Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, let's get into it. So, the last time we left off, I had just started work on upgrading LoC to the latest version of the Godot game engine. At this time, the upgrade is mostly complete besides needing to redo particles effects and replace broken tilemaps, very exciting stuff. However, I have a couple pieces of big news for Lands of Crown, those being: There will be no more weekly dev logs. The pace is just too slow and it probably appears to most readers that nothing occurs within a week to even justify a dev log anyway. I like the idea of staying in touch with the community and not simply abandoning everyone, as I have seen it happen too often in the past, but this method does not seem to be working. Therefore, there will be no more weekly dev logs, but that doesn't mean there will be no dev logs ever. I have thought about doing a dev log every two weeks, or maybe every month, but I haven't decided yet. Regardless, the next dev log I post I would like to have something substantial in it, so until that happens I won't be writing a dev log. Perhaps this style of dev log isn't working because of me, rather than the game itself. Perhaps if I was more motivated and driven to work on the game I could churn out more progress and have an interesting dev log each week. I have commented about this before, but I find it very difficult to work on a game that is practically a clone of Streets of Rogue. Regardless, I need to think about what I want to do here. Do I shelve this project for a time, do I simply take a small break, or do I push through and continue working on the game, despite my lack of passion for it at this time? I've put months of work into Lands of Crown, and I don't want it to be for nothing. At the same time, I think I made some blunders, most notably making the scope of the game way wider and deeper than I was prepared for. I need to think about what direction I want to go, but I'll let you all know either way. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-12-21 13:43:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to yet another weekly dev log, where I discuss all the changes that occurred within the last week! Although the last few dev logs have been quite lackluster, I hope to change that starting today. I've been hard at work thinking, planning, and coding and I have a few things I want to discuss today. First of all, the game is currently being updated to use the latest version of the engine (Godot) I have been using which, although still in beta, I believe to be a worthy endeavor in the long term. For as long as I've been developing Lands of Crown, a constant issue and cause for concern has been the impact and effect of 2D lighting on the game. Due to the way lighting is handled in the old version of the engine, lots of sprites were being redrawn to the point where even the bare bones amount of lighting I was currently using was enough to cause the FPS to tank, This method of rendering has changed in the new engine, and I am hopeful that making the switch now will have better long term effects for the game as a whole. There are of course other reasons to make the switch as well; however, the lighting remains one of the big ones. I expect the upgrade to take a few more days at most, as some systems simply need spelling changes while others need a complete redo. However, hopefully by the next dev log I'll be able to showcase some of the changes. While this upgrade takes up most of my time, I've also done a bit of thinking in how I want to handle Lands of Crown and prepare it for an Early Access release. I have been meaning for a while now to completely rework almost all of the classes to overhaul their abilities and encourage a play style for each class. In addition to this, I've been thinking about how to develop these classes without randomly creating classes with no rhyme or reason. Therefore, at least for future classes, I plan to focus on following a clear theme for the particular group of characters. That means creating a level that is designed around certain characters or has a particular purpose, with buildings that make sense within that theme, containing items and utilities that works with that theme, populated with classes that are each distinct and thematically in line with the theme. I'm still working through how exactly these will turn out, but I'm happy to hear any suggestions you all have. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-12-14 14:50:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, let's get into it! I understand that for these past few weeks, there has been very little progress for the game, and for that I am sorry. I did not realize just how busy University would keep me, and how little time I would have to work and think about Lands of Crown. But that changes soon! Starting this week, progress should resume it's previous pace, and there is a lot I want to do in that time. From what work I have been able to do over these weeks, it has mainly been minor tweaks and bug fixes here and there, along with other under the hood changes to make development easier. Perhaps I should put an end to these weekly dev logs and move to a monthly schedule or release a dev log every two weeks instead of one week. I think it would allow for more substantial news about the game, rather than the slow drip of content you see in the weekly dev logs. Regardless, progress resumes soon! And as always, feel free to let me know what you think! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-12-07 15:19:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, let's jump into it! As I have talked about in previous dev logs, I am currently attending University. As such, a lot of my time has been taken up working for my classes. I haven't had a chance to work on Lands of Crown in a good week or so, and for that I truly do apologize. I can understand your frustration at the situation, which brings questions up such as "Will this game ever be released?" or "Will this game just be abandoned?". I can assure you that no, this game will not be abandoned and yes, it will be released at some point. However, game development is a marathon, not a sprint. And as working on this game is not my full time job at the moment, there will be times when development slows down. But I just want you to know that I will keep working on it, and that it will be finished someday. I have big plans for Lands of Crown that I still want to implement. I won't quit until I'm satisfied with what I have worked on, I can tell you that. As always, feel free to let me know what you think! