Book of Travels News

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/



We hope this update finds you well. It’s been a long and strange summer for us all, and during its course the team realised they needed to make a new schedule for Book of Travels – that schedule means a bigger, better early access gameworld and a new programme of regular game dev updates here on Steam.

[h3]Our first gameplay video drops in November[/h3]

As you can see in the graphic above our next stop is going to be a gameplay video along with a major update in November. We're REALLY looking forward to this and we think you're going to love seeing the progress that we've made!







[h3]Fortnightly game updates[/h3]

Your enthusiasm and anticipation really have been soul food to us through these trying times! And we're going to be much more present from hereon. With our new schedule in place we've been able to make space for a new series of regular, fortnightly updates which will give details about where development is at and how the game is shaping up as well as lots and lots of screenshots. They'll start on October 2nd and we'll be waiting for and responding to your questions and comments. Later in the year we’ll be continuing our series of insights into different aspects of the development process in our Ask the Devs videos.

We’ve also heard your desire for merchandise and will soon have an Art Station store which we'll be adding to as our library of artwork grows – we'll post an update when it's ready.

We're enormously grateful for all of your encouragement and kind words these last months and we're looking forward to connecting more on our travels on the road to release. Stay in touch!

Best Wishes,
Helen and the team at Might and Delight

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/

You probably know by now that Book of Travels isn’t a game that fits neatly into any kind of genre, well the same can be said of the writing in the game. Together, the different modes of ingame text comprise the contours of the story world: the backstory, NPC dialogue, item descriptions and UI text all play their part in bringing Braided Shore to life. Of course we can say this about all game worlds, but Book of Travels is a bit different: it’s a non-linear, exploratory, immersive experience where questing isn’t centre stage. So in this case, the main role of text isn't to drive forward stories or point players through the next beat of an epic plot. This means we can have a bit more fun and allow it to enhance the experience in different ways.



[h2]NPCs as story book characters[/h2]

One of the major differences between Book of Travels and conventional RPGs is that you won’t be able to converse with the NPCs you meet. In Braided Shore NPCs speak repeatable, poetic lines - they'll still do all the conventional work of lore seeding and world building but since they don’t simulate conversation the NPCs work more like two dimensional story characters than limited chatbots. We hope that by creating them this way players will have a less wall-breaking and more immersive experience, and with its pop-up book aesthetic and 2D feel Book of Travels feels like exactly the right place to invite the player to encounter text in this bookish way. For me, the more poetic lines echo the painted, two dimensional ‘scenery’ of Braided Shore - they add atmospheric detail and depth to the world as you navigate through it. Here a merchant and musician speak some character 'poems'.





[h2]Getting the tone right[/h2]

Writing dialogue for NPCs is an obvious opportunity to enrich the fairytale picture book aesthetic of the game world, and the style and tone that we hope to have achieved is a mixture of folk wisdom, upbeat chit chat and lore-based whimsy. Each class of character has a range of ‘lines’ that are each designed to reveal a little about their role in the world along with a tint of personal attitude. We’ve crafted them to be a little bit poetic - some use rhyme, others use phonic or rhythmic patterns. The intention is to create a style that enhances the feeling of being in a picture book world at the same time as withstanding a fair degree of repetition. Players will also encounter dialogue that imparts something less ordinary, little parts of story or information. We wanted these to stand out a little bit and be less two dimensional so they are written in a tone that is more personal and direct - these are the aspects which signal happenings beyond the ‘scenery’ and rhythms of everyday life. Stories, if you like!

[h2]Seeding lore[/h2]

As with all RPGs, the text is a worldbuilding, ambient component of the game world and being so, must seed notions of the past history and current issues affecting its inhabitants. When I write dialogue I try to write it as though through the eyes of someone living its lore and history, so that fragments of these are revealed naturally when characters ‘speak’. This is one of the major ways that players will discover things about the magic, infrastructure and social practices of Braided Shore. There are a lot of unique and complex aspects to life there and they all matter to its inhabitants - we hope that over the course of your time there you’ll be able to learn from them and to piece together its unique culture. When I’m writing text I have all this in mind - the challenge is to seed little bits of lore without being overly explicit or compromising the integrity of character voice, it’s a balance I think I’ll always be in the process of perfecting!





