City-building strategy game in development - Ostriv

[yevheniy]

Hey there! My name is Yevheniy and I am developing a city-building game named Ostriv, in which you build and manage cities in late pre-industrial era. The events take place on a fictional island, where the player despite all troubles has to build a prospering state.
The gameplay is somewhat similar to classical city-building games: you plan the buildings placement and fulfill the needs of constantly growing town, make decisions about agriculture, production an trade. Although Ostriv has some unique features to stand out from the genre (sure it has):

– detailed economic simulation and human behavior
There's a strong emphasis on interaction with your citizens. People in game act like people: they have their own motivation, needs and skills. Citizens will take jobs only if they are satisfied with them (or they are desperate). They can sell goods and services to each other on the local market. Wealthy citizens could start their own business in your town and hire other people. You will need to influence your city by means of setting prices, taxes and various policies. Each decision will certainly lead to some reaction of the society.

- trade
You can conduct negotiations with other cities to conclude the most profitable trade agreement. Explore nearby cities by sending messengers to find more import and export possibilities.

– transport
For more effective resource transportation inside the town or for outer trade you will need vehicles. Wagons, fishing boats and wheelbarrows could be built by a local carpenter or to be bought from outside.
The breeding of draft horses and oxen is also required to move resources as well as for cultivation of fields.

– unrestricted building placement
There's no any kind of grid or angle restriction for placing buildings. Any building could be placed on any angle. Building on slopes is also available.

– roads modeling
Dirt roads are formed in a natural way at places, where people move the most. You can build paved roads for more comfort and better aesthetics, but they'll be used only in case of reasonable placement.

– dynamic seasons change

– a unique visual style inspired by Ukrainian architecture and way of life



Official website: http://ostrivgame.com/

Now on Steam Greenlight:


Looking forward to hear from you!

[Spdskatr]

Looks very nice? I have 2 questions.

1. DISASTERS. Are there going to be special events which affect certain aspects of your city eg. Crop failure, fires, plague etc. That would make the game less of watching an ant farm and more engaging, although giving every person their own unique perks kind of solves that problem(What am I saying? I'm not one to give advice.)

2.GOVERNMENT. Is there a higher power over your city, sometimes ordering you to build X and X and otherwise issue a fine, or giving you unique contracts to complete and gaining money or influence? It would really depend on the type of game Ostriv wants to be. More people-based: No, More construction-based: Yes. (there I go again.)

Nice game overall.

[yevheniy]

Looks very nice? I have 2 questions.

1. DISASTERS. Are there going to be special events which affect certain aspects of your city eg. Crop failure, fires, plague etc. That would make the game less of watching an ant farm and more engaging, although giving every person their own unique perks kind of solves that problem(What am I saying? I'm not one to give advice.)

2.GOVERNMENT. Is there a higher power over your city, sometimes ordering you to build X and X and otherwise issue a fine, or giving you unique contracts to complete and gaining money or influence? It would really depend on the type of game Ostriv wants to be. More people-based: No, More construction-based: Yes. (there I go again.)

Nice game overall.

Thanks for your comment!

1. DISASTERS. My take on this kind of events is to avoid those which just create random problems that you can not prevent and just have to deal with consequences. The good old CeasarIII system worked very well in this case: you have your building under fire if you fail to protect against it. Same with crime and health problems.
For me it is always just boring when some random tornado or earthquake just destroys your buildings and makes you do just the same work again. Well, it could be interesting if you could build some temporary tents for citizens left without homes, manage some policies to aid the injured. Otherwise it's just difficulty without fun.
I think it's the best when the player can predict some disaster and take a challenge to prevent it by thoughtful city management. For this I want to put an emphasis on interaction with citizens, making them actually talk to you about the problems they encounter and thus giving you advice on what you should put more attention.

2.GOVERNMENT. Yes, there will be the central government from which you get all the tasks, including the construction of the city itself. But this is about the campaign mode. In sandbox mode it'll be optional.
Actually I think of getting the game to early access with sandbox mode only to balance the whole game and add some requested features and then make a final release with campaign included.

[Calahan]

Looks very interesting and definitely the sort of game I would usually be interested in checking out. If it's okay, I have some questions.


1. What is the relative balance expected to be between strategy game : city builder?

By which I mean there has been an increasing trend IMO with building/management games in recent times towards being far more focused on the building than the management. For example, two well known and successful games, City Skylines and Planet Coaster, both have only "lite" (at best) management/strategy aspects to them, and both are simply sandbox building games as opposed to strategy/management/tycoon games IMO. So will your game have a genuine "yes you can fail at this game" strategy aspect, or will the strategy aspect be closer to the "we will throw money at you" approach taken by the aforementioned games. ie. You can't really fail unless you actual try to fail, and you will succeed (eg. make money) without even trying by simply not doing anything obviously stupid. And "good play" will simply result in the player making more money as opposed to being a necessity.


2. You mentioned above that you do not like disasters that simply appear randomly, and which the player can not prevent, in favour of disasters which they can prevent. I generally agree with this, although it does present a universal problem with this sort of game. The difficulty drop-off / mid-late game.

