Developer Diary #6 & Hotfix 1.8.1
Ladies, gentlemen, faefolk, welcome! Join us by the hearth and warm your hands and heart; we've a story to share about development on Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death :). We'll also have the patch notes for Hotfix 1.8.1 available at the end of this developer diary.
As always, thank you so much for your support and interest in Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death. We will continue to work our hardest to bring you the best possible JRPG we can build!
If you've yet to try the demo, now is as great a time as any! We would be honored if you would give our game a try, and please Wishlist and Follow us on Steam if you enjoy it! And maybe share this dev diary with a friend? :)
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[h2]A Hand-made World Map[/h2]
Pharsus is just the first of several explorable islands within the Broken Isles.
One of the major parts of the game we've been working on this last month is creating our world map.
Personally, we've always loved having world maps in RPGs. That feeling of setting out into the larger world of the game, eager to discover new locations, towns, dungeons, and the like...it's just something special, and something we are absolutely doing our best to bring to SGoD.
The Broken Isles are the remains of a continent shattered by a war between the gods known as the Rending, and as you travel across the world you'll see the ruins of crumbling castles, abandoned watchtowers, and other relics of the past.
You'll also be able to sail across the Waywyrd, the great sea that now separates this broken land, exploring several islands and the many locations that dot this part of the world of Urdin.
Our chief goals in creating the game world are first to instill that feeling of wanderlust that the world maps of classic RPGs did so well, and second to bring the world together through the artwork, color palettes, and lore that form the Broken Isles.
[h2]Adding Personality and Depth in Pixel Art[/h2]
Melas is deeply intrigued by the holy tome of Salcyon, the god of serpents, trade, and mists.
The next major project we've been working on is a big polish pass on Act 2, and one of the chief components of this is creating pixel art animations for our characters that help to bring their personalities to the fore.
In earlier stages of development, many of our cutscenes had narrative text that described how a character is acting on that scene, whether it was Wedelia kneeling down to inspect a wounded comrade or a swordsman drawing his blade.
We realized over time, however, that these narrative text windows slowed down scenes and didn't have the same impact that animations could. And so we've set out on a quest to level-up our cutscenes and characters with new art so they could better strut their stuff.
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[h2]📜Demo Patch Notes 1.8.1📜[/h2]
🌻 Added new shading to various objects in the game world.
🌻 Fixed a bug that prevented players from returning to the title screen when selecting "To Title" from the in-game menu.
🌻 Fixed a bug where tutorial sound effects would still play after tutorials were disabled from the options menu.
🌻 All game icons have been updated with new artwork/shading.
🌻 Added a lighting effect to the entrance-ways of indoor areas, to better show where a building can be exited.
🌻 Updated the save pictures of a few areas to better reflect their updated art.
🌻 Fixed a bug where sometimes character portraits would fail to load when using a hotkey to open the equip menu.
🌻 Fixed a bug where the Lucanwood BGM would occasionally glitch out.
🌻 Updated most tutorials: new pictures, updated explanations for clarity, and highlighted text in light blue when a keybinding or hotkey is referred to.
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That's all we have for today!
We will be back next month to share more details about our development progress :).
Thank you again for traveling this journey with us; it is your support and interest that makes creating Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death possible.
May the coming weeks of wintry weather find you warm and content by home and hearth.
-CW & Paige
As always, thank you so much for your support and interest in Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death. We will continue to work our hardest to bring you the best possible JRPG we can build!
If you've yet to try the demo, now is as great a time as any! We would be honored if you would give our game a try, and please Wishlist and Follow us on Steam if you enjoy it! And maybe share this dev diary with a friend? :)
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]
------------------------------------------------------
[h2]A Hand-made World Map[/h2]
Pharsus is just the first of several explorable islands within the Broken Isles.One of the major parts of the game we've been working on this last month is creating our world map.
Personally, we've always loved having world maps in RPGs. That feeling of setting out into the larger world of the game, eager to discover new locations, towns, dungeons, and the like...it's just something special, and something we are absolutely doing our best to bring to SGoD.
The Broken Isles are the remains of a continent shattered by a war between the gods known as the Rending, and as you travel across the world you'll see the ruins of crumbling castles, abandoned watchtowers, and other relics of the past.
You'll also be able to sail across the Waywyrd, the great sea that now separates this broken land, exploring several islands and the many locations that dot this part of the world of Urdin.
Our chief goals in creating the game world are first to instill that feeling of wanderlust that the world maps of classic RPGs did so well, and second to bring the world together through the artwork, color palettes, and lore that form the Broken Isles.
[h2]Adding Personality and Depth in Pixel Art[/h2]
Melas is deeply intrigued by the holy tome of Salcyon, the god of serpents, trade, and mists.The next major project we've been working on is a big polish pass on Act 2, and one of the chief components of this is creating pixel art animations for our characters that help to bring their personalities to the fore.
In earlier stages of development, many of our cutscenes had narrative text that described how a character is acting on that scene, whether it was Wedelia kneeling down to inspect a wounded comrade or a swordsman drawing his blade.
We realized over time, however, that these narrative text windows slowed down scenes and didn't have the same impact that animations could. And so we've set out on a quest to level-up our cutscenes and characters with new art so they could better strut their stuff.
------------------------------------------------------
[h2]📜Demo Patch Notes 1.8.1📜[/h2]
🌻 Added new shading to various objects in the game world.
🌻 Fixed a bug that prevented players from returning to the title screen when selecting "To Title" from the in-game menu.
🌻 Fixed a bug where tutorial sound effects would still play after tutorials were disabled from the options menu.
🌻 All game icons have been updated with new artwork/shading.
🌻 Added a lighting effect to the entrance-ways of indoor areas, to better show where a building can be exited.
🌻 Updated the save pictures of a few areas to better reflect their updated art.
🌻 Fixed a bug where sometimes character portraits would fail to load when using a hotkey to open the equip menu.
🌻 Fixed a bug where the Lucanwood BGM would occasionally glitch out.
🌻 Updated most tutorials: new pictures, updated explanations for clarity, and highlighted text in light blue when a keybinding or hotkey is referred to.
------------------------------------------------------
That's all we have for today!
We will be back next month to share more details about our development progress :).
Thank you again for traveling this journey with us; it is your support and interest that makes creating Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death possible.
May the coming weeks of wintry weather find you warm and content by home and hearth.
-CW & Paige