This is a small update to fix a couple issues some users have reported. Of particular interest is the new performance toggle for the “Walking through long grass” effect. If you happen to have a laptop with an integrated graphics card we recommend turning the effect off if you are noticing frame rates dropping.
Happy August! We hope everyone is handling the heat wave well. Here’s what we were up to the last month~
Cutscene Completion (For Now)
We are happy to announce that (for now) all of the Main Story Quest (MSQ) cutscenes have been added to the game! This is a big hurdle we’ve now passed so let’s go over what this generally means and next steps for cutscene work!
The MSQ is the main content that anyone needs to play through to get from the start of the game to the end – and for cutscenes that means they’re mandatory. Having them all added means that you could theoretically play the narrative from beginning to end – a big accomplishment! For a lot of games this means that the beginning of the end is coming. Although we would love that, we aren’t quite there yet. BUT! It’s very nice to have happen and a big step in that direction.
So why aren’t we there yet? A few reasons.
MSQ in Gataela are a little dynamic. Beta testers may be aware of this with the first Lord debate – but if you got certain facts earlier on certain quests become side quests. If you didn’t get those they become main quests. For speed runners or others who hit certain conditions through exploration and so on, they can get rewarded by skipping ahead, but people who hadn’t found these won’t get locked out. We mention this because right now our debates are being rewritten. Once completed their facts will be extracted and matched with side quests and other gameplay mechanics for gathering them. This means that some current side quests may also be main quests. So we’ll have more main quests to add.
Another factor is that the cutscenes and story has been added, but little details to the world such as NPCs, enemies, animals, etc. haven’t yet. This means that a cutscene previously added might suddenly have elements appear in undesired locations, or maybe we need to fill in more NPCs to make the scene feel better. Then you get into all the little things like music and SFX cues and so on.
So all of this is to say the first pass is done! We have a second pass to do and that will be coming along a little later. This is why our big concern for the next 6 months will be adding NPCs, animals, etc. to maps as well as rewriting the debates.
Though… we did figure out a good stopping point if we were to do early access… so perhaps that might be a thing… or not… we will see… no promises.
Battle VFX
Another big effort this past month was adding in all the lovely VFX work that has been done over the past year as we mature the turn-based battle system. We still have a fair amount of work to do but most of them are complete so let’s highlight a few!
Here is our fave DDR Boar showing off their dance skills with “Crush” – a high damage skill that crushes anything in it’s way.
Our dear wolf friends can use a skill called Endure which will allow them to survive a hit that would normally kill them. They won’t give up that easily!
Our animal friends like a nice little Hibernation every once in a while to recharge and refresh – though they may be a little out of it once they wake up.
And y’know what? If you’re having a bad day just seek some Refuge inside your shell. The problem will go away… probably.
We hope everyone is having a nice July now that summer’s in full swing! Here’s what we were up to last month!
Puzzles
Last month we finished off some puzzle work – so let’s talk about it!
One type we added was pipe puzzles since…. well… they feel rather steampunky don’t they? They do have a in-game reason for them too – trust us. As you can see above we’ve got a slew of pieces to add to solve the puzzle on the right. You need to connect the pipes together and so steam can flow through them! Though I wonder what will happen if you turn them all on? 🤔
There’s still a little bit more work to do – such as UI elements, some cool steam effects and so on – but we hope you like how it’s looking so far.
Next 6 Months
It’s been 6 months since our last check in on our plans – so let’s go over what the rest of the year will look like! That being said… lots of things are up in the air given the state of employment, so please keep that in mind and that things may change.
Our main “theme” for the next 6 months is “making the world alive”. This means adding things like NPCs, enemies, treasures, passive animals, etc. We’ll also be putting things together and plugging everything in – for example battle animations. By the end of the year we hope we’ll be in a place where we’ll be able to focus on side quests, things we missed, accessibility and so on.
In the short term (3-6 months), this means:
Adding new Battle VFX (and SFX?)
