Development History

The Shattered Kingdom - Objects

During development, there were a lot of ideas for different units, buildings and other gameplay elements that in the end didn't make it into the game. Over here you can read about early units and buildings in addition to some other things like terrain types and so on.

Units

Axe fighter	Over here we have a very early version of the axe fighter. The resemblance to the barbarian unit in the final game is uncanny, but actually the barbarian unit was added to the game during the very final months of development. Also the reason why what is apparently an iron axe and an iron shield are used is because back in this stage, there were no separate leather and iron lines of troops. The old graphic was eventually recycled into the barbarian.
Farmer	What, what? Yeah, that is totally the animal breeder. You see originally there was no separate animal breeder occupation and the farmer also worked in the swine farm and stables. The farmer was probably seen as being too versatile and as such a new occupant, the animal breeder, was later added into the game to even things out.
Forester	Now I'm just messing with you, ain't I? No really, the occupant that is the woodcutter in the final game was actually originally used as the forester. The forester worked in the forester's house and could only plant trees (he was unable to cut them down), meaning that you actually needed three separate occupants to produce timber: the forester, the woodcutter, and the carpenter. One can easily see why this was seen as too complicated for one of the most crucial wares in the game and was therefore simplified.
Priest	There were actually plans to include an unit called priest in this game. It was not to be trained from the schoolhouse, instead there was a separate building called a monastery to serve this purpose. The idea of the priests was that they could heal your units. It didn't really work out very well though, and in the final game all units regenerate automatically.
Sword fighter	Yep, it's the barbarian lookalike again. The same base unit graphic was originally used for both types of soldiers presumably since development was still at such early stages that there hadn't been enough time to draw unique sprites for each unit yet. This base unit was later recycled and used for the barbarian.
Woodcutter	Now this is what the original woodcutter looked alike. As was previously mentioned on the forester section, this woodcutter could only cut down trees. He was incapable of actually planting new ones, so you also needed to have a forester at hand to make sure that you wouldn't run out of trees to cut down.

