Hey there! thank you for clicking and reading this update. We have lots of changes to share with you, so let's get to it!
Important playtest update
The playtest will end on or around Monday, Sept 7th!
But fear not, because we're promoting the playtest to a demo
...and the demo will launch Friday, Sept 11th!
Why a demo? Anything new?
There are two reasons we're releasing a demo so suddenly:
First is philosophical, we're at a point where the state of the game is fairly indicative of what the final game will look like when it's done. of course, there are still some placeholder assets and missing systems, but it feels pretty close. your feedback is still incredibly valuable.
The second reason is games without demos get reduced visibility during steam events. and there's an event around the corner we're participating in. we'll take as much visibility as we can get!
The content will be the same. but it'll continue to get updates and improvements as development shifts to act 3 content.
Also... the demo will be translated to PT-BR!
New stuff/fixes/changes
That said, I've been tidying up things in preparation for the demo a bit! there are lots of little things since the last update.
Controller input & glyph improvements
Yes, confirm belongs on O. it says so on the buttons.
Controller glyph settings are per-device now.
The game should auto-detect most xbox, playstation, and nintendo controllers correctly with vendor-specific glyphs now
For other generic controllers, you'll go thru a quick step to identify buttons, so in-game glyphs will be correct. you can also override the glyph set.
I reworked analogue movement, to hopefully handle the slow diagonal movement speeds, caused by gamemaker's weird built-in deadzone.
Collision Improvements
Collisions got a bit of an overhaul
For example, full collisions are split into below the player ("holes") and above the player ("walls").
Skills like "leap", and line of sight, now honor the correct collision type. (you can jump across gaps, but not thru walls!)
This also unlocked half-tile collisions and other things. (not really used yet.)
Characters also shouldn't get stuck in walls as much. :)
Perspective world map
Now you can see the world in a new perspective! The 5mb gif-only uploader was not kind to these gradients, but the goal was to see more of the world and the titular umbra as you explore on your adventure.
Made possible thanks to "The Animal Crossing Perspective in Gamemaker" by DragoniteSpam on YouTube
Campfires & Enemy Respawning
A new resource, "flint" can be found in the world. Use it to start campfires in certain story-relevant locations
Characters will chat (this is not new dialogue, it's a new home for the heavier banter that people missed because of combat and other distractions)
After chatting, characters' are full recovered, their affinity for each other will increase (does nothing), and they will receive some stat points.
...however, all enemies will respawn.
The more you know: In the old encounter system, enemies would respawn after 5 minutes (even if you weren't playing!) and only if you weren't on the map. it was unintuitive and weird!
Eternal combat tuning
Certain actions, like running away or repathing, would reset timers on when computer-controlled enemies/characters would attack. those timers are now independent, resulting in smoother/faster combat.
Enemies generally will not idle around doing nothing. they'll circle around if no actions are available. (PS, Clydan's godly "shout" skill, which applies counter, was preventing enemies from attacking him as well, that's fixed)
Goblin's provoke is reworked into a skillshot, so you can dodge it.
Clydan also had provoke, but it felt a bit lackluster, especially after the skillshot change, so it's been removed and the augments moved to "kick" instead.
Hitstop (pause frames) toned down slightly, they only apply when human players perform or receive attacks.
Suplex will hold enemies in place, so they can't walk away.
Other awesome ideas you recommended and we added
Followers will loot nearby enemies after battles
WIP furigana-on-hover for japanese experiment thing
Money amount is shown on loot, values for money + xp tally up and merge together
Enemy corpses and loot persist on map changes
Sped up the intro. time to first battle reduced by ~15 seconds
Simplified a lot of the battle ui around players: less cluttered "marked" status effect, more sensible defaults, they're drawn on the correct layer so they should be more vivid
Sound effects, red HUD when a player is low health in combat
Preventing more crashes, especially related to input
Screen flash intensity setting for accessibility
Anything else you want to see in the game? have you encounter any bugs? please let us know!
What's next
ACT 3! Seriously, we've spent too much time polishing. I think Miyamoto said something about designing the first level last. counting the rpg maker versions, I've re-designed the first level at least 5 times.
This game development stuff is hard.
At least the rest of the game is outlined, I just need to start drafting more scenes for act 3 now. Look forward to a word count progress for the next update.
Again, thanks so much for reading.
Your attention, support, bug reports, and feedback all means a lot to me.