Devlog 13: Set Sail

The Critias Empire demo is out now! Go check it out (download link is on the Steam page).

The demo launch coincides with TurnBasedThursday Festival on Steam. I've also set up a discord server where you can hang out and discuss the game. Plus in this update I'll guide you through the work done this month and future plans and roadmap for the game.

[h2]Demonstrating[/h2]

The demo is a cut-down version of Critias Empire. There is only 1 wonder needed for victory, rather than the usual 3. As well, it is played on a small map with reduced number of products and land uses (buildings). And there are only 2 Gods and 2 disasters. I'm hoping this, along with all the future planned content teased in the New Game screen, will be enough to excite people for the final game.



If you enjoyed the demo, click that wishlist button - it's free and will massively help support the game, especially when it comes to awakening the Steam recommendations algorithm into showing the game to more people.

[h2]Charting a Course[/h2]

I've talked extensively in these updates about all the things I'd like to add to Critias Empire. My plan is to now update Critias Empire "in the wild". I will keep adding to the demo as more features are implemented.

Decisions, which I talked about in Devlog 12, are top of the list. Mostly because I think the promise of interacting with the complex personalities of the Olympian Gods isn't really fulfilled by the current Affinity system.

Survey rewards, also as mentioned in the last devlog, are also still high up on the list of improvements. If only to make the late game in the demo less of a grind.

Beyond that, I've marked various features in the game as "Planned" or "Roadmap":

Planned - These are features (Gods, Tenets, Maps, Disasters etc) that absolutely will be implemented, even if it kills me. Oracle, Festivals, Zeus, Fire and Flood disasters are guaranteed - Completing them is the measure I will use to determine when the main game launch is at least viable.

If the game has an early access period (something I'm seriously reconsidering), then Demeter and her associated Health tenet and Climate Change disaster, will come after early access launch but before full version 1,0 launch.



Roadmap - These are all things I have planned and designed - that I would love to implement - but that realistically won't happen if sales of the game simply don't justify it. My intention in "teasing" them is to get you excited as I am for the game and all its possibilities. Just not too excited :p

[h2]Shipping[/h2]

As for the last month's work, Critias Empire has been subjected to all sorts of rigorous testing, pokes and prods. I managed to implement about half the UX (user experience) and QoL (Quality of Life) improvements suggested by testers since February. Sadly two of the most requested: Undo, and hovering over bonus resources on the map, didn't make the cut.

What did make it in were mostly tooltip improvements. Making the build info tooltip sticky after hovering over the land uses (buildings) in the build menu - this alone has changed how I personally play the game. There are now tooltips on (nearly) everything, and my hope is that will help with game transparency and learning.



I also rebalanced cloth and wool economies needed for cities. And I put in quite some work on behind the scenes saving/loading functionality. Game saves are now backward compatible. You can open an old save game from a previous version, and It'll use that version's balance data, rather than the current balance data. This also means I can test different game balances without affecting player's current and previous games. In the really far future, I hope to use it to provide "alternative" rule sets and scenarios.

[h2]Joining the Fleet[/h2]

I've been taking part in #TurnBasedThursday on twitter for the last two years, and now the community behind that has organised a Steam Festival, aptly named TurnBasedThursdayFest. It runs from 4th April to 8th April, making it the perfect chance to launch the Critias Empire demo.



Critias Empire being part of the festival selection is something for which I'm incredibly humbled. This is a community that has supported each other, including me, for a long time and is one of the reasons I love working in the games industry. Not only are the other developers lovely people, but their games are also great. Even for attention-hogging and time consuming 4X strategy genre, video games are not zero sum, so I highly encourage you to check out the other games also in the festival.

A number of those other games are also now linked on the Critias Empire store page in their own special section. Definitely give these a look if strategy and turn-based games are your jam!

[h2]Sailing Far and Wide[/h2]

I've also put not-inconsiderable effort into marketing material for the demo launch. I have created a gameplay video without commentary for use as b-roll should any content creators or press wish to use that while talking about Critias Empire. The presskit link is here and I've also added updated screenshots and gifs to said presskit.

You can also now see my beautiful face (eh?) on the broadcast stream on the Critias Empire steam page. I will hopefully be live later in the week, but before then you can watch the pre-recorded video where I play through the Critias Empire demo and introduce the game, explain various concepts and mostly try not to get my ass kicked by the Gods in the process.

[h2]Stormy Waters[/h2]

Doubtless when the demo launches, some of you will find bugs myself and other testers have not yet come across. Please do use the Bug Report feature: Either it will automatically pop up, or you can press the bug report button, or you can press F8 to open it. I won't be able to reply to every bug report but I will read them all and they can be immensely useful!

As well, I have implemented data tracking / analytics into the game. This is mostly to help me with balancing the game and tracking down bugs. However I also want to be up-front about recording/sending/using data. So if you're not comfortable in any way with being tracked, just hit the "Data Collection" option either when you first start the game, or in the settings screen.

Finally, I will mention that some testers have had problems with anti-virus flagging Critias Empire. Specifically windows defender started having problems with the game once I added in buttons to open the Steam store page and news pages from inside the game. I have run anti-virus scans on my build machine and scanned the resulting Critias Empire.exe file with external anti-virus checkers and it has come back clean and virus free each time. I am satisfied it's just windows defender being over-zealous. But in case you are worried, do run an anti-virus checker of your own after installation. Only ever install via Steam, and if you're still worried, don't click the "Read More" and "Wishlist/Discord" buttons on the main menu.

[h2]Shipmates[/h2]

I have set up a discord server for my studio - Crystalline Green Ltd. - with a dedicated channel for discussing Critias Empire. I'm still contactable on twitter/X and less regularly, facebook and reddit, but I'm a big discord user, and in case you are too, or you have questions or problems that aren't getting such a quick response elsewhere, you can now find me on discord.



[h2]What's Next?[/h2]

One of my other games, Palm Paradise Garden, was accepted onto the Steam Farming Festival. So my focus between now and then (end of April) will be on finishing the demo for that game. I will however spend my evenings and weekends fixing Critias Empire bugs, so expect one or two small bug fixing patches between now and the end of the month.

After that (or maybe before, depending on my schedule), as mentioned I'll be aiming to firstly make surveying less painful. And after that get stuck into implementing Decisions feature.

As usual, if you have any of your own feedback or thoughts on the game's progress, you can always contact me or leave a comment!