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Tales from The Dancing Moon News

Beta Announcement!



Hello everyone!

First of all, thank you to all those who wishlisted, played the demo, provided your feedback and bug reports for the Tales from The Dancing Moon demo. It's so appreciated that you'd give this little game a try.

It's been almost a year since the demo, and since then I’ve been “heads down” pushing the game further along, closer to something which could be considered a full game.

There’s definitely still a long way to go, so I don’t want to hype your expectations too much, but I feel I am finally at a point where I can share my next steps - and that is to release a closed BETA. You can register your interest via the link above or by clicking here.

As the closed BETA will contain more content, it will be treated separately to the demo that you can already play on Steam. However, once things stabilise again, I will think about rolling back any outstanding issues back into the demo.

So you might be wondering - what exactly is in the BETA and how does it differ to the demo? Well, I will use this post as a means to showcase the highlights. Think of it as a change log or dev diary!

[h2]Seasonal Effects[/h2]

  • The world of Illisor comes more alive with a dynamic weather and season system.
  • Camera post processing are applied to different seasons to make those autumn days extra cosy and the winter days more chilly!

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[h2]More Areas to Explore[/h2]

  • Head down to the Illisor Docks, a shanty haven that was mostly unharmed by the deadly shadow-beast invasion. You’ll be able to visit the local museum and the dockmasters office in this area!
  • More interior areas are accessible, including the town hall upper floor and various other new buildings found in the beta.
  • And more! (Probably best not to spoil too much!)

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[h2]Story, Map & Discovery Journal[/h2]

  • The beta will contain more of the main storyline of the game.
  • A new Map tab has been added to the main menu, which displays a live tracker of all the NPCs and places you’ve encountered during your game.
  • The Map also contains a discovery journal, which will log any important information the player has so far and give hints on what they can do next to progress the story.
  • The local museum is looking for local artefacts to fill its halls. Perhaps you can help them?
  • The museum will also keep a log of any important books and notes you find throughout the game.

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[h2]More NPCs to Interact With[/h2]

  • Here’s just an example of all the new artwork added to the game to portray the new NPCs you’ll be interacting with.

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[h2]Fishing & Farming[/h2]

  • A new fishing mini-game has been added, which adds a level of difficulty which you can succeed and fail at when catching those pesky fish!
  • New season specific seeds can be bought from Quinn’s general supply store.
  • Vegetables grown in a wrong season will turn into fibre or disappear.

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[h2]Photo Mode[/h2]

  • The Photo Mode UI has been revamped to provide more precise control and information at a glance.

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[h2]Rowing[/h2]

  • Take to the water by jumping in a row boat!
  • Discover rare fish by fishing from the boat.

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[h2]Socials[/h2]
And that about wraps up the highlights. There is definitely a lot of smaller features, fixes, and quality of life things, but I think that will be too much to capture in a post like this.

In the mean time, don't forget to engage with the game on the various social media channels!

Twitter - Discord
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Demo Patch 3 - 23/10/2021

After a week of holidays I'm back with a new patch for the demo!

A huge thank you to those who have provided their bug-reports and feedback. Addressing these issues at an early stage will help me create a robust game for the full release in the future! :)

Feel free to continue reporting any bugs via our Discord bugs channel.

Discord: https://discord.gg/kpGVRKPn5W
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DancingMoonGame

[h2]Demo Patch 3 Changelog (23/10/2021)[/h2]

[h3]Updates[/h3]
  • Photo Mode: Taking photos now triggers the Steam screenshot functionality.
  • Crafting: Added crafting blueprint for campfires.
  • Crafting: Added two crafting blueprints for buildable lighting furniture.
  • Crafting: The furnace blueprint is no longer available (this has no purpose in the demo).
  • Controls: Right-clicking can now be used to swing axes and swords. (Left clicking will still move towards an object and perform relevant action)
  • Shopping: 'Pickaxe', 'Watering Can' and 'Campfire' can now be bought from Quinn's shop.
  • Shopping: Tweaked some mouse behaviours when exploring the Shopping UI.
  • Main Menu: The camera no longer slowly moves.


