Making an Epic Boss For our Castle Builder Game (Devlog)

➤ Wishlist Thronefall on Steam: store.steampow...
In this devlog we go we keep working and expanding our minimalist medieval base defense game, Thronefall. We make a new level, we reach 100 days of development, and we give the game to our first playtesters! Enjoy some good gamedev. :)
My last game:
➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: store.steampow...
➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: / discord
For the game developers among you:
➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: / discord
Hope you enjoy. :)
#gamedev #indiedev

[@JonasTyroller]

Wishlist and subscribe or I will slap you with a throne.

[@WeBlanchin]

So if I don't tell a certain person I know to subscribe you'll slap them with a throne 🤔 Brilliant.

[@JuanPabloBN]

Hey is the early access free as a demo form

[@ManasGhaiCode]

You can't slap me I have already Wishlisted thronefall. I love your work you are why I got into gamedev. How can I sign up as I playtester.

[@gametec_live]

is it going to be steamdeck verified?

[@yvesfricker5498]

please consider 2 player coop!!!

[@SuperOriginal]

I feel like it would be really cool to see an ocean level, with enemies both attacking from land and water using boats. The buildings could be Woden to contrast with the blue ocean and it would look really cool

[@JonasTyroller]

Yeah, actually a coastline level with some really nice vibrant colors is very far up on my priority list already. Also thinking about a spooky haunted forest level, and we'll see what else is gonna come to mind. :D

[@SuperOriginal]

@@JonasTyroller omg the legend actually replied, never thought that you would ever see this comment but you actually replied

[@pixelsoupgames]

That's a nice idea

[@Izaiyusa]

An cave level where the enemy dug their way on the level might be really cool where they always spawn on differen location that you didt know every night and maybe a type of enemy that aim to distrup the backline will be very cool Also worm boss :v

[@gibz_]

Maybe even enemies that literally came from the water

[@wyli-music]

i think it's not obvious enough that enemies deal extra damage when they spawn. instead of dealing damage, i suggest that the shockwave pushes your allied units away from the enemies or outside of the enemy spawn camp. anyways, thronefall's looking very satisfying so far!

[@catcactus1234]

Same thought here. Since the health bars are so tiny, it’s not immediately noticeable that enemies spawning can damage them. A shockwave or physical knockback effect would do a great job of illustrating the damage effect.

[@pauldaulby260]

i don't think it really matters if its not immediately obvious. they take die earlier and the player will stop putting units by the spawn.

[@lisyarus]

To fix the archers exploit, you could make them reload only while they're standing still. This way they won't be able to shoot if they're constantly on move.

[@TheNonCraftyt]

That would be really big brain

[@LogicStudios_1]

The game is really taking shape and looks epic :D

[@JonasTyroller]

Happy you think so. Thanks. :)

[@larskrs]

There is nothing like waking up to great videos ❤, keep up the amazing work

[@JonasTyroller]

Thank you. :) ❤

[@TableTopic]

“The only problem is the current architecture… doesn’t really allow for it…” “A few moments later and now the architecture allows for it.” 💀

[@-Teague-]

The power of troubleshooting lol

[@royaldarkness8453]

This building upgrade for units and it types thing remind me of Kingdom Rush game here. If Jonas haven't check it then hope it give him some upgrade and units idea

[@ap1evideogame44]

@@royaldarkness8453 Charge! Have at thee! Fully Loaded! *I* put a spell on you!

[@petersanten3294]

Jonas exclaiming "Look how goo this all looks" before instantly clipping through the terrain in contemplative silence is peak game dev. Gotta love it.

[@AlHyckGaemsTAD]

Always love seeing these devlogs, can't wait for the games release.

[@-Teague-]

Same, I doubt it'll be soon but maybe later this year

[@-Falcn]

Good job guys, love seeing the game coming along. I hope to see more in the future

[@jaeger6711]

I really love the way the game is starting to look, I am getting excited to play it. A couple suggestions that I think will take it to the next level: 1. Add more deep mechanics. Making the ram immune to arrows is great and I would love to see more units like this. Enemies with armor that are resistant to swords but vulnerable to maces and hammers. Very squishy and fast units that deal more damage from behind, etc. Makes the game so much more replayable. 2. Players always prefer unlocking new cool abilities instead of flat stat bonuses. Adding abilities that can be unlocked like rain of arrows, shield wall, spear charge, etc, will always be way cooler than a 10% damage increase to units. 3. Give some unlockable abilities to the king too. A battle cry that buffs nearby units, a stomp ability that stuns enemies, a horse charge that deals damage, stuff like that. I would make that a new building that when upgraded provides these abilities. If you wanna go the extra mile, add multiple kings with different abilities and playstyles. I know that these are a lot of work and can't happen over night but I have seen many games with simple concepts like Thronefall die because there isn't enough replayability or different styles of play. Easy to get into but hard to master is the way to go imo.

