Wastes of Heathencall
Welcome!
I'm pleased to be bringing you this first ever Developer Log for Wastes of Heathencall. While the game is still in it's Pre-Alpha phase I am still chugging along and working hard on getting the best game out to you guys as soon as I can. Currently my biggest goal is in getting the game set up for events. The biggest issue with it right now is trying to set up the CELL system to be easily integrated into the different events.
What is The CELL System?
The CELL system is a new system of my devising that stands for Calm, Endurance, Life, and Luck. In the game each of the four stats gives a different effect to how people interact with you, how fatigued you get, how much damage you take, how lucky you are during events, and much more. At the start of the game you will be allowed to respec your character exactly how you want which will allow many different types of play styles.
Events
Once the final game is completed there will be somewhere in the range of three hundred events. In the average play through I expect a player to get through roughly 75-90 events, many of them branch off of others and will have different outcomes based both on a player's past actions and CELL stats.
What's Old in Version 0.3.3.1
Other than the CELL system, and a couple of events there are a variety of different systems at work both front door and back door.
-The Thirst, Hunger, and Fatigued (THF) System which tracks the players thirst, hunger, and fatigue (duh!) has been fully implemented along with a GUI element that allows for the player to track it and mitigate it through The DES System.
-The Drink, Eat, and Sleep system allows the player to do exactly what is on the tin. At some point there will also be events linked to the DES actions but for now it simply allows you to replenish your THF points. It currently tracks with your actual resources and will hopefully expand in the coming months.
-A tutorial has been meshed together which will hopefully alleviate some of the problems that my pre-alpha testers have been having problems with from not understanding some of the mechanics.
-The ability to switch between full screen and windowed mode. Eventually I will be adding in different resolutions as well but currently the game only works in 1024x768. Not hard to run windowed on bigger screens but screens that are set at that resolution will have to run in fullscreen.
-A mangled together beginning cutscene to give a little bit of extra story and incentive. Eventually it will have pretty artwork and be voiced.
What's New in Version 0.3.3.1
This version is one of my most exciting version "releases" (aside: Nothing has actually been released yet) as I made quite a few nice improvement with my abilities that really pushed the game forward.
- Animation: Something new to this version is player character animation. Before the player kind of slid across the ground. Now thanks to some searching around on public domain art sites I found a great sprite sheet that allowed me to add the player running across the landscape. I will be modifying this sprite set to better suit the art and mood of the game in the coming updates.
- Multiple World Areas: Before the player mostly hung out in one area without much of a chance for exploration. In this update three new world areas have been created which will allow for more exploration. While four is a couple I intend to have many more before launching the full game.
- Polishing: A little bit of minor polish came with this update. Some of the highlights of this are Title Cards. It may not seem like much but it was an accomplishment for me to be able to get the three title cards to work correctly and switch when I wanted them to.
- Music: It isn't anything super special but I was able to get music to start playing when I wanted it to and stop when I wanted it. Currently there is only music playing when you are in the load screen and the menu screen not in the actual game play but I intend to get that fixed soon.
- Artist: Unfortunately not everything is bright and pearly this update. When I originally started I spoke with an artist friend of mine about getting him to do the artwork for my game. He was excited about the idea but was only able to get one piece rough drafted before having to drop out due to personal reasons. While I'm sad to see him go I understand and wish him well. Meanwhile it means my game is stuck with programmer art until I can get someone else on board.
What's Coming Next?
First and foremost I will be working on getting many more events written up and put into the game. I'm aiming for 15% of my final amount (which is about 45) written up before releasing my alpha. I also hope to get more 'artwork' done for the game even as just placeholder art.
