itch.io

Gosh that was fast. That's a great sounding album - very on par with the quality and style of this one. I was hoping though for something a bit more ambient metal - a bit more abstract. Having track lengths would also be useful, where possible. e.g., you mention trailer music on the page, but none of the tracks seem tailored to the composition or length of a typical 30 second or 60 second or 90 second Steam game trailer. Don't get me wrong - it's amazing work. Some of it is truly cinematic. I'm just offering some thoughts that probably other game devs might share potentially. 

Hey, no worries at all and thanks for the reply. I only mention it because the music is so damn good - I just couldn't hear it with the classical playing over the top. It could be a cognitive thing - I don't know. But just in case it pushes away potential customers. That said, I've purchased it and absolutely love it. It's in the game now and I'll post you a link - you'll be in the credits of course.

One thing I did think would be useful would be some slightly more ambient metal tracks - not driving beats, but more like title menu music, military briefing style music. Every track is a banger, but for a game soundtrack there's moments where something a bit more abstract or mellow would be good. 

I ended up taking a particular audio approach in the game where if you pause it, the music slows down and has a "basement" effect, then as soon as you unpause it ramps back up exponentially and straight back into the full bore track. It works really nicely. I would be keen to hear your thoughts if you get a chance to check it out. I'll share link in the next day or so.

Thanks for letting me know. From what I could hear it sounds fantastic, and I'd like to consider using it for a game I'll be putting into Steam Next Fest (only a week to go). But I can't actually make out the music as it's so drowned out by the anti-piracy overlay, sorry.

Hi Butcher. I can't hear the music because there's some kind of classical music playing over the top. Did you intend this?

Oh no! That's no good. I have actually been thinking about putting the game up here on itch anyway - the demo at least. Would that help?

hey Squirrel the Unbound! I just replied - probably best contact is either discord or Bluesky but you can email me on timmaeus at gmail dot com, although I may be slower to reply there. I’ll have a free key for you when the full game comes out as a small thanks for all the playtesting and bug discussions 

There are indeed many bosses in this world!

Thank you Tobacoos! You've forever shaped the game and please feel free to join us on Discord - a lot happening over there too. More soon!

Thank you! I totally get you - yeah it's a bit tricky with the two versions now, but I see this as the alpha version that will always be the genesis of the project, and then the Steam version is where it evolved to in order to ensure that a simple solo dev such as myself can reasonably maintain it and keep it growing and evolving. 

All that said, I'm incredible grateful for your bug reports and suggestions - it's helped shaped the game immensely. Merlin Grace will be immortalised as an NPC :-).

Also, all dungeons should have bosses - if you don't see one by the time you've cleared all levels, that's got to be a bug 

Hey! Well if this is one for the road, please allow me to extend a very hearty debt of gratitude, as this is quite a haul in terms of insights and bug/QoL reports -- thank you as always.

First off, I'm a bit behind in catching up on all the messages, but please let me know if you'd like to be credited as a playtester in the itch and Steam versions of the game. And also: would you like to be immortalised as an NPC? And if so, what name would you like? 

As to the bug report: yep there's some genuine bugs here that go beyond QoL. I'd also say that some of them, such as the character customisation, just simply haven't been implemented yet in the itch version as it was so deep in the list of the systems to implement. But you're absolutely right, and actually that's a massive oversight that really should have been prioritised. This game is inclusive all the way and while I've been careful to attend to as much as possible, sometimes you miss some big things. So, yes, absolutely: character customisation is coming very shortly. I don't know if I'll be able to reverse engineer it into the itch version - there's a bunch of technical and architecture reasons - but I'll see.

Thank you again! 

Thanks so much @sometimesihavequestions! This is of course not the end of the road for the itch version - it's always going to be here, but i'll serve as the gateway to the Steam version that I can reasonably maintain with my time and resources available. I just want to say a huge thanks again for all your bug reports and discussions. The game is immensely better for it. I hope to immortalize all the OG playtesters such as yourself in the game - more on that soon :-)

Hmm I will have to dig into the code to see how far I went with the dungeon tiers in the end - I made a lot of procedural generation changes so I'll have to see where it got to 

world record surely 

There should be loot chests in dungeons? 

