Dearest adventurers, Tallowmere 2: Curse of the Kittens is coming along. Online co-op is working. The project has reached a turning point, and Lady Tallowmere will be opening the doors to her second generation of dungeons for you in 2019.

Early Access

Steam's Early Access programme is planned for the remainder of Tallowmere 2's development. I am aiming for March 2019 as the initial Early Access launch timeframe for version 0.1, but please don't maim me if the date slips a little. I've been developing T2 solo for almost 2 years now, and with online co-op being pretty stable and server deployment streamlined, I would like to get the dungeons onto Steam for you to play. There is only so much I can test alone, and online gameplay needs players to be effective. I'm also keen for your feedback and suggestions to help shape the game, as there's still much to do. Please take a look at the following tentative development roadmap:
Currently in the closed alpha, you can enter Lady Tallowmere's dungeons, slay enemies, find keys, acquire loot and gold, buy and sell weapons and shields, level up and choose rewards, and receive a high score upon death. There are axes, boomerangs, katanas, grenades, flails, stun bombs, bows, elemental balls, staffs, lightning orbs, and scythes to discover. Most enemies use the same weapons you do in T2, which is different from the first game. Certain weapons also have elemental variations to keep things interesting, such as Poison Bows and Arcane Bows.
Similar to Tallowmere 1, the rooms in Tallowmere 2 are randomly generated every time you play, and gradually grow bigger as you delve deeper. Gaining a high score based on how many rooms you've cleared is still the aim of the game. Room Modifiers are also present now to spice up each area and keep you on your toes, and new Room Skins will keep the dungeon looking fresh. While the original 7 loot rarities (ranging from Basic to Otherworldly) are making a comeback, 4 new loot tiers (ranging from Demonic to Celestial) now also await players that manage to make it extremely far.

Price

As shown on the roadmap above, I plan to increase Tallowmere 2's price throughout early access as development progresses. Initial price will be $4.99 USD, and will reach $9.99 USD upon full release. I've debated going free-to-play, and/or having in-app purchases or paid DLC, but for Steam, I feel a one-time upfront price of admission with free updates afterwards is the way to go. I do plan to offer 10% discounts throughout early access from time to time, but no deeper. If the price looks good, please come aboard when the dungeons go live.

Upcoming features

While the core gameplay is stable, it needs more. Primary goals over the next couple years of Early Access will be focused on character enhancement, bosses, rewards, dialogue, and lore. The aim is to go above and beyond what Tallowmere 1 had for items, modifiers, and characters, while still adhering to the confines of the dungeon. Some features of T2 that I've dabbled with so far, such as special abilities, secondary attacks, and acquirable passives, feel like they should be the rewards of exciting battles or events... but such battles need bosses, and these all take a fair amount of time to develop and create. As such, bosses will be added gradually, but the types of rewards you can receive will likely appear more often throughout development. Some things are also due for an overhaul, or have only been partially implemented and still need to be fully fleshed out. Please be prepared for change.

Servers

I am calling Tallowmere 2's online servers "relay servers". There is no peer-to-peer networking all network traffic passes through the relay servers I've developed. This means client IP addresses stay private between players, and you won't have to muck around with port forwarding nor NAT punch-throughs. The servers are effectively dedicated servers, sans physics processing. A single server can host multiples games at once, maintaining instances of each game world as network messages pass through. If a player happens to disconnect from a game in progress, they can reconnect and resume exactly as things were. Physics processing happens on the client computers, but since Tallowmere 2's initial focus is on jolly co-op rather than competitive player-versus-player, I believe it will be sufficient. I am also in the process of allowing relay server builds to be available as a Steam tool, so anyone can optionally host a relay server to help out the community if they'd like. Note that online play is entirely optional you can still play offline as single-player or 4-player couch co-op.

Cross-platform play

I have developed Tallowmere 2's network capabilities to be cross-platform compatible. From my testing, I can confirm that the Windows, macOS, and Linux versions are compatible with the in-development Android and iOS versions. I am confident that future console versions will be compatible with desktop and mobile too.

Localisation

Like Tallowmere 1, Tallowmere 2 will feature language support. All strings in the game are ready to be translated but since more things are going to be added, completing the translations will be a gradual process. If desired, I will be able to add Steam Workshop support for fan translations. In certain circumstances, it might make sense to have "official" translations again if needed.

Rogue-like or rogue-lite?

Years ago, "rogue-lite" seemed to mean "randomised non-turn-based game", but these days rogue-lite seems to additionally mean "permanent stat progression between runs". I believe there is room in T2 to have characters or classes be unlocked as you play, but having your base weapons and attribute points be permanently more powerful on your next run from the get-go because you died a bunch of times previously is not part of my game design. "Rogue-like" is technically reserved for turn-based gameplay, but since T2 is an action game, I believe "action rogue-like" is how I'd describe Tallowmere 2. I feel there is appropriate room for a shared stash to let certain perishable items be carried over between runs, and even potentially have helpful NPCs be persistently unlocked, but permanent stat upgrades between runs are not on the radar. There have also been calls for wanting non-permadeath modes; I may reserve such a feature for only the story mode.

Gif it to me

To see some animated gifs, please visit tallowmere2.com

Follow

Since the official store page is not live yet, the best way to hear when Tallowmere 2 is available on Steam is to visit my Steam developer page, then click the Follow button. I look forward to playing with you in the coming months! Chris
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[ 2018-12-01 10:33:09 CET ] [ Original post ]