Buildings

Armour smithy	This little building has some slight differences present that you might not instantly notice, but I assure you, they are there. For starters, the holder where the iron armors are usually stacked is missing. Furthermore you should also notice that the anvil is rotated differently than it is in the final version. There's also something sticking out of the chimney that isn't there in the final version. Finally, the iron bars are stacked differently than they are in the final game.
Bakery	This is a very early version of the bakery. You probably noticed that it looks kind of like a windmill and there's a reason for that. At this point, the bakery and the mill were the same building, so corn could be instantly turned into bread once it was delivered to this building. Perhaps it was too easy to produce a sufficient amount of bread and therefore it was decided that the mill should be made into a separate building.
Barracks	A slightly earlier version of the barracks. This very version of the graphic is still used in early demo versions of the game. The only difference here is that the entrance does not have a road beneath it as there is in the final game. The addition of this road is very understandable, as once you see this barracks in the game the road just doesn't transfer smoothly into this building, so the change was definitely a welcome one.
Bowmaker's	Here we have a building that was present in the game for a very short amount of time. This building was originally supposed to be the building were bows were produced for your archers. As there was only one type of equipment available (iron), it wouldn't be too far fetched to assume that there were only regular bows available to be produced in this building. As the way in which soldiers were produced saw a major makeover, this building eventually ended up without a purpose and it was removed.
Fence	Now this is one very interesting building. You were originally supposed to surround the area where you wanted to plow field with fence before you could actually start plowing the ground. It was probably removed due to the unnecessary complication it caused. Even though the ability to build just fences was removed, these fences still appear in the game after a construction site has been flattened.
Farm	This here is a very early graphic for the farm. Other than the type of roof used by the building, it's hard to find any resemblance to the final version of the building. Honestly though, the final version of the farm does look way better than what this farm looks like.
Farm	A slightly later version of the farm. The only difference here is that the trough has been filled with water.
Farm	And a third revision of the farm graphic. This time there are more substantial differences, most notably the addition of the fence. One can also see that there is no longer corn flooding out of the storage. Despite the revisions made to the graphic, it was eventually completely redrawn as it was felt that the graphic was too reminiscent of those in The Settlers II.
Forester's house	This is the building from which the forester was supposed to carry out his work. As was already previously mentioned, the forester was to be used for planting new trees as the woodcutter was only capable of cutting down trees at this point in development.
House	Yep, it definitely looks like the fisherman's hut. In reality though, it was simply a recycled graphic that originally had a completely different purpose. There were actually two different scenarios that were tested with houses. The first of these involved there being nighttime in the game and as such your serfs required sleep. This didn't work out as it made it very though to defend your camp from intrusion. A second scenario was also tried where you needed to provide a residence for all of your citizens. This didn't work out either as building a lot of houses took up too much valuable building space.
Inn	This is a very slightly different version of the inn used in the final game. You probably already noticed that there's this pole sticking out of the building. A good assumption judging by the similar pole in the metallurgist's is that there was supposed to be a sign here. The graphic for the inn sign was never finished though. Alternatively it might also have been planned that a flag was supposed to hang down from there.
Metallurgist's	A very early version of the metallurgist's. While it may look very different at first, if you take a look at the basic design you will quickly notice a few similarities. No doubt the most striking is the fact that there's this part of the building that kind of sticks out from the rest. Also, the chimney is located in a somewhat similar place.
Metallurgist's	A slightly earlier version of the metallurgist's. There's just one real difference here, which is the pole with a sign sticking out from the side. This is the same kind of pole that was present in the early inn graphic as well, so chances are that a sign like this was also supposed to be present at the inn. I'd hazard a guess that there was also supposed to be some building specific icon on the sign but it was never completed and hence the idea got dropped.
Monastery	This here is a monastery. Yep, I'm finding it hard to imagine that monasteries were planned for Knights and Merchants as well. This building was to be used for training priests. As the priest unit didn't quite fit into the game, this building was also removed.
Outpost	Here we have another quite interesting building, the outpost. This building could not attack enemy troops like watchtowers could, instead their sole purpose was to provide you with a huge line of sight. As fog of war was eventually removed later in development, this building pretty much lost its purpose and was removed.
Outpost	This is a later revision of the outpost, where the size of the building has been doubled. It does look significantly better than the previous version of the graphic, but alas, this building just wasn't meant to be.
Storehouse	And here we have an earlier version of the storehouse graphic. If you ask me, this graphic looks a lot more like a storage than the graphic used in the final game. But if we start talking aesthetics, the final version of the graphic just looks so much better.
Tannery	A very early graphic for the tannery. It is hard to find much resemblance to the final graphic in this early piece of work. Other than the fact that there's this tall chimney, it could just as well have been a railway station due to the tall opening in the middle. Personally I'm thankful they decided to redo the graphic for this one.
Training hall	There were plans to include another quite interesting building in the game, namely the training hall. This building was dependent on another feature in the game that was also scrapped, the ability for soldiers to gain experience points. Soldiers could gain experience points either through battle or by visiting the training hall. How exactly experience points affected the abilities of soldiers is not known. The building was so short lived that no graphics were ever completed for it.
Wall	No doubt one of the most missed features in the game; walls were actually supposed to be included in the game, but they were unfortunately removed as the AI didn't know how to cope with them.
Watchtower	A pretty cool graphic for the watchtower if I may say so. There's obviously a lot of resemblance to the final graphic and this is a very nice earlier take on it. I guess it kind of makes sense that whoever was up in the tower might have wanted some roof over their head.
Watchtower	Again, an earlier version of the watchtower. Well this time the resemblance is unmistakeable, but fact is that it does look kind of lifeless with just different shades of gray and brown being used. Using a yellow roof in the final version of the graphic was a really nice touch.
Weapon smithy	This is an earlier version of the weapon smithy. Granted the graphic itself reminds more of the weapons workshop, but there is actually a very good explanation for that. This is because in the early days of development, there was only iron equipment available in the game. In this building, the resource called iron armament was produced, which consisted of a sword and an iron shield. The building itself was occupied by the blacksmith.
Weapon smithy	The resemblance to the weapons workshop just got more real. This is just a later version of the above graphic, but the wares produced were still the same.

