Hey everyone, I haven't been too active on the forums recently, I hardly doubt most of you even remember me but that's beside the point! I'm currently starting development on a little game called Merchant Lords. The basic premise is that you're pitted against 5 other merchants in medieval times, starting out small and eking out a living by sending out caravans between villages and setting up new industries that will compete against the other merchants.
The end game goal is to make the other merchants bankrupt, you can do this as honestly or as dishonestly as you want. You can purchase mercenary companies to raid the other merchants caravans and steal their goods or manipulate the politics within the village to declare war on the other town and conquer it, and hey, while you're at it why not invest heavily in weapons manufacturing? Armies need weapons and why not make massive profits off of it as well? Of course you can always go the honest way and just try and out-compete them... Bah, that isn't as fun.
I'm not very good with writing about the game so I apologize if it isn't as clear as it should be or something. There's a reason why I'm a programmer and not a writer.
Feature List:
- Be a merchant in medieval times!
- Purchase goods and a caravan, hire some guards and a driver and send it to the other towns! Pro-tip: Hire plenty of guards, there's bound to be bandits on the road!
- Set up stalls in town, buy a stall and hire someone to man it! You can sell your wares to the towns-folk, be wary though because thief's might end up stealing your goods!
- Start new industries. Is the village growing too quickly and desperately needs food? Build a farm nearby and supply the village with jobs and the much needed food! (At higher prices of course.)
- Nefarious Actions, the other merchant have a monopoly on a certain resource? Why not sabotage that iron mine that he is getting his iron from, he can't exactly make swords without it!
- Dynamic Village Growth, villages will grow and require more resources to sustain themselves, entire villages can die off from plague and famine.
- Village Politics, villages will have elections for new leaders, you can use this to your advantage and bribe politicians.
- Warring Mechanic, villages will go to war against one another, kingdoms will form and fall apart. You'll have to get used to the ever-changing landscape of the game.
The feature list is definitely incomplete right now, there will be lots of changes to it, mostly additions.
I'm currently looking at finishing the game and putting it on greenlight in 6-8 months. I am working full-time on the game 6-8 hours a day, 5-7 days a week. I will be developing the game closely with you guys and your suggestions and criticisms will be valuable.
I'm planning on getting a working alpha done in 2-3 months which will be released to you guys to test. We'll have a weekly play-test of the games multiplayer functionality, there will be plenty of bugs to find and work out.
If all goes according to plan and in 6-8 months the game is released on steam, I will give away keys to all the alpha-beta testers as well as have a give-away as thanks to you guys for helping me out. I'm looking forward to working on the game and hear what you guys have to say about it! Feel free to ask questions and post suggestions, I have an easier time posting responses than writing something like this.
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Topic: Merchant Lords - Medieval capitalism simulator! (Read 3153 times)