Find the differences!

Hi Kommanders!

Who are the “real” Heroes in the upcoming episodes of Fantasy Kommander?

Before you try to answer , have a look at these images...

MARCUS (FANTASY KOMMANDER - EUKARION WARS)	MARCUS (FANTASY KOMMANDER 3)
ELADEN (FANTASY KOMMANDER - EUKARION WARS)	ELADEN (FANTASY KOMMANDER 3)
YUMAK (FANTASY KOMMANDER - EUKARION WARS)	YUMAK (FANTASY KOMMANDER 3)

As you can see we have 2 versions of Marcus (the Humans Hero), 2 of Eladen (the Elven Hero) and 2 of Yumak (the Dwarven Hero)...

Why?

Because as I told you in the first episode of this Diary we'll release two (connected, but different) games:

• Fantasy Kommander 3
• Fantasy Kommander – Eukarion Wars

These games will be very similar, but not identical.

They will have in common: Setting, Game Rules, In-Game Graphics.

They will have different Heroes' Concepts, Artworks, Multiplayer Feature, Length.

The Artists that drew the heroes are different, but the heroes and their stories don't change from FK3 to FKW.

In order to revive the FK Series on the free flash market, we decided to develop Fantasy Kommander 3. This free to play game will support the release of Fantasy Kommander – Eukarion Wars, which will be a huge game in comparison to Fantasy Kommander 3.

FK3 will have only 1 Adamantia campaign with 5 main battles and 2 “side quests” (I added these kind of battles after your comments guys ;) )

FKW will have many different campaigns and you'll have the chance to be a Kaos or Adamantia Commander.

FK3 will be probably released in Beta version here on AOG... we hope soon!

And now, as always, some questions for you:

1. Do you prefer “Marcus FK3” or “Marcus FKW”?
2. Do you prefer “Eladen FK3” or “Eladen FKW”?
3. Do youprefer “Yumak FK3” or “Yumak FKW”?
4. Was this explanation about the differences between FK3 and FKWclear enough or now you're more confused than before?

As always, feel free to ask me anything!

Setting (part 2)

Hi Generals!

Welcome to the Onacom County!

Welcome?

To be honest you'll not be very welcome in this county. Goblins, orcs, and trolls invaded this land and you'll have to fight very hard to free it...

The exclusive map that I unveil for you in this episode is the one you'll play in Fantasy Kommander 3 (That, I repeat, is not Fantasy Kommander-Eukarion Wars).

As you can see this map represents a small region and not a continent like the map in the previous episode of this diary. Anyway this region is a small part of the Empire of Adamantia represented in the bigger map. The game will be played in maps like this one. The yellow arrows indicate the movements of the Adamantia Army, while the purple ones the movements of Kaos... and stop, I don't want to unveil too much about your next campaigns because I'm sure you'll want to discover them by yourself.

What I can say you today is that FK-Eukarion Wars will have 8 campaigns with several battles.

You can choose to play as an Adamantian General or as a Kaos General and you'll have different heroes at your service.

In Fantasy Kommander an aspect quite different from the classic fantasy setting is that goblins, orcs, and trolls are not simply “monsters”, but they have their own civilizations with cities, Kingdoms, Empires and a social structure. They are brutal, but they are not simply monsters that want to kill and destroy everything.

Then we'll have the Abyss with undeads and ancient creatures... why the abyss is in war is unknowable (at least now in this diary).

All the stories and the settings in the campaigns will be connected and during your battles you'll discover many things about this great war in the Eukarion continent.

The general setting and story of the game will be connected to the old Fantasy Kommanders (1&2) and Kaos Kommander. Adamantia has lost the big imperial region of Icilsud and wants to reconquer it. There's a mysterious power leading the Kaos Armies, that have oddly stopped after conquering Icilsud...

And now, as always, some questions for you:

1. Do you like/don't like the map of Onacom County?
2. Is this map a good way to satisfy your desire of conquest?
3. Do you like/don't like what I said about the story of the game?
4. What do you think about the story in Fantasy Kommander 1&2 and Kaos Kommander?
5. Are you more an Adamantia or Kaos general?
6. As of now what side is characterized better, Adamantia or Kaos?
7. What would you add to the story or setting?

As always, feel free to ask me anything!

Setting (part 1): a global view.

Hi Generals!

Welcome to our second meeting of war!

As you can see from the map attached to this report, today I'll talk about the world where you'll lead your armies to a brilliant victory or a bloody defeat.

First of all, I have to confess that I love maps. Any kind of maps, ancient, modern, futuristic, on paper or on the screen. When I see a map with borders, streets, cities, my imagination starts to fly and I become a traveler, a free adventurer or the conqueror of the world! Any kind of world/s! So basically I have to confess to be a megalomaniacal crazy kid... maybe like Alexander the Great and his illustrious colleagues in history? Mmm, this is a question without an answer.

The map you see is the high-scale geopolitical map of the Eukarion continent in the year 800 A.D.

I suggest you to freely explore this map and start your journey in the fascinating, varied and complex world of Fantasy Kommander.

I designed this world using my knwoledge about the medieval Europe and its fantasy narrative tradition. Eukarion was born from a mix of real european medieval history and fantasy archetypes.

