Howdy Builders,
We received an overwhelming response to our last Q&A session and we're thrilled to see your engagement. We have found additional questions and concerns, particularly regarding the NPCs. In this post, we will focus on addressing these NPC-related inquiries and discussing the design intricacies. Let's go check them out!
Table of Content
- How many NPCs can be romanced in the full version of the game? What considerations were made for the non-romanceable NPCs?
- Why do I have to break up with certain NPCs I'm already in a romantic relationship with to experience their exclusive storylines after the Early Access update?
- How does the development team decide on the popular characters? What are the differences in their storyline arrangements?
- Why can't we add all NPCs from Portia to Sandrock and have them together?
Q1: How many NPCs can be romanced in the full version of the game? What considerations were made for the non-romanceable NPCs?
In the full version, you'll have the chance to romance a total of 21 NPCs (Find the image below). When we designed these characters, we divided them into two categories: the residents who call Sandrock their home and the travelers passing through. Our aim was to make each NPC feel real, with their own lives and dreams. That's why some NPCs, like Avery, are actually visitors from other towns. Even though they appear in Sandrock, they have their own permanent residences elsewhere, making romance off the table. And then there's Haru, a fascinating character you'll get to know better in the final story update. He's a determined young man with personal aspirations, so pursuing a romantic relationship with him is not a good timing at the moment.
But, here's a little something to look forward to! In the future story update, you'll witness some exciting moments in Sandrock. We're talking about NPCs from other cities paying a visit to our beloved town. Remember that twin-tailed idol girl you've seen on the street posters? Well, she is Ernest's younger sister, bringing her own flair to Sandrock. And guess what? Mayor Gale from Portia will also grace us with his presence, along with a few other familiar faces from Portia. They won't be available for romance in Sandrock, but they sure spice up the My Time universe, don't they? It's like a colorful tapestry, where each town has its own vibe, yet they're all connected through the Alliance of Free Cities. We hope you'll enjoy the dynamic interactions and understand the reasons behind these design choices in the game.
Q2: Why do I have to break up with certain NPCs I'm already in a romantic relationship with to experience their exclusive storylines after the Early Access update?
First of all, we're really sorry for any inconvenience our Early Access players may have experienced with this issue. We totally get how frustrating it can be to have to break up just to experience the exclusive NPC storylines. We would like to share our reasoning with you: during the early access phase, our writers had to create quests under tight deadlines. We initially unlocked all the interactions with NPCs because we knew that players would want to befriend multiple characters during early access. However, this caused some issues as we started adding more storyline and sidequests for each NPC with each update. Some players received quests from NPCs they already had a deep relationship with, without any context. And those who had a romantic relationship with an NPC were not able to unlock their side quest due to the development progress of their romantic relationship with NPC and the relation to the newly addedd side quests.
This design choice resulted in some NPC storylines not smoothly connecting with the previous content.
That's why we had to implement the requirement of breaking up and starting a new relationship in order to experience certain NPC's exclusive storylines. This way players will have the chance to even better know their partner before their relationship blooms. We completely understand that this situation is not ideal, and we acknowledge that finding a perfect solution during the early access stage can be very challenging.
However, please know that we're actively working on addressing this issue. The impact is limited to the NPC confession storyline, while other romance-related quests can still be experienced as usual. Plus, in the full version, we'll make further adjustments to the favorability system and quests to ensure that NPC reactions and their relationship levels are better aligned. Our goal is to make the game experience smoother, allowing players to fully enjoy the romantic stories with NPCs.
Q3: How does the development team decide on the popular characters? What are the differences in their storyline arrangements?
When we're designing characters for the game, our main focus is on figuring out which ones players will love the most. Usually, we rely on our past experiences to make these choices. For example, when we first started developing Portia, we handpicked NPCs like Gust, Ginger, Emily, and Mint because we had a strong feeling that they would be fan favorites. But, sometimes the popularity of the characters we choose doesn't exactly match what players expect.
