After some bumps in the system, Solace Crafting version 1.0 is now Live!
Come and see the many experiences within an infinite procedural fantasy world!
It's been six years since I first started programming the core of Solace Crafting, yet here we are! There's always more to add, but full of things to do as we are, I can safely say that Solace Crafting is now well worth the $15 price tag and I am happy to take it out of Early Access.
I have to make most clear of all, version 1.0 is not the end of development. I'm not quitting my full-time job as a developer and moving to the Bahamas. This is my full-time job, and development of Solace Crafting continues today and tomorrow and beyond. I've updated the roadmap, the bug tracker is live, and thanks to players in Discord and here on Steam I've already got a list of new things to look into.
Lots of stuff to do
Solace Crafting doesn't often hold your hand and tell you what you should be doing. For some that's awesome, but for some players it leaves them feeling like there's nothing to do. Well, here are some in-game stats to alleviate those with such concerns:
- Adventuring skill points to spend: 1200
- Crafting skill points to spend: 1479
- Harvesting skill points to spend: 320
- In-game achievements: 514
- Steam achievements: 62
- Craftable armor pieces: 63
- Craftable weapons: 64
- Building pieces: 108
- Furniture pieces: 29
- Possible schematic recipes: 18,684
- Furthest (known) distance traveled: 1,000,000+ kilometers
- Highest (known) player level reached: 22,617
- Most (known) hours played: 5,000+
- People enjoying the game you made: priceless!
I'm a huge fan of procedural content, big mountains, islands, lakes, crafting, and the freedom to go and do what you want to do, and I've tried very purposefully to get all of those things in Solace Crafting. No artificial barriers, no artificial sky box mountains, no off-limits. If you can see it, it might be really really far away, but you can 100% get there.
Looking forward
Creating, managing, and prioritizing the items of a development roadmap is one of many skills that an indie developer has to spend time and effort to improve. There is always more that can be added to a game, but more is not always better. Fun has always been the main goal for features added into Solace Crafting, and I've tried to keep the community well informed and make sure that everyone has a chance to have their voice heard. Following that tradition I've setup a new survey specifically for the release of version 1.0 and how players would like to see the game improve from here on:
Click here to take the 2 minute survey at Survey Monkey
This survey will remain accessible for 30 days, so if you are new here please feel free to explore the game and respond to the survey once you've been able to experience it first hand. I will post an announcement several days before I close the survey in case anyone has forgotten that they were putting it off for later.
Of course I'm always in Discord and less so here on the Steam discussion boards as well, so if anyone needs anything please don't be afraid to get in touch with me, but do please understand that this is a solo operation and things can take time.
The following items are a broad overview of the features and improvements I plan to implement from here on. Smaller things like new recipes, bug fixes, and general performance improvements are not listed.
Quality of life
- Improved multi-lingual support
- Full controller support
- Map & compass way-point system
New features
- Fishing
- Improved cooking & nutrition system
Combat & enemies
- Monster attributes
- More monster abilities & effects
- More combat animations & effects
Players
- Sub-attributes
- Class skill trees (currently we have Archetype and Job skill trees)
- Special infinite skills (for players pushing beyond level 100)
Towns
- Revamped money & trading systems
- More town features
- Villager equipment
- Villager AI
- Procedural Villages (WIP)
Crafting & harvesting
- Crafting equipment & harvesting clothing
- Improved compass & tracking skills
- Facility equipment
- Runes
Multiplayer
- Shared XP
- Healing & buffing others
Audio
- Monster & world sound effects in general
Other
- Modding support
A bit of retrospect
In 2012 two different people that I graduated from high school with did two different things that I was very impressed by. One of them became a successful stand-up comedian and went on to play roles in movies and TV. The other released a small indie game on Steam. That was the first time I realized I wasn't doing what I wanted to do, and all that was missing was motivation and effort.
I spent almost every night after my day job over the next 5 years playing with Unity. I was totally hooked, but boy there is a lot to learn. I made a lot of Minecraft clones for practice, and enjoyed most of all creating procedural dungeons. In early 2016 I finally started piecing together the different systems that I wanted to all come together into my grand vision of Solace Crafting.
(Terrain generation back in 2016)
Once I had a vertical slice to show off some basic gameplay, I ran a Kickstarter campaign with the hopes of securing some savings to help feed myself during development, but it fell short of its goal. I put a few more months work in and decided it was time, and on January 16, 2018 I released into Early Access. At the time I didn't understand just how poor quality of a prototype I had presented to the public. Still, the generosity and support of those early players earned me what I thought was more than enough to quit my day job so that I could focus on developing Solace Crafting full-time, and on the very next day I handed in my request for resignation.
(Farming, first implemented in 2018)
Little did I know, the amount of money you might make in month one does not at all relate to how much money you might make in month two, and the next 4 and half years ended up being a constant financial struggle. Working at home certainly has it's benefits, and I live in a relatively inexpensive part of the world, the Japanese countryside, but my annual income throughout this journey has been the lowest it's ever been in my life, though the experience has certainly been invaluable.
(The first procedural towers in 2019)
As we all do, I wish I could go back to 2016, hand myself a proper game design document, and say "stick to the plan kid, you'll do fine," but back then I still had so much to learn about programming and Unity, that proper scheduling and project scope were just not yet on my plate. Some things we never needed we added in, some things that were never possible I said I'd think about. But you have to grow somehow, and throwing myself into the fire certainly proved one way to go about it.
Looking forward
There's work to be done, and preferably some of it would be done by contractors, so it's hard to tell how much can get done in what kind of a time frame after release as I honestly have now idea how this is going to go. Best case scenario, we get noticed by a large content creator and the exposure brings in a hoard of new players, awarding me the finances to do just that, hire on some freelancers to improve the parts of the game that need it most. Worst case, things continue on slow and steady as they have in the past, as we work towards and richer and smoother experience with modding capabilities and improved server management tools.
In any scenario the journey has certainly been a huge reward in and of itself. Our community has been beyond supportive and I could not have done half as much as I've been able to without the ongoing support of our player base. I can't say thank you enough to everyone that helped me make it through Early Access, but thank you thank you thank you. I am many steps closer to my dream of running a financially secure, modern and moral game studio, and I wouldn't be here without all of you.
I hope you and many more may find joy and excitement through my efforts!
Kyle Postlewait
AKA Malkere
Big Kitty Games
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