I hope you are well as we approach the holiday season.
Today’s post marks the start of a trend I will hopefully continue by providing monthly newsletters about the progress of Tales from The Dancing Moon. You can expect to see a post at the end of each month.
So where do I begin? The main feature mechanic I’ve been pushing forward this month is city building. This is something that opens up in the second act of the game and allows the player to fill the village with larger buildings that enable certain functions for the player. You can think of this as perks that the player can unlock via the construction of new buildings. For example, if you build a new house, it means that more villagers can come and live in the village, but if you buy an extension for the Inn, then you’ll get an extra rest bonus when you sleep, which will be useful for tackling monsters! That sort of thing!
I took some time to redecorate some areas of the game. The entrance to the Town Hall has been on my mind for a long time, and I found a really nice article by Obsidian Entertainment about their level building process for Pillars of Eternity. I was inspired by this and tried to have this in mind when making my improvements. I really like how these potted plants fill some of the space!
Aside from this there is always some polishing and UI tidying to be done. One of the things I’ve been doing is to go around some of the UI elements and expand them into what they will become as the player explores. An example of this is the proc-gen exploration menu. At the moment there is only 1 entry for the Dewiland Meadows, but there will be more to explore as the player progresses. I’ve added some "???" fields to imply this.
And just to give you a little sneak peak of one of those proc-gen areas…
My focus moving forward is to finish a first pass of the quests for Act 2 of the game, and to focus on the cooking food and brewing drinks features. I would like to develop these in a way to I can start rolling them into the Beta version for people to try out!
Hopefully we’ll see some of this in next month's newsletter!
Thanks for reading! - DjMonkey
If you’d like to join the community and discuss the content of this post, please visit the Discord or make a comment on social media!
It's been one year since I put out the demo for Tales from The Dancing Moon. It's so heart-warming seeing the odd YouTube video or Twitch stream of this little game.
After all that time I've decided to provide an update to the free demo that you can access right here on Steam. This rolls in a couple of features and brings all the fundamental tech up-to-date that's been developed in the Beta! Take a look at the highlights below to find out what's new!
You can report any bugs via our Discord bugs channel or interact with me over on Twitter.
This is just a reminder that I'm still sending out Beta invites to anyone who is interested. The Beta includes more story, features, and places to explore then the demo, and will be continually updated as I work on the game. Sign up here! (it will only take 5 mins!)
Demo Updates
Although previous saves should be compatible with this update, it is recommended that you try starting again with a fresh save. If you are having any trouble with your existing saves, feel free to get in touch! :)
UI: New simpler main menu screen.
Story: Updated and added lore books littered throughout the map.
Story: Refined opening quests and dialog to reflect the games story.
Story: New Map tab to keep track of story and available quests,
Inventory: Player inventory has been revised for progression feature. You start with 12 slots and can be upgraded in the town hall general store.
Quests: Revised journal UI for quests.
Quests: Procedural Tasks can now be deleted if you don't feel like completing them.
Quests: NPCs have a glowing orb to indicate new quest and updates.
Combat: Middle mouse button and scroll allows for target lock and cycle.
Fishing: Added new fish to catch.
Fishing: New fishing mini-game that adds a level of fun and difficulty to the fishing mechanic.
Farming: Seeds now have their own icon.
Farming: Spring-specific seeds can now be bought.
Farming: Revised the costs of seeds and produce.
Farming: Farm soil now randomly generates Fiber when left un-seeded and unattended.
Crafting: A fire torch can now be crafted.
Time: The season of Spring now loops on itself to keep the Demo section self-contained.
Graphics: Refined VFX for weather.
Graphics: Heavily optimised texture resolution.
Optimisation: Refined LODs for improved framerates.
Optimisation: Optimised foliage settings.
Optimisation: Heavily reduced download file-size.
Optimisation: Cursor is now hardware driven.
Optimisation: Reduced tick based logic.
Optimisation: Procedural generated (Dewiland Meadows) tech has been completely revised.
Photo Mode: Completely revamped UI.
NPC: Myrill now has a portrait!
QoL Update: Too many 'quality of life' and small fixes to mention here! Who knows - maybe I missed something in the list and it will be a surprise!
First of all, thank you to all those who wishlisted, played the demo, provided your feedback and bug reports for the Tales from The Dancing Moon demo. It's so appreciated that you'd give this little game a try.
It's been almost a year since the demo, and since then I’ve been “heads down” pushing the game further along, closer to something which could be considered a full game.
There’s definitely still a long way to go, so I don’t want to hype your expectations too much, but I feel I am finally at a point where I can share my next steps - and that is to release a closed BETA. You can register your interest via the link above or by clicking here.
As the closed BETA will contain more content, it will be treated separately to the demo that you can already play on Steam. However, once things stabilise again, I will think about rolling back any outstanding issues back into the demo.
So you might be wondering - what exactly is in the BETA and how does it differ to the demo? Well, I will use this post as a means to showcase the highlights. Think of it as a change log or dev diary!
Seasonal Effects
The world of Illisor comes more alive with a dynamic weather and season system.
Camera post processing are applied to different seasons to make those autumn days extra cosy and the winter days more chilly!
More Areas to Explore
Head down to the Illisor Docks, a shanty haven that was mostly unharmed by the deadly shadow-beast invasion. You’ll be able to visit the local museum and the dockmasters office in this area!
More interior areas are accessible, including the town hall upper floor and various other new buildings found in the beta.
And more! (Probably best not to spoil too much!)