Initially, we thought Ernest from Sandrock would get a lot of love, but it didn't quite turn out that way. On the other side we thought characters like Logan, Dr. Fang, Owen, and Qi would be super popular male NPCs. From the female characters Mi-an was one of our top picks. We wanted her to be a guiding light and an awesome companion, just like Emily in Portia. Another character that we knew would be a hit is Nia. She has this background as a childhood friend, which appeals to both male and female players. And of course, there's Amirah, who's got those stunning looks that are hard to resist. Now, Catori was a bit of a unsure for us because she's a character type we've never tried before. But our goal was to bring life to Sandrock by introducing characters with diverse personalities and backgrounds. And you know what? The results of multiple surveys and player votes matched up pretty well with our initial vision of popular characters.
Now let's talk about how we handle storylines for these characters. When it comes to the main storyline, we make sure that each character's involvement and role make sense. For example, members of the Civil Corps join players on dungeon quests, and the mayor and church members get involved in city development. We want each character to have a purpose and not do things that don't fit their role.
But when it comes to side storylines, we take popularity into account. Characters who already have significant roles in the main storyline might have fewer individual side stories. After all, their main storyline already gives players a good sense of their character development. Take Elsie as an example. At first, players might find her mischievous, but as the story progresses, she goes through some noticeable growth and even steps up to help others. Since her growth is already covered in the main storyline, her individual side storyline takes a bit of a backseat.
Oh, and when we design these NPC characters, we consider a bunch of other factors. Portia has this fairy tale-like atmosphere, so we try to create characters that fit that relaxed and friendly vibe. But as to the Sandrock, we want to add a touch of mystery and excitement to the game, so some characters might have conflicting personalities.
By creating such a diverse cast of characters, our hope is that players will form emotional connections with them. We want you to discover the unique qualities and traits of each character, going from initial dislike to gradually growing fond of them. These emotional transformations really make the game come alive and bring that extra level of enjoyment.
Q4: Why can't we add all NPCs from Portia to Sandrock and have them together?
This is actually a challenge due to the way the game's code is structured and the amount of work involved. Portia and Sandrock have completely different underlying structures and their codes just don't play nice together, making it technically difficult to make them coexist.
On top of that, the art style in Sandrock has been revamped with a new rendering process, giving it a fresh and improved look. So, if we were to bring Portia into Sandrock, we'd have to recreate all the art assets from scratch, including the character models and textures, and that's a whole lot of work which we can't afford.
Besides, the design vibes of Sandrock and Portia are like night and day. Sandrock has this cool Western theme going on, while Portia has that fairy tale-like charm.
Also, let's not forget about the 3D modelings themselves. The ones in Sandrock are super detailed, with an average of 10,000 polygons for characters, whereas Portia's models usually have around 5,000 polygons. That means the characters in Sandrock have way more intricate details and almost double the polygon count.
And the architecture is different! Sandrock boasts these Western-style buildings with more polygons and finer model details. The building models in Sandrock have over 10,000 polygons, and they use different models to really highlight all those architectural details. Plus, thanks to some fancy technique called Physically Based Rendering (PBR), the lighting and reflections in Sandrock can show off the textures of materials like metal, leather, and fabric. In Portia, they go for a hand-painted texture style, which can't quite achieve the same level of detailed texture as in Sandrock.
So when we add up all these technical and artistic differences between Sandrock and Portia, like the underlying code, art style, model details, and texture rendering, it's a real challenge to directly connect the two places into one game. With that being said, you will still have the opportunity to meet not only new faces in Sandrock, but also some familiar ones from Portia. As we revealed earlier in the article, Mayor Gale and a few other Portians will make an appearance in your journey.
We hope these answers have addressed your questions. If you have any further concerns or if there's anything else you'd like to know about the game, please feel free to ask more in the comments, our Steam forum, or join our Discord community! Additionally, make sure to check out our latest post for more information. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1084600/view/3695813264938762747?l=english for more
We wish you an incredible journey filled with joy and unforgettable experiences in the vast world of Sandrock. Together, let's continue to make Sandrock even better.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1084600/view/3695813264931598464?l=english
Catch up with us around the web for more Sandrock information:
Subscribe to Youtube
Join our Discord
Sandrock Instagram
Sandrock Twitter
Sandrock Facebook
Sandrock Official Website