2022 Roadmap! Mini-devlog Update #22
[h2]Happy 2022 from Prime Games, everybody! [/h2]
Wishing you loads of health and happiness in the new year. Hopefully, time for more gaming and hobbies!
I always make sure that I get enough time spent with family and friends, creative work, and hobbies and that forms the trifecta of my wellbeing. Especially hard in recent years, I know. I got Covid back in November, and unfortunately my wife and the baby got sick too. Three hard weeks later we recovered, and I even succeeded in patching the game mid-December. After that it felt as if I had to take some time off from being sick... I needed to recharge the batteries big time.
I personally dug deep into ‘hobby world’. I completed some of the gamebooks that were waiting patiently on my shelf. Still not enough though… I never seem to beat the ratio of obtained new stuff to finished/played things. I read some books too. Re-read several Sherlock mysteries including The Hound of Baskervilles and A Night in the Lonesome October by Zelazny. Managed to sneak in some comic books as well! Spiderman Blue that I received as a Christmas gift and You are Deadpool, the latter being an interactive gamebook-like comic! Even got my hands on a Nintendo Switch and enjoyed some quality Mario time.
Enough sentimental gibberish though! I am very glad to kick off this year with…
[h2]A Roadmap Update[/h2]
2022 is the Year (with capital Y) for Fabled Lands, folks! The release of the full game is nigh. Aiming for the first half of it as I don’t want to go beyond one year of Early Access. That's the plan at least.
[h2]Story[/h2]
The biggest area of the Harkuna continent (covered by book 5 in the series) is coming. At the Court of Hidden Faces, no one is who they seem. The sinister lords of the Uttakin go masked to hide their treachery. The secret police of the god Ebron kill those who flout their fanatical codes. In this tyrannical realm of betrayal and assassination, life is cheap. But rich rewards await the adventurer courageous enough to penetrate this hostile land.
Will you uncover the secrets of the High King’s citadel, where no mortal has trod for ten generations? Or wrest the holy sword from the crypt of Kizil Irmak, the Harbinger of War? Or find the key that unlocks the greatest secret of all – the means to open the gate of Time and travel back into the past?
Also… who doesn’t want to have their own castle? With knights, a smithy, temples, and their own magus? ;)
Of course, the new area comes with new enemies, new interesting items and quests.
[h2]Customization added to Character Creation[/h2]
A heavily requested feature from the community the artist and I are going to invest in. Character customization both visually (themes and colors) as well as starting abilities, items, and skills. Bring that special RPG feel from session 0!
[h2]Combat[/h2]
I want to continue my iterations on the combat system. Enhancing the enemy AI to utilize special skills and apply de-buffs such as stun or poison would be huge for adding both flavor and challenge to those mini boss-like combats. Especially for the uniqueness of the enemies in Uttaku. Anyone out there geared enough to handle a huge Toad Demon, eh?
But improving the overall usability of the Combat screen is also a priority. I still observe players who struggle initially with figuring out what the cost per every different action is. For example, adding Action Points calculations directly besides the pointer when hovering on things would help (toggle on/off from the options of course). Also, minor things such as highlighting the portrait of a unit in the turn order lane to easily figure out which enemy’s turn is next in the queue when facing multiple enemies of the same type.
[h2]Economy[/h2]
I want to improve on the existing marketplaces by adding trading goods in Golnir similar to how cargo works in harbors. Something like that was introduced exactly in book five with the Ice obtained from the Ice Mine in the north changing its market value as a direct consequence of your actions in the world.
Also, I still have on my list to create a dedicated UI for all Merchant Guilds instead of the choice book view it now has.
[h2]Rebalance[/h2]
I gather more and more insight from players over the course of the Early Access which helps immensely and gives me great ideas how to tackle some issues. I.e. I still need to focus on that starting area and the initial playing experience.
[h2]UI and Other Improvements[/h2]
Other things requested by the community include a Personal Notes dialogue, auto-succeed ability rolls that have 100% chance of success, more keyboard shortcuts, buying whole stacks of arrows, quick save/quick load.
Once I am done with the skill system, both active and passive, the Skills & Spells dialogue is to be reworked as well. Some expressed their desire for skill slots, so we’ll see!
Last but not least is the sugar and salt of any game, that is, more sound and visual effects.
[h2]But what do we say to our plans? Not today![/h2]
If something is not listed here it doesn't mean I am not going to work on it. There were specifics discussed in the forums or the Discord community that are quite interesting and possible. Some might appear early on; some might be worked on after the release. Nothing is final or concrete yet aside from my gratitude to all who choose to support the project, give feedback, or just enjoy fun hours with the game as is!