Thank you Squirrel the Unbound! Please see my comment above - yes and yes and yes 

Squirrel the Unbound, you have been one of the staunchest affineurs and bugtesters this game has ever seen, and will likely ever see again. I can't say how grateful I am to your many observation and bug reports from the far flung regions and depths of the game. 

But fear not, I have big plans to credit you and the other OG itch playtesters in the full game. So you will be memorialised forevermore - the least I can do.

Actually, there's one more thing: I will be offering free Steam keys for the game to the itch playtesters here. If you'd like that, I'll send one along as soon as the game is out

lol - yeah that's just me copypasting code from enemies to other enemies

Not a bug - the game has diminishing gold returns from kills once you're above 1000g. The richer you are, the less gold drops from regular creatures (bosses are exempt). Your Leviathan has a base 20g drop, but at high gold totals it tapers down. It's there to keep gold meaningful in the late game rather than becoming infinite.

Intentional! Speed 5 means you move 5x faster than creatures — they only get to act once per 5 of your moves. But the day/night clock still ticks each move, so time passes normally. Think of it as you covering more ground per day, not that days are longer.

Thanks for the report - yep 100% agree and I'm working on it. I've got a bit of a tangled mess of a bug fix going on but I'll have it all patched soon 

Hey, it's not bugged! Sorry you haven't got one yet - it's a 20% drop from T3+ dungeon bosses. Missing 4 in a row is about a 40% chance - you've been a bit unlucky sorry. You'll get one soon 

Hey thesquirrel123, I've been on the road as I had Easter with family out western NSW. It was nice. How about you?

By the way, just chiming in here to say thanks for all the bug reports. I'm catching up on everything now. I've got a lot to do this week but I hope to get a patch out in the coming days, with a lot of bug fixes and quality of life stuff.

Amazing bug reports as always - thanks so much! Sorry for the delay - I've been on the road for the Easter holidays. These are indeed a mix of odd and QoL and plain bug issues. I have added them to the patch list and will get onto them for the next release. Thank you! Also, yep that issue with the taming is not intentional, although it's cool you got a storm falcon out of a hawk... But yeah it's not intentional and I actually tried to fix that in a recent patch, but clearly it's still bugged. So many weird bugs emerge out of this game haha. The systems are getting so complex 

P.S. glad to hear you're enjoying it! 

Hey @Badysquiddo - thanks for the bug reports! I've replied on Discord and you'll find the fixes in the latest patch 0.3.16 :-) 

Excellent strategy sir 

Thanks again for all the bug reports! I'm so happy that people are enjoying the game so much and even happier that I'm getting these bug reports that make it so much better

Glad you were able to solve it!!

Fire away! I’ll get to them as soon as I can 🙏

He’s truly a special Gale! Pre patch pigeon 

Well it is Good Friday here in Australia at least so just in time for eating fish, for those who observe! 

Gale’s back!

You are all doing an incredible job finding and reporting them - it sucks that there’s so many, though I’m trying my best to fix them as they arise. The game systems are so complex now that it’s becoming trickier to ensure one big fix doesn’t generate 2 or 3 new unintended consequences, but getting there 

ha! How did it go?

Not quite T1 - [spoilers below!]

... spoiler warning again! ...

the first catalyst (Curd of Ages) drops from dungeon bosses at area level 3+ with a 20% chance. The higher-tier catalysts need stronger bosses: Essence of Terroir from level 5+ (15% chance), and Heart of the Land from level 7+ (8% chance). So you'll want to push into mid-tier dungeons to start finding them. Each tier of affinage requires the next catalyst up, so you upgrade sequentially.

ha, ok great 

If this were the game "He Is Coming" I think you could test it out. Hmm maybe one day I'll try to implement a gladiator type thing for multiplayer 

interesting and very good to know - thanks! on it 

on it - thanks!