Hello again everyone! Morgan & Anna here.
For those new here, we're a husband and wife team working on The Perilous North, a narrative survival game set in the golden age of Arctic exploration with slight Lovecraftian twist.
(If you haven't yet, Wishlist The Perilous North to support us!)
Since the last update a lot has been added to the game, so let's just jump straight into it!
Anna has been doing some incredible world and narrative building.
We made a conscious decision for our own sanity to choose our battles wisely, and not to stray too far from reality.
When you first boot up the game, we don’t want you to feel like you’re in a totally unfamiliar world. A spoon is a spoon, the British empire is still the British empire, and if you go out naked into a -60 degree blizzard, you will get frostbite. The logic of the normal world applies.
That said, there’s still a ton of world building to do in order to pull this off the narrative and characters in a believable way.
We also put together a video showing our love and appreciation for the period. The algorithm hated it - haha *cry laughing* but we're still proud of it.
The navigation layer also uses the same system. Exploring is its own form of progression. As you explore and find locations, more and more of the map will become filled in.
This is a juicy one.
The landmark sketchbook just got a huge overhaul this month. While it was a lot of fun in its previous form, we felt it was a little too “treasure hunt” and not quite “arctic explorer”.
We’ve since updated it to involve more thematic mechanics. Navigating with a dodgy map, using limited information to find your way.
It’s still very simple, but we want you to have the experience of 19th century Arctic navigation, and the philosophy behind the design is still the same - to feel like “if I don’t use my brain here, I will die” - without the frustration that doubtless came from it.
You see something you like, you buy it. Using your resources to trade, whether for a native good luck charm or a new steam engine is one of the main ways to progress in the game.
Credit where it’s due, this was ripped straight out of Zelda, where rather than trading items, you just buy things directly in the world. It feels more visceral than shuffling icons around in inventories.
With the simplification of abilities, a lot of the cool ideas like “explosives” or “flares” or “traps” have been moved over to craftable items.
These are taken with you as a sort of loadout when you leave the ship and enter a location. They’re not strictly mandatory, but might save you in a pinch, and will help you play in your own way.
We’ve simplified abilities.
Each crew member will now have one “signature ability”. This can still be modified, so abilities will change throughout the game, but it simplifies gameplay a lot. It also means each ability can have its own meaningful mini game.
The Engineer has the tent, with a placement mini game.
The Navigator has the flags, which you need for the navigation mini game etc.
Every crew member feels very important, and has their own role within the game.
Each crew member has one equipped piece of clothing, its main role being keeping them warm.
The further you go, the better your equipment will need to be.
Clothing also degrades while exploring, meaning you can’t stay out forever. Back on board the ship clothing is automatically repaired.
Each wing has an important role.
The engine room repairs the ship.
The hunting quarters repairs clothing.
The infirmary treats sick crew members etc.
Assigning more crew to a wing means it functions better and faster.
Running the ship uses resources.
Running out of resources is inescapable, and not necessarily fatal. For example if you run out of fuel, you can still sail… but only downwind.
Planning for survival when you run dry is part of the challenge.
There's audio and visual cues to show your burn rate (such as the light shown below) affected by cold, wind and ice.
Certain crew status effects require treatment, either sleeping it off, or in more severe cases, treatment on board the ship in the infirmary.
Crew members are automatically taken out of action for the duration of treatment. During this time they do not contribute to the running of the ship.
On board the ship, your scientist Percival will take specimens you find while exploring and turn them in to useful upgrades or items. Each new discovery will give you a free “prototype” to test before committing actual resources to crafting them.
On the technical side, there’s a data handoff that happens when moving back and forth between layers.
Each layer deals with time on completely different scales, so it has to pass information to do with the world and crew state to interpret consistently but in its own way.
I probably shouldn’t be this excited about this, but it’s a surreal feeling to see our game (even if its a half baked mess) as a playable thing on the Steam app.
It's not publicly advertised yet, but if you're interested in joining in, you can message us on Discord and we'll hook you up with a key.
It’ll be a throwaway fake level, so you there won’t be any risks of spoilers.
If you like what you see, please Wishlist The Perilous North to support us in bringing it to life!
You can also join our discord, where you can talk to us directly. We also share frequent updates (and funny bugs).
Thanks for reading, and looking forward to having you on board!
Morgan & Anna