While browsing through different subreddits, I came across a stunning illustration of a low-poly castle surrounded by a colorful forest, with NPCs walking along the roads of the city. I thought, “Damn, I’d love to play a game like that.” I was thrilled to find out the illustration came from a game in development.
I contacted Elivard, the developer of Earth of Oryn, to ask him a few questions.
How did you get into game development, and why did you start this project?
To answer that, I need to go back to when I first started learning programming. I’ve always loved building things from scratch, but when I was 14 I had no budget, so working on projects was sometimes pretty tough.
Then I discovered the internet and the opportunities it offered. It was possible to build nice things with zero money if I was willing to put in the work. So I dove in, creating small websites and joining programming communities. I was also playing one of those browser games where you log in every day to complete small tasks. I liked the concept and decided to create one myself, learning new ideas as I progressed.
That’s how Warnation was born. The code was terrible and full of bugs, but the game still managed to reach more than 20k players. I learned a lot from it: not just programming, but also infrastructure, marketing, art, and community management. It even let me buy my own laptop and rent servers. It was an exciting time.
I kept working on it and on similar projects until I was 17, then stopped, thinking I didn’t want to spend my life in front of a computer. Years later, I realized it actually was my real passion. I worked for a software agency doing iOS, Android, and backend work. Later I joined a startup leading a team of 5–6 people, then another one working on an IoT device. But I wasn’t really happy, because the industry always pushes you to specialize as much as possible. What I love is diving into many different fields, and working on a solo game makes that possible.
? Earth of Oryn is LIVE on #Kickstarter ?
Earth of Oryn ✨ KICKSTARTER LIVE NOW ✨ (@EarthOfOryn) November 16, 2022
? An indie city-builder/strategy game in a medieval world filled with story and heart.
✨Get your game -> https://t.co/G9pIuZg6NK #indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #Steam #indiewatch pic.twitter.com/nc9qsWNyJl
The idea for a new game kept coming back to me. After saving enough money, I decided to take a shot at it and started working on a city builder since it’s my favorite genre. I spent six months working on the concept and then began development.
You’re running a Kickstarter campaign, right?
Yes, I’m running a Kickstarter because I feel it’s the best way for a solo developer like me to build a project with the scope and ambition I have for Earth of Oryn.
It also allows me to keep the game as indie as possible while maintaining the art direction and gameplay vision I believe suit it best.
This has been my life for almost two years now, and it’s truly a dream come true. I want nothing more than to make Earth of Oryn and—assuming players are interested—support it for years with free updates and DLC.
? Support Earth of Oryn on Kickstarter
Describe Earth of Oryn in a few words.
It’s primarily a fantasy city builder where you construct castles and kingdoms and manage your citizens. It’s set in a unique world with lore, story, and various biomes and civilizations, each affecting gameplay through their traits. The goal is to create a deep world where you can micro-optimize everything or automate processes on a larger scale, depending on how you like to play.
Is there any particular twist or aspect that makes this game unique?
The depth of what you can do. Every new game feels like a new adventure shaped by your choices and the biome around you. Focusing on the economy (liberal, capitalist, communist, etc.), defense (structures or military), culture (beliefs, habits), laws, taxes, and technology will lead to entirely different outcomes. You can’t excel at everything at once.
Did you get inspired by other titles?
Yes. RollerCoaster Tycoon is one of my biggest inspirations. I love how, even after completing a mission, you still want to keep playing to perfect everything and set your own goals.
I also drew inspiration from Banished, Stronghold, Age of Empires, Timberborn, and RimWorld, among others.
Tell us more about your pipeline. Which tools are you using?
I’m using Unity as the game engine because it fits a city builder well, and its huge community is extremely valuable for troubleshooting and finding resources. For 3D work I use Blender, mainly because it’s free and I’m familiar with it, though I may switch to Maya since it’s more widely used with Unity and could optimize my workflow. For textures I use Photoshop, and I use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit videos.
From the trailer we can spot extremely detailed castles and towns. The builder seems incredibly powerful. Can you tell us more about it?
There’s a strong focus on giving players the right tools to customize their kingdoms.
- Roads and aqueducts: You can build them with a variety of materials, and the tool auto-generates supports, side walls, decorations, and roofs. The system uses a material definition that contains lists of prefab variants to reduce repetition and make structures look more organic.
- Procedurally generated buildings: The system can create blueprints for construction and upgrade paths. A citizen can decide “I want a 10m² house with this budget, and I’m a lumberjack,” and the tool generates it. I started with a 3D array and flagged coordinates following tweakable rules. Once the space is defined, I fill it with prefabs based on biome, available resources, and technologies.
- Manual placement: You can place individual objects with snapping when needed. For example, a water mill wheel or a water gate will automatically snap into place on an aqueduct.
Earth of Oryn has a magical look and feel. How did you achieve this visual style?
Everything is low poly, and the key is focusing heavily on textures and shaders. Low-poly meshes paired with strong textures often look better than complex models with basic textures.
I also try to avoid repetition by mixing layers of the same texture with noise masks. I build custom shaders using Unity Shader Graph so they behave consistently. For instance, I can globally adjust snow or dust levels in real time.
Lighting is also crucial. The light changes color and intensity based on the time of day. A useful trick: use a dark blue light for night scenes instead of simply dimming a white light. It improves visibility and atmosphere.
Adding ambient occlusion helps a lot, giving more depth and making details stand out.
For biomes I use multiple layers of Perlin noise to generate natural layouts quickly. I add parameters and randomness to get the feel I want. This method also lets me expand the map seamlessly by sampling further along the noise pattern. I inspect the environment to place specific prefabs—like objects near riverbanks.
I’m not using this for terrain yet, but it’s on my roadmap and will make everything look even more natural.
I’m also using the HDRP rendering pipeline.
If you have any questions about the game or its development, feel free to join me on Discord: https://discord.gg/QTXC3VDqXq
Cheers,
Elivard