As always thank for you the question we get in Discord, here are some answers to a few that we picked out for this week's FAQ Friday!
Will there be underwater content? Certainly not at launch, as it's expensive both in terms of cost & resources in the scope of the Early Access launch.
In the lore of Smalland, the Smallfolk have been living underground and this is the first time they have encountered large bodies of water, and thus, they can't swim.
It is something that we may revisit in the future though...
Is it possible to join a faction side? For example, join the spider or wasps or ants and more? You can work with whatever faction you like, and each will have its own rewards and benefits based on its traits. Dev Diary 2 gives you a little more information here as well.
Is there any place where I can see what the different "classes" will be? There are no classes as such, but you adapt your playstyle using different armour types and weapons, allowing you to stylise or combine abilities from different species of creatures.
It's that most wonderfully spooky time of the year again and we just happen to have a very interesting NPC to introduce you to...The Witch.
You'll find The Witch inhabiting a more sinister-looking part of Smalland, a little darker and more dangerous than other areas you may have visited.
If you wish to follow the trail of breadcrumbs, then here's Kev to tell you more...
[previewyoutube="7Oj9LtTBRZw;full"]
Creature Feature #8 - The Ghost Ant
Hey Smallfolk!
When the vast lands of the small are lit only by moonlight, a mysterious creature ventures out of hiding. Little is known about the Ghost Ant, but let's see what the Pathfinders' recorded in their journals when they first observed them.
The Ghost Ant The Ghost Ants move like shadows, appearing and striking without warning before vanishing. As with all Ants they work in unison but where they come from and where they return to I have yet to discover. From what little I have seen, these secretive creatures keep to themselves and forge their own self-reliant path taking only what they need. They also show no fear and are willing and able to take down much larger predators and defy incredible odds.
These creatures will strike then disappear like phantoms, but I shall continue to try and reach out to these noble creatures.
Another round of questions from the community that we wanted to provide some answers to!
When the demo is released will we be able to play with friends? It was a hard decision to push the demo back, but we're excited to talk more about this soon and let you know when we'll be making this available. We can say however that yes, absolutely you will be able to play with friends!
I am interested in testing Smalland. Is there any chance to get access to play? Thanks. We tend to run most beta testing across our games through Discord, so joining the Smalland Discord is the best place to be to jump on any testing opportunities. We have had a couple of closed testing sessions so far, and it's not unlikely that there will be more in the future as player feedback is absolutely vital to us.
Will there be mounted combat? Yes, but not all mounts can attack, some have other specific purposes and bonuses...
Dragonflies are fast and can move across water at great speed but have no attack. Grasshoppers are able to leap huge distances, although not overly accurately, and they can also attract danger as they are a lizards favourite snack so look before you leap! The Hornet is a mighty steed and although difficult to obtain, its powerful stinger and resistance to certain venoms give it a clear advantage over many creatures, but not all.
Thanks again and we'll be back to dive into more questions soon!
If you've ever been bitten by one I'm sure you'll be well acquainted with the troublesome red ant, but what did the first Pathfinders make of them? Let's find out!
The Red Ant Unlike their cousins, the fiery Red Ants are aggressive; attacking and striking in waves with what looks like blind aggression but under closer inspection, from a safe distance, is definitely organised. They will take rather than build, conquer rather than nurture, and initially appear both angry and savage. However, they still display tactics and are not purely barbaric, studying them carefully I have discovered aggression and fear is their ally, and they are keen to make examples of smaller foes but are not particularly brave.
This arrogant display of anger does have some merit, but I am not convinced is a sustainable or overly useful tactic.
You will no doubt want to keep an eye open for any sign of the aggressive red ant when you are wandering through Smalland!
We bring you the Pathfinders' notes on a creature that many fear encountering out in the wilds of Smalland, the spider...
Read on to see what the Pathfinders thought of these fearsome creatures.
The Spider Deadly Hunters able to stalk their prey, the Spiders are incredibly hard to kill and extremely deadly due to their speed and venomous fangs.
Sharing the same territory, each Spider prepares their personal domain and marks it with webbings and macabre trophies, as anything they defeat they eat. I can think of very few fates worse than being captured by a Spider.
They never retreat from their domain and prey upon anything that crosses their path, it makes no difference if a trespasser is smaller or larger than themselves, and they are prepared to fight one another to the death. But what lies beyond those veiled webs? What are they guarding? We must find out.
Will you face the fearsome spider head-on when you come face to face, or will you avoid them at all costs?
We don’t like to share these updates with you, but with community being at the heart of Smalland we wanted to share with you as soon as we made a decision.
