To recap the last the weeks, I've got a fancy video for you:
We're excited for Witch's Eve over here and Patreon supports will get an extra week! Michael has also been streaming twice a week and he's been working on finishing up the first set of skill trees to be released. He'll be tackling Steam achievements shortly.
Thanks for stopping by,
Janna & Michael
Fishing 1.7.2 & Roadmap
Happy Friday, friends!
Today is a special Friday. It's been exactly THREE years since Swords 'n Magic and Stuff was launched here on Steam! Happy anniversary! We've added a couple of lore books around Tirawyn in honor of this anniversary. Thanks to you all for sticking around and coming back with updates. We also have a patch for you all. Before we get to the patch notes, we have a few announcements.
First, our updated roadmap:
The items on here are the priorities for those timeframes. That's not to say we won't be working on other things in the background (like those much anticipated dungeons). Some features will just take an unknown amount of time so we don't want to squeeze them into a timeframe that we don't for sure know will work.
Next, we're hosting a game jam! It's been a year or so since our last one, and this one is completely different than anything we've done before. This one will last three weeks and has a unique theme. Michael is planning on streaming during this so if you catch a stream and wonder why it's not Swords 'n Magic, don't worry! We love doing game jams to get the creative juices flowing and step back from the current problem at hand to get a clear perspective. We'll still be working on the coming Fall updates.
Lastly, patch notes!
New:
Lore books
Improved:
Fishmonger mail saves between sessions
Leader board saves between sessions
Added the fishing tutorial to more actions to ensure players get it
Leader boards now display your best fish, not every fish you’ve caught
Fixed:
Description on a special guppy
Resetting mount points no longer changes the mount back to level 1
Community chests are no longer named “Fishmonger’s Chest”
Bonnie now restocks all of her shop daily
Players will no longer see messages for other people fishing in spots they can't fish
Sold out signs now show properly on new shops
Known Bugs:
In multiplayer, clients (not the host) won't see current fishing records. We're working on this, but didn't want to delay the patch even longer since it's a minor bug. Thanks for your patience!
Fishing Update 1.7.1
Hey there, adventurers! It's finally time!
We're excited to announce this long awaited feature and we think you're going to love it!
In this update we've added a ton of fishing spots around the world, with a bunch of fish to be found and 5 secret ones to discover. Grab a fishing rod and cast a line! Once you've landed your first couple fish you can take them to our new "defisherator" stations to process them into resources. Or... if you've got other things to do, pay the new fishmonger in Moonberry Farms to process up to 100 fish at a time and mail you the rewards!
Stop in to Bonnie's shop or craft yourself a makeshift fishing rod with your carpentry skill to get started!
We can't wait to see who tops the fishing leaderboards in the official servers!
Patch notes: New:
Fishing leader boards throughout each zone
Fishing spots through the world
Fishing rods - purchasable, craftable, and secret
Fishing bait
Fishing backpacks
Fishing outfits available at Bonnie’s Bait
Fishmonger in Moonberry
Finnegan’s Fabled Fishery in Moonberry
Bonnie’s Bait is now officially open in Hope Harbor with new dialog
Fishing tab in collections for what fish you have discovered
Bait loot in dirt piles
Fishing tutorial card
Craftable bags in tailoring
Abbi in Ramshackle has a new recipe she sells
Lore books in the Sleepy Haven Library and Archer’s Tomb
Craftable alchemy potion
Fishing titles
Improved:
Recalling your companion no longer issues a second command when releasing the mouse button
Scythes are now listed under Mystic class
Refactored popup windows for better performance
Quivers no longer affect slingshot ammo
Various staves have been adjusted to be in the sky domain
Emara’s Quiver got an upgrade and recolor
Archer’s quiver in Azura is now the “Azurian Quiver” and got an upgrade
Marksman Bow changed to “Ewan’s Bow” and recolored
Abbi in Ramshackle now looks like the kid she actually is
Adrenum Powder is now Adrenum Paste and has different ingredients
Essence of Golem is now Essence of Guardian and different ingredients
Fixed:
Looking through the roof in the Sleepy Haven Tavern no longer lets you see the bed
Astral wolves no longer spawn more than there should be
Arrow no longer disappears while you are talking to him - his next adventure waits until you’ve left
Painter’s Panic quest no longer asks you to clear out the zone, rather kill a specific amount of wolves instead
Various typos
Alt+Tab to switch windows no longer stops the music when returning to the game
Fishing Update Announcement! August 26th!
