New Update: Fire Wizard Tower, Balance, and Fixes

December 19, 2019 willsterling23 0 Comments


This update is primarily focused on progressing the main quest line, which now takes you up through the first wizard tower. It also includes a number of bug fixes and other minor changes.

The plan for the next update is to continue work on finishing the main quest line. Additionally, we will be looking into improving the map to be more user friendly.

Changes


- Continued the main quest up through completing the first wizard tower.
- Added resolution and full screen options in the in-game settings.
- Updated the fire rate on some revolvers.
- Added a new Arcane Orb ability.
- Most torches now have holder models.
- The Prophet's Sanctum jump puzzle is now a little easier to complete.
- Fixed some visual issues in The Shimmering Chasms.
- Added volumetric lighting to some caves.
- Added new teleport runes to some areas.
- Fixed a problem where the door to the building for "A Treasure Hunt" quest would not open.
- Added dynamic and more descriptive bullet points for all stats in the inventory screen.
- Fixed an issue where the Dragon Lilly sometimes wasn't lootable.
- Fixed an issue where Esther wouldn't open her merchant interface after you completed her quest.
- Fixed an issue where you couldn't loot a key in a bucket.
- Fixed a bug at the Landry Residence that prevented a door from opening when reloading the game.
- Fixed some visual issues in the B1 church cave.
- Fixed an issue where a key in Evior's house didn't go to anything.
- Bert now knows if you've rescued Emily.
- Fixed some typos.
- Fixed colliders on some cliffs not being right.
- Some nature abilities are no longer tagged as heat abilities, which caused them to activate heat-based talents.
- Hollow Point Ability now deals more damage.
- Packed show now costs less mana.
- The cost reduction of leveling hollow point and packed shot are no longer as dramatic.
- Fixed the Unearthed Behemoth spawning before the statues are deactivated.
- It will now alert you if you are out of inventory space when trying to pick up certain items.
- Ice Mage and Fire Mage talents now have increased effects.
- It now saves that you have rescued Rosie, and she will no longer spawn in the cage after that if so.
- You can now ask the wizard for another draught of death potion even after you have finished the Hall of the Dead quest.
- Harvey's curative potion is no longer able to be sold.
- Fixed the timeless revolver special effect increasing damage on all types of ammo if you had basic ammo selected.
- You can no longer upgrade the ability granted by the mask of the assassin.
- Fixed effect on the healing hat.
- Enemies no longer play a queued stagger animation after a spell cast animation.

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New Update: Main Story Quests, Boss Mechanics, New Abilities, and More!

November 15, 2019 willsterling23 1 Comments

Howdy everyone!

Here's a look at some of the new content you can expect to see in today's update.

Main Quest



A main focus with this and the next couple of updates revolves around the implementation of the main quest line. We plan to add a little more of it each update until it is complete. This update extends the quest from where it left off before. If you have previously worked on the main quest, you should find the quest in your journal to know where to continue.

Boss Mechanics



As part of some of the future elements of the main quest line, we will require a system to create boss battles with more interesting mechanics. We went ahead and implemented the basics of the system and updated the boss in the Edge Town Cave to be a slightly more interesting boss battle. We will update more world bosses in the future.

Interface Improvements



This update includes a few additions to the interface. We have added the ability to compare an equippable item with one that you have equipped. To do so, mouse over the item and press shift. Rarity colors that were previously hard to read have been adjusted slightly for better readability. Quests that are part of the main quest line are now visually different from other quests in your journal. Some items in your resource tab now have small icons in the top corner to indicate if they are quest items or just strictly for selling in order to make it easier to decide what to sell at merchants.

Abilities




We have added some new abilities that can be obtained throughout the world. These include two types of healing spells, an ability to regain mana, and a short distance teleport. We have also made changes to some abilities. There were a number of abilities (such as those that affect weapons) that naturally improved with your character or equipment level, but for which the ability level had no effect. These have been changed where they will increase in mana cost as you gain levels, but upgrading them will reduce their mana cost.

We have added the functionality required for abilities that buff you to be toggled on and off. A number of spells of this nature no longer grant you a temporary buff. Instead, they can be toggled on and off. Note that removing an ability from your ability bar will now remove all buffs given by that ability. We have also enabled abilities to be removed from the ability bar by dragging them off.