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-11-30 14:25:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, let's get into it! Keeping in line my larger plan to overhaul the game, I decided to spend this week working on an area that should be pretty integral to the game: allies! The problem that exists for allies is that allies are hard to regularly come by, and they are not incredibly useful while playing. For instance, if you somehow get an ally in the current state of the game they can only follow you around and help in fights. Now, this is not a bad start, but I want them to be capable of a lot more. What do you have in mind? For starters, allies should be able to be directed around and told "Stay here." or "Attack this target." to allow the player more freedom in how they play. If you need to stealth around a building, you can't exactly have an ally or two following you around otherwise you would end up setting off all the traps. Allies should be an addition to how player's choose to play, not a hindrance or annoyance that must be kept track of. Allies should also be capable of using levers and other actions that the player can use. Perhaps you'll use an ally to trigger a trap or flip a lever to unlock a door so that you can steal the item undetected. Perhaps there will be puzzles with multiple activation areas that will require the use of allies to complete. I do not want to force players to use allies; however, I think that there can be some neat ideas to come from considering the use of allies in the game. There should also be less obstacles to gaining allies. Of course there will be specific classes that have an easier time than others at gaining allies, but I want every class to have the opportunity to gain allies. Some classes will simply use allies as a disposable tool, while others may have their class and play style revolve around keeping allies and buffing them. As always, there is a lot of work to be done in refining this system and adding to it as well. Feel free to let me know what you think and if you have any ideas of your own! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-11-23 13:50:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log where this week I spent a lot of time working on stealth! As I'm sure many of you have experienced, stealth in Lands of Crown is currently... lacking, to say the least. There aren't really any ways to sneak into buildings, and there really are no stealth items or abilities (besides perhaps the Ghost's ability). This was not intentional, but rather a byproduct of working and developing the game. While other systems and mechanics got more and more work put in, stealth was not really considered or accounted for. Therefore, as part of a larger plan that I'll talk about later, I made it a focus this week to work on stealth and see what could be done to make it more fun and worthwhile. However, instead of adding some new item or ability to act as a temporary fix, I wanted to fix some of the root issues regarding stealth. Stealth, even with non-stealthy characters, was very difficult because it was often very unclear where exactly an NPC was looking. I had originally designed the system so that NPCs could be looking in any direction while the NPC's sprites were confined to allow for four different outcomes. This meant that an NPC could be looking anywhere in one of the four quadrants and they would not change sprites or show any indicator as to where they were exactly looking. I have rectified this system and expanded it so that characters can once again look in any direction, but now there are eight different sprite combinations as opposed to the four previously talked about. This should greatly improve a player's ability to determine where exactly a character is looking and therefore be able to account and plan out stealth operations. Another big part of why stealth was near impossible was that there was usually only one entrance to a building, that being the door. Unless you came prepared with a bomb, which is unsurprisingly very not stealthy, the only way into and out of a building was through the door. That needed to change. Now, buildings can have windows that will allow you to knock on them, calling over a property owner, or pick them or break them, allowing you to enter through them. I also plan to have different types of windows, such as prison bars or a crack in the wall that may only allow small characters through them. I want these to open the door to new playstyles and allow the player the freedom to play how they want. As always, I'm still ironing out these features and will continue to update you on my progress, but in the meantime take care and let me know what you think! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-11-16 14:01:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, let's see what's been done in the last week! New Level Generation This week I experimented with some different algorithms to try and make the levels of Lands of Crown feel more compact and close-knit, rather than a wide open area with buildings in it. I felt it was too easy to get away from trouble, and NPCs would be less likely to be seen and interact with one another if they choose to walk to some corner of the map. I'm still tinkering with the system, but I am happy with the results that I achieved. What happens is that many of the open regions in the level are filled with walls, leaving these small hallways between the various buildings. I'll have to make some additional art for these new walls that will exist, as I don't want the regular walls of the level to be dividing the town up, as I feel that doesn't make too much sense in the context of a village. New Animations I've also been working on reworking some of the animations in the game to make them feel more fluid and bouncy, as