🎣 Big News, Adventurers! 🌍
Hey there, explorers!
We're super excited to give you a sneak peek into what's splashing onto Swords 'n Magic and Stuff TOMORROW! 🌊
Here's the catch 🎣:
Dive into the world with our brand new fishing system. With 10 awesome rods and brand new bugs as bait, you'll be hooked in no time!
Find 18 unique fish species, including four secret legendary ones. Are you up for the challenge?
Don't miss out on a brand new quest with fishy secrets and get yourself some swanky new backpacks.
We've got a new fish processing machine and a super cool fishmonger who can help you out for a few coins.
By the way, we've also jazzed up some of our old mechanics with fish-related items like fish oil and scales. Plus, look out for a new potion to make you swim faster!
Patreon Supporters, Listen Up! You guys rock! As a token of our appreciation, you get to plunge into this update right now. Yep, you read that right. Early access just for you! 🎉 It's not too late to sign up: Patreon
For everyone else, the big splash drops TOMORROW, August 25th.
Stay sharp, adventurers! And ready those fishing rods! 🐟🌟
Development Digest August 5th - August 18th
Happy Friday, friends!
The last two weeks have been hectic. First, we had family in town over last weekend. Then our air conditioning unit decided that it didn't want to work right before the big heat wave went over us. Normally our office is hotter than any other room in the house, so with the heat wave and no A/C it was impossible to work in here. That pushed our timeline a few days back as we tried to stay cool. It's supposed to still be warm this next week, but we're hoping it's manageable!
I'd say fishing is approximately 95% done. It's just polish and finishing touches now for the system. We've got a few other things to tidy up (like getting Bonney's Bait stocked!) and making sure everything works together with the byproducts of fishing.
Here's some sneak peeks at what's going on. I (Janna) don't normally like fishing in games, but I really do like this system. It's relaxing and fun!
In other news, if anyone knows a good gif editor, I'm all ears. Steam only allows 5MB gifs and images and I can make gifs just fine, it's getting it trimmed and to the correct size that I can't seem to find a good program.
See you all next week!
-Janna & Michael
Development Digest July 31st - August 4th
Happy Friday, friends!
Glad to be back at it! If you missed our last digest, Michael and I were helping run and teach a summer camp, Girls Make Games, for three weeks in July. That's why we've had a shortage of digests last month. Good news though, we are working hard this week!
Remember back before this latch patch when all the loot tables were iffy and we fixed them, but couldn't get the patch out because of navigation issues? Well those navigation issues were because we changed a setting to get dungeons working and changing the setting back didn't fix it. It was a long tedious process, but eventually got it fixed and patched out. My point in reminding you of this, is that dungeons are going to be a bit more tricky than we thought. We do want to make the dungeons procedural and a big part of that is having navigation for enemies to be able to walk around. We know that dungeons a HUGE requested feature. We'll be slowly working on it and other things at the same time. We want to get more updates out quicker, rather than spend months on large systems.
So with that in mind, we've been working on fishing! The basic system is about to go out to testers and then we'll be adding all the fish in the world! I don't have a timeline for you (it'll be soon!), but a cute tidbit - the fish are measured in Smidgens!
You'll soon be able to spend your days on the docks finding those rare fish or just hanging out with your friends bonding over the water.
TLDR: Dungeons will take longer, but are still coming. Fishing is very soon!
See you all next week!
-Janna & Michael
Patch v1.6.2
Hey guys.
It turns out we missed a bit of code in the loot overhaul that bugged out a lot of our unique chests in the game. We fixed the issue, but couldn't find a great way to reverse the problem for anyone who may have missed out on important items thanks to it. Feel free to reach out on Discord if you missed an important quest item and we'll see what we can do on a case by case basis.
Thanks for your understanding. Here are the patch notes:
1.6.2 Patch
Improved:
Whistle no longer displays any XP bar on HUD when equipped
Wasps no longer poison you. Just the queen.
