Knights of Frontier Valley

[Asid]

Go from humble beginnings to glory in this challenging, roguelike RPG inspired by classic titles. Explore a unique open world each new game, face enemies in tactical combat, venture from bustling cities to dark dungeons, customize your character, solve quests, make impactful choices, and survive!

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Single-player


Knights of Frontier Valley Early Game Trailer




About

Get ready for unlimited adventures in Frontier Valley, a mystical and fabled place. Take on the role of an adventurer and guide him through years of his life in this unique and ever-changing world. Gain fame and fortune, while never losing sight of the most important goal: surviving!

  - Explore a vibrant and dynamic world with realistic day/night-cycles, seasons, weather changes, and townsfolk working their shifts and meeting at the local tavern after hours.
  - Fight in gridless, turn-based tactical combat, or choose to have battles automatically resolved for you quickly.
  - Survive the dangers of both the wilderness and faction politics in a procedurally generated world full of secrets and lore.
  - Choose your character from a number of different classes, customize his skills and appearance to your liking, and pursue a profession that fits your style of playing.
  - Join a faction to gain titles and glory, or go at it alone in your search for long-lost wisdom and powerful artifacts.
  - See your actions become part of the valley's story, impacting friends and foes alike.
  - Hand-drawn art with no generative AI content whatsoever.
  - A true indie game with a homebrew engine, created by just one person.




Get immersed in a world that feels real
In many ways, the world of Knights of Frontier Valley feels familiar. Days grow longer in summer and shorter in winter, weather changes follow a realistic pattern according to the season, and even the moon phase changes as days pass by.
Honest citizens sleep at night, work during the day, and enjoy their time off. Less honest ones might have different working hours.

You will get hungry, thirsty, and tired. You will suffer from the heat or the cold when wearing garment that is inappropriate for the season. You can get sick, poisoned, intoxicated, encumbered, and more.
Wounds sustained in combat will take time to heal. Protecting yourself with armor, and avoiding the attention of powerful enemies, is safer than relying on a backpack full of potions. Taking risks can be lucrative, but it can also end badly.





Old-school gameplay
Knights of Frontier Valley was inspired by classic titles from the golden age of RPGs in the '80s and '90s. Like many games from back then, it is not easy to beat and making it to the end is a true accomplishment. Since your choices really matter, important decisions such as skill selections are usually final.
All information needed to proceed and to win is out there waiting to be found, but there are no quest markers.

The game was designed to be played many times. Most aspects of the world are procedurally generated, including most maps, characters, items, faction relations, and more. No two games will ever be the same.


Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

As a fantasy role playing game with tactical combat, the display of violence is common, and mention of fantasy religion, magic, and the occult are part of the narrative.
Some quests may encourage the player to perform criminal activities. Story elements are sometimes kept purpusefully unclear to add mystery, which might cause uneasiness for some players.
Dialogues may include rare uses of crude language and profanity. Characters may consume alcohol or drugs and rare visuals of partial nudity might appear.

[Asid]

[Asid]

Coming soon: the Public Demo
Wed, August 6, 2025



Can you help Aldhelm out of a tight spot?

Most venerable Knights,

The public demo is coming soon! Everyone (read: You) will be able to download it for free and enjoy hours of gameplay. Mind that this is not Early Access, and it will not yet be what I have in my mind as the full vision of this game. For example, you will not be able to join factions yet or play past the third chapter. But it is going to be a very representative demo, and if you like it, it is safe to say you will like the finished game even more.

I am about halfway through the development cycle for this version and can now share the scope. The list is still subject to (minor) changes, but in general, this is what you can expect:


Quickdemo

So many demos to try, so little time. The quickdemo is a separate adventure called "Aldhelm's Path" which showcases some of the game's highlights. You will play a premade character named Aldhelm Sanderford who got himself in trouble... help him out, and then help him get rich!

Following the plot tightly, you should be able to complete this story within two hours (the original plan was 30 minutes, but that turned out to not be enough to make the story immersive). The background story is presented with a new "slideshow cutscene", similar to those describing the history of the valley.

Of course, aside from this quickdemo, the main game will also be available.


Early on, Aldhelm was forced to steal to survive. But maybe now, life has a bit of luck in store for him?


