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[triplejump]

Made farms, Nazca-lines, and a labyrinth tonight on the stream! http://twitch.tv/triplejumpgames

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Great devstream tonight! Built the town of Heartville with Twitch avatars from the chat! http://twitch.tv/triplejumpgames

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Development is rolling along. I started doing a daily show from 5-8PM PST where we're building an ongoing world and populating it with Twitch avatars. When the current world is fully built out, I'm going to release the first public early-access version of the game!

Recent pics:

[triplejump]

I'm working on the website for the Super Early Access release of Modlands.
If you have a moment, could you take a look at it and give me any feedback you have?

modlands.com

Thank you!

Here's an animated title gif I made for it:

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SOFT LAUNCH IS COMING

Beginning June 1st, I'll be sending out waves of keys for folks to try Modlands. The first wave will be sent to people who have joined the Discord, watched a Twitch stream and created a character. There are a couple more streams to do this before the 1st - usually the Modlands stream is from 5-8 PM PST, so come check it out. :D

Get details for stream times and show highlights on the Modlands Discord: https://discord.gg/n4m5hw7

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The game is now available! Folks in the Super Early Alpha are playing it, giving feedback on the Discord, even streaming it for hours (and getting hosted by the official Twitch channel :D)

To get in on next week's wave of alpha invites, find out more on the Modlands Discord: https://discord.gg/n4m5hw7

Here's a picture of a castle we made on the Twitch stream, first night of Super Early Alpha :3

[triplejump]

The closed alpha has been going for about a week and a half now! :D

I've gotten a lot of good feedback from folks on the Discord and through streams; it's helped me a lot in prioritizing the right bugfixes and quality-of-life improvements for streamers. I'm also getting a much better sense of which aspects of the game are surfaced well to new players, and where I need to add some clues or things to nudge people towards understanding systems or towards goal formation. The game is very sandboxy, and I don't want to lose that, but I'll be adding things to the introductory experience that help people discover more of the game and set goals for themselves.

So what's next?
* The closed alpha continues; I'm doing at least one new build per week, fixing the most called-out issues.
* There are still some parts of the game that aren't represented yet, the most prominent being survival/combat; that's coming in a big update about a month from now. :3
* There's also just a lot of content to add and keep adding. I've started a thing on the show where each episode I reveal a new item (usually a decor item) and whoever in the audience wins a quick game gets the new item in their home (sometimes I build them a whole new thematic home to house or use the new item).

So I'm going to continue the closed alpha in this way, make adjustments to the intro experience, fix bugs and keep adding stuff while building up to the survival/combat update, which will probably be in early July.

As always, to find out more about the game, join the Discord (https://discord.gg/n4m5hw7), check out the website (http://modlands.com), or follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/modlands) :D

And here's this week's picture; this is part of a huge palace that I built for one of the members of the audience (his avatar is in the royal bedroom here):

[triplejump]

Currently I am working on the Survival Update - this update will add:

Survival Challenges!
* night-spawning mobs - enemies will spawn at night (toggleable in options) and attack the humans; you’ll want to devise defenses to keep the humans safe.
* turrets - defenses, both manual and automatic, that you can craft to protect your settlements from the mobs
* starvation - characters must eat or they will eventually starve (whether this does damage, or just prevents natural healing, is toggleable)
* loot progression - items dropped by the robot mobs will be craftable into better turrets, as well as letting you craft your own robots to defend the base, or better technology in other areas.



Introductory Experience & Survival Flow
The player begins a new world with at least 3 starting colonists (number will be configurable in the New World UI). Expansion will be based on new NPCs arriving over time as you build, and of course Twitch players joining the world and creating avatars. If it’s the first time someone has played, they’ll get an introductory pop-up when the game first starts, explaining the basics; they’ll also get a “you survived” pop-up after surviving the first night, notifying them of the ability to create a new world when they’re ready.
For the survival flow, I’m also adding a continue screen - if the player runs out of colonists, a continue screen pops up. This screen gives the player the option to either spawn a set of fresh colonists and keep playing the same world, or go to the New World UI and start a new one.
* visitors - instead of cloning being the main way to create new people, settlers will just naturally arrive over time, partially in response to how big you grow your towns, and what kinds of structures and items you’ve built them with. Cloning tubes will still be a part of the game, but will come into play further down the line as you unlock higher technology.