[@SquareGlade]

Always makes me happy seeing your progress Jonas!

[@veronika6879]

I watched your devlogs for Thronefall and paused to take a look at the code.. I know this is going to sound strange, but it's such an inspiring hot mess. I struggle with perfectionism in coding so much that it stops me from making progress sometimes and seeing you just going with it made me stop stressing so much! Thronefall already looks lovely and like it's going to be lots of fun - this matters most! Thank you for sharing your progress and for the inspiration

[@spacegamerroblox1816]

amazing video as always

[@levynetoto]

Great job :) I just think the third map needs another contrast color. Maybe a sunset orange, or aurora borealis green~ But I know that this monochrome scheme can also be an art direction decision, and I respect that. Just commenting here~ But anyway, looking forward to the next updates :)

[@DonRawling]

Amazing stuff! Cannot wait to play Thronefall. Really good to see you taking time off as well and taking care of your mental health. Keep on keeping on Jonas

[@Cloud-HeadedDev]

3:25 Killing two dinosaurs with one meteor is still technically killing two birds with one stone. Nice.

[@_GhostMiner]

5:40 Just explained stronghold's free build mode. 7:04 (Minecraft) alpha creepers

[@rustbrothers5877]

Looking good!

[@JonasTyroller]

No u.

[@Str8Griz]

The game is starting to look really good! Great job, looking forward to trying it out!

[@frogballoon]

Your devlogs and games are always entertaining! Also, don't worry, my cringe resistance has been flawless for the last 4 years thanks to you :D I just bought Will You Snail a couple of months ago, and it has to be one of my favorite indie games. I love your stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Wingsoffire270]

i think it would be really cool to not only move your tropes but be able to spred them out, and a way for the player to make them move around automatically. also in the winter level have the player and tropes where a jacket or somthing like that. love the way the game it turning out to be!

[@devlog98]

Just from looking the gameplay it already seems to be a lot of fun!! Keep up the pace you two and soon you're going to make it to the finish line 🥳

[@Jess_stpierre]

Wishlisted!! It's looking so good! Love seeing the process :)

[@AlfurnoGaming]

You have come so far since you started working on Thronefall. Good job.

[@theothetorch8016]

This one felt a bit more chill compared to the crazyness of the previous devlogs. That's not a bad thing thoiugh! The new content is really hype! I'd love to see a bit more of Paul's side.

[@josefduxbury]

Hey Jonas! A great way to make the player feel powerful is to add in single use items they can collect, that ARE overpowered, but can only be used once (or until they find another). For instance, a fire bomb that can blast away a group of enemies. This is also saleable by adding in greater chance to get it in loot etc at higher levels. Hope that helps, keep up the great work!

[@sotoastit]

Give yourself a timer that goes off every 30 minutes that reminds you to save your project.

[@yjlom]

even better, make it actually save every 30 minutes automatically

[@-Teague-]

Twould be a good idea

[@Nicknamegeneratorfailed]

I like that simple rendering with the colors/tone taking the first seat. It's very nice and I love the addition of the winter theme.

[@FloatingOer]

Looking very nice so far! As a hobby game dev I hope the changes with all the options provide more game play time/quality than the effort it took to create it haha. It would be cool to see some little customization like picking your own design/color for the banners, no impact on the game but makes it feel a bit more personal. If you are looking for map inspirations the "Giant's causeway" in Norway and "cano cristales" (the 7 color river) in Colombia are quite cool and unique natural environments.

[@abyssaltheking]

thats actually really nice how its turning out and now i want to make a base builder just for fun thronefall my beloved

[@gofrisuto]

Suggestion: I think a sky island level would look fabulous with this artstyle, and it would allow for some very interesting concept, like building up bridges to access resources, putting long ranged enemies in one island, and leading the rest away to snipe them down, or even flying enemies or units (and maybe flying buildings?) This game looks amazing already, I can't wait to see what you guys will put into it!

[@kolegaramic260]

I just know this is gonna be the best game you made so far!

[@mattmurphy7030]

“We’re making a minimalist game” _makes a beautiful and complex work of art_

[@lime_68]

I like the style of a game. Visuals. Now I see how important it is to implement one in your own game

[@func_e]

this is getting to a point where I can confidentially say, yes, I'll pay money for this. good job, guys :D

[@GamesBySaul]

Really nice work! All the choices make the game look so much "leave it up to players" which i think is super fun! Maybe for the snow level an abominable snowman might be cool to see 👀

[@GX_Ethernal]

I can't wait to play this game!

