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Monday Dev Update #17

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


Hello there and welcome to this blog.

We stayed silent development-wise for the past two mondays as we were basically entrenched in the unsexy technicals of resurrecting an inventory system for Winterfall. As you understand by now however, Winterfall is a systemic game, that is a game driven by the interaction of systems. And so, those systems communicate with one another, and scale to various dimensions: best example of the virtual personality system, which is pretty much the same for a Character or for an entire Environment. So the Inventory system was no exception and needed integration with various other systems, not just the Character.


As you know, in Winterfall, you play your single Character during specific game experiences, and then you switch back to managing your Outpost in other game experiences, building and maintaining its Facilities. Your Characters (plural) live their life at the Outpost and you can switch between them in your next adventure.


Inventory

So right there, that's an example of how Inventory works: per Character, for the Outpost, for Outpost Facilities and so on. So that's what we've been busy with.

Inventory is also the crossroads that connect most systems in an RPG, since items can be carried, moved around, dropped or destroyed or traded, but also have values and functions and uses. Consumables, equippables, tradeables, upgradeables, etc etc.


Primarily, we've been taking care of:

  • General Inventory Handling rules

    • Drag & drop to move items around, equip/unequip, etc

    • Extend or shrink Inventory spac

  • Player Inventory/Outpost Inventory toggles

    • Player Inventory in Player Mode, Outpost Inventory in Outpost Mode

  • Outpost Inventory

    • Item Categories for Outpost Contents: NPCs & Objects

  • Facility Inventory & Functions

    • Item Categories for Outpost Facilities Contents: Special Furnishings, Items & Operator NPC slot

  • Item Categories

    • All Character Equippable Slots: Head, Shoulders, Chest, Arms, Waist, Legs, Feet

    • Wearables slots (clothes) & Accessory slots (armor, tools, utilities)

  • Item Rarity/Quality & assorted UI Colours

    • Common, Uncommon, Rare, Treasure, Artifact

  • Item Tooltip Basics & Behaviour

    • Window showing item information on MouseOver

  • Core Consumables & Consumables Rules

    • Conditions/Needs-relieving triggers for Survival gameplay: food, drink, healing relaxant,

    • Power values, increasing the effects of recovery items

  • Various Fixes

This opens up various systems that were previously locked behind the lack of a functional inventory system, which we will be able to take care of in the weeks to come, to wrap up the Wilderness gameplay's core gameplay loop.


Next up is taking care of Loot Inventory: whether that is treasure chests or the bodies of fallen foes. A list of small fixes and tweaks also awaits our care, as well as creating an additional number of items for testing purposes.


Short term, we will also be using the Inventory system as an interface for the building/placement system, which will first be used for Camping (allowing you to place your camp facilities) and then for Outpost Facility & Housing Customization.


Once we get there, we won't be looking too bad regarding our greater Wilderness Gameplay list, and that's when we'll be able to focus back on gameplay improvements of various sorts, and then begin typing up the bigger systems (Lifepath, chiefly) to the minute gameplay.


There is still a lot to do. There's also work going on, as ever, to get the game properly supported in the medium and long term, so that its completion, delivery and quality can be properly ensured. Many of you have been waiting a very long time for this thing to come out and it's been very disappointing to be met with setback after setback on the road to completion and delivery, but ultimately this is all for the greater good, for you as players, for us as developers, and for the game itself.


For me personally (Fab, the creator), this is going to be another Christmas working on this to keep making up for lost time and make sure everything is tight when it comes to design and mechanics. As ever, my commitment to Winterfall remains 100%, despite all the difficulties, disappointments and sacrifices. More than ever, Winterfall is my foremost focus and there is no negotiating that until it comes out and we're all happy.


So once more, thank you for your patience and continued interest.



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