Devlog #1 - Release 2024? How To Make Own Creations In-Game?
Welcome to Devlog #1 for our new devlog series before release in 2024!
Our game release is approaching, so from now on, we will publish a devlog every two weeks that focuses on individual game features.
We start today by looking at the Asset Store, the modding system that allows you to share your creations with your friends as easily as in the game Spore. This system is at the core of the game, and it gave us headaches for months last year, and it is still in progress. We also look at all the things that went wrong during his work; after all, we are a small team. In the end, I'll talk about the next Steam Next Fest and the release in July 2024.
What is the Asset Store and Modding in Nimoyd?
From the beginning, I wanted Nimoyd not to become like Minecraft or Fortnite, where it's difficult to share your creations with others. It is possible to create your own mods there, but it takes a lot of effort and some tech knowledge. Our modding system, therefore, consists of two parts.
On the one hand, like in the game Spore, it's super easy for everyone to create new content by using the in-game editor to build buildings, sofas, doors, walls, or other silly things that we can then easily share with our friends.
Our Asset Store is, therefore, not just a store where you can download new content such as skins or weapons or where complex game modes will be available like in Roblox or Fortnite. Like in Spore, I wanted us to be able to look at creations, no matter how small, and for you to be happy when your super fancy sofa has been downloaded 100x, 1000x or 100,000x without having to deal with complex modding systems like Steam Workshop, Roblox or Fortnite.
At the same time, it raised the question of how we should deal with complex mods. As much as Spore was ahead of its time, it was not possible to change the animations of the 3D creatures, the game modes or the coding for me and my friends who were trying to expand Spore into a strategy game at the time. Without hacking the game build, there was, at least back then, no way for us to fundamentally change the game “Spore” into, say, an MMO or RTS game.
In this respect, it is possible to change Nimoyd further in another external tool than in the in-game editor I showed earlier. With this tool, which we call the “Modding Tool” (working title), you can basically change everything – from 3D props like trees to 3D characters like Nimoyd and the associated 3D animations. We are also expanding the system so that you can use LUA scripts to change not only the AI but also the camera and game modes. For example, if you plan to turn the game into a first-person game or an RPG, or a car racer, or an RTS, you will be able to do it, eventually. Think about Roblox, how it started, and where it got over time.
So, how do you create a simple asset?
Let's start with a simple asset. Let's say you want to create something pointless but entertaining. You do this in our editor.
We call this in-game editor “Template Mode.” (working title) You can use the normal “Building Mode”, which you use to build normally in the game, to switch directly to Template Mode, where each of your creations can be saved not on the terrain, but as an independent template. Here, you can access all assets of the building mode because you are normally in the game, even if certain buildings such as power plants, defense towers, or water pumps are, of course, restricted in template mode (currently) because you do not have to generate electricity while creating the template .
Once you have the template, you can create screenshots. So far so good. Although the template is now local to your hard drive, it is still far from visible to others. You can use it yourself in your game, but it is not yet usable for others. Yes, with these templates it should be possible to design entire cities, let's say if you don't feel like generated cities but would still like the cities you create by hand to be randomly placed.
How do I share my assets with others?
The next step is your own “asset store” or workshop, as we call them. Here you can see all assets created by others. The game “Nimoyd” is, technically speaking, also an “asset” (or mod), but strictly speaking it is so large and forms the basis of the asset store and the entire game that we specifically hide it, as each of your creations is essentially added to our “vanilla” asset – or replaces some of it. When you open the game, this is the moment these assets are downloaded.
In this overview, there is a button with which you can create an “asset”. By “asset,” we mean a mod, which is simply anything you use to change a game. Think an the Steam Workshop, where a Skyrim mod can be a single text change, but also a total overhaul of Skyrim with space whales and stormtroopers.
The rest should be self-explanatory. Name, images, categories, description.
What if you want to sell your assets?
Let's get to the price. You can offer every asset you create either for free, like in the game “Spore”, or for a price. Have you created a beautiful room or a fairytale castle? Wondering if anyone would want it for $1? Why not try it out?
