The Sands Whisper Your Name News

Hey there, fine folks!

This development post has been a long time coming. Since re-starting development in December, I have made swift progress on the core systems of the game. As a forewarning, all the assets seen in the screenshots are placeholders. It’s all quite ugly but what’s important is that it works and does so bug-free.

• Inventory management is an important part of survival games. While it’s not ground-breaking in its implementation, it is functional and works smoothly. Players are able to visualize their character model and stats on this screen.
  

• The setup for facilitating loot collection of any type of loot item has been setup. Food, resources, clothing and weapons can all be picked up and dropped back into the world.
  

• Just as collectible loot items have been setup, equipping of those items via drag-dropping them and using the action menu has also been implemented. A vast variety of equipable items, each with their own stat modification properties can now be created with relative ease.
  

• Crafting in Atajrubah is going to have a more standard recipe list approach.The act of crafting isn't exactly the main focus, rather more the exploring of the world and gathering of the crafting elements in order to craft is where the player will spend more of their effort. The current size of this recipe list can be expanded, once again with relative ease.
  

• Players will be able to use camp fires to cook now. The cooking system acts as a secondary crafting system. 1,2 or 3 slot cooks can be performed to prepare raw food for consumption or make a number of more complex food items. Different fuel types can be used and cooking times will change depending on this.
  

1 Slot Cook:

1 Slot Cook in Progress:

• Player's will die in a number of ways and most likely often. This system records and handles player death, the cause of death, the respawning of the dead player and the transfer of player inventory items to a player corpse item in the world.
  

• Lootable World Items have been setup. These can be anything from chests to Npcs, Player and mount corpses. World Loot Items can have inventories of different sizes and with some modification can be used to store player items.
  

World Lootable Item UI

Player Corpse Loot UI

• Saving and loading data is critical for persistent worlds and progress tracking. Once again this system isn’t anything special but it is functional and works seamlessly and with no bugs.
  

• Mount Implementation that allows for the efficient creation of mounts. Attributes of the mount can be changed to suit mount type. Horse,Camel,etc.
  

• I've begun work on what will become the first version of the world map. It certainly beats always working in the development map.
  

This is just some of the progress that has been made over the past couple months. Stage one of re-development is starting to draw to a close, there are only a few more systems that I need to finish off. Those would roughly be the following:

• Resource collection from Plants, Rocks and Trees
  
• Core AI (this is about 80% done, all that needs implementing is AI behaviors!)
  
• Construction System and UI
  
• Expanded Survival Mechanics
  
• Main Menu, Options Menu and Multiplayer Menu Systems.
  
  

As always anyone is free to check the public Trello boards below. I try and keep it as up to date as possible, especially when I am doing development work on the game.

Public Trello Boards
https://trello.com/b/sYDNccVy/atajrubah-re-development-roadmap



I'm looking forward to moving out of Stage 1 and getting it into your hands for testing. Thanks for all the support and for taking the time to read this longer than usual update!

Kind Regards,
MrNexy

Hello there, fine folks!

I hope that you've all been well.
I just wanted to pop by to let you all know that work on the game has been progressing in leaps and bounds. I'll be making a full update post in the coming days with all the juicy details. Until then keep the name submissions rolling in on the link below. We're at 81 suggestions now, not that far until 100! :)


https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSclVqlH-ep9mFxtuX8oeBdFIFAjUM0p7Y92tJ07ARuyzawxjA/viewform

Kind Regards,
MrNexy

Hi there folks !

I've made some good progress with Atajrubah's re-development recently. Just yesterday I finally finished the core implementation of the crafting system. With each passing day, the end of Phase 1 of re-development draws closer. There is an ever growing list of completed features that you can check out here:


https://trello.com/b/sYDNccVy/atajrubah-re-development-roadmap

My main focus in this phase has been to make sure that all the systems put in place just work. No bugs. No glitches. As such, there hasn't been a playable build uploaded to steam just yet. That time is coming soon, possibly within the next 2 months. At that point, I will need all your help to stress test the systems that I've put in place.

For the time being, I really need your help with an important part of the re-development process.... A new name for the game.
Over the years I have received the same comment over and over again about the name,"It's too difficult to pronounce".

Atajrubah is still going to be a game about exploration and survival in an Arabian inspired world. It is however, going to be a radically different game from what it was both visually and mechanically. With this, I feel that a fresh change of name would do the world of good and


I've created a google form below where you can submit a suggestion, along with your steam username and email address. The first 100 submissions will receive a key for the game. From these submissions, a list of names will be compiled for the community to vote on. The submission with the most votes will win and the user who submitted it will be credited for their contribution and receive 4 keys to share with their friends once the game re-enters Early Access.


https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSclVqlH-ep9mFxtuX8oeBdFIFAjUM0p7Y92tJ07ARuyzawxjA/viewform

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and I look forward to hearing from you!

Kind Regards
MrNexy

Hello there fine folks of Steam,

It's not often that lone developers get a second wind once a project fails let alone a third. However.This happens to be the case, as the development of Atajrubah has resumed.

After much time away from the game and with a great deal more development experience under my belt, I feel that I can apply the lessons learned to Atajrubah to create a smooth and entertaining game experience.
Development is planned to take place in 4 stages which are detailed below and on the game's Trello board.

Everything thus far has been rebuilt from the ground up to work as smoothly and seamlessly as possible, the game will be going in a more stylized direction to make it more manageable for a solo developer such as myself to create and the name of the game may very well change too.

New keys for the game won't be issued however as there are many, many of them out there in the wild (+- 200-300) but I do hope that those of you who don't have a key will also keep up with development. For those who do have a key, I will make an update announcement regarding a test build within the next 3-4 weeks.



Stage 1
Stage 1 of re-development concerns all the mechanics and systems that need to be in place. At this stage all art assets are stripped out, the focus is on functionality.

Stage 2
Stage 2 of re-development focuses on visuals and the overall look of the game. The visuals of Atajrubah will be heading in a more stylized direction.

Stage 3
Stage 3 of re-development will focus on gameplay elements such as quests, story arcs and multiplayer. In this stage, regular testing will be needed in order to get the game ready for re-entry into Early Access.

Stage4
Stage 4 concerns development under the Early Access program. At this point, the game's core elements of survival mechanics, gameplay and visuals will be in place. Under the Early Access program, these will be polished and expanded upon to provide a solid and enjoyable experience for players.

Trello Board
https://trello.com/b/sYDNccVy

I look forward to making a great deal of progress on the game and interacting with you all way more in 2017.

Kind Regards
MrNexy

Good evening fine folks !

As you may know I have not had as much time to do development work on Atajrubah as I would like this year. This is for the most part down to taking on freelance work in order to support myself.

When I have had time I have made significant progress however. I'd very much like to be able to spend more time working on the game. This is something I'd only be able to do with your help and support. Many of you fine folks have made generous donation offers in the past that I've had to kindly decline.

At the time I didn't have a mechanism through which to properly manage contributions and offer adequate rewards. Lately however I have been looking into Patreon, how I could possibly utilise it to help support development and give something more than just a copy of the game in return.

My question to you fine folks is would you consider, helping to support development through Patreon ? I have set up a poll where you can cast a vote on this. I'd be most grateful for your feedback.

Best Regards
MrNexy

http://www.poll-maker.com/poll512364xcf4c5E1C-21

[Notice]

I'd like to stress that contributions to a Patreon campaign would not be in exchange for a steam key. There would be a separate build of the game available for download. All developments would of course make it into the Steam version of the game for those of you who already posses a key. You would be under no obligation to contribute to a Patreon campaign if you already have a key.