next »

[rascalpuppyjay]

Me likely :3

[_bm]

I am nearly done with the latest version of Erth!

I have added many cool and useful features, such as the Study Book and Research!
Basically, you can research any item with a level of yours or lower, and all of it's item info will go into your Study Book. It gives extensive information, expecially on tools and weapons.

In the Study Book:



Researching:



I've also added tons of structures you can encounter on your journies!



Changes in dungeons, again


And glowing trees!


Right now is mostly testing. Also, as you can from the original post, all bugs from the previous version have been fixed! Hoorah!

[_bm]

Erth v5 Beta is now open for playtesting here on the forums!

Here is the topic.


Have fun and remember to post on the forums about bugs and balance!  

[_bm]

Erth v5 is finally finished! Here is the news article on IndieDB:

Click Here

 

[rascalpuppyjay]

YAY NEW UPDATE *HUGS* ^^

[_bm]

You can now buy Erth on Desura!

[_bm]

I know it's been a very long time since any update, but I've finally started working on Erth again.  

Anyways, what I've been doing is mostly bugfixes, balance and adding minor features:

Better lighting!


New mechanic: if your tool isn't powerful enough, you won't be able to damage an object.

[_bm]

Changed the way item searching works, searching for a craft no longer has to be the exact item name, instead a list is populated with all matches to whatever term you input

[_bm]

This new update will introduce a few minor mechanics and a lot of bug fixes and balancing.

Here is the current changelog:

Additions / Changes

* Changed hardness values on many objects
* Changed lighting; now spreads farther, thereby a huge improvement to visibility overall making many parts of the game far easier
* Changed rarity of Dungeon Keys, now much easier to find
* Changed the way item searching works, searching for a craft no longer has to be the exact item name, instead a list is populated with all matches to whatever term you input
* Changed some crafts to balance with the new object hardness mechanic
* Changed the starting known crafts, now includes Wooden Chest
* Changed notes; they now break when learned
* Added new mechanic: you cannot destroy objects that are more than 4 times the hardness of the power of your tool. For example, you can no longer break anything with any tool if you wait long enough. You will get thump sound and a notification if your tool isn't strong enough
* Added new inventory feature: you can now shift-click items from your inventory to a chest or bag and visa-versa
* Added new minor feature: text instructing how to use guide is shown when world is first created

Fixes

* Fixed bug where after player level 6, the top part of the equips bar was inaccessible
* Fixed bug where you couldn't damage bricks in a dungeon
* Fixed crash when breaking Manafruit
* Fixed incorrect descriptions
* Fixed some spelling mistakes
* Fixed bug causing shields to break instantly
* Fixed bags replacing objects when died upon, they now spawn to the left of the object
* Fixed bug where shop slots were displayed too far down when inventory was of certain size
* Fixed miscellaneous crash bugs
* Fixed a bug causing the durability to break after placing an item back down in the inventory using right click

Additional notes

* The beggining game is very different now. You must start by gathering wood from bushes, making wood tools, breaking rocks, making stone, then stone tools, etc.




Here's a screenshot for you:




In other news, there will be an update after this one. Probably. The next one will be a major update, probably the last one. I'll be adding big new mechanics and mostly sprucing up the game to make it far more interesting.

[jovanmilic97]

I think your game looks pretty nice and im glad you continued to develop it,any plans to come to Steam Greenlight?

[_bm]

I think your game looks pretty nice and im glad you continued to develop it,any plans to come to Steam Greenlight?

Hi! Sorry for the late reply, I just got back from vacation.
I do have tentative plans for Greenlight. It depends on when and if I meet the $500 mark on Erth sales, the minimum payout on Desura. (although I think they changed it to $250 now?) I'll need some of this money to get on Greenlight. I hope that answers your question. 

[_bm]

On today's devlog, I'd like to share the final addition to this update:

The Resurrection Tombstone

Those of you who've played Erth know how frustrating it is to lose some of your items on death. Well you can now solve this by holding a Resurrection Tombstone in your inventory. This item, upon your death, will replace the normal death bag with itself, and instead of holding some of your items, it will contain all of them. It's a simple craft, too: just a Tombstone and a Mana Jewel.

Well, that's all for now. Only a matter of time before the next update is ready. 

[_bm]

Finally, the update is complete! You can get the game here.

