Hi! Its Roman again and welcome to the promised devlog with the roadmap and more details on plans for the future. But before we start I would like to thanks everyone that played the game, left their feedback, and reported found bugs! Thanks to you we can make this game better and more enjoyable for you! :D
We will of course start with things that await us in the nearest future. As we announced previously in the first bigger update will focus on adding quality of life features that will make DevLife more readable and easy to play. A lot of them are based on your suggestions, so if you have any more of them feel free to message us. To mention only a few of them you can expect:

• New and reorganized windows that will allow you to manage your commissions, employees, and locations more easily
• Enhanced skills trees with additional tooltips and shortcuts
• Possibility to cancel learning of a skill
• Automatic assignment of components required in the selected commission
• Rewards for additional components in the commissions

Of course, the list goes on. But these are the most important ones. We will also work on the balance of the game, especially in the late stage, and fixing all of the found bugs. We dont have any precise date for this first update, but we want to release it as soon as possible, hopefully before the end of the next month.

Characters Traits

What is going to distinguish DevLife from other similar games is the focus on roleplaying and telling stories of the life of your characters. But first, those characters need to have traits that will determine who they are. Thats going to be the main feature of the update that we hope to release by the end of the year. Active Character Traits will have their own modifiers that will influence different parts of gameplay. To name a few examples:

• Kind - increases mood of your employees
• Hard-working - increases the speed of working on components
• Wroth - increases penalties to the employees mood

Passive Character Traits wont give you any bonuses but they will allow you to be more immersed in the characters and will also unlock new events and their possible outcomes. Here are a few examples:

• Animal Lover
• Metalhead
• Vegan
• Polyamorous

Of course, your employees and other important people in the life of your characters will have their own traits which might affect your relationships with them. During the creation of your character, you will pick your start traits, but they could change based on your decisions in the game. This mechanic will be introduced later with the Interactive Events. At first, the number of character traits will be limited to a certain number but we will be adding more as the game develops.

More Customization Options

Although character customization is already a part of DevLife is limited to only a few options. Thats why we are going to add more of them in the coming updates. You will be able to choose from new hairstyles, facial hair, and clothes. And who knows maybe we will add even more customizable features at a later time.

Video Games Skills

If you play DevLife then you probably like video games :P Thats why the next skill tree in the line will be the one about creating them. And making games is not that easy, trust me. But of course, in DevLife it wont be that hard! As in the previous skill trees, you will have options for design, programming, and testing to unlock.

Interactive Events

Interactive Events are definitely the most ambitious and most complicated mechanic that we want to implement in the game. Thats why we will need more time to finish it. In those events, you will be put up to different things that happen in the life of your characters and the people around them. It will be up to you on how you will handle them. Of course, you wont be able to do whatever you want. Many available decisions will be based on the traits of the characters involved in the event. I could write much more about the different aspects of this system, but I think an example will do the best job. So, one day you noticed that a cat was wandering around your house. It looks very hungry and neglected. You have two possible decisions to make. You can feed the cat or just ignore it and go back to work. Lets say that your character has an Animal Lover trait. Because of that, the only available option is the one where you decided to feed it. Of course, the cat keeps coming to you in the next days so you adopt him. Thanks to that your character gets a mood bonus for having a pet. Unfortunately, after some years your cat dies which makes you very sad and depressed and you get a negative mood modifier. In the meantime, you might get random events involving your cat that will require your actions. For example, he might get naughty and start destroying your furniture. If you react with anger you might lose your Animal Lover trait or even get rid of the cat. The possibilities are almost infinite!

Thematic Content

In the first update with Interactive Events, we will focus on translating the game mechanics that are already in there into this new system. It will be things like running low on money, the bankruptcy of your company, or employees wanting to go for early retirement. After that, we plan to release thematic content packs that will include events surrounding a given theme. Like animals, music, or relationships. We will keep working on them until we decide that this is our last word on the game and that it is ready for the full release.

Desktop Applications Skills

Also in the next year, we will add our last planned skill tree. You will be able to unlock new skills involving making Desktop Applications and create companies that will specialize in it.
Things listed above are not only ones that we will be working on. Here are some more that we dont have any specific dates for, but they will surely appear in the game as soon as they are finished.

New Locations

New locations will allow you to hire different numbers of employees and also better manage your bills and spendings. They will also provide some more variety of game environments and events specific to a location. On our Discord server, you can expect some work in progress screenshots and announcements about maps that we will be working on. You can also leave your feedback on what you would like to see in the game!

More Furniture

Of course, these new locations will require some unique furniture to place in them. And let's not fool ourselves, the choice available in the current version of the game is not that spectacular. So we will definitely add more furniture in the coming months.

Your Suggestions

The main reason for starting in Early Access is to involve our community in building this game. Thats why we will listen to your feedback and needs and add features that you requested. So if you have any cool idea for a mechanic that you think would fit DevLife perfectly, or you find something not working right, dont hesitate to reach out to us and let us know!
Thats will be all for now. I hope that you get the general idea of what our plans for DevLife are. Once again remember to join our Discord to get some behind the scenes materials and get involved in making decisions about the game. Have a nice day! Roman

[ 2020-08-31 15:18:22 CET ] [ Original post ]