The Power Orb update is the first major patch of Fire Dogs. In this update, we have added additional incentives for the player to explore the world, collect hidden or out of reach Orbs, and power up each of the 7 shrines within the game. The Power Orbs can also be collected cooperatively with other players in a multiplayer game, allowing for each player to contribute to the progress of the game. In playtesting, we saw the average playtime roughly triple compared to the previous version of the game. This brings the average playtime for a new player to around 60-80 minutes.
Additionally, animal wildlife has been added to the game to make the world feel more dynamic even when playing in single player mode. Right now the animals only have a minor role within the game, but they will be expanded to have a more important role in a future update.
Future Work:
This update introduced a significant amount of change so we expect there will be additional bugs to discover and fix. However, the most immediate new feature update will be the introduction of save files to the game using Steam Cloud Save. As the game length has become over one hour, it becomes problematic to lose all progress when leaving a game so this will be the primary development priority and will hopefully be released within the next two weeks. After cloud saves have been implemented, polishing each of the areas and tweaking the game to be more challenging/engaging will be the next priority. A Christmas holiday event is planned and most of the features are ready to be released. Player feedback on any of the new mechanics is greatly welcomed! Please reach out on the Steam Discussions for Fire Dogs.
Changelog:
- Feature: Updated each shrine to include seven Power Orbs
- Feature: Added exploration, digging, and jumping puzzles to acquire the Power Orbs
- Feature: Added a UI element to the escape menu displaying the player's current collection progress
- Feature: Added animals into the game for the player to interact with
- Feature: Separated the 'Eclipsed' Leaderboard into Singleplayer and Multiplayer
- Feature: Added netcode for cooperative collection of Power Orbs for multiplayer games
- Bug: Fixed issue with inconsistent game loading for computers with slower hard drives
- Bug: Fixed camera going underwater causing the character to appear to fly
- Bug: Added safety check to prevent/rescue the player if they fell through the world