May DevLog
The pressure is on this month as we prepare for the upcoming Steam Game Festival. We know quite a handful of you were disappointed at the delay so it was very fortunate that Steam is hosting another festival this June. This will allow us to at least show you a taste of the game via a short teaser demo. Read further for details about that as well as other new stuff we've done over the month.
The bulk of our month's work involved preparing a teaser demo for the festival. Players may not know this but giving players access to a game demo is more often detrimental to a game's sales. This is a good explanation of why. However, we think the upside of joining Steam's Festival where Steam could potentially show the game to a much wider audience for the first time trumps the downside. Also, it should hopefully tide people over who were disappointed at the delay.
Knowing the pitfalls of having a demo, it was a deliberate choice to significantly limit what would be available - in terms of both features and playtime. It will be quite short, but it should give you a very clear idea of how the game plays.
Another important thing we added at the end of the demo is a link to a google form where players can send feedback and suggestions. We haven't been able to test out the game yet to many first time users so we expect a lot of balance issues. This is a great opportunity to get player feedback so please use the form if you have any criticisms or suggestions!
Of course, one of the most important thing to include in the demo is the tutorial. We've decided to go for a non-intrusive "quest-type" tutorial, peppered with a few pop-ups for important notes. We think the tutorials should provide the players with enough idea of how to play the game and then they can spend the remaining few days of the demo to experiment and play around with the unlocked options.
For tutorial-haters, there is an option to skip these in the Main Menu!
We have a small secret feature included in the Demo and this is an example of the type of content we will continually add once we are on Early Access. I'll just give one hint: villagers with Evil or Treacherous Trait.
I hope a lot of players get to encounter it and that it plays out well during the limited in-game days available of the demo!
Villagers now actually tend to crops and dig into mountains to find Metals, Gold and Diamonds.
We intend to give most monster types some unique and interesting behaviors. For example, wolves will now sometimes get out of their lair to hunt small animals for food.
Giant Spiders may also ensnare and abduct villagers and bring them to their lair.
There may be instances when the player's Threat Meter reaches 100 but there are not enough combatant Villagers to mount a counterattack. In this case, we spawn a few Angels and they will mount a "Divine Intervention".
In a previous iteration, Kennels are used for future playthroughs so it doesn't feel that useful. We revised it so that players can now breed monsters that they seize and drop inside Kennels, and that will give them 1 Charge of that monster type that they can then summon for invasion or defense.
This is still mostly the same as before but with some revised UX. The structure now has 3 smaller rooms and the player must drop Villagers inside one room, then click on that room structure to trigger the Torture action. Once it finishes, a skeleton minion is spawned to carry the prisoner out of the Torture Chambers and leave him outside.
Before, Villagers don't really react much if you cast a Lightning or a Meteor right next to them. Now, they may act surprised or flee from various dangerous objects (including Poison Clouds, Brimstones, etc). We may have to enhance this even further in the future as I think we missed some stuff.
We've replaced Comfort Meter with Stamina and this will now be a Meter that is consumed whenever a character is running. Once it depletes enough, they are forced to move much slower and will only be able to run again once the Meter has been fully replenished. This will be improved upon over the coming weeks as it is now a key tool to differentiate how often some characters/monsters can successfully flee in combat.
We've started adding sound effects into the game but it's probably not yet of a high quality. We're hoping to improve on this in the future.
Demo
The bulk of our month's work involved preparing a teaser demo for the festival. Players may not know this but giving players access to a game demo is more often detrimental to a game's sales. This is a good explanation of why. However, we think the upside of joining Steam's Festival where Steam could potentially show the game to a much wider audience for the first time trumps the downside. Also, it should hopefully tide people over who were disappointed at the delay.
Knowing the pitfalls of having a demo, it was a deliberate choice to significantly limit what would be available - in terms of both features and playtime. It will be quite short, but it should give you a very clear idea of how the game plays.
Another important thing we added at the end of the demo is a link to a google form where players can send feedback and suggestions. We haven't been able to test out the game yet to many first time users so we expect a lot of balance issues. This is a great opportunity to get player feedback so please use the form if you have any criticisms or suggestions!
Tutorials
Of course, one of the most important thing to include in the demo is the tutorial. We've decided to go for a non-intrusive "quest-type" tutorial, peppered with a few pop-ups for important notes. We think the tutorials should provide the players with enough idea of how to play the game and then they can spend the remaining few days of the demo to experiment and play around with the unlocked options.
For tutorial-haters, there is an option to skip these in the Main Menu!
Demo Secret!
We have a small secret feature included in the Demo and this is an example of the type of content we will continually add once we are on Early Access. I'll just give one hint: villagers with Evil or Treacherous Trait.
I hope a lot of players get to encounter it and that it plays out well during the limited in-game days available of the demo!
Farming and Mining
Villagers now actually tend to crops and dig into mountains to find Metals, Gold and Diamonds.
Wolf Hunts
We intend to give most monster types some unique and interesting behaviors. For example, wolves will now sometimes get out of their lair to hunt small animals for food.
Spider Abductions
Giant Spiders may also ensnare and abduct villagers and bring them to their lair.
Angels
There may be instances when the player's Threat Meter reaches 100 but there are not enough combatant Villagers to mount a counterattack. In this case, we spawn a few Angels and they will mount a "Divine Intervention".
Revised Kennel
In a previous iteration, Kennels are used for future playthroughs so it doesn't feel that useful. We revised it so that players can now breed monsters that they seize and drop inside Kennels, and that will give them 1 Charge of that monster type that they can then summon for invasion or defense.
Revised Torture Chamber
This is still mostly the same as before but with some revised UX. The structure now has 3 smaller rooms and the player must drop Villagers inside one room, then click on that room structure to trigger the Torture action. Once it finishes, a skeleton minion is spawned to carry the prisoner out of the Torture Chambers and leave him outside.
Danger Reaction - Surprise/Flight
Before, Villagers don't really react much if you cast a Lightning or a Meteor right next to them. Now, they may act surprised or flee from various dangerous objects (including Poison Clouds, Brimstones, etc). We may have to enhance this even further in the future as I think we missed some stuff.
Stamina
We've replaced Comfort Meter with Stamina and this will now be a Meter that is consumed whenever a character is running. Once it depletes enough, they are forced to move much slower and will only be able to run again once the Meter has been fully replenished. This will be improved upon over the coming weeks as it is now a key tool to differentiate how often some characters/monsters can successfully flee in combat.
Sound Effects
We've started adding sound effects into the game but it's probably not yet of a high quality. We're hoping to improve on this in the future.