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Fictorum is an action RPG featuring destructible environments, a procedural node-based world map, and dynamic magic shaping.

Post news Report RSS Fictorum Update #18: Improved Loot System and Inventory Screen

Hey there, spellcasters! We can hardly believe how quickly we’re crossing over into April, as well as the massive progress that we’ve made on Fictorum. In this update, we’ll be showing you the improvements that we’ve made to our loot system and user interface, our updated lich character model, our newest blacksmith building, and the new weapon sound effects.

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Improved Loot System

Our in-game loot system was previously unclear, unrewarding, and uninteresting. All enemies killed within a level were tallied and each had a chance to drop a certain kind of item. These items were shown to the player in the world map and automatically placed in the character’s inventory. This process was never really explained to the player, and it felt fairly unsatisfying. This felt terrible as a player: Toppling tough enemies in our game should be followed by sparkly loot drops!

After realizing this error in game design, Chip worked to redesign the system. Now, loot is generated for each enemy at the start of a level and, once killed, the items dropped are visually displayed above them, and then automatically placed into the character’s inventory. The visual and sound effect varies based on the item’s quality, which might be reminiscent of the royal lineage of action RPGs.

After implementing the new loot system, as items drop off of enemies while playtesting—even as a developer—I find myself wondering what item dropped and what sort of stats will be on it, which is a feeling that I had not yet experienced in our game. That feeling validates a significant improvement to our system, and I’m really excited that we have brought that to Fictorum.

Updated User Interface

Though functional, Fictorum’s prior interface was, at best, an uninteresting place-holder, at worst, an eyesore. As our Kickstarter looms, we needed to update this critical component of our game so that it is up to the standard of the rest of our game.

We worked to integrate some new textures into our UMG widgets and, though there’s still polishing to be done, it has breathed some much-needed life into our game. Here’s a brief video sample of everything integrated:


New Corrupted Lich Model

Azima has been focusing her artistic talents over the last few weeks on our Corrupted lich character model. We wanted something that fit the same artistic and thematic style of our Corrupted warrior, but was more sinister and creepy, exuding magical might.

The final version of the character was everything that we could hope for. The lich is intended to be one of the most powerful enemies in the game, and he looks it—we can’t wait to fully implement him in-game!

Blacksmith Completed and Town Hall Incoming

Leif’s latest endeavor has been to improve the structures throughout our towns. He has developed textures that he can use to create nearly any building, with the latest being our new blacksmith:

You can almost feel the heat off the forge! This is one of our favorite pieces that Leif has created. He’s made wonderful progress on the massive new town hall as well, and we’re really looking forward to having that in our levels.

New Melee Weapon Sound Effects

Not much to say here…I’ll let the sounds speak for themselves.


Other Improvements

  • Massive bug fixes and stability improvements
  • Difficulty selection for new games
  • Enemy spellcaster improved and encountered more frequently

Coming Weeks

Come play Fictorum with us on our twitch channel next Tuesday, April 5th, at 8:00PM PDT (you can watch last week’s stream here) and we’ll send out another update in two weeks! We also have more fun stuff posted on Twitter and Facebook, so follow and like us there.

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