And today, a look at some of those new faces from the cutscenes, including a few that haven't yet been added to frontline but will appear in the Stable Patch (which will be uploaded as soon as we've dome some more bug hunting):
In order to get a finalized and proper view of everything left to do for the game and to check in with each other a bit more frequently, we've recently decided we're gonna have (more or less) daily meetings over voice!
During these meetings, starting today, we're going to discuss at least one of the things we've yet to properly establish until we know exactly all that is left to do and what we need to do to finish it up. Today, our main subject was that of books, how to present them, what books we'd like to add to the game, and so on.
In a previous post I made a new interface for books which is in the shape of an actual book, complete with the ability to turn pages. However, due to space limitations, Teddy is worried that there might not be a way to make such a book while still allowing a good amount of space for the text that needs to be in it. After today's meeting we've decided we'll at least give it a go, since we feel like an interface like that would look so much better than just a box (even if our fallback plan would be to at least make it look like a piece of paper, rather than the regular brown box). I'll keep you updated with how our testing around works out.
In terms of books to include, we want to keep a decent balance between informative things that might make the player understand the world and how it works better with more flavourful things like tales of collectors from days gone past.
We want there to be a "quest" (not yet sure if it'll be an official quest with it's own quest tracker and everything) where you can find books around the world and hand it in it to the library to read it. And of course, once you've found all of the hidden books, you'd get an additional reward as well.
We'd also like there to be a series of book by Grindea's top author Penn Wryte, so that you can find Part 1 early on in the game, and then continue to find parts throughout your journey, until you have the complete story.
Outside of all this book talk, we'll also within the next few days start to send out mails to all of you that supported us in the early days and bought one of the tiers where you get to design items or quests for the game! We expect it will take some time to settle some of the designs, and it'll be easier to find spots for these additional items to be found before everything else has been finished up; hence it's about time to get going :)
During these meetings, starting today, we're going to discuss at least one of the things we've yet to properly establish until we know exactly all that is left to do and what we need to do to finish it up. Today, our main subject was that of books, how to present them, what books we'd like to add to the game, and so on.
In a previous post I made a new interface for books which is in the shape of an actual book, complete with the ability to turn pages. However, due to space limitations, Teddy is worried that there might not be a way to make such a book while still allowing a good amount of space for the text that needs to be in it. After today's meeting we've decided we'll at least give it a go, since we feel like an interface like that would look so much better than just a box (even if our fallback plan would be to at least make it look like a piece of paper, rather than the regular brown box). I'll keep you updated with how our testing around works out.
In terms of books to include, we want to keep a decent balance between informative things that might make the player understand the world and how it works better with more flavourful things like tales of collectors from days gone past.
We want there to be a "quest" (not yet sure if it'll be an official quest with it's own quest tracker and everything) where you can find books around the world and hand it in it to the library to read it. And of course, once you've found all of the hidden books, you'd get an additional reward as well.
We'd also like there to be a series of book by Grindea's top author Penn Wryte, so that you can find Part 1 early on in the game, and then continue to find parts throughout your journey, until you have the complete story.
Outside of all this book talk, we'll also within the next few days start to send out mails to all of you that supported us in the early days and bought one of the tiers where you get to design items or quests for the game! We expect it will take some time to settle some of the designs, and it'll be easier to find spots for these additional items to be found before everything else has been finished up; hence it's about time to get going :)
We hope you all keep safe out there! To brighten your Friday, I can now announce that the final cutscene of the patch has finally been added to Frontline! It's taken a bunch of work down to the last minute, but everything should be up and running fine now. Please enjoy these new twists and turns and let us know what you think! :D
Normally this is where I'd post a bunch of stuff from the update itself, but because there's a heavy amount of spoilers involved I think it's best you all go see for yourself for now... ;)
Normally this is where I'd post a bunch of stuff from the update itself, but because there's a heavy amount of spoilers involved I think it's best you all go see for yourself for now... ;)
With my part of the final cutscene done it's time to start looking ahead at the future! There are a ton of things we want to add before the final version of the game (and as such, before we start work on the elusive tower!)
One such thing is Marino's mansion, which you so far haven't been able to enter, and one of the things I've been working on today has been making a sketch for the interior of it. Because it's really the only mansion in the game, we want it to feel big and expensive, and as such I'll be making a ton of rooms for it!
