next »

[Eldboll]

So, GGC is over and it was an absolute blast! We got tons of good feedback and positive responses from almost everyone who played it, both from industry professionals as well as the public. However, the deadline for SGA is still a few days ahead so we're still trying to put an extra layer of polish or two on the game before we have to send it in. Here's some of the stuff we finished just before GGC:

First of all, we decided to let one of our main characters, your irreplaceable friend the Bag, handle the gameplay hints:

The hint box will appear when the Bag feels like there’s something you should know. For instance how a new item works, how to best defeat special enemies, when you’re heading in the wrong direction, and so on. You will be able to move freely while it’s there, so it won’t interrupt your battle or exploration like talking to a normal NPC would.

Another thing we added right before GGC was Signposts:

As you can see, there’s no plain text going on here! We thought it would be more interesting and visually pleasing to use images instead. What do you think?

The signpost graphics will also appear automatically when you come close to a sign, and will disappear once you move away from it – so your hands are free here as well!

Speaking of visually pleasing, we also started working on a new portrait style with the feedback we received on the old ones in mind. Here’s a couple of the newcomers:

Hopefully you like these better, as we do. If not, let us know! We always appreciate the feedback, especially on such important matters as the portraits which will appear a lot in the game.

Last but not least, Evergrind is now almost fully populated! After you beat the Exam you may now explore the city and talk to its current inhabitants. At the moment we haven’t put in any shops, but they are well underway as well.

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some bugs to hunt! ;3


Windybeard, achild & DrDerekDoctors
Thanks dudes!

MechLore
PC it is, we might expand that later on but we're focusing on just one platform at the time.

At first we had a very similar skill tree system to Diablo 2. In the end we figured out that this would probably lead to a lot of unnecessary and useless skills, only used to unlock the super awesome skills way down in the tree. That's when the charge system came about.
What we did is we greatly reduced the amount of skills we had. We also made all the skills available for the players right from the start and made sure that all would be useful and different in some way. So while player no longer can unlock totally new spells, they will instead unlock new charge levels if they put more points into a certain skill. As of now we have 4 different charge levels per skill that will change both in appearance as well as adding more damage and other cool effects!

There is no passive skills in the games current state, but it's something we've been discussing a lot back and forth. We want to have them for sure, we just need to figure out some cool ones first!

Franklins Ghost
We are still working hard on getting a proper beta ready. What we showed on GGC was pretty close, but there's still a few things we want to get in there for some proper testing. I can't say an exact date, but hopefully very soon!

[TNAA]

IT'S SO TASTY I'M GOING TO DIE
Seriously though, this looks amazing. Can't wait to get my hands on it!

[Scott]

  The sign posts.

[mokesmoe]

Those portraits look really good.

[Sam English]

Yeah, nice job with the new portraits! Definitely an improvement.

[Eldboll]

This week has been quite busy! It’s only been a few days since the SGA deadline now, for which we finished up and tested the co-op feature like there was no tomorrow. While that was our big focus of the week, but we also managed to improve some of the old portraits:

These portraits have actually made quite the journey to get to this point. Here’s a pic showing how they improved since the first version:

Kind of make you wonder how different they will be once the game is done. I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last iteration just yet!

Other than that, we also added a couple of animations for the people in Evergrind City, to make the area feel a little more alive:

Now, wish us luck with SGA! We got nominated in the "Game of the Year"-category with some other fierce competition, so we'll see what happens!

[Fark]

kick some ass, guys! 

[Kit]

You guys have really taken portraits that were already pretty good and made them really great. As well, I really admire you guys and your animation abilities. It really warms my heart to see when developers take advice and criticism with such grace and actually apply it. The game looks amazing, and you guys seem to be doing everything you can with the feedback to add that much more fun and polish. Kudos!

I can't wait until there is something for me to play with. I think I would also ditch Diablo 3 for this game, as somebody else has said

[Eldboll]

So! We been busy with finishing up our studies and moving out of apartments so we've been out of the loop for a week or so.
At the end of last week we’ve finally established a little bit of order again. We spent that time implementing shops, so players can finally spend all those coins (or crafting ingredients) they keep finding!

This particular shop is Mr. Fab’s Fabulous Hats, where you can satisfy your vanity with some fancy headgear! Of course, the selection of all the shops will expand as the game progresses. If you’re having terrible luck with getting sweet drops, going to Evergrind and throwing some cash at the problem is a good backup plan!

