Castle Story is a sandbox and real-time strategy game developed by Sauropod Studio. Funded through crowdfunding website Kickstarter in 2012, the game launched in September 2013 in early access, and was fully released in August 2017.
| Castle Story | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Sauropod Studio |
| Publisher(s) | Sauropod Studio |
| Composer(s) | Josh Whelchel, Mattias Häggstrom Gerdt and Vibe Avenue |
| Engine | Unity[1] |
| Platform(s) | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows |
| Release | 17 August 2017 |
| Genre(s) | Sandbox |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Gameplay
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In Castle Story, the player is in control of workers called "Bricktrons" which can be directed to gather resources, build castles and fight enemies.[2] The aim is to build a castle that can withstand attacks from creatures and other players.[2] The game takes place on massive floating islands.[2]
Development
editCastle Story was the debut game developed by Sauropod Studio, an indie game developer based in Montreal, Canada.[3] The game was first announced in December 2011; around this time, Sauropod was a team of two people.[4][5] Sauropod Studio was formally founded as a company on 24 April 2012 by François Alain (general director), Germain Couet (artistic director), and Benoît Alain (lead programmer and chief technical officer).[6] A crowdfunding campaign was launched through the website Kickstarter on 27 July 2012, seeking US$80,000.[7] This goal was reached and exceeded within five hours of the campaign's launch.[7][8] The campaign concluded after one month, with a total of $700,000 pledged.[9] Sauropod credited Markus Persson, the creator of the game Minecraft who publicly approved of the game, with leading the Kickstarter campaign to the success it had.[10] Beta versions of the game were later shared with backers who had pledged $15 or more.[9] Castle Story was made publicly available as a paid early access game through the digital distribution platform Steam on 23 September 2013.[11] The game was fully released on 17 August 2017 for Linux, macOS and Microsoft Windows, with Sauropod shifting to bugfixes and developing post-launch content.[12][unreliable source?]
Following onto the release of Castle Story, Sauropod began production on a second game, Mirador.[3] This game had a troubled development, frequently shuffling the designer position.[3] A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign seeking $60,000 did not manage to get funded halfway and Sauropod failed to find a publisher to finance the game.[3] Instead, the Canadian Media Fund invested $900,000.[3] As Mirador drew closer to release, it came to the studio's employees attention that the money the studio had would not suffice to keep it running until the end of 2019.[3] The game was eventually released on 26 July 2019 without prior early access availability.[3] The idea of using early access was considered but ultimately rejected as the studio did not plan to support the game greatly post-launch.[3] Sauropod's management assured its employees that the majority would move on to the studio's next project.[3] However, on 23 September 2019, it was reported that, due to the foregoing money mismanagement, Sauropod had laid off all of its 20 employees.[3] François Alain and Couet stated in October 2019 that Sauropod was still active, despite having laid off all staff.[13]
References
edit- ^ MCV Staff (19 March 2013). "The top 14 game engines: Unity 4". MCV.
- ^ a b c Cunningham, James (25 March 2015). "Castle Story Takes 'Building Castles in the Sky' Literally". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on 20 December 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Valentine, Rebekah (24 September 2019). "Sauropod Studio closes, laying off around 20". GamesIndustry.biz.
- ^ Corriea, Alexa Ray (27 July 2012). "Sandbox strategy game 'Castle Story' finding Kickstarter success". Polygon.
- ^ Plunkett, Luke (5 January 2012). "PC Gamers, Remember the Name Castle Story". Kotaku.
- ^ "English". Sauropod Studio. Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ^ a b Nunneley, Stephany (27 July 2012). "Sauropod Studio's Castle Story meets Kickstarter goal in mere hours". VG247. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ^ Plunkett, Luke (29 July 2012). "Castle Story Might Make Some Childhood Dreams Come True". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ^ a b Wirtanen, Josh (20 May 2013). "Castle Story shows us its adorable little bones". GameZone.
- ^ Carmichael, Stephanie (24 August 2012). "Castle Story's success: more than $600K on Kickstarter and counting". GameZone.
- ^ Benson, Julian (23 September 2013). "Castle Story enters Steam Early Access. Build castles, explore, kill the invaders!". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ^ Fischer, Tyler (17 August 2017). "Five Years in the Making, Castle Story Has Finally Launched". DualShockers. Archived from the original on 20 September 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ^ Valentine, Rebekah (3 October 2019). "Sauropod Studio responds to concerns surrounding layoffs, sexism, studio's status". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 4 October 2019.