Crafting

In this version, you will be able to craft a number of items utilizing your crafting skill and corresponding "schemas". Over time, more schemas will be added, and the feature will be extended to also include smithing and alchemy, as well as maintaining and even improving your equipment.


You will need the skills, materials, and a "schema" to craft an item. Some items might have additional requirements, like only being craftable in certain places.


Prison mechanics

As part of the "Crime and Punishment" feature set, handling of your character being in prison has been added. You can try to break out in various ways (some are faster than others, but also riskier). Alternatively, if your sentence is short, you can choose to sit it out and get released with a clean criminal record. This comes at a price, though, as you might lose a few skill points due to malnutrition and neglect for the time you spent in the foul cell.


Unsurprisingly, you will spend most of the time in your cell while in prison. But sometimes, you might get an opportunity to leave the stinking hole. Here, the guards need help picking the lock of a rich man's villa who lost his key. Do you think they will share the reward?


New gameplay mechanics

Some QoL features have been added, including the option to upgrade your satchel for an extra quickslot, and attaching a lantern to your belt to keep both hands free for your weapon and shield when exploring a dark place.


Two new items expand your inventory's capabilities. The "Lord's satchel", a fine leather pouch of exquisite craftsmanship, can hold a bit more than the standard variety, but comes with a hefty price tag.
The "belt clip" allows for attaching certain items to the belt, including a lantern.


Interactive tutorial

Knights of Frontier Valley is a complex game with many features, and some of them are presented in unique ways. The new interacive tutorial will guide you through the most important and interesting ones.


Design goal for the interactive tutorial: "make it not be annoying". Let's see if I can pull it off.


Improved NPC behavior

Like in every prior version, NPC behavior including daily routine, reaction to threats, handling of combat, and more has been tuned. But this time, entirely new behavior patterns will be added for city inhabitants, making cities feel much more alive.


New content

There are new items, objects, and characters. There are also new graphics, animations, music, sfx, and PC voice output.


Many other improvements

There are improvements to the UI, the handling of audio playback, the main menu, the credits screen, and many internal things for performance and stability. 23 bugs have also been fixed so far.

I hope you are getting as excited about this release as I am... there is a bottle of Zinfandel I have been saving for this moment for eight years.

Until next time,

Martin

[Asid]

Steam Playtest now open for sign-up!
Fri, December 12, 2025



The game has been years in the making - time to show what it is like

Venerable Knights,

Six months after Alpha 3.fun went out to a closed group of testers, the next big Alpha milestone is almost ready for release - but this time, everyone gets to play it. Including you. For free.

You can join the Steam Playtest by clicking the button here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1085830/Knights_of_Frontier_Valley/

The game will unlock mid-January for everyone. Some of you waited for years to try out this unique RPG inspired by classic tiles, and now we are just a month away!

Mind this is not yet Early Access, but you will get a fully playable version that is quite representative of the final experience, although a lot more will be added before the game is officially finished.



Get to know many of the deep features of "Knights of Frontier Valley" in the tutorial adventure "Aldhelm's Path". Help unlucky thief Aldhelm out of trouble by crafting items, using your persuasion skills, stealth, lockpicking, and any other means you see fit.

Then guide him from a bustling city to a dark dungeon following the clues contained in a mysterious treasure map! Use your tactical finesse to defeat enemies that stand in your way towards riches and a better life.

When you are ready for more after solving this quest, start the main game with your own character and dive into a completely new challenge. Exploring new cities, dungeons, and other places you will advance through the first few chapters from the final game.

Make new friends and enemies in a detailed world with complex NPC behavior, changing seasons, day-night cycles, and realistic weather.

Customize your character, choose a profession, and specialize in a branch to become a master of your trade.

You can look forward to 6 to 10 hours of fun in this Playtest version of an old-school RPG with procedural world generation that makes every game unique.

See you soon at the palace in the grand city of Thyle!

Martin

[Asid]

Playtest release candidate available!
Fri, December 19, 2025



The biggest update yet is coming your way, and fast

Most Honorable Knights,

it is with great pleasure that I can announce the completion of the Playtest release candiate. The first version of the game that will go out to everyone is finally ready!

A series of all-nighter coding sessions made it possible to stick to the dev schedule, and testing is now in progress to make sure you will have a smooth experience.

Should you have been among those who participated in the closed testing round for Alpha 3.fun, you can find a list of changes below.

Looking forward to your feedback when the Playtest unlocks on January 15.

