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[CrunchySushi]

So, I've recently received a few emails asking about the development of Legacy and if there'll be a demo at some point. I'd thought I'd post an update on that and the general status of things (as it HAS been awhile!).

So, yes, regards to a demo, I was actually considering doing a 'concept demo' at some point in the near future.

This will contain roughly an hour of gameplay, the concepts of the game, e.t.c. This serves as a taster and gives the overall impression and tone I'm hoping to achieve with the final build of the game (albeit in a very early stage).

This build will be free to play and once I'm happy with it, it'll be released and never updated.

Following a similar model to Notch (back in the early days of Minecraft), the concept will be free to play, and an indev version will be available to purchase for those who are interested. This version will receive constant updates, will have refined and polished features and once you've bought indev, you pay for nothing else.

This will eventually become the final release candidate.

This will allow me to work full-time and will absolutely support Legacy's continued development for the years to come.

I'm really wanting to take my time with this and refuse to use Kickstarter or Early Access (on Steam). They're not attractive prospects to me.

I may or may not establish a .net equivalent so that copies can be bought there, through the 'official' website...we'll see.

So yes, there we go. Thoughts? Sounds tasty?

More art soon!

[CrunchySushi]

Wow! Nearly a month since I posted anything.  

I promise I've been hard at work. Yeah, that's why. It's because of that! I've been busy making icons, finishing up environments...and having to work for a living (sadly!).

The actual gameplay programming can begin at last, now that the environments are complete. It shouldn't be too long until a short gameplay concept build is available and then after that, the indev version.

I won't leave it for so long next time!

[nathy after dark]

I started a cosy little project called Postmaster Legacy a few months ago, which sees you in charge of your parent's home and livelihood, the local village Post Office whilst they're away on a year long vacation. I want the game to feel very homely, very nostalgic and I'm really going for that feel of revisting a place you lived and grew up in two decades later, seeing that same place all dusty and brimming with childhood memories.

(That's from the first post) I just barely stumbled on this post where someone shared a free album they composed that I think some of the songs totally nail the vibe you're going for, and even offered to let people use it in their games. Might be worth checking out!

[CrunchySushi]

It's amazing! I've sent the composer a message.

Thank you for the tip! The vibe is awesome! 

[nathy after dark]

That makes me so happy. <3

[CrunchySushi]

Testing the new Item Description box! I know it says 'Bread' and not 'Apple' but that's what testing is all about!  

[Pixelologist]

The font that has "Will Smith Arrived" really looks to me like "Will Shith Arrived". I think it's just the M in the font looks too much like a H. Could just be me.

[CrunchySushi]

Yeah, I see what you mean! That'll be going then.

[CrunchySushi]

More media and info coming soon, I swear!

I've been hashing out a lot of boring back-end stuff, as the majority of the physical environment is...kinda...finished? If you squint really hard, ya know?

It's super fun working in the 'Tutorial' into what's there at the moment though. You know, ACTUAL GAMEPLAY (ohmigosh)!

I really want to make available what I have right now to you guys to play, but the actual premise of the game isn't even in there yet, so I'mma wait a few more months...

Also: I'm on the look out for a Composer!

[CrunchySushi]

Because there’s been a disturbing lack of actual development content on this blog, I’ve decided to buckle down and write. Quite a bit. On the subject of:

How Writing Letters Directly Influences Character Relationships And Is Also A Really Tough System to Get Right And Make Feel Natural

That’s right. It’s thesis time. Set your VCRs to record your favourite show and sit on the floor nicely with your milk.

Let’s start with Dark Souls. Any one of them in the trilogy. Pick one. It’s buyer’s choice!

Remember how you could leave messages for other players and offer guidance or leave severe troll bait (for those of you not in the know, you can write messages for other players directly upon the environment in order to warn them of impending dangers or secret doors behind walls)?

Remember how satisfying it felt to be able to directly (potentially) alter their fate and add a bit of socialising to an otherwise very solo experience?

Well, Postmaster Legacy’s Letter Writing system works a bit like this. Like Dark Souls, you select from a category of words and situations, forming and building you letter to the intended receiver. Where both games differ however, is the depth and complexity of this system and the ability for your recipient to actually respond in a meaningful and semi-realistic way.

Say we want to write to...John. We don’t know John, so of course our first interaction must be a direct piece of written correspondence. What could be more awkward than having someone you’ve never met, writing to you to describe how their first attempt at cooking fish went really badly? I mean, just why not?

So, we select John from the office Ledger. We have a menu pop up. We select ‘Write Letter’.

As this is a gameplay system in extreme development, I will try to explain in as much detail as possible.

We can select from an array of Subjects. So let’s pick ‘Introductions’.

Now. Select a greeting from ‘Greetings’. We select ‘Dear’ John.

