Swords 'n Magic and Stuff News

Happy Friday, friends!

A little late today, but it's still Friday here. We're a little slow this week as some colds have spread through the house. Hoping we're on the tail end of it.

Tomorrow, May 27th, at 11am PST, I'll be hosting our monthly community event where we jump on the official US server and play together. Like I mentioned last week, I'll be working on finishing up the Windless Woods storyline. I'll be on our discord voice channel chatting with anyone that wants to join.

Michael's been finishing up the Mystic skill tree this week. He's done a lot of backend work fixing other spells and such to make things work properly. He did stream once this week, so feel free to check that out here.

I went through all the food and drinks in the game and replaced the "Luck" stat with crit chance. As of right now it's a straight transfer, but I may adjust some to be something else with any feedback the dedicated testers give me. There are two items that I replaced the "Luck" stat with the new "Lucky" stat: Astronomer's Tea and Key Slime Pie.

Next week I'll be readjusting the loot tables for the chests in Azura and Farmlands like I've discussed before. Then it's back into dungeons for me! Hoping Michael gets the skill trees wrapped up in the next week or two and then it's just testing everything and fixing bugs before releasing it to you all.

Hope to see you tomorrow at the community event!

Talk to you all next Friday.

-Janna & Michael

It's Friday once again and that means its time for another development digest.

This week was slightly less productive than we'd have liked for Kindred Games, but some progress is better than no progress, we always say.

We spent most of the week migrating the project to Unreal Engine 5.1 from 4.26. This process turned out to be more complicated than we imagined due to the size of the project and the complexity of our code architecture thanks to 3 years of development now in the same project file.

In fact, it was so tricky that we decided to throw in the towel and revert back to 4.26. It was a waste of time, but we learned more about the importance of keeping your project neat and tidy, specifically your dependency chains.

Anyway, enough of the technical mumbo jumbo. This week Michael also spent some time restructuring and ultimately redesigning the Mystic skill tree. He's finally happy with where its at and once the last few skills are implemented, he'll be moving on to the last magic skill tree for all you druids out there.

While I don't want to spoil too much, you'll be glad to know that one of the first druid skills reintroduces the mushroom circle everyone loved from the old mushroom staff.

Michael and I have also been putting a lot of thought into how to add more procedural content and replayability into dungeons and we've established a few design pillars we want the dungeon system to rest upon. With these in mind we have a few interesting ideas that should make not only dungeons, but the entire game more fun every time loot drops. What kind of loot would you expect from dungeons?

Steam recently announced that it will be discontinuing support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 as of January 1st 2024. Sometime before that, we will be updating our minimum specs to reflect this, but users on these versions can still play until Steam's date. As of right now, we are not doing anything on our end to prevent players from playing, it is entirely Steam's support.

I recently announced our next community event to take place on May 27th 11am PST on the official US server. My main goal on this playthrough is to complete the Windless Woods questline. I've been so busy working behind the scenes that I haven't completed it on my main character (plenty of times during testing though). So come join me and help me complete it!

One last thing - we are aiming for a June launch of this update. I don't have a specific date just yet, but we want to get this update out in spring. After this, we'll be aiming for smaller updates so that they can come out more frequently. I'm also in the process of updating our roadmap to reflect the current plans.

See you all next Friday!

-Janna & Michael

Happy Monday, Friends!

I'm officially back from maternity leave and ready to get back to weekly updates! Thanks to everyone for being patient as we had "weeklyish" updates for a while there.

First thing I tackled was our bug reports. We collect and organize our bugs using Trello. Every report that gets submitted through the in-game link goes to our Trello board where I then sort through the reports for duplicates, things that are user error, high priority, etc. I went through all of the reported bugs and got them sorted out and contacted people that left their Discord handle to get more information on their bugs. Next I went through all of the bugs I assigned myself and started fixing them. The majority of these were super simple like the quest log showing all of the quests when you filter to Sleepy Haven instead of just Sleepy Haven quests. There was one node not assigned that fixed this. Took a bit to find the node, but got there in the end! The rest of my first week back was spent doing community things - answering Discord questions, emails, a community event, etc. Lots of admin work to catch up on.

If you aren't part of our Discord (or even if you are and haven't seen them), I'd like to do a big shout out to Yohai and TheAquaticTiger for collecting and posting awesome spreadsheets full of information in our spoiler alert forum.

Yohai has a comprehensive list for identifying items in your collections; a list of all building plans, what they look like, and the cost to build them; a mapped out farming route for Farmlands on where to get materials; a list of all available tomes, what they do, and a video of what they look like; and many, many more!

