To secure and speed up the release pace, and minimize the occurrence of delays, you can support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/winterfallgame
Some time has passed since the last Dev Update but a lot has been going on behind the scenes, and I can't say that the current situation in a world that get more unstable and complicated every month, hasn't played some kind of a role in complicating the schedule. Thankfully, development followed its slow but steady pace and we managed to hammer in a bunch of new things. Those concern mostly the Camping mechanics, as well as some under-the-hood stuff that is definitely not sexy, but necessary.
At the moment, our Prototype/Rebuilt list of technically functional things looks like this:
✅ Means Functional ⏸ Means Pending
- Navigation ✅
- Basic Stealth ✅
- Combat ✅
- Environment Personality ✅
- Environment Notice ✅
- Dynamic Passage of Time ✅
- Dynamic Weather & Incidents ✅
- Character Customization ✅
- Character Personality ✅
- Lifepath Mechanics ✅
- Legacy & Breeding Mechanics ✅
- Core Relationship Mechanics ✅
- Regeneration & Survival Needs ✅
- Character Urges ✅
- Player-World Interactions ✅
- World Grid Basic Mechanics ✅
- Outpost Facility Building ✅
- Core Outpost Crises ✅
- Outpost NPC Life Sim ⏸
- Wilderness Camp Building ✅
- Item & Inventory ✅
- Trading ⏸
- Crafting ⏸
- Camping ⏸
- Advanced Stats (Equipment & Status Effects) ⏸
- Advanced Relationship Mechanics ⏸
- Strategic Map ⏸
- Warbands vs Warbands Battles ⏸
As you can see, that's 20 items functional out of 28 so we aren't doing too poorly despite the circumstances. Crafting will be next on the list and delved into this week, and hopefully taken care of fast.
Pulling off development for something as complicated as Winterfall and in such unlikely conditions is an ordeal almost every day. Managing this is quite grueling work. But we soldier on without letting up and deal with things one at a time. The ambitions of this game are immense and will not work if the list above is incomplete and features deemed core are missing.
Generally when making a game, you will go for a MVP, or Minimum Viable Product, as your first big milestone. What does "Minimum" look like when your game is cross-genre, open world and full of stuff that was not done before? Well, the "Minimum" of a Winterfall is pretty much beyond the "Maximum" of many RPGs, so here we are.
Back to work! Thank you for your patience and fidelity.
Updated: Mar 14, 2022
To secure and speed up the release pace, and minimize the occurrence of delays, you can support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/winterfallgame
This past week, most of the work went into continuing to implement mechanics for Camp-building, the central feature of Wilderness gameplay. As a matter of fact, one of the very first public screenshots produced for Winterfall illustrated that system:
Beware, oldie! But those were also simpler times.
It's another big system that's crucial to get out of the way because it combines various components into one experience within the greater experience. It's another rabbit hole, of the type Winterfall is full of but thankfully, that one is pretty limited in scope. The interplay of systems just adds design & development complications, and we can't address anything linearly, but that is the way those things work. If we'd wanted it straightforward gameplay-wise, we'd have stuck to a Metroidvania or a souls-like!
So let's get into this week's developments and where that takes us concerning the plan in the coming weeks:
- A camp can now be created by Surveying a Landmark and plopping down a Hearth (fire)
- The Camp area is then contoured by little markers
- Camp space is made of tiles, on which can be placed Camp Facilities
- At the moment, Camp Facilities have to exist in the Player Inventory first (will change)
- Camp Facilities can be moved around and rotated 90% before placement
- Camp Facilities can be un-placed (currently by pressing n to enter "un-place mode, but will change)
- Un-placed Facilities return to the Player Inventory (will return to Camp Inventory later on)
- A Sleeping Spot can be designated and used
- The Sleeping Spot is your Character's respawn location in case of Woe (gameplay defeat)
- Using the Sleeping Spot will pass the time to the next day
- A tent can be placed over the Sleeping Spot
Another oldie featuring a camping snapshot
Next developments in the coming 2-3 weeks:
- Master/Slave logic to Facilities, so we can add extensions to placed Facilities
- A little bit of UI work, for Camp and Player Core Stats
- Adrenaline Mechanics (base Stamina multiplier when in-combat and targeted by Hostile)
- Conditions Effects: Hunger, Thirst, Injury & Exertion stacking debuffs as they increase
- Basic Buffs/Debuffs for various purposes: Traits mechanics, Items, and actual Buffs/Debuffs
- Mood Spells: Character Mood used to purchase Buff/Debuff Effects at Camp for the next day
All those will flesh out the Survival gameplay by bringing all its systems closer together.
