Land of the Vikings News

Greetings Jarls,

Today we will tell you how our designers Burak (Character Artist) and Erhan (Environment Artist) designed the visuals you see in Land of the Vikings.

We used a lot of real-life reference images in our 3D models. Of course, these depictions alone were not enough for us to create the models. That's why it was our goal to create the best performing and fantastic 3D models using that which we trusted most; our imagination and the gameplay of Land of the Vikings. We took Viking history as a reference in every model we created, but we know that there are those who find history fascinating as well as those who sometimes find it boring or too plain. That's why we added our imagination to the historic element to every model we use in the game.



It was very important for us to design different characters in our design process, as the player can see hundreds or even thousands of characters on the same screen. For this, we considered each character as 2 parts, 1 head, and 1 body.





We modeled the body to be compatible with each head. Thus, we had the opportunity to produce dozens of combinations of characters. However, this number was still not enough for us. That's why we created special masks for each head and body part. While the color of the hair and beard was changed on the heads, we also changed the colors of the clothes on the body part. This gave us hundreds of potential character combinations. However, we are not limited to this. We have designed special clothes for almost every job so that the villagers can wear different clothes while working.



That's all for today's blog! We'll be back next week with some exciting news. Stay tuned for more, and make sure you join the other Jarls on Discord!

Greetings Vikings!

We're back with another devlog, this time to briefly showcase the new and improved demo, which will be available during the Tacticon event on Steam (September 22-26th).

This demo comes with two ways to play. You can experience the game from scratch like last time, but on a new map. Alternatively, you could try a specially created scenario meant for more experienced players. We've also increased the in-game day limit from 30 to 45, so there's more city building for you to enjoy.



This map should be a bit more challenging, as it is more mountainous and complex than the last one. If you are playing for the first time, we recommend playing with the Fresh Start option enabled. This will start the game as usual, with a few houses and Vikings to manage. It will allow you to slowly learn the basics of the game without being overwhelmed.

If you're a returning player looking for an extra bit of challenge, you can disable Fresh Start to play a scenario where you start with a pre-made village. This means there are already lots of resources, people, and buildings to manage.



Skilled players will have a chance to explore the shipbuilding and trading systems in this demo as well! Build your shipyard, select your workers, and craft the majestic Viking merchant ship 'Knarr'. You can start trading by mooring your ship to the Trade Dock.

However, sending villagers on a trading mission is no easy task. Make sure they are stocked up on food and beer before sending them out onto the open sea. Then, choose your strongest Vikings and send them out to plunder! (... or trade. Yeah, trade.)



We hope you enjoy the new demo! Here are some more screenshots of our villages created in the demo.







Remember that the demo will be live from now until September 26th! Let us know what you think on the Steam forums, or join the community on Discord 🍻

Skål!

Greetings, Vikings!

🦉 Odin demands another demonstration of your wits!

Test your skills as a Jarl in our NEW DEMO from 22nd to 26th of September.

⚒️ Expand your village, trade with neighbors, and prove your worth to the gods.

Skål!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1981570/Land_of_the_Vikings/

Dear Vikings,

Welcome to our very first devlog! In this first issue, we'll talk about how we got started on Land of the Vikings, the development process, and some hidden (👀) features.

[h3]The Team[/h3]

Before going into the details, let's introduce you to our developer team. Our team consists of 3 heroes: Onurhan Akçay, Mustafa Burak Gören, and Erhan Yılmaz. A three man squad of 1 software developer, 1 character artist, and 1 environmental artist. In typical indie studio fashion, everyone had to learn additional skills to make Land of the Vikings work. All programming is done by Onurhan, the software developer. Character, animation, and UI works belonged to Burak, and Erhan was responsible for level design, 3D solid models, assets, effects, and music(!).


The developer team (Burak, Erhan, Onurhan)

[h3]Why Land of the Vikings?[/h3]
We wanted to develop a more organic and living game and we thought how well it would go with the Viking theme. We love Viking culture and its deep mythology. All of their Gods, stories, and creatures have created a huge universe that we can translate into the game. After a development process that lasted for about 2 years, it already came in a concrete form via the demo.

We want to make the game as free, dynamic and fantastic as possible, so it's not a game based on history. There are supernatural events in the game, gods you can ask for help and seers who will tell you what will happen at a price!



[h3]Let's Choose An Engine[/h3]
Today, when it comes to game engines, two of the most well-known game engines come to mind: Unity and Unreal Engine. Instead of comparing 2 game engines here, we would like to briefly tell you why we chose to develop in Unreal Engine. The biggest reason we chose UE is simply experience; our team was more experienced with UE, so we went with the more comfortable choice.

Onurhan previously developed games with UE4, Erhan's works in the UE marketplace for more than 6 years and Burak has 2 years of experience working with UE4. "But what about Unreal Engine 5?" you ask. We'd like to say that it was a decision we made after much deliberation, but in reality we had already gotten to work on the game before UE5 was announced. So we decided to stick with the latest version of UE4.



UE4 was working successfully in many aspects such as lighting, navigation, etc., but I cannot say the same for modding support. We didn't want the players to only use the models we made in the game. That's why we've also developed a building editor where players can use their own decorations and buildings in-game... (oops, can you keep that a secret between us? We promised not to tell anyone yet...)



[h3]Why Early Access?[/h3]
City-building games are very detailed and have many different mechanics. Therefore, it is very important that each mechanic works in harmony with each other. At the same time, the in-game balance needs to be adjusted very well for the player to enjoy the game more.

We want to add much more content to our game, fix any bugs that pop up, and most importantly, we will continue to improve the game while keeping your feedback in mind. To get continuous feedback from you, we decided Early Access was the best choice. Thankfully the wait won't be too long. (Soon™)

That's it for our first devlog Vikings, we will continue to explain our game with new blogs very soon!

Skål!

Sep 5th update: this demo period has ended. Again, thank you to everyone who has given us feedback, created content, or simply enjoyed the demo! We'll be holding another demo period soon™, so keep your eyes peeled for that.


Greetings, Vikings!

We've been overwhelmed by the response to Land of the Vikings over the last week. We wanted to thank you for the love by extending the demo until next Monday! If you did not get a chance to play over the weekend, you can still do so until Monday September 5th.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1981570/Land_of_the_Vikings/



Again, we want to thank every one of you who gave us feedback, created content, joined the Discord, or just had a good time playing! We can't wait to sail into Early Access in Q4 this year with you fine Vikings.

Skål!