Songs of Syx
| “ | The story goes that Syx and its species were once united under a mighty empire, overseen by the Gods of Order themselves. Harmony and peace ensued for many a centuries, as vast road networks and outposts connected the thriving cities. But one unfortunate day, a faction of greedy Men stumbled upon the prison of the God of Chaos and freed him on the promise of immortality... | „ |
| ~ Part of the game's lore. |
Songs of Syx is a fantasy city-builder game made in Java, where you start off as an insignificant colony and build, scheme, collect resources, and fight your way towards a metropolis and empire. The mechanics are complex and true to life, where small events can spiral into the collapse of kingdoms. Easy to learn, but impossible to master. It's set in a low-fantasy world with graphics aimed at stimulating your imagination.
The game has been met with extremely positive reception on Steam. It has been in development for roughly 7 years by a one-man studio. It is a long term project where much can be found in the Roadmap here and here.
Main Features
Living World
Full of different species, cultures, old and new gods and strange creatures. Night turns to day, climate and weather change, and migrations of animals and people flow. Droughts and pestilence, pirates and bandits, and new discoveries will ensure kingdoms and empires come and go with or without your intervention. No game will ever be the same, as all content, background stories, and easter-eggs are generated uniquely each iteration, while still sticking to a rich background story that you will unfold piece by piece.
Base Building on a Huge Scale
Take your settlement further that you ever have by winning the hearts of your subjects or by whipping them into submission. Have their number swell your insignificant colony into a metropolis of tens of thousands. Be careful not to overreach, as everything you build requires upkeep and a slight disruption of your production, or a dip in your standing, could quickly spiral out of control and your people will not hesitate to depose a thoughtless king.
Grand Strategy
As your capital grows, it must be sustained by the villages, towns, lumber camps, castles and ports that constitute your kingdom. But you're not alone in. Other kingdoms and despots are eager to forge an alliance or expand their borders, so tend to your relations and try not to stand out culturally. To grow your might, you must engage in global trade, where there are no fixed prices, no currency to mint, but based on supply and demand, turning you rich one day, and your goods worthless on the next, if you're not paying attention. Massive Tactical Battles Gather forces from allies and vassals and conscript traveling mercenaries and heroes to bolster your ranks with up to 20k individual units. Use tactics and skill to encircle your enemy, or let your reputation demoralize them before clashes of up to 40k units, which outcomes dictate the rise and fall of empires.
Nobility & Slaves
Break the backs of [slaves]] as they make your beds and swab your floors. Just throw them a bone from time to time to keep them from rising up in revolt. Appoint nobles, or import them from other kingdoms and have them manage different aspects of your kingdom to boost your production and standing, but be careful with whom to trust, and reward them accordingly as some might get the idea to usurp you or join your enemies.
Matching Soundtrack
Thanks to the fulfilment of our first Kickstarter stretchgoal the game will have a fully fledged soundtrack made by @jasinkamusic. We already have some tracks done which neatly fit into the playable prototype.
Start small...
Explore the lives and personalities of your subjects as you build the basic necessities to survive your first winter. Hunt and forage and farm to keep them fed and weave clothes to keep them warm. The people that makes up your settlement come in many different species, with their own skills and flaws. Each one is an individual, with its own personality, agenda, preferences, friends and traits.
You don't control them directly, you rather make the plans and they execute intelligently. If you take good care of them, more will immigrate to your settlement. If you wrong them, they might serve you inefficiently, or openly rebel against you.
End big...
Take your settlement further that you ever have before by winning the hearts of your subjects or by whipping them into submission. Build cities with up to 30k individuals.
As your numbers swell, you will stop focusing on the individuals and turn your attention towards groups. A group can be described as a combination of species, social standing, religion and trade.
And in Songs of Syx, subjects don't like those who are different from them. It is up to you if you want to encourage such behavior by discriminating some groups and imposing privileges on another, or if you want to create a diverse and tolerant society, utilizing the different traits of species.
Call your banners and swell your ranks with mercenaries and boost the morale of your soldiers with a hero or two. Enjoy massive battles, that aim to be realistic with low kill rate and fragile morale, as you fend off an invader, or reclaim a kingdom that is rightfully yours.
Your city might get raided by bandits. Raiders wants your goods, and if you don't surrender them they will attack. As you grow, battles will mostly take place outside of cities and out on the field.
And the battle matters. It will take years to build up a force and if you're defeated, the enemy will hunt down those fleeing and annihilate your army, while suffering minor casualties themselves. You will then have to sue for a costly peace, unless you have enough manpower and funds to quickly raise another.
Expand...
