Over the past year we accomplished a lot and introduced a lot of new content for players to enjoy. While we didn’t complete the full phase two map, we completed a large number of items on the list and some especially key ones. So below I want to walk through what we got done and then where we didn’t quite meet our own expectations and some challenges we ran into and how our focus will be adjusted over the coming months and year.
What we got done
- Introducing Multiplayer: We got an MMO mode implemented in late winter and have spent a lot of time focusing on that over the past several months. I think the players that have engaged in it have found the play experience to be fun with a few repeatable quests and an open world feel. We will continue to expand the world and functionality of the MMO mode.
- Custom Player Housing: Another important area to the game and to us personally was customizable player housing. We implemented a system that has allowed players to purchase a property, design and construct their own houses. Overall, the feedback has been positive and players have enjoyed this feature. We continue to add new property locations for players to purchase as the existing properties get bought up. Additionally, we look to continue to expand the housing system with new pieces for players to experiment with as well as new furnishings. The Carpentry skill will also add some new unique pieces for players to construct themselves.
- New Explorable Areas and Monsters: We added several new areas for players to explore and enjoy over the past year as well as introducing numerous monsters. New areas include West Brimstone an ruined town overrun by orcs, an orc fort, lower levels of the mines filled with new kinds of dangerous monsters including a dragon as well as most recently introducing the catacombs an extension from the crypts that leads under the forest to the lower level of the mines with new kinds of undead and monsters for players to fight. We have also introduced a couple of repeatable mini-boss quests for players to fight including a Bone Lord and Root-Rot a fleshly rooty abomination in the catacombs and of course we are continuing to expand and add new areas and monsters to the game.
- Blacksmithing and Leatherwork: Crafting skills for blacksmithing and leatherwork were introduced over the past year, and soon carpentry will be as well in the next couple of weeks. Crafting skills work differently than other skills as they require players to complete apprenticeships to advance their skill caps introducing a different aspect of skill gain. Overall feedback has been pretty good in this area other than not yet being able to get to 100 skill in these yet which we are actively expanding the apprenticeships in the next couple of patches. One of the hold ups with these are typically that they require us to add new areas and resources for players to craft at/with. So they require those dependencies to be in place first. One of the things we will be adding specifically to blacksmithing in the next couple of months is the ability to create Jewel studded armor.
- More Weapons and Magic Armor: While magic weapons were in place at launch we did also get magic armor in over the past year as well and have added a few more weapons for players to acquire as well as the introduction of “unique/legendary” weapons as super rare drops. We still have more weapons and armor in the queue to add as well.
- Spells and Potions: There are now over 40 spells in the game across the five schools of magic (more than twice from last year at launch). We are continuing to grow this number as well but we feel like progress in this area was good. We also introduced all kinds of potions for players to experiment with boosting not only health and mana but resistance, magic power, strength, and stamina. In the coming months we will be introducing level 2 potions for bigger boosts and even further when we introduce Alchemy.
- Game Manual: We did put some effort into a game manual for players and while it isn’t perfectly up to date in all areas we believe it to be an important part of making the game playable and accessible to players. We encourage everyone to utilize it on our website when you have questions that we cannot immediately answer.
What Didn’t get enough Attention
- Quests: While we added a couple boss quests they didn’t have much story or dialog and we didn’t focus on any core quests over the past a year which for us was a bit of a let down, especially for our single players. Over the next few months our focus is going to shift back to quests both core and side now that we have more world areas accessible we can add more quests.
- Game Content and Decoration: Just over the past couple of months players have begun helping out with some world decoration. This is something that takes a great deal of time to add detail for and I haven’t been able to give it as much attention in earlier months resulting in emptier houses or less lush outdoor areas. Now with the additional help we are able to progress with this a bit better. I also plan to add in more décor to work with to diversify interior and exterior decorations.
- Backlog of Equipment, Monsters and Townsfolk: Many thanks to our 3d artist for completing so many models/renderings for us over the past couple of years. I owe him much credit for making Gravebind possible. I have a large backlog of his work to get loaded into the game still; so my apologies for keeping him waiting to see his work in the game. Often the hold up isn’t loading the art itself into the game as it is scripting the monsters, items and spells that go a long with the artwork. I do my best to make things have uniqueness and purpose to them.
- Other Minor Features: Riddle Chests, Lock Pick Scenarios and more single player settings were some minor things we didn’t get done with that we will still be doing but are lower priority at this time. We will also be expanding the player status menu at some point in the coming months to include much more information such as Chance To Resist, Chance To Hit and more of this type information to help players with character development.
We have a patch for Lumberjacking, Carpentry, a new blacksmith apprenticeship, some new town areas, another higher forest level monster, and new hexagonal buildings that should be out in the next few weeks. Be sure to check out our in-development area on https://gravebind.online for the most up to date information.
Thanks for reading and we look forward to another year of development!
Chris The Avatar