Resources

Battle axe	This is the original axe that was used by the axe fighter. As one can see, it definitely resembles the axe used by the earlier axe fighter and the barbarian in the final game.
Halberd	Another early weapon, this is the halberd. The pikemen were originally called halberiders and as such they would have worn this weapon.
Horse	Over here we simply have an earlier icon for the horse resource. It does not look like much if you compare it to the final version of the icon, so it's understandable that it was redrawn.
Iron armament	During somewhat later development stages of the game, the sword and the iron shield were combined into a single resource. This naturally meant that it was considerably much faster to produce soldiers than it is in the final game. Perhaps this was also the reason why it was eventually changed.
Iron ore	Iron ore was actually red during earlier development stages of the game. This is also the reason why the icon for the iron mine was still red when the game was actually released. The blue iron ore does look better though, so it's easy to understand why this was changed.
Long shield	This here is a long shield. Which unit exactly was supposed to use this shield is kind of a mystery, since the axe fighter and the sword fighter both used wooden shields during early stages of development. Perhaps it was used by cavalry or halberdiers?
Pike	An earlier icon for the pike. Back in these days, the pikeman was the weaker of the two pole infantry troops. Why exactly the icon is cut in half is beyond me. Perhaps it was just unfinished?
Stone	This is a very early icon for the stone resource.
Sword	And here is the earlier sword icon. For some reason the icon itself is missing the hilt. I can't really figure out any other logical reason than the fact that the icon was still unfinished.
Timber	The very early icon for the timber resource.
Wooden shield	Finally, this here is the earlier icon for the wooden shield. Back in this stage of development, it would seem that both the axe fighter and the sword fighter actually made use of the wooden shield.

Unit Icons (Small)

Farmer	This is the early icon for the farmer. As was already explained above, the farmer and the animal breeder used to be the same citizen. These were later separated and the farmer was given a new look.
Forester	And here we have our little forester. He was, as was already explained, supposed to plant new trees to ensure that your woodcutter wouldn't run out of trees to cut.
Wooductter	The woodcutter had a completely different look back in the day; and this is the icon that was used for the old look.

Unit Icons (Parchment)

Militia

This is the earlier parchment graphic for the militia. It would seem that there was debate regarding the attack power of the militia. When the parchment graphics were first made, the militia had an attack power of 35%. But later on it would seem that the attack power was reduced to 25% and this was also updated in the parchment graphic. However, it would not end here as the attack power was later increased back to 35%; but whoever was supposed to update the parchment graphic seemingly forgot and it would display the wrong attack value in the final game.

Building Icons (Small)

	Sketch	Draft	Final
Armour smithy
Bakery
Barracks
Butcher's
Coal mine
Fence
Forester's house
House
Inn
Iron smithy
Metallurgist's
Mill
Monastery
Outpost
Quarry
Sawmill
Schoolhouse
Stables
Swine farm
Wall
Weapon smithy
Wine field
Vineyard
Woodcutter's

Building Icons (Signs)

Forester's house	The sign for the building that wasn't. As the forester's house didn't end up in the game, the sign was naturally also canned.
Monastery	And another sign which faced a most unfortunate canning when the monastery didn't make the cut into the final game.

Building Icons (Detailed)

Earlier in the development of the game, the general style for the icons in the game had not yet been decided. One of the styles that was tried out had icons that were significantly more detailed than the ones used in the final game.

Bowmaker's	The detailed icon for the bowmaker's; also notably the only icon of the building to have survived.
Iron smithy	This is a very early work in progress icon for the iron smithy.
Iron smithy	Here we have a more finished version of the iron smithy icon. It looks pretty bad ass if you ask me.
Monastery	This is a very early work in progress version of the monastery icon.
Monastery	Here a chain has been added to the monastery icon, but it's kind of hard to make out what the icon is really supposed to be.
Monastery	After a little more work, we have what looks like a pretty cool icon for the monastery.
Quarry	This is the detailed version of the quarry icon. Ask me, and I'd say it definitely looks cool.
Sawmill	And here we have the earlier version of the sawmill icon. Not half bad either.
Schoolhouse	The first revision of the detailed schoolhouse icon. Definitely gets the point across and looks pretty good.
Schoolhouse	The second revision of the schoolhouse icon. Looks even better than the first one.
Weapon smithy	A very early revision of the weapon smithy icon. It's just pretty much the anvil outside the armory workshop that has been taken and turned into an icon.
Weapon smithy	Here the anvil has been modified so as to not be a straight copy from the armory workshop.
Woodcutter's	The detailed woodcutter's icon. Once again this icon is pretty much the stump outside the woodcutter's hut taken and then slightly modified to look like an icon. But it looks pretty good.

