While we are having some unexpected delays in a piece of news we are dying to bring you, we can still show off many cool things we’ve been working on. Not a lot of gameplay, but still a lot of content! We’re chugging away towards important milestones, as we’re treading the road towards a solid beta. We’ve been working on the world (design, setdressing and layout), player mechanics, a huge questing system and more. Here are some highlights:
The entire terrain was improved
In order for things to look more natural, we’ve been updating everything from textures, the structure (models) and vegetation on our terrain. With a new shader technique the grass is faster than ever, adding lots of different types of vegetation in a breeze.
The swamp area (Soggy Woodlands) had a navigational pass
Alongside a stronger structural design and more mysterious architecture, we’ve been ensuring the swamps are a dense and interesting environment for both simulation and player activity. It houses one of the island’s Vaults and carries a lot of lore.
A quick look at the Vaults
We don’t want to spoil too much, but the Vaults are progressing well. We are prototyping their puzzles and gameplay before moving to visual development.
Spreading mysterious ruins across the island – what could they be?
Finding ruins across Albamare could mean anything. Can you find them all?
Worked more on villages
For villages, we’re adding more functionality in the form of new “role barracks”, where species pick up their roles for tasks that have to be done, as well as new eating and sleeping areas. Also, cloth physics! Also, species-specific fences!
Working on a new critter: the Bleeker
While slightly revamping our critter plan, we’ve been working on a really important one: the Bleeker. We were missing a tone of aggressiveness (as the game can’t rely on species giving you a good fight, based on affinities you have with them), so the Bleeker will bring some action to the fields, mountains and caves of Albamare.
We’re working on our quest system
The last and arguably most important system of all is Pine’s questing system. It relies on all other systems and mechanics in the game and eventually adds the purpose and much of the story into the game. This has been a massive task that will continue to drag on across next milestones, but we are rounding up the basics.
On top of an existing node editor called xnode we built a system of custom operators and coordinators to guide the player and the simulation alike into situations that are filled with context and story. Much to do still, but the logic of starting and completing quests and states being saved as you do is getting there.
In addition to this, we’ve been working on a lot of player-side things that we’ll show as soon as possible. Stay tuned! As always, all feedback, questions and comments are welcome. Feel free to reach out through pine[at]twirlbound.com, here on IndieDB, on Reddit, on our Discord server, Facebook or Twitter.
very neat!
Thank you!