, we also invited him to Lithuania, for a panel in “GameOn Vilnius” again, this time in 2019. We hosted a panel where Šarūnas and Bill talking about his work at LucasArts and more. During the visit, we also had a chance to show him our demo and tell him more about our game. We got some really good feedback and advice on Crowns and Pawns and just had a good time getting to know him in person. And another one to print and frame: “Crowns and Pawns is groovy. I dig it.”



But the two are not the only cool peeps we have met in the five years associated with Crowns and Pawns. We always wanted to go all in for the dubbing of the game, and so we dreamed of having a professional actress give life to Milda. And that's how it ended up! Milda is voiced by Erin Yvette. She is the voice of Snow White in The Wolf Among Us, Alex in Oxenfree or Sister Mary Womhorn in Afterparty. In the game Milda is accompanied by her friend Joris, who is voiced by the great Matthew Curtis. There are no voices that could characterize them better!

While you have been reading all this, the time until Friday's release has become even less. That's why I'd better take another look and see if I can't find something that I can a) change, b) improve or c) expand. 😉

Have an adventurous week everyone!
Žilvinas & The Tag of Joy Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1125910/Crowns_and_Pawns_Kingdom_of_Deceit/

Greetings, adventurers!

Welcome back to the second update in our “On to Adventure” series! Today's update is about why we're making a game in a genre which has been niche for years, how we're trying to make a classical point and click adventure a little more contemporary and – last but not least – incorporating ideas that are unusual in the classic adventure genre. My name is Šarūnas, I am the director of Crowns and Pawns and I have the pleasure to be the author of this update. So, let’s get it on!

Remember the day when LucasArts stopped developing adventure games, broke the hearts of endless adventure lovers, and the classic point and click adventure genre felt like it was dying? Everyone got the message at the time, except the adventure genre itself. And that was really lucky, because otherwise there would not have been many great adventure games in all the years since then - and we would never have developed Crowns and Pawns. We are often asked why we make an adventure game when the genre is so small compared with others. The answer is easy: pure love.



I grew up in the golden age of adventure games – playing gems like Monkey Island or Broken Sword. Adventures, however, have continued to accompany me in my life: In 2003, while still in high school, I joined a group of German fans working on an unofficial sequel called Broken Sword 2.5 and became the art director, did art management and art myself, worked with voice overs a bit, and probably more aspects of the game I can't remember anymore. And I loved it! The logical consequence: my brother and I founded our own company and when we gained some proper experience, we decided to create a new original game in the spirit of the mighty Broken Sword. That's when Crowns and Pawns was born.

What is Crowns and Pawns about? You get in the shoes of Milda, learn about an ancient mystery, look for clues, meet interesting people, you may or may not find a powerful relic. Who knows? ... You will travel around real (and fantasized) locations around Europe, as well as in our home country Lithuania. We mention some medieval Lithuania’s leaders and its rich history and significance to Europe. We hope to show our country in beautiful colors – just the way we see it.

And of course, Crowns and Pawns is a classic adventure game. You will control Milda across different locations, you will collect a whole lot of different objects in your inventory, use objects, or combine them to solve puzzles. Talking about puzzles, we’ve added a wide variety to the game: item, inventory, dialogue, note, timed, mini games, … So far, so traditional. But as said we added some interesting and refreshing twists to the genre: you will be able to change Milda’s clothing, hair, etc. You can of course do that just for fun, but we decided to make it a gameplay element as well: In some puzzles, Milda will need to look a specific way to impress someone or be allowed inside.



It is also important that the game feels alive and reacts somewhat to the player. That’s why during the introductory narrative the player will have to choose some key qualities of Milda’s character (e.g., her profession), which will impact some of the puzzles and (non-linear) dialogues later in the game. We also reinforce this dynamic somewhat through the technology we use for Crowns and Pawns: we have added a 3D background effect – the background moves/rotates a little bit when the character moves, as well as from the mouse movement. It is amazing how much liveliness such small movements bring to the game.

And since I just talked a bit about technology, in Crowns and Pawns we use 2D hand painted backgrounds that we project on a 3D world and blend them with 3D characters. It has its challenges, but I am so proud of our whole team and how well the combination works! It gives us the opportunity to have various effects in the game: For 3D characters we use custom-written shaders with lighting calculations refined specifically to fit the painted backgrounds. For backgrounds, we have implemented custom shadows to be able to have the best possible look for the style we are aiming for.



Projecting 2D art on a 3D world allows us to apply reflections, particles, custom-built volumetric lights, and other effects like that. Many of the scenes in the game have various perspectives and camera angles (from traditional side view to top-down) and are invigorated by close-up puzzles that completely eliminate monotony from the picture. And for all those who have understood none of this: we've put a lot of effort into making Crowns and Pawns a pretty, classical adventure game with modern features.

Well, that was a lot of information. But there is so much I can - and want - to tell you about Crowns and Pawns. And that's exactly why there will be two more updates before the release next Friday. So stay tuned and please wishlist our game – that would help us a lot! ❤️

Have an adventurous rest of the week everyone!
Šarūnas & The Tag of Joy Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1125910/Crowns_and_Pawns_Kingdom_of_Deceit/

Beloved adventurers!

It won't be long now until you can go on an adventure with Milda in Crowns and Pawns - there are actually only 10 days left until the release. Somehow this is quite a scary fact... Anyways, we would like to shorten the time until May 6th a bit and therefore publish our "On to Adventure" series of updates here on Steam, in which we will tell you more about us, about Crowns and Pawns, the ideas behind the game, and so on.

