Swords 'n Magic and Stuff News

Hey everyone!

Below you'll find what the team worked on this past week. These are not patch notes, but a sneak peek at what's to come for the next update.

Working on:

• Sleepy Haven Library
  
• Grid system for loading and unloading actors
  
• Tinkerer's Workshop
  
• Ready for crafting recipes to go in!
  

New:

• Added a lantern to the ferry
  
• Set up speed based particles on the ferry
  
• Gave the ferry some smoke
  
• Smelter box
  
• Smelter model
  
• Smelter bellows
  
• Interactable bellows
  
• Radial progress bar widget for smelter
  
• Added Oob to NPC data table and gave him dialog
  
• Bank interior finished in Sleepy Haven
  
• Three new housing interiors in Sleepy Haven
  
• Stinky leaf resource nodes to Greenskull camp
  
• Quest items in Finn's Furnishings
  
• Quests for Elizabeth in Farmlands and new items for quests
  
• Added a new breakable spider egg for the cave
  
• Added a new light shaft actor and material
  
• Added new dust specks particle
  
• New items for cobalt and copper ingots, also charcoal
  
• New resources for darkwood, maple, rough leather and thick leather
  
• Set up the basic crafting window layout
  
• All NPCs in new data structure, all NPCs now editable in NPC editor
  
• Beginnings of full NPC combat
  
• Big crafting updates
  
• Added functions for learning and saving recipes
  
• Kickstarter Tailoring outfits
  
• Kickstarter Design an NPC outfits
  

Improved:

• Ferry wheels can now handle change in rotation speed
  
• Replaced the hover sound on inventory slots
  
• Quest system overhaul
  
• Interactable updates
  
• Kyara now gives the player tips on how to get better at farming
  
• Unlocked the door to Finn's Furnishings
  
• Minor changes to Henry's dialog and the quest description for Bukk's quest
  
• Cleaned up the spider cave a bit
  
• Gave resource nodes the ability to trigger quest events
  
• Updated Tanglewort and Glowstalk materials
  
• Smelter button functionality finished, including cancel button
  
• Smelter has replaced forge at Blacksmith shop
  
• Updated Alfred's quest
  
• Re-implemented the ability to buy bank slots via dialogue
  
• New clothing SFX. Applied to clothes equip
  

Fixed:

• Two typos in Tammy's dialog
  
• Removed farmland trees that blocked sightline of windmill
  
• Collisions on farm stall in Ramshackle
  
• Filled in weird gaps in Fiora's house
  
• Picking up the key for Erma's quest advances it
  
• Cleaned up foliage and removed duplicates
  
• Gave the ferrymaster a door on her house
  
• Fixed weird outline inconsistencies
  

Hey everyone!

This week has been busy. See the update below!

Working on:

• Level design in Farmlands
  
• Smelter interactable
  
• Began work on a new guard quest "Clear Cut Crime"
  
• NPC Manager
  
• New weapon models
  
• Creature models, AI, and animations
  
• Various models
  
• Finishing up Sleepy Haven
  
• Moonberry Farms
  
• Crafting
  
• Kickstarter design tier Tailoring outfits
  

New:

• Bandit camp
  
• Bandit banner
  
• Tents
  
• Finished detailing the Sleepy Haven entrance
  
• Detailed DD's cart quest area
  
• Detailed the fairy circle
  
• Detailed most of the river
  
• Blocked off Windless Woods
  
• Added cave-in excavator NPC's with dialog
  
• New (placeholder) crafting menu widget fits into existing container/merchant inventory logic
  
• Initial clothing setup
  
• Smelters have inventories now
  
• Clothing now works in inventory and applies texture to character model
  
• Equipped clothes now show up on game start
  
• Tooltip to the "Track Quest" button
  
• 158 wearable outfits
  
• Spider gear
  
• Glowstalk sprouts
  
• Clothes are feature complete
  
• Harvestable mushrooms and Tanglewort added to spider cave
  
• Mini-boss room added to spider cave
  
• Added spider cave level streaming volume
  
• Shop item can now sell clothing on mannequins
  
• Clothing shop mannequin now displays clothes with cloaks and dresses correctly
  
• Erma's shop now sells a bunch of different outfits
  
• Added a new clothing default texture for mannequins
  
• Opened the Curio shop in Ramshackle (needs decorations)
  