Now we’re able to get to the meat of the letter. We can pick from all kinds of nouns, verbs, adjectives, situations and objects. We say something along the lines of:

“I tried cooking a fish for the first time last night. It went badly.”

You’ll have a limit of how large your letters can become, but you’ll be able to put your message across, don’t worry! The email system will work in this exact same way too, but not all characters will have a computer at home.

After a few days, you’ll receive a response!

“Dear [player name],

Thank you for your introductory letter. You tried to cook some fish? I didn’t take you for a chef. Is that why it went badly?”

Now, the magic here is that the system will recognise certain combinations of words and work out a response that is in keeping with that particular character’s personality. They’ll even come into the post office to do their daily chores and may even comment on if you’ve tried to cook anything else recently!

As you can imagine, this is a hugely open-ended mechanic and incredibly ambitious. But the system is working and retrieving the correct response. I just need to increase the number of possible replies for each character and for each category, it’s then that you start to see how large the data array will become.

But it’ll be worth it. It’s a fun, constantly surprising gameplay system and it’s easy to forget to do your day’s tasks and just spam everyone with letters about dead flowers and damp walls.

Of course, this is more than a mechanic. It’s a reflection of ourselves. As in real life, some people communicate via text or letter, maybe through preference, or maybe through necessity thanks to a hectic lifestyle. This can be your decision to make in the game.

Too many things to do and not enough time to talk to that character face-to-face? Players who choose to write more than talk to a character using this system can still form valid bonds.

This is just one way to extend and build upon an existing relationship.

It builds your reputation within the community and as long as you don’t go absolutely mental with it, the character won’t send the police in to have a chat with you. Abuse this further and the character may leave the game permanently!

Phew. There’s a lot to do and even more to test. I feel it’ll really invest players into the town of Willowbrook and it’s residents.

Now to sign off with some new gameplay! Here’s a short clip of gearing up the fireplace for some action:

[nathy after dark]

That system sounds amazing. I always got frustrated with the lack of depth in Animal Crossing NPC interactions and this is like, the exact logical conclusion of expanding on that.

Will you be able to lie and manipulate? 

I'm DMing you my IRL mailing address, lol. We could be gamedev snail mail pals!

[CrunchySushi]

Haha!

Yes, Animal Crossing has something similar (it even had a Post Office!), but it lacked the ability to lie and manipulate, as you can do with this system.

[CrunchySushi]

Hello all,

More content today! What's happening here?!  

Let's bake a pie, shall we?





  

[Cojack]

This game looks adorable, I love the atmosphere. Are you going to keep a lot of the 2d art in the 3d space or is it just place-holding? Maybe it's just me, I'm no expert in art, but it seems as though the textures of some of the 2d objects (candles, spices, etc) are different in level of detail than the textures in the environment (walls, doors, etc.) . Hopefully my brain spit that out in a manner that makes sense.  Regardless I love the way it looks! I can't wait to see more! 

[CrunchySushi]

Hello Cojack,

Thank you for stopping by! I’m putting a lot of heart into Legacy and I’m glad that it comes across!

The art is always changing. I’m never happy with it! Don’t be surprised if something you see now, isn’t around the next time! And yeah, I know what you meant by different levels of detail; that’s actually why most things get upgraded!

[CrunchySushi]

Hello all,

Well...this is a big one. I'm making available right now, everything I've developed of Postmaster Legacy thus far.

I'd rather have your feedback now and slowly slowly work over the next few months (and years) with you guys.

I also thought it'd be fun to see the progress as we go and I continue to work on it.

There's no actual POSTAGE based gameplay yet, but I hope you guys will enjoy seeing the game expand from here and just absorb the atmosphere really.

My heart has really gone into this and I hope you can all enjoy this journey with me.

Please see the very first post of this topic to download the latest build.

I'll be posting up builds fairly regularly, as soon as something is fixed or new (even if it's just new art), I'll be uploading a new build and posting up a changelog here.

[CrunchySushi]

UPDATE: Moved download to IndieDB for better file support.

[CrunchySushi]

Hello all,

A few tweaks and changes on this build of Postmaster Legacy InDev v0.0.3.2, but nothing major, just background stuff really.

    Dialogue Box improvements
    Tuned cursor support
    Fireplace operation tweaks (I'm aware you can't re-light it yet!)
    Title screen visual effects added

More exciting updates soon, I promise!

[CrunchySushi]

Happy weekend all,

Time for another (almost weekly now!) InDev build! Yes, version 0.0.3.5 has landed. Here's what's new:

The first of the NEW 3D characters are in!
More Info Boxes for the upcoming Post Office interactive elements
Improved Crunchy Sushi logo art
Improved Control scheme art

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday everyone! Back to work tomorrow...