We're still fine-tuning this feature for a number of important reasons, not just Steam and payments. Internet, hackers, scammers. But the idea behind paid content, which we know from Minecraft or Roblox, is that Spore missed something here. If it encourages creators to create bigger and better content, then it's cool for all of us. If it keeps the community active for years and doesn't fizzle out like Spore's initial success, it's cool as long as it's not abused.
By the way, one reason why we have the Asset Store and do not use the Steam Workshop is the ease of use of our system. For the normal gamer who can't code or doesn't feel like coding or technical details, our modding system is simply easier to use than Steam Workshop. Steam is cool, obviously, compared to no modding at all. But ease of use is not one of the Steam Workshop's strengths, not least because it has to be compatible with tens of thousands of games.
What if I want to replace all of Nimoyd's 3D models?
Depending on how successful the game is, we will continue to expand our external modding tool, for example so that you can convert the game into an MMO. The reason for this lies, frankly, in our team size.
However, at the moment we are already using our modding tool every day to modify our own game with new 3D models, animations, tools, weapons, armor or translations. Yes. Nimoyd is, strictly speaking, a very large and comprehensive “vanilla mod” (or “vanilla” asset) of our modding system.
Two things about this:
On the one hand, you can change the game openly, for example by changing descriptions or the attack values of an axe, in CSV file format. The file is then modified.
Let's say you want to swap the character Nimoyd for a talking horse. You can do that then. We use the common Unity formats for this, and you have to take a few game structures into account based on the results of our game. Furthermore, it is very easy.
On the other hand, your changes need to be uploaded to our cloud so that your change is recognized as a separate “asset” in the Asset Store that we saw earlier. To do this, you use an extension that we built for our modding tool. In the screenshot you can see buttons like “Commit” and versioning, which are so easy to use that one of our non-techie artists uses them every day.
Yes, we are building on Unity. Since Nimoyd uses Unity, it was obvious that the modding tool that is supposed to handle 3D models and other assets that come into the game later is also Unity. You don't need a Unity license for this. A free version is sufficient.
What else did we do?
In the video devlog you can see that we are of course working on a number of other things that are important for the gameplay. I have therefore added a lot of funny videos of normal bugs, but also of multiplayer bugs, to this devlog.
With the release date just a few months away, stability and optimization are the focus.
When is the release? Steam Next Fest?
I originally wanted us to feature Nimoyd at the Steam Next Fest in February 2024. But our new marketing people were tough on it. Why? Time for press, streamers, public. Of course it makes sense, but I still think it's a shame because I wanted to show an alpha demo so slowly.
However, we will be at the next Steam Next Fest in July 2024.
And a few weeks later we will probably release it on Steam. Hey.
Therefore: Over the next few weeks I will gradually reveal and explain further game features.
Update August 2023 - Game Footage, Biomes, Hoverboard, Transporation and Release
Hi guys,
Welcome to our August 2023 devlog in which I share finally some game footage again:
For this devlog, I believe, it is better to check the YouTube video, since it gives a brief overview of the visuals, many features in progress.
Now that we reached a point where I can share more game footage, not only a trailer is in the making, but we prepare for the 2024 launch. I also plan to tell more about the building system in the next devlog. And from there, you can expect a devlog again every 4-8 weeks, like in the past. Yes, moving forward fast now. Yes, release in 2024 because obviously the game is still not stable yet. But it looks great and it is getting better every day, slowly but steadily, with a large scope, tbh.
Cheers, Rafael ;)
New Voxel Cities, Player Buildings, Aliens - Devlog Oct 2022
Hey everyone,
how are you doing?
Well, originally, I thought this devlog would be about a nice introduction to our lore, story universe, and factions. But after questions about the buildings arose on Discord, I’ve changed it. Because it is a good question. After all, the game changed visually. So, let’s do the following: I’ll talk later briefly about the lore and a few factions, but we’ll let’s start with an update on the “voxel cities”, as well as on the “player buildings” and the new building system. Because why not, and it is cool anyway.
