Hello!
Welcome to another edition of AM Devlog! AM Devlogs are weekly updates on the development progress of Adventurer Manager. These Devlogs highlight our philosophy of the importance of transparency and player feedback.
I'd like to start off this Devlog talking about the upcoming series of patches we are working on as well as their timetables for release. We had originally hoped to release a big content patch this week, but it looks it will be pushed to sometime later next week. We're bummed that you'll have to wait another week or so to see the changes, but it will definitely be worth it! Let me tell you why.
One of the reasons we are waiting is because we have a new UI menu that will replace the boring one I showed you in the last Devlog. It is part of our committed efforts on UI redesign and we're really excited about giving you these neat, immersive scenes. The other reason it's being held back a week is because of the implementation of the Gems that will be used to create items with particular Attributes. We considered releasing it this week without the Gems but we felt that it was a huge component of Blacksmithing that needed to be included.
Early Blacksmith UI
The patch next week will include the Blacksmith and the increased level cap to 33 as well as 2 new Towns, 2 new Races, and 4 new dungeons! The 2 new Towns will be Giantia and Dwarfia and the Giant and Dwarf race will be hireable when they are unlocked through the Story. The 4 new dungeons are the Mountain Pass (featured in our Steam Trading Cards) full of snow bandits, the Orc Camp (full of orcs, duh), the Haunted Mansion (full of evil and ghostly things), and the Farm (full of some...interesting farm animals). We are really excited to get these new areas out to you with a 12 level increase to the cap!
Mountain Pass
Snow Bandit
With these updates, it is with heavy regret to inform you that the remaining classes will not make it to the patch next week. We had originally wanted to bring you all 3 of the remaining classes, Barbarian, Paladin, Monk with this update but due to some massive, massive skill overhauls, these will have to wait a couple more weeks.
Don't fret too much though because this week's Devlog features a big surprise that should make it into next week's patch! I'll let the screenshots do the explaining:
Adventurer Comparison New/Old
That's right, new Adventurer sprites! Our quirky original Adventurers will be replaced with brand new, larger and more detailed sprites. These new sprites allow us to have much more room on the Adventurers to craft amazing looking equipment. It also lets us have enough space to provide visual indications of gender! We're always improving the look of AM as we develop and we're happy to provide you with a major visual improvement. In time we are going to consider more complex animations for them as well, but for now, I hope you enjoy the new look!
That's about all for next week's patch, but I'm going to take a bit to talk about some other development that's going on. First up, the Dungeon UI overhaul! I showed off a small sketch of this last week but I wanted to provide you all with an neat update on it. It will now feature a neat Courier character who is in charge of making sure you receive your royal notifications! He will sit idle in the Dungeon UI but when something needs your attention, he will wave at you. Clicking him will unfurl a large Scroll that will give you indications of the goings on in your kingdom.
Courier & Scroll Menu
Eventually AutoQuests will be able to be Auto-Completed from this menu, Resting Adventurers will indicate when they have rested, and other upcoming management features will have indicators. This menu will allow you to continue to move your favored party through their dungeon in manual mode while being able to manage your kingdom easily and efficiently. As part of this new UI, you will be able to 'pause' the dungeon you are currently in to go back to the world map and take actions. When you return to the party, you will be exactly where you left off. No more having to portal back to town to manage your Adventurers. Hooray!
That's about it for this edition of AM Devlog. Stay tuned for next week's where I will discuss a truly exciting feature that is coming down the pipe!
Happy Adventuring!
Thomas Spradling
Game Designer & Producer
VAStudios