[@PresupPoli]

Idea for stealth enemies: - daylight assassins: Every so often (you determine how frequently), the context clue of the daytime music suddenly changes to the nighttime music, so you know the daylight assassins are coming. You get a certain amount of time to prepare before they spawn in (should be relatively short to play on the “unexpected” aspect). Then, when they DO spawn in, they have invisibility until they make their first attack, after which they become visible. - stealth king: you can use up some large amount of resources/skill points/etc. to go on a stealth mission to the enemy’s camp. While there, you have a limited amount of time to disrupt some aspect of their operations which will impact their nightly attacks for X amount of night turns. Essentially, this is the inverse of the daylight assassins in that YOU are the one who goes to their camp unexpected to do a guerilla style hit on them. But to ensure that players don’t abuse this, it should really have a high cost to use, and things like long cooldown periods, etc.

[@eboatwright_]

This is looking amazing! I love the idea of the huge boss fights, it reminds me of old school Maplestory bosses like Zakum and Horntail

[@Mgbeatz_Icrowdx]

finally a video without cringe jokes , this is dope i appreciate this video , just wishlisted the game

[@mr.coffeecup1331]

Looks absolutely great! You could add small lights in buildings windows to make it feel alive. Just a suggestion

[@markstar6899]

You should give the player a torch at night

[@-Teague-]

That's a fun idea

[@archamondearchenwold8084]

i think this game looks soooo good! art style and gameplay both!

[@hopemetal3440]

I like how this game is coming together.

[@captainnoyaux]

looks well polished and fun congrats !

[@indieBen]

The more we go into the dev of this game, the more I want to play it 🔥

[@AshwinBhat00]

the game is turning out soo good!! but i think it would be nice to add dungeon raids and other things

[@HelperWesley]

Very cool stuff as always Jonas. 💪

[@_sofie]

I loved that snippet of the night time music

[@Floky]

Great stuff, this game seems right up my alley!

[@gibs9731]

SpeAr! :D Nice progress, keep rocking!

[@feelinghealing3890]

that instrument used for the night sound sounds like one of those continuous tone things that were popular at the time, meaning the pitch should slope to every new value instead of going ____-----__-____--- all at once.

[@BobbeDev]

happy to see baby jonas making a return

[@damiangrajeda1192]

I saw in a previous devlog a wall were if you click it it releases a log that damages enemies, i think you should bring it back and maybe make different walls you can choose. Also i think the exploding enemy is good to add variety, maybe there could be an ice enemy that frezzes enemys so you have to move your melee troops away from it so they dont freeze

[@chinguyenminh9922]

what a great game! admire your work a lot !!!

[@matiaslomeli3443]

I think it would be interesting to have levels that are slightly inspired by real places. for example, having a desert level that only has army customizations that fit that terrain, and buildings that would look the way buildings do in places with a similar climate. Only a suggestion, I absolutely love your videos, keep up the wonderful work!

[@gigabit6226]

This is nitpicky, but I'd personally love to see the shadows move and the directional light rotate slowly as the day/night cycle continues, instead of them just staying in place. I don't know why, but that would improve the coziness factor for me. Keep up the good work Jonas!

[@Zure619]

It's inspiring watching your progress! About the spawnkilling problem: It seems like you have a clear indicator as to where the level ends for the player. What about spawning the units offscreen and then let them walk towards your base? It would remove the spawnkilling problem and makes the game feel more realistic than just spawning them in. Can't wait to see how this game will keep evolving, keep it up!

[@valleydevv5593]

I’m excited for this to release!

[@erikbro26]

This is like kingdom two crowns! Im so exited!🎉🎉🎉

[@mrzoProductions]

Damn, I am really excited for this game!

[@NinyaMonke]

while playing the demo, it wasn't clear that the enemies spawning was dealing damage to my nearby troops, so maybe that's something to keep in kind great devlog as always tho!

[@Mureto]

Thronefall kind of reminds me of "Kingdom" but just as a 3d game

[@WeBlanchin]

Wow yeah

[@JonasTyroller]

Definitely an inspiration. We're sort of going for Kingdom x Mini Metro x Vampire Survivors or something like that. :D

[@Mureto]

@@JonasTyroller Sounds a lot of fun. I'm awaiting the day it becomes early access.

[@jussivalter]

you definitely need to add a lantern light beam around the main player's horse in the dark.

[@kae3027]

What about something like a "city lights" option, which would work exactly how it sounds: gives the player a choice of how many lights will be there at night, so the performance could be both optimised and people with more capable PCs will be able to squeeze out a bit more juice?

[@JonasTyroller]

Hmmm. Perhaps that could be a reasonable option as well. We can check how difficult this would be to implement.