Video Devlog
As usual, you can find this devlog also as a YouTube video here too:
Voxel Cities
The voxel engine improvements are an ongoing process, largely due to optimization and to make the voxel style look better.
It means we do not only improve the overall lighting and shading, the “see-through system” (which occludes wall when you enter a building), but also the overall look and feel of the voxels. For that matter, you’ll notice round voxel edges on the terrain ground. However, non-terrain voxels are still supposed to have no round edges, i.e., tables or doors.
You can still enter these buildings, construct your buildings in the building editor (and share your creations with your friends or strangers). Those buildings are the place where you also meet the NPCs, encounter quests, and some bad guys. The voxel cities work the same as the dungeons but let’s talk about the dungeons another time.
However, it takes time to alter all the building textures to non-pixel-art textures. You may have noticed the difference. The texture look is cleaner and of higher resolution now. Since every faction has its city theme, well, that takes time. But I will update you on not only the old city themes but the new factions as well, such as the African, Japanese or Chinese factions or the evil alien faction (which has a distinctive look and feel to their voxel cities).
Player Buildings
The player buildings, such as crafting stations, factories, or even farm buildings, were previously non-voxel buildings. Now, switching to full 3D allowed for a major change here.
I’ve pitched the idea to introduce production lines, power, and water systems, as well as a transportation system to the game. You now connect these buildings. A factory requires not only a power supply but also certain resources and items, which in turn have to be transported via the transportation tubes.
And everything remains destructible in a voxel-based world with custom-made cities. As you can imagine, this proved to be challenging because once your visible area moves elsewhere, what happens to all your production building “voxels” that are invisible? The game world is, after all, dynamic and can change at any time. In multiplayer, it can change even by other players. Minecraft modders, for instance, had to come up with a somewhat workaround for this problem. And we found our solution based on graph theory, by the way. So, a bit of computer science brain juice there.
But overall, working on and with the new building system excited us. It opens so many new possibilities. Imagine running transportation tubes across long distances, from a distant underground mine to the surface factory, to the cities which require certain items to be delivered! It is one of those features where the switch to full 3D showed its strengths and opened new opportunities to make Nimoyd more unique and distinctive.
This part of the game I will explain in future devlogs in detail because building your city (or village or base) now became the center of Nimoyd.
Aliens and Magic
Unfortunately, this devlog section had to be shortened this time, and I will present every faction in detail in future devlogs, but what I can tell is: Nimoyd started originally as a non-pixel-art 2D game with a comic and quite some worldbuilding.
Initially, my idea for the Nimoyd universe was a universe with a few factions – each distinctive, a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, like in the old 1980s TV shows and films. All play in 2702 on Earth but have a different arc perspective on the events, which in turn allows the player to play each time differently. As of now, it is 11 factions. Some factions are natural enemies, which in turn opens up several new mission types, as well as general faction goals.
At the center of the lore is alien colonization starting in 2702. The Oyo faction, the friendly alien faction, lands on Earth to colonize it. But surprisingly, some human factions still existed at that time, though they went through some hardship in the past (it is a post-apocalyptic game, after all) and seem to be stuck at the tech level of the 20th century, except for one more tech-heavy faction. Not only that, but the planet also changed, with demonic creatures coming to the surface and at night, with elves-like factions (the Wardens) having cities. And in the middle of it, the planet’s biomes are slowly turning into a toxic dark biome, slowly but steadily, every night, one piece at a time.
Depending on what hero or heroine you choose and which faction you play, your task will be either to enforce the colonization, to defend against the alien colonization, or to fight the Underlord and his minions who seem to be behind that toxic dark biome. As an average human, you will need to find a solution that fits to your faction – and one human faction, the Naga (Maya-like green-skinned humans with pyramids) have allied with the Underlord, while others reject all magic and aliens (like the Alliance faction, which is an undemocratic steampunk-ish Western-like faction). Not to mention all the other human factions that may have other goals. And, as a player, you can, of course, try to appease multiple factions or to play one faction against another.
Questions
In the video devlog, I also answer a few frequently asked questions as a form of QA – questions and answers round. The questions are:
- Release date? Mid to late 2023. Yes, largely due to the visual changes. But also improvements.
