Swords 'n Magic and Stuff News

Happy Friday, friends!

Louis here this week, taking a break from all the systems programming behind the magic + glyph system to bring you this week’s development digest. Let’s get right into it!

DD has been working away this week on the main storyline content for the Windless Woods, leading up until you first arrive at The Eyre — the secluded druid village deep in the forest. I won’t reveal anything here, but stay tuned for some screenshots.

Wendy has been working with the Shrubrian villagers this week. There are some important aspects to the level design that need to be sorted out to prevent sequence-breaking the quest line. Plenty of dialogue changes, too — the Shrubrians have an interesting dialect that reflects their proud demeanour and their tiny stature in equal parts. It’s hard to write with a voice like that and keep it consistent, while also giving each Shrubbie their own personality! Also, not to give anything away, but Wendy and DD have been working together on a riddle puzzle you might stumple upon in the woods. (Yes, that spelling was intentional. Hint, hint.)

Jesse’s still working hard in the Eyre. This week he’s added a nursery — for plants AND children — and populated it with furnishings and NPCs. He’s also set up the Eyre housing plot, and has had some genius ideas for new player furnishings. I’ll include a tour of his work with screenshots at the end of the digest!

Kindred and Janna are off visiting family at the moment so you’ll hear more from later, when they're back.

And as for me, (lucky last!) I’ve been working in two main areas: magic, of course, and a tricky usability problem. I’ll start by cherry-picking a couple of magic updates that make for good GIFs:

Since last week, I built the electric beam damage proc for the Storm Aura spell. I made sure to build it in a way that was flexible — I’d always originally planned to make sure all our spells were modular and could be used for different things like enemy attacks or traps if we wanted to, but I noticed after working on a Magic Missile spell that I'd got away from that goal and made it in a way that’d only work for players. So the zap here is a return to that:



I’ve also done some work on the Launch spell. Kindred lent a hand with the animation, and with the new VFX, it’s really feeling good. Particularly proud of the little wind trails on the hands.



As for that “usability problem” — with some testing, we’ve discovered we need a way for spellcasting players to quickly swap back to their default attack in combat. We’ve trialled a few hotkeys, but the prevailing solution right now is a quick-swap ammo bar, accessed by holding CTRL + scrolling the mouse wheel. Mouse wheel on its own is reserved for camera controls. Here’s a demo GIF, but sound off in the comments if you have opinions or ideas re: the default controls for an ammo system like this.



Alright, alright, I’m hogging the digest! Time to sign off and leave you with those promised screenshots. Until next week, take care!

Happy Friday, friends!

Hey everyone, DD here again to bring you this week's Development Digest while Janna and Kindred are away visiting family for a couple of weeks. Don't worry, work will still be getting done during this time, and we are getting closer to announcing the date for the Windless Woods update. Those of you who have read last week's digest will know that Janna hinted at something special for this week, and unfortunately, it isn't the update date as many of you have guessed. However, I hope the actual surprise is just as exciting; a "meet the team" post that I will be sharing with you all, alongside the regular weekly updates of our progress. It's been a while since we've shared something like this, and with our growing community, we wanted to properly introduce ourselves to everyone once again—or even for the first time in one case. I'll be starting with the meet the team segment, followed by the weekly progress updates. I hope you all enjoy this longer-than-normal post!

Of course, we have to start off with Kindred; the founder of Kindred Games:

"I'm Michael AKA Kindred. I'm the lead developer for Swords 'n Magic. I've been making games since 2007 starting in RPG Maker and eventually going to school for my bachelor of science in game art and animation. When I'm not working on Swords 'n Magic I enjoy playing games, spending time with my family and taking the occasional hike through the woods. I have an unhealthy obsession with collecting art books. There's nothing quite as inspiring to me than flipping through a book of art from some of my favorite games.

My favorite part of Swords 'n Magic is the secrets. When I watch a player discover a secret lever or cave and find a special, unique item or reward inside it makes all my hard work worth it. That joy of discovery was what made me fall in love with games as a kid and being able to create that feeling for others now feels like my calling in life."

