Beloved adventurers! It won't be long now until you can go on an adventure with Milda in Crowns and Pawns - there are actually only 10 days left until the release. Somehow this is quite a scary fact... Anyways, we would like to shorten the time until May 6th a bit and therefore publish our "On to Adventure" series of updates here on Steam, in which we will tell you more about us, about Crowns and Pawns, the ideas behind the game, and so on. Why don't we start with us? So, we are Tag of Joy - it's nice to meet you. We are a game development company based in Vilnius, Lithuania. Founded in 2012, we have also been busy with interactive experiences, augmented and virtual reality solutions and other gamified products. You can take a look at what exactly we did HERE on our website. Finally, we decided to tackle our beloved genre and create a point and click adventure game! Now say "hello" to the team behind Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit:
arnas Ledas: One of the co-founders of Tag of Joy, the CEO of the company and the director of Crowns and Pawns. Years ago, back when he was in school and later university, arnas worked on the fan-made Broken Sword 2.5 game. Working his way up to the art director position, he gained lots of game development experience, from project management skills to actual point and click adventure game expertise. arnas not only leads the project, but is also very hands-on, whether it's drawing a missing background object, animating a cinematic or programming special effects. With his knowledge and love of the genre, Crowns and Pawns shaped up to be quite the title! ilvinas Ledas: The other co-founder of Tag of Joy and the CTO of the company. With a PhD in Computer Science and years of programming experience, ilvinas is the person to lead the tech part of the game's development programming, scripting, implementing various features and so much more. He was actually the one who decided to bring Ink into the engine and made the creation of the game so much more accesible to other people on the team. And it's not just programming, ilvinas handles so much more on the project, like refining the user experience and solving complex puzzle logic. Ignas Verinskas: You may be wondering who's responsible for all the witty dialogue and awesome word play of Crowns and Pawns. Well look no further as Ignas is the writer of the game. He took care of eveything Milda and Dana chat, created personalities for all the characters you meet throughout the game, voice directed their speech and designed most of the puzzles in the game (though, puzzle design was something of a team effort, but more on that another time). Mingail Striaukait: That's me! I came to Tag of Joy as an intern while I was studying communication and ended up staying for the long run. My position now involves internal and external communication, community management and I also get to work on projects hands on! As for Crowns and Pawns, I got my hand on some scripting, some additional writing, a touch here and there in Unity, and I have to say, the first big game project that I ever touched is looking good! Zorian Ivanec: Senior programmer at Tag of Joy and one of the veterans of the company, counting his 9th year on the team. Zorian worked a lot on the technical side of the game, not only programing but setting up scenes and characters in Unity and was the one who started making game builds and making sure YOU would get to play Crowns and Pawns! Laurynas uromskas: Another programmer on paper yet a jack of all trades on the team. Even though Laurynas joined the team as a programmer, we learned that he actually is not afraid of Blender and art related jobs. That's how he got the technical artist work on Crowns and Pawns. He's the one who turned our 2D backgrounds into a 3D world, and, of course, helped out with a lot of implementation and other programming related work. Justas Gatelis: The hand-painted backgrounds of Crowns and Pawns were created by Justas. We were eyeing his art for quite a long time and when we posted an ad looking for an artist for Crowns and Pawns, we had our fingers crossed hoping that Justas would answer. And you know what? He did! Eduardas Lukoinas: Even before the pandemic happened, our team could have been called remote. Eduardas is actually living in another city, almost 200 kilometres away from Vilnius. That didn't stop him from taking our character concepts and turning them into real characters - Eduardas created the 3D models for Milda and all the other people she meets on her journey. Almantas Vasiliauskas: Characters aren't alive until they can move. That's where Almantas comes in - he created the animations for our characters. Facial expressions, body language, characters walking and running - every move our characters make is top notch! Daniel Pharos: Last but not least, our team is joined by an award winning German composer. arnas and Daniel met back when working on the Broken Sword 2.5 game. Being a fan of Daniel's music and knowing that this is exactly what Crowns and Pawns needs, arnas invited him to join us in creating the most beautiful soundtrack for the game. We are so excited for you to hear Daniel's music in game and later listen to it while you cook, work, or take a stroll in the park! We know we enjoy it already. [Spotify] Of course, Crowns and Pawns involved much more people than that - additional art, animation, effects, voice acting, translations... We're really thankful to everyone that touched Crowns and Pawns one way or another! That's it for now, friends. We are counting the days till May 6th - I can tell you that! Have an adventurous week everyone - and stay safe! Mingail & The Tag of Joy Team https://store.steampowered.com/app/1125910/Crowns_and_Pawns_Kingdom_of_Deceit/