[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  • Inventory: Prevented cases where lootable money could be moved around storages instead of being added to the players balance.
  • Farming: Fixed an issue where right-clicking would not plant seeds in soil.
  • Text: Fixed a grammar issue with one of the mayor's notes.
  • Shopping: Fixed an issue where the player was able to purchase items that were disabled in the shopping UI.
  • Proc Gen: Fixed an issue where certain lootable boxes were not clickable due to being obscured by other objects.


Thank you so much for playing!
DjMonkey

Demo Patch 2 - 15/10/2021

Hello everyone and a warm welcome to those who are staying with us at The Dancing Moon Inn!

A huge thank you to those who have provided their bug-reports and feedback. Addressing these issues at an early stage will help me create a robust game for the full release in the future! :)

Feel free to continue reporting any bugs via our Discord bugs channel.

Discord: https://discord.gg/kpGVRKPn5W
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DancingMoonGame

[h2]Demo Patch 2 Changelog (15/10/2021)[/h2]

[h3]Updates[/h3]
  • Some additions to the controls bindings window has been added to inform the player of more control inputs available to them.
  • Revised some button tooltip icons.
  • Slightly scaled up the fiber and shadow sludge.
  • Normalized the sleeping music to match the rest of the new normalized music.


[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  • Fixed an issue where the player would forget learnt recipes during saving and loading. Unfortunately this may require a new save if you are in the middle of the "Building Fences" quest.
  • Fixed the player getting stuck if they are sat in a chair and an NPC overhead dialog finishes.
  • Fixed harvestable wood and fiber resources not highlighting when pressing Alt. (Shadow Sludge not highlighting is still a known issue.)
  • Fixed the text on Quinn's General Store sign outside her shop.
  • Fixed dialog inconsistency during the "Building Fences" quest.
  • Fixed placeholder text and images appearing in the item description UI when opening the market deposit box.


Thank you so much,
DjMonkey

Demo Patch 1 - 14/10/2021

Hello everyone and a warm welcome to those who have already joined us at The Dancing Moon Inn!

After a very encouraging response from a recent r/gaming subreddit post, I have addressed some of the issues and feedback that has been received over the last couple of days by people playing the demo!

A huge thank you to those who have provided their feedback and suggestions. Addressing some of these things at an early stage will help me create a robust game for the full release in the future! :)

Feel free to continue reporting any bugs via our Discord, or if you just wanna hang and talk about the game!

Discord: https://discord.gg/kpGVRKPn5W
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DancingMoonGame

[h2]Demo Patch 1 Changelog (14/10/2021)[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]
  • Additional conversation options have been added to various NPCs to help guide players to other NPCs in the "Introduce Yourself" quest.
  • You can now use the keyboard number keys to choose your response in the conversation UI. This is a two-step action which first highlights the response option and then commits to it on a second key press.


[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]
  • Tweaked and fixed the behaviour of the button tooltips on the Save/Load menus to be more understandable to the player.
  • Fixed description text on vegetables thinking they were carrots.
  • Fixed an issue where one of the mayor's notes was not visible in the "Live Off the Fat of the Land" quest. This may require a fresh save if you are in the middle of this quest.
  • Fixed an issue where Lucas dialog would abruptly stop, preventing the "Building Fences" quest to start.
  • Normalized all the music audio so they should all be at the same level.
  • Reduced the volume of walking footstep audio.
  • Reduced the volume of the footstep audio that occurs when transitioning some levels.
  • Fixed an issue where NPC's would transition to another level too early, making them look like they just disappear.
  • Fixed an issue where NPC's would not be placed in their correct position when the player would rest/wait/sleep after the first day.
  • Minor text, spelling and pronoun use fixes.


[h3]Community Highlight[/h3]

I randomly searched for the game on twitch the other day and was surprised to see someone had already did a playthrough. I jumped into the chat halfway through to give some pointers ːsteammockingː

https://www.twitch.tv/snub_barracuda/video/1174754315