Story, Map & Discovery Journal
The beta will contain more of the main storyline of the game.
A new Map tab has been added to the main menu, which displays a live tracker of all the NPCs and places you’ve encountered during your game.
The Map also contains a discovery journal, which will log any important information the player has so far and give hints on what they can do next to progress the story.
The local museum is looking for local artefacts to fill its halls. Perhaps you can help them?
The museum will also keep a log of any important books and notes you find throughout the game.
More NPCs to Interact With
Here’s just an example of all the new artwork added to the game to portray the new NPCs you’ll be interacting with.
Fishing & Farming
A new fishing mini-game has been added, which adds a level of difficulty which you can succeed and fail at when catching those pesky fish!
New season specific seeds can be bought from Quinn’s general supply store.
Vegetables grown in a wrong season will turn into fibre or disappear.
Photo Mode
The Photo Mode UI has been revamped to provide more precise control and information at a glance.
Rowing
Take to the water by jumping in a row boat!
Discover rare fish by fishing from the boat.
Socials
And that about wraps up the highlights. There is definitely a lot of smaller features, fixes, and quality of life things, but I think that will be too much to capture in a post like this.
In the mean time, don't forget to engage with the game on the various social media channels!
After a week of holidays I'm back with a new patch for the demo!
A huge thank you to those who have provided their bug-reports and feedback. Addressing these issues at an early stage will help me create a robust game for the full release in the future! :)
Feel free to continue reporting any bugs via our Discord bugs channel.
Photo Mode: Taking photos now triggers the Steam screenshot functionality.
Crafting: Added crafting blueprint for campfires.
Crafting: Added two crafting blueprints for buildable lighting furniture.
Crafting: The furnace blueprint is no longer available (this has no purpose in the demo).
Controls: Right-clicking can now be used to swing axes and swords. (Left clicking will still move towards an object and perform relevant action)
Shopping: 'Pickaxe', 'Watering Can' and 'Campfire' can now be bought from Quinn's shop.
Shopping: Tweaked some mouse behaviours when exploring the Shopping UI.
Main Menu: The camera no longer slowly moves.
Bugfixes
Inventory: Prevented cases where lootable money could be moved around storages instead of being added to the players balance.
Farming: Fixed an issue where right-clicking would not plant seeds in soil.
Text: Fixed a grammar issue with one of the mayor's notes.
Shopping: Fixed an issue where the player was able to purchase items that were disabled in the shopping UI.
Proc Gen: Fixed an issue where certain lootable boxes were not clickable due to being obscured by other objects.
Thank you so much for playing! Charlie
Demo Patch 2 - 15/10/2021
Hello everyone and a warm welcome to those who are staying with us at The Dancing Moon Inn!
A huge thank you to those who have provided their bug-reports and feedback. Addressing these issues at an early stage will help me create a robust game for the full release in the future! :)
Feel free to continue reporting any bugs via our Discord bugs channel.
Some additions to the controls bindings window has been added to inform the player of more control inputs available to them.
Revised some button tooltip icons.
Slightly scaled up the fiber and shadow sludge.
Normalized the sleeping music to match the rest of the new normalized music.
Bugfixes
Fixed an issue where the player would forget learnt recipes during saving and loading. Unfortunately this may require a new save if you are in the middle of the "Building Fences" quest.
Fixed the player getting stuck if they are sat in a chair and an NPC overhead dialog finishes.
Fixed harvestable wood and fiber resources not highlighting when pressing Alt. (Shadow Sludge not highlighting is still a known issue.)
Fixed the text on Quinn's General Store sign outside her shop.
Fixed dialog inconsistency during the "Building Fences" quest.
Fixed placeholder text and images appearing in the item description UI when opening the market deposit box.
Thank you so much, Charlie
Demo Patch 1 - 14/10/2021
Hello everyone and a warm welcome to those who have already joined us at The Dancing Moon Inn!
After a very encouraging response from a recent r/gaming subreddit post, I have addressed some of the issues and feedback that has been received over the last couple of days by people playing the demo!
A huge thank you to those who have provided their feedback and suggestions. Addressing some of these things at an early stage will help me create a robust game for the full release in the future! :)
Feel free to continue reporting any bugs via our Discord, or if you just wanna hang and talk about the game!
Additional conversation options have been added to various NPCs to help guide players to other NPCs in the "Introduce Yourself" quest.
You can now use the keyboard number keys to choose your response in the conversation UI. This is a two-step action which first highlights the response option and then commits to it on a second key press.
Bugfixes
Tweaked and fixed the behaviour of the button tooltips on the Save/Load menus to be more understandable to the player.
Fixed description text on vegetables thinking they were carrots.
Fixed an issue where one of the mayor's notes was not visible in the "Live Off the Fat of the Land" quest. This may require a fresh save if you are in the middle of this quest.
Fixed an issue where Lucas dialog would abruptly stop, preventing the "Building Fences" quest to start.
Normalized all the music audio so they should all be at the same level.
Reduced the volume of walking footstep audio.
Reduced the volume of the footstep audio that occurs when transitioning some levels.
Fixed an issue where NPC's would transition to another level too early, making them look like they just disappear.
Fixed an issue where NPC's would not be placed in their correct position when the player would rest/wait/sleep after the first day.
Minor text, spelling and pronoun use fixes.
Community Highlight
I randomly searched for the game on twitch the other day and was surprised to see someone had already did a playthrough. I jumped into the chat halfway through to give some pointers ːsteammockingː