One negative aspect to almost all building games (Theme Park (1994) being one exception I can recall) I have found in my 30 years of gaming is that the only source of real difficulty occurs at the start. Be it to survive (eg. Banished). or to become cash generative (eg. most city builders). The degree of difficulty in achieving this varies from game to game, but pretty much universally, once achieved, the game as a "challenge" is effectively over, because from that point on you can slowly but surely work towards whatever goal you have. Be it self imposed, or the scenario objective. But in general the game then degrades (IMO) at that point into a game where you are building/expanding just for the sake of building/expanding (or to reach scenario objective), and the game becomes devoid of any genuine challenge or difficulty once it reaches this stage. ie. It is now a sandbox building game and not a strategy game, and in some cases the game is no longer a "game" because the player's input is no longer required (ie. you continue to generate loads of money even if the player does nothing or goes afk).

Some games try to address this issue by having a military aspect. For example Zeus and Hearthlands. Or by setting a timer for the scenario objective. eg. Pharaoh and building a pyramid (IIRC, but it's been well over a decade so). IMO both these approaches only superficially solve the problem. The military approach only really adds one more supply chain to the game, and producing 100 swords to kill an enemy / defend your city is no different to producing 100 blocks to build a pyramid with. And adding a timer is never a popular option because for a lot of players it goes against the relaxed "build how you want to, and in your own time" aspect of these games. But some timed scenarios require the player to build in certain way (eg. efficient) in order clear the scenario within the time limit, which badly conflicts with what a lot of players want/expect from building games.

So can I please ask what your approach is going to be to this universal problem with building games? Especially if you don't have random disasters (not that I like them at all, but they are seen as a way of (artificially) creating a problem for the player to deal with). Edit - Or do you not see it as a problem? Which is certainly a fair positon as to a lot of players it isn't a problem at all, especially players more interested in the building aspect than the strategy/management aspect. City Skylines and Planet Coaster are both prime evidence that to some players it doesn't matter (but to some players, like myself, it matters most of all, and will be the single biggest factor in influencing a purchase).

[yevheniy]

If it's okay, I have some questions.

That is exactly why I'm here)

1. Yes, I know what you're talking about. I had the same feeling playing Cities: Skylines that it just lets me do nothing for years without any trouble. Even more, I would call it a city editor rather than city builder. Not saying this is too bad, but I prefer to do this as an option for sandbox mode. If the player wants just some casual experience, he can choose it at game start. As for campaign mode, it definitely should imply some challenge. I like the feeling when you realize you win the game because you really succeeded to manage all the complex system interactions and took right decisions.
So, my answer is "kind of both"... but more emphasis to strategy/management as a core mechanic.

2. That is really hard question at the moment. I'm still adding features to the game, so I can't see the whole picture in detail. Also it will need a lot of hours of testing to see all the weaknesses. As for now I can think of that some more complex interactions may take place in later game, like those involving crime or economic relations between citizens. Also some global events may influence the city's economy, migration etc. But anyway it should leave some space for player to react differently and get that feeling of right decisions.

[mabor0shi]

I was a big fan of Caesar 3, good to hear that it had an influence on Ostriv. In Caesar 3, if something went disastrously wrong, it was because the player didn't prepare & prevent it. Like not keeping certain gods appeased. Will there be supernatural/fantasy elements to Ostriv, like gods/god or magic? Or is it strictly realistic? If it is realistic, the girls must not be ugly! Ukrainian girls are never ugly, so work hard to get that right

[yevheniy]

I was a big fan of Caesar 3, good to hear that it had an influence on Ostriv. In Caesar 3, if something went disastrously wrong, it was because the player didn't prepare & prevent it. Like not keeping certain gods appeased. Will there be supernatural/fantasy elements to Ostriv, like gods/god or magic? Or is it strictly realistic? If it is realistic, the girls must not be ugly! Ukrainian girls are never ugly, so work hard to get that right

You can be sure about that, I have some very good reference around me

BTW, I thought about some supernatural elements like folklore creatures etc, but maybe only as a DLC. I want to keep the vanilla game realistic.

[yevheniy]

A year is coming to the end so I decided to review all the years of the development.
See the full article at: http://ostrivgame.com/three-years-summary/

[yevheniy]

Ostriv development news: Advanced farming and customizable buildings
Talking about some new gameplay decisions and new features added to the game in last couple of weeks

[tigg]

This sounds great. I too used to play CaesarIII, Pharoah, Emperor and a long, long time ago SimCity.

[MeowRailroad]

Is this available for download yet? It seems really fun.

[yevheniy]

Is this available for download yet? It seems really fun.

Not just yet. But I believe it will, by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, Ostriv is now on Steam Greenlight



Would really like to see your votes in the green counter:)

[yevheniy]

Hey there! As the release of first public alpha is approaching, you can now pre-order Ostriv to support the development and make sure you don't waste money on anything else before the release:) Also check out the updated gallery:
https://ostrivgame.com/

[Listen1]

Congrats mate, looking forward for the release!

[SpaceDorf]

It sure looks beautiful, I give you that.