Anvil Empires Windows game

Originally posted on Steam on January 23, 2024. We are catching up on the backlog and will eventually post the devblogs here as they are published.

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and not necessarily what will be shipping with the next test. Anything mentioned below may change at any time due to the experimental nature of Pre-Alpha development. Nothing mentioned here should be taken as a promised feature or addition to the eventual game.

In this latest blog, we walk through some of the steps in our design process for structure content in Anvil Empires.

WINDMILL

In our last Devblog, we covered Seasons and Weather Events, which will be foundational systems that integrate with more gameplay over time as the project develops. One piece of follow up content we have been working on to integrate with these systems is the Windmill. This will be the lowest barrier to entry structure that generates power for Workshops in Settlements. Other prior higher tier structures that generate power include the Animal Power Mill and Water Wheel.

The first step in the process was to engage the concept art team to explore what the visual design of the Windmill would be, with the goal of being consistent with the existing set of Settlement structures designed earlier on in development. To this end, we started with our prior references as a starting point for the process.

This yielded several different design variations to consider. One detail we explored at this time was the idea of using a weather vane to indicate to the user in a tactile manner what the direction of wind is. One of the core design tenants for Anvil Empires is to make the player's interface into the game as tactile as possible so this was a good opportunity. Another idea sprung from this goal: Allow players to rotate the Windmill by physically pushing it in the world (similar to the Animal Power Mill) rather than through a UI button. With these ideas in hand we arrived at a more mature design. It was also important for the mechanics of the Windmill to make sense so the internal workings of the structure were detailed in the concept.

Handles were added to the bottom to allow players to mount and rotate the Windmill to match the direction of the wind. This mechanic did introduce some complications. First, the area around the Windmill's base had to be flat, but the terrain in the game is not. To resolve this, we added a base mesh to the bottom, similar to the one used on the Animal Powered Mill. At first, we weren't happy with how big the base had to be so we looked for ways to reduce it's size. In the end, the solution was to move the gear that connects to other structures with ropes to the center of the Windmill.

To further refine the design, one of the handles used to rotate the Windmill was removed and the remaining one was relocated to the rear. This resulted in a completed "block in" model, which is the term used for a model that is ready for testing but is missing the polish of a final production. Many structures in Anvil Empires currently exist in this rough form. This "block in" iteration of the Windmill will be tested in the next Pre-Alpha test.

Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord server or Subreddit.