Castle Story is a game in which you, well, build castles. It is essentially a combination of a voxel (cube) based sandbox game and a strategy game, although it leans more towards the former.

The game is played from a strategy perspective, and you will be both creating tasks for your Bricktrons to fulfill, and giving them orders directly. The basic structure of the game involves gathering resources, crafting these into equipment and building materials, creating blueprints for your structures which the Bricktrons will complete, and fighting enemies (Corruptrons) depending on game mode.

The basic, stress-free game mode. This is the best place to start with the game to get to know the controls and how to do things, and also a fun place to experiment and build up huge castles and buildings.

There is a debug menu which you can use to spawn Corruptrons (among other things) to attack your castles and defences.

Face waves of Corruptrons who will attack your Bricktrons, structures and ultimately the main crystal (the destruction of which will cause you to lose) which spawn at set intervals (or you can call early if you think you're ready!). You will have a few minutes before the first wave arrives but the pressure will continue. Build up your defences, arms and armour under time pressure and take on increasingly difficult enemies.

In my opinion, this is where the game shines most since it allows you to build up a big defence around your home crystal and really encourages the 'castle' part of castle story.

The island has multiple crystals and shards, and you start with just one. From your main crystal you must fortify and expand out to the rest of the island, capturing all the other crystals & shards using 'capture wards'. Each captured shard will provide you with more energy to spawn new Bricktrons. Corruptrons roam the land and will attack you and your crystals - lose your main crystal and you lose the game. Capture all crystals to win.

This game mode is a combination of fortifying your main crystal and building up your armaments, and expanding out with temporary fortifications and soldiers to capture more crystals.

This changes the game to make all areas not next to a lightsource pitch dark. This means that you will need to build lanterns outside of the immediate area of your starting crystal in order to see anything! Makes the game harder but looks very atmospheric and adds a bit of an exploration element since you have to even see the landscape before you can build to defend it!

The game is controlled through some static menus and a 'selection wheel' menu. First off, the main UI:


1. This button opens/closes the minimap etc panel to the right. The panel also shows extra information based on game mode (such as countdown to next wave on invasion mode)
2. This shows the game-mode and time elapsed
3. Minimap, including location of camera, focus point, main crystal and bricktrons
4. Number of Bricktrons and current class (i.e. workers, or different types of soldiers)
5. Energy towards next Bricktron spawning at the main crystal. Increases over time. When a Bricktron is ready it is shown at the main crystal and the last icon on the Bricktron number panel
6. A task, including number of workers assigned and max workers that can be assigned
7. Menu, display options and help
8. Click to add a new task
9. Current tasks and Bricktron assignments. Click to select the Bricktrons on that task. Bricktrons that have self-assigned to a task are a dot and circle, while ones permanently assigned by the player are a solid circle.
- a. Idle bricktrons
- b. Assigned to each task
10. Number of melee and ranged units, and click to select those units

Tasks
Tasks are created in two ways - either through the selection wheel by holding down the right mouse button, or through the task creation pane on the left, by clicking the button in the bottom left labelled '8' above


11. Repair task
12. Landscape task
13. Construction task
14. Quarry task
15. Deselect a currently selected task
16. Tunnel task
17. Cleanup task
18. Harvest task (harvest all resources)


19. Repair task
20. All harvesting tasks, split down by resource to be harvested, as well as:
- a. Sweep task
- b. Harvest all task (same as selection wheel)
21. All 'digging' tasks, the same as 12, 14 & 16 in the selection wheel
22. Construction task

Context Sensitive Selection Wheels
When a task or Bricktron is selected, specific wheels will appear when holding the right mouse button.

