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Blessings Of The Forge
A downloadable game

So.... it's been a minute...

And time is relative so don't @ me with “it’s been six weeks.” 😛 But yea, apologies for that. Good news tho! The project’s not dead, but far from it. It’s just been under heavy development. The main reason I haven't updated anything is because I honestly have been struggling with understanding where I'm going with the project. I had gotten sword smithing and most of metal refinement working, but when I had people try the game, it just kind of fell flat. There were constant bugs and people had no idea what they were doing. So, instead of working to add new content, I decided to take what I had and really work on cleaning and polishing those mechanics and making it learnable for new players.

What's New?

So what is actually new? Well, two major things I added are an achievement/quest system, and a tooltips menu where the player can read on each different part of the game. Unfortunately, this game is really complicated so I figured I had to really drip feed the information so new players can really learn how each part of the game works, as well as being led through the game with new challenges for them to overcome. This drastically changed the feel of the game in a very good way, and now there is a lot of direction for players to follow. Beyond that I think I've gotten most of the major bugs fixed. The crucible and blades can now be put into chests without the game crashing or their stats being wiped, and the alloy system is much more fleshed out and working correctly. This is really exciting because now it feels much more like people can play the game without stumbling upon game breaking bugs and what not.

I've also been busy updating the visuals and adding in audio to the game. With the quest and tooltip systems I needed completely new UI assets that I've been working to integrate into the rest of the game. I think it looks much better with these in place and I'm working on expanding them to the rest of the UI systems. I also have added many sound effects to most actions and the game feels much better for it. I'm excited for people to try the game with these new systems and see what they think. Also, yes, I have and am updating the item icons and old art that was at the wrong resolution size, and that brings me to my next point: Next demo.

When play?

Well, I was honestly hoping that the demo would be ready by the end of this last week, but it is not quite there yet. I still have some more art and audio that I need to add and a few other things to clean up, not least of which is finishing the character sprites (god that has been an absolute pain to make). Beyond that I also have a couple more small things I think would be really good to add that I'd like to see if I have time for. So, my estimated release for the next demo is the end of this week/month. I think that should give me plenty of time to finish getting the project cleaned up and ready for release.

Reflection

One other aspect of this I'd like to share is some of the cool sides of development I've gotten to experience. This is my first real game project so there are a lot of ups and downs. But two really cool experiences were making the music and achievement system for the game. 

The achievement system actually didn't take as long to make as I thought it would, but it required some programming I haven't quite had to do yet for this project. I had to make the shop and tooltips modular so that I can unlock different parts of them based on what achievements had been done, and I had to make an event manager to know when requirements for achievements actually happened. These systems are a bit larger than what I've had to make so far so they were fun challenges to tackle. Then, to watch everything come together was super cool, and I think that new mechanic really changed the way my game is coded for the better. During that process it honestly felt a lot like playing Factorio. In that game you are building a factory, but you often find yourself working on a new part of your base that, when finished, makes the rest of your base look super simple by comparison. It's cool seeing the way I code evolve as I work on the game because I design things with different flexibility than before, and I think I'm getting better at having the foresight for what I need in a system and what I don't.

The music was another piece that was really fun to work on. After adding all the sound effects I really felt it needed a piece and I was just playing with ideas in my head. I had installed some free music composition software but had no idea what I was doing. I've learned a bit of basic guitar, but never composed anything other than maybe creating some fun riffs by messing around with a scale or two. So I did some research into what the different parts of a song were and got to work. I am not saying what I came up with is any sort of masterpiece, but I do feel it fits the vibe of the game and does enhance the experience. I also took inspiration from Minecraft's sound scape and set things up so that the music isn't always playing. I think this helps set the tone of the game and I'm excited to hear people's thoughts. I'm also really happy with it because it feels like I am getting to touch EVERY part of the development process. I could easily pull art or music off the internet and use that, but this is forcing me to learn every skill that is needed to make a game which has mostly been a really fun process.

Closing Thoughts

I think in short the biggest thing I want to say is this project is not dead yet, but has actually gone through quite a beautiful metamorphosis into what is quickly becoming a really solid demo. I think the game is something I haven't seen in any other crafting games and it feels like it is finally getting to a point where people can actually experience that in the game. It does take a while to get there but then again so does plenty of other games (Factorio honestly being a really solid example. There are LAYERS in that game!). Look out for the itch page to get updated this week and the new demo being released soon. I'll most likely make another announcement after releasing it so keep an eye out for that. Also, if you do try the new demo, please feel free to fill out the online form and share your thoughts. As I think I've expressed before, playtesting is crucial to my development process so any feedback is accepted.

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