Building Icons (Big)

Another style of icons that was tried out, was bigger icons that showed off the actual building itself. It's easy to see why these icons were not used in the final version; the building menu had to be very cramped when using icons as big as these.

Armour smithy	This is the big icon for the amour smithy. Nothing that special going on here really...
Armoury workshop	The big icon for the armoury workshop. Curiously it seems here that the ledge or fence that is present in the final building is missing, but there's this arc kind of thing there instead.
Bakery	Just the big icon for the bakery.
Butcher's	And here it is for the butcher's.
Coal mine	You guessed it, this is the one for the coal mine.
Farm	And another one, this time for the farm.
Forester's house	It's curious how these icons have also been made for some buildings that were canned. It kind of gives a time span as to when these icons were made.
Gold mine	Could it be another one... This time for the gold mine.
House	Once again, here's another of these icons made for a building that wasn't present in the final version of the game.
Inn	Oh and why of course, the inn also needs one.
Iron mine	This one goes out to the iron mine.
Iron smithy	Oh and the iron mine wouldn't be complete without the smithy by its side.
Metallurgist's	Just another icon, this time for the metallurgist's. Nothing curious about the icon itself.
Mill	The mill also naturally received one of these icons.
Monastery	Another of the canned buildings that managed to get an icon in this style made.
Outpost	Not even the outpost was left out from the joy of receiving a big icon.
Quarry	Tada, the icon for the quarry.
Sawmill	And this is of course the sawmill with its appropriate icon.
Schoolhouse	One of the most important buildings, the schoolhouse.
Stables	Why of course, these are the stables.
Storehouse	This icon is quite curious since it uses the earlier design of the storehouse as the building icon, meaning that the building had not yet been redesigned.
Swine farm	Just another pretty big icon.
Tannery	This is just the normal tannery with its big icon.
Weapon smithy	And the building with the hot iron fumes also got an icon.
Vineyard	It wouldn't be complete without also having an icon for the vineyard.
Woodcutter's	Oh, and almost forgot about the woodcutter's.

Building Icons (3D)

This is a very cool approach to icons that was also toyed around with. Basically the idea was to have the building itself in the icon and it started spinning around once you selected it.

Iron smithy	The 3D icon for the iron smithy. It does look pretty cool; had the icons been used in the final version of the game chances are they would also have been colored.
Sawmill	Here's the same type of icon, this time for the sawmill.

Terrain

Bush (Small)	An earlier version of the small bush terrain graphic. Notably the shadow is closer to the bush itself in this incomplete version than it is in the final version of the graphic.
Bush (Medium)	Here is the same earlier version of the medium sized bush. The difference is the same, that is the shadow is closer to the bush itself in this version.
Bush (Large)	Finally the large version of the bush. Again the difference is the same as in the rest, that is the shadow is closer to the bush itself.
Branch (Small)	Here is an earlier version of the small branch graphic. This graphic is slightly smaller than the final one and it is notably less detailed than the final version of the branch.
Branch (Medium)	Again, the size of the graphic is somewhat smaller than the graphics of the final branch. And there's less detail in the graphic itself.
Branch (Large)	The large branch graphic. Same deal here, the graphic is smaller and doesn't have nearly as much detail as the final graphic does.
Swamp	This is an earlier version of the swamp terrain graphic. It is kind of obvious that the graphic is still now finished at this point and work on the graphic itself is still under way. Roll-over the graphic to see the final version
Swamp Shore	As the swamp terrain itself wasn't finished, the shore graphics naturally weren't either. Here you can see the earlier versions of the swamp shore graphics. Roll-over the graphic to see the final version
Steppe Shore	This is an earlier version of the steppe shore graphic. The finalized version of the graphic was changed so that the shore looks a lot steeper. Why exactly this change was made is not known. Roll-over the graphic to see the final version
Snow	This is a snow graphic that was present in earlier versions of the game, but it was never used and as such was subsequently removed and replaced by other terrain graphics.