Realm of Rulers review - Indie game that got my heart
I'm the type of person who doesn't always follow the trends and tries to bypass the mainstage.
I like to search for something new, something that is not popular yet. Such thinking manifests itself in me even in video games.
Ladies and Gentlemen – Realm Of Rulers
RoR is a medieval survival game with RPG elements created by Alchemical Interactive studio.
I discovered the game while browsing games on GameJolt - a service where you can publish your own productions. My attention was attracted not by graphics or open-world survival (which I love in games), but by its mood. Someone who looks at this game and reads its description will think that this is another MineCraft only nicer and with a modification for the Middle Ages. Well... not!
Only when we turn on the game we find out what Realm of Rulers is.
We start the new game by naming our future city, and then we are immediately thrown into a beautiful, huge world.
Each game starts with a short and non-invasive tutorial, during which we will learn the basic rules and mechanic that govern the game world.
The first few minutes of fun can be quite tedious, because we are somehow forced to accumulate the necessary materials (such as wood, stone, grass, etc.), which we will use later. The next step will be to build the basics of our future settlement. I mean workbenches, warehouses, cottages and many, many others. Without them there is no further game.
Each building corresponds to a different worker. I recommend to "hire" a lumberjack, a farmer and a miner for the very beginning. Then these duties goes to our workers and we can take care of other things.
In the game, we can hunt animals, attack hostile settlements or fortify our bases. The last one is particularly interesting, especially since the developers have introduced Experimental Multiplayer mode, where such features will diversify the game and bring it to an even higher level!
The game fascinated me so much that I decided to contact the authors of the project. I exchanged a few words with Mathew, the head of the studio. He gave me answers to questions that I think will satisfy many future players interested in this production.
1. What prompted you to start working on Realm of Rulers?
Realm of Rulers was originally an experiment to find out how AI-controlled facilities operate within the UE4. After a very quick response from Youtube and Gamejolt, we introduced the whole development process and listened intensively to our players about their relationship with our title.
2. What is the aim of the game?
We love real-time strategy games. Realm of Rulers is an idea in which you can be the ruler of your settlement and control it in real time. This way you have a stronger immersion with the city, because you are also a resident of it. The player must collect the initial resources needed to set up a village. During the training of new citizens they gather resources automatically. This means that you can focus on expanding your land.
3. Can we learn something more about the project?
We are thinking about releasing a road-map so that everyone can see at what stage we are. For now we can explain what our goals are. We want to host dedicated servers to make it easier for others to play online, we plan to expand the map with new biomes and resources for collection, customize internal buildings (tables, chairs, etc.) and integrate with Discord Rich Presence.
4. Will the game always be free of charge?
We want the game to be always free. This gives the easiest access to our game to every player who wants to try it out. Currently we are financed by Patreon, which helps with development costs. If we were forced to earn money from our game, it would be a shop inside the game. This solution could give players the opportunity to purchase additional options to customize characters in multiplayer. None of these elements of the store will ever affect the gameplay. We are definitely against the Pay2Win model.
5. Tell us something about yourself and about the project :)
Realm of Rulers is created by two students. We are constantly trying to improve the game and our skills. Due to the fact that there are two of us, the development of the game is not so fast, so we can focus on the element and avoid unnecessary mistakes. We are happy with the community we have and we can't wait for more players to like what we want to present!
The game promises to be a great title. I hope that together with me you will closely monitor its development.
The final grade: 9/10