Candle'Bre Public Demo Version 1 ~ Now Available

[Velociryx]

Announcing the release of the first public demo version of The Courts of Candle'Bre!

Hello to all of you who have been following "Team Candy" over the years, and who have participated in our numerous discussions.

We're pleased to announce (finally!) the first Public Demo Version of the game! It can be downloaded from Apolyton. If you don't have .NET Framework 2.0 or newer installed, you'll need to get that first: download from Microsoft. Just unzip the game's archive into a folder of your choice, and CandleBre.exe will be ready and waiting.

Please see the notes from the some of the members of the creative team for more details, and thoughts on the long road from there to here, and happy gaming!

-=Vel=-

EDIT: Because this is a demo version, we're aware that there will be bugs reported, and we are committed to bringing you regular bug fix updates. That's one of the reasons we wanted this release, to put more eyeballs on what we have so far, so we can be sure it's solid before we proceed further.
-V.

* Originally posted at: http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?t=183845

[Velociryx]

More than seven years ago, in January of 2002 (January 17th, not to put too fine a point on it), there was a discussion about who the people of Apolyton would like to see on a Civ design team.

I was honored and flattered that my name came up, but I was also enough of a realist that I acknowledged it’d never happen.

From that, however, an idea was born, and that idea was Candle’Bre.

Since 2002, our group of volunteers has grown and shrunk in size as hordes of different people have moved in and out of our halls. At its peak, our team sported more than thirty members, and spanned four continents. At its low point, it sported all of two, so we’ve truly run the gamut.

The project has survived hecklers, naysayers, deaths (including my own! But that is a story for another time), dire illnesses, relocations, dislocations, and a thousand other problems, and through them all, remarkably, it survived. There were days when it survived on nothing more than a dream and some stubborn determination by people who were probably too thick headed to know when they were beaten, but it survived nonetheless. And let me say to all those who warned me about how difficult this was...you were right, and then some. Hardest thing I've done so far, and that's saying something, cos I don't take the easy road.

Anyway, *because* the project survived, more than seven years after the group first got together, we’re proud to present you the first public build of The Courts of Candle’Bre.

What this build is not: Let me stress. This build is not the finished, final, complete version of the game. It is not graphically complete. It lacks depth in several key areas and some features are not yet fully fleshed out, but more important than what it isn’t, is what it IS.

What this build IS: It is the first public demo version, presented to you in order to showcase in broad strokes where we are headed, and to solicit your feedback before we proceed further down any particular road. It is playable from start to finish (currently the only victory condition is the conquest of 40 provinces, and there’s only a very basic victory screen, but it IS playable from start to finish).

And it is my hope that with the features currently built into the game, you’ll be able to get a strong, very definite sense of where we’re going with it.

Each successive build after this one will continue to add depth to the models we’ve already got working, and that depth will be, in large part shaped and directed by your feedback, so most importantly, what this build is, is your chance to shape the game directly.

Enjoy.

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

.

Candle'Bre is, first and foremost, a story. It's a story of how an inspired idea and unbelievable dedication can overcome personal and technical trouble. The story could have come to an abrupt end many, many times since it started. But it did not and I'm very glad to see that we have arrived at this point in the journey. We're a bit battered maybe, we certainly took longer to get here than what we originally expected, quite optimistically. But we're here and our spirits are certainly as high as ever.

It is common knowledge that indie projects always have a difficult journey and, in fact, often fail early in development for a variety of reasons. Candle'Bre, in a way, had a more difficult job to do than other projects, or so it would seem. It's quite imperative for success to have a project leader who is capable of either programming or art creation. That was not the case for this project, and Vel admitted as much when first putting the idea forth. Some people noted back then that this circumstance made Candle'Bre even less likely to succeed than the average indie project, and that was a fair point.

