- Not Dead Yet - 16 March 2024
It's definitely been a while this time. I do apologize for that. I have a great deal of difficulty writing these things when I don't have new features and content to talk about. The short version is this: DGR is not cancelled. My life situation changed dramatically in the last 14 months, and I'm still figuring out how to get things done under less than ideal conditions. I did make a few more small things to prevent atrophy of skill, and they will be linked in the companion Tweet. If you're interested in more details, read on. Fair warning though: I can't promise that it will be especially riveting material. Blog The last time I wrote one of these, I mentioned a death in the family and quite a mess left in their wake. That's largely resolved at this point. On the other hand, I've had to pivot to, first and foremost, being a caregiver for my aged and mobility-challenged mother. This consu…
- April, May, and June - 20 June 2023
It's been a while, hasn't it? I've honestly been a bit stuck between competing desires. Until recently, I had never missed a monthly update. Some were a bit late, but even through the pandemic years, I did not miss any monthly updates. On the other hand, I really don't like to post bad updates and even more so, as mentioned earlier, I don't want to use this space as a personal blog. In the end, in order to post something, I'm afraid it will have to be a less than good update and also a bit of a blog. On the other hand, if you're interested in playing something else I've made, there might be something of interest here. Blog In late March, my stepfather passed away. He left in his wake a bit of a mess, both physical (because he was a hoarder) and financial (because he had a lot of debts, some of which were at > 28% interest). Further, my mother is not in particularly good health and needs…
- March Update - 2 April 2023
Welcome to another regular monthly update. The bad news is that there isn't much to report. The good news is things should be returning to something approaching normal by this time next week. I've still got a lot of other work to do now, both the paying kind and otherwise, but at least I should be able to carve out large blocks of time to work on DGR going forward. I'd like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding. I really appreciate the kind messages. What's in a name Rather unexpectedly, there was a recent discussion about DGR on another forum. It's still going on at the time of writing, in fact! Also much to my surprise, there was a rather vigorous discussion of some of the names used. DGR is an alt-historical scenario. From the beginning I have striven for "hard historical fiction," in the sense of hard sci-fi, however. I'm trying to get as many details right as is po…
- February Retrospective - 7 March 2023
Things continue to be hectic on my end. If you're interested in that sort of thing, there will be a few details at the end. Otherwise, here's a quick update on some new developments. Still more family events As expected, these continue. There are some events that set up long, ongoing situations. Ongoing doesn't mean perpetual though. There was also a fair bit of work on an event with rather momentous implications. If you're familiar with some of the influences on DGR, you'll probably have expected this. However, unlike said influences, there are a few different species of this event, and you may or may not encounter it at all! Blog I'm kind of hesitant to turn these update posts into a personal blog. Also the common advice is to never talk about negative things in an official capacity. I'm going to go against the grain a bit, because I think everyone who has been following these updates…
- January Update - 7 February 2023
The first Saturday of the month has come and gone. Apologies. I'm kind of behind on everything right now. I have an unfortunate amount of things going on right now, and will for some time to come. I'm still doing as much work as I can despite that, but sometimes things like update posts slip through the cracks a bit. Family events, continued As expected, these events are continuing. One of the reasons I saved these for the end is that I expected they would interact with lots of other systems. This expectation turned out to be accurate. Just for one example, a promised hunt and some interactions with previous systems: Also as expected, the fact that many of them are secretly seven events masquerading as one to hit all seven personality templates, it's slow going. This expectation also turned out to be accurate, I'm afraid. Traits and continuation Ages ago, I wrote about a design goal of…
- A New Year begins - 7 January 2023
The first Saturday of the month — and year — is upon us. First of all, I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Steam Winter Sale, or whatever other winter observance you may happen to celebrate. Now is a time for reflection on the previous year and looking forward to the next. 2022 Perhaps the thing I am most proud of this year wasn't writing any events, quite the opposite in fact! In June, I finally deleted a certain temporary event. Much of the content I wrote before this point was player-directed content and content contained in specific modes (like warfare, the itinerant court, and the introductory phase in Normandy). As of last summer, I finally had enough main-phase random events that I could delete a min-weight placeholder. Hurray! That's not all of course. Looking back on some older updates, I find the old book texture a bit jarring. That was among the visual u…
- November's Post - 5 December 2022
A little late perhaps, but the time for the monthly update post is here. I'm actually at a bit of a loss as to what to write in this one. Lots of things have conspired to steal time from me lately. This happens now and again; other activities sometimes have to take priority over unreleased games. Annoyingly, the work I accomplished doesn't show well. I had considered just postponing, but in retrospect that's not wise for other reasons. Anyway, a quick list of things I've been working on, then a larger discussion of relation-system changes in anticipation of family events: Changes Two missing pieces from the Magnum Concilium (I know, I know): first nobles can ask for land, and second relations are actually affected when forging ahead with only partial support. The latter differs from doing things with no support. This was meant to be in earlier, but slipped my mind. Bugfix: a number of e…
