Kalypso Media recently announced the first title from their new studio, Gaming Minds, and it is none other than Patrician IV. The original Patrician appeared on the Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS platforms in 1992 and was mostly well received by the gaming press at the time. Sequels followed in 2000 and 2003, and also received favourable ratings.
The first three titles were published by Ascaron, whose name readers may recall from the release of Sacred II in 2008 which was shortly followed by Ascaron’s insolvency. Kalypso Media bought Ascaron and inherited a number of intellectual properties, one of which was Patrician.
For those unfamiliar with the series, Patrician is an economy, trading and city-building simulator set around the closing centuries of the European middle ages. The north-western European coastlines are the typical trading grounds in the series, and this trend continues in Patrician IV.
One of the reasons that the original perhaps missed out on ‘classic game’ status was the level of complexity, which could become overwhelming. Patrician IV promises to deliver the same complex economic systems, but in a streamlined fashion which doesn’t drown the player in a sea of information.
As a player progresses through their campaign, new layers of information will become available, providing a gradual initiation into the complexities of the simulation. Context menus provide plenty of detailed information on just about everything, and advisors are ready to serve when crucial decisions are to be made. A number of focused tutorials will also help to get management novices up and running a trade empire in no time.
A typical game will begin with the player assuming the role of a single and ambitious young merchant. Realising that their home town produces beer quite cheaply, and a nearby trading partner has a high demand for beer, the economic mathematics of supply and demand couldn’t be simpler. Of course this is just the beginning of an economic cycle which will have the player shipping goods around the medieval seas in a constant struggle to remain profitable.
It’s not all buying low and selling high however, as players will soon have to manage a fleet of trade ships and their trade routes, monitor the competition, establish buildings and infrastructure in ports, and face the ever present threat of pirates.
Whilst this may so far sound like a typical building and management title, Patrician IV aims to set itself apart with a deep economic simulation. There are around 30 different commodities which can be managed, and the underlying economic simulation will take into account many facets of trade. Automated trade routes may be profitable at first, but competition will soon muscle in and eat away at profits, forcing an adaptation.
Company reputation will also play a role – political situations can occur which stymie trade agreements, or one could run the risk of angering a town by causing starvation due to purchasing the last of their grain stocks.
Even placing buildings isn’t as simple as plopping one down where there is an available space as the player will have to meet certain requirements and even obtain building permissions. Of course, one can become mayor of a town which neatly speeds along construction approval processes.
One may also forgo the boring legal means of making money and become a high seas pirate. Of course, the simulation will remain in full effect, and as one earns a notorious reputation of a pirating cutthroat, so will there be fewer safe harbours willing to purchase stolen goods.
Graphically, judging from the available screenshots, the game appears to have some crisp and detailed visuals, which should be a pleasure to take in once the wheels of commerce have been set in motion.
The game culminates in the player’s election to the head of the Hanseatic League – an historical trade coalition which paved the way for global commerce as we know it today. Patrician IV is certainly going to cater to a niche in the gaming market; those who enjoy a deep management challenge and have the resolve to virtually nurture a fledgling trading company into an empire.
Patrician IV is set for a September 2010 release.
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