Next we have Janna, Kindred's wife, and the person in charge of basically everything:

"Hi! I'm Janna. I'm the Producer and Community Manager for Kindred Games. That basically means I do a whole ton of planning, communicating, and managing. My husband, Michael, and I run Kindred Games as our full time jobs. I love to read and have way too many books in my to-be-read pile (more like 3 shelves). I'm also exploring an interest in baking. When I'm not working, I'm either reading, binging TV shows or movies, or playing with our 7 year-old daughter, Abbi. My favorite part of Swords 'n Magic is the plush collection (mainly cause I keep making more to collect!) along with farming and cooking. Here's a shot of how I display my collection in game:"


Now for Louis, our favorite long-haired programmer who also streams development regularly over on Twitch:

"Hi! Louis here. I'm the lead programmer on the team. It's my job to set up and maintain all the systems that make exploring the world of Tirawyn such a rich experience.

I like spending time in the garden as much as I can. Where I live, in sub-tropical Australia, we have a year-long growing season. If you ask me about plants, I'll have a hard time shutting up.

Before joining the Kindred Games team, I worked in academia. I find myself much happier in the world of gamedev, though I do still teach introductory programming classes at my local university for a few months each year.

For a long time, my favourite part of Swords 'n Magic was the forge mechanic - the backbone of the metalworking and crafting system. It was one of the very first things I added to the game when I joined the team in May of 2021. However, the spells and glyph system I'm working hard on for our upcoming magic overhaul are quickly making their way to being my new favourite part of the game by far."


Wendy is next, who most of you probably already know since she's been on the team the longest (aside from Kindred of course):

"Howdy, I'm Wendy. I'm primarily a level designer for the team, but I also dabble in quest design, visual effects, and most recently AI design (exciting!). My job mainly consists of placing trees and grass with the occasional rock to spice it up. Outside of Swords 'n Magic I spend a lot of time pursuing my hobbies and passions like woodworking and community outreach. I also spend a lot of time gaming, catch me in some Foxhole or Project Zomboid.
My favorite part about SnM is the weapon windmill because I think it's incredibly silly and I had a lot of fun making it."


Now my turn! I don't need any fancy introduction:

"Hello, my name is David, but most people online call me either DD or Double D. I'm a writer and quest designer for the team. My job focuses on designing and creating quests, writing dialog for NPCs, making job boards and writing descriptions for them, and a few other fun things. Before I joined the team, I participated in a few Kindred Game Jams—and miraculously won a few of them, mostly thanks to my amazing teams—and submitted a lot of quest ideas and in-game lore book suggestions. When I'm not working on the game, I'm probably playing another game in my way-bigger-than-it-has-to-be Steam library. Or occasionally, I'll be out playing or watching soccer.

My favorite part of Swords 'n Magic has to be Dwight's quest to destroy his ridiculous collection of pots. It was probably the most fun I've had creating a quest for the game, and it was all thanks to a suggestion from a community member on one of Kindred's Twitch streams. I love seeing all the suggestions and creations from the community make their way into the game, and I can't wait to add even more in!"


Next is our team member with easily the coolest name:

"I'm Rex aka Soupy. I design the outfit textures for the game as well as doing some of the icon design. In my free time I love to play tennis, cook, and read. While I will cook anything, I mostly enjoy baking. When it comes to books, I love fantasy and historical fiction. I am also the youngest member on the team, currently in school to get a degree in Computer Science at the University of Notre Dame.

My favorite part of Swords 'n Magic has to be the rewards of exploration. The game rewards you for wondering what might be behind an obscure rock or tree and I find most open world games don't do that. It creates an immersive experience that I cannot get enough of. Start climbing and you are almost bound to find something interesting and rewarding. By far that is the aspect of the game that I enjoy the most."

