We would like to thank everyone who participated in the Ragtag Crew playtest. Every feedback is valuable for us! If you missed it then here is the information: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/882590/view/2987556908482720494 Today we're going to talk a little bit about our design philosophy — "decisions should matter".
Ability Power is a simple example. Currently, it enhances your character's abilities and makes no difference between them. What if we split it into three types: one for Elimination, one for Maneuver, and one for Support?
On the one hand, it expands the number of possibilities: now we can have specialized equipment for each category. On the other hand, it reduces the number of meaningful decisions taken during the run.
Example: The player acquires a shiny new item that improves all Support abilities. Who should get it? No need to think twice if the Technomancer is the only crew member who can use Support. In combat, she can also use Maneuvers. But why would the player do that when her Support abilities are now much stronger?
In both of these cases, the player technically has a choice. Not a very interesting one, though, since one option is objectively better than the other. We try our best to keep the number of such situations to a minimum.
Playtest update with sounds and difficulty levels!
Hello, adventurer!
Our work is in full swing, and we have prepared an update for the version available to everyone for playtesting! Also, the playtest is now open — to gain access to the game, you no longer need to wait for an email, but immediately after pressing this button
you can click PLAY MOW
What's new:
Sounds and music
Russian localization
Added difficulty levels
Please, after playing the game, share your impressions:
Let's get to know available personalities. This is one of two characteristics you have to pick when creating a new crew member. Personality defines starting skills and determines how the character sees the world and interacts with it. It also applies to the manner of speech, reactions to events, starting relationships etc. Each personality comes with positive and negative traits, affecting events and battles.
Daredevil
Brave and always ready to fight. The rest of you aren’t? Well, that’s your problem.
Egghead
Smart and arrogant. He/She knows many things and won’t hesitate to share the knowledge… after he/she’s done laughing at your stupidity.
Eye Catcher
A charming smooth-talker who likes attention so much, He/she’d give away his/her last shirt. Which isn’t always in your best interest.
Hermit
A pacifist who travels with a Giant Lizard and resents fighting. Guess what your party will be doing on a daily basis?
Lone Wolf
A cautious loner. Vigilance is useful, but why travel with a company if you hate company?
Thank you very much for your participation and interest in the game, you really inspire us! ːsteamhappyː
F.A.Q. about us and our game's development
Hello to all scavengers! We decided to collect answers to the most frequent questions and made a F.A.Q.:
We told about the team, the development process and our inspiration. If you have more questions — feel free to ask in the discussions and comments, we will answer! The fastest communication with developers in our Discord: https://discord.gg/H5K2rAVJSa
Hooray! We have the Discord server now: https://discord.gg/H5K2rAVJSa Join, take friends with you and let's make a COMMUNITY! We'll share devlogs, more details about the lore and answer all the questions. Grrrr!
We have added a trailer!
Hello, everyone! Wild DEVLOG appeared! (ok, not exactly)
We have some good news: our first trailer is finally here! It features stellar music created by our composer Zack Parrish.
Check it out!
[previewyoutube="NyB_RIHGG18;full"]
Devlog: Status
Hello, everyone!
We think we weren’t transparent enough with the overall progress of our game, so we wanted to give you a heads up.
Here’s the overall status:
Code - about 90% is done. All the core mechanics of the game are in place, but we still need to fix all the bugs and add quality of life features.
Art - about 90% is done. Most of the art for the game is there, but we’re still working on the end game content.
Music - about 25% finished. We have recently found a great composer and started adding music tracks to the game.
Sound effects - about 20% finished. We have recently found a nice sound designer, who’s helping us to bring Ragtag Crew to life.
As you can see we have started looking into the music/sound not that long ago. That’s the main reason we haven’t posted a trailer yet. We’re working on it though.
Currently, Ragtag Crew is in the content-adding stage. How much of it is done?
Content progress:
Creatures (50+ in the game) - 90% complete. Most of the creatures are finished, some still require animation and polishing though.
Abilities (50 in the game) - 90% complete. All abilities are done, but we’re still tweaking them for balance purposes. Maybe we’ll add more?
Equipment (60+ in the game) - 90% complete. Some icons are still not donel and we may add more items before release.
Events (114 done) - 63% complete. We’re trying to make a lot of different outcomes and interesting twists for our events, so the replayability is high.
What are the big things we still need to do before releasing the game?
A bunch more events.
Music and sound effects.
Unlocks system.
Balancing for all difficulties.
More testing, bug fixing, and other small changes to make the game better.
Localization. Currently, we’re mostly focused on the English and Russian text, but we’ll need to add more languages.
Hope it answers the questions about our progress. See you soon, remember to stay alert in the desert!
Hello, everyone! Today, we will tell you about the companions you can find during the journey.
Aside from the three characters you pick at the beginning of the game, one more misfit can join the crew. Obtaining one can be quite an undertaking: events with companions are rare and may require special circumstances.
It's worth it, though! Ally will accompany you in battles, heal during rests, and sometimes help with events. There is a catch: if the companion dies during combat, you cannot revive them. They are gone forever! You're responsible for those you have tamed.
Different allies have different abilities. We will showcase some of them in the future. And for now, stay alert in the desert!
Finally, we have some good news: we’re working on the game again. Expect more devlogs to come in January. We’re sorry for the delay: one of the devs got arrested and beaten up during the protests. Now he’s out and feeling better, so we’ll start working on the game with full force.
