New Development Videos, Upcoming Playable Build, and Prerelease!

(This is a post mirrored from: http://empyrea.org/new-development-videos-upcoming-playable-build-and-prelease/)

I’ve posted two new development videos! They can be found at the bottom of this post.

In addition, I want to go over what’s been happening in development, since I’ve been very busy for the past month and have fallen a bit behind my dedicated update schedule (sorry, everyone!). First, the GUI is pretty much complete, barring tinkering to get things just right or player-suggested changes. It is showcased in the new dev videos.

Second, regional diversification is also basically complete. The only areas I still need to address are mountains and arctic zones, but I’ve left them untouched for now just because it seemed more expedient to move on to getting some of the much-longed-for gameplay features into place.

Another piece of good news is that I’ll be releasing a new alpha build at the end of this month which will contain quite a huge number of updates since the last version (which was mostly just a tech demo) was released. The largest and most obvious of these updates will be the graphical overhaul, but I’ll release a list of all updates and new commands along with it, plus any bugs I happen to know about that haven’t been addressed yet (there are still some graphical errors lurking here and there that crop up occasionally as a result of the conversion, I’ve been working to gradually reduce their frequency – it’s now pretty rare, but they still exist).

In this month’s alpha build, titled ‘Origins’, you’ll be able to gather resources, do some basic crafting and cooking, try not to starve, and enjoy the newly functional day/night cycle. Speaking of “this month’s build” – another good announcement I’m pleased to make is that, now that I’m mostly finished up with addressing all of the game’s graphical needs (creatures + NPCs will be coming soon, though), I’ll be aiming to release new playable alphas on a monthly or bi-monthly basis (I’m going to set bi-monthly as the ‘hard limit’, but aim for monthly if possible). Each new build will have a build title, so expect to see that subtitle (Origins) change before too long. This seems a bit more elegant than just releasing the game by version number, and the subtitles will align with the current focus of development. The idea is that the player should be able to (at least vaguely) guess the sort of features that are going into place with each build.

And also very importantly – the game will be going into prerelease this week! I have to iron out all of the bugs, but expect to see the relevant tabs on the website nav-bar working soon. I know the game is still in early alpha and some people might frown upon going into prerelease at this point, but the simple fact of the matter is that I’d really like to continue to develop the game in a way that addresses its needs for the long-term, rather than just trying to rush out a gimped, bland product that only meets the requirements of the game’s premises without any real depth. The development process for Empyrea is, by necessity, going to have to be a really long and dedicated one, possibly taking several years or perhaps even decades… and I’m okay with that, since I really enjoy this.

If you’re interested in supporting the developer, please consider prepurchasing; you’ll not only receive a big discount, but you’ll gain access to soon-to-be-added areas of the site that will be reserved specifically for purchasers of the game. These will include an area for holding weekly or monthly competitions between players, sharing character histories/stories/builds/achievements, a mod database, and more. I like the idea that I, as the developer, will be able to provide an interesting resource for those who want to legitimately purchase the game rather than just trying to restrict and annoy them through some sort of DRM scheme.

Thank you, and here are your videos!

 

New post! Development Map

There’s a new post up on the new blog – go check it out! http://cultawakening.com/development-map/

Remember to update your bookmarks to the new blog address! Thank you for your interest!

This Blog Has Moved – Go See!

Hey, everyone! This post is to notify you that the Cult blog has moved on over to the website proper. Please update your bookmarks, feeds, and any other relevant information to reflect the new address: http://cultawakening.com/blog

I’ve just tossed up a new post, so don’t miss out! Also, please register on the forums if you’re interested in getting involved with the Cult community.

Bug-Squashing

(This content is copied over from a recent Kickstarter update):

Hey everyone,

I’ve spent the last several weeks being frustrated by an extremely tricky bug that resulted from a recent update of the libTCOD library. One of the most recent features added to the library was the ability to use multicolored tiles, which is a huge step forward for the game. Before this update I’d been on the verge of moving away from libTCOD so that I could use another rendering scheme, because monochromatic characters were simply becoming more of a liability than a simplification. When the update came out, I decided it was worth avoiding a complete rewrite of all existing code; the problem was that I was ending up with some severe graphical glitches which I couldn’t resolve as a result of switching over to the newly-compiled version of the library (to put it plainly, the vast majority of the tiles I was trying to print would end up as blank spaces).