Adding NPCs, animals, treasure, etc. to the maps
Rebalancing Debate battles & related facts/evidence/side quests etc.
Finish adding all of the Kickstarter backer houses
And looking beyond that (subject to change):
Map visual upgrades (ex. the water shader)
Adding Side Quests
Performance and bug fixes as needed
General balancing & AI difficulty (battles, economy, etc.)
Happy June everyone! Here’s what we’ve been up to for the past month!
Interior Completion! Puzzles! Cutscenes!
Yes that’s right you heard it – we finished off all of the interiors! (Well, minus a few special ones and some backer houses) We also “found” time to complete adding some puzzles for a dungeon, and doing a whole lot of cutscene work!
Since cutscenes don’t have anything visually to show without spoilers, we’ll be showing off the city of Olvia and it’s interiors this month, and talk about the puzzles next. Keep an eye out though since next month we’ll be talking about the next leg of development.
Olvia
Olvia is a mining city located beside the Saren-Croix Mountain Range, which divides Gataela and the Ovion Empire. Lots of raw materials are available thanks to industry in the area, and so the city is also home to Steam-powered research, technology and advancements.
The Miner’s Association has a convenient break room in the quarry outside the mines for any workers to use. The entrance contains a register of current people working in the mines along with what equipment was rented. This room is usually filled with people coming and going, as well as those chatting. A quiet space/nap room is available in the back for those who need it.
Olvia is home to one of the most prestigious printing houses in the country – although they may not look it. Covered in paper, coffee stains and filled with overworked editors – this publishing house is famous for discovering and publishing My Fairest: Gataela’s most popular romance-adventure novel series.
The city may be covered in dirt and grime but the inn keeper will fight tooth and nail to keep his business clean and spotless. That being said, the children have taken this as a challenge and often try to barge in, make a mess and get out as fast as possible.
A warehouse was recently converted into a laboratory of some sort. They call it a “garage” – whatever that is. Rumour says they are making a horse-less carriage, but how can that be possible?
What’s Next?
This month will be strictly focused on finishing off adding the MSQ cutscenes! Look out for more news next month!
Hello everyone! We hope you had a good start to spring! Here’s what we were up to last month!
Turn Battle Animations
Guess what? We arealmostdone!
To be specific – we have basically all of the VFX complete. A few need some last minute touch ups but otherwise it’s there. It’s real. It’s… not in the game yet… But it’s there.
We’ll be doing a big round up about the animations next month and start showing them off with some explanations, but a big shout out to Owen who popped off coming up with these guys.
As for what’s remaining – well we need to stick them in the game and assign them some relevant stats so they do what they are supposed to do. And SFX. Yeah these guys need to make sound too. But we’re just about there for the turn-based battle re-balancing we started last year. Look forward to more information soon!
Layoffs & Future Development
Well, with the good news out of the way let’s get to the unpleasant news.
Unfortunately this week I (Paige) was subject to layoffs. That on it own sucks, but I’ll be explaining what that means for the project.
For those who are not aware, this project is 99% self-funded. Yes, we had a small Kickstarter and got a small grant in 2014, but it only covered the initial tileset & visual assets (which was the purpose of the Kickstarter). Most of the game’s development costs are covered out of my own pocket. I obviously don’t pay myself either. I was using a certain % from my monthly pay to pay for development. This is why development is on the slow side – we need money to pay people to do work, we need money to live, but there is no money. So we work to pay for people, which means not working on the game.
But I digress – what does this mean for “Gataela”?
Well- simply put the next quarter is going to be a weird one.
In some ways development might be faster, in other ways it might be slower. For example, all of the work assigned to myself might suddenly zoom since – well – other than job hunting what else do I have to do 🤷 However for anything where others are involved that’ll probably be put on a stand still.
So please have some understanding over the next little while.
What’s Next?
We’re going to move into some REALLY vague goals for the next quarter below since there’s no guarantee on what will be tackled. Some things to look forward to include:
Wrapping up the remaining TTBattle animations (minus SFX)