[@-Teague-]

That might be a bit complicated if they got an option on how many to be on, maybe just one switch to turn them all off or 3 options with different numbers

[@ModBros8434]

I'm glad this is going well. I'd imagine PVP in this game will be very fun, if that's on the roadmap

[@NikaiShannon-tn2qf]

It would be cool to have a community of npcs with cool little stories

[@ooaktree]

i got a idea for a map, where your city is in a cave, and there are two enterences to your cave/city one on the left and on the right, and you build walls around the two enterences, i think it could be really cool!

[@saeedbarari2207]

there were some very interesting technical stuff there that I would really like to know more about! like the Path gameobject hierarchy that expanded itself to it's child GameObjects. and the outlined shader. plus the postprocessing effect. I think it'd be a good idea for a video to go about some technical challenges you faced and how you guys solved it too!

[@ErikBod]

throne fall looks like the perfect game for me.

[@rahi6079]

Maybe the king should become a ghost when he dies, allowing you to get out of the big crowds and 'appear' somewhere safe. Maybe you can tie a mechanic to that where the ghost king can spook/stun troops or something ^^. Just a silly idea

[@DeathWishGames]

Can't wait to play this!

[@prockstudios5319]

“Encouraging the intended play style is almost always better than dis encouraging other play styles” -gmtk

[@JonasTyroller]

I see where that is coming from for stuff like invisible walls and so on. What if you don't want to force an intended play-style onto players, though? A good strategy game should not have "THE" intended play style in my opinion. The fun is in figuring one out for yourself. :)

[@tmbpotatoe5975]

i think it would be cool and really surprising, if the boss first appears in top fishing harbour, because that would spook the player while also showing the danger of the boss.

[@scherzometer]

Swamp level that requires some sort of hiding tactics would be cool, idk how fun tho that’s for you to figure out lol

[@Ultimantecat]

I won't get slapped with a throne because I am already subscribed, HAHA!

[@bernhardvoggenberger9850]

We need a dragon bossfight. Doesn't need to be mechanically complicated. But just a large dragon the size of a few buildings marching towards our settelment

[@mila_0809]

とても楽しみにしてます。 開発頑張ってください。 王様と馬のデザインが、とても素敵で、Tシャツとか、タペストリーが欲しいです。

[@janniko.3232]

In germany we say : es wird langsam, großartig! And I think thats really fitting :)

[@maaz4354]

I think the 3D models could use some more bevels, so it'll have a kind of low poly vibe. But otherwise great great great, your videos always make me happy :)

[@JoshuaCelliers]

jonaaaasss!!! cant wait to wishlist :)

[@EricMaechler]

sieht einfach geil aus - hoffe ihr machts mac fähig :)

[@kaspazza7501]

What about making a level system for the hero, and abilities for him? In this kind of games, sometimes I like to more focus on my character instead of the army and become more powerful and impactful :D

[@mono-ub4vc]

How about adding some cloud shadows moving over the landscapes? Also making the trees sway might be good. Not sure if it will be too distracting but might be worth a test since it could really bring the world alive.

[@Samuel-bd1ms]

Maybe instead of having the enemies EXPLODE into existence, you can give them spawn-armor which dissipates over time. That way you prevent the player from staying too close to the enemy spawn point. This also makes the enemies weaker the closer they get to your base, creating a fading difficulty curve.

[@BossAleks123]

Looks great 😊

[@Tab54o]

Love the graphics

[@gillesvismara5228]

You could add a "retreat" mode, wich when enabled makes your troops run away from the enemies, adding more strategy to the fight

[@omle8492]

As a year 9 indie game dev, this is the sort of thing I want to do when i leave school

[@-Teague-]

9:34 it's a little hard to see the coin slots above the building here, maybe they should be black in snow levels?

[@_SGS_]

Wow Amazing 😊

[@iqui]

Extrrrraaa recooording!!!

[@AndyGun11]

It's DEFINITELY out of scope, but I just thought about it, and this game would be awesome in VR.

[@joan-v1u5p]

WOOOOOOO

[@osensiv3sounds978]

It would be cool if the boss spawned enemies from it (also having spawn damage for extra strategy), the boss could look like a northern whale which just stores these enemies (like slimes could fit well)

[@IAmBael]

I embraced the cringe early on after realizing it was Jonas's TRUE FORM!

[@keelanbowker-obrien2222]

Hey, your Miro looks awesome. Would you ever give a tour of parts of it to just talk about how you stay organized on a small team?

[@twoanims]

8:20 i thought you made caves part of the game for a second lmao

[@dukereg]

Poor native megafauna just wanted to rest it's giant nose on the shoreline and all these people went and attacked it.