Conquistador Version 1.2 Now Live

Though the Windows Phone Marketplace has yet to update with the new version details, owners of Conquistador on Windows Phone 7 can now get the 1.2 update for the game. Here are the update notes for both versions 1.1 and 1.2:

Version 1.1 changes

  • Fixed a bug that was unlocking the endgame prematurely.
  • Improved the way the game understands whether you’re allied to the Aztecs or the Tribes.
  • Added the option of returning to Spain once you’ve discovered a certain amount of events.
  • Added an extra endgame screen for when you return to Spain without doing the main storyline.
  • Fixed a dead end in the Amazons event.
  • Fixed a dead end in the final assault in the Tenochtitlan Palace event.
  • Changed the logic behind the Mutiny so it can happen more than once now.
  • Fixed absent followers showing up in the follower selection lists during certain events.
  • Changed the page fold in the Trading screen into an End Event button if it’s the last page in the event.
  • Fixed injured followers not showing up in the list when they should.
  • Fixed a check for the player’s wife or husband that was always returning False.
  • Added new text to Tepictoton’s Village after raiding the Tenochtitlan barracks or completing the Tribal storyline.

Version 1.2 changes

  • Fixed a bug that sometimes happened when you closed the Trading screen.
  • Added a new soundtrack(!) for when you discover legendary events.
  • Fixed a few typos in the tutorial campaign.
  • Added a Feedback button to the main menu.

Introducing Expeditions: Conquistador for PC

As I mentioned in our last post, we recently released our first game, Conquistador, on the Windows Phone marketplace. A question that comes up a lot in response to that is: why Windows Phone 7? There are a couple of reasons why we chose to publish our game on that platform. Conquistador started as an XNA prototype for a university course, and since XNA (which stands for “XNA’s Not Acronymed” because software engineers have a terrible sense of humour) is the native development environment for WP7, the straight-forward option was to just pick a platform that supported XNA.

We decided that we weren’t in a position where we could develop enough content to release a PC game or an Xbox Live Arcade game, so we went with a mobile platform where smaller, lower priced games are common. We were also hoping that the relatively small supply of games on the Windows Phone Marketplace would help us to stand out, as opposed to the teeming app stores on Android or iOS where it’s hard not to drown in the crowd.

Now, however, it’s time to make a PC game. We were all pretty happy with Conquistador, but we felt that we’d put too much work into it to only release it for WP7 and then put it all behind us. What we want to do is convert the game to 3D, add a solid tactical combat system, and then release it for PC.

A lot of the gameplay from the phone version will still be in the PC version – you’ll choose your expedition members and explore South America on a hex grid, find good places to make camp and hunt, search the jungles or mountains for points of interest, meet and talk to natives and other explorers through a dynamic dialogue system, deal with random events, treat your injured with medicine, and attempt to accumulate as much wealth and discover as many locations as possible before you return to Spain.

The three major improvements are as follows:

  • The PC version will be in 3D.
  • A full tactical combat system will replace the old text descriptions.
  • The events will rely less on overly verbose descriptions and more on branching dialogue.

Of course we’re most excited about the new combat system. Rather than getting a description based on a skill check and some random dice rolls behind the scenes, engaging an enemy in battle will now take you to a battlefield where you can order up to 6 of your expedition members around on a hex grid. This screen will at first resemble the combat in games such as Heroes of Might & Magic or King’s Bounty, but it distinguishes itself in several ways: each unit is one person, with a face, a name, and a set of stats and personality traits. Secondly, positioning and tactical abilities will play a much greater role in Expeditions: Conquistador than you’re used to, allowing for flanking, ambushes, traps and barricades, line of sight, attacks of opportunity, and so on.

Finally the battles will all be carefully and manually designed rather than randomly generated, which will allow for a far greater variety of combat situations, and the victory conditions of each fight will change to reflect the nature of the combat. Do you have to eliminate all opposition? Survive for a certain amount of time? Fight your way out of an ambush and escape? Kill an enemy general? Depending on your choices leading up to the fight, you might get completely different versions of the same battle.