Secret recipe no longer given away by particle effects
Skills/Classes page in the journal now gives more information about which weapons govern which class and a description for each class and skill
Stone Golem got better loot
Fixed:
Multiplayer joining issue that would cause the game to hang for a long time
Sen now vanishes properly from Castaway Rock so you can’t restart his quest accidentally
Fixed a bunch of issues with unique chests that was causing them to drop the wrong items or no items at all
Fixed an issue with drop rates for all chests globally
Masks can no be properly placed in your collections
Queen Bee now drops her stinger
Fixed floating Kickstarter Fox pet
Earthshard Shield no longer gives mana on equip
Wild Seeds are now random when placed and won’t always spawn the same plant when placed
Meteors drop appropriate loot now
Astral Wolves no longer stay spawned when leaving the Astral Realm leading to a build up of wolves over time.
Removed a sneaky debug arrow from Icicle Storm spell effect
Development Digest June 27th - July 14th
Happy Friday, friends!
This month Kindred Games is almost entirely out of office helping at the game dev summer camp for girls, Girls Make Games.
We've been working in our spare time on a patch, however, to address some of the remaining loot issues still lingering in the game after the last major update.
The patch was mostly ready but we ran into an issue with our pathfinding so all the enemies were frozen in place. We're working on getting this fixed up and hope to have the patch out this weekend!
Thanks for your patience! We're excited to get back to work next month on the next content update!
See you all next Friday!
-Janna & Michael
Patch v1.6.1
Hey guys.
Just a small patch to address most of the issues from the update. Any other issues you've reported either aren't a priority at this time or we simply didn't have time to fit them into this patch and wanted to get the big stuff out of the way.
Thanks for your patience! Here are the patch notes:
1.6.1 Patch
Improved:
Blizzard and other slow effects can never entirely freeze enemies
Drop rates tweaked across the board
Improved how loot rolls are handled
Lightning Strike tome sound effect improved
Augmented tools now give more crit chance
Circlet of Trueshot now grants 5 crit chance in addition to previous effects
Can now double jump and hold to glide, no longer requiring a third jump to trigger your glider
Commanding your companion is now more precise, preventing accidentally commanding them to guard allies in combat when you intend to send them to attack
Life Drain effect from shades and Drune nerfed to be more forgiving
Empowered Frostshard trinket now affects Willpower instead of Focus
Potion of Forestry and Mining both increased from 4 to 8 in their respective stats
Fixed:
Magic tomes in shops now receive the proper textures when refreshing on a new day
Enemy status effects will no longer be applied when the attack is blocked
Crit chance stat removed from the focus tooltip when looking at weapons in shops
Watering can should no longer apply wet status to all players in multiplayer
Arrow focus tooltip now shows appropriate stats
Healing companions, allies and yourself grant XP (if they’re not full health!)
Several staves and wands fixed to be the right damage type and skill/class
Conjure Feast tome now scales with caster level appropriately in multiplayer
Dropped cosmetic items can now be stored in collections again
Black horse mount completed rehabilitation and is walking great once again!
Job board quests shown on the world map will now show correct titles and not gibberish
The vandal who stole the “Dance” from the “Dance Lessons” sign was apprehended and the sign has been restored to its former glory
Lute, Earthshard Dagger and Mage Shield items no longer grant Aura bonuses
Mayor Bill’s wife in Hope Harbor finally taught him how to close the door when he leaves his house
Gorgum Snail lantern no longer floating
Hovering over required materials in crafting and in stockpile containers now shows the name of the item needed
Spell tomes now display their class in their tooltip
Removed the empty buff from Conjure Feast
Players who have previously reached certain class levels now earn their titles on login (check your title dropdown. There is no pop up for this)
Potentially fixed or reduced the tendency of being kicked back to the title screen when trying to join multiplayer servers. If you encounter this bug, please let us know! We need more data to better diagnose it.
Major Update - Character Classes v1.6.0
After a long wait, version 1.6.0 is finally here!
We're excited to finally announce all the major changes we've made to Swords 'n Magic and Stuff in this latest update.
While the primary focus for this update was revamping many of the old combat mechanics including stats, weapon skills, loot and more, in order to prepare for more end-game content and the dungeon update, we've also used this opportunity to add in several new items, a new secret, and a whole slew of bug fixes.
You can check out previous Dev Digest posts to get more details on how these systems have been changed or implemented and how they work as well as why this update has taken so dang long.
Without further ado, here are the patch notes. Enjoy the update!
