Let's look at the backstage #3
Hello, fans of strategic city-builders!
Today's announcement will allow all players waiting for the release of The Whims of the Gods to learn a little more about our studio and the production itself. It will be the third part; you can check the first one here and the second one here! Today, our celebrities are:
Błażej Brzykcy - who focuses on implementing new features and gameplay systems for the game
Mikołaj Trekner - our Environment Artist
Wojciech Lipiec - he is all about the broad spectrum of game design
Let's give them a voice!
Błażej:
On a daily basis, I focus on implementing new features and gameplay systems for the game. It’s a responsible, challenging, and incredibly rewarding role. As a programmer, my mission is to ensure that the systems I build run smoothly and accurately reflect the design team’s vision. My job is all about turning designers’ creative ideas into tangible in-game mechanics – from small features to core gameplay components.
One of the biggest challenges I faced on this project was creating a save system. While it seems simple from a player’s perspective – save, close the game, and come back exactly where you left off – behind the scenes, it’s a massive undertaking. The save system needs to track every choice the player makes, every variable, and every game state, while ensuring this data is stored reliably and remains compatible with future updates.
When I started implementing this system, the game was already in a late production stage, which made it even trickier. I had to design and implement complex data structures that not only stored all game state information but also integrated seamlessly with existing mechanics. Another key focus was ensuring the system was future-proof – flexible and extendable enough to support new features and allow players to keep their saves even after major updates.
Working on systems like this is the essence of the challenges I love in game dev – blending technical complexity with the team’s creative vision. Thanks to this collaboration, every system we build gains character and contributes to creating a game that will leave a lasting impression on our players.
Mikołaj:
I am an Environment Artist and I'm responsible for 3D models of buildings, vegetation, and many more. I work directly with Magda on tasks and maintain a visual style for the game. I also help other graphic designers implement models and use shaders to maintain a low-poly style.
The hardest task that I ever had was implementing and integrating the gate to the battle. It was a difficult task, and took me a couple of weeks because the gate concept on paper was hard, many ideas were added to the gate from the first concept.
Graphic referencesIn the beginning, the team chose to implement lava on the front of the gate. Still, from a game perspective, I suggested changing that to water because, when the game progresses the volcano activates and creates certain phases of lava flow, and finally lava appears at some point on the gate. It was hard because many elements on the gate are not static, they appear while the game progresses, from calendar, lava, stones, and barracks for archers and warriors. We also added many visuals to the final version like statues, and the hanging plants by the concept from Magda.
Currently, I am working on the rest of the buildings. We have over 80 of them, and when you're reading this announcement I'm checking them and improving them visually. Soon, I will create a second ending for the game because there will be... at least three endings for every map.
Wojtek:
My name's Wojtek, and at PJ Games, I'm all about the broad spectrum of game design. Beyond brainstorming mechanics and mapping them out on whiteboards, I take a big part in bringing those ideas to life in the game engine. You could say I fill the game with "content," but not just the technical or narrative stuff—I'm operating on the edge of multiple aspects of game creation.
Here’s how the process usually works: once the design team comes up with a concept for a mechanic, the programmers step in to build the tools to make that idea functional. If the feature requires custom visuals, those assets get drawn or modeled, depending on what’s needed. Then it’s my time to shine—I swoop in to piece it all together like a big LEGO set 🙂. I love this part of the job because it lets me learn a ton about all the different aspects of making a video game.
In my career so far, I’ve done a bit of everything—designing, modeling, animating, programming—but my favorite thing is diving into the engine and working with visual scripting using blueprints. Of course, there are challenges! The biggest one for me has been tutorials.
First, tutorials have this sneaky way of messing with other people’s work—adding indicators, hints, disabling and re-enabling buttons—all of which can break the carefully crafted assets we’ve made. Second, implementing a tutorial is a long, drawn-out process. Mechanics don’t all come together at once, so you can’t just treat the tutorial as a single task. It has to evolve in sync with the game’s development, step by step.
Right now, I’m in the thick of layering the gameplay and narrative elements into the game. With each new quest I implement, I’m pushing for crazier objectives and more creative conditions to meet. It can’t be too easy or too hard, but above all, my golden rule is: it can’t be boring!
Don't forget to JOIN OUR DISCORD to talk about The Whims of the Gods with the development team! All the people featured in this announcement are there (almost) every day!
