A Quick Update

It's been a little bit since I've sat down and blogged and, while I have a few long-form write-ups in mind, I did want to drop in and give a short status of the project and how things are going.

Some Bookkeeping

I'm on BlueSky! I was on BlueSky before and continue to be. I harbor a deep distrust and series of smug sideways glances toward the platform and will continue to primarily be present on Mastodon but if you are a skeeter or skeet-adjacent, you can find my major updates and gifs on the blue butterfly.

I have a new email address through the extremely excellent Fastmail! This affects 0.1% of you but play-testers or anyone who has reached out in the past will now receive correspondence from bri@brianna.town. If you're the clever sort, you might even add it to your email contact list so that it doesn't get spam-folder'd.

The Milestone

If you're weird enough to have been closely following updates this year, my original plan to ship the next playtest milestone on Halloween like last year was severely hampered by not getting to do much of any development until late spring.

In the last 6 months I've accomplished a ton: contiguous world map, lighting, line of sight, inventory, equipment, the core game loop, and more! The only person holding onto the due date for the next milestone is me but I did definitely want to get it out to people before the end of the year. And it may still happen! (Dec.3, Narrator's voice: “It won't.”)

Right now I'm entering the big content grind where all the features need to be used to create abilities, items, enemies, and maps to house all the features I want to show off in the milestone. One of those not-yet-written write-ups is talking about the project-management of designing encounters for an RPG 😪

While the last playtest was strictly testing the combat mechanics, I want this one to more or less feel like the real final game in terms of progression and loop, so there's a ton left to do.

Still need to create some new music and sound effects too!

Want to Help Playtest?

If you haven't reached out about testing and wish to be contacted when the milestone is complete, please reach out through any of the various channels! PC, Mac, and Linux players are welcome! The playtest will have the ability to automatically upload replays of your playthrough (which you can opt out of) and will include an optional set of feedback prompts to ponder as you play.

Last year's playtest was such an overwhelming success and I can't wait to get back with folks again, hopefully this year!

| 🌐 | 🙋‍ | @britown@blog.brianna.town