Streets of Fortuna News

[p]

Attention Fortuna Citizens![/p][p]It’s Alexandra with a very exciting new addition to the game. You may have noticed that all of our player-characters and NPCs in our videos and screenshots have been a variation of dudes with different hairstyles, clothing and skintones. But things have been a little different lately! That’s because we’ve been busy designing the female model, which ended up being quite tricky to make.[/p][p]Now that we have women running around the city, I thought it would be a great time to chat with 3D artist Alex to see what the historical inspirations were for the female model design and the technological challenges.[/p][p]Q: What did women wear in 550 AD Constantinople and how does that inform Streets of Fortuna?[/p][p]A: In Constantinople, a combination of various secular and religious orthodoxies dictated fairly confined lives for most women, and strict garment usage. But then again, one of the most famous women of the period (Empress Theodora) managed to achieve one of the greatest rags-to-riches successes in all of history. And what if she had managed to take the empire’s power for herself? What would have happened then?[/p][p]We have no interest in arbitrary restrictions or penalties for women in Fortuna, whether they’re players or NPCs. Our philosophy is that female characters can (and will) wear or do anything that men do, but that they will tend towards wearing the more feminine garb of the time. This honours the aesthetics of our historical context, while offering the gameplay experience that we want. Life as a street rat is already hard enough without encountering misogyny day to day. Live your other life.[/p][p]Q: What can you tell us about developing a character style for Streets of Fortuna?[/p][p]Let’s take a walk down memory lane and have a look at the visual progression of the women of our game:[/p][p][/p][h3]Chapter 1: Exploration[/h3][p]
These are some very early explorations that didn’t last long. For much of this time, we were still deciding if moving forward with Streets of Fortuna would happen at all. Thus, this approach was mostly focused on being something very lightweight that we could use in early prototyping and ideation to explore some basic variety and the aesthetic of the game.

[/p][h3]Chapter 2: What if they looked better though?[/h3][p]As soon as Streets of Fortuna was greenlit at the studio, we needed to develop a character style and start answering many technical questions: How were we going to support hundreds of performant, simulated NPCs? How were we going to be able to make that many assets? How do you even make modular 3D characters at this scale? And what art style are we actually excited about working in?[/p][p]We decided on certain obvious truths: We needed characters that were low poly and lightweight to maximize performance at our scale. To us, that meant working with as few textures, and as much batching, as possible. At this time we also had no expectation that characters would be seen close-up or in a dialogue view — so they only had to be readable and interesting at a maximum zoom level of about 40% screen height.[/p][p]Given these constraints, and the existing skillsets & excitements of artists at Kitfox, we started exploring a handpainted style that would fit everything for one character on a 512x512 diffuse texture.

[/p][p](Right: Early concepts by our Art Director, Xin)

Around this time, we produced a quick visual target diorama to test out this initial approach. Here you can start to see hints of the character style that we’re still developing today — although it’s a lot more cartoonish.
(An early diorama featuring a gorgeously handpainted environment by our Environment Artist, Quinn!) [/p][h3]
Chapter 3: Let’s get serious[/h3][p]The visual target diorama was a valuable exercise for us as a team. However, we realized pretty quickly that this style was too goofy and didn’t support the impression of the serious, deep simulation that Streets of Fortuna represents. Additionally, we just didn’t completely vibe with the mix of cel shaded materials + outline over handpainted diffuse. We decided that our next step would be to try and push our character style to be more grounded and realistic, while still retaining the technical pillars that we had decided on. The results were a big glow up for our lady friends:
(Right: The Blacksmith - an exploration of a larger, more imposing body type)

(More beautiful concept art that drove us to explore higher detail & realism, while retaining stylized handpainting.)[/p][p][/p][h3]Version 4: Present Day[/h3][p]This brings us to our most recent push. As our pipeline and character style solidified, we set our sights on getting real characters generating into the city of Fortuna. A lot of technical work went in to making modular characters happen -- we added improvements like LODs, dynamic texture atlasing, character authoring integration tech, and much more. And just recently, we were finally able to add the latest iteration of our female characters to the game![/p][p]Here’s a look at a helpful shopkeeper that you might get the chance to meet.

And finally, some recent concepts for new outfits that women of Fortuna could wear.

[/p][h3]
Conclusion[/h3][p]
If you’ve been following our micro-updates on the Kitfox Discord, you might have already seen the female models in-game as NPCs. But now we are also able to make female player characters. You’ll have the chance to customize your character before starting your game with different faces, hairstyles and clothing. In the next update, we’ll have a new devlog from Brent showing off how Character Generation is done.