Thank you and don't forget to wishlist the game if you haven't! :)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299620/Fabled_Lands/
Wishing you loads of health and happiness in the new year. Hopefully, time for more gaming and hobbies!
I always make sure that I get enough time spent with family and friends, creative work, and hobbies and that forms the trifecta of my wellbeing. Especially hard in recent years, I know. I got Covid back in November, and unfortunately my wife and the baby got sick too. Three hard weeks later we recovered, and I even succeeded in patching the game mid-December. After that it felt as if I had to take some time off from being sick... I needed to recharge the batteries big time.
I personally dug deep into ‘hobby world’. I completed some of the gamebooks that were waiting patiently on my shelf. Still not enough though… I never seem to beat the ratio of obtained new stuff to finished/played things. I read some books too. Re-read several Sherlock mysteries including The Hound of Baskervilles and A Night in the Lonesome October by Zelazny. Managed to sneak in some comic books as well! Spiderman Blue that I received as a Christmas gift and You are Deadpool, the latter being an interactive gamebook-like comic! Even got my hands on a Nintendo Switch and enjoyed some quality Mario time.
Enough sentimental gibberish though! I am very glad to kick off this year with…
[h2]A Roadmap Update[/h2]
2022 is the Year (with capital Y) for Fabled Lands, folks! The release of the full game is nigh. Aiming for the first half of it as I don’t want to go beyond one year of Early Access. That's the plan at least.
[h2]Story[/h2]
The biggest area of the Harkuna continent (covered by book 5 in the series) is coming. At the Court of Hidden Faces, no one is who they seem. The sinister lords of the Uttakin go masked to hide their treachery. The secret police of the god Ebron kill those who flout their fanatical codes. In this tyrannical realm of betrayal and assassination, life is cheap. But rich rewards await the adventurer courageous enough to penetrate this hostile land.
Will you uncover the secrets of the High King’s citadel, where no mortal has trod for ten generations? Or wrest the holy sword from the crypt of Kizil Irmak, the Harbinger of War? Or find the key that unlocks the greatest secret of all – the means to open the gate of Time and travel back into the past?
Also… who doesn’t want to have their own castle? With knights, a smithy, temples, and their own magus? ;)
Of course, the new area comes with new enemies, new interesting items and quests.
[h2]Customization added to Character Creation[/h2]
A heavily requested feature from the community the artist and I are going to invest in. Character customization both visually (themes and colors) as well as starting abilities, items, and skills. Bring that special RPG feel from session 0!
[h2]Combat[/h2]
I want to continue my iterations on the combat system. Enhancing the enemy AI to utilize special skills and apply de-buffs such as stun or poison would be huge for adding both flavor and challenge to those mini boss-like combats. Especially for the uniqueness of the enemies in Uttaku. Anyone out there geared enough to handle a huge Toad Demon, eh?
But improving the overall usability of the Combat screen is also a priority. I still observe players who struggle initially with figuring out what the cost per every different action is. For example, adding Action Points calculations directly besides the pointer when hovering on things would help (toggle on/off from the options of course). Also, minor things such as highlighting the portrait of a unit in the turn order lane to easily figure out which enemy’s turn is next in the queue when facing multiple enemies of the same type.
[h2]Economy[/h2]
I want to improve on the existing marketplaces by adding trading goods in Golnir similar to how cargo works in harbors. Something like that was introduced exactly in book five with the Ice obtained from the Ice Mine in the north changing its market value as a direct consequence of your actions in the world.
Also, I still have on my list to create a dedicated UI for all Merchant Guilds instead of the choice book view it now has.
[h2]Rebalance[/h2]
I gather more and more insight from players over the course of the Early Access which helps immensely and gives me great ideas how to tackle some issues. I.e. I still need to focus on that starting area and the initial playing experience.
[h2]UI and Other Improvements[/h2]
Other things requested by the community include a Personal Notes dialogue, auto-succeed ability rolls that have 100% chance of success, more keyboard shortcuts, buying whole stacks of arrows, quick save/quick load.
Once I am done with the skill system, both active and passive, the Skills & Spells dialogue is to be reworked as well. Some expressed their desire for skill slots, so we’ll see!
Last but not least is the sugar and salt of any game, that is, more sound and visual effects.
[h2]But what do we say to our plans? Not today![/h2]
If something is not listed here it doesn't mean I am not going to work on it. There were specifics discussed in the forums or the Discord community that are quite interesting and possible. Some might appear early on; some might be worked on after the release. Nothing is final or concrete yet aside from my gratitude to all who choose to support the project, give feedback, or just enjoy fun hours with the game as is!
Thank you and don't forget to wishlist the game if you haven't! :)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299620/Fabled_Lands/