- Mobile? Still a thing but we focus first on PC, then consoles, and then mobile.
- Paid or free-to-play? Paid. But more on that when the time is due (because I know that a few folks would like to see some form of backer tier system where they get access to goodies, such as beta access, or, uh, the Nimoyd board game *when it is done* or the Nimoyd novel, or those self-made mini figures we did a long time ago *cough*). But, for the average player, it will be an Early Access paid release in mid to late 2023, and we'll see about everything else in time.
- Steam achievements? Yep. I plan to do a poll among the beta testers in 2023 for achievement ideas. Most achievements need to come from the community once you play the game yourself.
See you in December or late November! :)
Cheers, Rafael @imlikeeh
What if you replace all pixel art with 3D? - Devlog April 2022
Hey folks,
So many things have happened since last summer! First, we have an investor, a huge one. The game has changed visually, as you can see below or on the video devlog here:. The visual shift from 3D-with-2D-pixel-art to full 3D art is a bit of work, and consequently the team grew from 4-5 to roughly 30 people. But maybe, before we dive into the visual changes in Nimoyd, let’s talk about last summer, because that’s where all that new jazz and magic has its roots.
Last Summer
Summer 2021 was interesting, firstly because many of you played the pre-alpha demo at the Steam Next Festival back then. We had a decent success with our demo, with a few thousand users wishlisting us on a single day. I believe that Steam wishlists are overrated, but it is a neat indicator of player’s interest, right? In addition, we received over a thousand comments, emails, and questions in just a few days, with not only bug reports (thanks for the patience, by the way) but also ideas and suggestions on how to improve our little game here.
As you can probably imagine, those weeks were exciting. And, at the same time, I was making several calls with dozens of investors and publishers. Yes: on top of bug fixing and talking to you on Discord, Facebook, Reddit, or Twitter, let’s not forget: we kept working on our game. If you recall, beginning in early 2021 roughly 40 investors and publishers—from all sizes, from tiny to huge—had shown an interest in Nimoyd. And their interest culminated in summer 2021, when they finally got their chance to play the game alongside all of you.
By the way, those investor talks were the reason why I couldn’t share much with you for a few months, because I did not know how the game might change: every investor and publisher had their own ideas on how Nimoyd should progress. Quite literally. Western publishers, for instance, do not care about the mobile industry, but have at times very strong opinions and “wishes” on how a game should be. Meanwhile, non-publishing investors, especially non-Western investors, appreciate a bigger mobile focus and do not intervene in the production or game design at all.
In the end, I decided to team up with the biggest investor, who is not a publisher, largely because we instantly “clicked”, so to speak. Especially, I felt that they understood quickly what I am aiming at, what a sandbox game is, what we are trying to achieve here (even when we were just a team of 4-5 back then!). And, well, let’s say that their size and level of professionalism felt good too—even though I have now learnt that a huge investor requires an extensive and time-consuming due diligence and legal process that has spread across multiple months, yep.
Visual Changes
So, how come we changed a 3D-with-2D-pixel-art game (catchy term) into a full 3D game? There is a story to that, and it was not an easy decision, as you can imagine. If I recall correctly, not many games have switched from 2D to 3D before release. If you do it at all, you usually do it after release, right? If you feel that the game’s a success. But before release, where you cannot even tell if the game will be cool to play?
We were discussing the upcoming features of Nimoyd, like multiplayer and mobile support, which we had wanted to support anyway, as you know, and I was asked what else I would like to do. I suppose, thinking back, that they imagined more animation, or maybe more story, but I said: ‘Well, what if we remove all pixel art and replace it with full 3D?’ I still remember the look on their faces (in Zoom, of course) and so I had to explain myself: show how the game engine works, how to do it. Because I felt that, although pixel art is great, it caused us so many issues: especially in animation, combat, and customization.