Also, heads up for followers who might be in Stockholm this coming Wednesday! We’ll be showing the game off at the Central Station from around 8 – 16 (8AM – 4PM), together with lots of other sweet games that made it to the Swedish Game Awards finals!

[Eldboll]

We heard you liked this journal, so we put our journal in our journal so you can…

Seriously, though, this blog post will be about the Journal Screen of the game menu! It’s designed to be your one stop shop for the administrative part of being a collector. In the Journal, you’ll find quest logs, information about enemies and NPCs, tutorials and gameplay hints and also the most coveted collection of them all: your Card Album!

We touched this subject a while back, but enemy cards are super rare, unique collectibles dropped by nearly every enemy in the game. Of course, only the enemy depicted can drop that specific card!

If a card is found, it is put into your Card Album, which is separate from your inventory. Cards cannot be sold or traded, so they are the true testament to your farming prowess! Each card in the game also have a different passive effect.

An effect can either be a small boost to a stat, or have a more advanced effect, such as the Green Slime Card in the screens above. They are usually not extraordinary on their own, but if you manage to get a sizable collection, the combined effect will be quite powerful!

On the topic of enemies, another cool feature of the Journal is the Enemy Codex:

In the Enemy Codex, you can find out more about enemies you’ve encountered! You can find lore and basic stats regarding each enemy, and sometimes useful hints on how to defeat them.

The arguably most useful thing about the Enemy Codex for the completionist, however, is the list of all drops that is available next to each discovered enemy’s name! Items you’ve owned at some point are lit up, while undiscovered items are darkened. This lets you know if an enemy type has dropped all it can, or if there might be reason to stay a while and get your grind on!

Lastly, let’s cover a more classic part of journals, the Quest Log:

This quest is so unique we’re considering trademarking it

There isn’t that much to say about the Quest Log! It basically tracks the progress of your active quests, and serve as an archive for your completed ones! If you’re ever stuck on some quest, consulting your Quest Log will probably help you out.

Oh, and we also managed to land Game of the Year at the Swedish Game Awards! We recived a sweet statue and a small cash prize, but most importantly we got some kind of proper validation that the game is going in the right direction! We are pretty stoked to get back into the mix after a short vacation and keep hammering away at the game!

[Franklin's Ghost]

Nice to see me more detail into the journal system and it all sounds well thought out to add playability and interest to the player.

Did notice some spelling mistakes in the Lantern Jack, Enemy Codex. In card album it says Jumpkin and in Lantern Jack it says jumpinks. Then it says know rather then known.

Looking great and looking forward to seeing more gameplay. Definitely a game I'll be buying first day out

[JMickle]

congratulations on your award! the cards and enemy codex look like fantastic features!

[kamac]

This is not a game! This is art!

And man, where did you learn to draw so amazing characters along with their animations?!
Also, might I ask what size is each character's sprite  ?

[Eldboll]

What would a parody on the RPG genre be without some good ol’ fishing?
Not much, if you ask us!

As such, the past week we’ve been adding a little fishing mini game (among other things)!

Checking for a good spot!

You’ll be able to fish from most bodies of water in the game. When you stand on a spot where you can fish, a little emote will pop up above your head, and pressing the action button will make your character enter the mini game. For as long as you’re fishing, monsters won’t try to harm you, so you don’t have to worry about some ninja respawn ruining your day!

Soon…

After you’ve thrown your fishing float out, you’ll just have to patiently wait for a bit for a fish to bite. Fish in Grindea is always hungry though, so you’ll probably not have to wait for long!

When a fish does bite, you’ll enter a little mini game that’s inspired by the one in Suikoden II, and sort of reminiscent of the arm wrestling game in The Witcher 2. You’ll control a little bar, that’s attached to a larger bar, and your goal is to keep a randomly moving fish inside it. If the icon leaves your bar, the fish will escape!

Yes! A fishie!

You win the battle when the fish reaches the shore. For your hard work, you’re awarded the fish itself! Of course, fishing is also a reliable way to acquiring some solid boots…

The fishing game is part of an effort to give players a reason to stay a while and enjoy the scenery, while also adding even more mileage for the hardcore fans and the completionists. Players won’t have to stay and fish, but for those looking to just chill out a bit after a long day of adventuring, it’s good to know there are other things to do!

