Wheel of Fate News

Season's Greetings Fateful Fellows!

We hope you're excited for or are currently enjoying the holiday season so far! The year 2020 has been a memorable one in more ways than one for all of us. As the year comes to a close, it's always a great time to take rest and reflect on what has past so that you can plan your path for the future to come. Reflection is a great way to recognize and analyze your efforts from a practical point of view compared to your mindset when you had initially faced a situation or event.

It was truly a humbling experience attempting to navigate the pandemic this year. We are grateful to the immense support for small Canadian businesses, such as ourselves, during this time. For Wheel of Fate, we had to restructure our game studio to working only online and this was the first year we didn't attend any live events which was a major change from our expectations. Notably this year, Wheel of Fate was released for early access and evolved immensely with 3 major updates. Our supportive community has been a major factor to the growth of Wheel of Fate. From influencers and marketing specialists promoting and streaming our game to players and even fellow indie developers offering advice, reviews and reporting bugs for us! We're so lucky to have so many talented and generous people within our community. Thank you to all of you!

Currently, we're preparing for the final update and official launch of Wheel of Fate. This update is the last of our zodiac roadmap. The Virgo 1.4.0 update will feature changes to the crafting game play, quests, and other adjustments. In addition, we're ramping up community and marketing efforts for official launch in 2021, so you can expect some upcoming raffles, streaming events, contests, interviews and other exciting events this coming January!

Thank you for your continued support of Wheel of Fate’s game development journey. May the holiday season end 2020 on a cheerful note and make way for a fresh and bright New Year. 

Happy holidays, from all of us at UDX Interactive!

Cheers!

UDX Team

Hey there adventurers!

Hope you’re all excited for the upcoming holiday season! If you haven’t already, then don’t forget to check out our Holiday Twitter Raffle for the chance to win an awesome Wheel of Fate prize pack! 

For this game design deep dive we decided to focus on the battle system for Wheel of Fate! Here’s a Q&A digest of the game design and intentions involved behind the development of Wheel of Fate’s battle system. 



Why did you decide to add the twitch system to the battle system?

Our team wanted to add more than just a turn-based battle system. We wanted to involve the player more which is why we decided to add the quick time events. 


What games did you draw inspiration from for the Wheel of Fate battle system?

Some key games that we drew inspiration from were Grandia, paper mario, Final Fantasy, and Child of light. Wheel of Fate is a nostalgia capsule of the majority of 90s RPGs that we enjoyed but revamped into something playable today. 


What are areas you would like to improve on?

A key area we would look to improve on are the battle scenes. Specifically adding more variety to them such as more events or skills possessing their own type of quick time events.


What is your favourite part about the battle system?

Two things. The first being when you get good at the quick time events it’s very rewarding to land the crits and see your attacks materialize damage on your enemies. Secondly, the system rewards players who build their characters correctly with certain skills and attributes by allowing them to get very powerful.


What made you choose to have a turn-based battle system? What player experience were you hoping to achieve?

Wheel of Fate is a dedication to the 90s style games that I really enjoyed playing as a kid. We chose the turn-based system to fit that genre while making it easier to port and adapt to other consoles.
We aimed to induce nostalgia by aiming to be an older style game that is fun with some twists and turns that are interesting such as the AI component and quick time events.


If not turn-based then what type of battle system would you opt for?

Pretty straight forward, but we would option for an Action system, an ARPG with real time fighting and battles.


What was the game design process involved in creating the battle system in Wheel of Fate?

As a game dev team, we sat down and brainstormed with game design and lead programming. We decided to focus our attention on creating a battle system that was interesting. We were already aware of the fact we would not be creating a battle system that would be something brand new but wanted to ensure it was a cool feature to the game. In addition, we reviewed all types of games we liked and how to incorporate them into our overall game. 


What was the most challenging obstacle you faced while designing or implementing this system?

The biggest challenge we had with Wheel of Fate is a similar one that most game developers will face, which is the question of "Can you make a battle system that is fun to play throughout the game?”. This becomes especially difficult when the action is repetitive since some players will get bored of it. 



It’s important to note that in our latest Leo 1.3.0 game update, we have added in the functionality to turn off the quick time events in Wheel of Fate due to polarized opinions on this feature. Turning off the quick time event will still allow the event to run but the player will no longer have to worry about completing the action. 

Small update with our current game development process, we are currently working on finishing off our final update before official launch! Get excited for some exciting events we have planned coming up! Thank you again to everyone that has been supporting Wheel of Fate! We could not have made it to where we are now without the wonderful community surrounding us! 


Cheers!
UDX Team

Greetings jolly fellows!
The holiday season is upon us and we at UDX Interactive want to help spread some holiday cheer. For December, we will be giving away a Wheel of Fate prize pack! Included in the prize pack is a Wheel of Fate steam key, hoodie and poster!



Here’s how to enter!

• Click this link to visit the live contest tweet.
  
• Follow the @WheelofFateGame twitter account
  
• Retweet the contest tweet
  
• Comment and tag 2 friends
  

Entries that only follow and retweet will still be entered into the raffle but entries that also comment and tag 2 friends will be entered twice, meaning they have a higher chance to win.

