Devlog #16 | More romanceables, fast travel, player outfits!
Greetings, Researchers!
[h2]Next 3 Romanceable NPCs 💖[/h2]
This month passed quickly as I wrote the stories and date events for another 3 romanceable NPCs. There will be 6 romanceable NPCs in the initial release of Research Story. Last month, Theo, Zuri, and Rhea were revealed as romanceables - the remaining ones are *drumroll* - Teagan, Vallee, and Suo’e!
All of them have unique backstories and reasons they came to Shimmerbrook - it’s up to you to learn them! For Early Access, each romanceable NPC will have 4 Heart Events and 3 Dates in which players can talk to them.
[h2]NPC portraits - expressions 🎭[/h2]
I've also been adding different expressions for NPC portraits. Each NPC will have at least 3 different expressions (neutral/happy/uncertain). Here are the ones for Remus and Eira!
[h2]Secondary mechanics[/h2]
Other than the work on NPC content, there’s also been progress in these areas:
[h3]Fast travel 🏃♂️🏃🏻🏃🏻♀️[/h3]
Players can unlock fast travel during the game. Place your Farm Teleporter anywhere on your farm, and get access to other Teleport locations!
[h3]Player customisation - Outfits! 👚[/h3]
Player customisation has been expanded to include different tops, bottoms, and bags! I’ve also added more skin tones, hair colours, and hairstyles. Here is the updated customisation page:
[h2]What’s next/in the works 📝[/h2]
NPC content
- Completing routines for remaining NPCs
- Additional dialogue (e.g. unique dialogue on birthdays)
- Completing NPC shops and items (such as Mason’s shop)
- Job board (i.e. fetch quests)
- Building & decoration mechanics
- Content for books in the Archive (written by NPC researchers)
- Adding more fish, creatures, and plants.
- Mines where players can collect their ores.
- Adding more music and sound effects.
As you can see, there's a lot in the works - I’ll be able to show more soon! We’re getting so close to an Early Access playable build (for internal testing) and it’s all very exciting. Keep an eye out for an announcement sometime soon!
Time for me to get back to work~
- Miki