by MoPed » 26 Feb 2014 15:20
STATUS UPDATE - Feb 26th, 2014
We have been busy fleshing out the missing parts of our island scenario: It centers around fighting quadites (the angry little walking coffee tables you see in the gameplay video) and eradicating their nests.
COMBAT:
We've got the "destroy nest" action implemented. You can gather sulfur from nearby volcanic springs and fashion a smoke bomb to throw down their lairs. This will stop more quadites from emerging and theoretically increase your chance of survival till help arrives. Theoretically... because the encounters with quadites can get quite chaotic.
This is a very hands-off game where we're simulating life and characters should hopefully behave in a rational manner so that the player doesn't explode with frustration....so we're working on improving the character's behaviour. When they are fighting, it's important that they do the important things: help out each other, stay together, manage their weapons etc. In the latest gameplay video, they all walk around in a rather cavalier fashion, but we are improving that so they will act with more determination and urgency.
DIALOGUE:
Dialogue between the characters will be a mix of banter which serves to make them seem alive and more important information that directs the player's attention to specific game-related things, such as important resources, dangerous creatures....: "Hey I just found shadeleaf trees!" "Great, just what we need for making bows and arrows."
Now that we're adding more dialogue, we need more control over when and why a character speaks, so that it doesn't become a mess of people all talking at the same time about unrelated topics, and we are working on this.
RESOURCE ICONS INTERFACE:
We have made improvements in the way that information is given to you about resources you find such as food, firewood, fishing spots. You can control it through a selection menu which will toggle different display modes, turning the icons on and off.
CHARACTER STATUS ICONS
We have been working on putting in permanent name tags above the character's heads as well as a status icon (sleepy/hungry/injured) and, when they are working, a productivity icon which shows you if the tool or skill being used is good for the current job.
We hope to include these features in the next round of closed bug testing. Once the newly introduced bugs have been dealt with we should be really close to having a demo that is worth playing for the early access audience.
Artist on "Unclaimed World"