Please ensure your twitter settings are set to allow direct messaging from our account so that we can message you your prize key and request shipping information for the Wheel of Fate hoodie and poster.

Our December Holiday Raffle will end on Sunday, December 20th @11:59PM EST and the winner will be announced the following morning. Best of luck this year and we wish you a wonderful holiday season!

Cheers!
UDX Team

Hello again Fateful Adventurer!
How’s everyone’s Black Friday shopping going so far? Or are you holding back to shop on Cyber Monday instead? Keep in mind that Wheel of Fate is on sale NOW until December 1st for Black Friday! Whatever your shopping plans are, we wish you the best of luck in finding what you're looking for!
Now onto the main discussion! For those of you looking to make the leap from game player to game developer but don’t know where to start... just know that we’ve been there as well! It can be disorienting trying to balance learning the game dev skill set with time to work on your projects. Not to mention researching the best path for you to take. There are numerous resources available online for this very question but we figured that we would give our two cents on it or at the very least offer some comfort on your journey!
Check out this compilation of advice for beginners from our game development team!

Plan your path Figure out your ‘why’ for getting into game development. Being a game developer is hard work and there’s a lot of things that will want to make you stop so you want to make sure your reason is strong enough for you to keep going.
Figure out your goals. Do you just want to make one game? Do you want to open a game studio eventually? Or do you want to join a giant game company? Maybe you have a specific technology you want to incorporate or you already have a game idea. Depending on your goals, your path will be different.
Map out your path. To do this, begin by listing out what relevant skill sets you already have, what skills are needed based on your goals, and then identify the skill gap ie. what skills you’re missing.

Start learning Choose your learning method. Just like how there are numerous online resources there are also numerous methods for you to learn. The major decision is usually if you plan to do formal education or learn independently. This question is very dependent on the person and requires a whole other analysis in itself. However, here’s our short answer… Attending a university or college program has its benefits but you don’t need it to be a game developer. It’s more important that you choose the method that works best for you. Keep in mind that game developers come from all backgrounds such as,

• Switching from a completely irrelevant career
  
• Specializing in game dev from a tech career
  
• Attending a formal in class game dev program
  
• Learning game dev through a boot camp
  
• Learning independently online
  

Practice, practice and practice some more. Similar to everything else in life, practice makes perfect. In general, the better your foundation is in programming then, the better you are at game development. Always aim to apply as much of whatever you learnt into your projects and practice time.
Think big, start small and stay focused. This is a general advice to keep in mind throughout the beginning of your game development journey. Try your best to start on a small project and focus on getting it completed. It’s more important to have a completed project done right than multiple incomplete projects. As tempting as it is to pursue all of your goals at once, don’t do this or you’ll end up burnt out.
Never stop learning. Even after you complete your course or a project, continue looking for new ways to improve and look out for new technologies. If you don’t do this then, you will be left behind because the industry is more dynamic than ever.
Play tests as much as possible. The best way to improve your game is to play test again and again.

Join the community and network
Meeting people in the community is important for connecting you to opportunities but in general, it's just a great morale booster and makes you a better game dev. Networking to other game devs gives you an opportunity to bounce ideas off of other people that will give you their clear opinion. People often worry about sharing their ideas for fear that someone might steal it. Don't worry about this. An idea is just an idea and it requires a lot more work that usually the person hearing about it won't be willing to do. If this weren't the case then, there would be a lot more investors running away with ideas after they're pitched to them.
Consider the following methods for joining the community and building your network.

• Create your GitHub account
  
• Manage your brand with a personal website
  
• Join the social network community of developers
  
• Participate in online discussions and groups
  
• Attend developer meetups
  
• Attend gaming events
  
• Follow devs, articles, and news
  
• Find a mentor
  

Get experience in the industry
I highly recommend getting experience in the gaming industry even if it’s not a game developer position because it gives you exposure to the market and its another way to network. You’ll be able to build better games by understanding the market better, get feedback from relevant issues, and overall have a better understanding of how the industry works.
You do not need a full portfolio or even game development experience to start getting experience in the gaming industry. There are numerous positions available that don’t require any major prerequisites. Here are some options you can consider for non-game dev entry level positions.

• Become a play tester
  
• Become a streamer or youtuber
  
• Work as a translator or writer
  
• Work in marketing, social media or PR
  
• Volunteer for gaming events
  
• Be a discord moderator
  
• Start a gaming blog
  

Get game development experience
Having game development experience on your resume is very competitive but if you're not able to get a job as a game developer then it’s absolutely not the end of the world! Consider these options to expand on your game developer experience in the industry.

• Create in-game apps
  
• Create mods
  
• Build your game portfolio
  
• Contract out your services
  

That concludes our list of advice for people looking to start game development. Of course, this is a very general list of advice so, if you have any specific questions regarding your situation then feel free to join our discord and ask! We’re a friendly community full of game enthusiasts and gaming industry professionals that would be more than happy to help!

