So I thought I would post a little bit about the before and after of the current game's development for those who are interested!
Year End Wrap-up:
After many years of personal development of the game I finally released Vantage on May 22nd. I was amazed at the great positive feedback I received immediately after launching it! Thanks to the players for helping to play and test the game, I was able to create and refine many game systems and elements to make the game even more enjoyable and fun to play! I do want to say that your feedback was, and still is extremely valuable to me!
It was stressful at times of course! Especially launching a game with a client/server architecture that needs to be maintained. However the server remained stable even under heavy loads (it wasn't perfect of course), and needing to do large framework overhauls in order to optimize game mechanics. But in the end it was all fun and worth it to continue having people enjoy playing the game!
Road Map for Next Year:
For next year I plan to continue by hitting the ground running on development, with the main focus being on more content focused on professions and skills. This year I had to be focused a little more on game performance, stability and optimization. I was able to add a bit of new content of course, even though that was focused on implementing new game play elements, which of course will add to the playability and enjoyability of all future content.
So I hope to continue the cycle of content research and development, then implementing the content. I plan to develop content as both small batches of content that I can release quickly, as well as researching entire profession chains and releasing those as its own update.
For now:
I am testing the game for final stability as I want the game to be working at peak efficiency for the Christmas Steam sale! I will of course be monitoring the game and server closely.
I am truly excited for what I hope to accomplish as I move forward, and hopefully your enjoyment of the game too!
Vantage Early Access Update 1.1.3 is Live!
This update mainly focuses on fire making enhancements and bug fixing, and fixes a few issues with item timers which appeared after the item timer overhaul last update.
You can check out the patch notes here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/342910/discussions/0/1698300679778067492/
Enjoy!
Small Update on New Content!
The research is done, and information was sent off to the artists to make the next set of content. What is it? Well I'll let you know when I have some cool stuff to show you :)
Vantage Early Access Update 1.1.2 is Live!
This update brings many quality of life enhancements including customization key controls, easier to use inventory management operations, some server framework enhancements, and also items fall off trees!
With these new server framework updates I will be able to make even more versatile items that change over time which will not affect server performance in any major way. This also improves the server performance as well.
I will now be beginning research and development on the next content update soon. What is the new content? Well, I'll let you know a little later ;)
This patch is a large update that has many quality of life updates, optimizations, improvements, and bug fixes! You can read all about them on the Steam Forums.
I am working away hard on the development. And crushing through my development list very well! I am working on doing some more improvements to the game systems in the next weeks as well. But as I am working on this. I will be beginning research for the next set of content!
The patch list is quite big for this update, you can look at it on the forums here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/342910/discussions/0/1698300679778067492/
Enjoy!
"Traps and Critters" (update EA 1.1.0) is now Live!
Finally, after a massive amount of work, I have finally released the "Traps and Critters" update!
This update adds three new animals ( rats, squirrels, and foxes ), and three hunting traps, and many more improvements!
( Please keep in mind, even though you may not see much in terms in content, this was a large update with many new features, some are described below. Please let me know of any issues you may occur! )
(Also, I will be aggressively fixing any bugs that pop up that may have occurred, please be patient :) )
You can now craft traps to catch animals! You can craft three types of traps, each one catches a certain types of animals. You unlock them while improving your "primitive hunting" skill (currently at level 4, 6, and 8 for the three traps)
For more information on the game play mechanics of creating and maintaining the traps, I have added a full tutorial section to the in-game encyclopedia. Check it out!
New mechanics:
This update has added the ability for current and future content to have more interaction with items, which make item management much more complex, interesting and fun!
Locked items:
The traps have items which are crafted right into the object itself, when you create a trap, you can see many of the items you used to create the item.
These items have the possibility to be altered based on events, or just over time. This allows items to possibly have broken parts that need to be maintained or replaced over time, as well as many other possibilities.
Replaceable Items
Items and containers within other items can be systematically altered and replaced to provide an effect on the item, or many other events and effects in the world. (For example: (*not yet implemented* Placing your pottery in a kiln object, and having it bake that way? )
There are a great many possibilities for this new set of mechanics. But for now the traps the are the first test!
Now start slaughtering those cute little creatures!
Rats are Getting Squished!
Development of the traps is coming along great! I have almost finished the the testing of the trap mechanics, only a few more small implementations to work through.
I plan to get the update out next week, barring any large issues. So you can start trapping critters yourselves!
Again this may seem like a long time and a lot of work for only a few traps as content. But as I mentioned before, for this update I have implemented some complex item and inventory mechanics which will make interacting with items for all future content much more immersive!
The traps for the next update are the first test and implementation of these mechanics.
I will of course talk much more about this after the content is released.
Stay Tuned!
Update on Traps and Critters!
Hello, I thought I would just let you know that the next update is coming along very well! I hope to have the content ready in a week or two.
Even though this seems like I am only adding a few traps and animals into the game, I want to also say that along with this content I am implementing some more in-depth game play mechanics relating to crafting and inventory/items. This next push of content will also be using these new mechanics.
And of course, that main reason for all of this work is to make future content even more exciting as well!
Stay Tuned!
Vantage Early Access Update 1.0.12 is Live!
This is a smaller update which fixes some bugs, items and text spelling and grammar.
I wanted to release this update before I started working on the "Traps and Critters" content. So..... here it is!
Enjoy!
Vantage Early Access Update 1.0.11 is Live!
This update has a little everything! Content! Optimizations! and of course bug fixes!
Two new tools were added to make your crafting easier, also some server optimizations and much more! You can read the patch notes on the Steam forums.
