Devlog #7 - Welcome to the Desert 🏜️

Watch our latest devlog to see the beauty of our new desert biome, new skeleton enemies, a new tutorial area, the new quest log, and the addition of Steam cloud saves!

[h2]Video Devlog[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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[h2]Desert Biome[/h2]


After you complete the farmland quest line, your journey leads you into the desert where you will find a lone gunman called Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones has been heavily injured by something, but he blacked out before he could determine what it was. It turns out that green meteors and a spreading plague are not the only supernatural things happening in this world...

[h2]New Enemies [/h2]


We have created a handful of new enemies with the focus on making them interesting to play against. We spotted issues with the existing enemies, such as that dodging bullets and predicting attacks was very hard to do. We have tackled that issue with better animations, predictable attack patterns, and red lines that indicate where an attack will damage.
With these machete skeletons, gunmen, and dynamite throwers, we have a cool arsenal of skeleton enemy types that are more exciting to face - especially when you have to fight multiple at once! To see some gameplay, check out the video version of the devlog.

[h2]New Tutorial Area: Hunter's Rest[/h2]


In our earlier tutorial, you started on a fairly empty world piece. We had designed tutorial quests in a way where you - the player - essentially took them upon yourself. For example, “I should get some lumber to build my shelter” or “I am hungry so I should collect berries.” While this approach works for many survival games, in Above Snakes we want to handle things a little differently.
We want you to be able to experience the world of Above Snakes - and its happenings - firsthand. With that said, we designed a special area for that initial occasion: a lumberjack settlement called Hunter’s Rest. Hunter's Rest has been afflicted and damaged by the meteors and plague on the very night of its occurrence. You will now wake up in a near-destroyed town and help the survivors rebuild the settlement.

[h2]Quest Log[/h2]


We always show your current quests on the left side of the UI, but sometimes that can get a little messy when you have too many quests at once. So, we have added a new UI called the Quest Log in which you can decide what quest to track (or not). You can also re-read the quest texts in case you missed them.

[h2]Steam Cloud Saves[/h2]


Additionally, we have enabled Steam cloud saves and will use that once the Beta is rolled out. We are currently working on making the save files compatible with the Steam Deck too, so you can seamlessly play on the same save file across all of your devices. Stay tuned and don’t miss when we announce the transition into Beta in the near future!

We hope that you enjoyed this devlog as much as we enjoyed implementing all of this content. We can't wait to hear your feedback. In the video, we asked what you think would make for a fun enemy. Let us know in the comments below!

Cheers,
Tobi