- October report - 5 November 2022
Yet again, we've reached the first Saturday of the month, so it is time for an update. The Magnum Concilium continued In the previous update I mentioned a fair bit of hidden complexity in the Magnum Concilium. The good news is that this feature is almost entirely finished! More on what "almost entirely" means later. The bad news is that it consumed way more time than I was expecting To review, the Magnum Concilium was a great council of lords convened now and again by English kings to discuss important matters within the realm. In the time of the Conqueror, it was not particularly formalized and was held at the king's will. In later centuries, this body evolved into Parliament. In our time period, it is far closer to the former than the latter. Not only can laws be affected, as discussed last time, but so too can other things. When acting in unison with the lords of the realm, many thin…
- September in Review - 1 October 2022
It is, once again, the first Saturday of the month. It is time for another update. The Magnum Concilium The Magnum Concilium, that is the "great council," was an important instrument of governance in 12th century England. Now and again the king would summon all his tenants-in-chief, as well as the most important clergy in the realm, to discuss matters of great importance. In later centuries, this body morphed into Parliament, but in our time period, this is the object of our concern. From a gameplay perspective, I didn't think it was fitting that legal changes were only forced on the king. In previous posts I wrote about dealing with the major and minor factions. Sometimes they wanted a decree in their favor, other times they were willing to let slip a previous legal change in service of a beloved king. The clergy, in command of the power of binding and loosing, could even remove a pesk…
- August Update - 3 September 2022
Once again we have reached the first Saturday of the month, so it is time for another update. More Faction-based Events The previous work on faction-based random events focused on the main concerns of the kingdom: nobility, clergy, and peasantry, as well as the nascent class of burgesses. These are important enough to be shown at all times, but there are other concerns in the kingdom as well. Bandits are one such concern. There are numerous ways for bandits to infest the kingdom: dismissing mercenaries, poverty and ruin, angry peasants, and even some event outcomes. On the whole, having bandits around is unpleasant. That's not to say it is all bad, though. If the problem festers, you might be able to ask for certain favors that are not available elsewhere. Another of these concerns is the Jewish community. In our timeline, William I resettled many Jews from France to England, primarily…
- July Report - 6 August 2022
The first Saturday of the month has arrived, so let's look back on what happened in the previous month. It's a fair bit this time, so let's get to it! Faction-based random events As expected, much work was done on random events based on faction scores. I briefly touched on those last month. These events are caused by large factions in the realm, visible at all times on the scroll at the left of the screen. Sometimes they have disputes among themselves. Others times they directly petition for something from the crown. When things go badly, they can go very badly, like the noble rebellion I posted last month. Not all of these can eventually lead to a game over, but most can. It is not wise to antagonize one group too much. It's not all bad though. Now and again, if they really like you, a faction can grant you a boon. These favors are sometimes rather powerful. Quite a lot of these events…
- June Updates - 2 July 2022
It's the first Saturday of the month, so that means it's time to review the last month's progress. Date-based random events As promised, random events that are primarily tied to date were first on the agenda. Since DGR is set in 12th century England — whose economy was very much still agrarian — one of the most important date-linked events was the harvest. Sometimes everything went well. Other times things went badly, resulting in less than happy outcomes. Chance wasn't the only thing driving these results however. There is now a rudimentary weather system under the hood that tracks years by warmth and regions by precipitation. This can result in a number of outcomes. (Guichard is a bit, though not excessively, greedy; pay him no mind.) That does lead me to a bit of a quandary though. As a software guy and map-staring enthusiast, a weather map mode seems obvious. On the other hand, many…
- May Developments - 5 June 2022
One day late, but the time for a monthly update post has come. Yet more trait-based random events The previous batch of 400-ish trait-based random events was finished during May. It took a bit longer than anticipated, but I also had a paid side project going on these last 2.5 months. For better and worse, that's more or less over now. When I finished those events, I noticed a bit of a problem. These events all assume that the player has traits. I could see a scenario in which the player character, perhaps accidentally or perhaps on purpose, ends up without any personality traits. Being drab and painfully average just wouldn't do, so I wrote another medium-sized set of events that will move the needle. Here's one example: Each of these options gives a reasonably large bump to one of the personality traits. What's interesting about these events though is that they have an impossibly low —…
- April Update - 7 May 2022
