Hey Ponderers!
Happy December! Letting you all know where the Orb and I are at.
For those looking for a release date or release info, I'll be upfront and let you know I don't have any more details at the moment.
I spent a lot of development time in both Alchemy and just general quality of life this month. The game is continuing to feel more and more polished every day I work on it. There is a lot of micro details I won't share here but will be immediately noticeable to anyone who has played OoC for any significant portion of time. The game is feeling really good.
Alchemy had a lot more cleanup than I gave it credit for. In my last post I mentioned how Alchemy feels less important now that there are lots of different forms of passive generation, so I spent some time with the content and really leaned into the passive generation for alchemy and I feel like I've changed my mind. Alchemy feels really useful so far, and I'm glad I could find its niche in a space that is pretty crowded. I ended up adding a lot more potions and alchemic recipes that offer more unique bonuses that you can't get elsewhere. The new input/output system I alluded to in the November dev log also feels fun to play with. There is a lot of openness and variety in how you can optimize your alchemic setups and try to squeeze out as much value as you can.
I finally implemented a use case for Alchemic Upgrades! ( now called "Material Upgrades" :O )
Druidry is almost certainly in its final form as well. Its a simple system that in my friends + family playtesting seems to be pretty intuitive, but shows a lot of depth once you get going with it. There is a fair bit of simple micromanaging and creativity you can implement here, which is what I love, all while feeling unique and "gardening" like.
I'm also dipping back into the length of this section. On this version and in this playthrough I'm implementing a lot of designer patience, and making sure the pace of the game slows down as you progress. Alchemy should be longer than the workshop, which should be longer than the world, which should be longer than scholarism, etc.. As the game expands, it needs to give the player more room to experiment and just be in sandbox mode. And as such, Alchemy is always a much larger section than I remember, and if I apply this same thinking, rituals should be even longer.
Talking about content breadth, holy moley, with the way I've reworked how the player discovers spells and tools, whenever I have a fun idea I can just throw it in so easily now. If I come up with a cool new augment glyph idea, I don't have to figure out where it'll exist on the player's progression path or how it will be unlocked, I just throw it into the pool of available augment glyphs and the discovery system handles dishing it out at a reasonable and meaningful pace.
To give you an idea: in this version I am currently up to 19 different augment glyphs. At least 7 totally new ones, 5 completely revamped ones, and with tons of design space for even more. (AND I was able to make them all feel unique)
This ease and quantity is the same for all the other systems. I've added roughly 50% more concepts, TWICE the number of items, 40% more alchemic recipes, 40% more equipment. The bonus is that it has not been (too) overwhelming as a player, because again, the game unlocks new things at a consistent, reasonable, and easily adjustable pace.
And its great, because the breadth offers a lot of variety in each playthrough. I've played a few times, and just due to what choices I was offered, gave me totally different combos and synergies to explore each section of the game. It gives me very high hopes for the game's replayability in New Game+.
Anyways, enough of my excitement for today. I'll be posting another update next month!
-Marple
PS. Here are some of the fun new augment glyph designs I've been playing with