Patch Notes


- Fixed an issue where you could see areas with no terrain from certain spots in the plains.
- All buff abilities can now be toggled.
- Increased the number of upgrade orbs needed to upgrade items past lvl 20.
- Fixed a bug where the second level of the Ice Affinity talent did not modify the correct stats.
- Cave engineer's boots are now uncommon items instead of common.
- Fixed a bug where you would rarely hear a female greeting sound when reading lore books.
- Fixed an issue with Anna the merchant selling only one of some bullet types.
- Reduced the amount of armor that ice armor grants.
- Reduced the cooldown time of packed shot and hollow point abilities.
- A number of spells that used to not be able to be upgraded or did nothing when upgrading have - been fixed. Generally, upgrading these spells reduces the mana cost.
- Added some new abilities.
- The color of damage taken numbers is now dependent on the type of hit or healing.
- Fixed bug where an enemy's shouts can cause friendly npcs to attack you.
- Enemies can now hear your footsteps if you are close enough.
- Slightly increased the chance of wizards to drop spell scrolls.
- Added new quests and areas for the main quest line.
- Added new boss mechanics to the boss of Edge Town Cave.
- Added boss health bar that appears when fighting certain boss enemies.
- World health bars now have a slight animation when health is reduced.
- Adjusted atmospheric visuals in Edge Town Cave.
- Fixed a problem that would cause interface elements to not scale right with very wide resolutions.
- You can now drag abilities off of your ability bar to unequip them.
- You are now asked "are you sure?" before quitting.
- Made rare and epic rarity colors easier to read.
- Fixed bug with scarlet repeater and Soul Taker where the special effect would not always work properly.
- Important quests are now visually different in the quest journal.
- When some buff abilities are unequipped from the hotbar, the buff's effect is now removed.
- Some abilities can now be toggled on and off.
- Abilities can no longer be changed while in combat.
- Added compare inspection window (Press shift while inspecting an item).
- Adjusted enemy AI so that they now can lose sight of you correctly in certain circumstances.
- Added icons to quest items and sellable only items.
- Added hotkeys for count selection UI (when selling/buying items).
- Improved scorpion lock-on location and increased their XP value.
- Fixed inanimate objects sometimes having an audible dialogue greeting.
- Fixed a typo in Lulu's dialogue.
- Fixed some scaling issues in the A1 wizard basement.
- You now pull out your weapon from the bottom of the screen instead of the top.
- Fixed health potions not always healing correctly past maximum.
- Fixed bandages removing all over-maximum health.
- Added bullet point indentation to the description window.

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Dev Update: Improved UI, Performance, Volumetric Lighting, and More!

October 07, 2019 willsterling23 0 Comments


Interface Updates


A large focus of this update was to upgrade the look of the interface. Most placeholder interface elements have been replaced. There are still a few elements which still need to be udpated such as the stat bars for instance, so look for that to come later.


Performance Improvements


We have made some changes that will improve performance for some players, especially those who are CPU bound. The day/night cycle in particular was a source of a lot of CPU overhead. Instead of updating the sun and moon positions every frame, we now keep up with what time it should be internally, but update it visually only at strategic times, such as when you are going through a door or teleport. This will hopefully improve frame rate overall.


Volumetric Lighting


We have added volumetric lighting to the world, which adds a slight fog to the distance, and adds sunshafts. We think it especially improves the look of night-time. This can be disabled in the in-game options if you prefer it the old way.


Content


While a large part of this update was focused on interface, performance, and graphics, we also added in a couple of new quests and points of interest to further progress on our mission to pack the world full.