Until then,

Martin

New Features

  - Quickdemo mode ("Aldhelm's Path"), including a new quest and new cutscenes

  - Crafting of items

  - Prison mechanics

  - Treasure maps

  - Readable books

  - Interactive tutorial & quick hints

  - Steam Achievements

  - Steam Cloud Saves

New content

  - Added new NPC types

  - Added new objects

  - Added new items

  - Added a new map location

  - Added a new dungeon type ("Ancients")

  - Added new music tracks

  - Added new sound effects

NPC behavior improvements

  - Added a new NPC behavior pattern: tavern

  - Added a new NPC behavior pattern: city life

  - Added an additional work shift to increase NPC schedule variety

  - Added NPC reactions to theft

  - Added some special behavior for certain character types

  - Improved handling of how criminal acts affect the personal relationship between characters

  - Improved guard behavior during a manhunt

Character improvements

  - Added new ways of interacting with items and objects

  - Added the concept of natural armor

  - Added a new behavior mode (crouch)

  - Added logic for some NPC types to never sleep (like undead)

  - Added storing of time when the PC last attacked an NPC - they will remember what you did!

  - Added a general mechanism to recover an NPC who is stuck (needs to be used more often still)

  - Improved the animation and movement speeds of some characters

  - Improved the footprint definition of some character types

Map improvements

  - Added new NPCs to human settlements

  - Added concept of hidden map locations

  - Added the Thyle supermap to the overview map

  - Added signs to country roads

  - Improved procedural generation of natural cave dungeon maps

  - Improved some settlement and building maps

  - Improved handling of door locks and implemented lock traps

  - Improved rendering of trees, especially during tactical combat

  - Enabled the overview map in dungeons

  - Enabled the campire action in dungeons

NPC combat behavior improvements

  - Improved logic to position for an attack

  - Improved archer behavior

  - Improved behavior when NPCs occupy the same space

  - Improved escape logic

  - Improved logic to scroll/zoom the map to the appropriate position in combat

UI improvements

  - Added option to customize portrait book behavior (pinned, transparent, or sliding)

  - Added hover descriptions for attributes and skills

  - Added concept of having action icons directly shown on the map

  - Added progress bars when loading

  - Added loading screen

  - Added feature to move items between containers using a right-click (and updated tutorial)

  - Added highlight of slots in the inventory where items can be equipped

  - Added indicators for hunger/thirst/fullness levels to health screen

  - Added indicator to show when distributable points or perks are available

  - Added visual indicator when the PC receives an item

  - Added hover description to several buttons

  - Added hover description for any item special status (stolen, quest, etc)

  - Added feature to open journal entry when clicking quest or criminal record banner

  - Added display of estimated power when prompted for quick resolving a combat

  - Added icon to display the state of a manhunt

  - Improved and simplified concept of damage and life points (and added label for the value)

  - Improved the readability of status messages

  - Improved the combat UI (fonts, font colors, added backplates)

  - Improved the resting panel

  - Improved inventory belt clip background image

  - Improved size of book widgets

  - Improved timing of some hovers tooltips/popups (now appearing quicker)

  - Improved the display of written tutorials and added feature to show them on the map

  - Improved readability of hover popups (now hiding mouse cursor)

  - Improved positioning of screen size setting (now visible if resolution is wrong)

  - Improved determination of applicable mouse cursor asset during combat

  - Removed obsolete combat actions (Communicate: now interaction, Item: now used via quickslot)

  - Many smaller improvements

Balancing improvements

  - Reduced the stamina penalty from blood loss

  - Increased the skill roll bonus (or penalty) from high (low) attribute values

  - Improved character power calculation (life points, armor, sleep status)

  - Adjusted NPC group sizes

  - Added more starting money and quest rewards

  - Reduced prices for metal items

Audio handling improvements

  - Improved timing of when music begins to play

  - Greatly reduced audio stuttering when map changes (more work needed)

Main Menu improvements

  - Added hover popups

  - Added sparkle effect to game logo

  - Improved the wishlist icon

  - Now showing if the max number of saves has been reached

Credits screen improvements

  - Added links to socials, Discord, Website, Steam

  - Improved the copyright notice

Internal improvements

  - Improved handling of absolute timestamps

  - Improved handling of NPC behavior patterns when time gets skipped or the game gets paused