Nimoyd was previously 3D already, it’s just that we tried to make the game look as if it was 2D. Of course, as soon as you turned the camera, you understood that it is a 3D game, just with 2D billboards and 2D player characters in a 3D voxel terrain game. What that meant was that all 2D characters, trees, rocks…everything were actually a 3D object with a 3D collider (yes, no 2D colliders) in 3D space. What started as an interesting workaround when I stumbled into it for the first time across this mix of 2D-with-3D, edned up proving to be an issue regarding combat feel (rotating items), collision detection, weird looking character moments and growing animation expenses—because if you have 16 heroes with 1000+ items, you can only generalize and abstract those items so much, right?
It still took us multiple months of testing, prototyping, and concepting before I was absolutely sure that we could switch to full 3D. After all, ditching all 2D anims, assets, and pixel art UI is not only time-consuming but expensive. You are not only throwing away old assets, though admittedly we were back then a small team, you need to recreate all assets and more in full 3D, with an entirely new team of 3D designers and animators. However, by now, after we’ve tackled all kinds of asset types, I am very happy about the change. The game feels so much better, and certain parts are so much easier to code—literally. 2D item rotation or animation in a 3D voxel engine game is not cool, nor cool looking, when you have 16 hero characters.
Challenges
So, what else was a challenge? Now that it’s done, it is easy to talk about a new art style, but working under time pressure on a completely new art style for UI, 3D creatures, NPCs, etc., gave some team members extra chills and added to the stress of that important time period.
Interestingly, the UI proved to be less of an issue because, in the meantime, we had established a new style guide, so when we started to remove the pixel art UI parts the rest made sense quickly—though it is an ongoing process, and not all screens are done yet because we took the opportunity to improve certain UI screens at the same time. The NPC concepts worked out pretty nicely too. I was aiming specifically for a painted, kind-of-Blizzard-like texturing, without adding as many details to the characters as Diablo 3 does it, in comparison. The buildings and many obstacles like trees and stones also were fairly easy.
The most difficult redesign was the creatures, though. Not only did we have an interesting mix of creature designs before, but keeping the creatures friendly and cute-yet-not-too-cute was an interesting challenge—and those did undergo a few iterations before they finally made sense to us. And, we hope, to you as well.
Another concept that worked beautifully in pixel art was the buildings. Buildings are still in progress, for a few reasons—including how building, farming, etc., have become more interesting now—, but the challenging part here is to make those buildings fit our creatures, trees, and player characters too.
Gameplay
I will talk more in detail about the gameplay improvements in the following months. However, I could share a few insights already. First off, yes, the game will be multiplayer (it is multiplayer already; not perfect yet, sure, but it is fine). Secondly, we plan a mobile release. I will talk about this in a few months but I plan to release the game both on PC and mobile at the same time, think Genshin Impact or, uh, Minecraft? Basically, I imagine us building some stuff on PC—only then to pick up Nimoyd on your phone in your bed, or on your sofa, to play it with your friends on mobile. Or something like that, but you are getting the idea.
A few bigger changes orbit around the survival and sandbox genre. Yes, the game is still a sandbox, an obviously pretty big one, but I grew a little tired of survival games recently. I mean, so many survival games came out in recent years, right? Therefore, I’ve rearranged some parts of the game design to the better, and to make the game more unique in the long term, since we plan to work on this game for multiple years after the release—yes, it is that type of game.
In this regard, there are a few exciting gameplay and game design changes which make Nimoyd more unique and special but I’d say: let’s talk about those in a few months—with actual gameplay footage.
Release
With such big visual changes in the making, what about the release then? I believe that the release will be either late 2022 or early 2023, depending a little on our investor. Even though we have total creative freedom here, you never know how the next 12 months may develop. And, as mentioned, PC and mobile; or PC first, depending on how it goes.
I also want to say that the past months were not only exciting, but that I am very proud of our team. It is to me astonishing what we have achieved so far: self-funded, from a tiny team (it started with just the two of us), which then grew to 4-5 team members in 2021, to now a team of 30 in 2022? That’s something for sure. Growing to such a team size is not without a risk, but I have to say that, so far, we’re doing great, and the game feels better and better every day.
