Welcome to Qual Harbor - a small port town on the island of Nulphia, and the first settlement in the game.
There were several iterations of the town's layout and art style. I aimed to have a location that makes sense, looks nice, and is fun to explore.
There are multiple enterable buildings, as well as hidden treasures tucked away for those who like to snoop around.
The game has many NPCs for the player to interact with. I needed a modular system that allows me to create many distinct humans quickly, so I spent some time making and animating humanoid bodies, as well as a set of different components that I can swap and customize (clothes, hairstyles, accessories, etc.).
This was a lot of work, but now that the system is ready, I am able to add new interactive characters without feeling overwhelmed.
People of Qual Harbor will talk to you and provide useful information. Some act as vendors and will sell things to you. As the story progresses, new dialogue options open up. The goal is to make each encounter interesting and at least somewhat useful.
Early on I've decided to not have a map of the world available to the player. Exploration is heavily rewarded, and navigation requires players to pay attention to details, road signs, and ask people for directions. Some people are more knowledgeable than others, and will give particularly useful tips!
With the addition of modular characters and a requirement for increased detail in town areas, I spent some time optimizing the game engine's renderer to make sure each zone loads quickly and performs well. There have also been significant upgrades to the engine's animation system, physics, and lighting.
I've also implemented an attack impact system, which adds a visual effect and sound when a character attacks an immovable object (like a wall or a tree). It's a subtle change, but makes the game feel more responsive.
That's it for now. The tools, improvements and decisions I made during this time will carry over to other settlements in the game, meaning that for a while I should be able to focus on just adding content to the game, instead of working on new systems.