Patch Notes


  • Performance improvements.
  • Updated much of the user interface.
  • Removed the additional keybinding (I) for opening your inventory.
  • You can now rest for certain numbers of hours in beds.
  • You are now healed by resting in beds or sleeping bags.
  • Made jumping a little easier.
  • Weapons are no longer holstered by default when you equip one.
  • Added tips that pop up near the beginning that teach some basics of the game.
  • Fixed loading screen fading before the world fully loaded.
  • Added tips to loading screen.
  • Adjusted the revolver held position.
  • Added volumetric lighting. This can be turned off in the options.
  • Implemented a couple of new quests.
  • Fixed an issue with the Statue of Selena respawning after being looted.
  • Epic weapons now sell for more gold.
  • The chest in the ruins graveyard shed now is a safe more level appropriate items.
  • Fixed an issue where you could get through the Brinwall Hollow gate without a key.
  • You can no longer fall through the world when entering Ryan's cellar.
  • You can no longer interact with the blank scrolls on bounty boards.
  • Fixed an issue with the cemetery fencing near Sureshot's Retreat not having colliders.
  • Fixed some visuals with the fencing around the Chapel of the Righteous.
  • Fixed an issue with one of the buried statues not having a collider.
  • Fixed an issue with some abandoned cabins not having wall colliders.
  • Fixed some visual issues in Scarlett's Estate.
  • Fixed visual issues with some bandit camps in the desert.
  • Fixed some typos.
  • Fixed some bugs with the "Witch's Brew" quest.
  • Fixed bug where some enemies would not change levels in the Yonder.
  • Hitting the holster weapon hotkey will now toggle your weapon's holstered state.
  • Fixed bug where holstering your weapon while you only had one equipped would keep you from pulling it back out.
  • Increased the value on tier1 upgrade orbs.
  • Moved the starting location outside of edge shack.
  • Slightly increased the chance of weapon chest key fragments to drop.
  • Fixed some issues where you sometimes couldn't read the books in the "My Precious" quest.
  • Fixed description on health potions.
  • Fixed not being able to click the buttons on the bottom right of the screen very well.
  • Opening the map now defaults to the teleport rune map.
  • Removed screenshots from feedback reports to make them a little faster.
  • Fixed a bug where volume settings wouldn't save correctly.
  • New characters start with more bullets.
  • Increased the duration of ice armor and cloak of flames.

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Wild West and Wizards Early Access Launch

August 29, 2019 willsterling23 0 Comments


Howdy everyone!
We are so excited to be releasing this game for you all and can’t wait for you to start your journey. 
Here’s a quick link to our launch trailer if you’d like to see what the gameplay is all about. 

A Look At What’s To Come
As you start your adventure in the wild west you’ll be set free to explore at your own pace and discover the world of outlaws and wizards. There are three huge zones for you to explore: the desert, plains, and the forest. Each zone has quests, tons of points of interests, loot, puzzles, and secrets to discover. Here’s a look at just some of the content we plan on adding during the early access period. 

 - More player classes and abilities
- More enemy types and AI improvements
- Additional end-game content with a quest line, multiple new dungeons, and bosses
- More clothing models and other visual assets
- More quests and points of interests to discover
- Bug fixes and polishing


Current Features

Cast Your Spells - Learn new abilities, cast an array of unique spells, and become the most powerful wizard in the west.
Discover the World - Explore a vast re-imagined wild west with over a hundred points of interests including homes, settlements, bandit camps, churches, cemeteries, caves, and more! All filled with quests, secrets, and puzzles.
Shoot and Loot - Loot tons of rare armor, weapons, and gold earning your fortune as you fight bosses, find secret treasure chests, and complete quests.

Customize Your Character - Level up your character and unlock new talents unique to your chosen class.

Stop by the Saloon - Discover towns and settlements filled with people, quests, and unique items to buy.


Also, don't forget to join our communities and let us know your feedback! Thanks for reading!

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Dev Update: Character Avatar, New Abilities, End Game, and More!

August 02, 2019 willsterling23 0 Comments


Hey everyone!

It's been a busy but great few weeks here at Lavaboots. We've ran a small closed beta which has helped us balance the game and fix a ton of bugs, making the game much more polished for early access launch (coming very soon by the way.) We've also been implementing a lot of new quality of life changes, new content, and a slew of other new things.

Here's a quick look at just some of the content we've been working on recently.

Character Avatar


We love loot as much as the next person, but it just feels special to be able to see that loot on your character. That's why we implemented a system where you can see your character in your inventory and most of the equipment you have as well. We've also implemented a character creation system where you can do some small customization with your character's appearance before starting a new character. This change has really helped hone in on the RPG feel of the game and we're very excited to have it in. 

New Abilities


We knew before launch we needed more spells in the game and so recently we started working on implementing some. While we've still got more to go, we feel like we now have a decent base and variety of spells to earn throughout the game that will make you think about your playstyle. We've got multiple new damage spells such as fire bolt, orb of poison, or fire zone if you're into area-of-effect abilities. We've also added lots of new buff spells so you can buff certain stats before going into battle. 

As I said we've still got a lot more abilities we want to add and will continue to implement them as the game develops. 

