Hello everyone!
We haven't been very active on Steam, and we apologize for that.
In order to have a continuous thread of DEV BLOG updates, we have decided to repost the articles originally posted on Kickstarter.
The other articles will follow shortly, and we hope you will enjoy reading them!
-- this article was originally posted: 09/02/2022
So here is the first post-campaign update of Project Gold!
First we apologize for the months of silence. We know you are a lot awaiting news of the game and we decided to not talk before we have enough to tell.
Making a game is not something to be rushed. It is a marathon and we decided to take the time we need to set up every required process in the team and for the production.
Today, we cannot show you anything yet because we want to show you the final rendering of the game. But time flies and we did not inform you of what was going on.
This post is only written stuff, and we will try to make others devblogs to tell the progress, what we are doing and where we are going.
And when we have the chance, we will show you very nice things!
Be aware, if you want to keep aside any kind of spoiler (even small) and discover the whole game once finished, you probably should stop reading from here, the goal of a devblog is to show and explain a part of our work.
Of course, we won’t spoil the whole game and even if you decide to read this post, you will have plenty of things and secrets to discover!
Our goal is to reward curious players, be attentive to everything and maybe you will be able to find the mysteries we are hiding in the game.
What is the production status?
Since the release of the playable prototype and the video made by MisterMV, we received a lot of feedback, both positive and negative.
Before working on the content of the game, we decided to:
- rework some game mechanics that were not that fun
- complete the documentation of the world and everything attached to it (what do we do, when, where, this is Game Design)
- rework the art rendering (we are excited to show it)
- rework most of our game engine, essentially the physics, in order to create new game mechanics (physic is always fun)
Let’s talk about what was in the prototype.
Karma
The Karma is changing.
Instead of purifying/massacring the souls of enemies, now you will have to find statues and decide to pray/corrupt it, this will give a ratio and define your allegiance.
This makes it easier to “change your mind”, go back and change the state of the statues. This will also bring new subtleties you may discover while playing the game!
Farming monsters
Killing monsters will now give you exp points which will let you unlock optional skills.
In the prototype, optional skills were acquired by absorbing souls. We decided to change this for something simpler that everyone already knows.
A classic exp points system with a skill tree divided between the God of Gold and the Goddess of Light.
That way you will be able to decide which optional skill you want.
You will be able to finish the game without these optional skills, it is a way to add some variations to the game and also a way to help the players who struggle to progress.
The level design changing along the Karma
This is one of the core features of the game, we had to find how to make it better.
In the prototype, we were using golden/enlightened blocks, but the final rendering was not as good as what we thought.
Now, the change in the level design will occur not by “blocks” but will be completely different levels with different paths.
It is more work for us since we will have to make the same map many times, but we will have more control over the rendering and avoid cringe/buggy situations.
We decided to change those mechanics because the previous ones were not fun enough, boring after a few minutes, not as beautiful as expected or could be the reason for “soft lock” issues (when you are locked in a level and it was not the goal of the designers).
And then?
We are working on a new rendering for the game. But we do not want to show anything until it is 100% ready!
So let’s talk a little bit about “dev stuff” (I mean, technical stuff).
Gold Project is made with a homemade engine powered by Javascript/WebGL. To make the prototype we did not have a lot of time so we had to do “for the best”.
Last month we reworked a lot of things from a technical point of view, starting with the design of a “components” system (if you know Unity it’s a little bit the same).
This allows us to reuse components and make new ones to design gameplay and AIs.
We also added a “rig” engine (virtual skeletons to say it quickly) which brings the possibility to create procedural animations or other things reacting to physics!
Finally, it is not the most interesting part. We completely re coded all the existings AIs from the prototype to optimize them and create components for each part in order to reuse them. Above that, making the code more restrictive and robust.
With all those little things we can go faster to make new AIs.
This work took some time (~2 months) but we have a stronger environment to code and will spend less time debugging it. It is an investment for the coming months.
Last point about technical things, we made a lot of changes on the player character, changing the feeling and controls. The goal is to have the best, smooth and fun experience possible.
Conclusion
This concludes our first devblog. Last months we worked mostly on things hard to understand as a player, Game Design, refactoring technical things “low level”, research on arts, rendering, and music.
Hard to see the “progress” about the making of the game.
Here is now one thing that should comfort you:
We finished those obscure tasks and are now working seriously on the content of the game!
As of today we already made 4 new AIs in the game. Planned for the Biome 2 each one is very different and will surprise you!
It is a kind of creature we did not show in the prototype. Do you have any idea of what it could be?
We are impatient to show you more and bring some images along with the writing.
Maybe in the next post?
Since then we keep moving forward!
Thanks.
~ the dev team
PS: reminder, you can join our Discord Server and claim your backer role!