Developer Log FINAL before release I wanted to share some thoughts on the final development of Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero which I will reference it as KDH from now on. I am a single developer who hires out what I need to be done like art, music, and marketing. The coding and design are me. Keeping everything running well and understanding my game takes a lot of time, organization, and persistence. In these final stages before release, I am adding some touch-ups and small recommendations. I am also trying to get localization put into the game so the UI can be used in several languages. I have made two previous successful games: WarPlan and WarPlan Pacific. For KDH I decided to go further and create a lot of background and story. I wanted to make the player feel like he was the vizier of the kingdom making all the important decisions. I used a lot of flavor text to give this impression. It was a lot of work. It was even more work when I decided to make the UI in different languages. I could not translate the flavor text because it would lose the flavor as words are lost in translation from one language to another. Names on the map are based on real languages with words modified. There is no translation in any language for kingdoms like “Oroklang” or “Skadi”. Even the stories and names associated with characters and villains make it difficult to translate them into Chinese without a direct cultural reference for example. Some of the text is procedurally generated and words that I can’t make a translator for as an indie developer. It was a task that made me appreciate developers of flavorful RPG games. Originally, I planned to make this an area game. But everyone does that. Now I know why. It is much easier to program the computer to play in an area game than a hex game. There are so many factors to consider on how the computer will move in a hex game as there is no single area that is a choke point I can code for with the computer opponent. The political situation of the game makes it even more difficult. In WarPlan the code design was easier because it had set goals, set enemies, specific fronts, and a mountain of units on the map reducing difficult permutations. KDH is more difficult to code for the computer opponent with enemies all around, many decisions to make, and the potential of an opponent backstabbing you makes it rough on the computer opponent. Most games make single stack games where there is one unit per hex. Single-stack games create easier decisions for the computer opponent. I chose to do it the hard way, stacks. Now I know why most games do single unit per hex. Making a game with stacks on a hex map with a decent computer opponent is a monumental task. A fair deal of the coding is the computer opponent deciding how to move which pieces onto what stacks to do a task while leaving defending pieces behind. The coding of UI, creation of art, and creation of sounds was the easiest part of the game. But the guts of the game are the level of complexity, depth, and if it entertains the player. Some of you might love this game, some might hate it. That is expected when developing a game. There are some wargames that players love and I wouldn’t play them if you paid me. Others are not so popular, and I love them. The good news is that with every game I make I learn something new. The engine for KDH is going to be the same engine for WarPlan 2 which I know many of you are excited about. WarPlan 2 will have improvements to its engine over KDH. My journey as a game developer is an ever-learning process just like life is. Being an indie game developer is wonderful. But it is not an easy occupation. You need to wear a lot of hats and read a lot of material to get competent in many fields. But the journey in making each game is unique and fun. It is satisfying watching your creation come to life and others enjoy it. I hope everyone enjoys the game when it is released.