Dev Update: Music, Bind Stones, NPC Work, and More!
Howdy everyone!
Since our last dev blog we've been focusing mainly on polishing up the first area of the game. We want the first few hours of your experience to not only be fun, but introduce you to the various mechanics of the game. So we've been working hard on getting all those mechanics working well so you can play through the core gameplay loop.
Here's a look at some of the content we've been working on in that regard.
Music
The Wild West wouldn't be complete without some western music. The last couple of weeks we began implementing music for combat, exploration, and even boss music. Music adds a lot to the atmosphere and feeling of the game and makes it even more fun to fight a boss or explore the world. These are systems we're still working on but they are well on their way to being complete.
Bind Stones
This week we added something called a bind stone into the game. Bind stones can generally be found at towns and act as a place to bind your location, as well as level up your character. Upon death you will return to the last bind stone you activated. You can also use return to town spells to go back to your last bind stone. A big part of our gameplay loop is going out and exploring, and then returning town to sell resources, upgrade gear, and level your character. Bind stones help us achieve that in a more natural way.
World Building and Loot
We are also still in the process of doing detailed environmental world building. This means we're combing through the desert and loading it full of rocks, cacti, bushes, trees, and so forth. We're well on our way to being done with this and so far it's turning out great! The desert feels dense and full which makes it a lot more fun to explore.
This past week we also added in some lootable containers throughout the world. You can now find barrels, crates, bags, and even some safes scattered throughout the desert. Any of these you see can be looted and often contain sellable resources or some kind of utility items like bullets or bandages.
NPC Work
We've also been recently working on fleshing out the first town. We've added various merchants and people you can talk to. Some of them might even tell you some secrets! Right now there is a sheriff, doctor, clothing merchant, general merchant, blacksmith, bartender, innkeeper, banker, and some residents that walk around town. In addition to working on merchant inventories we've also been writing and implementing NPC dialogue so that you can talk to most of the characters you encounter.
As always thanks for reading and we'd love to hear your feedback!
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