See you in the next one!

-Alexandra, Alex and the rest of the Streets of Fortuna team[/p]

[p]

Hey everyone,[/p][p]We’ve been posting micro-dev updates in the Kitfox Discord. Brent has been sharing screenshots and day-to-day updates on what the team is working on. And the rest of the devs have also been hanging out in the channel to answer questions or just nerd out about Byzantine history.[/p][p]Some things we’ve posted haven’t been revealed anywhere else yet, including the first glimpse of the dialog system. This is a VERY early version of the display for the character you're talking to - we're looking into a few different ways to handle it, including a first-person camera. The basic functionality of the interface is classic RPG but the intention is that most of the time you use this to express what you want to get out of the character in a hub-and-spokes type design.
[/p][p][/p][p]Of course there are also contextual cases that have a more linear flow such as when someone catches you stealing in their home and you want to convince them to let you get away with it…[/p][p]If you’re curious about the day-to day of making a huge simulation game, or just want easy quick updates about the game then definitely come on over and say hi on the Discord![/p][p]-Alexandra[/p]

Attention Fortuna Citizens!

It’s Alexandra here! Been a while since we’ve done a text post since we’ve been focusing on devlogs and showing off lots of in-progress stuff. You should definitely check them out if you haven’t! But we thought we post about a really exciting opportunity the team recently had to go to Istanbul for a research trip. We’ve talked a lot about how the city of Fortuna is inspired by Constantinople 500 A.D because we wanted to create a world where the player could be a criminal or religious leader or both. You can read our full explanation in our Steam post “Why Constantinople?” if you want more historical details. We started development working with academics with specialities in Byzantine history but you can only learn so much from looking at pictures and listening to lectures.

So last month, some of the team travelled to Istanbul to study the art, architecture and atmosphere of the city. They came back inspired and I asked them to share what they learned!

[h3]What is it like to go on a research trip and the general process for organising one?[/h3]

This was Kitfox’s first research trip ever, in our almost 12-year history! But research trips are considered a best practice in worldbuilding and creative process by creators we respect, including Pixar, Disney, and Funcom, so even though we couldn't afford making it a super-luxurious trip, we decided to prioritize trying it out, on a limited budget. Based on availability and interest, 6 Kitfoxes ended up attending, plus one of our scholars. Xin (our art director) took the lead in building an itinerary with the scholar, for visiting one required location almost every day, based on sites most relevant to Fortuna.

Every morning the team would get woken up by the call to prayer around 5AM, and then (after one day of jetlag recovery), they’d head off to the site of the day together. Many were taking photos, or stopping to pet cats, and the group would all spread out to enjoy the site at their own speed, with the scholar in the lead pointing out interesting details or explaining context.

[h3]What inspirations from the trip will we see in the game?[/h3]

There’s a lot we are taking from our trip to try and implement in the game, at least in spirit if not in detail. In terms of clothing, it’s been very difficult figuring out what kinds of clothing the average resident of Constantinople during this time period wore. Many Byzantine mosaics depict a fantastical imaging of Biblical scenes, these long robes and elaborate headgear represented in these images for example, wouldn’t be what the average citizen wore. But it does give us room for our own interpretation which is exciting for us! It was also really cool seeing the kinds of colours created from natural dyes. Vibrant reds, yellows and blues were prominent during this time. Indigo in particular was very interesting to see, even if its access and usage was very restricted.

A mosaic depicting a Biblical scene (Source: Photo by us at The Kariye Museum)

Indigo dye (Source: Photo by us at The Museum of Islamic Art)

In terms of environment, we learned a lot about the unique makeup of the city. Istanbul is very dense and there’s clutter and life everywhere in the street. There are winding roads, slopes, things that don’t align perfectly, etc. We’ve already showed off some of the city design in the devlog from Mehrdad, and for our initial offering the city is likely to still be quite grid-like. But we'd love to someday work towards topology that's more representative of Istanbul’s streets as we experienced them.

And of course we loved seeing all the wildlife and plants. The city has more animals than you might expect, from beautiful birds like the Laughing Dove and the Hooded Crow to cats, pigeons and seagulls (who are also beautiful birds in their own way, just less exciting). We photographed and documented over 32 unique cats during our trip and we’ve been posting all the pictures over on the Kitfox Bluesky and Twitter. Maybe you’ll get to meet some of them in the game!