End Game


Max level in Wild West and Wizards is level 20 but the game doesn't stop there. This past week we've been working on implementing some end game functionality so you can still earn good loot and experience a challenge past max level. As of right now, when you hit level 20 you'll have the option to transport yourself into an alternate dimension version of the game that looks much the same, except the enemies and treasure chests are all scaled up much higher. You'll also be able to continue to earn xp and every level you would gain past level 20 will earn you a random reward including new gear, weapons, or a rare upgrade orb. In addition to that, you'll be able to level your items a few levels past level 20 using brand new and rare upgrade orbs only attainable in the alternate dimension. 

We will still be adding more to the end game in the future including more unique loot, bosses, and content. 

Map and Travel Changes


We've also recently been working on finishing up the map implementation and changing some travel functionality. You can now zoom all the way out of your map and see any teleport runes you've unlocked. You can then travel to them from anywhere. This way you don't have to unnecessarily travel back to town to be able to use a teleport rune. This helps a lot in preventing you from having to back track over areas you've been too often. 


Weapon Chests


Another new change we've made recently is the addition of weapon chests. You can now find weapon key fragments on enemies every once in a while. If you collect five of these, a blacksmith can craft them into a tiered weapon key for you. These then can be used to open weapon chests scattered throughout the world that guarantee you a weapon drop. 

Other Changes

In addition to adding some new options and settings, we've also added the ability to set your own custom keybinds. This was a big requested feature so we were happy to get this in before launch! 
We've also added the ability to store your items by talking to any banker in town. And of course we've been consistently adding new quests and points of interests, as well as bug fixes and balancing changes. 


As always thank you for reading and we'd love to hear your feedback!



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Dev Update: New Bounties, Quests, Lore, And More!

July 05, 2019 willsterling23 0 Comments


Howdy everyone!

Hope you all a good fourth of July. Here's a quick run down on what we've been working on the past few weeks. Our main goal as of right now is focusing on balancing and bug fixes to prep for the early access launch, but we're also sprinkling in new content as well.


New Bounties


Last week added a new bounty to each town in the game. When you stroll into a new settlment you'll find a bounty board with a wanted poster on it. You can pick up these posters and it'll start a quest to find and hunt down a certain outlaw. Completing these quests will award you gold, upgrade orbs, quest xp, and sometimes unique items. These named outlaws are often found in camps, caves, and other places. We'll be adding more of these bounties after early access launch but we wanted to make sure that each town had it least one wanted quest for you to find. 

New Quests


We also recently added a new puzzle cave area of the game called The Prophet's Sanctum. This is related to a longer quest line requiring you to track down a secret cult and stop them from...well I'll let you figure out the rest once you play. This area adds new puzzles, enemies, and some unique rewards. 

Lore


This past week we also added a lot of new journals and lore books. Now you'll often find small journals and notes at bandit camps, houses, and other places. Sometimes these are simply just the writings of a disgruntled old outlaw, but other times these can hint at unique items buried or hidden nearby. In addition to journals we've also added excerpts from larger texts hinting to some of the back story of the game. 

Other Changes

In addition to new content , we also added in Steam Cloud saving. So now your games will be saved in the cloud. We've also been working on a lot of bug fixes, balancing, and optimization to prepare for early access launch. We want the launch to be smooth as possible, and while I'm sure there will still be bugs we've missed, we're trying to make sure we get everything we can smooth and polished.


As always thank for reading and we'd love your feedback!  

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Dev Update: New Guns, UI Work, Quests, and More!

June 21, 2019 willsterling23 0 Comments


Hey everyone!

It's been a busy few weeks over at Lavaboots. We're trying to go through the game and polish, update, and fix everything we can before an early access launch. We feel the game has a good bit of content at the moment and so our focus is making sure we have all the necessary systems in place and that the game is as balanced and bug free as possible.

Here's a look at some things we've been working on recently!


New Guns


If you've been following Wild West and Wizards, then you know one major aspect of the game is loot. We want there to be a ton of loot and for you to get excited when you open a chest or defeat a boss. We've spent a lot of time adding in different rarities of armor, weapons, and abilities. Most commonly you'll find armor but rarely you'll get a new gun upgrade or a new ability. On top of that, because we have our item level system, you'll be able to spend your gold and upgrade your abilities as you level. 

So for example let's you see find a rare shotgun that you really like at level 7, but then at level 12 it's starting to lag behind some of the current guns you're using. With our item upgrade system, you can level that gun up so it can stay current and powerful with your level. You can also level up armor and abilities. 

