Greetings travellers!
Guess what? My birthday was last week - Happy Birthday me! 🥳
Let's tuck into May's updates shall we?
Community and Beta Versions
To kick things off I just want to remind readers that you can sign up to play the BETA version of the game. This includes a near-complete version of the game which takes you close to the finale. If you're interested then please reach out via the Discord channel or over on Twitter!
I'm also reaching out to various content creators who've shown interest in the game so far! One of which is ThePillowFortG over on Twitter. I could tell straight away that they were a perfect fit to try out the game and I've already received valuable feedback from their initial plays. I look forward to hearing more about what they think! If you want to see more indie game reviews and streams from an up-and-coming creator - then go check them out!
I'm always happy to chat to content creators and gamers about BETA access, so if you like the idea of working closely with a passionate developer and can help steer the squashing of bugs and feature improvement - then feel free to get in touch by joining the Discord or following over on Twitter.
May Demo Update
There is another update to the demo - I'm so happy to be pushing out regular builds again!
However I wouldn't expect any new features for this patch, as this is mostly a bunch of bug fixes that I'm porting back into demo experience after going through many play-tests of the full game.
Click here or the GIF below to visit the full changelog for this update. Now's a better time than ever to play the most stable version of the Demo and get a sense of what this game has to offer!
Steam Store & Logo Update
Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed two visual changes to the Store front. One of which is a revised logo for the game itself!
Here's a before and after image to show the difference.
What I find amusing is that after I finished the new logo, I realised why the old logo had been annoying me so much - and that's because the "The" was placed incorrectly for all that time!
The new logo makes more sense because "The Dancing Moon" is the name of the inn that you find yourself in within the game, not "Dancing Moon". It's so simple but explains why after all this time why the old logo didn't sit well with me.
The other change is a complete revamp of the Steam's store page. Now that the game is nearing the end of it's development, I've realised I can rely on a bunch of new and updated assets to really make things pop. I hope you like it!
Making a Village More Alive
One of the challenges I've faced is how to make the world I'm building feel a bit more alive.
There's a total of five hand-crafted zones with a handful of important NPCs that you can interact and follow quest-lines with, but around that things have always felt a little bit... empty.
This critique is valid, as that has also come up as a point of player feedback from the Demo.
The intention here is that most of the more empty spaces in the game is available for the player to sandbox in. This means placing objects down, crafting, and eventually putting large buildings in place too (more details below!), but as these things unlock later in the game, those areas are essentially unused until that time.
However, to help with the steady growth of the village and to enhance the feeling of being more "alive". I've started experimenting with a "passive" feature that occurs as you progress in the game.
I'm calling this feature "Visitors". These are additional non-important NPC's who fill in empty spaces in the game that provide "eavesdrop" style dialog as you wonder around. These NPC's could be chatting in a group, fishing by the water, sitting at a table at The Dancing Moon, and more.
As you walk by them, they have the opportunity to provide snippets of conversations which change depending on where you are in the story or what quests you've done. These sorts of things are simple to expand upon, and hopefully make the village feel a bit more alive as you progress throughout the game!
Story Insights - Village Building
In last months newsletter I delved into the museum and artefact gameplay. Following this trend, in this months newsletter I'd like to demonstrate village building.
In the earlier portions of the game you may notice that the regions you explore are either scattered by burning debris or empty plots of land. As you help the village rebuild these areas will become available for you to craft and construct.
There are two main mechanics for construction within the game - the first is a build mode for object placement, and the second is a construction mode for larger things like buildings. Each of these things are driven by the crafting system which require you to gather various resources.
Both of these options are provided by Lucas - the local handyman who's staying in Illisor! After completing the relevant quests, talking to Lucas will display these options for you.
To support your endeavours in construction, Lucas has also provided a Construction Storage Box to assist your need to harvest materials. Instead of using your inventory, placing any materials in the Construction Storage Box will go towards the buildings you wish to construct.
After you satisfy the requirements for a building, Lucas will take you to a birds-eye view of the village, where you can place your new building. This mode also allows you to move existing buildings, so you don't have to be perfect straight away!
So far this covers the construction mode gameplay, but to allow for even finer customisation we can talk about the build mode.
A feature which can already be used in the demo, build mode allows you to craft an assortment of items and place them freely within the world (within some limitations)!
So with both construction mode and the build mode features, the game allows for broad stroke customisation as well as finer detailing. This is perfect for when you eventually get the opportunity to build and furnish your own home!
That's all for the May edition of my developer newsletter - have a good one and see you in June!
- DjMonkey
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1782420/Tales_from_The_Dancing_Moon/