Other than – let’s face it – making the game substantially easier to market, and allowing us to use the excellent Unity Engine, we believe the move to 3D will make it more exciting to explore the world we’re creating for you. The prototype we’re developing already has a full campaign map created from actual height maps of the island of Hispaniola (the “Gateway to the Caribbean”, where the tutorial and demo of the phone version was also set). With a higher detail level and a greater sense of place, we hope that you’ll find yourself transported to our setting, and that you’ll get a greater sense of the mystery and the thrill of exploration that we’re trying to recreate.

Who Are Logic Artists?

Staff portraits

Hello :)

First off, thank you for coming here to read this, from wherever it is you came. We want to turn this page into your typical development blog about our studio’s projects, so I hope you’ll come back once in a while to see what we’re up to. I can’t promise we’ll post here regularly, since we’re a small company with no dedicated PR person, so if you use an RSS reader, I strongly recommend you subscribe to our RSS feed.

Over the weekend, our first game went live on the Windows Phone 7 marketplace. It’s called Conquistador, and it’s a turn-based strategy/adventure hybrid roleplaying game reminiscent of those old choose-your-own-adventure books, only instead of one big branching story you’ve got a whole bunch of small ones connected by a hex-based world map with resource management. The fact that I can’t come up with a shorter way to describe the game that still does it justice is probably both its weakness and its strength. If nothing else, I can guarantee you that you’ve never seen anything like it on a mobile platform. If you have a Windows 7 phone, please download the demo and give it a try, you might like it!

But as I wrote, this is going to be a development blog, and our Windows Phone 7 game is already done, so I won’t be talking very much about that. Instead, I’ll be talking about our next project, which is called… Expeditions: Conquistador. We really like the name. This time, it’s going to be a 3D game for PC, and we’re adding a truckload of features, including a full tactical combat system. In my next post, I’m going to explain our plans for the new game, how we’re making it, and – if I can get the rest of the team to put aside their professional pride for a minute – I may even post some very early work-in-progress screenshots.

Before we get to the game itself, however, I’d like to describe what kind of company we are and who’s working on the game. Hopefully that’ll help you understand where we’re coming from and whose voice you should be hearing in your head when you read this (which will be particularly useful if I can get some of the other guys to write an entry here every now and then).

Logic Artists was formed last year by four MSc students of game development from the IT University of Copenhagen. We’ve since graduated and are now working full time at Logic Artists. We had several reasons to start a company, but here are the most important ones:

  • There are too damn few game studios in Denmark.
  • Of the ones there are, even fewer have the money to hire people.
  • Of the ones that do, pretty much none will hire somebody with no industry experience.
  • We want to be rich.
  • We want to make games.

We’re based in Copenhagen, Denmark, in an extremely nice, old part of the city called Christianshavn, famous for its canals, the hippie commune Christiania, and for being populated by an eclectic mix of old posh people, young artsy hipsters, and unemployed bums. Since we started the company, we’ve grown from 4 to 7 people, all of whom are still squished together in a 4-person office with only one window to open in the summer and one radiator to turn on in the winter. It’s awesome.

The owners of the company are, by descending order of ego: myself, Creative Director Jonas; CEO and producer Ali; Technical Director Isaac; and Technical Producer Juan. As you can see, the best thing about having your own company is you can give yourself whatever damn title you want! Additionally, we employ graphics artist Daniel, programmer Casper, and 3D artist/animator Sofia. If you were trying to keep count, that’s three Danes, a Turk, an Australian, a Spaniard, and a Greek.

Now that you know roughly who we are, I hope you’ll come back in a few days to read about the game we’re making. It’s going to be interesting, I promise.

Oh, and remember: if you have a Windows 7 phone, try out the demo of Conquistador! There’s nothing out there like it!

Release Date

Welcome to the website of Logic Artists. We’re currently working hard on bringing you our first game, Conquistador, for Windows Phone 7. Conquistador will be a deep and engaging strategy/adventure game with a whiff of roleplaying, casting you as a Spanish envoy to South America in the year 1518.

If you’re not a history buff, don’t despair: though most of the game is based on historical events and locations, we have made plenty of room for fantasy, humour, and far too literal interpretations of Aztec myths and legends. We’re confident that you’ll enjoy the freedom to choose how to deal with the Aztecs and the native tribes, and we hope you’ll find the responsibility to your people and the resource management decisions gruelling and engaging.

The game will be released for Windows Phone 7 in April 2012.