Hello! With no Half-Life 3 announcement, the world needs (the) New Gnorp Times more than ever. Today we'll talk about hats, and the current status of the Epilogue Expansion,
I hope you are doing well, by the way!
All the hat winners are now live in-game! Here are a few of them:
The Mug Gnorp becomes a literal mug at the garden. Also featured are the Rock Gnorp, and the Unfortunate One.
When enabled, the Hooded Gnorp appears in certain buildings. And there is also the Anglerfish Zygnorp.
This hat, if enabled, appears during prestiges (and endings), and is a little raincloud.
Some hats can be combined. This one is Stereoscopic + Bring Your Gnorp To Gnorp Day.
These are all the implemented hats, made by you guys:
Lei, by Pumpkinburger
Snail, by Joy
Bandana, by Zymosan99
Drill, by anonymous
Dented, by SleepyHead (with idea from Ultrakill Enjoyer)
Frog, by Kero
Robin Hood, by Goat
Bunny, by Pecan, and Popgoes
Gnome, by Popgoes
Stereoscopic, by Firmamentality
Bring Your Gnorp to Gnorp Day, by Caty, MetallicSaladFork, Pumpkinburger, and Sting
The Unfortunate One, by Matsan
Allseer, by Popgoes
Dorp, by MetallicSaladFork
Hooded, by Popgoes
Anglerfish, by Borgage, MetallicSaladFork, and Dokkefyxen
Drone, by Matsan
Fox, by Doshige
Mug, by Pecan
Raincloud, by DailyNightmares, ThatOneGuy, and Popgoes
Rock, by Matsan
Bundle of balloons, by Doshige
Thank you to everyone who submitted a hat, and thank you to all the winners who have now left a permanent mark within the game.
It's been a while since I last spoke about the progress of Epilogue, so here is the gist of it: Implementation is ongoing. Once that is finished: Lots of testing, polish, localization, more polish, more testing.
Full disclosure: I was certain to have finished the Epilogue Expansion by now, and I've been crunching to accomplish exactly that. Alas, I've missed a couple of self-imposed deadlines, and as a result the world remains deprived.
Progress is continuing though, and since we last spoke some (many?) things have changed.
I previously discussed the plan of Talent+, a system for Epilogue. The gist of it was to implement cool new talents on top of existing ones, allowing you to leverage your experience playing Apologue. You would be able to "upgrade" or replace a talent through socketing an additional talent point.
It was a cool system that would allow me to add more talents on top existing ones. But as I worked on implementing more of them, I realized that working with the talents in Apologue was just not fun enough. Don't get me wrong- I love (most of) the Apologue talents, but I want Epilogue to feel and be fresh.
A new talent for Epilogue: Capsaicin Cocoa
In addition to that, there's also the new ring mechanic and the party pad. In order for them to be a holistic part of Epilogue, it would require deeper integration with the modifiers of the game.
So, in order to reach a state of overall freshness and integration, I thought it would be a good idea to replace almost all talents with new ones. Currently only 6 of the 41 talents in Apologue are present in Epilogue, and out of those 6, some might not survive.
Another new talent for Epilogue: The Scoop
I still think it was a good idea in terms of quality, but perhaps not such a good idea in terms of finishing the project in reasonable time. The Talent+ system remains cool and is still in place, allowing you to modify the 35 selectable talents in Epilogue with another point.
How the talent tree looks in Epilogue (currently). The hole in the middle is a talent that doesn't exist yet!
I'm very satisfied with the overall design of the new talents, and the ability to modify the talents with another point opens up more interesting possibilities.
The talents are just one part of the systems of Gnorp, and they are integrated with the inspirations and zybellium upgrades. As I was working on the new set of talents, making them fit in with the Apologue zybellium upgrades and inspirations felt too much like treading old ground. The conveyor belt, a zybellium upgrade for runners in Epilogue. Fun fact: The first ever version of Gnorp had no pile, just a single conveyor belt automatically carrying all shards.
The conclusion was simple: In order to make Epilogue the best it could be, I would have to replace some of the zybellium upgrades and inspirations. This would not only be super neat and fresh, but it would also make the process of creating new and satisfying talents easier.
Another Epilogue zybellium upgrade: Fusion, for slammers
I've had a lot of fun, and still am, making the new modifiers. Once finished, I hope that Epilogue will provide an experience that'll feel fresh, with brand new ideas.
And that's the current state of the Epilogue Expansion! I'm very excited for you all to have fun with this new puzzle to solve, in the form of picking your units, talents, upgrades, inspirations, etc.
There is a lot of hindsight to be had here, but the scope is definitively locked now, and I am pushing to release an update that I can be proud of. I think it's getting there, and I hope you will agree that it was worth the time and effort!
The Epilogue Expansion will be a free expansion in the form of a new mode. You will be able to re-experience the gameplay of Gnorp with a new core mechanic, a new set of talents with plus-variants, and new zybellium upgrades and inspirations. There are a couple of new units, and several new buildings. Completing the mode will reward you with a new ending, concluding the story of (the) Gnorp Apologue.
Another new talent for Epilogue: Instant Housing
A couple of days from now will be the 2-year anniversary of the release of the game. Thank you for playing, and thanks for your patience as I figure out this whole "supporting a game after its release".
Thank you for reading!