📰 The PixelCount Post - Issue #44
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ISSUE #44 THE VALE, QUILL 10 MARCH 2019 ONE BRASS
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If you've not noticed yet, the Kynseed Roadmap is now up! We just posted it mere moments ago, so go give it a gander if you've not already. It's a pretty hefty bit of reading though, so we'll be keeping this week's issue of The Post short and sweet.
In addition to the roadmap, we also had a very productive week working on the next update. Many of the basic blacksmith ownership systems are starting to feel cohesive and tied together. To get it ready for players we still have a few little things we want to do though. Most of them are just minor bits of presentation, such as replacing the 'code art' of customer's patience timers with some UI element art. We also need to write up a bit of tutorial text to let players know how to do some of the basic shop tasks. Long-term we'll go back and put in a more robust tutorial for such things, but the current one should still do the trick for now.
We've also found a bit of extra time to start adding in some of the initial staff hiring mechanics. We originally thought we'd not have time for this until a future update, but it ended up timing out pretty conveniently for this week. A bit of other smaller things have been recently added in as well, such as a few new Fairweather items. All in all, the next update is coming together rather nicely. Be sure to check back again soon for when this update gets released later this upcoming week! |
I have had to interrupt my book writing to write this update, as I have schedule-heavies beating at my door. So, I have been writing some more books this week and editing old ones. This means those who enjoy awful writing can go seek out the new wads of literature scattered around.
I also took the chance to fix up a few things around the levels, including hiding proverbs in cuttable long grass. Am not going to tell you which though...
Coming up with lore and 'funny' stuff in-game is the most enjoyable part, although most will need to be rewritten for other countries. Am sure our friends in Russia, China, Japan, Brazil etc are not familiar with obscure British TV shows and some of the word plays are even more puzzling.
However! All is not lost. I plan to create a Wiki of sorts that will explain every single joke and reference. However! I am going to hide it inside a dragon. Get sifting. |
This week after more blacksmith work, I've been looking into the 3 Fairweather items from the initial player choice. This was a nice change of pace and was reasonably self-contained new code to add. With the blacksmith I got the 50 points down to maybe 20 but another 30+ have sprung up in its place after the playthrough today and more rough edges showing in need of work to get on with. It should all add up to a better experience and gives some lessons learned to handle when it comes to other businesses.
I've also started on the hiring of some staff for the blacksmith counter. This wasn't originally planned for this update but it felt like it would be worthwhile to get closer to a complete experience with shop ownership. That should be seen in-game pretty soon with the update going live in the "latestupdate" test branch next week and then hopefully the default branch by the end of the week! |
"Don't settle for less", I said last time. And this week I'm still working on that. Sometimes you hit a bit of a roadblock, which is what happened this week. I found that while working on the town music of the region I've been writing music for in the last month or so that it just wasn't 'inspired'. I could write, and it wasn't outright bad, but it wasn't of the same quality of what came before it. So I took the drastic step of removing some of what I had done and redoing it again.
This happened a few times over on this track, which is why it's been taking so long. I feel I'm getting closer to a full-length track now, and in hindsight I'm glad I didn't settle for less, even if it was a lot more work this way. I find that any work is often judged by its weakest element. I'm not going to let that be this track!
On a more personal note, I've finally managed to get a work-out routine going. My muscles are hating me for it right now, but overall my productivity benefits from it. Your body and your mind form a symbiosis. If you don't respect that, both will suffer for it. The routine I'm following uses a lot of muscles that I otherwise never use at all, so they're all "What the hell is happening!? It's the apocalypse!" At some point it'll sink in that it's just the new normal. Though for now, time to get back to work and finish this track! |
As mentioned in "The Short Report" from up above, the Kynseed Roadmap is posted! It's good to finally have this out for everyone to see, as it'll help give players a nice look at all that's yet to come.
Something that we wanted to make sure we did for our roadmap was strike a balance between having a solid executable plan while also ensuring we retained a bit of flexibility. Kynseed, like most sandbox games, requires a slightly organic approach in how it's developed. There's a lot of iterative design to things and sometimes that means you discover changes to make that you hadn't planned on. So a little wiggle room typically has to be afforded to be able to dynamically develop like that - this is especially true for a feedback driven Early Access game.
We're pretty happy with how that balance turned out in the roadmap, and it'll hopefully be interesting for everyone to see how it all comes together in the next handful of months (and beyond). Though now that it's posted, I'll be turning my full attention to helping the team get the next update ready for posting later this upcoming week! |
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Copyright 2019 by PixelCount Studios (Limited).ᅠᅠAll rights reserved.ᅠᅠEdited and assembled by Matt Allen.