Franklins Ghost
Thanks for spotting those, we'll zap them right away!

JMickle
Thanks dude!

kamac
Thanks man! I learnt just by doing and looking and other stuff I liked and tried to copy what they did right. Just keep doing something and eventually you'll grab onto it!
We have no set size for the character sprites really, they are pretty much all over the place

[Ashkin]

Add a fish collector in town that gives you stuff for every five, ten, twenty, etc. fish you bring in!

[Eldboll]

New week, new update. So what have we’ve been up to?

Vilya’s been busy remaking portraits and building items for the item shops. Here’s a bunch of familiar faces:

Besides those good looking chaps, Vilya has also managed to squeeze in some sprites for a few of the potions we have available in the game!

Speaking of potions, we could probably do some explaining on what role they will play in the game.

Beginning with everyone’s all time favorite, the health potion! Health potions are one of two ways players can use to regain lost HP. Besides the good old potions we also have healing orbs that enemies will drop every now and then that players can pickup to regain some health.

Now, we are not going for the potion spam found in Diablo 2 and such. We wanted players to use the health potions tactically and sparingly and such they have a cap for how many you can carry around with you. What we wanted to acchive with this setup was to have players refilling health when fighting regular enemies mostly through the orbs and saving the potions for more challenging encounters, like boss fights and such.

Worth mentioning is that we used to have three ways players could use to regain health. We had a healing spell that unfortunately got cut due to the changes we did to our mana system. It basically allowed for players to regain full health after every encounter with little to none risk. We felt this turned the game too easy, as well as forcing players to always spend skillpoints on heal since it was by far the most efficient way to regain health.

Besides your trustworthy healing liquid we have a bunch of potions that will temporarily boosts your characters stats. You will only be able to have one of those potions activated at the same time so you have to play your cards right and use the right potion for the right situation!

 
In the animation department, we have gone back to our lovely inhabitants of the Pumpkin Forest and supplying them with some proper death animations! Here’s how the Lantern Jack looks like when defeated:

Next week, we’ll turn up with more of the same and be even closer to an official release of the beta!


Ashkin
Yeah, we have a fish collector already chilling in town! We haven't fully decided what kind of quests and stuff he will give you, but something along those lines would probably be pretty sweet!
 

[EdgeOfProphecy]

This game promises to scratch very nearly every RPG itch I've ever had.  Love the cards idea, always a fan of cards in RPG's.

[Eldboll]

One of the few problems with a magic bag full of loot is figuring out what to do with all your junk. Luckily, there is a great remedy for this issue: turning your junk into new kinds of junk, also known as crafting!

In Grindea, you can visit certain NPCs which will help you craft items close to their expertise. Mr Fabulous, the Evergrind hatter, will let you craft hats for example.

The screenshot above is the crafting view at his shop. You don’t need to unlock recipes in order to craft stuff. Instead, any recipe with at least one item that you already own will appear in the list. The little bar below the item icon is an indicator on how close you are to being able to craft this item! If you don’t have enough ingredients to craft an item, it will show up only as a silhouette. When you’ve gathered all the items required, the bar will turn green and the real icon will appear.

When you press on an item, you will be able to view more detailed information of what the ingredients are, how many you need, and how many you own of each ingredient. Of course, you can view this information even if you haven’t collected all the ingredients yet! If you have all the required parts, you can craft the item. In this case, a sweet slime hat!

Another crafting feature we implemented at the same time was the ability to browse recipes based on ingredient directly from your inventory!

When you press on an item that’s a part of any recipe, you’ll get an option called “Recipes”. Selecting this option will take you to a nifty little recipe browser, listing all items in the game that can be created using that particular item.

Note that even if you don’t have all the ingredients for an item, you can still see what type it is, as well as what stats it will have when you craft it. We don’t want players to farm blindly for an hour to make a new sword, only to find out that the weapon they had used to bash all those slimes had been better all along!

(…of course, a true collector will want to craft everything just for the bragging rights) :3

Crafting, like much else, is not mandatory in order to complete the main story. Neither will it be a breaking powergaming feature like in some modern RPGs, where crafting makes even the rarest of unique drops obsolete. We’ll try to create a balance where both crafted equipment and rare gear are equally powerful. Now, if you craft something from the rarest of components, however…

[phubans]

This looks really, really good.

[Windybeard]

This looks like the best game ever made! i am watching excitedly!