State of the Code: April 2023
Welcome back again farmers, for another round of news coming-up in Cloud Meadow's world
We've expanded our team - two more developers!
So where's the update?
What else are you working on? How about...
Here's what you can expect in the upcoming Monster Migration update:
More work behind-the-scenes:
If you have any questions we are always readily available in the following places:
Introduce yourself, discuss the game or send bug reports directly under the eyes of developers - in our very own Discord [ https://discord.gg/cloudmeadow ]
Drop in on our Livestream where Artists, animators & programmers work daily on Piczel [ https://piczel.tv/watch/Spurple ]
We've expanded our team - two more developers!
- The last couple of months have honestly been hectic, and hopefully this will be remembered as the darkest point in the project's development
- Between core staff leaving unexpectedly, illness & overwork, we have persevered to bring you the next major update - in full - albeit later than expected
- However the silver lining to lapsing on our short-term goals is that we've achieved the best outcome for mid- and long-term goals!
- We welcome two new full-time developers to Team Nimbus; Norimoo & Neuropa!
- Both developers are experienced professional Unity3D/C# game programmers with a solid history and real commercial experience bringing Unity games through to completion
- We hope you can welcome them on their journey with Team Nimbus and bringing Cloud Meadow to full release by our early 2025 launch target
- If you missed the launch date memo, please revisit our previous announcement for details
- Both developers are experienced professional Unity3D/C# game programmers with a solid history and real commercial experience bringing Unity games through to completion
- We welcome two new full-time developers to Team Nimbus; Norimoo & Neuropa!
So where's the update?
- The Brownie Caravan update is staged & ready to go - it's just around the corner for the Steam public to enjoy
- We're just waiting to coincide the update launch with some other events between ourselves & our publisher
- Thank you all who joined the early development branch AND assisted with bug reporting!
- The popularity of Steam users on this branch is at it's peak - 1.3% of all players - which means potentially thousands have played the latest 0140a build
- This has allowed us to receive better-quality and earlier bug reports from players who are on-the-ball, allowing a faster turnaround in producing qualitative updates to keep the game stable - especially after a significant update
- Soon the normal branch will catch up with the beta branch and all Steam players will receive the same update version
- If you're interested in switching to beta, check the steam forums
- The popularity of Steam users on this branch is at it's peak - 1.3% of all players - which means potentially thousands have played the latest 0140a build
What else are you working on? How about...Here's what you can expect in the upcoming Monster Migration update:
- New enemy combat units
- 8 new wild enemy monsters will roam the wild lands outside of town
- The next major update after Brownie Caravan new enemy Wolf & Holstaur units
- 8 new wild enemy monsters will roam the wild lands outside of town
- Monster migration system
- Introducing a bit more variation & replayability to the Savannah - instead of the dungeon 'resetting' unexpectedly, wild enemy monsters will migrate in and out based on a calendar cycle
- This will allow the new enemy types to be found in the existing dungeons from time to time, also offering different loot drops and a way to gather different essences & eggs
- Will be used to introduce new enemy monsters when those are integrated later
- Enables us to extend this system in the future, with more ways to change the dungeon between migration cycles
- This will allow the new enemy types to be found in the existing dungeons from time to time, also offering different loot drops and a way to gather different essences & eggs
- Introducing a bit more variation & replayability to the Savannah - instead of the dungeon 'resetting' unexpectedly, wild enemy monsters will migrate in and out based on a calendar cycle
- Combat ability ranks
- One of the benefits to leveling-up characters is not just the permanent stats gain, but also the option to rank-up the unit's skills
- This content will allow the player to max out each ability at 15 ranks for combat NPCs and party Monsters
- Each rank permanently adds extra power, duration or special extra effects to an ability's behavior
- This content will allow the player to max out each ability at 15 ranks for combat NPCs and party Monsters
- One of the benefits to leveling-up characters is not just the permanent stats gain, but also the option to rank-up the unit's skills
- Dungeon Fast travel
- No more need to painfully revisit every floor en route to a specific part of the Savannah - we will be adding curios to some dungeon floors that thorough explorers can use as a quick-travel point
- Overhaul for dungeon visuals
- Most players have definitely noticed some issues with sprite layering in the dungeons
- We know - this is something we've known about basically since they were created, but has been a pretty low priority to revise until now
- Tro's Lab, Savannah F1, F2 & F3 will receive some visual updates to bring them up to standard for our newer dungeon floors
- These floors and others may revise the level flow to improve navigation
- We know - this is something we've known about basically since they were created, but has been a pretty low priority to revise until now
- Most players have definitely noticed some issues with sprite layering in the dungeons
More work behind-the-scenes:
- Integrating HD sex scenes & their questlines
- Town NPCs Minerva & Kellam have new HD sex scenes, with the animations for these are in various stages of near-completion
- We're in the process of designing a series of quest objectives leading to matchmaker-style date sequences
- The goal of these is to enable the player to get to know these characters more, gain their trust, take them out on a date, romance and bed them!
- We're in the process of designing a series of quest objectives leading to matchmaker-style date sequences
- Way more town NPC dialogue
- You ever noticed how one of the first things you can do after arriving in Cloverton is talk to almost everyone - once and only once?
- It's been our biggest shame that the Cloverton area is filled with NPCs who offer almost nothing - so we're going to bring the town to life
- Town NPCs will have a wealth of dialogue, commenting on everything from the player's storyline progress, seasonal events, weather and more
- This plus more plans are slated for Katarina station; we aim to turn this walk-through town into a bustling quest hub for dungeoneers in the future. Stay tuned
- It's been our biggest shame that the Cloverton area is filled with NPCs who offer almost nothing - so we're going to bring the town to life
- You ever noticed how one of the first things you can do after arriving in Cloverton is talk to almost everyone - once and only once?
- Way more emotive dialogue
- One of the dialogue improvements showcased in the Brownie Caravan update is the addition of player & NPC expressions
- Characters in dialogue will show joy, fear, sadness, arousal and more
- Since this is a new feature, we will be adding it to newer dialogue sequences going forward
- Revising existing dialogue to include these expressions will take a lot longer and is lower-priority task for now
- We hope this makes reading dialogue more enjoyable for casual players & loremasters alike
- Revising existing dialogue to include these expressions will take a lot longer and is lower-priority task for now
- Since this is a new feature, we will be adding it to newer dialogue sequences going forward
- Characters in dialogue will show joy, fear, sadness, arousal and more
- One of the dialogue improvements showcased in the Brownie Caravan update is the addition of player & NPC expressions
If you have any questions we are always readily available in the following places:Introduce yourself, discuss the game or send bug reports directly under the eyes of developers - in our very own Discord [ https://discord.gg/cloudmeadow ]
Drop in on our Livestream where Artists, animators & programmers work daily on Piczel [ https://piczel.tv/watch/Spurple ]