After over 3 years of development and nearly a year of being on Steam Early Access, we are ready to take a good look at what the road to a full release looks like. We have some truly exciting things planned but please keep in mind that nothing is written in stone and things do change. In order to keep this even remotely readable I leave out the more intimate details but am happy expand on anything and will also answer any questions.
Community Engagement
Connecting with and forming a two way conversation with Crea’s community has always been a top priority and we hope you can see that through our efforts. As we work towards the full release of Crea we will continue to engage on as many levels as we can. Here’s what we’re doing.
- Development Streams We began streaming development of Crea nearly 3 years ago and have continued since. Leading up to the release we’ll be doing our best to stream consistently and show as much of process as we can.
- Twitter Presence Stream announcements, update sneak peeks and more. Be sure to follow!
- Project Plan Our full project plan is available for anyone to view. On Crea’s Project Plan you can see exactly what is in the works and what is coming up. We’re still working on fleshing this out and it is constantly changing.
- Incorporating Feedback From our first alpha players to the newest Crea beta testers, we’ve been using player feedback to guide Crea to where it is today. We will continue to pour over the forums and read every review.
- Weekly Updates In order to tighten the feedback loop, Crea is now receiving updates on a weekly basis. Each Friday we are releasing a build with everything we managed to accomplish in the week’s timeframe. Expect more than small cosmetic content; we are not afraid of large sweeping changes if necessary.
Expanding Content
Now that the majority of Crea’s systems have solidified we will build upon that foundation to flesh out the world with as much content as we can. We have plans to add more of nearly everything but will also focus on certain aspects that could use some extra fleshing out.
- Furniture and Decorations Last year a great deal of focus was on combat. With our focus shifting to content we want to expand upon the existing building options by adding in new furniture sets, more house decorations, and even new building blocks.
- Character Customizations Much like furniture and decor, we will be expanding upon the options players have when creating their character. Before we work on these we’ll be asking the community what options they’d like to see so keep an eye out for that.
- Biomes and Minibiomes We asked the community what they’d like to see more of and biomes and minibiomes were easily at the top of the list. In addition to completely new biomes, we’ll be expanding upon existing ones by adding in more variations, including minibiomes. By release you’ll never know what’s just beyond the light of your torch.
- Paragons Our equivalent of minibosses, we have plans to add in a Paragon version of each type of monster as well as expand their abilities. We will also be working on making their abilities more easily identifiable. Soon you’ll not want to know what’s just beyond the light of your torch.
- Gear and Ore Tier Crea already boasts over a dozen equipment sets and that will be expanding as we add in a new tier to upgrade. In order to craft this new powerful set of gear the best materials will be required including a new ore that will be introduced at the same time.
- Fourth Boss A fourth and final boss will be introduced at release that will challenge players to be their strongest. Expect an epic battle!
Refining Systems
Every aspect of Crea has gone through multiple iterations. We are happy with most systems but there are some we feel need more love. Here is what we’re looking at and what we have planned for them.
- Chaos Crafting Adding more visual feedback is at the top of the list. The plan is to make it possible to see where quality and chaos is coming from. We’d also like to find a way to show the various quality level results.
- Map The initial version of maps were added in and have not been iterated upon much since. Improving the map system is important.
- Conflict Currently, monsters will spread throughout the world, growing in strength and numbers if left alone. As hostility increases, special events can occur, such as a paragon appearing. Currently this system is invisible to the player. Through a revamped map we hope to make this system more apparently by showing where special events are happening along with the state of the world. There is also the possibility we’ll add more events through this such as monster swarms.
- Multiplayer The current system of having to do port forwarding, giving your IP and port to your friends is extremely inconvenient, not to mention error prone. We have plans to make it possible to simply select a Steam friend and Crea will autoconnect to them directly without the need for portforwarding.
Forging New Features
Crea has an immense number of features and systems but we still have a few more planned for release. These are the features we felt are essential to making Crea feel complete.
- Dungeons The Dungeoneer, a handyman NPC, will build dungeons for you for a price. Dungeons will exist in other realms and be randomly generated every time. Not only are the layouts different; the rules change too. Limited abilities, paragons only, or “the floor is lava” are all possible setups. We are also considering multiple modes such preset dungeons to progress through or the ability to customize a dungeon. Entrances to dungeons may also be found throughout the world.
- Steam Achievements We are aiming to release with around 50 achievements. We are still designing them but plan to make them challenging and fun to get; no freebies.
- Steam Cards Not much to be said about these except that our talented artist, Kelley, will be doing these and they will be awesome.
- World Mythos Unbeknownst to the majority of Crea players, the world of Crea is built upon an original mythos that has been in the works for over 5 years. We have been working on fleshing out the world even more and will be incorporating it into item descriptions, the environment and even a Lore Book.
Polishing Everything
The closer we get to release the more we’ll focus on polishing the game to get it representing the highest quality possible.
- Stability Having a stable release is top priority for us. This means working tirelessly to hunt down every crash and any other grotesque bug that dares to show itself.
- Performance Optimizations will come and everyone will enjoy a smoother framerate.
- User Interface We are happy with the majority of the UI; however, some aspects will be cleaned up to help convey how things work and the controls involved in performing actions. Tooltips with more and better information is a prime example.
- Music and Sound The soundtrack will be completed and many more sound effects will be added to bring life to every aspect of the game.
Beyond Release
Leaving Steam Early Access does not mean the end of development for Crea. We have a growing list of content and many features we would like to implement in post release updates. For now though we want to focus on getting to a full release so we wont go into any more details.