Why don't we start with us? So, we are Tag of Joy - it's nice to meet you. 🙂 We are a game development company based in Vilnius, Lithuania. Founded in 2012, we have also been busy with interactive experiences, augmented and virtual reality solutions and other gamified products. You can take a look at what exactly we did HERE on our website. Finally, we decided to tackle our beloved genre and create a point and click adventure game!

Now say "hello" to the team behind Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit:

Šarūnas Ledas: One of the co-founders of Tag of Joy, the CEO of the company and the director of Crowns and Pawns. Years ago, back when he was in school and later university, Šarūnas worked on the fan-made Broken Sword 2.5 game. Working his way up to the art director position, he gained lots of game development experience, from project management skills to actual point and click adventure game expertise. Šarūnas not only leads the project, but is also very hands-on, whether it's drawing a missing background object, animating a cinematic or programming special effects. With his knowledge and love of the genre, Crowns and Pawns shaped up to be quite the title!

Žilvinas Ledas: The other co-founder of Tag of Joy and the CTO of the company. With a PhD in Computer Science and years of programming experience, Žilvinas is the person to lead the tech part of the game's development – programming, scripting, implementing various features and so much more. He was actually the one who decided to bring Ink into the engine and made the creation of the game so much more accesible to other people on the team. And it's not just programming, Žilvinas handles so much more on the project, like refining the user experience and solving complex puzzle logic.

Ignas Veršinskas: You may be wondering who's responsible for all the witty dialogue and awesome word play of Crowns and Pawns. Well look no further as Ignas is the writer of the game. He took care of eveything Milda and Dana chat, created personalities for all the characters you meet throughout the game, voice directed their speech and designed most of the puzzles in the game (though, puzzle design was something of a team effort, but more on that another time).

Mingailė Striaukaitė: That's me! I came to Tag of Joy as an intern while I was studying communication and ended up staying for the long run. My position now involves internal and external communication, community management and I also get to work on projects hands on! As for Crowns and Pawns, I got my hand on some scripting, some additional writing, a touch here and there in Unity, and I have to say, the first big game project that I ever touched is looking good!

Zorian Ivanec: Senior programmer at Tag of Joy and one of the veterans of the company, counting his 9th year on the team. Zorian worked a lot on the technical side of the game, not only programing but setting up scenes and characters in Unity and was the one who started making game builds and making sure YOU would get to play Crowns and Pawns!

Laurynas Žuromskas: Another programmer on paper yet a jack of all trades on the team. Even though Laurynas joined the team as a programmer, we learned that he actually is not afraid of Blender and art related jobs. That's how he got the technical artist work on Crowns and Pawns. He's the one who turned our 2D backgrounds into a 3D world, and, of course, helped out with a lot of implementation and other programming related work.

Justas Gatelis: The hand-painted backgrounds of Crowns and Pawns were created by Justas. We were eyeing his art for quite a long time and when we posted an ad looking for an artist for Crowns and Pawns, we had our fingers crossed hoping that Justas would answer. And you know what? He did!

Eduardas Lukošiūnas: Even before the pandemic happened, our team could have been called remote. Eduardas is actually living in another city, almost 200 kilometres away from Vilnius. That didn't stop him from taking our character concepts and turning them into real characters - Eduardas created the 3D models for Milda and all the other people she meets on her journey.

Almantas Vasiliauskas: Characters aren't alive until they can move. That's where Almantas comes in - he created the animations for our characters. Facial expressions, body language, characters walking and running - every move our characters make is top notch!

Daniel Pharos: Last but not least, our team is joined by an award winning German composer. Šarūnas and Daniel met back when working on the Broken Sword 2.5 game. Being a fan of Daniel's music and knowing that this is exactly what Crowns and Pawns needs, Šarūnas invited him to join us in creating the most beautiful soundtrack for the game. We are so excited for you to hear Daniel's music in game and later listen to it while you cook, work, or take a stroll in the park! We know we enjoy it already. [Spotify]

Of course, Crowns and Pawns involved much more people than that - additional art, animation, effects, voice acting, translations... We're really thankful to everyone that touched Crowns and Pawns one way or another!

That's it for now, friends. We are counting the days till May 6th - I can tell you that!

Have an adventurous week everyone - and stay safe!
Mingailė & The Tag of Joy Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1125910/Crowns_and_Pawns_Kingdom_of_Deceit/

Hey there adventurers!

Unbelievable, but true: We finally have a release date for Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit! ːsteamhappyː Mark your calendars for May 6th, because that's when the game will be available here on Steam! Right on time on a Friday, so you don't have to be bored on the weekend. 😉

To celebrate, we have also released a new gameplay trailer that gives you some new insights into the story and also features of Crowns and Pawns - like the customisation system that lets you tweak everything about our heroine Milda:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Friends, we really can't wait to finally release our baby and see you all play through Crowns and Pawns. Thank you so much for walking the long road of development with us to this point and for giving us so much valuable feedback. You are a great support! That's really really appreciated! ❤️

Have an adventurous week everyone - and stay safe!
The Tag of Joy Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1125910/Crowns_and_Pawns_Kingdom_of_Deceit/

Greetings, adventureres!

We've released a demo for Crowns and Pawns here on Steam before several times, but it's a very exciting affair every time! And this time was no exception. ːsteamhappyː

It was really fun to see so many adventurers play our demo. And that way we were able to gather quite a bit of important and productive feedback that we'll be incorporating into Crowns and Pawns between now and release. That's why we decided to leave the demo available for another week - despite the end of Steam Next Fest.

We hope you have a lot of fun accompanying Milda! If you're having a funny time do us a favor and follow Crowns and Pawns here on Steam and add the game to your wishlist. That would really help us a lot! ❤️

Have an adventurous week everyone - and stay safe!
The Tag of Joy Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1125910/Crowns_and_Pawns_Kingdom_of_Deceit/