As it turned out, though, that wasn't even close to being the biggest issue with the project. Among the many setbacks Candle'Bre suffered were Vel's health problems, which on one occasion all but stopped progress for a while. The most amazing thing of this all, though, is that Vel's faith in the eventual success was never lost. He kept working on the backstory books when nothing else was happening and taught himself the basics of programming so that he could play with his ideas in what became known, internally, as prototype versions.

Even as coding on the game was started from scratch seven times, the quality of artwork remained high thanks to Hexagonian's stylish illustrations and in-game art. He kept cranking out art, including some magnificent Bryce renders, and was also able to remain dedicated to the project even when not much else was happening.

Lately, it has been my pleasure to try and bring Vel's vision of a game a few steps closer to reality. I've been confident that Vel's personality and a knack for imagining quite precisely what he'd like to see would eventually see us through. I can say that every evening devoted to Candle'Bre has been a pleasure, which is largely due to Vel's personality and pleasant working style. I have also been pleasantly surprised all along by Hex's ability to grant my artwork requests switfly and effectively, never complaining when he had to spend time on extremely simple tweaks that I was incapable of doing myself.

The development of this game has truly been a team effort. Only by combining our personalities and efforts were we able to get to this point. And now we are truly excited to present you with the first public version of the game. It's not complete and it's not everything that the game can be, but it's definitely playable and at least we have found it quite enjoyable - hopefully, so will you.

One of the Stubborn Stooges,
Solver

[Velociryx]

A letter from Hex:

I'm not going to repeat what has been said above...it sums up the up-and-down nature of the project for the past few years.

Try the game...be critical (but remember that we are not professionals, just 3 guys who are doing a game for free)...but make sure you check out the novel. I'm a reader at heart, and I constantly revisit books that I read 25 years ago (multiple times, no less), so for me, I am most excited about the novel.

I joined the team for the game development, but soon discovered the richness of the backstory. Over time, the story was what kept me on the project, as Chris wrote and posted an engaging tale of the murder of a King and a Realm thrown into chaos. While the game development floundered, the story (and history) continued to evolve.

Best of all, I got to be a sounding board for the story arc, and it is one character (Crestmore) and one extended passage at the beginning of Book III involving him that I had a great deal of input.

It is the one thing that I am most personally proud of regarding this project

I will tell about a conversation I had with Chris 3 years ago right after he had his heart attack. We were discussing the future of the project. At that point in time, both of us had no hope whatsoever that a game would ever see the light of day, because his health was so iffy. Neither of us has any programming skills to speak of. I was rather blunt with him during that conversation, urging him to focus on what he was good at...writing stories, because it was the one area where he did not have to depend on any outside help.

I believe Chris took that advice to heart too

What is more amazing was Chris's continued efforts after that conversation to try to learn programming just to attempt to try to bring the Realm into game format.

Thank you Solver for taking on that part of the project...it probably would have ultimately killed Chris.

End result, we got a game and a story.

Enjoy!

Hex

[Hrnac]

Took this for a quick spin last night and have the following comments.

1. Initial impression was of EU. This was due to the province map. I like the map and the way the seasons change.

2. The way combat works is very simple and not very appealing. You move your stack to an adjacent province and up pops the results screen. Ugh. Perhaps some sort of screen that gives the round by round results since you said the combat occurs over 6 rounds. The lack of strategy here is something that I am sure you have plans for.

3. I think you need a bit more technology to research just to give the gamer something else to do. Perhaps techs that improve/expand crops, harvesting of raw materials, combat performance/strategy, foreign relations, etc.

4. I hope you are able to add an overlay that shows the province owner. Some light colored hatching might work nice here.

5. This game screams for some sort of tactical combat engine ala MoM. That would be the ultimate for combat.

Overall I was pretty impressed and will look forward to future builds. Keep the up great work.

-Hrnac

[Velociryx]

Hello sir, and thank you for giving us a try!

You are quite right about the combat...what we've got in place right now is the first generation of that model, and it'll be expanded and fleshed out over time. We've got some pretty big plans for it, but at present, it's a little...yeah. What you said.