On a task's icon:

23. Select all workers in the current task
24. Remove all the workers assigned to that task, returning them to the 'idle workers' pool
25. Delete the task (also doable with a bin icon in the bottom-right when the task is selected)

With a Bricktron selected, on the Bricktron:

33. Hold position - the Bricktron stops what it is doing and will not move until you order it to
34. Clean up resources at its current position
35. Drop whatever it is carrying (if it is carrying something, such as a log) at its current location

With a Bricktron selected, on the ground elsewhere

37. Jump off a ledge facing this way - if the Bricktron is on a wall or ledge, it will jump off in the direction of cursor. Useful if it is stuck on a wall with no way down
38. Clean up resources at the cursor's position
39. Mine out the voxel the cursor is over
40. Attack the unit the cursor is over
41. Drop whatever the unit is carrying at its current location (such as a log)
42. Turn to face towards the direction of the cursor
43. Go to where the cursor is

Also note that with a Bricktron selected, a single right mouse button click will do most of these things - make the Bricktron go to the cursor, attack an enemy if right-clicked on, drop its load into a stockpile/weapon rack if the cursor is over it, etc

Construction
With the construction task selected, both the selection wheel and side menu both change to allow you to select the bricks to place. This will be covered more in the 'Building Basics' section but the basic UI icons are as follows:


Across the top of the wheel: The most common things to place
26. Expands the wheel to show stone blocks
27. Expands to show crafting items
28. Approve current blueprints for construction and deselect task
29. Expands to show structure items (doors etc)
30. Expands to show wooden buildings blocks
31. Selects what type of blocks/items are shown in the left pane for selection:
- a. Stone blocks
- b. Wooden blocks
- c. Crafting blocks and structures
32. Delete this construction task (this will completely delete the task including already laid blueprints which have not yet been build by Bricktrons)


The camera control in this game is focused around a central yellow dot (which I will refer to as a 'focus point'), which also shows the camera action currently being done (moving, rotating etc). The focus point can be manually raised or lowered.

Focus Point


Scrolling


Rotating


Border Scrolling
If you want to enable border scrolling (where your mouse on the edge of the screen moves the camera that way), you will need to go to Options > Gameplay and tick 'Lock Mouse' and 'Mouse Edge Screen Nudge' as seen below:



Keyboard defaults (rebindable)

• Scroll the map using W / A / S / D
  
• Rotate the camera using Q / E or the ◀ / ▶ buttons
  
• Raise/Lower the camera using Shift + E / Q or the ▲ / ▼ buttons
  
• Zoom in/out by using the Z / X buttons
  
• Raise/Lower the focus point using Shift + Z / X

Mouse

• Scroll the map by placing the cursor at the edge of the screen (if you have enabled this - see above)
  
• Rotate & raise/lower the camera by holding down the middle mouse button and moving the mouse around
  
• Zoom in/out by scrolling the mouse wheel
  
• Raise/lower the camera focus point by holding Shift + scrolling the mouse wheel

There are a number of 'basic' resources in the game: Stone, Wood, Brimstone, Iron, and Plants. You will need these resources in order to both craft higher-tier resources/equiptment, and for construction. Some resources will be ready to be gathered on the surface, while others will require you to dig for them.

This screenshot shows resources on the surface, with Iron on the left, trees (for Wood) in the middle with Plants in front of them, Stone next to the plants and Brimstone on the right.



Gathering resources can be done through several tasks, which can generally be broken down into harvest tasks and mining tasks.


These tasks are ones which involve harvesting the resources which are freely available on the ground. This is the only way to get Wood and Plants, and is a way to collect Stone, Brimstone and Iron early in the game.

There are two types of harvest task: Harvest and Cleanup. Harvest tasks involve collecting the resources available on the ground shown in the above screenshot. Cleanup tasks involve picking up loose resources that have been dropped by Bricktrons or knocked loose, including blocks (for building stone walls) which have been knocked loose when the structure below it is removed.

Harvest
To create a harvest task, either use the radial selection wheel, or use the task creation sidebar. You will then have a task icon follow your mouse - click where you want it to be placed (you can move this later). You will then be given a circle as seen in the sceenshot below. You can drag this circle to make it larger or smaller, and when hovering over the centre of the circle will be given an icon to move the circle around the map. In the bottom-right corner of the screen, you can select which resources should be gathered inside the circle - by default, all resources will be gathered. Any trees in the gather area will have a yellow circle indicating they are to be gathered. Other resources inside the circle will also be gathered but there will be no indicating circle.