Other Help
* handbook - an illustrated handbook with basic tips on the systems of the game is accessible from the upper-right panel of buttons. This is available at all times, and additional chapters will unlock as the player progresses.



So that’s what I’m working on now. I’m aiming to do a local playtest in about a month, and will be pushing the update to the alpha group soon after that.

As always, to find out more about the game, join the Discord (https://discord.gg/n4m5hw7), check out the website (http://modlands.com), or follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/modlands) :D

[triplejump]

Continuing to work on the Survival Update and do weekly builds!

Lately I've added some major features:
* the colonists now have assignable jobs (logger, miner, and crafter)
* as they do their jobs, they gain XP, which levels them up
* colonists gain more XP when they're happier, so giving them homes and assigning them the jobs they like will increase their growth rate
* when colonists gain XP, they also contribute to the "Civilization" XP - this is going to unlock new tiers of buyables in the store
* a store has been added! you can buy high-tech things that then teleport into the world!
* there's an object called a "Sales Portal" now - you can drop items into the sales portal to "sell" them and gain credits for the store

Other features in the works: item stacking, item containers, inventory on AI so they can collect resources and carry them around / deliver them for you.

And there have been massive performance and load time improvements!


loggers logging, miners mining, crafters crafting


current UI layout with the Civilization XP bar at the bottom center, Credits in the upper-left, and button panel with Help, Roster, Store, Minimap, and Options icons

For more info on Modlands, join the Discord at: https://discord.gg/n4m5hw7
Also, check out the devstream Mon-Fri from 5-6PM PST (although recently it's been going usually until about 8PM): http://twitch.tv/triplejumpgames

[triplejump]

Modlands has been updated a lot since the last time I posted here! 

The next build is going to be a "blind-test" build that I send to people to test the new starting tutorial.

Features in the current build:
* fully progressable tech tree in the store; build various types of money-making factory setups until you make one million money, then you can buy the final upgrade, which sets everything in the store to free!
* drag-and-drop inventory slots at the bottom of the screen; you can use this UI inventory to store objects and carry them easily around the world
* smooth store UI - buttons on the left side of the screen open store categories; with the new store UI you can easily preview all the items and buy what you need
* user interface as a whole is much better organized
* starting tutorial that teaches the core mechanics and controls in an interactive way



My goal is to release this build around the end of this week. If you're interested in testing out Modlands, join the official Discord and let me know!

Official Discord link: https://discord.gg/mW9gjUh

Also follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/modlands

[Zireael]

I'd be interested in testing!

[triplejump]

Awesome, join the Discord and message me and I'll send you a key!

This week's new build is up! This one adds a UI drag-and-drop inventory, and basically brand new UI across the board. :3

[triplejump]

A new build of Modlands is up! This one adds a ton. If you want to check it out, join the official Modlands Discord at: https://discord.gg/mW9gjUh

Here's an animated gif of a pie factory:



I guess I'll start posting the release notes for these build updates here:


RELEASE NOTES - 9-22-2017
---

Features:
* controls are now click-to-pickup, click-to-place; and right-mouse-button is used for activating things; 'e' button used for toggling info panel
* player inventory now allows stacking and is much more fully featured!
* verb preview hints appear above the cursor when hovering things
* colonists in the new colonists menu spawn correctly, and there is a big selection of preset colonists
* colonist names can be changed in the info pane, and their sprites appear correctly in all UI situations
* basic tutorial is active in the game!

