Ten Thousand Coins - v0.9.4 Alpha Development Update
Summary of v0.9.4 Development
Game System
System Update - Story Mode
System Update - Trade Routes
System Update - Boost/Penalty
Art and Content
Content Update - New Story Chapter
Art Update - Settlement Environment Art
Art Update - Environment Character Art
Art Update - Dialogue Character Art
Bug Fixes
Misc
Developer Blog Posts
Featured Updates
Story Mode - New Story Chapter
With this new build comes big updates to the Story Mode, in both, how Story Mode is handled, plus new content in the form of a new Story Chapter.
Story Mode will now be standalone missions, with each story mission consisting of its own starting resource, objectives, trade routes, time limits etc. This was done to not only allow easier balancing and QA but also allow us more creative freedom, such as allowing different main characters to be playable.
Story choices however will carry over from mission to mission, and will have an effect on all missions and ultimately the ending the player will receive.
Some Alpha testers may remember the Merchant Company gameplay in Story mode. This has now been moved to the new Company game mode and will be further explored in the next blog post!
Big Art & Content Update
With the new Story Mode changes, a big art update has begun with this build and will continue for the remainder of development. Expect new characters, environments, and UI art to be produced at a much faster rate to accommodate the new content releases!
Development Blog Posts
From the various showcase events in the past months, we are very grateful to have received many new wishlist followers for Ten Thousand Coins: The Golden Merchant. As thanks, we will strive to push out more frequent blog post updates, aiming for monthly updates for to keep all of our followers up to date on all development matters!
Until next time,
Cynthia (Founder/Developer at Thousand Tonic)
We always need more testers for the game, sign up here if you'd like to be an Alpha/Beta tester for future builds!
Ten Thousand Coins - v0.9.3 Alpha Development Update
Summary of v0.9.3 Development
Game System
System Update - Boost / Penalty
System Update - Save/Load
System - Settings Menu
Art and Content
Content Update - Narrative & Dialogue
Art Update - Settlement Environment Art
Art Update - UI Art
Art Update - Character Art
Bug Fixes
Misc
Showcase Events
Featured Updates
System Updates
There will be many system improvements in the upcoming builds, especially ones in the backend like the save/load system.
For this build, we finally have the beginnings of a proper settings menu. You can now easily switch between full-screen, windowed, and borderless windowed. Audio settings and more coming soon.
Save / Load has been added to Challenge Mode. More updates in this mode coming soon as well.
Onto gameplay, the Boost / Penalty system has also been updated. The time-based fatigue penalty has now been replaced with action-based fatigue, meaning different actions you do will generate fatigue instead of simply time passing as this allows for more strategic gameplay choices. Removing the fatigue penalties with resting remains the same.
Content and Assets
More work behind the scenes for narrative and dialogue writing. Art assets have been improved as well such as Bouch's Retreat settlement and various character portrait art. More art improvements coming in every new build.
Showcase Events
Ten Thousand Coins: The Golden Merchant has been fortunate to be featured in more events in the past few months! Some of these events include:
Ten Thousand Coins - v0.9.2 Alpha Development Update
Summary of v0.9.2 Development
Game System
System Update - Journey System
System Update - Environment Interactables
Art and Content
Big Content Update - Narrative & Dialogue
Art Update - Settlement Enivornment Art
Art Update - World Map
Art Update - Character Art
Bug Fixes
Misc
Game Trailer - New Alpha Trailer
Steam Store Update
Showcase Events
From this build onwards we are primarily focused on building content for the game, though some adjustments may still be made to the game mechanics due to testing and feedback.
Featured Updates
Settlement & Environment Interactables
Updates have been made to various environment art around the city. We will continue to polish various art assets to a high standard up until release.
Environment interactable items and NPCs have been updated to include junk you may rummage through for some rags or a few coins if you're lucky. NPCs have also been updated to have more features. More to come in this area!
Narrative & Dialogue Update
A lot of work behind the scenes for narrative and dialogue writing. Some updates have been made to early-game which you may see in playtesting. The majority of the work, however, is for later parts of the Story Mode. These will be implemented in the coming builds.
New Trailer & Events
Our new alpha trailer has dropped (which some tweaks and iterations compared to the last one).
Ten Thousand Coins: The Golden Merchant will also be joining various upcoming indie game showcase events. Keep an eye out for the news!
Playtesting
Our playtesting round mentioned last time had been delayed slightly to coincide with an upcoming indie game event. It will be happening in July so do please keep an eye out for news and your inbox for our newsletter!
We always need more testers for the game, sign up here if you'd like to be an Alpha/Beta tester for future builds!
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Ten Thousand Coins - v0.9.1 Alpha Development Update
Summary of v0.9.1 Development
Game System
Big System Update - Game Optimsation
Big System Update - Combat
System Update - Combat System Guards
System Update - Environment NPCs
Art and Content
Content Update - Narrative
Art Update - Title Screen
Art Update - Environment NPCs
Art Update - Combat UI
Art Update - Guards UI
Art Update - Trade & Item UI
Art Update - Settlement Art
Art Update - Wilderness Art
Bug Fixes
The second part of the feature-complete build is here! From this point onwards, only small updates and changes will be made to existing game systems, with a bigger focus put on content creation for the remaining game as well as game balancing and bug fixing.
Featured Updates
Big Optimsation
We have made small optimisation updates with every build thus far, but this build's optimisation will actually be a night and day difference compared with previous builds.
The game now plays with very minimal loading or lag, especially when changing maps. This was done by frontloading more of the game at the start to reduce on-demand loading times in-game, as well as strictly changing art assets that were heavy on memory use.
Returning playtesters will notice this difference the most in upcoming playtests!
Combat Update - Guards
A follow-up with the previous combat system update, the update in this build now changes how guards/your entire convoy functions in combat.
Old System: Selecting one of your guards in the convoy will stack their attack stat on top of your base attack, and striking at your enemy will be a single boosted attack. Your guard will then go into cooldown before being able to be used again.
New System: Your guards will now attack automatically along with your default crew attack. Attacks are now separate strikes from each source and not a stacked single strike. The cooldown system is therefore not necessary at this time being (unless there are changes to this system in the future).
This change allowed having more guards to have a bigger impact on the player's combat strength, as previously players were still restricted to a single attack per turn, making having more guards a diminishing return. This also includes new sprites and animations to give combat more immersion.
Guard abilities have also been simplified to one notable ability, giving each type of guard your hire a more focused purpose.
Environment and Wilderness Art
More art and content updates have been in the works as well. Moving environment NPCs have been added back to the settlements after the optimisations, and their art has been updated as well.
Our big optimisation has also improved how the wilderness environment art looks and functions, at the same time reducing lag and memory usage.
A playtesting session for this build is in the works so do please keep an eye out for news and your inbox for our newsletter!
We always need more testers for the game, sign up here if you'd like to be an Alpha/Beta tester for future builds!
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