Over the last few weeks our main focus as far as loot goes has been adding new weapons. We've been working on adding some static weapon drops at bosses and also a pool of uncommon and rare weapons you can loot from chests. There are currently six weapon types in the world: revolvers, shotguns, double barrel shotguns, sawed off double barrel shotguns, rifles, and repeaters. Within each of those categories we've got different rarities, colors, and stats. Each gun functions differently as far as damage, range, rate of fire, bullet spread, etc. 

Overall we're pretty happy with the current pool of loot (over 300 items and counting) but we will continually be adding more as the game develops. 


UI Updates


We want your experience playing the game to be as easy and intuitive as possible, so we've been doing some work on the UI to make that happen. We've added functionality where you can now pretty much drag and drop an item wherever you want and that there are multiple ways to do things so it's easy to figure out. We've also rearranged some things such as your utility bar and added text to let you know that you can hold certain buttons to open your radial menus. This is an area we'll likely keep updating as we get more feedback but we wanted it to be in a good place at launch and be easy to figure out. 

We've also starting working on a settings menu to let you adjust audio, graphics, and things of that nature! 

New Quests


As always we try to continually add new quests and things to do in the game with each update. We've recently added more quests to the starting area of the game to help you get acquainted with some of the mechanics and to earn some decent loot to get you started on your adventure. In addition to that we've added in a recommended level feature so when you obtain a quest, you can see what level you want to be before attempting it. Some quests may require you to travel farther into the world to some dangerous areas and this will help you know what you're getting into. 

Ice Wizards


We've recently added ice wizards as an enemy that can spawn in addition to the fire wizards. Since magic is a big part of the game, we want enemies to have different abilities they can use on you. This means now you have to watch for wizards casting fireballs that can do damage over time, or wizards casting ice shards that can slow down your movement speed. This is an area we're still updating so that we can have more enemy ability variations in the future. 


Optimization and Bug Fixes


When making a large open world it's very easy to lose performance quickly when developing. There's a ton of things going on all around you and you have to optimize it in a way where it looks good but still runs smooth. We've spent a lot of time doing everything we can to make sure the game runs as good as possible. We use some streaming systems and other things so that you can see far out into the world but it won't bog down your performance. Recently we updated pretty much all building interiors to be their own "loadable" area which has helps a great deal in towns as far as performance goes. We've also built some systems to limit how far away AI will spawn which has also helped quite a bit. 

In addition to optimization we've also fixed a ton of bugs. We've pretty much been playing through as much of the game as possible looking for any issues and trying to polish it up. Our main focus is always to fix any major or game-breaking bugs, but since we've got most of those under control, we've been able to polish and fix a lot more minor things as well. 


Other Changes


Some other things we've been working on include new music and balancing. We're still adding more music to the game but our main focus has been making sure towns have music, bosses have music, and that there are some song variations when exploring the wilds. In addition to that we're still spending a good bit of time balancing the game such as enemy health and damage, how many enemies there are, and what kind of stats the player has as well. 



Thank you for your reading and as always we'd love to hear your feedback! 







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Dev Update: Scorpions, New Quests, and New Weapons!

May 31, 2019 willsterling23 0 Comments


Howdy everyone!

We wanted to give you a quick update at we've been working on over the past few weeks and also an update on release time. Our current goal is to release sometime this summer into early access. The game is in a great state but we're still polishing out content, balancing, and fixing as many bugs as possible before launch. Even though it'll be an early access launch, we want to make sure it's a smooth and polished gameplay experience for you.

With that said, here's a look at just some of the content we've been working on recently!


Scorpions


Now throughout the world you can find scorpions wandering the wilds ready to attack! We believe that there's a good balance between exploration, combat, and quests. Adding in some creatures like scorpions help us achieve that balance. We don't want you to be overstimulated with constant outlaws and bandit camps, but we also don't want super long stretches of the world where you don't encounter enemies. Adding in scorpions helps us make this feel a bit more dynamic. You may be out in the wilderness exploring and instead of hitting yet another camp of outlaws, you might see a scorpion roaming around or be surprised by one shooting poison at you from the bushes. 

There are also multiple scorpion types and some of the rare ones, while more difficult, will offer good loot drops and therefore a reason to hunt for them. 


New Quests


One of our main focuses with this game is to make sure there is a ton of content for you to experience. And as such we are always working on adding new quests. We have tried to strike a balance between quests you get from an NPC, and quests you find naturally while exploring. For example, you may enter a new town and discover there's been a murder and the sheriff wants you to investigate it and track down the killer. Or you may be exploring the wild and come across a graveyard with a rare ability scroll requiring you to complete a puzzle to unlock it. This balance between natural discoveries and quests found through NPCs is something we are always trying to refine but we feel like it's coming along well. 