Luckily, that bug has finally been solved! I’m still working mostly on content, but the game is in the process of receiving some graphical revisions as well.

As a final note, I’ll be posting some new versions of the soundtrack soon, courtesy of the game’s composer.

Alpha Tech Demo Patch/v0.31

Today I have a patch for you. A lot of posters have noted that they had technical issues with the pre-alpha. This patch should fix those problems by including an init file which you can find in the root Cult folder (init.txt). If your game is producing an error log that contains a reference to ‘win32api’ and fails to start, change the CUSTOM CURSOR setting to ‘no’.

Likewise, you can also now adjust the screen size to your liking (you’ll find those settings at the top, under the Video header). You can also change the size of the world and regional maps that your game generates (if you’re experiencing serious speed problems, smaller is probably better).

Because the .ogg files I initially included were of rather poor quality, I’ve instead bundled .wav versions of the music for this alpha, so you’ll get to listen to the game’s tracks at their highest fidelity. Joe has additionally released two new songs: a really cool early version of the Summer track (which I’ve temporarily substituted for the opening title theme – post to let me know which you like better, because I think the existing title theme would be a great track for some of the more creepy areas in the game) and a ‘death’ song (you can find it in the music/mp3 folder).

Grab the new version from the Download page!

New Tech Demo v0.3

Hi, everyone. With the craziness of the Kickstarter I haven’t had a lot of time to attend to the blog, but I want to at least mention that a new tech demo is out, so I’ll be uploading the ‘Download’ page here to reflect that!

This is a bandaid version, and I’ll be releasing another in 2-3 days with all of the stuff I couldn’t quite fit into this one. Luckily all of the stuff that I want to add is pretty easy to deal with, but I don’t want to hold everyone off any longer than necessary, so in the meantime I’m going to go ahead and upload what I’ve got.

What’s new in this tech demo:

• Improved world generation algorithms (the world will look more natural and is more full-featured).
• The ability to traverse the world map.
• The ability to enter regional maps (use the > and < keys to enter and leave, respectively – you may also leave regions by wandering to the map edge). Most biomes will not appear until the next demo, so many are substituted by the plains biome.
• Inventory system
• Construction system – I’ll be uploading a short tutorial video along with the patch (in a couple of days)
• I’ve increased the size of the character set to make things easier to see.

Some random notes:

• When placing doors in the construction window, place a floor tile first, then a door over it – that way the floor tile you like will show up when the door is opened instead of blank space.
• CTRL+left click on an already-placed tile will copy the color of the tile (either foreground or background, depending on which you have selected).
• Right-clicking on the construction window will erase tiles.
• You can click-drag areas (both placing and erasing tiles).
• You can’t build on rocks, water, trees, or over yourself (obviously).
• Because it’s really tedious at the moment, I’ve disabled the requirement to gather materials and take time to construct things – they will auto-construct upon being placed. I didn’t think it would be nice to force you to endure long waits just to test the system out. The long waits will come with the next tech demo, when there will be wild animals trying to eat you before you finish building.

The patched version I’ll be uploading soon will also contain saving/loading (right now areas are persistent, but you can’t save the game – you can save blueprints, however, and they are usable in any world or region you generate), volume adjustment, and configurable console size – yes, this means custom resolutions – (plus the ability to select from multiple character sets). These were all things I really wanted to add, but they’ll be coming shortly.

Construction System Teaser

I’ve released a teaser video for the construction system, which will be featured in the soon-to-be-released new tech demo. The Kickstarter is also going strong, and the campaign has already reached its first stretch goal – awesome! Thanks to everyone who’s keeping up with progress. I’ll be writing again soon – expect to see both the new demo and several posts detailing the magic system, skills, stats, and combat.