• Added interior to Cranston's Curios and outfits/hats for sale
  
• Added Gems + Metals stand in Sleepyhaven (vendor items to come)
  
• Added interior to Sleepyhaven outfit shop (vendor items to come)
  
• Bee Enthusiast quest
  
• Spiderfang dagger
  
• Darkwood log resource
  
• Setup space above tailor for housing
  
• Oh, just a steamboat ferry, that's all
  
• Added a light and particles to the ferry
  

Improved:

• Removed unnecessary material slots from cliffs
  
• Minor farmlands and Sleepy Haven terrain fixes
  
• Extensive changes to the dialog of multiple NPCs that are part of the guard questline on Azura
  
• Changes to the Stolen Shipment quest
  
• Edited name, description and value of all starter outfits
  
• Adjusted the clothing equip VFX
  
• Time Manager
  
• Cut down the trees in Azura
  
• Smoothed out jaggy paths around farmlands
  
• Added more to 1st floor of magic shop
  
• Smelter now smelts!! But it always smelts iron. Awkward.
  

Fixed:

• Fixed inventory TAB key bug that was introduced by fixing the journal search bar bug recently
  
• Dialogue now respects the UI manager. This fixes the "press tab in dialogue to break the game in assorted ways" bugs
  
• UI management refactor is done!!! WOOOO
  
• Typo in bank description
  
• Fixed code typos
  
• Chat component is properly on HUD now instead of being on the PlayerController
  
• Inventory scrollbars are no longer visible until you have enough things in your inventory to warrant scrolling
  
• Game logo missing at game startup
  
• Farmlands sublevel not loading
  
• Fixes for chat multiplayer replication issues
  
• Adjusted the position of a crate above Hoggin to no longer be floating
  
• Typo in Xavia's dialog
  
• Kip now lets you try to rent a room even if you don't have gold
  
• Mando's camera
  
• Collisions on fountain in Windless Woods
  
• Krull is no longer wearing the tester hat + bugswatter. (Missed NPC when adding them all to the Data Table)
  
• Fixed up some old helmets
  
• Deleted spider web ladder
  
• Rock that stuck out of the performance platform in Ramshackle
  
• Added missing post to the pier in Ramshackle
  
• When bank is at 50/50, you can now correctly add items to existing stacks in the bank
  

Hey everyone!

I started a new thing last week on our Discord server (https://www.discord.gg/kindredgames) where every Friday I post mini patch notes of what the team did for the week. I'll start posting them here as well as weekly dev blogs! So the below is two and a half weeks of updates. See you all next Friday!

Working on:

• New spider cave level for farmlands
  
• Terrain and foliage work around spider cave
  
• WIP camera system to help prevent unnecessary camera clipping
  
• Full nav mesh rebuild
  
• NPC creator
  
• NPC task system
  
• Interior work in Sleepy Haven
  
• Terrain cleanup in Sleepy Haven
  
• Azura guard questline rework
  
• Tiered farm area
  
• Started setting up for splash potions
  
• More detailing in the spider cave
  
• NPC enemy detection
  
• UI Management
  
• Teek's & Sandy’s guard questline
  
• Refactoring in-game chat
  
• Faction modifications
  
• NPC combat AI
  
• Started looking at dialog to change hairstyle
  
• Achievement ID for Steam Achievements
  

New:

• Quest for Diana and Bukk in the Farmlands
  
• “Iron nails” item - added for a quest, but may be used for crafting later
  
• Spider cave props
  
• Car wheels item
  
• Spiderweb ladder
  
• Smashable pots and crates
  
• Added a bunch of destructibles throughout Azura Island
  
• The Shrubrian
  
• Created a river spline tool
  
• Swimmable river alongside Sleepy Haven through the Farmlands
  
• Updated the cave spline tool to be more versatile
  
• Created new “muddy water” material for swimmable water
  
• Added swimmable mud to the gulch above Sleepy Haven
  
• Ponds and rivers now have splashy footsteps as you run through them
  
• Human-size spider cocoon with animation
  
• Added a plant to foliage brushes for farmlands use
  
• Farmlands gems
  
• Farmlands ore
  
• Cotton field
  
• Full NPC task list
  
• NPC detection buildup based on distance/visibility for more forgiving aggro
  
• Grant reputation dialogue event for NPC’s
  
• An item for Carla's Note so the player can pick it up into their inventory
  
• 2 new harvestable herbs
  
• A couple new materials
  
• All inns in Tirawyn have sleepable and rentable beds now
  
• Created a new NPC for the tavern in Sleepy Haven
  
• Added all of Soupy's outfits in
  
• Added Kip to the LT NPC and set his ID in-game
  

Improved:

• Huge project clean up: tidied files into the appropriate folders and removed outdated and unneeded items in the project. This was a big job, but it’ll save us a lot of time down the road.
  