  - Improved performance when switching to a screen that shows the last screen in the background

  - Overhauled action handling

  - Improvements to the dungeon map generation process (more efficient use of arrays)

  - Now disposing all static TextureAtlases with the static disposal mechanism

  - Updated included libGDX framework version to 1.14

  - Updated included LWJGL library version to 3.3.6

  - Added many new generic Requirements

  - Moved data folder from "ProgramData" to "Saved Games"

  - Tied the attribute "quest item" from Item to ItemInstance

  - Improved handling of output logfiles (now keeping those of three sessions)

  - Removed superflous calls to setting the generic popup active

Fixes for bugs present in Alpha 3.fun

  - Fixed: app does not start anymore when a saved game is corrupt

  - Fixed: app hangs when spam-clicking while a new game starts, corrupting the database

  - Fixed: crash when an NPC flees to a different dungeon level

  - Fixed: crash when confirming a new combat move while just arriving from another move

  - Fixed: crash when an NPC's update queries the database after the PC died (database erased)

  - Fixed: crash in Pathfinder when there is no route around an entity

  - Fixed: crash when entering city map and patrol resumes at last waypoint

  - Fixed: crash when looting dungeon container with colored item

  - Fixed: crash when combat starts while mounting horse

  - Fixed: crash when a manhunt ends at a certain building level

  - Fixed: crash when storing criminal record entry with too many witnesses

  - Fixed: crash when NPC is trying to get to a spot on top of a building, but there is no path to it

  - Fixed: hang (NPC who is not yet to appear in the game incorrectly gets loaded)

  - Fixed: error when saving game while mounting horse (action name too long for db)

  - Fixed: lock components are not persistent

  - Fixed: procedural lock generation gets stuck if there are not enough valid trap slots

  - Fixed: NPC in explorable building, PC outdoors same town: isOnMapInMemory value incorrect

  - Fixed: group is not fully removed when a character is moved out of a single-member group

  - Fixed: bystander NPCs sometimes get added twice to the combatant list when attacked

  - Fixed: town guard behavior pattern not always gets started when needed after a map change

  - Fixed: in rare cases, it is incorrectly determined whether the PC is indoors

  - Fixed: when the game loads in a static location, the shown room can be wrong

  - Fixed: season Fast-Forward hover shows without the icon being available

  - Fixed: unable to cancel activities while the spinner is up

  - Fixed: outdated hover popup still shows up after a modal dialog appeared

  - Fixed: NPC's action queue stuck when leaving building and PC is in a static location

  - Fixed: rider and horse out-of-sync when opening Credits screen

  - Fixed: book widget "inventory" not fluently scaling

  - Fixed: book portrait visuals sometimes incorrect around the edges

  - Fixed: popups with large amounts of text exceed the screen bounds

  - Fixed: items can incorrectly be dropped in special locations using the key shortcut

  - Fixed: when re-positioning checkbox, hovered and checked variants remain at the old spot

  - Fixed: when loading game, effect trigger for an item not restored if it is inside a container

  - Fixed: widget icon rollover status can be incorrect after setting it externally

  - Fixed: a criminal record entry is added when picking a lock of a self-owned object

  - Fixed: rendering order incorrect when indoors (precipitation not showing through window)

  - Fixed: flickering on character sheet screen when animations are loading in the background

  - Fixed: when game is paused while in a special location, key commands still work

  - Fixed: Thyle city watch is not a unique special location, causing ambiguous guard behavior

  - Fixed: function to query the position of a building that is not in memory sometimes crashes

  - Fixed: incorrect behavior when a manhunt is triggered by a guard on top of a building

  - Fixed: attacker gets too close when positioning for an upcoming combat

  - Fixed: after dropping coins, carried weight does not get updated immediately

  - Fixed: in the map editor, cellar levels are exported twice

  - Fixed: possible PC actions not reset to default when starting a new game during same session

  - Fixed: descriptions for locations on the travel map are incorrect (indexing issue)

  - Fixed: even for non-humanoid NPCs, average armor is calculated based on humanoid body parts

  - Fixed: map inappropriately changes when PC is taken to prison while in a static location

