Kalevipoeg campaign is an Estonian Wesnoth campaign that its first scenario is complete and ready to play. It attempts to build its scenarios based on an interesting story which begins with: “Kalevipoeg, was obsessed with the idea of traveling to the end of the world, where the earth and the sea collide and no mortal has ever walked before in the eternal twilight of the north.” Kalevipoeg is the king of Estonians in story. So far creators of the game succeeded to make the first scenario, which the aim is for Kalevipoeg to “Find Olevipoeg, Alevipoeg and recruit the necessary forces. Find shipyard at river Narva.” Several features of the game can be reviewed:
Story:
The story outline is attractive; conversations are clear and helpful to understand the game objectives although there is a vague objective can be seen at the beginning of the game: “and recruit the necessary forces”. During the game, it is clear out of the conversations which units should be recruited but the game is not limiting the amount of recruitment. There are three recruitment points on the map and enough gold to recruit an army of more than 20 members which is far more than what is needed to kill the enemies. However, I like the idea of giving hints to the hero during the conversations what he needs to recruit. The creators included Estonian language in storytelling because they wanted to give an exotic Estonian flavor to the story which made it nice.
Map:
The map is quite linear and quite easy to get around and explore. I like the fact the map is Estonia’s map which makes it familiar and interesting for the player to go on. The features have been considered for the map could be more in balance with the story (as I said before, to make it more challenging to play). For instance, The map could be designed in the way that there is just one centre to recruit or the amount of gold given to the hero or the number of village houses could be fewer that they couldn’t get a lot of gold so as to make the game more challenging.
Paintings and pictures:
Personally, I liked this part of the game the best. The pictures are creative and paradoxical to the style of the game. These pictures can be seen at the beginning and between the scenarios which attract attention and make this campaign unique. They have been painted freely and simply give flavor to the game and story.
Coding:
As the first scenario works well, I had a look at varbamine.cfg file, which looks neat. I discovered the usage of [label] on the map by looking at the code; it can make the map more matched with the story and grabs the attention of player. As the creator said adopting the function of [if]/ [else] was challenging, I agree with him since I had the same challenge and could not, so I tried to use other ways. In general, I’d say the work is done well and one can find all the elements of campaign design in various parts of the game.
Interactive Media 