Fatherdale: The Guardians of Asgard is an intricate RPG/Adventure for the PC where the battle between the Gods and their eternal enemy unfolds in the true medieval world of AD 1072. As one of the few immortal Heroes who protect the ancient artifacts of knowledge, you take on the reins of a warlord in a secluded northern valley of Fatherdale just days before it becomes the Battlefield of Fate to experience a story-driven multi-genre gameplay focused around RPG, RTS and Adventure. With over hundred and fifty unique characters, thrice that much in hand-crafted inventory items, more than sixty locations in steppes, woods and swamps, on plains, river banks and even inside the wooden Keeps of the Guardians, you have a whole world to explore, protect and die for -- and seven full-fledged Episodes to play through a number of styles and genres before you face your real Enemy.

Sergei Klimov, lead designer for Fatherdale gives us his views on things with this series of development diaries. Note that this first edition was originally featured on GA-RPG, which no longer exists, and is presented here to get a complete set of Fatherdale development diaries.

"Breathing life into Chickens"
Hello, I'm Sergei Klimov and I'm the lead designer for Fatherdale, a medieval RPG/Adventure that Snowball Interactive is working on for the last three years.

When we have been approached with the idea of Fatherdale's Development Diary, I remembered the majority of similar articles I've seen before and thought it a loss of time: why should I spend my Sunday morning trying to impress playing public by a detailed description of how hard it is to make a game... :) or how fun it is to make a game... :)) or how great our game is and what super-original features there are :))).

No.

Boring.

Then I thought a bit more and had a better idea. Imagine that I've invited you all over here, walked up to the third floor of the studios and offered a comfortable orange chair and a cup of green lotus tea. There is a low poker table nearby which we use to play bridge when time and wives are merciful, and lying open on the top is a yellow notepad and two pens. I send my PC to sleep, turn around and for the next ten minutes we set our mobiles to mute, drink the tea and work together. When you stand up, stretch and reach for the phone, we have another part of the project finished. When you walk out, you carry with you a new experience.

This diary would not be a tale of how one particularly good designer works on one particularly good game :). I don't want to impress [hear my war stories], I don't need to promote [buy my new game], I don't like to burden with trivia [two million polygons at twenty frames per second].

Here, I invite you to play.

Regularly you will read a new story. They might have very few things in common. They will lack the narrative push to make things clear and simple. But they will provoke to think about games as we, the developers, do. I don't know where you are at the moment, but for the next ten minutes please sit in my chair, sip your tea and help me go through the issue at hand. See, we have this medieval RPG reaching playable and I need to detail a few scenes from general scenario to exact script...

STORY 1
"A small path dancing between pines and elms leads to a sudden opening, a sunny glade among the reddish shadows of tall forest. Reinar, the hero, enters new location. Sights and sounds of a busy yard, affirmative scream of rooster, rush of hens scared by a stranger and hurrying to hide their precious little chickling balls of yellow feathers... A lazy bark of a large dog behind the barn, an honest haw-haw of a tiny playful puppy curiously looking up, nasal operas of well-fed pigs and piglets. A young boy with delicate features comes to feed hens and as they hurry to their spot from the small pond, Reinar asks:

-- Say boy, any chance this would be the Hunters?
-- Yes, Hunters it is. And may I ask who you are, and what business brings you here?"

* * *

The location is HUNTERS.

A PATH goes through the center of location from north (Rift Watch) to south (Charred Logs). Next to ENTRY and EXIT points are two SMALL GLADES.

The center of location is shaped by a large YARD. At the northern end, there is a fenced PIG YARD and an unfenced, vaguely defined CHICKEN YARD. At the eastern end, there is BARN and BENCHES where hunters sit while they skin their game. All around the yard are HOUSES. In the middle of the yard is SMALL POND.

There is a fenced pig yard and an unfenced, vaguely defined chicken yard	The hunters sitting on their bench with their skinned game

There are chickens: ROOSTERS and HENS and CHICKLINGS. CHICKEN YARD is their home.

ROOSTERS are brave. They walk ALONE. They EXPLORE location along the PATH. They like to hang around men, their favorite spots are BARN and two SMALL GLADES where all the strangers come from. When ROOSTERS see a STRANGER, they SCREAM FIRE-THIEVES-DEATH and RUN to CHICKEN YARD.