  - Fixed: on some screens, modal dialogs are rendered under any screen darkening

  - Fixed: The UI renderer does not correctly return the hovered status

  - Fixed: some dungeon doors are locked although they are open

  - Fixed: dungeon containers not always filled correctly

  - Fixed: next quest step not always shown

  - Fixed: in tactical combat, nearby enemy cannot be selected after canceling a move

  - Fixed: quest "True Hospitality" proceeds incorrectly if the PC does not act for a while

  - Fixed: music stuttering when changing maps and deleting games

  - Fixed: incorrect item for starting campfire shown if using tinder pouch

  - Fixed: flintstone sound missing when igniting object with tinder pouch

  - Fixed: coin treasure item can include zero coins

  - Fixed: NPCs can block themselves after being spawned on a new map

  - Fixed: store visitors have a superflous action to enter the building on the queue

  - Fixed: children and some other characters are unable to talk in certain scenarios

  - Fixed: incorrect south stairscase asset in human dungeon

  - Fixed: lantern (on) does not show a flame in inventory

  - Fixed: the leader of the Dark Ones does not own the robe he is wearing

  - Fixed: various issues with activity spinners

  - Fixed: tutorial combat with bat can be started as quick combat when fleeing first

  - Fixed: when camping in dungeon, sleep actions are shown incorrectly

  - Fixed: after closing the gravestone overlay, interaction menu choice stays highlighted

  - Fixed: when holding Alt, entities stand out that should not

  - Fixed: wraith's footwear not rendered when attacking

  - Fixed: "door close" sound sometimes plays twice when PC leaves a building

  - Fixed: attacks incorrectly occur against already destroyed body parts

  - Fixed: signpost assets have incorrect filenames in settlement winter atlas

  - Fixed: temporary road and river paths are not disposed in travel map maker

  - Fixed: incorrect dialog text in quest "True Hospitality" after PC attacked goblin and left

  - Fixed: a selected NPC leaving the map stays in the interaction panel

  - Fixed: incorrect hover text for "Take all" button on loot screen after taking selected items

  - Fixed: character output related to food consumption is not correct

  - Fixed: if one side in combat is powerless, power bar not showing correctly

  - Fixed: life point bonus in power calculation incorrect

  - Fixed: PC name instead of target's name is mentioned in status message after PC attacks

  - Fixed: archers move to invalid positions on the map (outside the content area or in water)

  - Fixed: incorrect music might come up if the PC joins an ongoing NPC-NPC combat

  - Fixed: during combat, non-humanoid characters can open doors to escape

  - Fixed: issue in conversation with Chosh in quest "All bats are gray in the dark"

  - Fixed: incorrect result when determining whether a mounted character is in attack range

  - Fixed: after being in combat hit while mounted, cannot dismount and animation stuck

  - Fixed: sometimes, the wrong combat music variant starts

  - Fixed: town guadrs sitting in a tavern do not get up when spotting a criminal

  - Fixed: quick combat portraits sometimes show incorrect number of fighters

  - Fixed: "construct shelter" action available in dungeon after loading game

  - Fixed: after tuning towards an enemy during tactical combat, action sectors not always updated

  - Fixed: coins can be dropped in special locations (impossible to pick them back up there)

  - Fixed: combat gets stuck in quest "True Hospitality" if PC starts combat with the guard around

  - Fixed: the retiree does not appear in quest "Echoes from the Past" when skipping time

  - Fixed: corpses are incorrectly added as crime witnesses

  - Fixed: dehydration level not correctly restored after loading

[Asid]

Updates on the demo!
Sat, 16 May 2026



Plus: what needs to happen to add a new town to the game?


Venerable Knights,

I am half-way through the dev cycle towards the next version, and this time things will get ultra-exciting: for one, that version will be the official demo, available for free to everyone, which means a lot of new players will get their hands on the game. What's more, this might just be the biggest update yet, and I cannot wait to hear what you think about the long list of new features and improvements.

We had a few thousand players registering for the Playtest. Feedback was fantastic and included many improvement suggestions. While not every suggestion can become reality, many of them did meet the criteria, which are: (1) will the change make the game more fun, (2) does it fit to the overall vision, and (3) are effort and benefit in a healthy relation?


Feedback becomes reality

Inventory stacking was the #1 request in the Playtest - this QoL feature has become quite common in modern RPGs and is somewhat expected. It is now implemented and will keep your inventory organized, while also massively increasing the number of items you can take along.

