Hi everyone,
It seems that the “usual” one year and one week interval has crept up on me once again, and the game has been in early access for just over 3 years at this point. So, it is time to take a look at the macro level of Path to Prosperity’s development.
What happened this year?
Checking last year’s “taking stock” post (and the posts done since), there is quite a lot that happened. First of all, I created the templates for the new buildings in the wood, stone, and metal tier style. From there, I created the new buildings that were missing to 0.8 experimental (barracks, scout’s hut, etc.), which led to the release of 0.8 to the experimental branch just before christmas.
With the 0.8 experimental branch came a lot of feedback from players, leading to many bug fixes, changes in animations, changes to how the scout functioned, and the full commitment to having 6 units distributed across melee and ranged types we now have. Based on player feedback, I also made changes to ammo distribution (moving away from all military buildings distributing ammo and to only ammo depots doing so). This new ammo distribution also led to the new healing mechanic and the healer’s hut, which heal units in their immediate area based on medicinal herbs, rather than healing based on food consumption.
Another outcome of player testing was also that there was clearly not enough communication about the new mechanics that were in the game. After repeatedly having to explain to players that certain mechanics already existed and how to access them, I decided to set up a new tutorial which would give a decent introduction to the game overall, as well as its new mechanics. In the process of creating the tutorial, I also ended up cleaning up a lot of the older code and restructuring things to be more reusable for the future, overall reducing the game’s susceptibility to bugs.
Finally, I started creating the pioneer wagon, which will be the missing piece to bringing 0.8 out of the experimental and onto the stable branch.
What is currently planned?
Again, the obvious part here is to finish the pioneer wagon. Once the wagon is in the game and can be used, a lot of issues with expansion will be reduced, and logistics can be at least partially locked to being within their own villages. In order for players to not be lost once more, I will update the tutorial to include the wagon, but the tutorial is already prepared to accommodate this, as chapter 5 is all about creating an outpost. Once the wagon is ready and the tutorial is updated for it, 0.8 can be released properly (and I can finally update the steam page with some more current art and trailers).
After that, I will start working on 0.9, which is all about improving the basebuilding aspect of the game. One major aspect will be to bring all of the building and art up to a consistent standard, which I am quite excited about, but there will be many improvements on the functionality side as well: Village mechanics will mean that each outpost will have its own development state, research will allow for a much smoother and more choice-based progression, and updated production chains will give more options based on what players find across the world. I will give a more in depth update on the plans once 0.8 is out and work on 0.9 begins.
Once again, thank you very much for sticking with the game for another year, all of your feedback, bug hunting, and suggestions for how to improve!
Until next week!