Swords 'n Magic and Stuff News

Happy Friday, friends!

We're less than a week away from this huge update! We've got a lot of bug fixing in the works and still more to do. Before I dive into that, I wanted to talk about our community play session that happened last weekend.



We had so many people jump in and out and play. We got these awesome group photos of when we had the most people in game. I almost finished up my outfit collections, but I at least know what I'm missing now. Weapons are a whole different story. I was also able to get some quests done that I hadn't gotten to yet and the community helped each other finish their goals as well. It was such a fun event and I'm so excited for our next one after this update. It's September 24th at 11am PST. All details are on our discord. Hope to see you all there!

Other exciting news: we launched our Supporter Pack DLC page with purchases available October 6th. This is a purely cosmetic DLC that helps support the development of the game as we navigate our way through Early Access.

Let's talk about this week now. Even after the game not building because one file was different so it took three people to figure out how to get the game to build so we could keep testing even though that file that was changed wasn't working after changing it back to when it was, we were still able to power on. I also had the unfortunate disaster of our source control wanting me to redownload the whole project, but simultaneously upload the whole thing too. Source control is great, except when it's not. We made it over all those dumb hurdles and were able to put our amazing dedicated testers to work.

When I tell you that our dedicated testers are amazing, I really mean it. They are continuously testing multiple things over and over. Making sure drop rates are working as intended, repeating quests to make sure different ways to do them all work, double checking us to make sure all the new items are actually available in game, and so much more. There's a lot and we've been giving them tons to do this last week and this whole next week.

The team has been on bug fixing duty all week and will continue to knock everything out to deliver a smooth update. Of course, there's bound to be things we missed and we'll patch them up after the update. This zone is adding a tremendous amount of content.

While we all work on bug fixing, we gotta still have some fun.


I'd share some bug pictures, but all the ones I found have crazy spoilers in them! Either the tester is wearing a secret weapon, they have a secret quest tracking on their screen, the area is secret, there's just so much. I did find one picture of a camera issue. Some NPC's randomly have their cameras spawn in weird places, so here's that:

You might be able to see some new stuff in there.

That's it for this week. There will not be a development digest next week as the update is on Thursday. Depending on when the patches follow, there may not be one the week after. That means the next development digest could most likely start talking about Witches Eve! See you in the update!

-Janna

Happy Friday, friends!

We'll be launching the Windless Woods update September 22nd!

Some things I touched on last week that will be in the update that I have more information for:

Pets (these are cosmetic, not animal companions) Like this cute chicken!


Dedicated Servers (currently using Steam's service for this, but looking into hosting websites for more options). We did a stress test with our dedicated testers and it went really well! We've turned over all the information to the hosting websites we're talking with and will have more information we hope at launch. Steam's service is working, so if the hosting websites take longer, at least there is that option. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll make sure to get answers from someone who knows them better than me!

This week has been a lot of clean up and making sure all the new items are actually able to be purchased/found/rewarded/etc in the game. There are so many items. At my last count, there were over 60 weapons, 10 outfits, 50 furniture items, 15 house and structure plans, 5 alchemy reagents, 4 potions, and let's say 30 plus resources. Not including cooking, farming, quest items, and all the secrets. That's a LOT of stuff. Here's one of the items that has a really cute icon:


Here's a work in progress gauntlet that just started out looking exactly like something else already in the game:


And here's a greataxe that has a matching set of weapons (not final colors):


I won't go into the specifics of everyone as it's been a little of everywhere for everyone. Just getting everything wrapped up and fixing bugs! But speaking of bugs, look at this fun "invisible NPC"


One of our new systems that was created (that we needed a long time ago) is what we call "vanishing NPCs" which is where the NPC vanishes from one spot and appears in another. So when they tell you that they'll meet you somewhere, they won't be in that first spot anymore. There was some fun bugs with it like the above, where the NPC did vanish, but left all their stuff.

Finally, I want to talk about our arachnophobia mode. We had it set up with potions that would last an in-game day, but some weird bugs started appearing. We ended up changing it to an option in the ESC menu so that it will be set for your whole game. Here's what the spiders will look like (one isn't colored, but it'll be the same purple, just without the legs). It applies to the mount as well so no one can join your server and creep you out with their mount.




That's it for this week. The two monthly community play sessions I talked about last week will be on September 10th at 5pm PST (TOMORROW!!!) and September 24th at 11am PST. Details on our discord. Hope to see you all there!

-Janna

Happy Friday, friends!

If you haven't seen any of our social media channels (Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube), yesterday we announced the Windless Woods update will be booming into action September 22nd! While this is much later than anticipated (but still summer!), there are so many features and so much content being jammed into this new zone we wanted to make sure everything was just right.