The Aquatic Tiger has guides for alchemy, farming, food, and weapon stats with very detailed information.

Also another shout out to one of our Discord and Steam moderators, MrReddiculous (you've probably seen him on the Steam forums answering questions), for posting a detailed list of housing plot sizes and the sizes of all of the houses in game currently. These have been super helpful to new players and people trying to finish up their collections and look for information.

Along with the above, I'd like to give a shoutout to The Divine Farmer for taking some of the information above and adding it to our official Wiki page. The Wiki page is 100% community ran and it is still lacking a lot of information. We do have a channel on our Discord to discuss the Wiki and formatting and such if you are interested in lending a helping hand. Anyone can contribute to the Wiki using their Fandom account.

This week Michael and I will be going through the whole Trello to ensure all the bugs still on there are still bugs (we fix things all of the time and don't realize there is a report for it) and get a priority list together. With this next update being a huge quality of life update and Michael going through a lot of code, he's been able to knock out a lot of little QoL things that needed to be done, but there's still small things that he can tackle that are in the systems he's already working on.

Another reason to join our Discord is to get sneak peaks and live updates. Michael (aka Kindred) likes to randomly drop pictures and responds to questions about new systems. He does frequent the ideas channel a lot to discuss ideas or even posts his own ideas to discuss with others. One thing he posted about was an update to the horse model:



He's always wanted to update it and finally did. Here's a comparison to the old horse:



There's been lots of progress on the skill system that Michael talked about in previous dev digests. Our dedicated testers have started testing new skills and have been giving feedback to get everything where it needs to be. Here's a sneak peak at some of the Hunter's skills. Can you guess what they are?



Speaking of dedicated testers, we are looking for more! We communicate everything through our Discord server, so we look for people who are in our Discord and have been around and contributing to the community in a positive way. Check out the FAQ channel in our Discord for a link to apply.

Michael also returned to Twitch to stream development. Check out these vods from the two days he streamed. We're working on getting back to a regular streaming schedule!

On stream Michael worked on an animal companion overhaul - specifically the snowman on stream. Since he was working on adding a Hunter skill to use the animal companions with two-handed weapons, he was deep in the code of the animal companions and went through fixing and adjusting companions with all the different feedback and bugs reported during the stream. While he didn't get through all the bugs and reports, there is a nice quality of life update to animal companions.

Another thing he tackled on stream was the loot system and how luck works! Now instead of having a "luck" stat, you'll be "lucky" when you roll for loot. Currently the luck stat is super overpowered and everyone focuses their efforts on getting more luck to get the best loot. Check out the stream vod to learn more about how luck currently works versus how it will work with this overhaul.

With the overhaul of luck, I'll be changing how the current chest system works. I'll lean into how Windless Woods is set up and streamline that better. We've gotten great feedback on how the chests are set up in Windless Woods (I'm actually super proud of them!) with having only one unlocked chest and one locked chest. I'll be doing the same for Azura and Farmlands/Sleeping Glade. We haven't decided which chest will be the locked one in each zone just yet (leaning towards Cobalt as being the only locked chest in the Farmlands and Sleeping Glade, but nothing is official) or what will happen to the keys you have that will no longer have chests associated with them. We could add a value to the keys so you can sell them or something else. Thoughts are welcome. A new update to the loot drops for weapons is that they have the chance to drop at different qualities all the way up to masterwork. So you could find a flimsy iron sword in one chest and then a masterwork iron sword in the next.

Also with the luck change, I'll be adjusting some food that currently has luck on it. Some will be replaced with crit chance or potentially something else. I'll make sure to detail which food is changed on the update's patch notes.

Weapons are changing as well. They will no longer have the crit chance stat on them and instead players will have a base 5% chance to crit. This is a stat that can be improved with items, food, and gear.

That was a lot of information to go over! I'm sure I've missed a lot since the last dev log, but we're back to weekly updates officially!

See you all soon!

-Janna & Michael

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

I know we dropped the ball on our Friday digests for the last two weeks. We've been a bit busy celebrating birthdays, Easter and working on some game changing new features in Swords 'n Magic.

Class System Progress

The last couple weeks I've been working hard on converting everything over to the new classes system in Swords 'n Magic. I talked a lot about this in the last dev digest if you missed it and want to catch up. The classes are entirely implemented other than saving. After the character skills debacle of 2021, tying everything into the save system has always got me a bit on edge, so I'm putting it off until everything else is in place so it's easier to simply roll back that one change if I mess everything up. Take this as a warning though, changing things this drastic could come at a cost. I'll do everything I can to avoid any lost progress though.

