Triskell Interactive

The Well

14 Jun 2018

by Noodle

Hello everybody!

Here we are again for a new Devblog article focused on game graphics.
And today we’re going to talk about nothing less than building improvements.

Because yes, in Lethis – Path of Progress II service buildings can be upgraded to keep up with your residential neighborhoods.
We will come back to the functionalities of building improvement later to focus on the artistic approach for now.

We have divided the improvements to the service buildings into three major groups corresponding to the three major groups of changes in your neighborhoods:

The first level corresponds to the levels of “Cabins” type houses
The second level corresponds to the levels of houses of the “Individual” type
The last level corresponds to the levels of houses of type “Residential buildings”.

The idea is to have service buildings whose design will evolve as the game progresses, adapting to the environment of the residential districts they’re in.
The evolution of the building must also be perceptible quickly, while keeping the initial spirit.
Let’s have a look at the Well.
It is the first service building that you will need to install in your neighborhood to improve your homes and meet the needs of your residents.

The service buildings being at least 3×3 buildings, the Well was necessarily larger than the residences which are 2×2. So I decided to make it more than a simple water point but also a place of exchange, of meeting for the inhabitants of the district. A peaceful place, in the shade of the trees, where your inhabitants come to refresh themselves in summer, with laundry tubs to wash dirty clothes while discussing the latest news of the district.

The first level corresponds to the rural life of your inhabitants, whose needs are currently primary and where life develops around simple interests such as eating and drinking.

mockup made in photshop with the game’s assets

The evolution of the Well follows the evolution of your city. Your inhabitants are no longer satisfied with the minimum and need more to be satisfied. Access to education, culture. Consume products that improve everyday life.
Your city is changing and becoming an industrial hub. The Well is therefore evolving to adapt to emerging new residences, denser neighborhoods and new technologies.

mockup made in photshop with the game’s assets

So, unlike PoP I where only your homes could evolve, here it’s the whole city that will change according to your urban plans.
This will have an impact on the way you play, but also on the aesthetic aspect of your city, by further differentiating your neighborhoods while multiplying the possibilities within them.
To finish here is an accelerated video presenting the realization of the Well’s first level with Photoshop.

Do not hesitate to tell us in comment if you like the system of evolution of the service buildings, if you think that it is a good or a bad idea.
We welcome all your ideas and advices.

Also feel free to join our Discord server (https://discord.gg/7VHSYfk) to chat with us and the members of the Lethis community!
See you soon!

Tchu!

Noodle

2 Comments:

Simon on July 3, 2018 at 8:54 pm Reply

In regards to differentiating neighborhoods, I think it would be cool to have some reason to have a mix of different housing levels in your city, instead of just upgrading everything to the max. So even a fully developed city would have some cheaper houses where the factory workers live.

It’s also a little strange that the fancier the house, the more people live in it. It makes sense that a multi-storey building has more people than a shack, but once you get into the higher level houses, it ought to be the opposite – richer people have more space per person.

How about instead of just having working class and upper class, you also have an educated middle class? And more advanced buildings require a mix of workers and educated workers.

Maybe at housing level 6 or so, the houses will demand access to education to evolve. Once they get it, the number of inhabitants no longer goes up, but instead some of them turn into skilled workers. And for all levels after this, the percentage of skilled workers would continue to rise, with the total number of inhabitants staying the same.

If there aren’t enough jobs demanding skilled workers, they could still take regular jobs, but then they would only pay normal taxes. This way people would never get “too skilled to work”, however, you would be wasting resources providing an unnecessary standard of living if you don’t need the skilled workers.
Rui Deyllot on June 14, 2018 at 11:33 pm Reply

Wow, you’ve simply read my mind.
Having service buildings improve together will their neighbourhood is absolutely awesome. It gives more character to the neighbourhoods, especially if the looks of those improved service buildings have some variety to reduce visual repetition.

If I may give a suggestion, since the idea is to have branching paths for the progress of houses for different “professions” (engineers, artists, merchants, aristocrats/diplomats, etc.), the service buildings could have different buildings models accordingly to the “profession” of their neighbourhood.

And yes please, having those improved service buildings provide us will improved/added functionality is important to provide a bit more depth to the gameplay.
You could go as far as having the service buildings also require certain goods or materials in order to progress. That way the player would have to think about supplying goods not only to the houses but to the service buidings as well. It would require a bit more strategy a be more of a challenge, but it would also be more rewarding in the end.

The Well

2 Comments:

Leave a Reply to Rui Deyllot Cancel reply