Now that the Steam Games Festival is over, we are focusing all our efforts to completing our Early Access Launch build. We've started growing our Discord community and we got a lot of interesting feedback and suggestions from there. It's fun hearing what players expect/want to see. Our task queue up to our Early Access launch is pretty much brimming so it's unfortunate that we won't be able to accommodate many of the suggestions.
All this time I've actually been really proud of our dev team's pace - we only have 2 developers and I think our DevLogs show that they get a lot done each month given our small size. But reading all the great suggestions and not being able to address them immediately makes us feel that we need to do much more or they may get disappointed by the Early Access launch content. At the same time, I also think that's what the Early Access period is for, so I hope the players will have the patience to wait out on some of the features they're hoping to see!
Aside from completing the demo and taking part in the Festival, below are some of the major features we've completed this month:
Loadout Menu
We've tried various progression systems but I'm convinced that we've still not figured out the best fit for Ruinarch. Our priority when we launch is for the game to offer the player ample fun on their first playthrough. And a wrong progression system may get in the way of that.
So what we'll be having is what I call the Loadout Menu. This is where the players can choose their Archetype - Ravager, Puppetmaster or Lich. The Archetype fills in the player's Loadout with an initial set of abilities, and a few bonus slots. The bonus slots is where the player can customize that Archetype and add other powers including those that are typically only available for the other Archetypes.
We'll probably make all powers that we've completed available during the Early Access launch until we are confident we've found the progression system that would be good for the game. There are various options - including a player suggestion where some powers get unlocked only once you've managed to somehow trigger it in a playthrough.
Rumors
Villagers may now start spreading Rumors about people they dislike. This is basically fake news that a Villager would randomly produce about someone. Example: "Villager X stole a Healing Potion."
The rumor spreader will then tell somebody about this and the recipient will evaluate it and may or may not believe it. If they ended up believing it, they will react as if the event actually took place which may trigger some unexpected effects! If they did not believe it, they will slightly dislike the rumor spreader.
Assumptions
This is somewhat similar to Rumors, but it is triggered by specific scenarios. Example - a Villager that finds an item he owns in someone else's house may assume that someone from that house stole it. When someone makes an assumption, they will also react to it as if it is already true so on the preceding example, whoever they thought stole their item will be branded as a criminal!
Right now we've only introduced two assumptions - theft and murder. But this is going to be a fun mechanic to expand on - assumptions about vampires, werewolves and cultists could make for funny situations once implemented.
Defiler Structure
We've neglected our Cultist structure for a while now and it's time to give it focus to prepare it for Early Access launch. Turning someone into a Cultist is somewhat similar to how a player uses the Torture Chamber. You bring someone into a Cultist room and start a Brainwash action. How likely you are to be successful with this depends on the Cultist's Mood and Traits.
Once someone becomes a Cultist, they will reintegrate back to their faction but their behavior will be slightly modified now. From time to time, they will perform Cultist related actions. This includes:
- performing a dark ritual to produce Chaos Orbs
- performing a dark ritual to remove a Buff from a fellow villager
- place Booby Traps and poison Food
They have a "Cultist Kit" that they use for most of their actions. This could be an important tool to use for some frame-up situations :P We're still working on adding more things for Cultists to do such as eventually being able to turn them into Abominations as well as having them usurp leadership and take over a village or faction. We'd like to have these things in place by next month!
Structure Construction Rework
One of the things we've reworked after the demo. In the demo build, the player clicks on an Area, then click on the Build button then choose the structure to build. Now, there is a Structures tab on the top bar, you select a Structure from there and then click on a valid area to build it. This makes it more consistent with how Spells are casted - and also our reworked Demons/Monsters summon.