Currently the class system finds your average skills and determines you class levels based on those. So if you have 10 sword skill, 10 shield skill and 0 mace skill your Warrior class level will be 6.6 (rounded up to 7). Any experience toward the next level will be lost. I could build a system for this but I just don't think it's worth the time. To make up for it, I'm rounding up everyone's average to the next level.

Class-Based Passive Skill Trees

The last devlog also touched on the super feature creep idea of class-based skills...

Well I've decided that adding a skill tree for each class is 100% the right way to go. In fact... I've already implemented a pretty robust skill tree that works like you'd expect based on other games in the genre.

I haven't decided how often you'll earn skill points yet, but you'll be awarded the skill points you're owed when you log in for the first time after the next major update. You can spend points in either a major passive node, or a minor passive node. Major nodes grant you a new passive perk that can change your playstyle. This could grant a new effect to your attacks, trigger an event on a crit, or even replace your primary attack with something new. These effects should be a pretty big change to how you play the game. Minor nodes simply grant you a permanent attribute point in a related stat, such as Focus or Resilience.

Here's a mockup of what a tree might look like:


Right now I'm thinking every 5 levels will award you a point starting at level 1, and the new level cap might end up being 60. Right now with a level cap of 30 still in place you should be able to reach the top of a single tree in your primary class.

I also want to make sure players have a variety of playstyles, so I want to add some limitations into the skill trees. You'll earn about 13 skill points in each class, but you'll have a limit to how many total points you can spend, putting you somewhere between 1.5 to 2 primary classes. I'm not entirely sure how this system will work yet, so I'll keep you posted.

Of course you'll be able to reset your points anytime throughout the game. You'll just need a Potion of Amnesia, which is already finished and implemented. Once you drink this potion all your points will be returned to you to redistribute them however you like. This will likely become a high level alchemy craft as well as a rare drop or quest reward item. Perhaps a traveling vendor could sell them for a good price as well.

Here's a sample of a few of the skills I've already got implemented. Please keep in mind these are passive skills and rarely will they give you access to entirely new active abilities. They're also entirely subject to change at any moment, especially before they launch this spring.

Mage skill examples:

• Arcane Mastery - Mage spells now cost 20% less magic to cast
  
  
• Spell Weaving - Mage spells now cast 20% faster
  
  
• Pyromancy - Ember spells now have a 10% crit chance and Ember attuned weapons have a 20% chance to ignite the target.
  
  
• Frostbite - Frost staff attacks slow enemies. Slowed enemies have a 20% chance to become Frostbitten, taking damage over time.
  

Arcane Skill Changes

You may have noticed that there's now a Frost and Ember skill. Arcane how now been split into 4 different skills, Ember, Frost, Earth and Sky. Due to the way the project was set up, all of your Arcane skill will go straight into Ember, likely giving everyone a high level Mage class right off the bat, but 0 Druid class since both Earth and Sky are brand new skill types. Life has also changed to Order to contrast Chaos better for the Mystic class.

And don't worry, martial classes have passives as well, but I don't want to spoil any of those designs quite yet.

Most of these passives have been relatively easy to implement so far, but I'm sure there will be some hiccups along the way.

I feel like these trees are that dash of permanent progression we've been needing. I can't wait to get everyone's feedback when they go live.

Attribute Name Changes

In the process of the class changes I also decided that our primary attributes needed a bit of a rework. It's minor, but I've changed the name of "Max Magic" to "Aura", representing how strong your magical aura is used to store magic around you. There's a lore book in game that talks about this a bit and it made sense to change the name to better mirror Vitality, which is your maximum health.



The only other new attribute name you'll see is Willpower, which is simply Focus for magic based skills. This will be implemented shortly and will also be seen in the next major update.

Steam Trading Cards

That about wraps up what I've been working on in the game. But I have another neat announcement for you.

Right when this announcement went live, we also launched officially Swords 'n Magic Steam trading cards!



Play the game to unlock 4 cards of the set of 8. Collect all 8 by trading with friends or buying them via the Steam marketplace to unlock the first Swords 'n Magic badge as well as random chances to unlock exclusive Swords 'n Magic emoticons and backgrounds for your Steam profile. Every set of 8 you unlock can be turned into the next badge tier all the way up to a coveted foil badge.

I'm excited to see all the trading card trade chat in the Discord LFG channel!

Thanks again for your patience in this update. I think you'll all be blown away at all the awesome changes in the game. :)

Hey guys. Kindred here again.

Janna says now that I've started posting progress updates that it's no longer her job to post them. Something about a new baby and what not. Not sure how I feel about that... but here I am.