Last but not least, let me introduce you all to our newest member on the team, Jesse! It's also his birthday today, so I'm expecting you all to wish him a happy birthday:

"Hi! I'm Jesse, and I do a little bit of level design here and there. Mostly my job consists of decorating spaces and recolouring things. I sometimes build houses, and set up furniture items that you can decorate your own spaces with!

Like literally everyone else here, I enjoy playing video games in my spare time (Wild, I know), with a particular interest in fantasy and horror. I'm also usually playing a session of Dungeons and Dragons once or twice a week (I'm a level 8 Warlock, if you're wondering).

I feel like it's cheating if I say my favourite part of Swords 'n Magic is Housing, but it is! One of my favourite things to do is visit other players worlds to see what they've created in their own plots of land, whether it be a nicely decorated cottage, or an insane giant chicken statue."


Now that you've properly met the whole team, let's get into our weekly progress. I'll start with Jesse since it's his birthday. Jesse has been hard at work finishing up the level design in The Eyre, which is now nearly complete. We've shared a few screenshots of The Eyre in the last few digests, so go check those out if you missed them. He also made this adorable backpack:


Kindred has been working on modeling the big boss for the end of the Windless Woods storyline. I'd love to share some screenshots of it, but you will all have to wait for the update to see it.

Louis is still working on our magic and glyph system. He's been making all sorts of magic spells, such as this storm shield:

We're still working on coming up with a name for the spell, so come leave us some ideas in the Discord. Louis has also been working on a system to change your ammo and glyphs on the fly. It's still very much a work in progress as of right now, but maybe next week we'll have something cool to show off.

As always, Wendy has been working on some amazing level design. This week I have some screenshots of the Shrubrian village courtesy of Wendy:

She's also been working on some particle effects to help Louis out with the magic system. Also, Wendy and I have been working together on creating the main storyline for the Windless Woods. Kindred got a good start on it for us, but now we're taking over to let Kindred focus on making all the new models that are needed for the new zone.

As for me, I've finally finished reworking all the jobs in the game, as well as adding a ton more new jobs. There should be no more job board talk until close to the update when I add in the last few Windless Woods jobs for the job board over there. I've also been working on some quests and NPC dialog, and as mentioned above, helping with the main storyline for the Windless Woods.

That's all I have to share for this week, thank you all for reading and thank you all for your support! I hope you all enjoy the rest of your day.

Until next time,
DD

Saturday update!

If you've missed Louis's streams this past week, you've missed out on a ton of cool new magic spells. He's also been posting gifs (too large for these posts) on our discord so make sure you check those out.

In other news, check out these new images of things the team has been working on:



I'm excited to say that I am done with summer camp! So for the next few days I'll be working hard on new furniture and new items. Towards the end of this coming week, Kindred and I will be heading out on a summer vacation to visit family for a couple of weeks. I'm putting the team in charge of getting these posts out on time!

Next week I have a little something new planned for you. So ominous.

See you then!

-Janna

Happy Saturday!

Janna here. I know we missed our normal Friday development digest. We've had a lot going on. I've been crazy busy leading a summer camp for young girls learning how to make games! It's been long days and no time for anything else, but super awesome seeing these kids make games! While I've been away, I've tried to keep in the loop, but like Kindred said last week, it's been difficult without the producer (me) around.

But I'm here now, even if I don't have too much to share.

A lot of the work lately has been either on secret things (end of Windless Woods storyline), models for things that are rewards or hidden, and more programming for glyphs. But here's a cute area to look at. He's been changed from the Woodsmith to the Honeysmith and we can't wait for you to discover what you can craft here:


Here's a new guy that's in progress:


And finally, here's a few iterations on a new sword. Which do you like?


I'll do my best to have someone get an actual Friday post out this next week with some awesome pictures!

See you soon!

Janna

Hey there! Kindred here!

You probably guessed I was doing the development digest today based on the fact that it's several hours late, huh?

Janna's been super busy and will be for the next two weeks as well. It's not easy keeping things together without our producer and community manager!