I felt the game often comes across very rigid and flat. Hopefully these new animations make the game feel more fun, as well as provide more insight into what is taking place. For instance, a potion/bomb that is about to explode may stretch and squash as well as blink, allowing the player to recognize the movement even in a crowd of items and characters. Unfortunately, this week, as you can probably tell, I have not had much time at all to work on Lands of Crown, as I've been very busy with University. I apologize for the lack of content, but trust me that I'm always thinking about Lands of Crown. Thanks for reading, and as always I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-11-09 13:27:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, this time on an important milestone. We have reached *20* consecutive dev logs for Lands of Crown, meaning it has been about 5 months since Lands of Crown first appeared on Steam. It has been quite the journey developing this project, with many highs and many, many lows along the way. Developing Lands of Crown has not only strengthened my skills as a developer, but also introduced me to the workflow involved with putting a game on Steam. I want to thank everyone who has followed me on this journey, let's see it through to the end! What's been worked on this past week? This week has been spent almost exclusively on bug fixing, which culminated in 3 patches for the demo being released in that time. These patches fixed everything from NPC AI, character interactions, weapon tweaks, etc, etc. If you want to see what is exactly in all the patches, you can join the Discord and follow development there. I would rather not flood this Steam page with endless updates pertaining to the demo, so please bear with me for a while. This does not mean that the game is bug-free yet, as sadly there are always more bugs to fix in the world of game development. However, the good news being that with another week of bug fixing the game should be in tip-top shape with most of the major game-breaking bugs taken care of. A few still persist, which is why this week will be dedicating to removing those ones as well. Where's the content? Unfortunately, because these are weekly rather than monthly dev logs, it will appear to you that development is slow and without much progress. I can assure you that more content will come; however, these bugs take priority. Thanks for reading, and as always I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-11-02 12:45:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another week of development, let's get started. As we left off last week, the work on the Rival system has progressed well. I believe I have everything in place for the system to work, At the start of the game you will see who your rivals are, and after each level you'll be able to see how much stronger they've gotten. Then, when you reach the final level you'll have to contend not only with the King but also all your rivals from the start. I just need to make sure it runs smoothly and without too many issues. I would also like to add more variety to the different modifiers that can affect these rivals, so that will be on my todo list as well. Beyond that, most of my time has been taken up squashing bugs and other issues kindly brought up by the Lands of Crown discord. Everyone there has been a huge help not only in finding bugs but also for suggesting a lot of interesting and fun ideas. Thanks, everyone! Finally, I've been spending a bit of time trying to create some better music for the game. I think it will be some time before you see any new tracks come to the game, but stay tuned! I think it will really increase the immersion and fun you have while you play. Sadly, this week's development has not been as exciting as weeks prior. Unfortunately, that's how it goes with game development sometimes. I also have less time to work on the game since starting University, but I won't let that stop me! Thanks for reading, and as always I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-10-26 12:23:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! I am back again this week with more news about the Agent system, so let's get into it! Last week we ended off talking about Agents and how they'll be this troublesome element to your quests in a particular level. However, what if we took this one step further and had some sort of persistent threat that was present throughout your entire run? Introducing... Rivals! Upon starting a run, you'll be introduced to your rivals for the journey. These are characters who are also travelling to the land of the Crown at the same time you are. Of course, you're all after that Crown, but you guys aren't going to take the same path to get there. This means that you generally won't be seeing your rivals throughout the game, except in certain scenarios, because you're all in different lands completing your own quests and stories. However, once you complete a level you'll get an update on your rivals, which will show them getting stronger. This can include base stat boosts to gaining new traits or items. Rivals can also gain titles, such as 'The Unbroken' or 'The Giant' that will give them an immense boost in combat. This means that by the time you do see them, they're going to be quite dangerous foes! When do I see my Rivals? Because you're all headed for the Crown, once you make it to the last level, where the King resides, you'll finally meet them. Instead of having to deal with regular Agents like in any other level, here you'll have to contend with your personal Rivals. Just like you, they've traveled far and survived many experiences to get a chance to take the Crown, so watch out! Rivals, like Agents, will not typically be hostile to you. This means that you'll be able to talk to them or otherwise dissuade them from their goal. Could you bribe them, give them something of a particular value, or just take them out? Yes! However, if you don't, you can be sure they'll be hunting for that Crown, no matter who is wearing it. I have the basic system for Rivals up and running, however there still is a lot of work to be done. However, the work for Agents is mostly finished, so expect a new update