Back to our regular updates after last week's reveal of Ale Abbey's Composer, and we once again come bearing dev gifts for you!
This week's work was focused on experimenting with the level of detail on assets that will adorn scenes' UI, some heavy lifting on the Recipe Creation process and its accompanying UI, and a few mock-up takes on the Merchant's Stall. So, three out of three UI related.
Let's get right to it.
-- Working on the Merchant's Stall
We've shown quite a few examples of the Merchant and his stall in the past. And just like most of the game, you'd be looking at them from the sidelines.
To make the process of using the Merchant's services, visiting his stall, and making your orders for the next delivery of ingredients more realistic, this perspective would - of course - have to change.
Following the guidelines that were decided while working on the Pantry (UI will be a scene rather than overhead elements on the player's view), we wanted to make the player feel like they're visiting the stall, choosing the ingredients, placing their order as if they were there... Very similar to our tests on the Pantry, here's a mock-up of how we envision the Merchant's Stall.
-- Expected level of asset details
In making sure that the above example of the Merchant's Stall is understood as a WIP mock-up that will attain a whole lot of detail in the future, let us give you an example of how far we want to go with the assets found in the UI scenes we'll be creating.
A detail from a larger take of the Pantry, some work from our Raimo on the handles of the Pantry's closet.
-- Work on the Recipe Creation process
One of the most central parts of Ale Abbey's gameplay will be brewing, but before your Monks can brew, they'd have to prepare a beer recipe. In our efforts to gamify the entire process (creating a recipe, understanding how your decisions on equipment and staff will affect the brew's eventual success or overall scores, etc.) several scenes will take the player through this step-by-step process.
We know exactly where we want to go with Recipe Creation, but because this will happen over a number of steps, we still need to test what would look more intuitive and what would make the process more user-friendly and not a dreaded part of the game. Here are a few examples of how the process will look like.
Choosing to create a new recipe or use an existing one
Choosing the style for a new recipe
Choosing the ingredients for the recipe
-- Can you make your own malt?
We are a very positive bunch... we will cheer you on any adventure you might want to throw yourself in when it comes to brewing. We really will!
Having said that, this is the one time we would advise you left something to the professionals. Can you make your own malt? Sure you can! Should you? It would not be the best use of your time when we're talking homebrewed beer. This becomes even more evident when one considers the number of variables one needs to be knowledgeable about, and the equipment necessary to precisely control said variables...
Malting is a seriously laborious procedure. An amateur homebrewing choosing the best raw material, steeping the grain (hydrating the grain to wake it up), germinating it (allowing it to sprout), and then kilning it (roasting it to the desired color and flavor) would still probably produce a very inefficient malt to work with. A store-bought equivalent would allow for less malt used, less time spent on preparations, and of course the space required for the undertaking.
If, for any reason whatsoever, you would still choose to go through with this, let us know and we'll prepare a small guide for you :D
Tune in next week for more of Ale Abbey's dev news! Thank you for your time and enjoy your weekend responsibly ;)
-- Hammer & Ravens
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