The step after these should be some work on streamlining Urges & Environment Interactions, implementing some Crafting mechanics, some Itemization and additional Camping developments/improvements.
It's a lot of work, it's slower than we'd like, but it's a vast vision so it's important to remember that what matters with the little time we're given is what we get to do, not what we would like to do. Crucial mindset here with something of this scope.
Again, thank you for your continued interest.
Updated: Mar 14, 2022
To secure and speed up the release pace, and minimize the occurrence of delays, you can support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/winterfallgame
Today our Dev Blog post will take a somewhat different form as we will mostly use it to evaluate the work done in 2021 and the work yet to do in 2022.
2021 was a pretty good year for Winterfall's development as we managed, against still unfriendly odds, to take care of a lot of systems and mechanics. Some were old work that we salvage from the previous version of the project, some were entirely new systems, some were adaptations.
By now you are all aware of the composite nature of Winterfall: part survival game, part base building, part life sim, part grand strategy, all-around ARPG. The goal of the game, as stated previously, is to allow you to either play in a traditional goal-oriented, short play sessions manner, or a complete responsive sandbox that doesn't have to end, where you do whatever you want and the game has an answer for your every choice and action of note. Some of you will want to explore endlessly, others will just want to watch their characters go through daily life. Those are the scenarios we have to design solutions for: building the platform for your memorable stories and unforgettable experiences. All of this, of course, in a hand-designed world so big you should never be able to say "I have seen everything here".
So let's take each broad category of gameplay and comment on the things we did in 2021.
Survival Game
In 2021 we:
- Restored Stamina Loss & Regeneration functions
- Restored the Survival Needs/Conditions system
- Restored Inventory Functionality & Consumables, with Equipment Logic
- Tied all those aspects together
- Began revamping the Camping & Camp-building mechanics
- Built the Grid/Cell-based Exploration & Surveying System
- Implemented Core hostile Patrol Mechanics
- Implemented Core Tracking mechanics
- Implemented core Surveying Incidents Mechanics
- Updated Core Weather & Hazard Mechanics accordingly
- Implemented Hearth & Respawn Mechanics
- Implemented Woe (Defeat types) Mechanics and assorted (Grit, Recovery, etc)
- Vastly overhauled Notice Mechanics (think a deeper version of the Stars system in GTA)
Base-Building (Outpost)
In 2021 we:
- Implemented Outpost Primary Stats
Food
Supplies
Treasure
- Implemented Outpost Secondary Stats
Readiness (convertible into Sentinels & Usable for Action Expeditions)
Resourcefulness (convertible into Explorers & Usable for Exploration Expeditions)
Goodwill (convertible into Agents & Usable for Relation Expeditions)
Labour (convertible into Specialists & Usable for Labour Expeditions)
- Implemented the Outpost RTS Camera
- Implemented Outpost Core Resources Management (Food & Supplies)
- Implemented Outpost Quality of Life & Security Meters
- Implemented Outpost Crisis Mechanics in case of low Core Resources
- Implemented basic Crisis Events & Interplay with Outpost Stats (type, gravity of Crisis, etc)
- Implemented physical tile-based Outpost building & customization
- Implemented Facility menus, inventories & upgrade slots
- Implemented Core Facility types and their extension relationships
Life Sim
- Restored & Expanded the Environment Mood System
- Restored the Character Mood System
- Built the Character Interactions, Relationships & Emotions System
- Built the Character Lifepath Generator (gameplay & choices-based Story Generator)
Grand Strategy
- No specific items implemented in 2021, although connected to Base-building & Life Sim aspects
ARPG
In 2021 we:
- Improved Attack Inputs and behaviours across the board
- Fixed Camera Snap combat mechanics & aligned attacks with Camera look direction
- Dealt with various quality of life elements
- Applied many fixes and improvements to various Controller issues
And much more.
The first months of 2022 will be about completing Survival, Base-Building and ARPG functions towards installing the Gameplay Loop in its fundamental functionality:
Venture out in the wilderness
Survive
Experience Adventures
Bring back resources
Build your Outpost
Which will later expand to accommodate functions such as
Recruit Followers & Companions
Send out expeditions
Colonize the map
Deal with Crises
Fulfill Character Lifepaths
Deal with inter-Character Drama
Advancement on the RPG Progression mechanics (leveling up, etc) is also in the crosshairs.
Thank you for your patience and support as we keep making progress in the huge task of building Winterfall against all odds: technical, financial and even personal. The commitment remains 100%.