Kenzie Games

A rival wants your best corner. Should you get to know why? After a 50-comment debate on Reddit, our answer is yes: their card will list each grudge, a dated log, and the shop they're coming for. Numbers, or just the log? kenziegames.itch.io/blockrise #citybuilder #indiedev

Our first way to show which plots you own in BlockRise was a yellow outline: a ground strip plus a soft wall. At 10 PM it climbed right up our own pub's windows. Now the wall grows with camera height, and the street side keeps only the strip. From high up: outline or flat fill?

Small Unity lesson from BlockRise: Blender had our door hinges right. Our own AssetPostprocessor baked every piece into the building's origin, so shop doors swung around the middle of the building. Fix: skip the doors when baking, and find the hinge from the mesh as a fallback.

We asked r/gamedesign whether players should see exactly why a rival AI holds a grudge against them. 39 replies later, the answer was mostly yes, with a twist: several people suggested earning that information through a spy or a detective. Would you rather see it all, or pay to find out?

We just opened a Discord for BlockRise, ahead of the first playtest. Feedback, bug reports and playtest keys will all live there. Question for tycoon players: what should a first playtest check first — the economy, the rivals or the events? discord.gg/QUwUcBa6Eh #gamedev #indiedev #citybuilder

Eight rival magnates, each with their own method, and every one of them wants the plot next to yours. Losing a block is not the end of the turn: buy the key plot, outbid, or buy the rival out. (Illustration of BlockRise's rival cast.) blockrisegame.com

Round 2 of our Steam capsule for BlockRise, a city tycoon where you buy plots, open shops and fight rivals for the street. Bigger title, warmer light, more going on. Which one would you click at small size (bottom row)? #gamedev #indiedev #citybuilder

The Vault Bank at 10 pm in BlockRise: tier 3 of the bank, dome lit, portico across two plots. The yellow band along the pavement isn't a street light, it's the ownership outline: this one is yours. Barcelona, in game. blockrisegame.com

Tier 2 of the jewelry house in BlockRise. Tier 1 is a single storey with awnings and four display windows; tier 2 adds an upper floor with balconies. Shot at noon, after the daytime fix that lets you see inside the windows instead of flat white rectangles. In game, Barcelona.

The jewelry house in BlockRise at tier 3, the Gem Atelier: a glazed workshop on the roof. Its first noon captures were rejected, every display window was a flat white rectangle. By day the interior glow is switched off and the glass is less mirror-like. Noon and 10 pm, in game.

The Barcelona cathedral in BlockRise, from the side: 45.8 x 35 m on the ground, towers at 33 m, 37.5 m to the cross on the spire, and a cloister joined by a gallery. Around 72,000 triangles, plus two lighter versions. In game, 4 pm.

The bank in BlockRise sits on two plots instead of one: 25.5 x 13.6 m, enough for a portico with columns. Tier 1 is one storey, tier 2 adds a floor, and tier 3, the Vault Bank, gets a dome on the roof. Barcelona, in game.

Barcelona in BlockRise has its cathedral. First time in the game, the stone came out olive-brown, the courses read as bricks and the rose window glowed almost white at night. Three passes later: neutral stone, smaller blocks, a deep portal. It faces west, so we shoot it at 4 pm.

A bakery the player owns catches fire. The fire brigade you financed drives the real street network to get there, puts it out, and the street reopens. One continuous in-game shot from BlockRise, our city tycoon set in Barcelona. Full clip on TikTok: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSbbDnWwn/

In Nationfall, two groups of spearmen used to merge into one pale clump. Same skirmish, before and after: whole tunics in team colour instead of a thin sash, no rings under enemies, shorter spears. Soldiers with a visible attack gesture went from 42% to 83%.

Small thing we finally did in BlockRise: shop doors open when a customer walks in. Six buildings so far (restaurant, pub, bank, jewellery, offices, tailor). A closed door on a busy shop made the street look switched off.

The BlockRise fire station has moved in: three bays, three red engines, a clock tower. For a while its windows stayed dark at night: eight imported buildings had no night lights at all. They do now, and the test district went from 42 lights to 370.

BlockRise building cards now wear their tier: blue for tier 1, burgundy for tier 2, old gold for tier 3. The frame, the tab and the building name take the colour; the owner keeps their own. Hovering a placed building now shows its name, owner, tier and income per day.

The BlockRise pub now has its three tiers in Barcelona: one storey, then a roof terrace, then a second floor under it. It arrived with its back to the street; that's fixed. And night is in: at 10 pm the windows are lit and the sign still reads from the pavement.

Our BlockRise fashion boutique in Barcelona, tier 1 to tier 3. Rule we set: every upgrade has to read from the street, not just in a stats panel. Tier 3 then asks one question: Volume, Quality or Speed.

Same plot, same one-storey footprint, same camera. Our BlockRise fashion shop went from flat cream walls to a textured render, dark trim, an arched sign and real side windows. One of fourteen shops we rebuilt to face the street.

We rebuilt fourteen BlockRise shops this week. They were flat placeholder slabs, some facing away from the road. Now: real textures, readable signs, and three of them literally turned around to face the pavement.

A test we picked up from a r/tycoon thread and now use as an acceptance check: hide every sign. If you can't guess what the building is, it isn't done. Our BlockRise pharmacy leans on the rooftop cross and the green awning for that. Before/after, same camera.

May vs September, same BlockRise map. The first version mixed generated models with a lot of bought asset packs: each fine on its own, together a catalogue rather than a city. Since then: one art direction, a remodelled map, and buildings from our own procedural script.

Our BlockRise casino was a one-storey box with a bright sign on a single plot. It now takes three plots by two: a verdigris dome 16.5 m up, a colonnade, a marquee, and a gold sign that still reads from 345 m out. First building we designed as a landmark, not a business slot.