Greetings Travellers!
I am using this months newsletter as an opportunity to talk about the current state of development and future plans that will hopefully take the game to version 1.0 and exit Early Access. Aside from that, expect the usual feature round up and community contributions!
As always, if you've played the game and feel like leaving a review, head over to the Steam page and write a few words - it always helps!⭐
The Road to Version 1.0 🛣️
I never intended Tales from The Dancing Moon to be in an Early Access state for very long, and as I'm entering my 5th month of development I've been thinking about what exactly it would take to get the game into it's full releasable state.
Ultimately, I've narrowed it down to TWO things:
Skye's Questline
Loyal players may have noticed a particularly quiet villager in Illisor. Skye - who currently resides down by the docks - has been wistfully looking out to sea, contemplating the events that are unfolding around you and the town. I’ve been slowly mulling over her quest-line as the Early Access has progressed, and I think I’m in a position where I can start having her story unfold.
As part of her quests, I’ll be moving her location to The Worm’s Tail Island region, where she will be investigating the origins of the Shadow Beasts. All the while allowing the player to discover new weapons, resources, locations and lore along the way. This will also make the Worm’s Tail Island region a much more interesting and worthwhile location for the player to visit in the game.
I consider Syke's content updates to be a 'mini-DLC sized' which I'll be rolling out gradually in subsequent updates, therefore it will take a bit longer to do than my usual patches. That’s the intention anyway!
Content, Content, Content!
The second piece of the version 1.0 puzzle is content. Tales from The Dancing Moon began as an RPG framework. Creating the building blocks for a game that can support quests and a variety of mini-games like farming, fishing, combat, and more.
Right now, the game supports enough things to get the player through the main quest and finish the story it tells. Sure - there’s been a few Early Access patches that adds a few more sandbox and craftable things, but I know that a lot more can be done here.
I’ll be adding a few things whilst I implement Skye’s quests, but even after that I’d like to add a lot more things the player can unlock and sandbox with, including more seasonal content as the player progresses in in-game time. This is also the sort of content that can also continue after the full release.
So all that farming, fishing, crafting, building and city-building you can do in the game? You should expect more variety to these things as I move closer to that 1.0 release.
I've always been proud that I released Early Access in a "story-complete" state, but the completion of the above two things will allow me to bring it over the edge to a full release. I hope you stick around for the ride!
Patch and Updates Recap 🛠️
[0.9.17] introduced an advanced marketplace feature to the Illisor Plaza, with procedurally generated market stalls and merchants to add immersion and variety to each of your days, and a trading system that can get you some extra coin through buying and selling goods!
Community Spotlight 🌟
Do you want to be featured on the community spotlight each month? Make sure to post your screenshots on social media or the Discord server!
BU4U Gaming over on YouTube has started their own playthough of the game, I'm excited to see if they'll carry on with it! You can watch Episode 1 and 2 already on their channel.
MooseGaming is back with Part 6 of his YouTube playthrough!
McLana and Izzi took a few snaps this month which I'd love to highlight for this months community spotlight, Check out them out down below!
That's all for this months newsletter, thanks for tuning in and playing!
- DjMonkey
Enjoy reading my dev diary newsletters? Then please consider downloading the demo or trying the Early Access of the game, you can even just Wishlist if you like! I'd greatly appreciate it! You can do so from the the Steam page.
If you’d like to join the community and discuss the content of this post, please visit the Discord or make a comment on Threads or Twitter!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1782420/Tales_from_The_Dancing_Moon/