Update on Early Access release & the Demo
We have conducted some closed testing sessions recently which have provided so much wonderful feedback. This testing has shown us that there’s more we want to do before we throw open the gates to Smalland. We won't rush anything out.
There’s two pieces of news to share, one is that the demo will not be coming in October, and the other is that the Early Access release is going to move out of 2021.
We are committed to bringing a demo out for Smalland and we’re excited to give players a taste of what awaits them, but the timeline for this is determined by when we’re confident in what we want to show you rather than placing another date in the calendar to work towards. Rest assured we’ll share more as soon as we can.
Both moves are explained by the same motive, which is that we don’t want to put Smalland out until we’re 100% confident. We’re committed to the community and to delivering the experience that you are looking for in Smalland. This is the first internally developed game from Merge Games, and whilst the decision to move anything is never taken lightly, we know that it’s the right thing to do.
Moving Forward
There are various levels of testing and QA underway as development continues and we want to thank the community for the support and patience in taking the Smalland journey with us. If you haven’t already, please consider joining the Discord to hear about any future testing opportunities that may arise, you can find the Discord server at https://discord.gg/smalland
We’ve had an open approach to the development process and always aim to share our progress with you via community posts, dev diary videos and just hanging with the community in Discord. This will continue and we invite you to continue the journey with us until Smalland is everything we want it to be and we’re ready to welcome you into our huge, tiny world.
We can’t wait to do this with you, but we’re 100% committed to doing it right.
Much love,
The Smalland Team.
Dev Diary #7 - The Elder
Hey Smallfolk!
We are delighted to welcome concept artist, Sasha Sanfok, to the Smalland Dev Diary series!
Sasha has been a key component of the character design in Smalland, so who better to introduce you to The Elder.
Getting the design of The Elder just right was really important to us, so join Sasha to have a look at the process behind his character design.
As always, be sure to let us know what you think! [previewyoutube="A7QaPhCavmA;full"]
We have some great questions to dive into this week! Let's get into it...
Will you be able to pick a certain map to play on? Because we saw a pool, some gnomes, a forest, and a desert. So can you pick which one to play on? Smalland is one big map, no loading between areas. The biomes are quite diverse for different reasons but make up a bigger sandbox game world for you to play in. It takes a while but all the areas you’ve called out are connected, you just have to work out how you’re going to get to each one safely.
Is there a way you can give a brief summary of how our inventory is going to function? We have three categories; Your Quest and Logs which is all the info about what you are doing and why as you create your own narrative. Then there’s everything about your Character, so info such as the current state of your weapons, armour, health, hunger, temperature, dehydration. And then there’s everything Crafting related.
We have a unified theme but have also tried to distinguish each category at a glance so that each looks and feels intuitive.
With the building of shelters and homes being a large part of the player's role in Smalland, what sort of games have inspired the system you guys want to use for building? E.g in Sims and the forest you can place down and extend walls, but in Ark you place them piece by piece (as far as I'm aware) It's a bit of everything really, so different games make their decisions on different gameplay loops, which may look similar but are actually done for very different reasons. For us, the example above is more like Ark, as it's about detail and personalisation, not getting things down quickly. We have camp items that you need for survival that are quick to use, and your overall goal is to build a place for your people in the safety of the trees which takes longer. But you can also build whatever you like wherever is deemed safe. So this all fits within your goals and progression.
One thing to mention is that we have never liked elements that hinder progression with no risk and reward. A great example of this is putting a wall down in the wrong place, it disrupts the flow but also costs resources to remove and re-build. It’s not fun (in our opinion), and as we have a heavy focus on exploration, collecting the resources is where the core gameplay lies, and building is more focused on personalisation with progression elements. So if you destroy something you have built, you get a full refund of resources.
Initially, we were worried that this may not go down to well with hardcore survival players, but we think is a much better experience….and then Valheim came along and had the same idea, and everyone likes it, which is great, everyone wins :)
Thanks, everyone, we'll go and find some more of your excellent questions for next time!
Let's explore another of the early Pathfinder reports of the creatures waiting to be discovered in Smalland.
The Snail The Snail is a curious creature, they graze slowly and then move slowly around. To where I do not know, it seems they take life at their own pace. Unfortunately, they act as a keen source of food for some of the bigger Creatures as they are unable to retreat with any kind of haste, not that they seem overly panicked when confronted.
I have successfully befriended a Snail where it followed me around for several days, at a very slow pace of course, but other than that they are seemingly content with their lot in life and don't appear to be too concerned about appearing near the bottom of the food chain.
As always we look forward to sharing more snippets of life in Smalland with you, stay tuned for more!