A cat and laughing dove in Istanbul (Photos taken by us)

[h3]What's one fun fact you learned while is Istanbul?[/h3]

David: "The city’s original aqueduct is still standing there with a normal road going under/through it that people drive along every day. Türkiye has also perfected the 'a bunch of bread & cheese & jams & egg things' breakfast. Oh, and people used to think that shark teeth were effective at detecting poison, but only because they thought they were snake’s teeth at the time."

Xin: "Turkish tea (which I loved, I bought some for myself to take home) is brewed in a çaydanlık which is a set of two teapots one on top of the other. The top teapot is a highly concentrated tea brewed for a long time while the bottom contains boiling water to dilute the concentrate!"

Brent: "The Obelisk of Theodosius in the Hippodrome was moved from the Temple of Karnak in Egypt. But they had such a hard time moving it that it sat by the docks in Alexandria for thirty years. Then when another Emperor (Theodosius) finally got it to Constantinople they broke it while attempting to put it up and had to make a new base to raise it to its original height. (sad trombone)"

Quinn: "They used marble in such wildly (and ugly) ways, cutting it into thin slices and then lining walls with them so the pattern would mirror itself. The effect it creates is just pattern everywhere! The amount of reverence and respect for cats in the city is just.. incredibly heartwarming to see and fills me with hope and love."

We hope you learned something new! We hope to start showing off more of these inspirations after they are implemented in the game, but it might be some time, as we're currently in the midst of implementing dialogue and crime-detection systems. Stay tuned for our next update, where we plan on showing off the brand new female model we've been working on.

Till next time,

-Alexandra + the rest of the Fortuna team

Attention Fortuna citizens!

Programmer Mehrdad is here to talk about our inspirations for designing the large Constantinople-inspired city and the tools we are using to accomplish such a task. Watch the full video on the Kitfox Youtube:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The city of Fortuna is not a complete recreation of Constantinople but we’ve studied its design closely. Historically, Constantinople had a main road called the “Mese” (Greek for “middle”) that ran from the Palace to the Golden Gate. The mese famously went through many Plazas that were large structures that host various important locations, marketplaces and gathering areas such as the famous Hippodrome.

Reference image: "The Mese" by Antoine Helbert

In Streets of Fortuna, we started building the city using the mese as a starting point, adding plazas, roads and other features surrounding it. We want players to be able to explore or (exploit) the bustling mese while also being aware of the winding, maze-like side streets to retreat to. Maybe there’s a popular fruit vendor on the mese that can be distracted while you run away with a handful of apples!

Some of you commented on our last devlog about the lack of curves in the city. To make gameplay easier to program, we are currently generating the city using streets with only 90 degree angles but we have the capacity for 45 degree angles. You will see more road variety in the final build.

Mapping the city starting with the mese, then placing the plazas and then braching roads off of them.

There is much more to say about city generation but we’ll leave it at that for now. Mehrdad had a lot of fun making this devlog and definitely wants to come back for another!

Right now we’ve actually turned our attention away from city generation to more fully tackle gameplay — hungor, vigour, health, money, death, dialogue… plus creating locations, items, characters… there’s so much to do. What are some things you’re looking forward to doing most in the city? The devs are always hanging out in the Streets of Fortuna Discord to answer your questions.

Till next time,

Alexandra, Mehrdad and the rest of the Streets of Fortuna team

Attention Fortuna Citizens!

Our third devlog is here and this time, Programmer Julia is here to talk about fixing a pesky NPC bug. Turns out, when you're simulating 3000 NPCs, there's a lot of silly things that can happen with them. Julia told me that she spent a lot of time following NPCs and seeing their behaviours so when she noticed a huge pile of containers near public fountains, she knew she had to investigate. Watch the devlog to see how she solved the mystery and fixed the bug:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We are able to look back and laugh at this bugfix now because over the past month, the team has officially moved its focus from raw city generation to gameplay concerns, especially the important stuff, like characters wearing clothes based on their traits and tastes, or the player starving to death. Megasims are all about the systems, and in particular the generation underlies all the other systems, so we'll never be able to stop thinking about generation entirely, but it's nice to finally build out the bits that affect the moment-to-moment player experience, too. Mehrdad has lots to say about navigation and street generation, so maybe that's what we'll show you next time!



Would you be into a programming livestream with the team? Let us know in the comments or the Streets of Fortuna channel in the Kitfox Discord. We've been having a lot of interesting discussions over there about our ideas for persistent items and in-setting magic.

-Alexandra, Julia and the rest of the Streets of Fortuna team