Once again, the first Saturday has arrived and with it a monthly update post. Main Phase Random If you've been following these updates, you'll know that the current priority is getting the game into a state where it can be played beginning to end. The biggest hurdle to that right now is sufficient main-phase random events. So this month I picked up where I left off and continued writing those. This graphic may not seem particularly frightening, but there are some implications. You see, the current batch of events are random events that are triggered by player traits. I opted for a uniform flow for these; it makes composition and balancing ever so slightly easier. There is an introduction to the scenario, a "safe" choice that takes you away from the trait that triggered it, and another choice that takes you toward the trait but randomly will go well or badly. That's 4 pieces of content p…
- March Review - 3 April 2022
Convention If you've been following the Twitter, you might have seen mention of going to a convention. Yesterday I attended a local convention, ETSU Con, along with some other people from the Tri-Cities Game Developers. If I met you at the con, thanks for checking out the Steam page! If you're looking for the group link, let me know and I can get it for you. Attending this con is a big part of why this post is appearing now rather than yesterday. Pictures of our table exist, I'm told, but because of my absolute lack of media savvy, I don't have any of them. They will be posted on Twitter if I ever do get them. Development-wise, I didn't quite get the full demo I wanted done in time to show. However driving toward it did result in a lot of things getting built that I had been putting off. There's now a user-friendly splash screen that hides the flash of weird content on loading. Though t…
- February Development - 6 March 2022
Once again, the time for a monthly update has arrived. Technically said time arrived yesterday, but spotty internet convinced me to just postpone it. My apologies. Without any further ado, let's get to the update. Marriage negotiations, continued I wrote about this some in the last post. The counterproposals ended up being a bit thornier than anticipated. The good news however is that they, and all the other bits touching wedding negotiations, are finished. Medieval wedding ceremonies in game Royal weddings were important events. Rather than a minor footnote which might perhaps occasion collecting a feudal aid, these were times for feasting, processions, and much else. And, yes, also raising a tax if you desire it. The 12th century predates the Church's formal understanding of marriage as a sacrament. More on the historical aspect to follow. Despite this, it would have been shocking to…
- January Report - 5 February 2022
It's yet again time for a monthly update. There are some interesting — if a bit historically crunchy — details this time. Let's jump right in. Marriage One of the goals of Dei Gratia Rex's design is "hard historical fiction," in a similar sense as hard sci-fi. The game presents a fictitious scenario and will privilege gameplay over simulation. However where possible, things are kept as closely in line with the actual history as I can. With that in mind, the time had come to revisit marriage. Medieval marriage was a complicated process. It wasn't as easy as, say, searching a database of every woman in the world, filtering it, scrolling until you found the one you wanted, and being married under a week later. Indeed, even knowing who you could marry wasn't straightforward. Sometimes you might meet a prospective spouse naturally, but that's not necessarily the best plan for a royal marriag…
- A New Year begins - 3 January 2022
The time for another update post is upon us. Actually that time was yesterday; I'll hope you forgive me for being a day late. Christmas was cancelled for us (COVID; I'm fine now but others somewhat less so), and I'm just now getting on top of things. 2021 Many exciting things happened this year. Perhaps most recognizable was the creation of some new art. The line-fillers and bas-de-page illustrations now give life to what were otherwise blank voids on the pages. Between the text, illuminations, marginalia, and glosses, medieval manuscripts rarely had much empty space, and I wanted to capture that. Here's a before and after for the same event: The soundtrack was also completed this year. I've linked it before, but in case you've missed it: I finished quite a lot of content as well. Events for tournaments, feasts, hunts, various other ways of interacting with your subjects, and more were…
- November Review - 4 December 2021
A bit of a smaller update this time. As expected, things are unfortunately going a bit slowly right now. What I'm presently building also doesn't translate well into update posts just yet; hopefully more on that next time. Feasts part 2 In a few previous posts I wrote about vassal interactions. There is an entire system for meeting with others in your kingdom. One major goal I have is to ensure that the other characters in the realm aren't just amorphous, interchangeable entities. To that end I actually expanded the taking counsel part of the feast I wrote about last time. Those at the high table can give you advice: some of it is generic based on their traits, some of it is specific based on things that are going on in the realm. I reworked some of the random events at feasts to show vassal personalities as well. And, as always, there are some continuation events. This one is rather ra…
- October's Post - 6 November 2021
This post has some updates and some bad news. The updates are up first and the bad news is at the end. Times being what they are, please feel free to skip that last section if you're not up for it. Anyway, on we go! Feasts Like the tournament, the feast looms large in the popular imagination of the medieval period. Indeed, it is a favorite of modern reenactments, and for good reason. However Arbitology: Dei Gratia Rex takes great pains to get the history right as possible. Feasts are real things that happened, clearly. However they were not typically raucous parties. When they were, it was usually a sign that something was out of order. More commonly, they were tightly choreographed affairs. There had to be a reason for the event, for starters, and of course nothing of this sort might happen during Lent, those 40 days of holy fasting. Rank and precedence were of the utmost importance in…
