We are a game development studio that is making Ironsmith Medieval Simulator - a blacksmith simulator. Check us out on STEAM and ask us anything!

Definitely sounds interesting. What do you do to fight the repetitive nature of being a medival blacksmith? After all, it is still a game.

Drink, beat the wife, sell the children to the local lord as indentured servants, blaspheme covertly in a crowd and accuse the nearest neighbor, then watch as he gets executed by the inquisition. There's plenty to do as a medieval blacksmith.

If time lets us, we would like to add silly stuff like that.

For now, you are a blacksmith raised by your father. No one knows what happened to your mother so probably your drunken father made her disappear.

Does that mean you have quests to follow?

Actually - yes, we are working on the story mode, which you can actually skip totally and just do the contracts on the noticeboard. Although we encourage you to do it as we put a lot of work in it and some blades are unlocked for the player during the story mode itself (don't worry though its the same level and the same map).

But yes, We implemented the rpg style quests so actually player have some things to do apart from blacksmithing.

We implemented some RPG features like story mode, so the player can actually learn the history and relations with other characters. Apart from that in the city itself in early access version you will have many features like character customization, workshop customization with accessories and many more

When writer's block sets in, what keeps you going?

Basically we are not trying to write i.e. dialogues for characters when we don't feel them. Because we are trying make a game in a bit silly and funny way, we tend to add humour to our characters so basically because we are not taking it too serious that's why we don't have writer's block. But we are not the experts to give any tips about that :)

This sounds like it could use a VR implementation. Have you guys considered setting it up for VR?

Yes, it would be great to implement the VR. After early access we will planning to develop it on VR but on the relase we are focused on PC version only first

The game sounds amazing. When will it be launched? What will it cost? And do you plan to launch it on any other platforms (ps, xbox, epic, etc...)?

At this time we cannot specify the exact cost it still something we have to work it out. For now we are focusing on PC platform only, maybe after release we will plan to make a ports for different platforms.

What was an interesting part of smithing that you learned about while making the game and (how) did you make it a feature of the game?

Well - during development we went to the viking village festival near our home city to check out the early medieval themes. We met there few actual blacksmith who forged steel and blades for the festival, so we could look and see their actual work and talk with them. It was really amazing. That's something we really wanted to implement to our game and make it realistic as much as we can, and at the same time make it appealing for the players.

How many of you are working on the game? Where is the idea of a blacksmith sim coming from?

We are a small studio, 4 people Currently working on this projects. We are all gamers and are passionate about the games.

Have you made other games before this (even unreleased test projects etc)? What aspects of game development were the most challenging to learn?

Some of us have experience with commerical products. But most of us are entirely new in this industry, although yes, there were some previous projects that were really helpful in understanding the workflow of computer games design (They never been released though because of lack of interest - Howdy: The Western Game and Ovens of Hell).

Basically with every new project, our skills improved. When you are exposed to problem solving you tend to learn faster, other things are just learning the environment you currently working in (unity, unreal).

The most challenging thing to learn is actually to start doing something - really. For first 6 months it was rather learning by doing, than actually working on the game features.

Question about actual game play (unable to watch livestream due to work). Is this just "click until item is forged?" Or is there any "skill" mechanic in play (too many/too little clicks=poorly forged item, some times mouse movements or key presses, or something of the nature). As it sounds/looks from the small bit I saw, it just seems like repeated mouse clicks until the items is created, which doesn't sound so enticing.

Apart from blacksmith works you will be able to play different minigames (dice, gambling etc), interacting with other characters, customizing your character, workshop with decorations and accessories, random events on the map. Basically plenty of stuff will be added in early access version.

Any chance you could give a key to Let's Game It Out?

It'd be publicity and QA testing!

(I'm entirely unaffiliated with the channel, just think your game would be an excellent vehicle for such shenanigans)

We tried to contact him but somehow our mail got rejected by the email server. But we really love his work and we would really enjoy if there is any possibility to cooperate with him and make some materials with him about us or about Ironsmith.

If you have any contact to him, just let us know. our mail is [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

Hi guys, we will try to answer your questions after Livestream starts. We are going to read your questions there, and after the stream is ended we'll answer all of them directly here

Followup question from Twitch: That Viking Village.

