It has been about a month, so I figured it’s about time for a small update. This past month has been pretty slow, mostly focused on filling in gaps in the mechanics (ie. gear, status effects, encounter maps, etc). With that said, one new thing I can show off is the initial work on map skills.
What are map skills?
Map skills are tools you use to interact with the world. Each character that joins the party brings their own unique skill, opening new paths for exploration and puzzle-solving as the story progresses. While I’ve only just started on these, I have a very early video showing 3 map skills in an initial functioning state:
The three skills currently implemented are:
- Elemental, a context-sensitive interaction for casting elemental magic on certain parts of the environment.
- Chain, allowing the player to grab movable objects and shift them as they move. This not only allows objects to be pulled, but also enables limited movement of objects across gaps.
- Throw, for picking up, placing, and throwing lightweight objects.
Plans
Since this update’s a little short, I figure I should give some indication of my long-term plans for the game. Currently, my target is a small vertical slice public demo. My hope for the demo is to ship a single dungeon from the game at close to final quality, in order to get a grip on the pipeline and validate the game’s mechanics. My hope is to release this by the end of the year, though we’ll see how it goes as things progress. Beyond that, I’ve currently broken the game up into 6 chapters and I’m hoping to release&update the game chapter-by-chapter. But of course, that’s a ways off. This is a marathon, not a sprint.