A few things included in this update:
-Pets (these are cosmetic, not animal companions)
-Dedicated Servers (currently using Steam's service for this, but looking into hosting websites for more options)
-New magic system
-And of course the obvious: a new zone with new resources, items, crops, weapons, etc.

On October 6th (could change depending on Steam's approval), we'll release the Hero Edition DLC. This is a cosmetic-only DLC that was originally offered to our Kickstarter backers. With the Windless Woods update we'll be giving those who purchased the Hero Edition DLC via Kickstarter access to this content for two weeks before releasing it to everyone on Steam. This DLC is basically additional cosmetic content intended to be a way for hardcore players to further support the development team. It includes a Hero house plan, unique title, and Hero outfit.

Future DLC (if we ever get to that point) will be far more substantial and actually add additional playable content, quests, and likely whole new zones.

Let's get to the week's recap!

While I've been doing a lot of backend planning, organizing, and managing, the team has been going strong on the final touches before the update.

Louis had a lot of cool gifs, but Steam doesn't like the size, so unfortunately I'm having to add these to an external site to view. So here's one for you to see right now: https://imgur.com/vC91YuW

Wendy has been finishing up the level design in the boss area and then working on getting the bugs cleaned up that our testers have submitted.

DD has been finishing up the main questline and ensuring the bugs along the way are fixed.

Michael has been chomping away at his modeling list. So first off, here's some cool new weapons:


And then we have this little bear figurine (which no longer has a purpose. Sad day):


Then the real hard questions came up when talking about the new glyphs with the magic system. Michael needed to model and make icons for each new glyph. So here's the first iterations (which we all didn't love):

Here's a gif of one moving: https://imgur.com/HIvPIbl

Then I said "why don't we just reuse all the book icons you made originally? Go back to the roots?" and so Tomes were reborn:


I'm super excited to have the books back in action. Can't wait to get the models in.

On a different note, the team decided to do some feature creeping. They were really stringing me along with this feature creep so I posted some pictures of my angry octopus (those stuffed animals you can flip from angry to happy) and then this happened:

And even though I told the team to not spend time on that because we have lots to finish up, Michael decided to strum away at it anyway (it really wasn't that long) and added a new weapon type to the game. I'll admit it's pretty cool, but it still struck a chord with me!

That's it for this week. The two monthly community play sessions I talked about last week will be on September 10th at 5pm PST and September 24th at 11am PST. Details on our discord. Hope to see you all there!

-Janna

Happy Friday, friends!

Louis here again. This will be the last week I get to run the digest before I pass it back to Janna next week. Let’s get started:

I’ll start off this week with a brand new glyph. Not all of our spells are 100% combat-oriented — this one is for farmers and homesteaders. The Raincloud spell can be used to water your fields! It can also be used to extinguish burning allies in a pinch.


(Sorry for the crunchy gif — we had to compress it pretty heavily to get it within the size limit for this post.)

This week we gave the new ammo swap feature you saw in last week’s digest to our testing team. Really positive feedback so far! But before long, I had my hands full of edge case bugs to fix. Stuff like: what happens when you swap weapons using the radial menu while the ammo wheel is up? What if you charge a glyph to maximum, then swap spells right as you’re firing it? These are all fairly straightforward to fix, but they pile up and can catch you off guard if your brain isn’t galaxy-sized enough to anticipate them all.

DD is continuing his work setting up the quest structures and dialog for the main Windless Woods zone storyline. This week he’s been doing parts of the story that take place within The Eyre — the hidden village populated by watchful druids. The story arc he’s working on at present will introduce you to a grizzly new character who has resigned himself to a reclusive life away from the rest of his kind.

If you fancy a peek behind the curtain, this is what the inner workings of our quest system looks like. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, the quest data you see here is from a quest that’s already in game over in the Farmlands.



Most of Wendy’s work this week has been so steeped in spoilers that there’s really not a lot we can show you! In consolation, I offer you this teaser image:


What could it be?!?

She’s also been setting up the first quest you’ll be able to do with the Treasure Hunter faction — they’re the rival group to the Archaeologists. I hope you’re ready for a perilous foray into an ancient crypt!

Jesse is still at work in The Eyre. Now that we’re coming to the end of the level design and filling out building interiors, his work is shifting to filling out NPCs, setting up their schedules, and giving them places to be and jobs to do.



Well folks, that's all I have time to show you this week. Things are really ramping up over here. Next week you'll be back in Janna's company for more juicy screenshots. Until next time!

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!