One of the first things I worked on for Kingdom: New Lands was an overhaul of the subjects. Below (on the first row) you can see the old subjects and their walk animations. On the second row you can see the new version of the subjects. I changed their appearance (some more than others) and improved their walk animation.

I wanted all the subjects to represent their classes a bit more. As you can see some of the characters used to look quite similar. I gave the beggar some rags for clothes so the peasant looked more like a step up, fancy clothes and all. The farmer got a little basket on his back, for grains or vegetables or other farmer-like things. The worker stayed pretty much the same, just a little improvement on the walk. I gave the archer a more "Let's do this!" kind of walk, as well as a little sash for a quiver. Finally the knight got a clearer helmet and a long cloth running from his neck to his feet. It's hardly visible, but looks more like a knights tunic and not just a coloured patch of cloth.

A funny thing about the subjects for Kingdom Classic was that they couldn't run, which led to some really annoying situations. As a patch for Kingdom Classic as well as a permanent feature for Kingdom: New Lands we added some running animations:

We also redid the idle animations. I tried to give each of the subjects a little personal animation, to put a bit more emphasis on what kind of characters they are. For example the beggar seems a bit twitchy, the farmer leans on his scythe for a bit and the archer keeps an eye on his surroundings.

Let's introduce the new characters for Kingdom: New Lands. 

The hermits, the banker, the ghosts and the dog.

The hermits came to life as an upgrade mechanic for the archer towers. Archer towers could become quite useless, sitting in the middle of you kingdom, far away from where the action takes place. Now you can use the hermits to upgrade those archer towers (check out ENVIRONMENTS OF KINGDOM: NEW LANDS for more info on the tower upgrades).

Especially towards the end-game you tend to have too much money to carry, so a lot of players asked for a way to store money. We thought this was a nice idea so we introduced the banker. You can give the banker some money and he'll happily store it in the castle, while scribbling away in his ledger. Each morning you can visit him to receive some interest of your stored wealth.

When you sail to a new island in Kingdom: New Lands you are shipwrecked upon arrival on this new island.  When you find yourself alone in the forest on an unexplored island look for the ghost of a king or queen. They will guide you to the nearest safe place. 

The last new addition to the Kingdom: New Lands characters is a friendly little dog! It'll follow you and will warn you when enemies are around.

Ever thought that horse got a bit boring? Rejoice! For in Kingdom: New Lands you can acquire new steeds. Just look for these special places in the woods:

When you find a new steed in the forest you can ride it. Just pay them a bit of gold and it'll let you ride on its back (animals need money too, you know). Each steed has a specific power, for example the dark horse runs longer and the unicorn poops a bit of gold every time it feeds. 

The Greed, the enemies attacking your kingdom at night, have remained largely unchanged. We did change the colour of the 'goo' inside the enemies to make it feel like some magic substance is holding them together. 

The only new character for the Greed is the boss, which replaces the ogre from Kingdom Classic:

The boss was made as the ultimate bad guy, really tough and strong, capable of destroying walls in a couple of seconds. On top of that it's got a goo attack that spawns trolls, yuck.

As an extra addition to the Greed we also redid the portal. The new stones look like they're made from similar stones as the cliff on the edge of the level (check ENVIRONMENTS OF KINGDOM: NEW LANDS for more info) and the surface of the portal is now made of the same goo as the rest of the Greed. Of course the goo surface had to be animated as well, so I added an 'activate', 'idle' and 'destroyed' animation.

Make sure you watch the Kingdom: New Lands trailer below, and head over to STEAM if you want to see how long you can last!

Kingdom: New Lands is made by NOIO
Published by RAW FURY GAMES

Also check out ENVIRONMENTS OF KINGDOM: NEW LANDS

and MENUS & SKETCHES FOR KINGDOM: NEW LANDS