Lands of Crown
Weekly Dev Log #8
What have I worked on this past week?
This week has mostly been fixing bugs and improving different aspects of the game. NPCs need to react properly to a variety of scenarios, with this variety increasing the more effects and traits are added to the game. Hopefully all the work that's been put in so far will not only create fun dynamics between the player and NPCs, but also allow for the player to predict what can happen based on how NPCs react to certain things.
There has also been a lot of work behind the scenes to allow for easier development going forward, such as a new implementation to the dialogue system as well as how shopkeepers are handled, among other things.
Overall, this week has been spent trying to get the game in the best shape possible for the demo, which will again (hopefully) be coming out soon. As soon as it is out, I'll announce it!
Where are things headed?
There are a few minor things left to tweak before I'm satisfied with the demo, but beyond that I simply need to add more content. More weapons, more classes, more locations, more buildings, etc.
Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything!
Until next time,
aGoldenFly
Weekly Dev Log #7
What have I worked on this past week?
As I mentioned last week, this week was spent implementing and changing the game from a open-world design to a level-based one. The implementation was a success, and I am really happy with the results.
Now, you'll spawn into a level and be greeted by exactly one town. I plan to have the starting town always be the same, but each town will have a few exits leading to different types of towns. This can lead to interesting player choices that weigh the risk vs. the reward. You might travel to the spooky ghost town to get a certain weapon or item, or you could play it safe and visit the peaceful town.
In each town, you'll be tasked (by a certain character to be revealed later) to complete up to 3 (maybe more, maybe less) quests. These can range from destroying objects/people, to obtaining an item, to freeing a prisoner, etc. Once you complete, or fail, the quests, you can progress to the next level. Repeat a certain number of times and you'll be able to meet the King and attempt to take the Crown.
I also spent a lot of time on NPC behaviors and reactions, leading to a greater variety of methods and tools at my disposal to make the game feel alive. NPCs can patrol, they can be prisoners, they can have public/private property, etc. There's a lot more, but you'll have to wait to see it!
Where are things headed?
I plan to keep trucking along to add new content/towns/NPCs/traits/items/quests. The game is starting to take shape and I'm really excited for it.
Also be on the lookout for a demo, I plan to (hopefully) have it out sometime next week!
Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything!
Until next time,
aGoldenFly
Weekly Dev Log #6
What have I worked on this past week?
A New Direction! As I have been developing Lands of Crown, I've come to the realization that something is not quite right. In my original thoughts about the game, I figured the high-intensity action of Streets of Rogue, mixed with a Kenshi-style world, would have made a great combination. Although I'm sure the implementation could work somehow, perhaps with a different approach than the one I took.
Regardless, the way that I mixed these two designs did not seem to be fun or enjoyable to me. Travelling took too long and ground the action to a halt, there really wasn't too much of an incentive to explore, and with the game being top-down it was hard to see the beauty of the 'open-world'.
So, what then? I've decided to take a level-based approach, where there will be one city/town for the player to explore at a time before moving on to the next one. The town will have a certain number of quests to complete, and the closeness of all the buildings and people will hopefully lead to more action and fun scenarios.
Now, although there will only be one town at a time, I still want to give the player some choice. I plan to have different exits from each town leading to different 'lands' and environments. This will allow me to include a bunch of different environments and towns, such that on a given run you might not even see some of them.
Where are things headed?
Although this new direction will take some time to implement, I am not drastically changing what I have already made. The combat, abilities, quests, locations, etc, are all there and will remain the same. The only difference is the change from a open-world design to a level-based design. I don''t imagine this change taking more than a week at most to implement, so stay tuned for new progress!
Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything!
Until next time,
aGoldenFly
Weekly Dev Log #5
What have I worked on this past week?
A New Trailer? I'm sure anyone who has visited the store page in the past week days has seen the new trailer that I spent a day or two making. While not perfect, I hope it is able to give everyone a basic idea of what Lands of Crown is all about.
Main Quest Refining! Last week I had implemented the foundation for the Main Quest system, and this week I worked on ironing out any issues and making sure the system is solid to work with. Now, these Main Quests are able to work and adapt to what I throw at it, and can give randomized rewards for completing them. I am still deciding how many of these Main Quests should exist in a run, but for the mean time the system is running smoothly.
Quality of Life improvements! Over the past week I have made an effort to remedy some of the issues I've noticed in an attempt to bring clarity to the player and improve their enjoyment of the game. This includes indicators for Main Quests, and NPCs displaying when they're searching, attacking, and noticing something. NPCs are now able to investigate noises and will try to search out the culprit.
Tons of Fixes! It seems that this past week, more than any, has been a constant process of fixing countless bugs. Which, although not the most exciting or fun thing to do, it is certainly well worth it.
Where are things headed?
For this next week, the content march resumes! Now that the Main Quest system is up and running, I can put it to good use while I make new environments and such. Slowly but surely, this game is coming together, and I can't wait to share all that I've done and will do.
Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything!
Until next time,
aGoldenFly
Weekly Dev Log #4
What have I worked on this past week?
New Quests! For the longest time, something had seemed off about the game. After some thinking, I came to the conclusion that while the game would allow for player freedom and choice, there needs to be some direction, some 'thing' to force the player to get involved when they otherwise could avoid some trouble. Thus, Main Quests were created, which are important objectives that task the player with acquiring something, eliminating someone or something, or performing a certain action. For completing these Main Quests the player will receive a powerful item and experience. But now we need a way to keep track of these and display them, leading to...
A World Map! Another needed piece to provide direction to the player was a way to see where they are in relation to everything else in the world, and having a map is a night and day difference. Along with the map, Main Quests are displayed alongside it, with icons appearing on the map corresponding to where that objective is located. There are a few more tweaks and quality of life features I would like to add, but generally the system works very well as is.
Animals! While I was mulling over how to provide objectives and handle quests for the player, I came up with the idea to add animals and other creatures into the game. First of all, these animals will be playable characters, but they will also appear in the world to challenge the player and otherwise add variety to the game. Now I can have a quest to slay 10 wolves, or fetch 10 chicken eggs, etc, etc.
As always, there have been tons of minor improvements, bug fixes, and other adjustments, such as:
- Reworking many Menus, as well as implementing new ones
- Addition of randomly generated loot for chests and barrels scattered around towns
- New Buildings, Abilities, Weapons, and all that good stuff
Where are things headed?
I feel very confident with this new Quest system and World Map, and I hope that these will provide some much needed direction in an otherwise freedom-heavy game. There are still many improvements I plan to make with this system, and I plan to tackle them this week to bring the game to a higher quality.
I still will be making new towns, buildings, weapons, characters, and all the rest, so don't worry!
Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything!
Until next time,
aGoldenFly
Weekly Dev Log #3
What have I worked on this past week?
Content! The majority of my work this week has been on adding items, buildings, and NPCs to the world. Each NPC needs items, apparel, an ability, unique dialogue and quests, multiple buildings and the like. There is a lot of work to be done in this department, but I enjoy the challenge.
Optimizations, optimizations, and yes, more optimizations. I optimized animations, path finding, world generation, and I even optimized my workflow too. I had done a lot of optimization work before, as each NPC has pathing, reacting, fighting, etc to do. But it seems another round of optimization was in order, and it seems to have paid off quite well.
Refactoring and bug fixing. I would have liked to get more work done in regards to content this week, but refactoring combat and world generation, among other things, must take priority. I must have a strong foundation to build off of, otherwise I'll never be able to depend on the systems no matter what I throw at it. Regardless, numerous bugs have been fixed and multiple systems have been updated to make development much smoother to work with.
Where are things headed?
The game is steadily heading towards a state that is not necessarily feature complete but is fun and completely playable. For this week, I plan to keep working on adding content in the form of new items, weapons, abilities, buildings, locations, etc.
Beyond that, I want to start looking into setting up a playable demo. I'll make no promises about when one would release, but I'll make an announcement when I do publish it.
Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything!
Until next time,
aGoldenFly
Weekly Dev Log #2
What have I worked on this past week?
Dialogue is now able to branch, allowing for unique conversations and dialogue options available for certain classes and whatnot.
There is now a Tutorial Area in the Hub area (an area for the player to 'prepare' for a run) that will allow the player to test out controls as well as weapons, abilities, and classes. I hope that this area will remove the need for a 'hand-holding' tutorial sequence, but I am always open to changing it if need be.
To go along with this Tutorial Area, the player can now change classes in the Hub area, allowing the player to see what each class offers and to try them out. In the future I plan to include unlocks for classes, requiring the player to complete certain objectives to unlock specific classes.
I've also completed a bunch of minor improvements and tweaks, such as:
- Overhaul of the Status/Effect GUI
- Reworking how each Classes' data was stored, allowing for much easier creation/adjustment
- Reworking how Abilities and Statuses/Effects were implemented, leading to much faster development
- ...as well as many, many bug fixes and adjustments
Where are things headed?
Starting today, I plan to begin work on fleshing out the game and creating content, in the way of classes, locations, quests, dialogues, relations, etc. I believe the foundation of the game is sturdy, and I look forward to finally stretching my creative muscles to create interesting classes and locations.
As this game is set in a medieval/fantasy setting, I want to include the 'generic' fantasy races such as humans, elves, dwarves, goblins, etc. However, I also want to include unique races and peoples at some point in time.
I will begin by creating and fleshing out the human world first, which will entail probably a few factions, such as common folk, bandits, the nobility, etc. I want each reach to feel unique when compared to each other, but also unique compared to themselves. For instance, an elf could be a tree elf, or a mountain elf, something like that.
Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and ask away!
Until next time,
aGoldenFly