Hello everyone! We’ve been talking a lot about the last remaining things and in what order to do them. We have a very long (about 30 pages!) document featuring ideas we’d like to implement at some point, and last week we decided to go through a bunch of those things and sort them into categories being: Included in 1.0, Added Post-Release, Unsure, and Scrapped.
The things that go into the “Included in 1.0” list are things we’ll start making as soon as possible, at least before we start work on the final dungeon. At first we were thinking of making the dungeon first, but thinking about it we’d rather get all the other bits and pieces done first, so that once the final dungeon, and with it, the finale to Story Mode gets added to the game people can start (re)playing the game from start to finish without worrying about missing out on content that will be added afterwards.
Some of the things currently set to be added before the final dungeon:
* Progress bar for trophies – to give you an idea of how much you’ve got left to do before unlocking them!
* In the card album, make the enemy icons grayed out for enemies you’ve encountered but haven’t gotten the card of yet – just a minor graphic upgrade to make things look more clean and gives you a better idea of what cards you’re missing.
* Adding more collectors, a lot of whom will appear out in the fields and areas. We don’t want the player to feel like all of the collectors are just being lazy at home in Evergrind City! A lot of them are out there adventuring, just like you.
* More treasure maps; a lot have already been made but haven’t yet been implemented. Make new ones for the desert.
* Add some basic PVPing to the arena.
* Add some basic shield training to the Dojo in Evergrind City
* Decide what to do about the cut off house in Evergrind; either add a bridge from the beginning or a quest in which it gets added/fixed.
* Finish up loose quest lines (such as Remedi’s and Grandpa Joe & Miss Pidgy)
* An archaeologist that will be investigating the ancient ruins to the north of the farm
* The fertilizers that will make the sprouts grow and allow you to climb them. These will be found here and there throughout the game, with the last one being given to you after you beat the boss for the first time.
* A system where Quinton will rate your collection and give you a proper Collector rank depending on how much you’ve managed to collect this far.
* The Mansion in Evergrind South! About time you get to see what it’s like in there and who lives there, isn’t it?
* Reveal Trick & Treat’s true forms if you talk to them in the spirit world…
* A quest to resolve the mysterious scarecrow’s plight.
* The spring room in the Temple of Season’s lobby
* A satisfying ending to Steve’s journey to escape mushrooms
* Some sort of quest relating to the giant tree in the desert (not yet decided upon)
We also have a list of quests that we may or may not implement before 1.0 depending on how it all ends up feeling once the above things have been added. If we don’t add them now, they’ll likely be added later on, in a post release update. We’ve already started thinking about a couple such updates, among them two seasonal ones adding stuff for Halloween and Christmas in their respective areas (Pumpkin Woods & Seasonne).
We’ve also decided that Griddle’s card game (which is yet to be designed), the Puzzle Tower outside of Mount Bloom, the mandatory chicken boss you only get to meet after beating the chickens a bazillion times, and a New Game+ mode will be added after 1.0.
There’s still a lot of details to iron out, and a lot of meetings to have regarding some of the remaining systems we need to fix (such as a new and improved pet system), but for now we’ve actually gone through most of the list for Story Mode, although there’s a bunch of suggestions left to pick for Arcade Mode.
And with us having decided to add a bunch of random collectors, I’ll waste no time getting to those portraits as they’re needed for Fred to make the sprites! I also don’t want there to get to a point where I have to make only portraits for a long while to catch up, so let’s get to it; the first collector of a whole bunch:
…and her brother:
Great update, I appreciate the transparency about the process. I feel like I came to this game at a good time by discovering it a few weeks ago.
With my third character I just finished the story so far on Frontline Beta and I’m just starting to run out of things to do (I’m really bad at Arcade mode and not sure I’ll ever be good at it). But there’s 1.0 to look forward to and I feel like it’s an expansion of the game I already played and enjoyed, rather than feeling the game has been incomplete.
You guys probably are looking forward to getting the 1.0 release out after all these years, but personally I hope you will keep adding to the game long afterwards, as well.