On the first floor, you'll be greeted by a grand hallway leading to an expensive looking study on the left, and a library on the right. Above the library you'll find the kitchen, which in turn leads back out into another part of the hallway featuring a grand staircase. On the opposite end will be a grand dining room.
On the second floor we'll have a massive corridor with the family's bedrooms on either side, and a nice little throne for the head of the family on top. Cause why wouldn't he have a throne if he can get one? ;)
In the coming days, I'll start work on the actual backgrounds and props for this place, while also discussing what else will be made before we start working on the tower - I know we have a lot of points left to discuss properly, such as the improved pet system and so on!
And today in 'more cutscene fixes' we give Marino a new set of portraits that will be shown as he gets your report on what exactly went down over at the Ghost ship!
Also breaking up the rocks around where the tower will appear, making smaller pieces that can be thrown about as the tower bursts forth:
Which will look something like this in the end:
And of course, a zone title befitting the old thing:
As we mentioned some time ago, we wanted to add an archaeologist who investigates the Ancient Ruins even before the tower appears. Because we feel like it might add to the coolness of it all, we'd like a bunch of people to have gathered around the tower after it appears, so what better time to create her character?
Without further ado:
Work with the cutscene continues! This time we're remaking the sword portrait a bit, making it look a bit less 'silly':
We're also adding the tower to the world map:
And making sure it can be correctly placed in the map where it's found:
Also playing around with some more potential faces for Ivy (though at this point we're actually considering cutting her face 'reveal' altogether, as it doesn't really add much):
I know it's been a long time now since you got any updates from the animation side of things, and let's just say it's because this final cutscene, animation heavy as it is, is also quite spoilery. Things will be revealed, and some things might never be the same again. So we're keeping away as much of it as possible for now. We've made quite a bit of progress though, so at least it's progressing as it should.
Here's a little sneak peek of some of the non spoiler-y animations:
What do you think is gonna happen? :)
Now it's time to add some additional expressions to some by now well known faces! Dad, Quinton and Ivy are some that are getting a whole new range of emotion for the final cutscene of this stable patch! What do you think is gonna happen? :)
Some more fixes for the stable release! An improvement of the sword portrait, some new battle indicators and a broken window in Ivy's office! Oh my...
Next up is the portrait of a character you might have seen a bunch of times throughout the game, but who has never had an opportunity to speak... until now! Excited? Let me present to you yet another talking artefact:
Let's start off this week with some more maps! These ones belong to the desert, and again, there's two of each kind:
“East of the broken pillar, amidst the desert dunes”
“Well, well, well! It’s been a long (and hot!) day, but good luck ever figuring out where I hid this treasure!”
So as a lot of you may have noticed, our world is currently facing a new kind of illness that is spreading rapidly as we speak. This illness, Covid-19, is now found in every part of Sweden, including the island where we live. The government is keeping us updated daily with the changes they're making and how they rally the fight against it, with big changes is happening fast.
In order to help slow down and limit the spread, a lot of companies are suggesting their employees work from home if they're able. This isn't a recommendation from our government as of yet, though it's been implemented in other countries and a lot of companies make their own recommendations. As of today, we're making that same move ourselves.
We're only a small studio with three people, but because our office is part of an office hotel where a lot of other companies work as well, we've decided to move our work stations home for the time being. While we love our office and the opportunities it gives us to see other people (or just the exercise of walking or cycling to it), we've decided that if through working from home for a bit we can help slow down the spread, it's what we'll do. For the company, this means little change except out discussions will be held over voice or video chats instead of in person. Technically, it's possible for us to work from anywhere with little hassle.
We will need a bit of time today to set up more permanent workstations in our homes, but once it's done things should hopefully be able to continue on as normal for us. We hope that all of you are staying safe and remember to wash your hands! Let's not panic but do what we can to protect those around us who are in risk of being seriously affected by this virus :)
In order to help slow down and limit the spread, a lot of companies are suggesting their employees work from home if they're able. This isn't a recommendation from our government as of yet, though it's been implemented in other countries and a lot of companies make their own recommendations. As of today, we're making that same move ourselves.