[h2] Glimmers of story[/h2]

While there’s no overarching questline in Book of Travels, there are intrigues to explore - eventually players will start to see signs of a region-wide drama, but mostly they are event chains with narratives that have the small-magic feel of folklore. Both will be seeded throughout the dialogue, so look out for hints or between-the-lines implications.





Finding the balance between subtle, naturalistic exposition and something more clearly revealing isn’t easy, so we expect to be working hard at that balance and we’ll be listening to your feedback to do so. Thanks for reading, I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments below!

Helen x

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Hello![/h2]

We proudly present part three of Ask the Devs - this time Rasmus and Alex answer community questions about animating Book of Travels. (Get ready for some dancing...)

We'll be taking a break from video production over the summer, but we'll be back in August to let you know who will be next in the hot seat. If you have a particular area of game development you'd like us to feature, let us know in the comments and we'll hunt down a team member!

Thank you so much for all your attentions – we hope you're well and staying safe and connected.


Best Wishes from Helen and the team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Hello![/h3]

After some delay, we're pleased to show you part two of Ask the Devs in which Sofia and Jens answer your questions about programming Book of Travels. We managed to sneak this interview in before the beta launch, from now on you'll see a lot less of them as they are fixing bugs bugs bugs. But we'll ask you for questions for our next interviewees (and reveal who they will be) on Discord in the next few days, so hop in and join us there if you haven't already! Please let us know your thoughts or about any processes you'd like to hear about in the next video in the comments below!

That's all for now - we hope you are all well and staying safe and connected.

Best Wishes from Helen and the team

xxx

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/

[h3]Dear Travellers,[/h3]

One of the most crucial parts of any RPG is the interface: your inventory, your character screen, your skill book. Today we want to share the progress that's been made and invite you to look, judge and comment on this omnipresent factor: the UI!

The interface is probably one of the more difficult parts to develop in any game, mainly because it comes with so many expectations. Its core purpose is functionality, but it’s also a vital visual component - one that appears on your screen almost the entire time you are playing.

Our idea is to make a somewhat classical interface that leans on many conventional solutions found in other games. But we also want to do it our way, adding flavors from the game’s ethos. One example is that we're using a lot of icons and symbols instead of text - not everywhere, and not only, but often. Together with inspiration from classical pen and paper roleplay, the style makes for an interesting mix of traditional and new. To get around the annoying inconvenience that symbols can entail, one can always press the question mark to read about a particular UI-screen or use mouse over to write out the name of symbols.







The look itself is inspired by paper and cards. Items and Skills are presented as cards and when creating your character you get to choose between different background cards that tell the story of your character. Being able to bring life to your character through its personality is vital for us, and we have added in many options to write your own custom information besides the choices of traits, origin and other factors that you must choose.

[h3]HUD[/h3]
Skills and emotes are two major focal points of the ingame HUD and to always have access to these is very important. Their importance needs to balanced with the often large space of the screen they cover. So we've implemented functions that allow you to shrink, expand and hide individual parts of the interface - or hide it all together. Besides skills and expressions, energy and stamina status is visible in the top left corner, along with the “shortcut” buttons at the lower middle. Currently these include:

- Game view
- Character sheet, Stats, Custom info
- Inventory and equipment
- Skillbook and Reagents
- Map, Diary and notebook
- Take screenshot
- Menu/Settings



We hope you've enjoyed this first peek at the interface. As fans of the genre it would be amazing to hear your ideas and feedback regarding the UI. Together we can fine tune this part of the experience so that it fits the game that we are creating, and the people we are creating it for! As always, thank you for your time and commitment!

Jakob and the Book of Travels team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/