Talk to you soon! I plan to do devlogs either every 4 or 8 weeks, we’ll see!
First off, big thanks for your comments, suggestions, and reports regarding the alpha demo.
It is a surprise how fast our small community is growing. The last time I’ve checked it was 500-800 wishlists per day which is pretty cool for a small indie studio without a publisher. I’m glad to have you with us! Thank you so much. Yes, that number will decrease soon but it's very cool already. :)
Secondly, in this news post, I’d like not only to answer a few frequent questions but also to tell what was fixed, changed, and added in the past few days. I did not want to spam Steam with daily build updates, after all, it is just an alpha demo build, so here we are.
BUILD UPDATE
A few takeaways of what has changed in the past few days. You’ll find the detailed build changelog below, and also in the actual game (Start screen, press F2 for Changelog).
· UI: As you’ve probably noticed, we keep updating the game to a lighter UI design, screen by screen. We’ve improved so far the Start screen, World Creation, Hero Creation, Chest and Inventory, Recipes, Building Details, as well as the Character screen. Yes, this Alpha demo is a real in-development demo, so you actually see what is on our daily table too.
· Lighting: We’ve improved the shading and lighting further. Not only the 3D voxel buildings throw a soft shadow with soft voxel edges now, but we’ve been also working hard to make the 2D sprite billboards (trees, stones, obstacles, grass) throw 3D shadows too, which then have to look similar to the 3D buildings. We have someone on the team who is quite familiar to you if you ever played an HQ Shader Pack before. But more on him in the next post update. He’s helping us to make Nimoyd, over time, more AAA!
· Balancing: Some balancing regarding the OP Proton tool (which is a mid to late game tool that replaces the Pickaxe tool, and for testing ended up in early game), but also tweaks related to the NPC attack waves. I’ve also re-added exhaustion again (tiny constant energy loss), to see how it feels to you guys. Yes, actions still cost Energy but now a small Energy loss occurs in the background, piling up to maybe some -0.6 Energy per hour (1 h in-game = 60 seconds in real-life). So, it’s 14.4 Energy per day in-game. It reflects natural exhaustion. I will probably crank it up a little more, depending on how it feels. After all, games like Stardew Valley lose Energy only on actions, while typical survival games have constant food and/or water loss for good reasons.
· Fixes: Aside from that, it’s been 25-30 fixes in a few days now, from small to bigger ones. If you are interested in it, maybe check the changelog below as it may be less exciting for most of us.
FREQUENT QUESTIONS
· What about multiplayer? Why is there a multiplayer button? Multiplayer is coming, just not now. We’ve stopped working on multiplayer a few months ago, simply due to our team size, when I’ve felt that singleplayer will be more important for an alpha demo. But it’s coming, probably in a few months.
· What about mobile? This is a very frequent question. To many of you guys, maybe not on Steam, but on Facebook, Nimoyd seems to look like the perfect mobile game. Mobile is coming too. We did not announce anything yet but we get it stable and cool on PC and consoles first, and then mobile, unless we team up with a publisher who throws so much money at us that we change these plans. But so far we’re still self-funded and independent, so we have to make priorities.
· What about those publishers? Still in progress. I’ll tell more about that, the release date, and other details, as soon as we’ve made a decision which will be likely in a few months. Because, of course, all the publishers I’m talking to have their own ideas on how to release Nimoyd.
· How to report bugs and suggestions? You can either use the in-game reporting tool (Stomt), by pressing F10. I’m always checking Stomt. Or, you report in our bug reports channel on our Discord server. Link for Discover above, and in the game. Or, you could simply write me an e-mail which I’m reading: support@nimoyd.com
· The game is too easy! The game is too hard! Yes, both. Please keep in mind that it is an alpha demo of a complex game with lots of generated content. It is really still in development, with many improvements, and lots of balancing.