We're only a small studio with three people, but because our office is part of an office hotel where a lot of other companies work as well, we've decided to move our work stations home for the time being. While we love our office and the opportunities it gives us to see other people (or just the exercise of walking or cycling to it), we've decided that if through working from home for a bit we can help slow down the spread, it's what we'll do. For the company, this means little change except out discussions will be held over voice or video chats instead of in person. Technically, it's possible for us to work from anywhere with little hassle.
We will need a bit of time today to set up more permanent workstations in our homes, but once it's done things should hopefully be able to continue on as normal for us. We hope that all of you are staying safe and remember to wash your hands! Let's not panic but do what we can to protect those around us who are in risk of being seriously affected by this virus :)
As part of the final cutscene before stable ends, Ivy will be briefly unveiled, so a new portrait had to be made! There will be a bunch of expressions going on here as well, but we'll get to that once the cutscene is closer to completion.
Without further ado:
And another batch, for Tai Ming this time:
“Buried with these pink daisies
I leave with you my [item]”
“By the entrance to our holy shrine
Beneath the bell forever silenced
Cracked with time and dust
I lie my hope and dreams to rest”
When I was looking to add more maps to the desert, I quickly realized there's a big lack of treasure maps featured in Mount Bloom and Tai Ming as well! In order to solve this, I went straight ahead and made a bunch, starting with Mount Bloom:
“[...] that cave long forgotten, beneath the dragon’s jaw.”
---
I buried my treasure
So none be aware
And took great measure
That none could compare
To guard these great riches
I asked Mother fair
And that little one
Whose teeth you beware
Between them my precious
Now has its lair
Can you guess where they all are?
We're starting off this week with a random surprise addition to the stable update, the ability to view Trick & Treat (the strange twins in Pumpkin Woods) true form if you talk to them in the spirit world! We do still have plans for these twins, but now it's likely they will have to wait until post release. However, this little secret will do no harm in the game in the meanwhile :)
Some more upcoming things that will be added before 1.0:
* An archaeologist that will be investigating the ancient ruins to the north of the farm
* The fertilizers that will make the sprouts grow and allow you to climb them. These will be found here and there throughout the game, with the last one being given to you after you beat the boss for the first time.
* A system where Quinton will rate your collection and give you a proper Collector rank depending on how much you've managed to collect this far.
* The Mansion in Evergrind South! About time you get to see what it's like in there and who lives there, isn't it?
* Reveal Trick & Treat's true forms if you talk to them in the spirit world...
* A quest to resolve the mysterious scarecrow's plight.
* The spring room in the Temple of Season's lobby
* A satisfying ending to Steve's journey to escape mushrooms
* Some sort of quest relating to the giant tree in the desert (not yet decided upon)
Even more stuff has been cut, and we've started talking about adding stuff for Halloween and Christmas updates in their respective areas (Pumpkin Woods & Seasonne). We've decided that Griddle's card game, the Puzzle Tower outside of Mount Bloom, the mandatory chicken boss you only get to meet after beating the chickens a bazillion times, and a New Game+ mode will be added after 1.0.
There's still a lot of details to iron out, and a lot of meetings to have regarding some of the remaining systems we need to fix (such as a new and improved pet system), but for now we've actually gone through most of the list for Story Mode, although there's a bunch of suggestions left to pick for Arcade Mode. Onwards we go! :)
* An archaeologist that will be investigating the ancient ruins to the north of the farm
* The fertilizers that will make the sprouts grow and allow you to climb them. These will be found here and there throughout the game, with the last one being given to you after you beat the boss for the first time.
* A system where Quinton will rate your collection and give you a proper Collector rank depending on how much you've managed to collect this far.
* The Mansion in Evergrind South! About time you get to see what it's like in there and who lives there, isn't it?
* Reveal Trick & Treat's true forms if you talk to them in the spirit world...
* A quest to resolve the mysterious scarecrow's plight.
* The spring room in the Temple of Season's lobby
* A satisfying ending to Steve's journey to escape mushrooms
* Some sort of quest relating to the giant tree in the desert (not yet decided upon)
Even more stuff has been cut, and we've started talking about adding stuff for Halloween and Christmas updates in their respective areas (Pumpkin Woods & Seasonne). We've decided that Griddle's card game, the Puzzle Tower outside of Mount Bloom, the mandatory chicken boss you only get to meet after beating the chickens a bazillion times, and a New Game+ mode will be added after 1.0.
