Netherguild News

Summery of weekly updates over on the Netherguild Discord

Hey Steam folks! Here's some of what I've been working on in January.

[h2]Major Improvements[/h2]
Over the course of time, these community requested features and changes were added:

Equipment Comparison System
When you find new loot, how can you know if it's better than your current equipment?
Before, the only option was either memorizing your equipment or slowly going over to check it.

Instead, I decided to add a system for easily comparing relevant equipment-!


Here's how it looks like in the armory:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
And here's how looks like in-dungeon:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Should be way more comfortable to use. Now, do I equip that new item or not? hmm...

Dungeon Inventory Redo
Earlier in January and during last December, many players playtested Netherguild on G.Round - a few of them complained about the inventory screen being too messy and unclear.
Especially when you open the shared inventory of all units...
You might have felt that way after the last video too, and between you and I, those players were making a pretty convincing argument!
So in the next version of the demo (and all future version of Netherguild), inventory will look more like this:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
While looking a lot clearer and more stylish, I also made sure to optimize it a bit, by only animating the last character or container that was hovered over.
(Counting frames in the top right - don't worry, that's not part of the inventory)

Hiring screen redo
Netherguild's character hiring screen used to look... overwhelming and cumbersome.

But not anymore!



And here's a video of it in action:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Should be way smoother and better organized now.
It actually reminds me of character sheets in tabletop RPGs (like D&D, for example).
I might expand it in the future to show a character's starting equipment or skill tree too.

New Concepts for New Areas

This time, I'm experimenting with some verticality.
I want each area in Netherguild to have a unique feeling, and a unique set of challenges -
Not only with enemies, but also with terrain and props, events and oddities.

This definitely makes me want to use verticality as one of those new challenges in these two areas - a feature that could buff ranged classes a bunch, being able to hit otherwise inaccessible positions, use height to their advantage, or even just using distance and the big, open space itself.

[h2]Future Plans[/h2]
Next up, I want to try to improve the initiative system's UI -
Current initiative UI
-Afterwards, I plan on uploading the Netherguild demo onto Steam, and starting work on the new areas.

That's all for this update! Thank you for reading and see you next time (:

-David

This update was originally posted on the Netherguild Discord.

Hey everyone! For the new year I wanted to share some of what I accomplished in 2021 and some of my plans for 2022 and beyond. Let's get started!



In the beginning of this year, I faced a few adversities - one of these was my laptop breaking for good. Netherguild's source code and assets were fine, but I had to use data-recovery for some of it's "planning files" containing ideas for future content.

A painful reminder to always back up all your files!

However, over the course of this year I also made significant progress developing Netherguild.

Some of the new additions include:

• Steam page!
  
• New Tutorial
  
• In-Game Feedback & Bug Reporting System
  
• Opening Cutcene
  [previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
  
• New Title Design (Designed by Alina Gottbrecht)
  
• New Cover Art (Drawn by Victor Estivador)
  
• Temporary Initial Trailer (preview in case you missed it!)
  [previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
  
• 500 wishlists so far (!!!!)
  

Not to mention, the million other small things, like UI improvements and bug fixes, making Netherguild a better experience -
And your feedback, playtests, support, bug reports, and kind comments of everyone playing the demo so far on the Netherguild Discord and Itch.io - which were instrumental for making Netherguild better.

Oh yeah, prepare for an even better, more polished demo to appear on Netherguild's Steam page in early 2022 (;



I also spent a lot of time this year planning all the remaining content for Netherguild!

Here's some early, initial previews of areas and enemies that are planned to be added for the Early Access release!


The bandit stronghold - all dangerous and filled with enemies and traps!
I want to play more with verticality in future designs of this area.


The misty city - a long abandoned ancient city deep below.


A nasty, vicious little grub!

Story
Expect the future story of Netherguild to get weird!
You're going to see just how rough the separation between the two kingdoms ended up being, as well as all the broken pieces left behind and the fate of the Gaians...

Gameplay
Random events will happen when the player returns from long expeditions in the future!
I plan for these to get progressively worse as the plague ramps up, which will make the Overworld just as hostile as the underworld.

There's also around 4 big systems that Netherguild still lacks: Complete Factions System-
Including factions that hate you hunting you down during expeditions, and friendly factions
giving players access to some additional classes, items, equipment and perks!

Building Upgrading
This one is not something I'm completely sure I'd like to add, but I've definitely considered it. It could be cool to make the overworld feel more alive that way, and give players more to do with their resources in the overworld.

Enemy Encyclopedia
This one should be relatively easier to add, and should help players remember attacks that enemies used against them.
Will help prevent Netherguild from becoming a memorization game and help player strategize.

Custom pre-made floors
Could be instrumental for creating a full, improved tutorial, as well as special areas underground.

Expect to hear more about these systems in the future (:



I'm looking forward to releasing Netherguild in early access in 2022! There's still some areas I'd like to add to the game beforehand-
As well as things I need to figure out before early access (like setting up a business entity and making the early access launch as awesome as it can be),
and after early access (how would regular updates look? Which areas of the game should I focus on first?).

While tasks like these may sound daunting at first, I'm honestly really looking forward to the next part of this big journey, and the Early Access release as a whole.
I hope you're just as excited as I am (:



And that's all for now! Thanks for checking out the update.
If you have any feedback, feel free to let me know in the comments or in the Discord, where I post regular weekly updates.
Other than that - hope you have a fantastic 2022!!!

-David Vinokurov