Developer Diary #9 | Survival on Horseback
Welcome back to another Dev Diary, couriers!
Today we want to dive into the survival and exploration aspects of our game. We know that some of our wonderful players are already sold on the idea of simply being able to ride a horse through a gorgeous environment, but some of you long for meatier gameplay and today we want to give you all some insight into what that will look like in Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Surviving on the Steppe[/h2]
To successfully navigate the Mongolian Wilderness, you will have to keep an eye on and take care of the hunger, thirst, stamina and health of your horse and avatar. How easy or hard it is to keep these gauges filled depends on the environments you move around in: Drinking water might be easy to find in green valleys, but scarce on missions to the Gobi Desert, and on trips to snowy mountain peaks it might be harder to forage for food and find appropriate shelter.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Thanks to the success of our Kickstarter campaign, we’ll also be working on expanding our Crafting systems to include Cooking, which will let players collect ingredients - from plants they find to animals they hunt - and prepare nourishing meals for themselves or their horse while traveling.
But that's not all! By reaching the “On the Hunt” Stretch Goal, we will also offer advanced hunting: Fishing, new Animals and a Hunting Glossary will be added to the final game.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Progressing in an Open World[/h2]
While we want to give players a lot of freedom to explore the vast Wilderness, there will also be areas that can only be reached once certain conditions are met. In our design process we’re calling these limitations “progression gates”. Though of course ideally, they will be almost invisible to the player in the end and just feel like organic continuation.
What this might look like in the end is that you reach a river that you can’t traverse unless your horse possesses a special skill for extra jump capacity. To eventually overcome this obstacle, you’ll have to find some NPC in the world who can help you train your horse in this particular skill, or breed new horses for specific attributes.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Focus and Features[/h2]
Depending on your play style and preferences, you will have quite some options for which features to focus on and spend time with. Our Feature Chart aims to illustrate this:
When Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori launches in Early Access this Summer, we won’t have all of the features on this chart implemented yet. We’re aiming for a viable product and a satisfying gameplay loop that gives you something to do in the world, but doesn’t quite offer all of the planned complexity yet.
Because we want our passionate community to understand our plans for upcoming features and when to expect them to be added. We’ll soon put together a proper roadmap that’ll keep getting updated throughout Early Access, where you can see what’s planned for which update and get more info about specific features. We at Aesir Interactive would like to offer you transparency and inform you regularly about our plans for Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori.
Any questions or feedback? Feel free to leave a comment!
[hr][/hr]
[h3]Previous Developer Diaries can be found here:[/h3]
[hr][/hr]
[h3]Join the Community[[/h3]
Bluesky Facebook Instagram TikTok Twitter
Discord YouTube Twitch Website
Today we want to dive into the survival and exploration aspects of our game. We know that some of our wonderful players are already sold on the idea of simply being able to ride a horse through a gorgeous environment, but some of you long for meatier gameplay and today we want to give you all some insight into what that will look like in Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Surviving on the Steppe[/h2]
To successfully navigate the Mongolian Wilderness, you will have to keep an eye on and take care of the hunger, thirst, stamina and health of your horse and avatar. How easy or hard it is to keep these gauges filled depends on the environments you move around in: Drinking water might be easy to find in green valleys, but scarce on missions to the Gobi Desert, and on trips to snowy mountain peaks it might be harder to forage for food and find appropriate shelter.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Thanks to the success of our Kickstarter campaign, we’ll also be working on expanding our Crafting systems to include Cooking, which will let players collect ingredients - from plants they find to animals they hunt - and prepare nourishing meals for themselves or their horse while traveling.
But that's not all! By reaching the “On the Hunt” Stretch Goal, we will also offer advanced hunting: Fishing, new Animals and a Hunting Glossary will be added to the final game.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Progressing in an Open World[/h2]
While we want to give players a lot of freedom to explore the vast Wilderness, there will also be areas that can only be reached once certain conditions are met. In our design process we’re calling these limitations “progression gates”. Though of course ideally, they will be almost invisible to the player in the end and just feel like organic continuation.
What this might look like in the end is that you reach a river that you can’t traverse unless your horse possesses a special skill for extra jump capacity. To eventually overcome this obstacle, you’ll have to find some NPC in the world who can help you train your horse in this particular skill, or breed new horses for specific attributes.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Focus and Features[/h2]
Depending on your play style and preferences, you will have quite some options for which features to focus on and spend time with. Our Feature Chart aims to illustrate this:
When Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori launches in Early Access this Summer, we won’t have all of the features on this chart implemented yet. We’re aiming for a viable product and a satisfying gameplay loop that gives you something to do in the world, but doesn’t quite offer all of the planned complexity yet.
Because we want our passionate community to understand our plans for upcoming features and when to expect them to be added. We’ll soon put together a proper roadmap that’ll keep getting updated throughout Early Access, where you can see what’s planned for which update and get more info about specific features. We at Aesir Interactive would like to offer you transparency and inform you regularly about our plans for Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori.
Any questions or feedback? Feel free to leave a comment!
[hr][/hr]
[h3]Previous Developer Diaries can be found here:[/h3]
- #01 | To the Steppes
- #02 | An Open World
- #03 | PC Early Access
- #04 | Horse Training and Horse Care
- #05 | All Eyes on Khiimori
- #06 | Cantering towards Crowdfunding
- #07 | Looking Forward to Next Year
- #08 | Updates from the Steppe
[hr][/hr]
[h3]Join the Community[[/h3]
Bluesky Facebook Instagram TikTok Twitter
Discord YouTube Twitch Website