• Fixed visual bug with in-editor items
  
• Brand new sky textures
  
• New sky colors throughout day/night cycle
  
• Adjusted day/night durations slightly
  
• Updated mining nodes to new cracked version so you can tell what you're mining
  
• Updated mining drops for the new mining balance plans
  
• Opal material
  
• NPC combat movement
  
• NPC customization options
  
• More responsive NPC task finding
  
• Made it easier for players to start the quest if they didn't take it the first time they spoke to Bukk
  
• Stolen Toy quest (from guard questline) improved to match new update including parts of the quest, people involved, and dialog to match
  
• Azura waterfall now uses transparency so you can see easier when swimming through it
  
• Added some polish to Sleepy Haven
  
• Updated all the mushroom models
  
• Adjusted spider web color to match better
  
• Shaped the ocean to match the mainland and islands
  
• Updated bushes from spring versions
  
• Did some terrain cleanup in Farmlands
  

Fixed:

• Pressing esc while inventory is open will now close inventory before opening the pause menu
  
• Typo in the journal in the ice cave
  
• Palm leaf is now named "Stinky Leaf". Item description changed to represent this
  
• Hitting tab while reading a note from inside your inventory will now close the note, rather than closing the inventory but leaving the note open
  
• Cursor not recognized error during packaging
  
• Quest world item material
  
• Loading screen display image
  
• Rats now de-aggro - no longer will they follow you to the ends of the earth
  
• Updated bone collision
  
• Fixed a bunch of mesh materials
  
• Replaced a bunch of crate materials
  
• Martin no longer incorrectly tells players to go to the construction yard for work if they've completed Dave's Hammer quest
  
• Plant multiplayer replication improvements
  
• Refactored Inventory open/close logic
  
• Can no longer advance in the quest without having the required items
  
• BP_HUD now tracks UI state. You can swap between map, inv, and journal as before, but pressing escape while any of those are open will just close them. You also can no longer open any of those menus while the game is paused
  
• Fixed bug where menus (inv, journal, map) would still toggle while typing in the journal search bar
  
• "Hand over the supplies" dialog option changed to "Here are the supplies." to remove confusion about the dialog being an action instead of what the player says
  
• Made Maggie's directions to the cellar more clear
  
• Basalt no longer takes an additional 20 wood from the player when turning in his quest
  
• Harvesting herbs and plants no longer drops it on the ground first
  
• Fixed some duplicate meshes in Sleepy Haven
  
• Moved incorrectly placed foliage back to the terrain level
  
• Added item ID's to Azura Mushrooms with the new harvest mechanic
  
• No fences should be floating now
  
• Cleaned up the merged stone fence (removed about 1000 draw calls from it)
  
• Fixed the materials on the golden farm house
  
• Fixed some dialog issues with old innkeepers
  
• Dryad no longer grow hair when putting on hats
  
• Resource nodes now drop items again
  
• Resource nodes now don’t let things fall through the ground
  
• Added stone physics mat to terrain
  
• Scaled the Moonberry Farms sign to fit mounted players
  
• Fixed collisions on some thorn assets
  
• Garden signs no longer require farming levels to place
  
• Ghosts cannot be interacted with unless the proper conditions are met
  
• Fixed various ladders
  
• Yenna remembers you now
  
• Fixed a floating post in Rashackle
  
• Removed an underwater river in the new farmlands river
  

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to check in here on Steam. We know not everyone follows the Discord, my Twitch channel, or our monthly newsletter, so we’re posting an update here to make sure you’re kept in the loop as development progresses. In this post we’ll cover: a quick look at farming, a couple new helping hands on the team, and a look behind the curtain at some refactoring we’re doing.
Farming
You might be aware that we’ve been steadily working away toward this update for some time. With tweaks and adjustments, we’ve finally settled on how farming should feel in Swords ‘n Magic & Stuff. Our dedicated testing team has been hard at work testing the balance and crops. Here’s a picture from one of our testers who planted everything that will be available when the Farmlands update drops! If you look closely, you might be able to guess what each crop is.



