Game Progression
For the first slice, progression takes us from the start of the game to the defeat of the first boss. The flow looks roughly like this (ignoring the text):
A lot of choices are available immediately, with ultimately everything requiring the progression items (lower middle) to get the next set of content (bottom). This includes equipment, spells, food and furniture. I’m not showing the text because this isn’t something that shows in the game and part of the next test is whether the progression is understandable as part of playing the game.
The primary element present in this slice will be Earth/Nature with some Fire spells thrown in as extras as part of a sub-biome. At first the spells will be limited, but as the player progresses through the first slice, they will be given more spells and equipment choices than is possible to equip at once, so it will be up to the player to decide on their preferred loadout and what style works for them. Unlike progression in games like Terraria, all spells in the first slice are made to be equally capable, with the earlier obtainable spells being initially weaker but upgradable. This means that any spell you find, whenever you find it, should be a possible choice for being a part of your loadout or an alternative loadout.
Improving World Generation
World Generation as of the last test was purely surface terrain shape and underground cave shapes, with a mixture of ores. An initial set of structures / set pieces is being added to world gen in order to add extra flavour and points of interest in the world.
On top of this, a procedurally generated structure is being added as part of progression which will hold the first implemented mini boss in the game, as well as a mixture of new loot and enemies. This part of the game is very much a break from the usual flow; in here players will find different types of rooms, some of which will lock the player in and require them to survive against wave of enemies to continue, others may have loot.
Building an Editor Mode
In order to properly build the necessary structures for world generation, it was necessary to have a mode that supports it. This makes it possible to edit structures independent of worlds. It offers features like placing any wall and block in the game, controlling lighting, and free spawning enemies. In future in can be extended to provide more features such as copy, cut, paste and other editing features not present for the actual game play. It is expected that the editor mode will be available for players to curate their own content.