Another popular request was allowing multiple saves. Adding the ability to keep several saves for one game session was something many players felt strongly about. Since the game auto-saves whenever the map changes, there was little player-control over the saving process in the Playtest, and it was not possible to keep "checkpoints" of game progress. This limitation was by design, but when it became clear that the design is not popular, I changed it. It is now possible to store multiple saves for a game.

Since I was already re-designing the saving/loading process, I added quicksave/quickload functions, too.

Along with those changes I also implemented the separation of data between saved games, which increases the loading performance and makes things more robust.

Balancing has improved in many ways. The top issue here was that the chapter 1 quest was too difficult in the Playtest, simply because it was not possible to enter the town of Borderton near the quest destination. When you arrived at the site, your resources were already depleted, and there was no way to replenish before entering the challenging quest dungeon. The town of Borderton can now be entered and explored, and stores, priest services, and of course a tavern eagerly await your business. Now you can take on those ruins fully healed and stocked up.


Being close to enemy territory, Borderton's palisade wall offers critically needed protection

But the game's balancing has improved in more ways, and the experience has become generally more forgiving. For instance, the attribute penalty for dying is now a thing of the past - it was harsh to start with, but more importantly, with distinct saves in place, it did not make sense to keep it around.

For those who prefer a harder challenge, ironman mode continues to be an option, but it is no longer the default. In ironman mode, distinct saves are not available - dead means dead.

Some Playtesters were also not happy about the fact that the tutorial quest "Aldhelm's Path" was mandatory. Starting off in prison, where the mechanics are quite different from the rest of the game, wasn't everyone's cup of tea. Neither was the fact that the tutorial character is pre-made... a fixed character is not unusual for a tutorial, but playing through this standalone tutorial adventure takes about two hours, which was more time than some testers were willing to spend on something they found too limited. So in an effort to not scare off players who might really like the regular game, I made "Aldhelm's Path" optional, but I still strongly recommend playing it first (it is also really fun).

A common point of feeback around tactical combat was that many enemies would run away too often... this was intentional and meant to be realistic (living things tend to like their lives), but it often ended in annoying chases and little loot, which felt unrewarding. It might have been more realistic, but it surely wasn't more fun. While many NPCs will still run away if the odds turn against them, they will not run away quite so quickly anymore. Plus, leg injuries will now slow them down significantly, so going after those injured escapees often will not take long (mind though, this also applies to the player character, so there's a new angle to escaping from combat).


Many new features and improvements

Aside from those player requests, there are other new features and tons of new content. I am only listing things here that have already been completed, so expect more at the time of release.

One new feature is an item's quality rating. Manmade items including weapons, armor, and much more, can now be of "poor", "regular", or "excellent" craftsmanship. If you are lucky, you might even stumble upon a rare "masterpiece". The quality rating affects many of the item's properties - which ones, depends on the exact item, but could include a weapons damage, the protection offered by a piece of armor, clothing temperature bonus, price, and other.


The inventory has been extended to support item stacking, and items can have a quality rating now

In the Playtest, you were able to set up two different equipment sets to store your preferred equipment for melee combat, ranged combat, while in town, or any other imaginable use. This has been extended to three equipment sets.

The new chapter 3 quest, allowing you to advance by one more character level than previously, will take you to the town of Minton. Just like the town of Borderton mentioned above, Minton had been on the world map in the Playtest already but could not be entered. This is no longer the case, so there are two new towns in the game to explore now.

(Adding a new town is a major effort... I thought some folks might be interested in this process, so I will go into more detail about it below.)

The chapter 3 quest not only adds a new town though... it also adds a new type of dungeon. I am planning to add even more dungeons to the demo, but one of them is already finished.

The new places also contain new characters. Aside from entirely new types, including some undead, animals, and... hm... "other", there are dozens of new unique townsfolk NPCs, each with individual behavior, conversation topics, portrait, and so on.

Towns also contain many new buildings and other objects, such as new types of trees.

I could go on for a little while, but I'd like to keep some surprise and delight for the release, so I'll stop here and will take you through the process of adding a new town to the game. But not before quickly mentioning that 34 leftover bugs from the Playtest have also been fixed.