New:
Stats panel on gear section of inventory screen
Class system
Warrior Hunter Rogue Mage Mystic Druid
Life Staff now restores magic when healing an ally
Dealing damage to enemies now generates threat which determines which player a mob will attack
Healing generates more threat than dealing standard damage
Shades now have sound effects and death effects
Added new tome to Farmlands but you may need to make a sacrifice to find it
Companions generate threat so they can efficiently tank for you now
Player-placed chests now have signs with icons displaying the first item in each chest for better organization
Quest tracking icon on HUD compass
New titles for representing your class and mastery of that class
Title and character creation screens now have full controller support
Inventory sorting option for quest items
Willpower potion
Chest overhaul with new loot system
Chest tier system now simplified to be similar across all zones
Each zone has one unlocked chest and one locked chest
Weapons out of chests and enemies now have a chance to drop any rarity up to Masterwork
Silver and Gold chests no longer exist - the keys now have a value and can be sold or collected
Locked chests will always drop weapons that are for that zone, not their recipes
Recipes that were previously in locked chests are now automatically unlocked via crafting - this way players can craft, find, or buy the weapons
Each locked chest still has some recipes that are rare and the only way to get those items (including NEW recipes in Windless Woods chests)
Foods and drinks that had stat changes:
Astronomer’s Tea; Sweet Cherry Pear Pie; Sandwich; Cheesecake; Cooked Meat; Corn Fritter; Sweet Dizzy Juice; Chocolate Shake; Mystery Jellies; Gingerbread Cookies; Mac and Cheese; Apple Pie; Nummy Mummy; Vanilla Shake; Fish ‘n Chips; Pumpkin Muffins; Strawberry Smoothie; Birthday Cake; Sugar Cookies; Cherry Turnover; Fried Green Beans; Chocolate Chip Cookies; Pirate Punch; Figgy Pudding; Key Slime Pie
Improved:
Shields generate threat from enemies when blocking, parrying and shield bashing
Splash Potion of Healing now has an icon on your buff bar
Lute now does order damage not arcane
Trespassing in enemy territory (such as a bandit camp) will now turn all enemies hostile until you leave for several minutes - no more enemies staring at you as you walk by
Companions start with 20 additional health and scale up slightly better as they level
Companions are now healable with magic
Companion whistle is WAY more forgiving now
Shades deal less damage, but add a longer, stacking life drain effect
Weapons no longer have crit chance. Crit chance stat is 5% by default and can be increased with buffs and consumables
Conjure Feast food tray now lasts 30 seconds (meal has the same duration)
Drune Archers now shoot poisoned arrows
Horses have been updated to match the art style better
After removing the rockslide to Windless Woods, there is no longer a weird invisible wall in the air
Spent arrows are now removed from the ammo wheel after they are all gone
Crafting menus no longer sometimes show things to craft from other stations
Ladders in the Eyre can no longer be climbed by mounts… hopefully
Stag mount now has running sounds
Chests have a new sound effect when opened
Added a shadow behind crafting ingredient amount numbers for better readability
Chaos Splinter spell now fires a single projectile and debuffs enemy to weaken against next consecutive Chaos Splinters, stacking multiple times.
Various items sort to their proper types in inventory
Dying in the Archer Tomb no longer spawns you in the Farmlands
PvP removed for better design and evaluation
Fixed:
All DoT effects from spells and potions now give experience and generate threat
Splash Potion of Webs no longer stays on your buff bar forever and no longer makes players not able to move indefinitely
Lore books can no longer have the next/previous buttons spammed to break page turning
Visual bug with the large chest when placing it showed a different size than when it was placed
Healing of any kind properly gives experience now
Can no longer heal players who are already at full health
Assortment of random terrain mishaps
Zugrum sits when he gets hurt again - removed his tough guy buff
Arrow barrel at the first bandit camp in Windless Woods in now lootable
Quest log filter now properly displays Sleepy Haven quests instead of all quests
Dwight’s pots are now further away from the door to prevent premature smashing
Fixed various quests that made the journal UI shake
Animal Companion snacks no longer have a delay before spawning when thrown
Conjure Light orbs no longer live on past player’s death
Various music bugs
Faun horns now follow you into your ghost form when you die
Xanthus now fights back
Necrotic Prism bugs - Skelly’s now scale based on Mystic level
Penguin Pet no longer gets in your way when trying to traverse the world
