Diary #16 – The 0.4 Pre-Alpha Demo

Last week I put out the closest thing to an actual game that’s been available so far, the 0.4 build. Not only is the second progression level in place, but it’s actually accessible to the player now. 

I touched on this in diary #12, but let’s go over how game progression works. Basically, each level has a set of buildings locked within it, as well as a set of trains. The first level is basic raw materials – grow wheat and mushrooms, pump up water, and chop down trees. The corresponding trains either purchase these goods, or provide more pops. They also require water to refill their steam engines. 

Advancing to the next level requires a certain approval level (currently just based on how often you provide water for the steam engine) and some gold – although the approval requirement for level 2 is low enough to not really matter. Level 2 unlocks a lot more interesting gameplay: you can start making goods with the resources you’ve already grown. Wheat and water can make bread and beer. The mushrooms you’ve harvested can be mixed with water to make potions. You also get to start extracting stone (for some of the fancier buildings) and coal (which the railway will now expect you to provide).

This is where the demo (currently known as the prototype) will end, and the full game will have a few more levels on top of these. As I keep building this game, any changes not behind a new progression level will continue to be publicly available as a demo – that is, bug fixes and game mechanics will be available for free. The bigger stuff will be behind the paywall though.

Anyway, after adding in all of the level 2 content that means it’s time to tackle some of the backlog of bugs and quirks that have come up!