· What is this Backer thing? We’ve been talking about a potential Backer reward system on our Discord for a few months now. Some players also asked if there’s a way to play the game long after the alpha demo, especially with the new features then, right? And with all features that are currently stable but not part of the demo, i.e. loading save files, or the creative mode (essentially allowing you to build your own stuff for hours). Therefore, I think what I’ll do today and tomorrow is setting up a backer page, using Humble Bundle widgets, which will allow you to pledge for different rewards tiers which will not only give you alpha and demo access. Of course, this is in good ‘ol Kickstarter fashion, only outside of Kickstarter, so as always, you can talk to me about everything, as some of you probably have noticed in the past months already. Yay. ;)
· How long is the Steam demo available? Until 23 June. When the Steam event ends.
· What about translations to Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, etc.? It’s coming but not in an alpha demo. It’ll be available in the final game, and probably in some late beta version.
CHANGELOG
0.7.90
ui: world creator lighter design ui: chest and inventory lighter design ui: character screen lighter design ui: info regarding energy, xp, and gold loss after death ui: minor start screen improvement, and prep for backer system balance: shorten wave attacks balance: re-added exhaustion, tiny constant energy loss fix: improved ranged weapon handling fix: remove a few traits for now, causing issues fix: mini map rotates with the player cam fix: removed unsupported settings in demo settings ui fix: two crashes related to inventory checks fix: a number of minor issues fix: voxel and asset hp bar fix: improved invocation event handling fix: removed cook and mystic traits for now
0.7.88
fix: proton tool fixes and tweaks fix: bigger npc cities fix: player attacking npcs
0.7.87
ui: lighter hero creation screen design balance: locked by in item info jumps to item in recipes fix: sprite shadows fix: fungus expansion at night looking better fix: world map not always centered initially fix: npc ai combat improvement fix: encyclopedia fonts
0.7.86
lighting: added shadows to 2d voxel assets ui: start scene 'next update' info ui: recipes ui now lighter ui design ui: building details ui now lighter ui design fix: numerous fixes regarding gameplay fix: less mini map icons visible fix: show more governors fix: npcs will now shoot if you climb too high fix: no attack waves if player underground fix: flowers had wrong id fix: notes and help ui font fixes fix: hp energy bar update issue fix: remove 'doctor' and 'quest giver' as npcs fix: ui bottom grid issue when items disappear fix: disable debug keys in build fix: mech hit by pickaxe had no hp fix: sepia shaders in recipes ui fix: ai combat behaviour improvement
Next demo build update either tonight (CEST), or tomorrow. It’s almost every day now. Tomorrow is also a content update where we’re adding a new city theme to the game. And, who knows, maybe we’ll add even another city theme next week before the demo goes offline.
I’ll keep you updated about that backer thing! ;)
Cheers, Rafael @imlikeeh
Nimoyd Alpha Demo Released. Check it now, before it's too late!
Hey
Please check out the new alpha build on our Steam page! Download the demo using the demo button.
It is an alpha build, so if you encounter bugs or issues, do not freak out, please ːsteamhappyː but simply report it using Stomt in-game, or tell us about it via e-mail (support@nimoyd.com), and I'll look into it.
We will update it now on a daily basis for as long the demo is available.
Devlog 6: Steam Game Festival, Dungeon, and Archaeology
Hey
It’s been a while since the last devlog, so let’s get straight to the good news. Good news is that a Steam demo is coming in a few weeks. Yay.
Another good news is that we’ve been busy last months so much because I’ve been contacted by ~36 publishers? All sizes. It kept us busy. But we're still independent, and self-funded. No decision yet. Still cool.
Also, this devlog exists as a video as well on Youtube, here:
[previewyoutube="qYLIm7XHvyU;leftthumb"]
DUNGEONS
In this devlog, I’d like to start with dungeons.
I’ve been asked many times how extensive our dungeons are, how they work, what their purpose in the game are which is a great question, especially if we have generated cities at the same time, right? I am very much into dungeon crawlers myself, especially the old ones, so I’ve always planned to add “some kind of dungeon system” into Nimoyd.
We’ve managed to create not only tall cities, fully destructible, but those dark dungeons filled with riddles and loot are generated too – and fully destructible as well (so far). It means, our procedurally generated dungeons are quite extensive and unique too, and practically serve as their own game. You need a key to enter the dungeon. You need to craft that key. Then you go down, down, down, and return to the surface with some new shiny stuff and whatnot. And there are plenty of dungeons on each planet. And dungeons even have gods which might take revenge!
