Making New Friends
As you build your colony on Viridis Primus, you’ll also be building relationships with your fellow colonists. Today we’ll explore some of the technical and creative tricks we use to craft the immersive narrative in Verdant Skies. We’ll also give you an update on our Steam integration progress and reveal another NPC.
Steam Integration
Once you’ve got a Steam page set up, you need to integrate the Steam library into your game. We’re working on support for Steam achievements, cloud saves, and the steam workshop. Scott ( @slembcke ) is helping out with the integration, and so far we’ve got the game launching with the library activated and the Steam overlay showing up. Achievements are unlocking, so the rest of the Steam features should be wrapped up soon!
Relationship Progression
Like many games in the life simulation genre, Verdant Skies offers you an opportunity to befriend and romance a set of non-player characters (NPCs). There are 12 NPCs in your colony. Any player can date all of them… in one play through.
Your relationship progression is tracked with a bar and a set of 9 hearts which appear at the bottom of the NPC dialogue box. The bar fills as you complete collection events and speak to your potential mates. Answering their questions in a favorable way can award bonus points towards achieving the next heart event. However, answering in a negative manner can decrease your relationship points. So listen carefully to what people have to say to ensure you don’t offend them!
The first 6 events for all characters are available regardless of if you choose to date someone. Events 7-9 are accessible once you have elected to date that NPC. Some of the colonists require exclusive dating, while others are willing to let you explore relationships with multiple people at the same time before settling down.
Even if you decide to move in or take commitment vows with one NPC, the journal feature, which we discussed in our July newsletter, allows you to break up with your current significant other to pursue (or resume) a relationship with another.
Friendship, Move In, Committed, and Baby badges. These appear in place of the hearts in dialogue boxes when you reach these milestones with the colonists of Viridis Primus.
Branching Dialogues
Depending on your previous choices, NPCs will react differently to you. Some decisions (like in the example below) are flagged and triggered within the same event. However, other decisions can have lasting effects. You may not immediately feel the impact of your decisions, but there are always repercussions.
We’re up to 35,000 lines of dialogue, but we’re not finished yet! Along with their 9 relationship events, each NPC also has daily dialogues that correspond to each level of your relationship.
Variables
In order to make you feel like you’re a part of the colony, we use different variables to track player and NPC names. Depending on your level of friendship, each NPC also may call you by a different nickname or pet name. They’ll also know if you’re already dating another colonist and will refer to them by name.
Introducing Doctor Zaheen Patel
Colonists of Viridis Primus who fall ill will have the privilege of being treated by Doctor Zaheen Patel. Mindfully practicing medicine through a holistic approach, Zaheen is well liked by their patients. Zaheen’s presence in the colony is sure to help with morale due to their warm nature and conflict resolution skills.