for the demo within the next couple days. Thanks for reading, and as always I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-10-19 12:52:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to the weekly dev log. Let's get into it! At the end of last week's dev log, I announced that I had something 'in the works' that would, if it turned out well, would accomplish the feat of differentiating Lands of Crown from Streets of Rogue, my main inspiration, as well as doing so in a way to make the game more fun rather than just needlessly adding a new mechanic for no reason other than to differentiate the two games. So, what's this new thing? Well, I did some brainstorming and, along with help from a friend, came up with a mechanic that I'll dub for now as 'Agents'. Agents are characters that you will find in every level that will act and behave as regular NPCs... for a while. It turns out that these Agents are quite similar to the player in that they also have been tasked with accomplishing a variety of quests for the Witch in order to progress to the Crown. What this means is that while you're going about your business working on your quests you've been assigned, these Agents will also be doing the same. They can break into houses, free prisoners, rob a shopkeeper, etc. Agents can have any type of quest that the player can have. This means that sometimes an Agent will have the same quest as the player, meaning that they can steal your quest reward if they beat you to the punch. This mechanic will help to create a living world for the player, making them feel a part of this world rather than the sole force moving things along. This will also encourage players to take a more active approach in how they play, rather than always planning out the perfect scenario to accomplish their quest. The player will be encouraged to think on the fly and take the initiative, which may mean taking some extra damage or going through with a plan somewhat unprepared. However, this does not mean total chaos and constant action. The Agents will not move from quest to quest like a robot, they'll wander around town and scope things out before striking. Once they've accomplished a quest then they'll go wander around some more before doing another quest. This will allow the player to feel the pressure of the Agents without constantly rushing through a level to do everything as fast as possible. Is that it? Actually, no. I have another mechanic in the works that will build off this Agent mechanic in a fun way. As before, I won't say what it is, but just stay tuned for next week's dev log. Thanks for reading, and as always I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-10-12 12:52:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, where things are a bit different this time. It is no surprise that this game is heavily based off of Streets of Rogue, as that was my foremost inspiration for Lands of Crown. I wanted to recreate Streets of Rogue with a twist, something to make it stand out. But more than that, I wanted to prove to myself that I could make something as complex and developed as Streets of Rogue. I wanted to prove that I was a competent game developer. When this project started out, I wanted to include elements of Streets of Rogue but still have the game be a different thing, not simply a clone of Streets of Rogue. I tried to make the game loop work with an open world setting, but I just didn't see the fun in it. Perhaps that shows that I'm still not there yet. Regardless, because I couldn't make a mashup of different genres, I slowly and surely just emulated what Streets of Rogue did. I never intended for Lands of Crown to be such a blatant copy, it just happened as the game developed. A feature there, a must-have here, and before I knew it I had copied Streets of Rogue and slapped on a coat of fantasy paint. Sure, there are differences here and there but by and large the games are extremely similar. I'm sure for those reading these dev logs that progress has not exactly been thriving these past few weeks, and that's because I've lost a lot of motivation to work on Lands of Crown. I was stuck on how to innovate an idea I didn't come up with. I had painted myself into a corner by following what Streets of Rogue had done that I couldn't see a way out. What content do I add, what features, what items? It was simultaneously too restrictive and too open. I had no direction of where to go, nowhere to take this construction of an already realized idea. So what now? I'm going to try to add a new feature that will hopefully differentiate Lands of Crown from Streets of Rogue, that will make the game more fun and exciting too. I won't say what it is just yet, as I don't want to make any promises. Just know that I'm going to try something, that if it works will be pretty fun, I think. I'm not going to give up on Lands of Crown. I owe it to myself and to everyone who's played the game so far. I will make something that I can be satisfied with. Thanks for reading, and as always I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-10-05 12:53:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to yet another weekly dev log, where I keep you up to date on everything taking place in the game and where things are headed. What have I worked on this past week? This past week I worked on creating a new trailer for the game, as well as updating the GIF on the store page too. The last trailer that was showing for the game was over a month old, and I felt that enough had changed in LoC to warrant a new trailer, especially with the Steam Next Fest fast approaching. I also redid the GIF that plays on the store page, because that was made even before the last trailer, meaning that it was quite old and outdated. I hope that with both of these updates that people coming to the store page can really understand and get a feel for the game. This week was also spent on many bug fixes and improvements. There were a lot of strange behaviors with the AI that I believe are mostly ironed out now, such as NPCs doing a strange dance when leaving combat, being unable to open doors, and not reacting to things as they should have. Overall, this was a week spent polishing and preparing the game