Here is the full changelog:

Additions / Changes

   * Changed hardness values on many objects
   * Changed lighting; now spreads farther, thereby a huge improvement to visibility overall making many parts of the game far easier
   * Changed rarity of Dungeon Keys, now much easier to find
   * Changed the way item searching works, searching for a craft no longer has to be the exact item name, instead a list is populated with all matches to whatever term you input
   * Changed some crafts to balance with the new object hardness mechanic
   * Changed the starting known crafts, now includes Wooden Chest
   * Changed notes; they now break when learned
   * Changed breaking object with wrong tool, now gives messaging saying "Wrong Tool", and the object is not damaged
   * Changed the way research and wand mode looks
   * Changed the amount of light it takes to kill a dark creature (increased)
   * Changed the level up rewards: you now gain 2^lvl max hp (at level 8 you would have over 1,000 max hp) and inventory increases are more sparse
   * Added new mechanic: you cannot destroy objects that are more than 4 times the hardness of the power of your tool. For example, you can no longer break anything with any tool if you wait long enough. You will get thump sound and a notification if your tool isn't strong enough
   * Added new inventory feature: you can now shift-click items from your inventory to a chest or bag and visa-versa
   * Added new minor feature: text instructing how to use guide is shown when world is first created
   * Added new mechanic allowing you to search for the known uses of any item in your inventory
   * Added new menu music
   * Added a new mechanic for learning crafts: an item that allows you to research the uses and recipes for any item
   * Added resurrection tombstone item: on death, keeps all your items in a temporary tombstone where you died instead of a smaller bag

Fixes

   * Fixed bug where after player level 6, the top part of the equips bar was inaccessible
   * Fixed bug where you couldn't damage bricks in a dungeon
   * Fixed crash when breaking Manafruit
   * Fixed incorrect descriptions
   * Fixed some spelling mistakes
   * Fixed bug causing shields to break instantly
   * Fixed bags replacing objects when died upon, they now spawn to the left of the object
   * Fixed bug where shop slots were displayed too far down when inventory was of certain size
   * Fixed miscellaneous crash bugs
   * Fixed a bug causing the durability to break after placing an item back down in the inventory using right click
   * Fixed minor visual bugs
   * Fixed GUI issues

Additional notes

   * The beggining game is very different now. You must start by gathering wood from bushes, making wood tools, breaking rocks, making stone, then stone tools, etc.

[_bm]

I just released a new build of Erth adding the following:

Additions / Changes

   * Added recipe for Bullet
   * Changed recipes for Gold Ingot, Platinum Ingot, Titanium Ingot, Uranium Ingot and Duranite Ingot to no longer require an Anvil



You can buy Erth here:



You can also find it here:





In other news, if you are a Let's Player and would like to do a video or two on Erth, I'll give you a free copy of the game! 

[OhiraKyou]

Very interesting. It's surprising that there aren't more top-down sandbox games. Playing Castle of the Winds in the past, I always felt like I was mining into the dark unknown and thought it would be cool if I could actually mine into walls to discover secrets and shortcuts.

Any tower/base defense elements in your plans? A turn-based tower would be interesting.

[_bm]

Very interesting. It's surprising that there aren't more top-down sandbox games. Playing Castle of the Winds in the past, I always felt like I was mining into the dark unknown and thought it would be cool if I could actually mine into walls to discover secrets and shortcuts.

Any tower/base defense elements in your plans? A turn-based tower would be interesting.

Thank you! And no, I have no plans to add any sort of defense mechanic, although I think defending your house in the night against monsters would make the game far more atmospheric. 
I do have a huge list of long term plans, including better combat, smarter creatures, better NPCs, more interesting procedural generation, etc. I've written down your suggestion, and it's now amongst those.

[OhiraKyou]

Argh! I just remembered collecting tons of chests from dungeons in Castle of the Winds and placing them in wall formations in towns and my brain was bludgeoned by nostalgia.

[_bm]

Today I'm working on preparing the game to look good for a new trailer. One of the things I'm doing is changing the resolution of the game, not only that but making it so that the user can change the resolution with breaking the game.

And, trust me, that's exactly what it does:



More news on this topic as I make it.  

EDIT:

[_bm]

Made a more atmospheric menu screen:

[_bm]

Still porting Erth to GameMaker:Studio... it's a ways from done but I thought I'd share something cool. One of the things I've had to do is compile all the items in a grid like so: