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Swords 'n Magic and Stuff News

Vote for Swords 'n Magic and Stuff in the Steam Awards

Have you picked games for all of your award categories? If not, please consider voting for Swords 'n Magic and Stuff in the "Labor of Love" category. Just check that box above and you've nominated us!

Nominations are only available until 10am PST on the first (which is in less than 11 hours!).

Be on the look out this Friday for news on when the Frostfall update will be launching. This will be included in our normal development digests.

Thank you all for your support! See you Friday.

Development Digest November 12th - 19th

It's FRIDAY!

A fun new addition was added last Friday during a Twitch stream:


Yes, that is a hot tub. It will be a furniture item added to our Frost Fall update.

Something I've been working on this week is cleaning up the levels in the project to make sure things were where they needed to be. That took a few days, but it was worth it! This needed to happen to be able to start properly looking into more performance optimization.

Another success this week is that Michael set up Kickstarter rewards! We're so close to be able to get those out!

A fun placeable item that's coming is a Frost Fall Tree! What's cool about it is that you can place your own ornaments on it!


Everything in that above picture is a placeable item. The presents have their own storage, too! Something else, non-seasonal coming is display cases:



Another furniture item that you can use to show off your coolest prizes. Weapon racks and wall mounts are still in progress.

The animal companion overhaul is still going strong and getting ready to wrap up for testing. I don't have any cool pictures as that's a lot of spaghetti code.

If you noticed from the pictures above, there is snow in Tirawyn. Last year we only had snow in Frost Fall, but this year, the snow is coming to Farmlands and East Windless Woods. We've had a bit of material clean up to do to make sure the proper things are getting snowed on.


What are we working on next?
-models and icons for new items
-adjusting the frost golem and snowmen (can you hear their cries already?)
-new housing blueprints

That's it for this week! See you all next Friday. And happy holidays!

Development Digest November 9th - 12th

Hey everyone! It's that time again. This week is going to be a bit different since we just released a patch on Tuesday. This week I'll share some pictures!

If you haven't seen, I recently updated our roadmap:



The tutorial menu went into the game with Tuesday's patch, but we still have plenty more tutorials to add. We tried to get the basics in to help new players. Joe is working on the animal companion overhaul currently and that will be included in the next update, which is our Frost Fall holiday update. The detailed stats panel is about 20ish% done right now. That leaves us with the holiday update! I've been busy adding recipes and furniture and outfits. Soupy has spoiled us with 5 new outfits and the outfits that were on the NPC's last year will be available to purchase this year. Here's a sneak peek at one:



Last year's Frost Fall food will be back along with 2 new holiday specific foods. Also added 14 new foods at various levels. Waiting for the models and icons before sharing these ones!

I think my favorite thing though, is the furniture! Look at some of the fun items!



This is not everything that's being added. We have a Frost Fall Tree, wreath, and plenty more. I've also added in more non-holiday items including more plants, rugs, and decor. But the thing you'll be most excited for is that the dressers, armoires, cabinets, etc. have their own storage now! They are not going to be anywhere near as much storage as a chest, but it adds to the RP element and allows for more customization.

Things that are being worked on:
-Ensuring Frost Fall is working 100%
-Adjusting the difficulty in Frost Fall
-Decorating Sleepy Haven for the season
-Animal companion overhaul
-New items

Next Friday should go back to our normal lists. Or maybe I'll mix it up again. See you then!

Patch 1.4.7

Hey there!

We've finally got this patch out to fix some bugs and hopefully put an end to some save issues we've been experiencing even with the new AB save method.

We apologize for the delay. We ran into some issues with the changes we made to the save system and had to address them first.

Here are your patch notes so you can see what's new and improved with this patch.

New:
  • Tutorial Cards on Castaway Rock (Existing players may have to return there to obtain them all)
  • Character AB Backup Saves


Improved:
  • Save System changes to help better protect your save games
  • Splash potion costs have been reduced
  • New star icon on item hover which tells you if you need the item for your collections or not (Tutorial card for this in progress)
  • Recipe shop items now show benefits and required level on hover
  • Collections now show weapon and cooking stats on hover


Fixed:
  • Fixed save issues which may have been causing some hits on performance
  • Can now get grocery order from Astra for the Gravekeeper quest
  • Yenna now gives you the key you need for the frozen chest (May need to restart this quest...)
  • Xanthe's sold out signs no longer floating
  • Fixed Various typos
  • Bandit Betrayal quest now works as intended
  • Wylie's Song quest now works as intended
  • Added Responsibility quest now works as intended
  • Big Friend quest now works as intended
  • Cultist Confirmation quest now works as intended
  • Rebel's Revenge quest now works as intended
  • Other various location-specific visit quests should be fixed
  • Azi's crystal ball no longer flickers
  • Invisible crab in Maggi's cellar has finally escaped
  • The plot in Azura is now completely flat

Post Witch's Eve Update - 1.4.6

Hey guys.

Witch's Eve is over, but more festivities are just around the corner with the Frostfall Festival!

In the meantime here are the changes for this update:

NEW:
  • Witch's Eve festivities removed
  • Craftable bandages for tailors
  • Game analytics to help us track gameplay stats and balance the game better (opt in/out)
  • Player titles (Well, one player title right now. More unlockable titles coming soon)


IMPROVED:
  • Quest zones notify the player when an advancement condition is updated now
  • Balanced some potion recipes, specifically for splash potions


FIXED:
  • Quest locations should be displaying properly on map now (Minus a few quests that haven't been set up yet)
  • Ice cave water shouldn't light you on fire anymore
  • Weapons should show the appropriate quality in shops now
  • Various typos
  • Various foliage issues
  • Fixed some holes in the world
  • Tall Dark Candle Stand now glows purple
  • Fixed an issue with spirit anchors behaving strangely
  • Erma no longer has an endless supply of cotton
  • Seedmaker can appropriately yield Wild Farmlands Seeds now