for the Steam Next Fest, and although I want to keep creating content for LoC, I need to make sure there aren't any glaring issues before more people see the game. Where are things headed? I plan to spend this last week before the Fest polishing and fleshing out some of the characters, meaning giving starting items to every character and maybe adding in an ability or two if I can. Unfortunately, with University I cannot spend as much time as I would like on the game, so I must work with the time I have. Thanks for reading, and as always I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-09-28 12:41:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to yet another weekly dev log, where I go over all the changes from this past week, as well as where things are headed in development. What have I worked on this past week? New Art! If you've seen the store page or played the demo recently, then you'll no doubt have seen the new art in the game. For the longest time I felt something was 'off' about the art, and I figured out that it was simply too similar, too plain. To remedy this, I added a variety of new tiles to all the floor/wall tiles in the game, so that you'll see randomized tiles instead of the same texture repeating over and over. Behind the Scenes additions! As it always happens in game development, a lot of the changes and new code is not for the player to see, but rather to ease development along and add more tools to use. There have been a few of these changes this past week, including a redo of a part of the level generation that allows me to generated 'cities' with buildings as close together as possible. I've also changed how patrolling works for NPCs so I can now have multiple patrol routes in a building. There are a few other additions, but that covers the major ones. New Demo Version! There's been a ton of minor changes and fixes that I've ironed out these past weeks, and they're finally present in this latest demo version. Feel free to read the patch notes here Where are things headed? The game is progressing smoothly, and I'm trying to polish it and improve it as much as I can before this upcoming Steam Next Fest. I plan to work on adding new buildings. items, and abilities to bring a lot more variety and fun to the game. Thanks for reading, and as always I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-09-21 13:58:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to yet another weekly dev log where I talk about how development has been progressing and where things are going. What have I worked on this past week? New Items! I've spent the last week working on adding 12 new items to the game that are meant to act as utility items to help the player in certain situations, rather than simply a weapon to wipe out any opposition. I plan to add more items, again focusing on stealth or diplomacy rather than combat. I want each playstyle to feel unique and somewhat focused. Item Manual! To go along with these new items, there is now a certain NPC found on the Boat that will show you what every item does and what it's stats are. You can see armor, weapons, items, and more in the Item Manual, and I think it will also be a good place to include lore tidbits as well. Where are things headed? For this week, I plan to focus on creating more buildings for each available Land so far. I want a true variety when you play, so at the very least you don't always see the same two buildings next to each other in a run. Thanks for reading, and as always I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-09-14 12:46:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log where I share my progress for the week and where things are headed. What have I worked on this past week? Discord! Finally, after a long time we now finally have a Discord for Lands of Crown! It is still very young and bare bones, but its good to go. If you want to join, you can click here to do so. New Dialogue! For the longest time, the dialogue responses for all the classes was very rigid and not very interesting. NPCs could only give a single response, and said responses were baked into the code of the game. Therefore, we now have a system where NPCs can choose from a variety of lines to say, and those lines can be translated too. This is a welcome improvement that I hope will introduce some personality and life into these characters, let me know what you think! Small Additions/Changes! As always, there's been a ton of small tweaks and changes I made over the week, such as fixing GUI bugs to changing how the Ice/Fire Orbs work. The old Fire/Ice Wands have been updated to use a beam attack. There is now a Wire Trap that shoots out a beam that can be tripped and will alert property owners and activate other traps. Where are things headed? Unfortunately, i did not get as much done as i would have liked this week, my apologies for that. Sometimes you just don't have the time you think you did. Regardless, my todo list for this week is to finally add some non-combat items to make the game more fun, as well as make new buildings for the other Lands that will include traps. I intend to polish these four (Human Village, Snow VIllage, Wilds, Spooky Village) Lands as much as I can in the coming weeks, before Steam Next Fest. Thanks for reading, and as always I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-09-07 12:54:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, where I discuss all the things I worked on, and what lies ahead for Lands of Crown. What have I worked on this past week? Traps! As I was looking at the game, I realized that it was lacking something, and that was traps. If I want stealth and non-combat play styles to be useful, I need to create challenges that those play styles excel in. So, what do we have then?

• Exploding Traps, that upon destruction/activation will explode and afflict those in range with an effect.
• Bolt Traps, which are placed on walls that upon activation with shoot a bolt that can apply an effect.
• Spewer Traps, which spew out a stream of (for now) fire, ice, or poison attacks.
• Spike Traps, which raise up a wall of spikes that damages anyone who gets too close.
• Wall Traps, which simply raise up a wall that blocks a path.

