Hello everyone! We’re hoping Spring has sprung and you’re all enjoying the weather. Here’s what we’ve been up to for the past month!
Maps
Something we’ve been doing a lot of recently has been adding new maps (i.e. game levels) to the game. In a previous update we mentioned that the Q2 release will be quite large since we are working on doubling the current overworld size. This is just a small preview of some things we’ve been adding: Steam Factories!
Once more of the towns and cities are added we plan to show some of the new areas off in more detail. But for now we hope you enjoy this!
Status Points
A small improvement we made last month was how we handled Status Points
When your party members level up, they gain status points which can be used to improve individual stats. A common problem that people run into while playing is that they will level up and forget to set the status points.
An improvement we made a while ago was a reminder on the main menu screen that you would have status points to apply. However, that wasn’t really enough, as people would go from one battle to the next without entering into the menu.
Generally speaking, setting one or two points can make a very big difference in battle, so after going through a whole area, and then facing a boss, you might find yourself in a lot of trouble. In fact, lots of people failed when fighting the first boss battle because they forgot to set points.
We came up with a couple ways to approach the problem:
- Forcing the player to select the status points on the level up screen after a battle (ex. Paper Mario & TTYD)
- Putting a new icon on the HUD indicating your had status points to spend, and clicking on it would bring you to the status screen
The first case is very, very restrictive and limits the player from doing “no point” runs or hording a bunch of status points for later when they feel things get tough. It also keeps you from looking at your party as a whole and deciding what would work best.
The second option is far less restrictive, serving as a reminder, but it does add another element to the HUD. Also, arguably, it may not solve the issue of forgetting to set the points.
We asked twitter in a poll which option (or another?) they would find would work best, and came up with this:
Most people who filled out the poll would prefer the less restrictive option, so we worked to add a new icon to the HUD. Now beside the Main Menu button, there is a reminder that Status Points are available to be set. Clicking on it will bring you right to the Status screen!
Thank you to everyone who filled out the poll! We hope this will help solve the problem, and we’ll see how it does during the next beta release!
What’s Next?
We are still plugging away at the next beta release, and working to add in the new maps, NPCs and other story events. We’ve been asking a few polls here and there on twitter and will be showing off some more results from them in the near future.
We hope everyone keeps well, and we’ll see you all next month!
April 2020 Progress Update