New Additions
We’ve brought two new people to the team, both of whom are long-time community members. Exciting!
Our first addition is ddrosler, who’s writing quests and doing narrative design. He's already hard at work adding quests to the new Farmlands region, and so far they’re refreshing and fun. He previously submitted countless quest ideas to our #ideas channel on Discord, where you may also recognise him as one of our moderators. You'll have to wait until the update to experience his quests, but it will be worth it!
Our second addition is Soupytwin1, who’s creating textures for player and NPC outfits. He's already shown his talent by posting custom outfits on Discord in the #fan-content channel. He made well over 60 outfits before we even added him to the team. Here are a few of them:



Refactoring
When we committed to taking extra time to work on this major update, the team and I took a careful look at the performance of the game now and projected into the future. When building a systems-heavy game like this (especially right before we position ourselves to implement a handful of new systems like cooking, housing, etc), it's important to do everything you can to anticipate performance issues before they arise. As such, redesigning and refactoring systems is something we have to do from time to time.
The combat system is the first of the systems that needs work. Combat has changed a lot since launch. As features are added, removed and tweaked, the underlying code gets messier and messier. Odd bugs start to crop up, things start to feel less smooth, and the idea of adding more of our planned features like combat abilities starts to become daunting. So rebuilding this from scratch around the current design and with planned features in mind will save us countless hours in the future.
Similarly, our initial approach to the game's item database was to use a single data table. This is a pretty standard way to handle things, but as the game grows (and grows) things start to get messy. There are no problems yet, but pretty soon this will start to impact game load times. We're going to change our approach here to use soft references to items in the database which are only loaded as required.
While all this goes on, it's more or less business as usual for the non-programming side of the team. The new zone is steadily coming together, and we're more than excited to share it with you.
---
So that’s it from us for now. We’ve decided to make a habit of posting here monthly to keep you all informed, but if this wasn’t enough information to whet your appetite while the update is cooking you can watch me develop the game in real time over on Twitch, where I stream twice weekly. Keep an eye on my Youtube channel – there might be another devlog in the next couple weeks or so. And I should mention that Joe (our animator and AI programmer) has been streaming a TON lately over on his channel. See you around!

Hey everyone! Today we're just pushing a small bug fix patch to clean things up before the next big update. We're not putting a date on that update yet because it's an important update that introduces a LOT of stuff to the game. We want to take our time and get it right.

I'll post updates here, on Kickstarter, Patreon and on our Discord along the way so you can keep up to date with the progress.

https://www.discord.gg/kindredgames - Join in on the discussion!

On to the patch notes!

New:

• Moved Penny
  

Improved:

• Quit confirmation in pause menu
  
• Abandon quest confirmation
  
• Roxy gives you an option to get her honeycomb
  
• Gave house storage chest collisions
  
• Plant now have a harvest limit
  

Fixed:

• Don’t fall from high spots! You may die
  
• Gilder cooldown changed to original time
  
• Fixed dancing pirate punch leaves
  
• Fixed several sound effects not affected by volume sliders
  
• Fixed various spelling errors and dialog typos
  
• Looking at other players now shows tooltip info
  
• Yenna remembers you now
  
• Can no longer fly through certain doors as a ghost
  
• Weapon quest rewards now show up correct in the journal
  
• Beehives now drops appropriate amount of honeycomb
  
• Fixed an issue with failing to purchase items locking other players out of buying it
  
• Goblins, Snowmen and Ice Golem now show up in the bestiary
  
• Frostfall reputation now shows in Reputation page
  
• Adjusted some sloppy rock collisions
  
• The letter from your family is no longer called none
  
• Puck took some lessons in becoming a better bully
  
• Captain Blackbrows has fashionably shortened his name to just “Blackbrows”
  
• Quest lore notes and books can now be read from the world even if you already have the note in your inventory
  
• Looking at an item then an NPC will show the correct NPC information
  
• Blank Bestiary now looks cleaner