Additional research is coming in the 1.1 build, so we've got that covered. Again, similar to EU, the tech trees are purely linear, and the effects will likely evolve and change with future iterations, but definatly look for that in the next build!

The one thing you should have seen with this build though, is the alpha shading of provinces based on ownership. Can you start up a new thread and post us a screenie of what you're seeing? Cos that should already be in place!

Many thanks, and I'm glad you enjoyed!

-=Vel=-

[Solver]

No, Vel, you got that part wrong - alpha shading hasn't been released to the masses yet, it's in that "almost there" update I keep screwing up.

[Velociryx]

Ahhh....gotcha!

In that case, yes! The province shading thing is definately coming!

-=Vel=-

[vyeh]

I want to wish you luck. I did lurk in the forum at 'poly. Unfortunately, I am a pre-Intel Mac user, but I look forward to reading this forum.

[Heraclitus]

This forum is much better than I expected... anycase I played the demo yesterday and enjoyed it immensley. I'm just going to give you back some feedback, so if you are interested in that kleep reading.

The game is fun, but I dislike the interface for the spells (refering to the three buttons, magic, religion and blackops). Why confuse the player with a long list of unfamiliar region names (at least color code them to make it instantly clear who owns them!). I think a much better way would be to make the buttons change the view, so that regions where certain actions can be taken are marked as such and are relevant for the spells displayed in each province. Also why not just let the player take these actions the same way he decrees a festival?

Secondly I recomend disabling the "full screen" option for the demo, it dosen't really give you full screen (playing on a laptop) and it messes up the zoom on the map (it stays zoomed in and distorted even when turning off the option and restarting the game).

Can't wait to see later demos and eventually the full release. I really hope it gets finished, since the game is really fun even in this early stage.

PS Something ureladet to the game: When registering I didn't see an option to keep one's email private (only admins)... where is it?

[Solver]

This forum is much better than I expected... anycase I played the demo yesterday and enjoyed it immensley. I'm just going to give you back some feedback, so if you are interested in that kleep reading.

Thanks

The game is fun, but I dislike the interface for the spells (refering to the three buttons, magic, religion and blackops). Why confuse the player with a long list of unfamiliar region names (at least color code them to make it instantly clear who owns them!).

The color coding is actually a great idea. Understand, though, that the first demo is quite lackluster when it comes to interface. The second demo can be released once we fix some problems related to the website, but a large scale interface revamp won't happen until later.

Also why not just let the player take these actions the same way he decrees a festival?

That's actually an option. I believe you need to hold down Shift (or control?) when right-clicking a province and then you'll be offered a menu to execute those actions.

Secondly I recomend disabling the "full screen" option for the demo, it dosen't really give you full screen (playing on a laptop) and it messes up the zoom on the map (it stays zoomed in and distorted even when turning off the option and restarting the game).

It's pretty much there for testing purposes. Using full screen mode isn't recommended in the demo releases because it isn't always functional, so the game doesn't default to that.

PS Something ureladet to the game: When registering I didn't see an option to keep one's email private (only admins)... where is it?

You're talking about this forum's registration, right? Do you mean an option that hides the address from other members? I'm pretty sure the address isn't displayed anywhere, others just get a button letting them email you.

[Heraclitus]

Oh, ok thanks for the info regarding the interface and answering my question about the email adress.

Mind me asking when is the expected release date for the second version of the demo? Also how many people have downloaded it thus far?

[Solver]

Release date expectations are extremely hard given the very small amount of people working on this I can say that there's very little work, in terms of additions, that remains to be done for the second demo. But again, we're looking into some issues with candlebre.com first (the idea is for them to be fixed before Demo 2 is out), but that part isn't progressing nicely at all.

Candle'Bre was initially hosted at Apolyton, including at the time when the first demo was released. That makes it hard for me to give you an estimated number of downloads as I no longer have access to any of Apolyton's statistical data. If I had to guess, I'd say that's 500-600 downloads up to this point, but that's just a guess. I'm certain it's no less than some 500, though.