HENS are lazy. They are LONE HENS and MAMAS with four to six yellow chicklings. LONE HENS are careful, MAMAS are overtly-protective. All hens hang around CHICKEN YARD. They RUN AWAY from any MAN passing through their SAFE DISTANCE.

CHICKLINGS imitate what their MAMAS do. They KEEP WITHIN a certain circle of their MAMA.

There are pigs: FAT PIGS and PIGLETS. PIG YARD is their home.

The chicklings stay close to their mama	The brave rooster and the lazy chickens

FAT PIGS are very lazy. They hang near their feeders and EAT. They don't bother to notice any STRANGERS.

PIGLETS are hungry. They MOVE ABOUT. When they see a STRANGER, they GRUNT and RUN to the OTHER SIDE of the fence.

There are DOGS: FATSO and CUTE. Dogs like MEN.

FATSO is sleepy, she is always near BARN. She SLEEPS. Sometimes when she sees her master, she STANDS UP and WAGS TAIL.

The young boy feeding the pigs in the pig yard

There are HUNTERS: TOUGH and YOUNG BOY. They work near BARN.

CUTE is curious, he EXPLORES the YARD. When he meets a MAN or a STRANGER, he starts FOLLOWING him around. When such man stops, CUTE SITS LOOKING AT HIM AND WAGS TAIL. From time to time CUTE will lose attention and switch back to EXPLORATION or follow another MAN.

As a part of his daily routine, YOUNG BOY FEEDS ANIMALS. He feeds PIGS at PIG YARD and CHICKENS at CHICKEN YARD. PIGLETS RUN to their feeders and EAT with pleasing GRUNTS. HENS and CHICKLINGS HURRY to meet YOUNG BOY at FEEDING SPOT and EAT RUSHING AROUND.

* * *

"A small PATH dancing between pines and elms leads to a sudden opening, a sunny GLADE among the reddish shadows of tall forest. Reinar, the hero, enters new location. Sights and sounds of a busy YARD, affirmative scream of ROOSTER, rush of HENS scared by a STRANGER and hurrying to hide their precious little CHICKLING balls of yellow feathers... A lazy bark of a LARGE DOG behind the BARN, an honest haw-haw of a tiny playful PUPPY curiously LOOKING UP, nasal operas of well-fed PIGS and PIGLETS. A YOUNG BOY with delicate features comes to FEED hens and as they HURRY to their SPOT from the small POND, Reinar asks:

-- Say boy, any chance this would be the Hunters?
-- Yes, Hunters it is. And may I ask who you are, and what business brings you here?"

* * *

By now Hunters is final and well alive (see the shots illustrating this article).

After we were done with the basics, we added some nice touches like circles on the water when hens come to drink from the pond and bouncing carcasses of skinned boars near the barn, tried a few different versions of feeders, tuned animation sequences for pigs, etc. - all in all, lots of small things. But taken alone, each of them doesn't really matter.

The lesson is that when I started with a script and put down logic as my guide, saying that there must be this and this number of chickens behaving like they would do in the real life, blah-blah-blah, I've ended up with a clockwork that was dead. Yes, people moved around, animals did what their AI suggested and the location was a model of an existing excavated spot near Tula. However, each time I played the scene I felt it was transparent. Our testers were excited, they said that it was beautiful, that it was different, trah-lah-lah, but I still could dissect it into several things going on simultaneously. It did not come together to bring the emotions or deliver the impression.

Then I created a new .DOC file and wrote down the feelings, the story that I want to have in players' minds when they reach this scene - nothing particular, nothing that would have any relation to objects, AI or editors, just a narrative piece. I thought that if I could use it -- instead of my logic -- as a basis to direct the scene, I would have the scene. And so we went back to the editor and created the location anew, moved things around and did lots of small changes that were not grounded anywhere, that didn't follow out of anything - just some things that I felt "right" or "fitting". And the scene started to come alive. You see, when you create a part of the world where the gameplay is mechanical, you normally base it on reason. This was my experience in my previous game, and this is how I started designing new locations for Fatherdale. However, when you create a part of the world where gameplay is storyline and where things must "live" rather than "move", you base it of feelings.

These small changes and adjustments, . The devil is in the details.

Next time, this is what we will talk about - interaction and breathing some life into your chickens :))).

* * *

Sergei Klimov
MD/Snowball Interactive