Building cities

Maybe you remember the 1996 title "Daggerfall" which contained many more towns than one could possibly ever visit. However, they were all procedurally created and did not differ much from one another. Here, it was about quantity, not quality. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved Daggerfall (which is, BTW, available for free in its original version and also as a modern remake), but the design around towns in Knights of Frontier Valley is meant to be different. In this game, there is a much smaller number of places, but they are all meaningful and feel differently.

Here is my process for adding a new town to the game:

1) Design the town's general concept

What is its background story, where should it be placed on the world map, and who lives there?

2) Add the town to the world map

To show the town on the world map, map art with seasonal variants is needed. The world map generator needs to be extended to include placing the town procedurally and connecting it to the road network.

3) Integrate new types of buildings

For each new type of building added to the game, map art is needed in seasonal variants. Details about the building like its indoor layout, the time-driven change of window illumination, and particle effects for chimney smoke and flame effects like an outside smithy forge need to be defined.

There are two types of buildings: explorable ones, including residential houses or taverns, and special ones such as stores, churches, or guard quarters.

For the explorable ones, logic to procedurally create indoor maps has to be added.

For the special buildings, a unique image is shown instead of a map when entering. Each town's general store, for example, looks differently inside and requires new art. Each store is also run by a unique character, for who a portrait, animations, and conversation topics need to be created.

For shops, the store inventory needs to be defined: which items are being sold or purchased here?


The Minton Metalworks specializes in forged items of supreme craftsmanship

4) Create the town's map

Town and tavern maps are the only maps in the game that are not procedurally generated. The town map is created using a visual editor which works a lot like a city builder game and is really fun to use. Any of the new builings added above need to be included in the editor so they can be placed, which is a bit of coding effort.

It usually takes a few days to create a new town map from scratch. The greatest challenge here is adding an enclosing defensive barrier like a city wall or fence around the settlement. Connecting wall segments and towers is not something the editor supports, so it has to be done manually. This is a laborsome process requiring pixel-accurate placement, or else there will be a gap in the wall or an error in the rendering order.

5) Define settlement areas

All towns contain several distinct areas like the marketplace, residential areas, or the area around a special building like a cathedral or palace. While walking through town, an image of that area is shown in the ambient panel.

The boundaries of those areas have to be defined and their art be added. That art is seasonal, so multiple variants are needed. The image is also dynamic and requires additional layers that are shown based on context... illuminated windows are only shown at dusk, items being sold at the market only when the market is open, and so on.

6) Add the town's population

A good part of a town's population is made up from normal citizens with professions like candlemakers, fletchers, ropemakers, builders, and dozens more. There are also domestic animals.

Then there are unique characters like store owners or priests.

The remaining inhabitants depend on the specifics of the town... there might be miners, woodcutters, soldiers or other characters present, depending on what the town is about.

When setting up the population, it needs to be ensured that the number of people matches the available houses.

7) Define town-specific NPC positions and routes

In Knights of Frontier Valley you can see vendors walk to their stalls at the marketplace in the morning, and present their wares throughout the day while they walk around near their stalls occasionally. Those vendor positions need to be defined.

Then guard patrol routes need to be set up - a patrol route should cover most of the town's area and lead past all street lanterns, so patrol guards can turn them on or off based on daylight conditions.

8) Create the tavern map

What would a fantasy town be without a tavern? It is a unique building, and the map for each level is made with an indoor map editor. This step is my favorite!

9) Fill the tavern with life

Tavern services like available rooms and the food offered need to be defined. Any place the waitress should visit, like tables or areas in the kitchen, also need to be set up. Lastly, conversations between the waitress and tavern guests need to be scripted.

10) Add anything else town-specific

All towns have some unique mechanic to them. The large city of Thyle, for example, consists of four city quarters, each with its own map. When players change quarters, a large "supermap" of the entire city is shown - this mechanic is only used in that one town.

Minton, as another example, is a mining town. The mines (technically a dungeon) need their own map, and some of the townsfolk, the miners, needs to be programmed to go in there for work. Something like this is not done anywhere else and requires new game code.

11) Music

Each town comes with its own background music. All music is specifically made by professional composers to fit the town... the track for Minton, for example, contains smithing sounds like a hammer falling on an anvil and the hissing sound of a hot-red sword dipped into water. Some towns have several music tracks, as it is expected that the player will spend more time there, calling for more variety.

All taverns have their own music track as well.

12) Testing

When all this is done, everything needs to be tested and then the town is ready to appear in the game!

Until next time,

Martin