Welcome
Hey there! Thanks for taking the time to check out this blog post.
If you're not caught up on what's been going on, I'd recommend watching my video devlogs on my Youtube channel to get an idea of what I've been doing so far.
January Progress
So the main goal for January was to add a new town into Dreadwinter, known as Neo Solara.
It's the financial capital of Lindengard, the country that Dreadwinter takes place in, and is the complete opposite of Lunara, where you live and work.
Lunara is a small, cozy village that's beginning to transition into the modern age, while Neo Solara entered the modern age a long time ago. My inspiration was big cities like London and New York, where you're surrounded by skyscrapers and massive buildings.
You can travel there from Lunara by taking the Sky Train, a train that travels in the sky! It's rather expensive, so you'll need to save for a while to make the trip.
The first place you arrive at is Neo Solara station. The platform is on top of a skyscraper, which I thought would be cool, and made sense, considering how high up the train travels. My vision of Neo Solara is that despite being based in a world full of magic, capitalism is still the driving force behind everything, and you're bombarded with advertising as soon as you arrive.
I think the buildings can use a bit of weathering and extra detail to make it pop a little more, but we're off to a good start!
Coming out of the station, you'll notice MerryAutumn Coffee House, one of the major businesses in the game. MerryAutumn is a company that specialises in luxury coffee products, all the way from beans to machines. It's owner, Autumn, will be a regular customer at Dreadwinter, and befriending her may reward you with some neat stuff!
Lastly, I designed the headquarters of GenerousSpring Investments & Loans, another major business in the game. It's a mix of cozy, grand, and just a bit of investment banking.
What's Next?
I'm now working on overhauling the combat system in the game. It's not the primary selling point of Dreadwinter, but I think it should be a high quality, fun experience nonetheless, and I think the original version of it wasn't that interesting to play, or to make.
The original gameplay was similar to Stardew Valley, in that it was more of a hack and slash RPG, with skills and spells you could learn.
After a few months of thinking before going to bed, I thought of an idea for a turn-based combat system using cards, similar to something like Moonstone Island. It's quite a big flip in style from the original idea, but I don't think anyone interested in the game was drawn in by the combat system.
I wouldn't say the new system is any easier to make, but I enjoy turn based games a lot more than action ones, so I'm having fun making it right now. I'll cover the details of how it works in another post, since there's a lot to go over, and it's still in development, but here's a quick look at it right now.
That's it for this update, thanks for reading to the end, and I hope to see you again soon!
-Alex