There's still a lot of details to iron out, and a lot of meetings to have regarding some of the remaining systems we need to fix (such as a new and improved pet system), but for now we've actually gone through most of the list for Story Mode, although there's a bunch of suggestions left to pick for Arcade Mode. Onwards we go! :)
And here's another random collector, because why not, while we're on a roll!
So with us having decided to add a bunch of random collectors, I'll waste no time getting to those portrait, as they're needed for Fred to make the sprites! I also don't want there to get to a point where I have to make only portraits for a long while to catch up, so let's get to it: the first collector of a whole bunch:
Hello everyone! Sorry for not posting anything yesterday; I had a case of absolutely devastating stomach pains so I couldn't make it to work. Today it's all better though, so let's get back into it!
We've been talking a lot about the last remaining things and in what order to do them. We have a very long (about 30 pages!) document featuring ideas we'd like to implement at some point, and today we decided to go through a bunch of those things and sort them into categories being: Included in 1.0, Added Post-Release, Unsure, and Scrapped.
The things that will be included in 1.0 are things we'll start making as soon as possible, but definitely before we start work on the final dungeon. At first we were thinking of making the dungeon first, but thinking about it we'd rather get all the other bits and pieces done first, so that once the final dungeon, and with it, the finale to Story Mode gets added to the game people can start (re)playing the game from start to finish without worrying about missing out on content that will be added afterwards.
Some of the things added to that part of the list:
* Progress bar for trophies - to give you an idea of how much you've got left to do before unlocking them!
* In the card album, make the enemy icons grayed out for enemies you've encountered but haven't gotten the card of yet - just a minor graphic upgrade to make things look more clean and gives you a better idea of what cards you're missing.
* Adding more collectors, a lot of whom will appear out in the fields and areas. We don't want the player to feel like all of the collectors are just being lazy at home in Evergrind City! A lot of them are out there adventuring, just like you.
* More treasure maps; a lot have already been made but haven't yet been implemented. Make new ones for the desert.
* Add some basic PVPing to the arena.
* Add some basic shield training to the Dojo in Evergrind City
* Decide what to do about the cut off house in Evergrind; either add a bridge from the beginning or a quest in which it gets added/fixed.
* Finish up loose quest lines (such as Remedi's and Grandpa Joe & Miss Pidgy)
* Adding a few more quests I won't go into too much detail of just now!
With a lot more to come as we go through the remainder of the list (we've decided to take a little break from it now)! In other words, there will be at least a 'Part 2' of this plan, possibly more! :)
We've been talking a lot about the last remaining things and in what order to do them. We have a very long (about 30 pages!) document featuring ideas we'd like to implement at some point, and today we decided to go through a bunch of those things and sort them into categories being: Included in 1.0, Added Post-Release, Unsure, and Scrapped.
The things that will be included in 1.0 are things we'll start making as soon as possible, but definitely before we start work on the final dungeon. At first we were thinking of making the dungeon first, but thinking about it we'd rather get all the other bits and pieces done first, so that once the final dungeon, and with it, the finale to Story Mode gets added to the game people can start (re)playing the game from start to finish without worrying about missing out on content that will be added afterwards.
Some of the things added to that part of the list:
* Progress bar for trophies - to give you an idea of how much you've got left to do before unlocking them!
* In the card album, make the enemy icons grayed out for enemies you've encountered but haven't gotten the card of yet - just a minor graphic upgrade to make things look more clean and gives you a better idea of what cards you're missing.
* Adding more collectors, a lot of whom will appear out in the fields and areas. We don't want the player to feel like all of the collectors are just being lazy at home in Evergrind City! A lot of them are out there adventuring, just like you.
* More treasure maps; a lot have already been made but haven't yet been implemented. Make new ones for the desert.
* Add some basic PVPing to the arena.
* Add some basic shield training to the Dojo in Evergrind City
* Decide what to do about the cut off house in Evergrind; either add a bridge from the beginning or a quest in which it gets added/fixed.
* Finish up loose quest lines (such as Remedi's and Grandpa Joe & Miss Pidgy)
* Adding a few more quests I won't go into too much detail of just now!
With a lot more to come as we go through the remainder of the list (we've decided to take a little break from it now)! In other words, there will be at least a 'Part 2' of this plan, possibly more! :)