New Weapons


This game at its core is about exploration, and of course, loot. Loot is very important in a game like this and so we're trying to constantly create new pieces of armor and weapons for you to find. Here's how the loot loop is working as of right now. Most bandit camps or bosses you find can drop a random piece of armor. Armor has different rarities, stats, and an item level that fit different playstyles. You'll find new armor pretty consistently and a lot of your time will be spent taking the armor that fits your playstyle to blacksmiths in order to upgrade its level and stats. 

Weapons and abilities however, are a bit more rare. When you find a new weapon or ability, it really means something. We want it to be exciting to get a new revolver or shotgun, and for it to be alongside you for a decent bit of the journey. That being said, we are adding a decent variety of weapons scattered throughout the world so be sure and explore every nook and cranny to collect them all. Different weapons will be like armor in that they have varying stats, but can also vary in ways such as reload speed, bullet spread, damage drop off, and things like that. 


Other Changes


In addition to the content mentioned above we've also been spending a lot of time balancing the game, fixing bugs, working on performance, and other under the hood tweaks to make the game polished and run well. This is still a work in progress as the world is very large and there's a lot to take into account when trying to polish and balance it. Overall it's coming along great though. 


As always thanks for reading and we'd love to hear your feedback! 

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Dev Update: Teleport Runes, Character Creation, Music, and More!

May 10, 2019 willsterling23 0 Comments


Hey everyone!

We've been working on a lot of fun new updates for the game and want to share some of that with you. Every week we're getting closer to an early access release date and will be announcing that soon. Our main focus is to make sure the game is polished and a fun experience before releasing. We realize that early access is expected to be less than perfect, but we still want to make it the best we can and make sure you have a lot of fun with your first experience.

Don't forget also you can now wishlist the game on Steam!

With that said, here's a look at some of the things we've been working on the past few weeks!

Teleport Runes


When playtesting we realized our world is pretty big and we wanted a nice balance between having to walk places but also some fast travel systems to avoid frustration. We generally want to avoid the concept of being able to fast travel anywhere, as it kind of cheapens the exploration. But on the other end of that it can be frustrating to have to go way back to town to upgrade gear, buy supplies, turn in quests, and so forth. 

So we've designed two basic travel systems for the time being. The first are bindstones. Each town in the game (there are six) will have a bindstone. You can interact with it and bind yourself to that location. This means you can use a return-to-home spell and instantly travel back to the place you last binded too. This is helpful as a big part of the game is returning to towns to level up gear, spells, replenish your stock, and turn in quests. However, there are still large expanses of the world where there are no towns and so we wanted a way outside of bindstones to be able to travel quickly to certain areas. This is where teleport runes come in. 

You can now find teleport runes in some places in the world. These are different than bindstones in that you have to be at a teleport rune in order to travel to another. You also have to unlock them before you can travel them. Each town wizard will have one but there will also be a few spread throughout the world. We're keeping them far enough part so there's still a good bit of exploration required. And not all teleport runes are easy to find. This way they are more of a reward for exploration rather than a way to avoid it.

We are still eventually planning to add a train system that you can actually ride in real time, but we wanted travel runes and bindstones in the meantime to act as a way to travel long distances later in the game.

Character Creation


Every good rpg needs a character creation system and so we've also been working on a system to allow you to create multiple characters, pick your class, and name your character. While we will likely only have one class at early access launch, we will be adding many more later and so you're going to want to create multiple new characters to test out the new classes. Eventually we'd like to add a way to see and customize some visuals of your character as well.

Music


Every game deserves good music and so we've been working hard to make sure this game has the right balance between environmental ambiance and music. Some of the systems we've implemented recently are exploration music, new town music, and combat music. We've also set up a custom system to handle boss music so you can really feel epic when taking on unique enemies. 


Balancing


A huge part of our work over the past couple of weeks has been balancing the game. The max player level right now is level 20. Your armor, spells, and weapons can also be leveled. And on top of that there will be various levels of enemies. We've been working a lot to make sure the natural progression of the game feels balanced so you actually feel like you're getting more powerful, but not so much that early parts of the game aren't fun anymore. We feel like we're honing in on a good mix of difficulty and player progression but of course we look forward to getting feedback from the community and further updating this system in the future as needed.