Misc:
* updated sales portal texture to reflect new money icon
* updated the Modlands title so it doesn't have the biocompressor/cloning tube (this will be late game content)
* adjustments to the roster screen to streamline it and allow for more entries visible at a time
* put shadow on the verb preview text to make it stand out more
* ore & gem miners added to game
* after buying an item, it spawns on the cursor in drag mode for the player to place
* when dropping a stack on a machine that processes that entityType, just drop a single unit

Bugfixes:
* fix bug where objects sold keep having their selected-outline set (should always clear on repool)
* fix bug where after first two colonists, it starts selling you random entityTypes
* fix all tiles so they can be set as floor (cobblestone, obsidian, marble)
* audio sliders all work now, except for ambient

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Adding text bubbles to the game, so characters can talk to each other and about what they're doing!

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This past week I've been working on the intro landing and UI flow to get into / out of the game. On the title screen, an endless procession of colonists go by; some of them say lines from a list of title screen messages. :D

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World selection flow in the frontend!

The icons on the world entries are an idea, to show the highest level of technology reached in that world. The progression of technology tiers atm is:
WOOD -> STONE -> METAL -> MACHINERY -> ELECTRICITY -> ELECTRONICS -> BIOTECH -> TELEPORTATION

[triplejump]

Modlands' first Halloween Update went live yesterday! I played it for a couple hours on the stream today to show off the new stuff. :D



It includes things like skeletons that you can disassemble / reassemble...



And "Pumpkin Kings" that drop candy while saying Halloween greetings!

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The game is also now available via Patreon!
Itch.io added Patreon integration, so now, with any level of Patreon donation (starting at $1), you can get access to the game!

https://www.patreon.com/modlands

I'm doing weekly posts, polls about what features to add next, and over time will be adding more exclusive content to the Patreon as well, so check it out if you're interested in the game! :D

[triplejump]

Announced today, the next major content update is going to be the Harvest Update!

This update will add:
* many types of crops and food!
* the Cook job!
* fall colors for foliage!
* and other stuff that will be announced later! :D

It will come out on November 23rd (Thanksgiving in the U.S.) I'll be working more on content related to the update during the dev streams from now until then, so come by and check it out!


**************************************************

The game is also now available via Patreon!
Itch.io added Patreon integration, so now, with any level of Patreon donation (starting at $1), you can get access to the game!

https://www.patreon.com/modlands

I'm doing weekly early-for-backers posts, polls about what features to add next, and over time will be adding more exclusive content to the Patreon as well, so check it out if you're interested in the game! :D

[triplejump]

Here are some food items I made last week for the upcoming Harvest Update (Nov 23rd).

Item List: loaf of bread, slice of bread, powdered toast, butter, cake, cheese, cinnamon roll, coffee, roast ham, chicken egg, turkey egg, deviled egg, mayonnaise, mustard, peanut butter, strawberry jam, pb & j sandwich, milk, chocolate milk, strawberry milk, salt, pepper, cinnamon, sugar, chicken drumstick, roast chicken, strawberry

**************************************************

The game is now available via Patreon!
Itch.io added Patreon integration, so now, with any level of Patreon donation you can get access to the game!

https://www.patreon.com/modlands

I'm doing weekly early-for-backers posts, polls about what features to add next, and over time will be adding more exclusive content to the Patreon as well, so check it out! :D

[triplejump]

The Harvest Update is up! This is a large thematic update for the game; I spent most of this month on it and added about 90 food items (!), a Cook job for the colonists, various food preparation machines, and some new animals that produce food products (cows, chickens, turkeys).

Here's a funny Twitch clip of a cool bug that happened on someone's stream, before I tuned the chicken breeding:
https://clips.twitch.tv/CrackySpookyCoffeeKappaWealth


**************************************************

The game is now available via Patreon!
Itch.io added Patreon integration, so now, with any level of Patreon donation you can get access to the game!

https://www.patreon.com/modlands

I'm doing weekly early-for-backers posts, polls about what features to add next, and over time will be adding more exclusive content to the Patreon as well, so check it out! :D