Indie strategy game Folklands releases into early access later today. We’ve spoken with the developers.
Bromantic Games, a trio of brothers, is developing Folklands, a city-building game set for release in early access today. Inspired by classic games like Settlers, Anno, and Caesar, Folklands combines nostalgic retro vibes with modern multiplayer functionality, allowing players to drop in and out seamlessly.
What is Bromantic Games, and what game are you working on now?
Bromantic Games consists of three brothers making games we like to play – games that give us the same good feeling we had when we discovered and enjoyed games as kids! We started making games way back in 2007. Back then, we created a card game loosely based on a movie idea one of us had come up with. The movie never happened, but we eventually managed to finish the card game – in 2021!
Of course, a lot happened during that time, like having kids, wives, and houses, but we always found our way back to our inner game developers. Unfortunately, after working on the card game on and off for about 12 years, we realized none of us actually liked card games, so that took an interesting turn. But all three of us enjoy city-builders and related genres, which is how we got the idea for our current game – Folklands. Bromantic Games is our way of maintaining a sense of friendship and community across cities, countries, and everything else life throws at us.
What inspired you to create this game?
Folklands has been our project since around November 2022. It’s based on the things we loved from the Settlers games (2-4), older entries in the Anno series (up to 1404), the Caesar/Pharaoh games, and ideas from other games in the same genre. The goal is to create something that gives the feeling of «good old» city-building games while being playable with friends and/or family. Since these types of games are often «longplay», we’ve also tried to implement multiplayer functionality inspired by Transport Tycoon – meaning it should be easy to jump in and out of a game without dedicating more time than you have, a kind of drop-in/drop-out multiplayer. Of course, you can start and finish the game together, but this functionality was important to us with our somewhat unpredictable daily lives.
Overall, we believe we’ve created a game that hits the right nostalgic notes while also appealing to a younger audience who may not have experienced the games we’re inspired by but like the idea. Everything is wrapped in our own «coat», with a backstory and events that build the world around you as you play!
What tools do you use for the development of the game?
For development tools, we use classic open-source programs: Gimp, Blender, and Godot. We’ve also created a lot of tools for cutting and combining animations, building, and deploying to Steam, etcetera. The prototype of the game was made in a JavaScript-based game engine called Phaser – it was fully playable but not scalable to what we wanted to achieve, so we ended up porting the entire game to Godot and continuing development there. We create both animations and models ourselves, which gives us the freedom to adapt the tools to our needs rather than the other way around.
How do you keep track of tasks and bugs during development?
With three distinct skillsets – one who can animate and model, one who can develop, and one who can’t do either (but is really good at game understanding, map design, backstory, and so on) – the task distribution has come quite naturally. We’re inspired by the same games and have a good understanding of what we want to create, so there are a lot of brainstorming sessions where we throw out ideas and see what fits. Then each of us ends up with our own third of what’s needed to implement it.
For professional tools, we use Trello to keep track of tasks and GitHub for source code. We have a lot of experience with these systems from our day jobs, so it feels very natural.
Have you had any favorite bugs so far?
We might not have many favorite bugs per se, but with a game that relies heavily on randomness, it’s fun how «caught up» you get in random behavior and attribute conscious traits to it. For example, early on, we added functionality for the people to «talk», meaning they occasionally get speech bubbles above their heads. These are generated 100% randomly, but since the people stand together and «talk», there are often combinations where it feels natural to create a story about what they’re discussing. We also added functionality where idle people would seek out others to «hang out» with – and often, many would be idle at the same time and end up clustering together. A bit like in I, Robot, but also very random.
As for actual bugs, we had a long-standing challenge balancing the risk and spread of fire. It caused us a lot of headaches because it was so easy to set your settlement on fire, and we worked for a long time to get a good balance. We’ve managed that now, so it’s much harder to burn everything down than before, but… where there’s a will, there’s a way!
How did you get in touch with the publisher, Light Up Games?
We’ve been active on social media and elsewhere and got in touch with a publisher who found our game exciting. They saw the potential in what we wanted to create and had some ideas about helping us reach as many players in the target audience as possible. We had some internal discussions about whether to partner with a publisher or self-publish but ultimately decided that a publisher would give us more freedom to work on the game and reach more people.
What was decisive in choosing them?
As mentioned earlier, part of the deal was financial, which gave us more opportunities to collaborate with artists for graphics and music. Additionally, we were convinced they could contribute to marketing on a level we couldn’t achieve on our own. They also helped us translate the game, so when it launches, it will have full support for 15 languages, including Norwegian – something we could never have managed on our own.
So, in our case, the total package made the game better with a publisher than without.
You mention the game is a hobby project – what does that mean? Do you only work on it in your free time?
That’s correct – two of us have full-time jobs outside of game development, so there are many hours to balance. We have a lot of experience with development projects, so we manage it like any other project, but it means working on weekends and evenings instead of 9-to-5. It has its charm, but it’s important not to burn the candle at both ends.
Sometimes there’s been little progress when either work or life has had to take priority, but other times there’s been plenty of time to spare. If we manage a successful launch, it’s possible we could do this full-time – that’s the dream, at least.
There are many competing games in the genre—what do you feel is Folklands’ most important advantage?
There are many games in the same genre, but we feel that multiplayer functionality is something very few other games have. Also, the fact that it’s not combat-focused and aims to capture that «retro» feeling makes the game both calmer and more accessible, we think.
Another thing is that the game runs on all three PC platforms (Windows, Linux, and Mac), with full cross-platform multiplayer support.
Ultimately, there’s a lot that sets us apart, but we also hope to be recognizable. A retro feeling in a new wrapper that you can play alone or with friends. We don’t feel many others tick those exact boxes, at least.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to us!
You can find Folklands on Steam. And if you’d like more reading material in English, we’ve got a number of interviews and features to choose from. This article is also available in Norwegian.
Interview by Retrogamingpappa.