Kinfolk Dev Log #1

Hey, Steam! This is the first milestone since I've published the Steam Page! How exciting! It's been a really busy month for me. First and foremost, I had some family come visit from out-of-town, which meant almost 10 days with no dev! This was a first for me since beginning work on Kinfolk last October, and it was nice to take a break. I hit the ground running once I got back though. The Steam page got published (let me know what you think!) and I locked in a composer for the OST, and the pixel artist that does all of the big pieces for the game came in hot with several new tilesets and set pieces for the game, which resulted in a huge facelift for the village. Steam post imageDown in the code dungeon, I was hard at work getting some of the last systems implemented for the demo version. The core of Kinfolk is the cards that are dealt at the beginning of each round. These cards are your objectives for the day, and represent the day to day activities of a peasant in the early medieval period. Players are tasked with doing fun and exciting things, like fulfilling weapons orders for the king, collecting waste from chamberpots, or stocking up your stores of food for the winter. All of the cards for the demo version have been finalized and implemented into the game. This brings a close to the core game loop, and serves as the backdrop of activity that the ever evolving chaos of the game is set against. This was a huge milestone, because it leaves only one system left for me to finish developing for the demo! Steam post imageI finished up the Guard's mechanics by implementing a wrestling mechanic and adding in restraints, which is a pretty nifty system. Piggybacking off of the "Grab and Pull" mechanic which was originally inspired by Link to the Past, the Wrestling mechanic comes into effect when one player grabs onto another. When this happens, they can move the other player around, and if they move them around enough, then the target will end up being knocked to the ground and stunned for a moment. The magic happens when two players are grabbing onto each other, both pushing and shoving for dominance in the match. This also adds another layer to player combat, as it can be employed while holding items, resulting in some interesting strategies in a melee. Once a player has been wrestled to the ground its the assailants opportunity to restrain their victim by tying them up with a rope. Once a player has been tied up, they can be cut loose by another player, or they can be dragged over to the stocks and placed there, where they will remain until a player decides to set them free. It's a really nifty mechanic! Another really awesome new addition recently is the Quern (an old-timey word for a millstone). The Quern is used to grind wheat down into flour, which is a lot more fun in Kinfolk than it sounds. Once wheat has been grown and harvested, it can be put onto the Quern and the lever can be pushed by a player to begin grinding. As wheat (or anything else!) is processed on the quern, it moves towards the center, at which point it's ground down. If you've got a bucket placed at the base of the quern then it will collect the flour, which can then be used to bake delicious bread! But you can grind more than just flour. Anything placed on the quern will end up being processed, and a lot of things are dangerous to grind up. Any rocks will violently break apart as they're crushed down, tools can jam the quern and can end up being launched in any direction. Worst of all is if a rather clumsy Kin manages to find their way on the quern, they can face dire consequences, as they are slowly crushed and ground to bits! Oh my! Steam post imageKinfolk is a Cozy place. But it can also be a dangerous place. If you'd like to follow along with daily updates, head over to the Discord Server (https://discord.gg/3324YrD7U3)! Hope to see you there! Steam post image