To go along with these traps, I've also added a few ways to activate said traps, such as a pressure area and a lever. The pressure areas will be somewhat hidden throughout buildings, requiring you to take precautions so as not to trigger certain traps. New Sounds! I also realized that my sounds and sound system needed an overhaul, as I felt the old sounds made the game feel somewhat cheap or lackluster. So, I replaced all the sounds with actual, proper sounds that actually sound like real things rather than computer noises. I also overhauled the sound system itself, decoupling sounds from their objects so that sounds don't overwrite one another. All in all, I am very happy with how things are now. Where are things headed? This week I hope to focus solely on creating utility items and non-combat items that will make other play styles viable rather than simply 'murder everything in sight'. If you have any ideas that you think would be fun, feel free to share them. I also want to start adding more buildings with all these new trap types, which will also involve larger buildings than the simple 16x16 or 32x16 buildings in the game. Thanks for reading, and as always I'm eager to hear you feedback! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-08-31 12:30:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, where I go over my progress for the week and what lies ahead. What have I worked on this past week? This week was definitely a 'under the hood' week in regards to progress. There have been a number of minor improvements and tweaks, for example in buildings with trap objects, such as Cauldrons, they will now always have a random effect, instead of always being two poison cauldrons and a blast cauldron in a particular Witch house. I changed how keys and owners work, so that now a key will only spawn if needed, and a key only correlates to a particular owner. This means that I can have multiple small buildings in a chunk each with their own locked items and corresponding keys. Along with these, there have been a number of small changes and improvements. Beyond that, I've been working on adding additional weapons and classes to the game, such as the Vampire, Bat, Shaman, Plague Doctor, and Ghost. I still need to flesh out exactly how the Shaman and Plague Doctor will play, but that will come soon enough. I've also been adding more buildings to increase the variety of the game while you play. Where are things headed? I hope that this week I can flesh out the Spooky Town more and bring it up to par in terms of character and building variety with the Normal Town, so then I can do the same to the Wilds and add more content there as well. I also realize that additional items that serve a utility use would be fun and increase the variety of the game, so I plan to work on that as well. I hope that in these next few weeks I can truly polish and flesh out what I have made before delving into new Lands. Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-08-24 13:04:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, where i discuss all the changes of the last week and where things are headed. What have I worked on this past week? A Demo! As you are probably already aware, last Thursday I released the Demo for Lands of Crown, and I think it went quite well. If you were playing the demo you will have noticed multiple updates for it, when I was fixing bugs and polishing features. There was quite a few fixes that needed to be made, but I'm glad to have ironed those out now. Quality of Life improvements. As mentioned above, there were quite a few things that I had become used to while developing the game, that needed to be changed for someone first playing. Such as how inventory cycling works when scrolling, and changing how menu indicators worked, among other things. There will probably still be more things to tweak and change as development goes on, but that's alright. Tons of Fixes! Also mentioned above, there was a handful of issues and bugs affecting the game, such as Quests not being completed, NPCs not reacting to characters, character traits not working properly, and a lot more. Most of these issues did not take long to fix, but as a game increases in complexity it becomes harder and harder to understand the issue, or if one is even occurring. So, if you find a bug or some issue, feel free to let me know in the discussions! Where are things headed? Now that the demo is released (and most known issues are fixed), work resumes on adding content to the game. I may release another update to the demo adding more content, however I haven't decided just yet. Regardless, work will continue on my end. Now, I want to share that I'll by returning to University this fall, so development may slow down in some areas, although I will try to ensure that doesn't happen. Lands of Crown is a priority for me, and I'll work hard to keep adding content and features over the next few months. Regardless, these weekly dev logs will continue, and I'll be sure to update everyone on the state of the game. Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-08-17 12:43:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! After nearly 5 months of development, Lands of Crown is finally ready as a Demo! Now, just as a disclaimer, this demo is meant to show a 'vertical slice' of the finished game. This means that all things shown are subject to change as development continues. I will of course be listening to any and all feedback I get during this time to improve the game as much as I can, rest assured. I look forward to hearing from everyone who tries it out! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-08-11 13:15:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, where I go over all the changes from this week of development! What have I worked on this past week? This week has mostly been fixing bugs and improving different aspects of the game. NPCs need to react properly to a variety of scenarios, with this variety increasing the more effects and traits are added to the game. Hopefully all the work that's been put in so far will not only create fun dynamics between the player and NPCs, but also allow for the player to predict what can happen based on how NPCs react to certain things. There has also been a lot of work behind the scenes to allow for easier development going forward, such as a new implementation to the dialogue system as well as how shopkeepers are handled, among other things. Overall, this week has been spent trying to get the game in the best shape possible for the demo, which will again (hopefully) be coming out soon. As soon as it is out, I'll announce it! Where are things headed? There are a few minor things left to tweak before I'm satisfied with the demo, but beyond that I simply need to add more content. More weapons, more classes, more locations, more buildings, etc. Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-08-10 12:55:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to yet another weekly dev log, where I go over all the changes of the past week and my plans moving forward. What have I worked on this past week? As I mentioned last week, this week was spent implementing and changing the game from a open-world design to a level-based one. The implementation was a success, and I am really happy with the results. Now, you'll spawn into a level and be greeted by exactly one town. I plan to have the starting town always be the same, but each town will have a few exits leading to different types of towns. This can lead to interesting player choices that weigh the risk vs. the reward. You might travel to the spooky ghost town to get a certain weapon or item, or you could play it safe and visit the peaceful town. In each town, you'll be tasked (by a certain character to be revealed later) to complete up to 3 (maybe more, maybe less) quests. These can range from destroying objects/people, to obtaining an item, to freeing a prisoner, etc. Once you complete, or fail, the quests, you can progress to the next level. Repeat a certain number of times and you'll be able to meet the King and attempt to take the Crown. I also spent a lot of time on NPC behaviors and reactions, leading to a greater variety of methods and tools at my disposal to make the game feel alive. NPCs can patrol, they can be prisoners, they can have public/private property, etc. There's a lot more, but you'll have to wait to see it! Where are things headed? I plan to keep trucking along to add new content/towns/NPCs/traits/items/quests. The game is starting to take shape and I'm really excited for it. Also be on the lookout for a demo, I plan to (hopefully) have it out sometime next week! Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-08-03 12:37:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to yet another weekly dev log, where I go over everything that has transpired within the last week and where things are currently headed. What have I worked on this past week? A New Direction! As I have been developing Lands of Crown, I've come to the realization that something is not quite right. In my original thoughts about the game, I figured the high-intensity action of Streets of Rogue, mixed with a Kenshi-style world, would have made a great combination. Although I'm sure the implementation could work somehow, perhaps with a different approach than the one I took. Regardless, the way that I mixed these two designs did not seem to be fun or enjoyable to me. Travelling took too long and ground the action to a halt, there really wasn't too much of an incentive to explore, and with the game being top-down it was hard to see the beauty of the 'open-world'. So, what then? I've decided to take a level-based approach, where there will be one city/town for the player to explore at a time before moving on to the next one. The town will have a certain number of quests to complete, and the closeness of all the buildings and people will hopefully lead to more action and fun scenarios. Now, although there will only be one town at a time, I still want to give the player some choice. I plan to have different exits from each town leading to different 'lands' and environments. This will allow me to include a bunch of different environments and towns, such that on a given run you might not even see some of them. Where are things headed? Although this new direction will take some time to implement, I am not drastically changing what I have already made. The combat, abilities, quests, locations, etc, are all there and will remain the same. The only difference is the change from a open-world design to a level-based design. I don''t imagine this change taking more than a week at most to implement, so stay tuned for new progress! Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-07-27 13:19:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back to another weekly dev log, where I go over all the changes of the past week and where things are headed. What have I worked on this past week? A New Trailer? I'm sure anyone who has visited the store page in the past week days has seen the new trailer that I spent a day or two making. While not perfect, I hope it is able to give everyone a basic idea of what Lands of Crown is all about. Main Quest Refining! Last week I had implemented the foundation for the Main Quest system, and this week I worked on ironing out any issues and making sure the system is solid to work with. Now, these Main Quests are able to work and adapt to what I throw at it, and can give randomized rewards for completing them. I am still deciding how many of these Main Quests should exist in a run, but for the mean time the system is running smoothly. Quality of Life improvements! Over the past week I have made an effort to remedy some of the issues I've noticed in an attempt to bring clarity to the player and improve their enjoyment of the game. This includes indicators for Main Quests, and NPCs displaying when they're searching, attacking, and noticing something. NPCs are now able to investigate noises and will try to search out the culprit. Tons of Fixes! It seems that this past week, more than any, has been a constant process of fixing countless bugs. Which, although not the most exciting or fun thing to do, it is certainly well worth it. Where are things headed? For this next week, the content march resumes! Now that the Main Quest system is up and running, I can put it to good use while I make new environments and such. Slowly but surely, this game is coming together, and I can't wait to share all that I've done and will do. Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-07-20 12:42:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome back for another weekly dev log, where I go over everything that's been worked on this past week. What have I worked on this past week? New Quests! For the longest time, something had seemed off about the game. After some thinking, I came to the conclusion that while the game would allow for player freedom and choice, there needs to be some direction, some 'thing' to force the player to get involved when they otherwise could avoid some trouble. Thus, Main Quests were created, which are important objectives that task the player with acquiring something, eliminating someone or something, or performing a certain action. For completing these Main Quests the player will receive a powerful item and experience. But now we need a way to keep track of these and display them, leading to... A World Map! Another needed piece to provide direction to the player was a way to see where they are in relation to everything else in the world, and having a map is a night and day difference. Along with the map, Main Quests are displayed alongside it, with icons appearing on the map corresponding to where that objective is located. There are a few more tweaks and quality of life features I would like to add, but generally the system works very well as is. Animals! While I was mulling over how to provide objectives and handle quests for the player, I came up with the idea to add animals and other creatures into the game. First of all, these animals will be playable characters, but they will also appear in the world to challenge the player and otherwise add variety to the game. Now I can have a quest to slay 10 wolves, or fetch 10 chicken eggs, etc, etc. As always, there have been tons of minor improvements, bug fixes, and other adjustments, such as:

• Reworking many Menus, as well as implementing new ones
• Addition of randomly generated loot for chests and barrels scattered around towns
• New Buildings, Abilities, Weapons, and all that good stuff

Where are things headed? I feel very confident with this new Quest system and World Map, and I hope that these will provide some much needed direction in an otherwise freedom-heavy game. There are still many improvements I plan to make with this system, and I plan to tackle them this week to bring the game to a higher quality. I still will be making new towns, buildings, weapons, characters, and all the rest, so don't worry! Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-07-13 12:54:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! Welcome to yet another weekly dev log, where I detail all the things I worked on and where the game is headed! What have I worked on this past week? Content! The majority of my work this week has been on adding items, buildings, and NPCs to the world. Each NPC needs items, apparel, an ability, unique dialogue and quests, multiple buildings and the like. There is a lot of work to be done in this department, but I enjoy the challenge. Optimizations, optimizations, and yes, more optimizations. I optimized animations, path finding, world generation, and I even optimized my workflow too. I had done a lot of optimization work before, as each NPC has pathing, reacting, fighting, etc to do. But it seems another round of optimization was in order, and it seems to have paid off quite well. Refactoring and bug fixing. I would have liked to get more work done in regards to content this week, but refactoring combat and world generation, among other things, must take priority. I must have a strong foundation to build off of, otherwise I'll never be able to depend on the systems no matter what I throw at it. Regardless, numerous bugs have been fixed and multiple systems have been updated to make development much smoother to work with. Where are things headed? The game is steadily heading towards a state that is not necessarily feature complete but is fun and completely playable. For this week, I plan to keep working on adding content in the form of new items, weapons, abilities, buildings, locations, etc. Beyond that, I want to start looking into setting up a playable demo. I'll make no promises about when one would release, but I'll make an announcement when I do publish it. Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to leave a comment if you have a question about anything! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-07-06 12:38:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! It is time for the weekly devlog, where I bring you up to date on the state of the game and where things are headed. What have I worked on this past week? Dialogue is now able to branch, allowing for unique conversations and dialogue options available for certain classes and whatnot. There is now a Tutorial Area in the Hub area (an area for the player to 'prepare' for a run) that will allow the player to test out controls as well as weapons, abilities, and classes. I hope that this area will remove the need for a 'hand-holding' tutorial sequence, but I am always open to changing it if need be. To go along with this Tutorial Area, the player can now change classes in the Hub area, allowing the player to see what each class offers and to try them out. In the future I plan to include unlocks for classes, requiring the player to complete certain objectives to unlock specific classes. I've also completed a bunch of minor improvements and tweaks, such as:

• Overhaul of the Status/Effect GUI
• Reworking how each Classes' data was stored, allowing for much easier creation/adjustment
• Reworking how Abilities and Statuses/Effects were implemented, leading to much faster development
• ...as well as many, many bug fixes and adjustments

Where are things headed? Starting today, I plan to begin work on fleshing out the game and creating content, in the way of classes, locations, quests, dialogues, relations, etc. I believe the foundation of the game is sturdy, and I look forward to finally stretching my creative muscles to create interesting classes and locations. As this game is set in a medieval/fantasy setting, I want to include the 'generic' fantasy races such as humans, elves, dwarves, goblins, etc. However, I also want to include unique races and peoples at some point in time. I will begin by creating and fleshing out the human world first, which will entail probably a few factions, such as common folk, bandits, the nobility, etc. I want each reach to feel unique when compared to each other, but also unique compared to themselves. For instance, an elf could be a tree elf, or a mountain elf, something like that. Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and ask away! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-06-29 13:06:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! My name is aGoldenFly, and I am the sole developer of Lands of Crown. This dev log will be a weekly occurrence, and will be used as a way of updating you regarding the state of the game, how development is progressing, and what the future of the game will look like. The game has been in development for nearly 3 months now, and is progressing to a state that I would deem worthy for an Early Access release. I have most of the main game systems worked out, and when those are finished I will begin working on adding content and giving true depth to the game. After that, there is still a lot of work to be done, including all the work involved with setting up Steam services such as achievements and cloud saving, as well as various quality of life improvements and other features. Once the game has reached this state, I will set a date for Early Access and release the game while continuing to develop it and improve it in every way I can. I have a lot of things planned for Lands of Crown, and I can't wait to see it in a 'ready for release' state. If you have questions or thoughts you'd like to ask regarding the game, feel free! Until next time, aGoldenFly

[ 2022-06-22 13:39:39 CET ] [ Original post ]