This week I've been working on a few odds and ends as I chip away at the main storyline for Windless Woods.

I built a new visual lore-writing tool behind the scenes. Now Wendy, DD and I can write more in-game books without having to wrestle with data tables and page formatting. It's already proving to save us a ton of time and should result in lots more fun lore (leading to fun secrets, of course).


I also spent a bit of time scrolling through our new Canny board for features and ideas, as well as our ideas channel on the Discord. and found a few super simple features I could knock out. So I did that!

I made the trellis furniture items into planter items so you can now place seeds in them, added a toggle on player housing signs to hide the property marker posts, and finally, made some changes to the weight system. We kept hearing gripes about inventory size and so, after really breaking it down, we decided that there were a handful of different items that really shouldn't count toward your weight. So I spent some time building a filter and a tag system that we can use to tag specific items to no longer count toward your inventory weight. Currently this includes keys and seeds. We also discussed some potential unique bags that would make specific item types weigh nothing, like a miner's bag which would make all ore and gems weightless.


I also did a bit of modelling this week and started implementing a new special crafting bench similar to the astral forge. I don't want to spoil it though, so you'll have to wait until the update to discover where and what it'll craft!

Aside from fixing a whole bunch of items in the world I broke, Wendy spent the week doing a lot of clean up work in Dewdrop Village. She's also begun setting up the NPCs there as well as started writing a few quests and dialog for them. Dewdrop village is going to be a really fun little area for you guys to explore, I think. It has a good sense of progression built into it and I think it'll really add to the overall theme of the zone.


Louis has got the brand new glyph magic system working this week. In the last couple of days, he's added the first two spells to the game. The first glyph is the classic, tried-and-true staple of RPGs, Fireball. This spell launches a ball of burning arcane energy which will erupt in a huge radius on impact. Don't get caught in the explosion!

You might have noticed he spent a bit of extra time on the VFX, too. You certainly won’t be getting this glyph confused with the (now defunct) basic attack from the old “Novice Staff of Fire”.


The second glyph he’s added is a throwback to the original single player version of Swords ‘n Magic that some of you may remember from my early days on Twitch, or from the library of old versions we have available for certain tiers on Patreon. It's the “Launch” spell. This utility spell will send you soaring into the air, if only for a brief moment. Use it to escape a sticky situation or to reach unexplored heights.

Jesse has been hard at work adding the final touches in the Eyre and getting me and Janna super inspired to start making new furniture pieces for you guys to discover in the shops there.


And last, but definitely not least, DD has been chugging away at balancing quest rewards and tweaking the job boards in each town. A lot of our existing jobs in the job boards had quests that would take you all the way to the other side of a zone, even when there was a closer job board in that area. He's been restructuring a lot of these jobs to be more interesting.

We also spent some time chatting as a team about our existing quests, specifically on Azura and their purpose in the game. We've come to the conclusion that the job boards are a great alternative to some of our early game quests. Most of those quests were built when we had very few tools to work with for quest design and very few features and interesting item types to give out. We decided that it would be worth our time to go back through and refresh some of those old quests. And somewhere through that conversation, we also decided that from now on quests in the game have to meet a few requirements. They need to give unique rewards or perks, never just some gold or basic resources, and they must always be associated with a longer, more immersive story. We'll never be making simple fetch quests for the sake of having more quests. And that means that if an existing quest doesn't tell an interesting story or lead to a unique reward, it'll be scrapped or updated.

Unfortunately, we definitely don't have time for a lot of these changes for the Windless Woods update, so it'll be a future endeavor. But we're really excited to clean up some of those old fetch quests we've never really been happy with.



That's about it this week. We're mostly in the cleanup portion of this update, so we’re spending a lot of time tying up loose ends and linking our mechanics together to make a cohesive experience. Next week's digest will probably not be as interesting as this one... Unless Louis knocks out some wicked cool spell glyphs we can share with you!