Syx is a living world, full of different species, cultures, old and new gods and strange creatures. Night turns to day, climate and weather change, and migrations of animals and people are on the move.
Droughts and pestilence, pirates and bandits, and new discoveries will ensure kingdoms and empires come and go with or without your intervention. No game will ever be the same, as all content, background stories, and easter-eggs are generated uniquely each iteration, while still sticking to a rich background story that you will unfold piece by piece.
The Lore
The story goes that Syx and its species were once united under a mighty empire, overseen by the Gods of Order themselves. Harmony and peace ensued for many a centuries, as vast road networks and outposts connected the thriving cities. But one unfortunate day, a faction of greedy Men stumbled upon the prison of the God of Chaos and freed him on the promise of immortality. As the gods fought, the cities were erased and priceless artifacts and tomes of knowledge were lost. Outnumbered and desperate, the chaos lord unleashed a plague on the world, turning the dead into soldiers to refill his ranks, and used magical weapons of fire that layed waste to the remaining kingdoms and fortresses. Finally, all the avatars of the gods of order had been slain and thus banished from the physical realm. Failing to deliver his promise of immortality the god of chaos was assassinated by his fickle followers, and as he fell came with him ice and snow that covered the whole of Syx for an age.
But, good news! The ice has now receded and the world is in dire need of your leadership.
Play as the Dondorians, masterful miners with a will cut in stone. They spend their lives digging for Dyhrlium, fighting their arch enemies - the Amevias - and dreaming of rebuilding their legendary capital at Mt. Cerebus. They are mysteriously born fully grown, capable miners, and live long lives, preferably deep inside the mountains.
Or play as Men, fragile and mortal, but equipped with free will and an ingenuity that has the potential to far surpass their Dondorian cousins. Unite their shattered and warring kingdoms under one banner, but beware of temptation that may lead you astray. And do hurry up, as there are whispers of the dark lord of chaos' return!
After the war of the gods, the few Kantors that remained withdrew from the world to spend their remaining millennia in the frozen north. They are filled with wrath and disgust for men and their treasonous nature and generally stay clear of civilization, but if you're lucky you might be able to attract a few to your city, where they will be of tremendous worth.
What people say...
Here is some feedback from our prototype players;
"So I've been playing it for about 2 hours and holy crap... It's really good... Like... Really good."
"I have like 0-2 games every couple of years that check all my marks. Games that I will love and play."
"I wasted an inordinate amount of time on your demo due to how good and compelling it already was and I can only wish you the very best."
"I was initially put off a bit by the UX/UI but pushed past the first 15 minutes of the tutorial. Once I got the hang of it and restarted I, without realizing it, spent the next 3 hours playing... so good job."
"Not too many games can suck me in like that."
"This is one of the coolest projects I have seen in a long time... I downloaded it yesterday and already have 4 hours in... its amazing!!!"
Note!
All of this will not happen over night. Currently, the base game contains 60-70% of the features, but these haven't been fleshed out and everything is unpolished. The release in September will only contain a good number of the features listed, while some few might be dropped and others added. The game has been a prototype for 6 years and will be in EA for a long, long time, although the aim is that it will still be fun to play during these years. You are more than welcome to tag along for the ride, but only if you like what's already been created, feel enthusiastic about the vision and have money to spare in these difficult times.
The game is theoretically ready to launch as EA on steam today, but there are a few things we want to add before that along with some polish.
Until now, focus has been on adding and fleshing out the basic ingredients that makes a city builder.
Ultimately, this game is a long term thing. In the near future we hope to implement empire management and nobility. EA launch is planned for 21th of September 2020.
Thank you!
That's pretty much it, thank you for your (presumed) purchase of the game and visiting this wiki.
Version History - A Brief Overview
- Main article: Version history
Updates from January 2019 until January 2020.
i) V21-22 - Population capped at 15,000, and general balancing.
ii) V23-29 - Ability to select map start position improve, implemented map generator. Increased stone and mineral generation.
iii) V30-47 - Technology, Awe, and Localization
iv) V48 - City size increased, added carpentry, stone cutters, delivery persons, tutorial, engine enhancements, buildable trees, janitor.
v) V49-50 - Updates centred around food production and consumption
Updates from February 2020 until December 2020.
1) V51 Combat and Battles: Implemented
2) V52 Trade and the World/ Economy update: Implemented
3) V53 UI Rework Update, catering for future updates: Implemented
4) V54 Population (Social Classes, Moddibility update): Implemented
5) V55 Production Update (including Outposts): Implemented
Since January 2021, there have been the following updates.
6) V56 Law (Prisons, Guards, Torture Chambers, Execution Squares): Implemented
7) V57 The Alcohol and Death Update: Implemented (Current Stable Version)