With a lot going on this week, I've been giving attention to some design work that had been neglected until now since it doesn't always require me sitting at the PC.

If there's one thing I find lacking in Swords 'n Magic, it's clarity around how stats, damage numbers, and status effects work. This ambiguity can make it difficult to fully engage with the game.

Working on the new buff bar changes last week was a first step in clearing up some of that ambiguity, but I think we need a lot more. While I finish up work on the stats/attributes panel I'm realizing that a lot of our attributes (focus, vitality, resilience) don't all have a very balanced effect on gameplay. And we have other stats, such as luck or movement speed that feel like secondary attributes.

Redesigning Character Attributes

So this week I'm really working through a bit of a redesign for these attributes as well as looking at ways to streamline more of the RPG elements in the game. The combat in the game was always designed to be simple and easy to understand, but when we introduced stats in the form of consumables, suddenly combat was this mysterious void that everyone has questions about.

Redesigning how those numbers are crunched behind the scenes and clearly teaching players how they work is now become a priority for me. This week Janna and I are scheduling a design meeting with our dedicated testing team to get their feedback and input on major changes to the attributes and how they should be handled.

Permanent Progression

During this meeting I'm sure the topic of more permanent progression will be brought up. This is definitely something that the game has been lacking. Originally it was designed to be entirely gear and buff based so players could always play with new players by simply equipping lower level gear. That way they would never out-level another character and would never be forced to make a new character to help catch up their friend, a bane of many coop RPG's I've enjoyed over the years.

The question is, do we add permanent progression in the some form and break this rule we've set in place? Or do we find other ways to offer better gear-based progression, like armor or stat buffs on equippable items?

Implementing a Class-less Class System

Another design change I've been considering for a while now is streamlining weapon skills. We've hinted at clustering our weapon skills into classes in the past and I think now is the time to finally pull the trigger on that.

The plan is to organize skills in the following way:

Brawler

• Mace
  
• Sword
  
• Shield
  

Rogue

• Dagger
  
• Gauntlet
  
• Slingshot
  

Hunter

• Bow
  
• Spear
  
• Axe
  

Mage

• Ember
  
• Frost
  

Mystic

• Order
  
• Chaos
  

Druid

• Earth
  
• Sky
  

Whenever you use a weapon skill, it'll give you generic experience in that class. All class-specific weapons will benefit from the class level, and no longer from an individual skill level.

Why is this change a good idea? Because it'll generalize a lot of your skills and allow you to have a more diverse kit. When you're wandering through the Windless Woods and you come across a cool new magical axe, but you've primarily used spears the entire game, it means you can't really even try it out. You'll be such a low level that you'll need to go back to Azura to train it up, or hope you survive an encounter where you swap between the axe and your primary weapon to level it up.

While this new design doesn't entirely remove this situation, it does limit it a lot. It gives players a lot more diversity in how they play the game. You can now swap freely between 3 different martial weapons and 2 spell schools and retain the benefits. I think this will give players more freedom to swap weapons without feeling like it's a waste of their time not leveling just swords, for example.

Lastly, I think one of the biggest advantages to this class system is that it frees up players who really enjoyed specific weapons that might be lacking in the game. There are only a handful of scythes and fist weapons in the game, and while ideally we add more to make sure players can play how they like at any stage of the game, this system helps smooth out those gaps in weapons by allowing you to at least swap to a dagger for a while until you find a new fist weapon.

And I know what you're thinking. Does this mean a skill wipe? And no, I don't think it'll be necessary to wipe everyone's skills to implement this. I think we can gather everyone's weapon skills, take an average for each class and set that to your new class level.

I don't want to put the cart before the horse here, but with a new class system this also lends to the future possibility of class based skills, whether they're passive or active. I'm not making any promises for something like this, but it would be much easier to manage and design 6 class skills than 15 individual weapon skills.

As far as crafting skills go, I don't think they'd be grouped together in any way. They'll remain unchanged for now. But eventually I have some big changes for crafting as well, which we'll save for another time, when we get closer to tackling those changes.

Wrap Up

As well as some of this important spring cleaning we're slowly chipping away at new zones in the game while I redesign these mechanics and add in all the missing quality of life features I think the game absolutely has to have to work as a complete game.

And don't worry, dungeons are still at the forefront of all of this. We want to make sure that when dungeons launch, all of our mechanics feel cohesive and intentional and are no longer shrouded in mystery. (And this includes a better way to split stacks, by the way. One of the BIGGEST complaints we have right now.)

Thanks again for your continued patience. We have an update just around the corner to introduce all these big changes to the game and I can't wait to see all your feedback.