Steam News8 September 20232y ago

Starveil Devlog #7 - July and August 2023

It has been a while and the keen eyed among you might spot we skipped a month. The simple answer is that summer got in the way and we took a bit of a break.

In this update2

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Full Starveil update

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What changed

0 fixes4 additions6 changes0 removals

Balance
Maps
UI and audio
Gameplay
Server

changedSunny July & AugustLet’s start with the most recent news. We took a stock of the current state of the game, and with the Next Fest hurtling ever closer, we’ve made the decision to postpone. It was not easy decision to make, but the reality is that we were not ready for the Next Fest in October, and each game only gets to participate in a Next Fest once, we don’t want to blow our chance. Instead, we’re really putting our noses to the grindstone, and are now aiming to participate in the Next Fest in February 2024 instead. This also means that our release will happen after February.

changedSunny July & AugustWe have started working on our second map next to the Necroforge, called the Mycotic Grove. Check out these awesome enemy designs.

addedSunny July & AugustWork has also been done on implementing a new UI look. UI is something that really ties any game together and it should not be neglected. Here’s a quick look at our skill bar, with some work-in-progress skill icons.

addedSunny July & AugustIt would not be a good RPG without a large variety of skills and spells at the player’s disposal, so we made sure to expand the arsenal and added 11 more skills. Among those freshly added are skills like an AoE taunt, a healing station that pulses healing to nearby allies, a chain pull for the pesky enemies that always run away from you, or an adorable-yet-deadly familiar that shoot laser beams out of its eye.

addedSunny July & AugustWe have also been experimenting with some other things like adding ambient sounds and more skill sound effects into the game, using a proper resolution so we don’t play in a small 720p window, and a host of tweaks, fixes and improvements.

changedRefocused SeptemberNow that we don’t have the October Next Fest looming over our heads, we had the chance to refocus and prioritize a bit, and lay out a clearer plan for the coming months up until the February Next Fest and the Early Access release. For now, let’s take a look at the focus for September.

Starveil changes

changedLet’s start with the most recent news. We took a stock of the current state of the game, and with the Next Fest hurtling ever closer, we’ve made the decision to postpone. It was not easy decision to make, but the reality is that we were not ready for the Next Fest in October, and each game only gets to participate in a Next Fest once, we don’t want to blow our chance. Instead, we’re really putting our noses to the grindstone, and are now aiming to participate in the Next Fest in February 2024 instead. This also means that our release will happen after February.

changedWe have started working on our second map next to the Necroforge, called the Mycotic Grove. Check out these awesome enemy designs.

addedWork has also been done on implementing a new UI look. UI is something that really ties any game together and it should not be neglected. Here’s a quick look at our skill bar, with some work-in-progress skill icons.

addedIt would not be a good RPG without a large variety of skills and spells at the player’s disposal, so we made sure to expand the arsenal and added 11 more skills. Among those freshly added are skills like an AoE taunt, a healing station that pulses healing to nearby allies, a chain pull for the pesky enemies that always run away from you, or an adorable-yet-deadly familiar that shoot laser beams out of its eye.

addedWe have also been experimenting with some other things like adding ambient sounds and more skill sound effects into the game, using a proper resolution so we don’t play in a small 720p window, and a host of tweaks, fixes and improvements.

It has been a while and the keen eyed among you might spot we skipped a month. The simple answer is that summer got in the way and we took a bit of a break. But we’ve also done a fair amount of reflecting, thinking and work on Starveil, let’s get to it!

Sunny July & August

Let’s start with the most recent news. We took a stock of the current state of the game, and with the Next Fest hurtling ever closer, we’ve made the decision to postpone. It was not easy decision to make, but the reality is that we were not ready for the Next Fest in October, and each game only gets to participate in a Next Fest once, we don’t want to blow our chance. Instead, we’re really putting our noses to the grindstone, and are now aiming to participate in the Next Fest in February 2024 instead. This also means that our release will happen after February.

With that bit of heavy info out of the way, let’s take a look at what we’ve accomplished since the last devlog, outside of spending time with friends and family over the summer.

We have started working on our second map next to the Necroforge, called the Mycotic Grove. Check out these awesome enemy designs.

The Mycotic Grove is going to be a more open and definitely more fantasy inspired area with a different set of enemies.

Work has also been done on implementing a new UI look. UI is something that really ties any game together and it should not be neglected. Here’s a quick look at our skill bar, with some work-in-progress skill icons.

It would not be a good RPG without a large variety of skills and spells at the player’s disposal, so we made sure to expand the arsenal and added 11 more skills. Among those freshly added are skills like an AoE taunt, a healing station that pulses healing to nearby allies, a chain pull for the pesky enemies that always run away from you, or an adorable-yet-deadly familiar that shoot laser beams out of its eye.

Apologies for the grainy gif :)

We have also been experimenting with some other things like adding ambient sounds and more skill sound effects into the game, using a proper resolution so we don’t play in a small 720p window, and a host of tweaks, fixes and improvements.

Refocused September

Now that we don’t have the October Next Fest looming over our heads, we had the chance to refocus and prioritize a bit, and lay out a clearer plan for the coming months up until the February Next Fest and the Early Access release. For now, let’s take a look at the focus for September.

The first of the two big ticket items for September is finally storing player characters and their items and equipped skills in a database - no more losing progress on logging out!

The other big task we’re setting for ourselves this month is finishing up our dungeon system, generate some dungeons and fill them with enemies and new bosses to kill and loot.

Among relatively smaller things we’ve got some rebalancing on the public (non-dungeon) areas and some more UI work.

We’re also planning a larger playtest that we’d like to have before the Next Fest to see where we are, so stay tuned for that!

Speaking of staying tuned, the best way to do that is on our Discord server where you can chat with us and see the progress more or less in real time.

And that wraps up this devlog, see you in the next one!

Source

Steam News / 8 September 2023

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