Our friend IndieVR streamed a playtest of the game on YouTube. There were some hiccups since we had not sufficiently tested that build, but overall we were able to get a lot of information from the playtest.
One result of the playtest was that we realized the importance of having a save feature. I had planned to do a save feature within a few weeks, but the playtest brought it to the top of the list. It was frustrating for the player to keep having to start the entire level over repeatedly.
I spent most of last week finishing the save feature, and I was able to get it working 100% yesterday. I fell ill early last week which made it difficult to work, but I was bent on finishing it so I continued to work despite being sick.
Most traditional FPS games save the exact state of every entity in the level. The save feature in Realm of the Fallen does not work this way. Only certain entities are saved. The main reason is that most enemies and items respawn. This is necessary because the game involves backtracking so it would be boring if those areas were permanently empty after you cleared them the first time. The save feature works how it does in many Metroidvania titles: the player’s location, completed objectives, and inventory are saved. Also, the player’s health is restored.
The player saves the game by finding a save station. Save stations are in dedicated rooms (see the attached screenshot). The player places their hand on the save station, and the station dispenses a spherical artifact. The player grabs the artifact, and then the artifact begins to dissolve. A message is displayed
TheO actually did the artwork for the save station (and came up with the idea for how saving works) several months ago, but I lagged in implementing it. We actually have a more elaborate save animation planned where the save station scans you, but it is a low priority.
Note that armor is not saved since we are going to remove the current FPS-style armor and replace it with something more RPG-like. The player will be able to pick up different types of armor for different parts of the body.
Also note that the save format will change. So if you save now and come back in a few months to a new version of the game, your save files will probably be gone. The reason is that I will be improving the save file format which is something that I implemented in a hurry.