Other Changes


In addition to the content mentioned above, we've also been working on our map system and new loot chests. The map system allows you to see what you've uncovered in each zone and gives you an idea of where points of interest are in the world. The new loot chests are different tiered chests that can drop high level gear depending on where you are in the world. As you adventure into higher level areas, the chances for higher level loot chests increase and as such, a chance at rare or even epic gear. 

Not only have we added new loot but we've also added a lot of fun new quests. This is an area we'll also be continually updating after early access launch. Right now our goal is to have a good base number of quests, puzzles, and things to discover, but we'll be expanding upon that a lot as we update the game. 


As always thank you for reading and we'd love to hear your feedback!

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Wild West and Wizards: Coming Soon!

April 18, 2019 willsterling23 0 Comments


Howdy everyone!

Today we launched our store page for Wild West and Wizards so you can now wishlist it and be notified when it launches into early access!

Steam Link: Wild West and Wizards

We are very excited to bring this game to you and can't wait to build it alongside your feedback. Be on the lookout for release date information within the next few weeks.

On more content related news, here's a look at what we've been working on recently!


Combat and AI Updates


One major area we've been working on recently is combat. We added a new hand animation for when you cast a spell and have been working on new enemy abilities and behaviors. When you encounter enemy wizards out in the wild west, we want them to have a variety of different spell options they can throw at you to keep you on your toes. Combat is still a work in progress but we're pretty happy with how it's coming along so far. 

World Building and New Points of Interest


The world of Wild West and Wizards is huge and we are working hard to make sure it doesn't feel too empty. This has been a lot of work for our small team but we think it's worth it and necessary for you to have a fun and adventurous exploration experience. We've been doing a lot of work adding new points interests, quests, and puzzles to each zone. This is something we will still be adding more to after early access launch but we want to make sure there is a good base of content for you to play from the beginning. 

New Items and Loot


We want exploring the world and fighting enemies to be rewarding, and as such we are adding a lot of loot! This past week we spent some time populating various treasure and bandit chests in the world with loot tables so you'll few rewarded when you clear a bandit camp or complete a puzzle. We're still working on this area of the game and are adding new and unique loot consistently. 

New Abilities



In addition to new loot, we've also been working on adding some unique spells and abilities! Recently we added an ability called Life Steal that allows you to take health from an opponent. We also added some abilities like Sacrifice Blood that lets you take your own health in exchange for mana (good for you non-muggle types), and abilities like Counter Spell that silence and stop an enemy's spell attack if timed correctly.


As always, thanks for reading and we'd love to hear your feedback!



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Dev Update: New Points of Interests, New Weapons, Combat Changes, and More!

March 15, 2019 willsterling23 0 Comments


Howdy everyone!

It's been a busy few weeks over at Lavaboots and we've got a lot of fun new changes we want to talk about. First however we just want to say thanks to everyone following the game and for your feedback and support. Games cannot be made without their supportive communities and we feel like we have one of the best.

Alright let's dive into some new changes!

New Points of Interests


One of the main areas of focus right now is still adding tons of new points of interests, quests, puzzles, and just things for you to do in general. We've got the world pretty much built from an environmental standpoint, but now we're going through and adding content for you to experience. This week we finished adding most points of interest to the desert biome and now we are moving on to the forest. Some of the points of interest you can expect to find are merchants, bandit camps, churches, caves, abandoned houses, towns, and a lot of secret places as well. While some areas are shorter than others, you'll come across some places that are full of intricate puzzles, challenges, and loot! 

New Weapons and Clothes


In addition to working on things to do in the world, we also want there to be fun things to loot! Looting is a huge aspect of our game and we'll have the traditional RPG rarity system as well as item levels for loot. Over the past couple of weeks we worked on creating three new weapon types: the double barrel shotgun, the rifle, and repeater. Each gun feels very different and adds a unique playstyle whether it be up close and personal, or taking enemies out from a distance. We've also updated the hand models to look better with the new weapons!

On top of that we also finished getting our new clothing models implemented as well as hair and beard models. While this is something we will likely be expanding on in the future, we wanted a decent base of clothing and hair styles so you can customize your character and feel unique. This also helps us create more varied NPCs and enemies throughout the world. 


Combat Changes


As I stated earlier we've been adding points of interest to world. We've also been adding enemies and enemy camps. A lot time has been spent deciding what level we want enemies to be in certain areas and things of that nature. In addition to that we've worked on new enemy types and unique loot drops. 

