Isn’t it nice to know where you’re going when you head out somewhere?
Game making is a creative, iterative process and takes a great deal of flexibility, but a team still really (really, really, really…yeah, you get it) needs to have a core sense of what the big picture plan is. Also lots and lots of documents and charts to help define and refine that plan, at least if I’m the one steering. 😉
Within the dev groups I’m a part of I’ve become infamous for my love of documents and draw.io charts connecting the back stories of characters and laying out the forageables and recipes etc that feed into what gifts each NPC wants and so on. Most of those are too ugly or intricate to share. Not so with our new roadmap!
It’s amazing to see so much work and game progress laid out like that, no?
As our baby dragon, Crim, says–this is a sketchy draft. Subject to change. There will be lots of smaller updates in between these bigger chunks, and some things will no doubt get moved around. But it feels great to feel confident sharing our big update blocks!
What’s most exciting about this is we have the proof of concept mechanics complete for the biggest items needed. Within the gray box scene we’ve already tested:
–Fishing
–Character customization
–Bug catching
–Destroying misery mushrooms
–Animal care, from feeding to treats and grooming
–Cooking
–Tool upgrades (including the So Fun axe throwing!)
–Crafting
–Mail delivery
In addition, our level design biggest pieces–such as the various cool mine habitats, the main town of Villainville plus Sleepy Hollow and Crypt Town, both beaches and the moon bazaar–are all created and have the basics of season changes set up.
So we’re in good shape to deliver on this roadmap!
What we haven’t done yet are many, many animations, getting NPC’s walking to and from their various locations, lots and lots of UI, reams of quests and heart events not just planned but implemented and tested, recipes created and gifts assigned, the digital version of the majority of our 2D character art created with new expressions made, a thousand bugs we haven’t discovered yet fixed, plus so. many. icon descriptions. We’ve also got LOTS of audio to sort out still, and our music system to implement, among other things.
Needless to say, we’ve still got plenty to keep us busy over the next couple of years before release–and that’s before all the changes that I know we’ll make in response to our invaluable playtesters.
It’s going to be a fun ride! Join us by wishlisting Villainville today, and thanks for reading!
Leave a Reply