Wild West and Wizards Dev Blog

This update includes a number of new quests and more content to fill out the world. You can now find settler camps scattered across the land. Trade with their merchants, and talk to them to receive quests or hints about things in the area.

The Bounty Hunter's guild quest line has now been expanded and includes many new dungeons and points of interest. Talk to the leader of the bounty hunter outpost in the desert to find out how to raise in the ranks.

- Added settler camps in the Desert, Plains, and Forest zones.

- Expanded the Bounty Hunter quest line, and added a number of new associated dungeons and points of interest.

- Added new weapon drops

- Adjusting the near clipping plane to reduce problems with the camera clipping through walls.

- Added some new visuals to the Museum of Magic.

- New common enemy armor drops now work for enemies in the yonder.

- You can now re-obtain the Dragon Lilly if you've lost it during the quest The Chair Curse.

- Added some new teleport runes.

- Slightly increased the size of dialogue response boxes.

- Fixed torso disappearing at certain camera angles on dead enemies wearing dusters.

- Fixed colliders on some glass cases.

- Fixed description on the plains tower cell keys.

- Fixed description of the bellows weapon.

- Fixed lamp post in lake town being marked as an inn interior object.

- Fixed typo in the failed to place item message during the quest "A Treasure Hunt".

- Shield of souls no longer overwrites cloak of flames effect.

- Fixed an issue where a heal would count as dealing damage for Shield of Souls effect and Soul Splitter talent.

We added in two new outfit models, the Duster and the Cassock. Both of these new models will replace the clothes of certain NPCs throughout the game, as well as update the models of some items that you can equip.

A few things have been updated near edge town to improve the initial experience. This includes the addition of a new quest, a slight improvement to the Tools of the Trade quest, some new NPCs, and more. This is intended to bring the quality of some of the early quests up to more closely match those found in the later game.

Thanks to everyone who have taken the time to report bugs and other problems. With the influx of new players since we left early access, we were able to identify a number of bugs that previously went unnoticed. Some of these have been fixed in minor hotfixes, as well as in this update.

Previously, wearable equipment drops were, in general, exclusive to bosses and chests. We have now made it so that common enemies also have a rare chance of dropping these items.

We have some larger content additions in the works that will expand the quest line of the Bounty Hunter guild as well as add some new points of interest in the world. This update will likely come within the next few weeks.

- Added new clothing items: The Duster and Cassock Robe.
- Updated some NPCs with new clothes visuals.
- Fixed some visual issues in Forest Town.
- Fixed some visual issues in Edge Town.
- Added some new small areas to the beginning area.
- Added new potions to some loot tables.
- Bandits can now sometimes drop armor.
- Added some new points of interest to the desert.
- Buffed some repeater rifles.
- Improved the "Tools of The Trade" quest
- Decreased the difficulty of Furnace Master Edgar slightly.
- Added a new quest near Edge Town.
- Portals now save if you've activated them in the Shimmering Caverns.
- Tabitha can now re-give you a key if you lose it during her quest.
- Added collider to keep you from being able to interact with a blocked door by looking through a crack.
- You can no longer dodge while in the air.
- Fixed a hole in the geometry on top of Heaven's Overlook.
- Fixed overlapping floor geometry in museum of magic.
- Fixed malformed bottles in Elron's house.
- Fixed falling bottles in the mountain town blacksmith shop.
- Fixed some colliders on the exterior of Nigel's house in Down Town.
- Fixed a tilted shrine rock in Tinderfall Hollow.
- Fixed being able to interact with a secret door early in the abandoned wizard school.
- Fixed z-fighting on alchemist's shack in plains.
- Fixed the water effects of Lake Town's lake not extending deep enough.
- Removed collider from ice on the Brine rife, which could intercept spells.
- Fixed Gavyn still blocking the cellar door even after you have completed the quest Private Eye.
- Added tip when you start on how to wield your weapon.
- Fixed a bunch of typos.
- Soul Splitter orbs now fall to the ground, so they no longer get stuck way in the air.

We started working on Wild West and Wizards a little over two years ago. One of our main goals with this game was to cut our development time down to a two year cycle, but also increase the quantity and quality of content compared to our previous game, Salt. This was a challenge because this game, unlike Salt, was not procedurally generated. This means we had to build the entire world by hand which in theory takes a lot more time. 

Overall we are very happy with the amount of content in the game. Currently there are over 200 points of interest to discover, over 80 quests, three classes with unique talent trees, hundreds of items to loot, and a lot of secrets and puzzles spread across the world. Right now our development team only consists of two people, which means it can be a huge challenge trying to balance content, quality, and time with development. A lot of this also depends on how well a product sells which heavily influences how long we can support ourselves and the game. 

That being said, Wild West and Wizards didn't perform as well as we'd hoped but we were still able to complete our roadmap for the game and implement a ton of content. After launch, we'd like to continue to support the game with a least a few more content updates. The updates will include things like brand new bounty quests to complete, new large points of interests to explore, new quest lines, and new gear and loot to earn. We will also be fixing bugs and things of that nature as well.

So what is next for us at Lavaboots? Some of you will be happy to know we will be working on a sequel to our open world pirate game, Salt. With Salt 2, we'd like to drastically improve the visuals and aesthetics of the game from the original, as well as focus on what made Salt so fun to play and add some new twists as well. A large focus with the sequel will be on exploration, crafting, and ship customization. We want you to really be able to make a cozy home on your ship and spend a lot of time crafting and making it unique to you. 

Obviously right now we are in the very early stages of development and design with Salt 2, but we will be releasing more info on that soon. We plan on taking the same approach that we did with Wild West and Wizards, which is to increase quality and content, but decrease the development time so that you can play the game quicker and get updates faster. 

We are so appreciative of our community and couldn't make these games without you! Stay tuned over the next few months for more updates on Wild West and Wizards, as well as updates on the development of Salt 2. 

Thanks for reading!