[Velociryx]

Howdy, Hera!

Glad to hear that you gave it a spin and enjoyed what we've got put together thus far!

If you liked Demo 1, I think you're really going to enjoy Demo2! We've got some pretty exciting things planned for that expansion, and although it's taking us a very long time, it's always been more about the journey than the destination (I've said repeatedly that I doubted whether Candle'Bre would ever truly be "done," and I don't think it will. Unlike a "traditional" game that has a set and defined "end point," Candle'Bre is (and is supposed to be) entirely open-ended, leaving us free to continue development on it indefinitely.

Granted, we're still some distance from telling the kind of story we envision via the framework of the game, and we'll keep working on it till we get to that point, but when we do....well, after that, we'll prolly just keep right on working on it, slowly extending and expanding.

I agree with you re: the spells and effects, and yep...definitely the way I play is to use the "shortcut" that Solver mentioned. Just makes casting a spell in a particular province much more efficient to me.

And wait till you see some of the events in demo 2...some interesting choices coming your way...

-=Vel=-

[Solver]

A few words on Demo2.

A few days ago, the gameplay elements intended for Demo2 were finished. That is, all new features and events got implemented, so what's happening now is some rebalancing, testing and polishing.

One of the very fortunate things in Demo2 is that army composition has changed significantly. Vel stumbled on to some different values for unit power/armor, as a result all-Infantry armies aren't now that good, and the AI also mixes different unit types.

Random events are more interesting now that every faction also has several unique events based on the world's backstory. With a few more regular events, there's now greater variety.

Gathering intelligence on foreign provinces has been added, so you can now, for instance, check the exact force composition before attacking. Makes for a nice addition.

Overall, Demo2 of the game will feel more mature and in-depth than Demo1, as there are more options and they matter more. Admittedly, the game is fairly simple overall, but a nice amount of subtleties have appeared.

[Velociryx]

Yes!

Several big changes in Demo 2, and I echo Solver's sentiments. You can very definitely feel the increasing depth in all the systems.

For me, the coolest changes, and the ones that most notably impact play directly are these:

* Factional Events - In Demo 1, Mourngrym was the only group that got unique events. That's no longer the case, and the events help to further the "different look, different feel" of each group, which IMO, enhances replayability.

* Army composition - Unit type now matters, and the AI understands this. There's still work to be done in this area, but the changes this has already wrought are both notable and interesting!

* New Spells, Effects, and Blackops! - All three of the "secondary" resources got new powers, the most intriguing to me are the information gathering (Gather Intel for Espionage, and Scry for Mana), but also don't overlook the usefulness of Alacrity, and Influence has something for the builder crowd as well. Tied to this system are changed to Intercessions that take them from being mild annoyances to truly powerful defensive tools for your arsenal. All in all, I'd say the "effects" section is starting to come together nicely!

* Mercenaries add an intriguing element to the game, and allow for unexpected leaps in power, especially in the early game or when combined with well used 'Alacrity' to put a dangerous force on the front where there was nothing to report immediately before.

Along with these, there are a whole HOST of other tweaks, changes, additions and adjustments that give us a more balanced, well-rounded gaming experience, with more ahead in future releases! Stay tuned, and Merry Christmas!

-=Vel=-

[Solver]

We're happy to say that Demo2 is now available, and if you liked Demo1 at all, you should enjoy what's available now

[BigRich]

Just to add my 2 gold pieces worth.

The new gameplay elements make a big difference - and I second what Vel said about the mercenaries. That particular feature has saved me on several occasions! I think my personal favourite addition though is the faction events - they can make quite a difference as to how your game plays out.

There are some nice refinements to the interface and the overall look and feel of game as well...

If you had a play around with Demo 1, then definitely take a look at Demo 2. If you're new to all this, then Demo 2 is a great place to start!

- Rich.