Do those dungeons have end bosses? Not yet.
What about loot? Yes, loot is there.
What about enemies? Yes, with enemies, though not well balanced yet, of course.
TUTORIALS
Tutorials might be not the sweetest game feature, but I believe that it is important to properly explain and show the game to the new players, especially those who are not familiar with survival and sandbox games. So, we’ve added more tutorials, messages, explanations, tooltips, and help functions to the game, allowing you to learn the game faster.
I’ve never been a fan of games that force you to keep a wiki open, in the case you’re wondering where a certain item or resource is from or dropped by whom. So, we’ve added even an Encyclopedia to the game which, hopefully, supports the tutorial system during those early game phases where you learn the basics, and slowly move towards the advanced stuff.
STRANGE BIOMES
Fungus is a special biome in the game because it is dynamic. It is, kind of, “alive”, and has its own game mechanic, so it is not just another terrain biome such as forest or desert. And since last time, we’ve greatly improved its appearance, so now the Fungus biome looks even cooler.
By the way, Fungus is bound to the goddess of nature, Gaia. If you pray to Gaia, as seen below, you help her and your planet to recover from the Fungus menace. But more on the Fungus mechanic another time in the future.
SCALE OF VOXEL WORLD
Another question sometimes asked is, how many cities are there? How far are those from each other? The following footage hopefully gives you an impression of how big the world can become. The more you “discover”, the more icons and NPC locations will appear on the world map. But you can seamlessly zoom between those locations, and eventually uncover the whole planet.
I also plan to add an Earth-shaped planet to the game. That would be cool. Earth, in 2702, where you can visit past New York City or London.
CLAIM TERRITORY
An interesting game feature is the “Claim” building. It allows you to “claim” NPC territory for yourself, essentially making it possible for you to “conquer the planet” – and to upset the NPCs.
The conquest of the planet is one of the “victory conditions” which I will discuss next devlog. Because, as we can imagine, lots of players simply wish to farm and play a life sim, and there are victory conditions for those in the game too.
NPC factions react hostile to territorial claims, and the closer it is to their territories, or even within, the worse. But in the video, I’m showing how easy it is to claim areas. Of course, over time, we’ll expand this feature, adding turrets and other defensive measures, to make this more fun, especially in multiplayer (as soon as multiplayer is done).
LET’S GO INSIDE
A question that is asked from time to time is how a building looks from the inside. Lots of games do fancy buildings in 3D, but aren’t procedurally generated buildings tricky? Yes, it was one of the hardest game features, actually; it is not perfect yet but hopefully, the footage below helps you to see what we’ve been able to achieve so far.
Each building can be entered. By “building” I mean, in this case, everything that has a roof, so caves, player-made “hills”, or simple cottages, or even a player-made “voxel tent”, too.
The goal is to make it easier, and easier to use so that house decoration in good ‘ol life sim fashion is a cool thing to do in Nimoyd.
ARCHAEOLOGY
I always found that many survival games become not only a little boring in mid to late games, but their lack of storytelling (and storytelling features) made me feel as if something was missing. Obviously, storytelling in a procedurally generated game is not an easy challenge but I’ve been wondering for a long time how to solve this issue, aside from some NPCs with quests.
Therefore, a feature that we slowly add to the game now is different “archaeology” or “excavation” mechanics. Basically, sometimes you stumble across sites or buildings that are excavations. You spend resources on them, then they proceed. Each excavation site has multiple phases. When you reach the final step, it finally reveals the final reward to you. But it also tells you a story in each phase. So, hopefully, this becomes eventually a cool feature.
OUTRO
I hope this was an interesting read. I try to create the next devlog in 1-2 weeks, where I talk about the other features. Until then, I hope that you enjoy the rest of the day. Do not forget to like this post. And if you like, you can join our Discord, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, where I’m sharing more info on a more regular basis.