Cheers!
UDX Team

Hey there folks!
Here at UDX interactive, we always like revisiting and honoring all our progress from the beginning of Wheel of Fate’s development to where we are now with our recently released Leo 1.3.0 update.
This game design highlight, we’ll be spotlighting the avatar’s base of operations, Kismet’s Fall! Seeing as how some of the biggest changes from our Leo 1.3.0 update happened to the buildings and gameplay surrounding the town.
Here’s a Q&A breakdown of the planning and designing involved in the development of the town where Wheel of Fate takes place!

What was the inspiration for Kismet’s Fall?
Our inspiration was based on games that centered around a singular location as a hub such as Diablo. The lore surrounding Kismet’s Fall represents a gold rush mentality. A town founded by rebels that is now attracting people from all over. A small town down on its luck that you’re the mayor of, in which a mystical dungeon just so happens to pop up beside. We knew that we wanted to have a contained space for the AI to change since having more area leads to increased difficulty in game development.
In addition, we wanted to have a story that comes to life within that singular location with NPCs having their own lives. The player should be able to experience the life of the game despite not actively working on a quest. Having NPCs follow a set of routine also plays into our AI game design element. By creating a recognizable pattern in the town that the player can recognize, it becomes much more evident when a change is made by the AI.

Which building is your favourite?
With the old buildings, my favourite one was the Tavern with the Keg design. I really like the idea of a location where adventurers stop in and share stories together.
In regards to the new buildings, it’s hard for me to decide since I personally think they all look amazing in this latest update.

What difficulties did you face while designing Kismet’s Fall?
During the design process, one major issue was that the initial design of the town was too big and needed to be scaled down. Also, it was difficult to design a town that looked bad but then improved through the town building upgrade system. Lastly, converting the town concept from our initial 2D design concept to what it is today.
On another note, not necessarily a major issue but it did make us have to think about things a bit. The lore and AI system had to be incorporated into the design of the town. Does this building make sense based on the town lore? How do we make the AI learn about the town? We need to make the town interesting but it still has to flow logically.

What’s one thing you would change about Kismet’s Fall?
One thing I wish I could change or more so improve on is the number of things that get changed by the elements of the AI. For example, specific events occurring based on choices made or new things happening when you pop into the game like a caravan entering town with special items. This would be great to add more surprises for the players but unfortunately these things take time and we need to start with a base game first. Adding these events and other improvements would be dependent on the next set of chapters to the Wheel of Fate story.

How did you decide what type of buildings to add to the town?
Basically, our team sat down and brainstormed what’s in most RPG games. Shops that support battle and specific character classes. A general store for ‘general’, all or miscellaneous things. For the town defense gameplay, we knew we needed a guard house. With any adventure game, a town tavern just seems like a given especially for a town down on their luck. In addition, we also wanted to give the player’s a choice for the buildings in the town that they’re the mayor of. For instance, Kismet’s Fall was a non-believing town which is why the player, now the avatar of fate must decide if they will build the Church of Fate.

What technologies were used in designing Kismet’s Fall? Such as design, modeling and integration.
To begin the design process, it of course started with paper and pencils since at this point our ideas are all really rough and it makes it a lot easier to discard ideas that we’re not too attached to. Then, we move onto a quick layout. White boxing the design elements of the setting. After that, we start greyboxing which is creating the gray models and figuring out placing. Now that we have the placement and overall layout agreed upon then, we move onto pencil drawings of all the buildings and work on turning them into models.
Unfortunately, the first models we have done too quickly so they were low quality which is why we changed to the new models in our latest build.
There were issues we found with certain models such as the display system for weapons and the pathing for the original floating magic store. In summary, the process is essentially planning, designing, modeling, and then the usual game dev routine for integration and improvements.

What were some other variations of Kismet’s Fall that were thought up? Why did you choose to let those ideas go?
We essentially had two different variations, a humongous city scape version and flat 2D town version. The huge city scape model was not used since it didn’t fit the lore of a ‘small town founded by lone travelers’ and it could not be filled up. While the flat 2D town concept was from our initial game design phase and would have all buildings in a row similar to a panoramic menu. After running a feedback session with players, it was revealed that they liked the 3D concept better so we started designing that instead.

Why are some buildings not designed to be entered into?
The buildings that were designed to be entered into are story buildings in which game scenes take place in them.
Initially, we had planned for a 1st person perspective in which the player can pan through items with our earlier 2D town concept. Transitioning from a first person perspective of shop items, which initially worked for a 2D concept, to a 3D concept led to both time and system constraints. Resulting in our design decisions to limiting some buildings to only their storefront and building model.

What are some plans for the future of Kismet’s Fall?
In the future, we hope to possibly plan more events, expand the area and implement trades in the town. By more events, I refer to special game occasions such as a merchant arriving in town with a cartel of goods or special NPCs visiting town. The possibilities are really endless on how Kismet’s Fall can evolve.

That concludes our Q&A surrounding the game design of Kismet’s Fall. What do you think of the new building models in Kismet's Fall? Got any more questions for us about the town? Feel free to leave them in the comments section and we’ll be sure to get back to you!
Cheers!

UDX Team