Also we've done some work on new behaviors such as dodging. Enemies can sometimes sidestep shots or spell attacks now. Also there are new enemy types such as shotgun enemies that will act differently and be more aggressive. 

Additional Changes

We've also been doing a ton of work on other small things such as performance improvements, UI and icon updates, and under the hood tweaks. We want to have a big world full of stuff to do but we also want it to be a seamless and smooth experience. As such we are working hard on making sure the game runs well and loads everything smoothly. 



Thank you all so much again for reading and as always we would love to hear your feedback!

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Dev Update: World Building, Quests, Puzzles, New Weapons and Clothes

February 22, 2019 willsterling23 0 Comments

Howdy folks!

Just wanted to go over real quick what we've been working on over here at Lavaboots Studio for the past few weeks. Our main focus has been on world building in general. This involves a lot of things but mainly adding content in the world such as places to discover, and also adding enemies and other characters.


World Building


First and foremost we want our games to be about exploration and adventure. This means during the world building process we are putting a lot of time into making fun and unique places to discover. We're adding in churches, houses of different sizes, bandit camps, caves, towns, and a lot of other unique points of interests. We want you to be rewarded for exploration and constantly find new and exciting content. Our focus right now is finishing adding content to the desert zone, and then we'll be moving on to the plains and forest zone. While each zone has been mostly finished in terms of the environmental details, right now we're adding all of buildings, NPCs, and things of that nature. 


Quests and Puzzles



Another big focus of ours recently has been adding in fun quests and challenging puzzles. A lot of places you discover might have some kind of quest associated with it, or a puzzle of some sort that you have to complete. In addition to that we are also scattering secrets all over the place, so be on the lookout and never assume you've found all there is.

New Weapons and Clothes



Also part of the world building process is adding in new items! As I've said before we want you to be rewarded for exploring and defeating tough enemies, and so we are creating new items for you to earn. This last couple weeks we added a couple new weapon types, including a rifle. We also have been adding in new clothing variations for our NPC's and for you to wear as well. 



Over the next few months we'll have our heads buried in the sand (pun intended) trying to finish world building and getting the game as polished as we can for an early access release. We'll be announcing more information soon on an expected release date. 

Thanks for reading and as always we would love your feedback! 


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Dev Updates: New Quests, Points of Interests, Secrets, and New Items

February 01, 2019 willsterling23 2 Comments


Howdy everyone!

Over the last couple of weeks we've started to turn our focus into adding content to the world and the systems required to make that as efficient as possible. Our main focus in the beginning was getting most of the environmental details of the world built, as well as most underlying mechanics needed to play the game. Now that we've completed most of that, we are starting to add fun stuff to actually do in the world!

Obviously we don't want to show you everything as we want you to explore for yourself, but here's a quick look at just some of the content we've been adding.

Quests


The general gameplay loop of Wild West and Wizards will be exploring, discovering new places, fighting enemies, and getting new loot and leveling up your character. A big part of that process is having quests and things to do. So we've started working on small questlines to give you some sense of objective in the world. One of our goals with quests is to have a lot of unique quests that don't always end the way you think they will. While some quests will require you to obtain items for someone, we want to generally avoid repetitive fetch quests. 

Over the past couple of weeks we've implemented numerous new quests that you'll discover along your adventure. Most of these are optional but will reward you if you decide to follow down that path. 

Points of Interest


A big part of world design is adding in fun and interesting points of interest. We've got a vast world for you to explore and so we want it to be full of unique and rewarding places. We are focused primarily at the moment on fleshing out the desert zone and adding enemy camps, houses, churches, cabins, caves, and more for you to discover. These points of interest will usually contain some kind of quest, lore, mini-challenge, or something relevant for the player to do. Some are small pieces of content while others are more involved and might lead to a long quest line. 

Secrets


As we talked about earlier, there will be a lot of points of interest for you to discover throughout your adventure. A lot of these places will contain secrets. Some will be easy to find, but some will be very difficult and as such, rewarding. When you are exploring, we want you to really look in every nook and cranny to make sure you've found everything. You never know when a secret key might be laying around or a safe hidden in the wall. 


New Items


We've also started working on adding new items such as weapons and armor for you to loot. This part of the process will be pretty involved as it will require constant balancing and reiteration to get everything right. Items have level requirements and so we have to do a lot of balancing between giving the player content they can use, and also keeping challenging content rewarding. Overall this process is going well and we're excited to add tons of fun loot to the world! 


Thanks for reading and as always we would love to hear your feedback! 

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