Cleanup
A cleanup task is created in the same way as a harvest task, and is the task with the broom icon. This functions similarly to a harvest task, with a circle that can be expanded/reduced and moved.




Mining tasks involve digging up the ground to gather resources. Most of the ground will be made up of Stone, but there is also Iron and Brimstone to be found underground once you get past the surface soil layers. You will also use these tasks to shape the landscape to your liking in order to build your castles, including underground tunnels or creating flat plateaus.

There are three types of mining task: Quarry, Tunnel, and Landscape. A quarry will dig a hole out of the ground (strip mining). A tunnel will dig a tunnel through the ground or a mountain. Landscaping will create a flat surface by both digging higher areas and filling in lower ones.

Quarry
This task is created with the 'shovel' icon using either the selection wheel or the task creation sidebar. Clicking this icon will create a task which you can place anywhere on the ground (you can move this later by dragging the icon which appears in the centre of the quarry). You can resize a quarry by using the arrow/square icons appearing on the edges and corner at the top of the quarry, and change the depth with the arrow appearing in the closest bottom corner.

Stairs will go down the quarry from one corner. You can change which corner the stairs go from, and if they go clockwise or anticlockwise, using the stairs icon in the bottom-right of the screen.



Tunnel
This task is created by clicking the pickax icon in the selection wheel or task creation sidebar. You will then be given a 3X2 voxel 'entrance' to place anywhere on the map - you will usually want to place this against the bottom of a cliff face, but it can also be placed on flat ground and then descend down into the earth.

You can then drag any edge of the tunnel out in any direction. Yellow areas are to be mined while white areas are already mined/in air. You can make the tunnel ascend or descend with steps as you drag it, using the icons in the bottom-right corner of the screen. A tunnel will always be 3X2 voxels in height and width, and each 'block' of tunnel is always 2X2 voxels. You can delete a 'block' of tunnel with the X icon that appears on it when hovering over the top. A tunnel can branch out into multiple paths.



Landscape
This task is created using the voxel & pickax icon in the selection wheel or task creation sidebar. You can then place the task anywhere on the ground (you can move it later). You will then be given a cube which may have both blue and yellow volumes. Yellow volumes are to be dug out, while blue volumes are to be filled. You can change the area of the task in the same way as the quarry, and the level at which the level surface is to be created by dragging it up or down from the closest corner.

Once you have gathered your resources, you will need to store them for later use. While Bricktrons will chop up trees into Wood without a stockpile, they will not gather that Wood or any other resources until there is a place to put it.

These resources are stored in Stockpiles. The other form of storage is Weapon Racks, which are only used to store Soldier Kits for your Bricktrons to use later. This will be covered later but know that the Weapon Racks function in the same way as the Stockpiles which will be described here, for the purposes or placing and retrieving weapons for the Bricktrons. You cannot choose the storage of a Weapons Rack.


Stockpiles will store everything except for Soldier Kits. They are build using 2 Planks, which are created at a Chopping Block (this will be covered in Building Basics). Stockpiles can only store 1 resource at a time, and have a limit to how much can be stored in one stockpile, depending on resource.