Comparing this map to Europe you will notice many geographical similarities.

In the center of the map you can see a pensinsula similar to Italy limited to the North from a chain of mountains akin to the Alps. To the east you can see a large mountain range that is similar to the Ural mountains. On the west you can see the “Iberian peninsula” with its Pyrenees mountains. Going north you'll see territories similar to France, Germany, the Scandinavian Peninsula and Great Britain. In the south you can recognize the Strait of Gibraltar, the Mediterrenean Sea and two islands that are similar to North Africa. The geographical elements that are most different from our real world are the islad of the supreme elves and the south-east. The first is completely invented (it's like the myth of Atlantis), the second (the south east) is a fusion of the Balkans, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. Most rivers are modeled on the great rivers of Europe.

From a historical and political point of view Eukarion is like Medieval Europe inhabited by fantasy creatures and races like dragons, orcs, elves etc. On the historical level the background is overflowing with anachronisms. I mean , the fact that the map represents the continent in the 800 A.D., doesn't mean it's similar to the European political situation in that year. There's feudalism and a hierarchical society of nobility for sure, but the individual “states” on the map are designed with an anachronistic method. I will try to explain this better talking about single territorial entities on the map.

For example the biggest empire, Adamantia, is inspiered to the Carolingian Empire (9th Century, Dark Ages), while the smaller Grand Duchy of the Seven Towns is inspired to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany during the Reinassance (15th-16th centuries). So we have different ages, from the same period that we call Middle Ages, that live together in the same background. For this reason you'll see characters with equipments from the Dark Ages (viking axes for example) and early Renaissance (heavy plate armors). What you'll not see is what I consider “Fantasy Trash” like an Elven Ninja-Vampire in a gothic cathedral... for this kind of things we created the King's Island series and Defender of the Chicks, and if you want to laugh you should play these games and not Fantasy Kommander.

To all the crazy people that are curious to know more about the link I designed between real European history and Fantasy Kommander I give this simple list:

• Empire of Adamantia: Carolingian Empire (9th Century)
• Kingdom of Chifrans: Kingdom of the Franks (5th century) (the “beginning” of the Kingdom of France)
• Kingdom of Dalenghen: Kingdom of England (10th century)
• Kingdom of Numadir: Vikings (8th -9th centuries) (in our background they are more “civilized”)
• Kingdom of Anapes: Kingdom of Asturias (8th Century) (the “beginning” of the Kingdom of Spain).
• Ancient Empire of Izanthyb: Byzantine Empire (4-14th centuries)
• Duchy of Malion: Duchy of Milan (14th century)
• Republic of the Merchants: Republic of Venice (13th century)
• Grand Duchy of the Seven Towns: Grand Duchy of Tuscany (16th century)
• Avoneg Republic: Republic of Genoa (11th century)
• Sacred Land of the Cross: The Papal State (6th century)
• Sacred Principalities: Crusader States (12th-13th centuries)
• Duchy of Irba: Kingdom of Sicily (13th century)
• Emirates, Caliphate and Sultanate: Islamic Kingdoms (9th century)

And now some questions for you (I hope you'll join the discussion):

• Do you like/don't like the setting of the game?
• Do you prefer fantasy or historical settings in a strategy game?
• How important is for you the setting in a strategy game?
• How important is for you the setting in Fantasy Kommander?
• What aspects of the game setting do you want to know better?

In the next episode I'll talk about the other “full fantasy” Kingdoms and the place where the story of Fantasy Kommander-Eukarion Wars begins...

As always, feel free to ask me anything!

First of all, you must know that we really did many errors during the development of “Fantasy Kommander-Eukarion Wars”. So many that the project has now about 18 months of delay...

Software development is not linear and indy companies like ours have many unexpected problems to manage. We did many errors mainly because we were afraid to make too many errors and to release a game that will not earn enough money... so we did many errors!

FK-Series was (and is) a success on AOG but it's not a global internet hit like other flashgames. The main “problem” is the audience of this game. Fantasy Kommander is more like a wargame than a more accesible casual strategy-turn based game. In the free-flash market most of people don't want a complex wargame like FK so it has not millions of gameplays and a 4+ rating in the web and so we don't earn enough money from the ads in the game. After years of development I belive we did a big mistake developing FK in flash. It would have been really better to develop this game/series in Unity 3D or Java and sell it from the first time. Flash has not the right audience in its market and has many limitations, like a really slow AI (the problem that you have to wait too much before the enemy moves) and issues in managing big maps with many armies... but, as of now, we are using the flash technology so we have to wrap up things and make our best with it. And we'll do!

Considering all these things, our final, “strategic”, decision was to develop 2 games:

• Fantasy Kommander 3
• Fantasy Kommander – Eukarion Wars

• What do you think about this development diary?
• What aspects of the game development do you want to know better?
• Do you like historical wargames?
• Do you know people that like historical wargames but don't like fantasy background?
• Do you think that the fantasy background can be a “problem” for serious strategy game players?
• 19,95 USD is a right price for FK – Eukarion Wars? Why?
• Do you think to buy the game? Why?
• If you had the money to buy FK-Eukarion Wars or another strategy game and you'll decide to buy the other one, could you tell us what that game would be?

FANTASY KOMMANDER WARS: Yumak 3D Model.