Development Update 24:
Quarry: It took a while to get the camera up there from the ground level :D
DeadAlienCult, Seaport, mft-dev, bombjack, spinaljack, Jarkko Vallius, Bombini, illugion Thanks everyone for the kind words!
Tuba: It doesn't have a story in the traditional sense that we would have cinematics or tell the player "you have to do this". I would say somewhere between Zelda 1 and Minecraft.
The long version:
Hardland does have a history. There are events which took place that you cannot change. There are characters who have left their mark on the world. For example you might find altars and statues of Fortuna. She was a human who defeated an Elder King a long time ago. Later a group called Warriors of Clover emerged and built those altars in her memory. They are places where travelers can rest and heal their wounds.
You start finding these bits of information about Hardland and why things are the way they are. You can decide what happens after you start playing. You can break the altars of worship, you can burn the city and kill everyone because you don't like Miners Town. Or you can help the villagers by keeping the city safe. There's an Elder King who rules over the whole kingdom. Will you try to help the dying king, do nothing at all or try to slay him is entirely up to you and that mission might be what would normally be called a main quest.
Often you might find that completing one quest makes another one impossible to complete. Example: The Witch might need Wizard's hand for a powerful spell but the town sheriff might ask you to kill the Witch instead.
Kill the Witch -> Reward from the Sheriff
Don't kill the Wizard -> No reward from the Witch
Kill the Wizard -> Witch gives you the spell but you get no reward from the Villagers
Prevent Goblins from attacking the Merchants -> Possible reward from the Merchants
Help the Goblins to attack the Merchants -> Possible reward from the Goblins
Super Mario 3d World level are mini "sandboxes" which are really fun to play. In many games you often see lousy minigames where you're completely changing mechanics and trying to make several smaller games inside a large game. (Captain Toad levels are the only exception in SM3DW and it wasn't a poker or snooker game inside Mario)
Here's an example from Super Mario 3d World: You can push that enemy into the pipes and it's a fun mechanic, so they have pipes on that stage:
http://www.mariowiki.com/File:Rosalina6.jpgInstead of disconnected small sandbox levels we want a large sandbox with many mini sandboxes inside of it.
The smaller sandboxes have a couple of big benefits:
1. It's technically much easier to simulate small area and limit the consequences. Police chases in Grand Theft Auto don't escalate to their true proportions for a reason - it would take an insane amount of time to create all the content for the full chain of events - let's say you do a bank heist and manage to escape, would FBI agents start investigating your case. Gathering evidence at the crime scene, searching houses etc. Sounds interesting on paper but we can continue that chain on and on without reaching "ok now we have realistic escalation".
Our goblins who attacked the merchant most likely won't go home and make food, then discuss politics and read a bedtime story to goblin children. We only do stuff that can be properly communicated with the basic interactions in the game.
2. It's easier to make many gameplay mechanics fun in a smaller setting. Let's say wood is a resource in your game and then you set a tree on fire and it burns down every tree on the planet because they all form a connecting path when the wind is right - it might be fun once but afterwards that world is ruined in terms of gameplay. If it's just one smaller forest which burns down that doesn't necessarily ruin the entire experience. Actually it might be worth burning to kill a few stronger enemies so it becomes a mechanic you can use repeatedly.
For gameplay clarity characters also do stuff their appearance and outfit hints at: Merchants move from town to town and sell stuff. What they sell is the subject of randomization, not who's doing the selling - the fox and pigs don't sell anything because it would be confusing.
And again it offers some fun gameplay mechanics:
Merchant 1 sells useless low value stuff and is armed to the teeth. Obviously not worth the risk.
Merchant 2 is armed to the teeth as well. He's someone who specializes in high value items and for evil player it might be worth waiting until Merchant 2 has left town (not to alert the town guards) and then kill and loot the treasures.
If pigs were selling high value stuff they would be easy to kill and the balance goes out the window right there. It's easier for a designer if things are as simple as they can be while offering fun combinations with their distinct abilities. So you have Merchant + Wolves in the same area instead of Merchant Wolves.
I could ramble about this subject for several hours but until we've got something concrete to show about it I'll shut up - we're still in the process of adding the basic fetch quest
Inventory works ok but you can't do anything with that stuff yet except collect things. (and watch all the items spread all around you if someone kills you)
To spice up the long wall of text here's the fox again due to demand from Jarkko and illugion. This time with the procedural eye animation:
There's no bending when NPC's walk through the grass yet (that's why the pig isn't swaying the grass)
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