Tales from The Dancing Moon News

Guess what? My birthday was last week - Happy Birthday me! 🥳

Let's tuck into May's updates shall we?



[h2]Community and Beta Versions[/h2]

To kick things off I just want to remind readers that you can sign up to play the BETA version of the game. This includes a near-complete version of the game which takes you close to the finale. If you're interested then please reach out via the Discord channel or over on Twitter!

I'm also reaching out to various content creators who've shown interest in the game so far! One of which is ThePillowFortG over on Twitter. I could tell straight away that they were a perfect fit to try out the game and I've already received valuable feedback from their initial plays. I look forward to hearing more about what they think! If you want to see more indie game reviews and streams from an up-and-coming creator - then go check them out!

I'm always happy to chat to content creators and gamers about BETA access, so if you like the idea of working closely with a passionate developer and can help steer the squashing of bugs and feature improvement - then feel free to get in touch by joining the Discord or following over on Twitter.


[h2]May Demo Update[/h2]

There is another update to the demo - I'm so happy to be pushing out regular builds again!

However I wouldn't expect any new features for this patch, as this is mostly a bunch of bug fixes that I'm porting back into demo experience after going through many play-tests of the full game.

Click here or the GIF below to visit the full changelog for this update. Now's a better time than ever to play the most stable version of the Demo and get a sense of what this game has to offer!




[h2]Steam Store & Logo Update[/h2]

Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed two visual changes to the Store front. One of which is a revised logo for the game itself!

Here's a before and after image to show the difference.



What I find amusing is that after I finished the new logo, I realised why the old logo had been annoying me so much - and that's because the "The" was placed incorrectly for all that time!

The new logo makes more sense because "The Dancing Moon" is the name of the inn that you find yourself in within the game, not "Dancing Moon". It's so simple but explains why after all this time why the old logo didn't sit well with me.

The other change is a complete revamp of the Steam's store page. Now that the game is nearing the end of it's development, I've realised I can rely on a bunch of new and updated assets to really make things pop. I hope you like it!





[h2]Making a Village More Alive[/h2]

One of the challenges I've faced is how to make the world I'm building feel a bit more alive.

There's a total of five hand-crafted zones with a handful of important NPCs that you can interact and follow quest-lines with, but around that things have always felt a little bit... empty.

This critique is valid, as that has also come up as a point of player feedback from the Demo.

The intention here is that most of the more empty spaces in the game is available for the player to sandbox in. This means placing objects down, crafting, and eventually putting large buildings in place too (more details below!), but as these things unlock later in the game, those areas are essentially unused until that time.

However, to help with the steady growth of the village and to enhance the feeling of being more "alive". I've started experimenting with a "passive" feature that occurs as you progress in the game.

I'm calling this feature "Visitors". These are additional non-important NPC's who fill in empty spaces in the game that provide "eavesdrop" style dialog as you wonder around. These NPC's could be chatting in a group, fishing by the water, sitting at a table at The Dancing Moon, and more.

As you walk by them, they have the opportunity to provide snippets of conversations which change depending on where you are in the story or what quests you've done. These sorts of things are simple to expand upon, and hopefully make the village feel a bit more alive as you progress throughout the game!




[h2]Story Insights - Village Building[/h2]

In last months newsletter I delved into the museum and artefact gameplay. Following this trend, in this months newsletter I'd like to demonstrate village building.

In the earlier portions of the game you may notice that the regions you explore are either scattered by burning debris or empty plots of land. As you help the village rebuild these areas will become available for you to craft and construct.

There are two main mechanics for construction within the game - the first is a build mode for object placement, and the second is a construction mode for larger things like buildings. Each of these things are driven by the crafting system which require you to gather various resources.

Both of these options are provided by Lucas - the local handyman who's staying in Illisor! After completing the relevant quests, talking to Lucas will display these options for you.


To support your endeavours in construction, Lucas has also provided a Construction Storage Box to assist your need to harvest materials. Instead of using your inventory, placing any materials in the Construction Storage Box will go towards the buildings you wish to construct.


After you satisfy the requirements for a building, Lucas will take you to a birds-eye view of the village, where you can place your new building. This mode also allows you to move existing buildings, so you don't have to be perfect straight away!



So far this covers the construction mode gameplay, but to allow for even finer customisation we can talk about the build mode.

A feature which can already be used in the demo, build mode allows you to craft an assortment of items and place them freely within the world (within some limitations)!

So with both construction mode and the build mode features, the game allows for broad stroke customisation as well as finer detailing. This is perfect for when you eventually get the opportunity to build and furnish your own home!





That's all for the May edition of my developer newsletter - have a good one and see you in June!

- DjMonkey

Enjoy reading my dev diary newsletters? Then please consider giving me a Wishlist & Follow! I'd greatly appreciate it! You can do so from the the Steam page.

If you’d like to join the community and discuss the content of this post, please visit the Discord or make a comment on social media!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1782420/Tales_from_The_Dancing_Moon/

Hello everyone, just a couple of small fixes in this patch!

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/kpGVRKPn5W

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DancingMoonGame


[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]

• The farm plot tooltip will successfully remove itself if the player removes the farm plot itself.
  
• Fixed an issue with season progression.
  
• Fixes to player hotkeys.
  

Thank you so much for playing!
-DjMonkey

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.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/kpGVRKPn5W

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DancingMoonGame


[h2]Farming[/h2]

• Removed the logic that would remove farm plots if they were empty and unattended. This was causing unnecessary player friction.
  
• Added a new tooltip display for farming plots, detailing the current crop, water status, and remaining growth time.
  
• Tree's stumps have been removed as a harvestable thing.
  

[h2]Proc-Gen Exploration[/h2]

• Improved the point-of-interest logic for the procedural zones (Dewiland Meadows, etc). For the demo this will make copper rocks appear more often.
  
• Added a confirmation dialog before exploring a procedural area.
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Removed the city building conversation entry point on Lucas, as it serves no purpose in the demo.
  
• NPC's will now have a ??? overlay before learning who they are.
  
• Improved visuals and use of colours to better distinguish between auto saves and regular saves.
  
• Re-ordered quest categories in the quest journal.
  
• An information text is displayed when the player is not carrying out any procedural tasks for NPCs.
  
• Updated the game logo graphics.
  
• The news button on the main menu now displays the title and author of the latest newsletter.
  

[h2]Audio[/h2]

• Music volume is now set to 25% by default.
  
• The combat music has been updated.
  

[h2]Engine & Gameplay[/h2]

• Reworked the level initialisation logic to improve load order of gameplay systems, preventing race conditions from occurring. This will fix various instabilities that can range from player to player.
  
• Fixed a setting that improves the visuals of foliage lighting.
  
• Fixed a value for culling distances on certain foliage assets.
  
• Fixes to world collisions to prevent NPC's getting stuck.
  
• Fixes to NPC scheduling logic that would cause NPCs to not exist or be too far away.
  
• Fixes to NPC level transitioning logic that prevents NPCs from getting stuck in collision objects.
  
• Improved the speed of which NPC's will travel outside of the players current level.
  
• Fixes to harvestable objects not clearing in memory after being destroyed.
  
• Reduced the number of days in a Season.
  

[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]

• Fixed a time progression issue when sleeping in a bed that would not cause certain daily logic events to trigger.
  
• Fixed the interaction proximity on chest storage boxes.
  

Thank you so much for playing!
-DjMonkey

Before I begin - I must ask you a favour! It's very simple, if you're reading this right now, and you enjoy looking at these newsletters, then feel free to click the "Like" button towards the bottom of the page or leave a comment. I know some of you are already doing this (and I thank you for that!).

This will just give me a small indicator as to how useful or enjoyable these newsletters are!

With that out of the way - let's dig into all the things that happened in April shall we?


[h2]Demo Update[/h2]
The first important update is that - after so long - there's been a large update to the demo experience!

This includes a bunch of fixes, quality of life changes, and some new features that have been rolled back from the full game. I have also tweaked areas and NPC conversations, that gives a little more insight to the main story of the full game.

Some of the opening and tutorial quests have been streamlined too, reducing some of the friction that I've discovered from player feedback.

Overall, this update changes the demo into a neater package with a more definitive start and end to the experience - but don't worry! The demo is not time-locked, and you can continue playing with the sandbox gameplay after completing it.

You can read the full details of the patch here, and if you haven't already - play the updated free demo now!




[h2]Spider Enemy Type[/h2]
One of the things on my plate this month has been introducing and prototyping a new enemy type to fit into the procedural Swamp biome. I finally decided to settle on a spider enemy, which will be easy to kill but difficult to reach.

This means that they'll be slow when idle, but as soon as they spot you they'll spring into action, darting to different locations and shooting multiple bullets of shadow slime at you. It's only after this where an opportunity for you to strike can occur!

I had posted my progress on these spider enemies on Reddit and Twitter, and received quite a positive reaction!





And here's the prototype all hooked up in game. It's actually pretty close to what I need, the locomotion system of the spider and it's legs was probably the hardest part to figure out. I now just need to add the combat abilities. (Oh, and what's this? A new unseen dungeon area! 😮)




[h2]Story Insights - The Museum[/h2]

For this months newsletter I'd like to dive into one of the game mechanics you will encounter in Tales from The Dancing Moon, and that is the museum!

When you start the game you will quickly learn that the village you've found yourself in has recently been attacked by an enemy known as the "shadow-beasts". Before this invasion, the museum within this village housed many artefacts and relics.

But what happened after the shadow-beast invasion, and the timely event of your arrival? Well - you guessed it - the artefacts have gone missing!



When you first walk into the museum you'll meet Oswyn, the curator and owner of the museum itself. Who entrusts your help in finding any new items that can populate his museum. You're unsure of what items he had before, but sure enough on your adventures you'll encounter mysterious items that Oswyn will be interested in.

Speaking of Oswyn, let's take a look at his character portrait - say hello!



So how do you find these lost artefacts I might hear you ask?

To the east of the village are the city gates, and from there you can explore various procedurally generated zones where you can chop trees, mine rocks, attack enemies, and - you guessed it - find artefacts!

During your explorations you might see something poking out of the ground, when you interact with these items you'll pick them up and initiate the quest for returning these items back to Oswyn.

Let's take a look at an example of these artefacts.





Wait... did we read that correctly? A car tyre? A music amplifier? What are these sorts of items doing near a fantasy village?

Blending the "real world" and the village of Illisor is a common theme within this game. This applies to the museum artefacts, and the lore diaries you can find throughout the world.

The mysteries of why and how this occurs will unravel as you advance through the main story, and you can already get a sense of that if you play the demo! (hint hint! 😉)

(side note: I've been watching His Dark Materials on BBC iPlayer recently. I read the books when I was younger, but I really like the ideas it has of mixing fantasy and real world ideas. It probably inspired me a bit with this game!)

Anyway, after taking one of these items to Oswyn, he'll display it in one of the cabinets that sits within the museum. You can always return to the museum to reflect on all the items you've found during your time in Illisor, and it's always interesting to hear what Oswyn thinks of these strange items you bring to him!






[h2]Press-Kit Reminder[/h2]
Before signing off for this months newsletter, I just want to mention a quick reminder that the official press-kit is now available. I'm happy to partake in any media related enquiries such as interviews, Q&A's, podcasts, etc! Feel free to get in touch!



Have a good one!

- DjMonkey

Enjoy reading my dev diary newsletters? Then please consider giving me a Wishlist & Follow! I'd greatly appreciate it! You can do so from the the Steam page.

If you’d like to join the community and discuss the content of this post, please visit the Discord or make a comment on social media!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1782420/Tales_from_The_Dancing_Moon/

Hello everyone!

Boy oh boy - It's been a little while since there's been a game patch or update. (October of last year to be exact!)

I'm pleased to let you know there are some following changes to the Demo! This includes a bunch of fixes, quality of life updates, and features rolled back from the full game!


[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• A new introduction screen has been added to introduce the story and set the tone for the start of the game.
  
• The sprint endurance slider has been completely removed, allowing you to sprint for however long you want.
  
• Sleeping in a bed will now progress time to 6:00am on the following day, rather than always using an 8 hour offset. This allows you to always start the day reliably after sleeping.
  
• Added a new moment in the game to tell the player when they have completed the demo (players can still chose to carry on with sandboxing).
  
• The default inventory slots has expanded back up to 36 slots. This removes player frustration in the early stages of the game. For existing saves, you can retrieve the extra slots from the bag found in Quinn's General Store.
  
• A portion of the Illisor Steppes region has been unlocked in the demo, giving the player a hint of what's in store in the full game.
  
• The interior of The Dancing Moon ground floor has been adjusted.
  
• Museum items will no longer appear as they serve no purpose in the demo.
  
• Some items are now flagged as "important", preventing them from being sold or destroyed. This includes tools and quest related items. (You can still transfer them to other storage boxes.)
  

[h3]Quests[/h3]

• The "Introduce Yourself" quest has been adjusted for a better and more straight-forward player onboarding experience.
  
• Added more references to the main story during the tutorial quests.
  
• The quest journal now has categories for Main Quests and Side Quests.
  
• The market deposit box can now only be used after completing a certain quest.
  

[h3]Music[/h3]

• Changed the selection of music in the main menu and The Dancing Moon Inn to better fit the tone.
  

[h3]UI[/h3]

• A new overlay appears after transitioning to different areas in the game that displays your current location in the world.
  
• The market deposit UI has improved mouse interaction.
  
• The social and store links on the main menus have had a visual update.
  
• The map/discoveries UI and menus have been rescoped and simplified. The map will now only show you where NPCs are and if they have new quests for you to do.
  
• Moved the health bar above the item hotbar.
  
• Some icons have improved visuals.
  
• Item icons now have distinct coloured backgrounds depending on their type.
  

[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]

• Fixed a soft lock that can occur when interacting with particular items.
  
• Adjusted a collision check in the Illisor Plaza to prevent players from falling in the river and getting stuck.
  
• Fixed a visual artefact on level tokens when highlighting all interactable objects.
  
• Fixed an issue with a miss-fired event in the market deposit box, which caused further instability with inventory items.
  

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/kpGVRKPn5W

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DancingMoonGame


Thank you so much for playing!
-DjMonkey