What is stored in each stockpile is easily visible - below are stockpiles with the basic resources. From Left to Right:

• Empty Stockpile
  
• Wood Logs
  
• Planks
  
• Stone
  
• Bricks
  
• Iron
  
• Brimstone
  
• Plants

Stockpiles have their own radial selection wheel. The first menu found when hovering over a stockpile and holding the right mouse button, or with a stockpile or multiple stockpiles are selected (left click/ctrl left click/drag box) and holding the right mouse button, allows you to (clockwise from the top)
Toggle turning stone into bricks automatically (when the stockpile reaches the limit of 80 stone it becomes 4 bricks) (defaults on)
Tell Bricktrons not to place any resources in the stockpile
Tell Bricktrons to place any resource in the stockpile (default)
Bring up a second menu to choose the specific resource to be stored in that stockpile



The resource selection menu then allows you to choose one resource to be stored. Note that if another resource is already there, it will not be topped up but will not be removed except when needed (the Bricktrons will not automatically move it to another storage location)




You can make Bricktrons move resources by selecting the Bricktron (left-click) and then right-click on a loose resource on the ground, or a stockpile. The Bricktron will proceed to pick up the resource, or as much as it can carry of the resource in the Stockpile (e.g. 20 stone, 3 planks, 1 brick etc).

You can then right-click a stockpile with space to have the Bricktron place it there, or can hold-right on the ground (bringing up the radial menu) and tell the Bricktron to drop the resource there.

The main feature of Castle Story is building, be that your storage sites, work stations, defences and castles, or any other building.

The first step is to create a Construction Task. This is done either through the radial selection wheel or the task creation sidebar.

Once a construction task has been created, your cursor will have a blueprint 1X1X2 shape following it. This is the basic brick and will be the foundation of most of your castles and buildings.

(See the UI section for images)
On the left hand side of the screen, a menu will appear showing all the different kinds of items you can build, split down into stone, wood and structures. If you hold down the right mouse button for the radial selection wheel, it will show you the three most common objects to build, and allow you to access menus for other brick types.

• Right clicking with an object selected will rotate the object.
  
• Left clicking will place it where it currently is.
  
• Holding Ctrl will change the mouse's blueprint to yellow, and clicking with this held will remove the brick from the blueprint or dig up the ground/brick it is held over if already built.
  
• If the placed blueprint blue, it is buildable. If it is red, it cannot be built, usually because it is floating in midair.
  
• A yellow cube or brick indicates one to be dug up or removed.

Once you are happy with your blueprint, click the green 'tick' in the bottom-left, or the 'tick' in the radial selection wheel. This will apply your changes, and make the task workable by Bricktrons, who will fetch resources to construct your blueprints as ordered. Be aware that Bricktrons can only climb up 1 voxel hight at a time, and place bricks up to 3 high, meaning they cannot construct tall stuctures without a way to climb up.

More advanced informaion on construction, including details on brick types and design, can be found under 'Advanced Construction' below.

Castle story includes a system for crafting basic resources into more advanced building materials, items and equiptment for Bricktrons to use as soldiers. This is done at crafting stations, though the action of a Bricktron or an automated process once the resources have been delivered.

To craft an item, hold down the right mouse button on a work station to bring up the radial selection wheel. From this you can either instruct the work station to continuously create a given resource (e.g. logs > planks at the chopping block, or iron + brimstone > iron ingots at the furnace) or order one-off items (such as wards and kits). The same menu also allows you to cancel the process or outstanding orders. Note that if you cancel half way through making a kit, you cannot complete the kit and will be left with the useless items already created for that kit.

Once an order is placed, bricktons will bring the raw resources to the work station and, if required, will do the work to turn it into the ordered item. The item will then be at the work station ready to be taken to storage.

The first thing you will need to do when playing is build a 'Chopping Block' out of a log, from which you can make planks, which are used to make stockpiles. From here stone can be gathered, and when 80 stone is in one stockpile it will become 4 bricks. From there, the next crafting stations can be built, allowing you access to more items.

The diagrams show how each thing in the game is crafted from basic resources, which work station is used for each crafting process, and which materials are used for what.

How combat works, classes of bricktrons & corruptrons

Summoning workers back to the crystal or summoning them to arm themselves

Different brick types

Different wooden structure types

Rope bridges

Wards & 'power' distribution

Blueprint selection, copying, moving, splitting etc

How to manage tasks

Different types of tasks

Priorities of tasks

How to assign bricktrons or let them do their own thing