Hey everyone!
Time for another update from the team to keep you up to speed on our progress. It's been such a fun last couple months but also quite challenging from a technical perspective. We've managed to tackle some really tough tasks and we're very happy with how things are going.
Our primary goal was to complete the basic gameplay loop consisting of the following:
1.) Going on an expedition and collecting fossils.
2.) Returning to the museum and setting up exhibits.
3.) Having a basic visitor phase to get visitors to see your exhibits.
4.) Ending the day and earning money
We managed to get this all set up and working which really felt awesome. Playing the 'game' for the first time and seeing it all come together was super satisfying and a big milestone for us.
Museum Management
In order to manage your museum we needed to build a number of features around managing your dioramas, exhibits and display cabinets. So, say hello to the new museum manager menu! We had to build quite a tricky menu system that works well on both mouse and controller. It still needs a bit of work from a polishing perspective but we're very happy with this iteration and how it works.
Our next major task we needed to tackle was actually placing your exhibits in the museum. This also needs to work well on controller as well as mouse and keyboard. We also had to figure out how different rooms in your museum are handled visually and how these rooms would get unlocked.
These two components were very challenging for us not only from a technical perspective but also trying to design them in a way that was as simple to use as possible even when the underlying mechanics are quite complex. There are so many different components that have to work together here and they need to feel as seamless as possible for the player.
Please keep in mind that the assets we share are still very much work in progress. As time progresses and we get deeper into the project we'll be constantly iterating and adding polish and juice to make it really feel fun to use these mechanics in game.
Visitors
What use is a museum without visitors? We need to get some visitors to see our cool new exhibits!
For this, we had to create our visitor AI and pathfinding systems. We had to be quite smarty pants about it so that the visitor phase can be skipped and/or fast forwarded. If you don't enjoy watching the visitors ooh and aahh at your exhibits then we don't want you have to sit through it over and over and over! It's working quite nicely right now and I think we have a really good foundation we can work on to add more features and interactivity to this part of the game.
Right now, it's the first pass of this system but we're planning on adding a few interactive events with visitors so you can interact with them in various ways. More about that in upcoming dev logs.
Town
Your museum will be hosted in the charming, if slightly run down, town of Follyoaks. We want to make this little place somewhere with a rich history, interesting characters and a visual identity. Over the last 3 months we've worked on storylines for the characters you meet, designing the town and creating assets.
Here are some of the lovely town buildings and character models Kate has been working on lately:
Another really fun part of creating the town was planning the dialog system. We've managed to create a dialog system that is reactive to players actions so characters will (nearly) always have something to say that is relevant to the current point in your journey. There's also a relationship system so you can make friends with characters and influence them in various ways. (This is optional! You can play the game without getting to know everyone if that's more your style.) For this, we've been using a very cool tool called Yarn Spinner.
Of course, all games eventually run out of content, but I think in regards to dialog, that there will be plenty there to explore even for those that really really enjoy talking.
Field Guide
We wanted to make each location you travel to during your adventures to feel alive and full of life. So to make each area richer in content and identity we decided to create a field guide. While exploring, you'll discover animals and plants and other things you can add to your field guide. We had so much fun making this and researching it!
All the field guide entries are based on real animals, geological formations or plants you can find in each area. Did you know! the Greater Short-horned Lizards of Montana can squirt blood from their eyes at attacking predators? This is a defence used sparingly to avoid excess blood loss. How amazing?!
Here are some of our new animal models just after Romy finished texturing them - they are getting animated this week too! We hope you enjoy finding and learning all about the plants and animals in each location.
Game Content
Apart from working on all the above, we're also constantly adding more fossil content to the game, such as this large spinosaur from the British Isles and one of our favourites: Baryonyx!
Wholesome Games Celebration
Lastly, we are currently in Wholesome Games Celebration! Yay! We are so happy to be a part of this fantastic festival. I still feel like it’s a bit of a “pinch me” moment whenever I see Fossil Quest featured alongside other well known amazing games! There are a lot of games taking part who have recently released demos, currently have discounts or new features announcements so take a gander at the event page to check them out before the festival ends on the 13th August.
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/wholesomegames
Thank you!
We wanted to thank each and every one of you for supporting us and we look forward to updating you all again soon!
PS: please feel free to ask us anything about the game in our discord or by leaving a comment here.