Are you planning on hiring some extra help? (Subtle self-promotion)
You are a smaller studio, do you like your independence and all the pros and cons of it?

Well we had some ideas, for example to take the blacksmiths from the viking village with us and take them to promote our game on gamescons, but unfortunately the corona virus has changed our plans. We might plan something like that in the future.

Independence is good, but we also have to plan our work by ourselves, that is worth to mention that we still have a publisher, who is very helpful and really good at PR and managing Steam system.

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Can hammer go bonk?

https://imgur.com/xCeJYD7

This... it’s beautiful

Glad you like it :)

A lot of sim games having been coming to console but console is still lacking compared to PC on those games. Will you be bringing this to console as well?

Yes, as we mentioned before. After release of the game on the PC - depending on the outcome and popularity of the game we will think about making the ports for another consoles.

Is this your first bigger project or did you work on something else before?

http://wioskawikingow.pl/

Will there be VR support? What pushed you to make it? Do you use Unity/Unreal? What platforms will there be? And the price - or will it be free?

(Platforms: PS4, Xbox, Switch are what I'm talking about)

We are planning to do the VR support, but after the main game release on PC.

Can you give us a sneak-peak into some new features you are working on?

You can find the new features we implement to early access version on our main steam page of Ironsmith: Medieval Simulator. Check it out and add us to your wishlist so you won't miss any news and the info when the game is released.

Any plans for haptic feedback with striking, quenching etc? I’m hoping that a “weight” to your actions would really just... mwah italian hand kiss... send this.

Can you explain more about that? I'm not quite sure if I understand what do you mean.

I really liked that forging part using an anvil, can you elaborate on how it's implemented?

Hi, can you be more specific, what you mean?

How in the world do i weight paint a complicated model!? >.<

No, but seriously it sounds like an amazing game!!! What school did you guys study at? :) Do you think it's possible to learn game dev without school or what were some things you wouldn't have learned anywhere else?

That's something we didn't touch yet because of the time limit and deadlines :P

And thank you for your warm words! Actually if it comes about our education - it really depends. Some of us finished the university with computer science, others are still doing it right now, and some just finished only finished colleges with IT specialization. It really varies. But the common thing is no one really knew how to make games, we had to learn by our own. Online courses, youtube courses, programming knowledge, almost everything we learnt by ourselves. To be honest the most effective way to learn something is to have it as your work or full time project, so you learn when you do something. I know it is a cliche but it really does its work. But honestly - if you are smart enough (or just hard-working and systematic) you can learn that knowledge on your own.

Can you estimate the person-hours that went into this?

Which language is it written in?

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for the question to you too!

We are doing Ironsmith in about 1.5 years so if my calculations are correct, for one person it should be around 3496 hours (excluding weekends, but we also worked on weekends from time to time).

The main core is in c++ but we actually using Unreal Scripting for Unreal Engine, because it helped us a lot as it is really straight forward and allows you to implement systems and mechanics more quicker than traditional c++ programming.

who many time this game tooks to make ?

The entire production lasta for about a year and half, but we are changing the concepts and the ideas we want to implement to our game. So it really varies.

Can you make totally custom weapons??

You will be able to make custom swords, spears and halbers - you can customise their parts however you like, giving different elements and engrave them in many ways.

It is pretty easy to set yourself up with a small cheap blacksmith setup and do this app in meatspace.

What does your version really have to offer over that?

Yes, as it is mentioned before.

Apart from blacksmith works you will be able to play different minigames (dice, gambling etc), interacting with other characters, customizing your character, workshop with decorations and accessories, random events on the map. Basically plenty of stuff will be added in early access version.

When will video game developers put together a union to combat crunch culture?

For us, it's not that bad. First of all, we started this project in a spare time apart from our actual work. Then we moved full-time and currently doing it for one year and half.

I didn't asked if you guys worked full time or part time, I asked When will video game developers put together a union to combat crunch culture?

Why would a small dev team with a common goal give a damn about crunch culture?

I don't know, let's wait for their answer to your question

We don't know the reality of the bigger studios and their corporation's agendas. However if the reality is that grim as they paint it in the media, I would wait few years and see. If people are really that misthreated they would probably do it very quickly and I would encourage them to do so.

The thing is we cannot actually relate so I can only give my opinion about this.