Developing a flexible non-linear game for the first time is a challenge, much more when there are no graphics artists or other people to help you out. This has brought some obvious limitations, the retro style was very convenient as it requires less skill but still looks reasonable, and to some point justifies the lack of animation, sound however is a more important issue, and it's addition is one of the major targets for V0.5. Yes, V0.5 can be seen as a major release, and as such, it deserves extra care. Already with the immense experience gained, it is fairly certain that all bugs have been fixed - including the rare bug of environment generating on itself, and the high inaccuracy of placing objects like campfires.
When testing the placement of manmade objects, it was soon realized that a tidy camp can help the player get a better feeling of evolution, and stressed how much this could work to the game's advantage. Within the new targets for V0.5, other than those mentioned before and the constant target of adding new items and recipes, is that of adding more structures.
Now, what probably pains people the most, also in another popular survival/crafting game, is that you do not know exactly what is needed per recipe. You will find some recipes with in the instructions.txt file, however you will be glad to hear that a) within the week, work will start on a small utility that will make tracking the recipes easier from the developer's standpoint, so you will have them online and updated once in a while, b) you will be able to access the full list of recipes and their requirements through the game menu, for immediate and up-to-date reference.
Also as V0.5 will be the second to last pre-Alpha release, it is worth adding some things like cooking food or drinking water, as in the Alpha version the game mechanics are to be expanded far beyond original expectations.
Now, another element that makes game immersive is movement, and by that obviously I mean animation. However, the retro style may come in conflict with that, so whether or not work will start on animation depends on response from you gamers. Despite that, one thing that has already been decided to be added is particle effects for fire - no more static sprites for lit campfires and bloomeries, yay!! This is most likely to be in V0.5 too actually.
Now, open world games need some interesting environment. The first thing to be done is to make sure more travel is required by making sure that it is unlikely to have all materials needed within one territory - or at any rate that you will seek out such territories to set up camp. Furthermore, cacti will be added at one point or another, which will help get some water too. Moreover there will be more minerals to be mined, which, though not necessary to end the game, will hopefully drive you to setting up a second camp somewhere to explore what other technological advances you may discover!
Finally, seeing as development progresses in a good pace, it seems sound to speculate a bit on what will be going on beyond V0.6, that is, in the first Alpha release, which will mainly focus on adding animals, and hopefully also NPCs, for more challenge and a more interesting experience as a total!
So, don't forget to send in some feedback if you try out the pre-Alpha releases, and keep in mind that any bugs are probably already fixed for the next version, also don't forget to give a like on the project's Facebook page to show your support:
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Try out the latest pre-Alpha version:
