Welcome back to another Dev Diary!
I had originally scheduled this to come out all the way back in June, but I had a few life changing events happen to me and the game just went on the back burner for a while.
As most know, once you stop something, it can be hard to get back to it. I felt guilty having left everyone in the dark for a while and it was really hard to get back into it.
The most annoying part is that I had done most of the code, it was just bug fixing, marketing material and all the other non-game related stuff that I needed to catch up on.
The good news is, we’re back and ready to go!
I’ve sent out the first batch of invite-only playtesters and this feedback will be invaluable for where the game direction heads in.
Also, if you haven’t already, make sure to join our Discord and Reddit as this is where I am most active! This is also where you can sign up to join the playtest!
New Features:
- Added NPCs to villages each with a unique name and job.
- Added procedually generated quests.
- Added advanced village NPC AI.
- Added trading system.
- Added a dynamic dialogue system.
- Added ranged enemy AI and 8 new ranged entities.
- Added new NPC interaction menu.
- Added a moveable overworld map.
- Added new rainforest biome.
- Added several new village specific animals.
- Added text to gui to show entity.
- Added 7 new wild animals and insects.
- Added 2 new mythical entities.
- Added 20 different NPC jobs.
- Added new building types related to jobs.
- Added over 40 new job related furntiure and the sprites for these.
- Added 1 new armour.
- Added new NPC sprites.
- Added 4 new healing items.
- Added 1 new environment tile.
Changes:
- Changed all tile art for the overworld map.
- You can now use/consume items directly from the ground.
- You can now right click out of chests.
- Changed two of the bosses to ranged type.
- Right clicking in interaction menu now returns to menu rather than the game.
- Removed the behaviour indicator from the examine menu.
- Completely overhauled village NPC loot system.
- You can now left click to enter a tile in the overworld.
- Adjusted item spawn rate.
- Increased amount of enemies per floor in temples.
- Added a loading message when entering specific locations.
- Updated several of the tiles.
- NPCs can now reveal locations to the player.
- Added mouse functionality to credits and tutorial screens.
- Made pond spawns larger.
- Modified hill biome tiles and spawn rates.
- Modified several of the temple enemy attributes.
- Adjusted FOV.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed bug where animals would talk to you like villagers.
- Fixed bug where picking up items that were too heavy caused a crash.
- Fixed bug where using throwing items would cause a crash.
- Fixed bug where killing undead conquistadors in boss arenas with grenades would cause a crash.
- Fixed bug where throwing a grenade when you had multiple in your inventory caused a crash.
- Fixed crash due to how conumsable classes were being accessed.
- Fixed bug where shooting friendly NPCs didn’t cause them to become hostile.
- Fixed bug where firing a weapon at a dog would cause you to lose all ammo.
- Fixed player spawning inside temple building.
- Fixed bug when eating food from the floor.
- Fixed bug where game would crash after eating food pruchased from a trader.
- Fixed player spawning inside of rock wall when entering the different hill biomes.
- Fixed bug where you could talk to the remains of the dead.
- Fixed enemy alert crash on large maps.
As you can see, quite a lot of changes have happened. I’m extremely happy with the state of the game currently. There are now interactable NPCs, trading system, overworld map, randomised quests, several boss fights, plenty of places to explore, new biomes, new QOL features and plenty more!
The game is also in quite a stable state and it’s been a while since I’ve encountered any game breaking bugs or crashes, hence the reason why I’ve invited some to playtest!
Without further ado, lets talk about the NPCs.
NPCs are one of the things I was most excited to add to the game and I think this initial version of them serves as a good entry point. You can interact with them and ask about the local area, their role in the village, the village itself, ask for quests/POIs and even trade with certain people.
Each NPC has a job relevant to a trade that village has. For example, you won’t find NPCs with the priest profession, in a village that has no church or a blacksmith in a village with no forge.
NPCs are also only able to give you information on their role and so you will get more information from a hunter about the local area than you would from a humble farmer.
Some NPCs will even allow you to trade with them, depending on their job. As this is all procedurally generated each time, I wanted to ensure you could always sell to someone and so there will always be a merchant in each village whom you can sell to. Other frequent traders are hunters, blacksmiths and more!
The interactable NPCs currently are based on two different cultures. Native and Colonial (essentially spanish). Later down the line, I hope to add more flavour to this and more variety between cultures, but for now the current system works. These changes will most likely come when I add more features such as factions and reputation.
Another feature that I was looking forward to adding is quest! Quests currently are your usual “kill x amount of enemies nearby” and “collect x amount of items”. I wanted to add these in early just so the player has the opportunity to do something in the early game and to explore some of the mechanics. Later on, these will begin to branch into deeper focused storylines that will tie in the main quest but for now, they serve as a nice distraction!
I also have now added a moveable overworld map. I was really conflicting on adding this as the overworld is already a “moveable map”, as they essentially show the full space, but by moving this map to a new screen, it is easier for me to add quest markers and other places of interest, without the main screen getting too overcrowded.
I also added a few little easter eggs, such as “talking” to animals, yourself and even dead bodies! “Talking” is doing a lot of the heavy lifting on this one.
There’s still plenty more we could talk about and I will continue to do so after the playtest has concluded! You can join this playtest by joining the discord and dropping me a DM on there!
Not too sure when the next dev diary will be, but rest assured, production on the game has continued and you will all hopefully be able to play it soon!
As always, thank you for reading and make sure you are following us on all the socials for more updates!
Thanks,
Stanners
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