Elements

October Update - World, Steam Deck Testing and Team Expansion 🎮
about 1 month ago – Wed, Oct 09, 2024 at 09:44:07 AM

Hey Everyone! Sorry for not updating earlier, and thank you for your patience.

Elemythia World Update
Below is a screenshot of some of the Nature Biome, a large part of the world we’ve been working on. The Nature Biome is about 1/8 of the map. The map is quite large, but I think the strategic placement of landmarks and points of interest will make navigation easy. We already have options to toggle the minimap and compass on or off, so those who want to rely solely on their sense of direction and clues from NPCs can do so. Those who prefer a little more guidance can use the map, compass, and minimap markers.

Companion Textures
We updated the Companion with some hand-painted textures. The Companion will play a big role in guiding you through the world. We still don’t have a name for this little guy other than "Companion"...

Water Armor
We’ve been working on the Water Armor, which has some Polynesian and Atlantean influences. It’s still a work in progress, but we wanted to share some in-progress screenshots. What do you think so far?

Random Chest Open Animations
We’ve added a system that will randomly choose an animation when you open a chest. We plan to add more animations as we go. What games do you think have the best chest-opening animations?

Runes
We had some custom runes created, and I think they really add to Elemythia’s unique look and feel. These runes will mark points of interest or locations where you need to bring keys to unlock additional areas.

Monument Update
We thought the monuments would fit better into Elemythia if we masked the Stone Keeper names in the Elemythian language. They will be displayed in native Elemyta until you interact with the monument, after which the names in English will be revealed.
We also added some functionality to the monuments. Now, once you find a monument and unlock it, you’ll receive a special reward. One idea we had was to provide a legendary crafting ingredient that, when combined with others found in that biome, would reward the player with a special piece of armor or weapon. Do you have any other ideas?

 Run Animations
We’ve tweaked the running animations for the main characters. These aren’t necessarily final, but they have a lot more bounce and spirit to them. What do you think?

Double Jump
We’ve been working on the double jump, though it still needs some refining. Our aim is for it to be fluid and responsive. We don’t want to gate player movement behind progression, so we’re considering the best timing and reasons for giving players the ability to double jump.

Quick Weapon Swap
We’ve added a simple function to switch weapons on the fly. Currently, it switches between your top weapons in terms of damage output, but we’d like to add a selection system. Possibly a weapon wheel or a system similar to Zelda: Breath of the Wild, so the player doesn’t have to jump into the menu to change weapons. If you’ve played Breath of the Wild, do you like that system, or do you think it could be improved?

Throwable Destructibles / Pickups
We added the functionality to pick up most destructible items and even pets. We still need to tweak the pickup positions and hand placements. Right now, you can pick up items and throw them at enemies. This will tie into the investigation system we plan to add later. You can also pick up pets if they get out of their enclosure. The way an item is picked up will depend on its size. Heavier items will be carried in front, while lighter ones can be picked up overhead and thrown.

Choppable Bushes
We added choppable bushes that will grow back over time. These bushes can provide the player with cover and possible resources. The regrow time is currently set low for testing purposes, but we’ll likely extend this.

Cooking
Cooking allows players to create consumables and quest-related items. Each village will specialize in their own dishes, which players can learn and use in other areas of the game. We’ve just added a new cooking pit where players can craft recipes they know or experiment to create their own. What recipe would you like to see in the game, and what would be its benefit?

Quests
We’ve started adding more detailed quests for each village to test the functionality of the quest system and make any necessary tweaks. We want to give players options in how they complete a quest. For example, you could distract guards and steal their keys, or defeat the guards and take the keys—though doing so might alert other enemies in the area.

Alpha Update
We’re excited to share that we’ve made great progress since our last update! Stable builds are up and running, but we weren’t able to hit the September Alpha release as planned. We’ve encountered a few issues that we’re working through, including a bug where quests aren’t completing properly. While we could give you access to the world to run around in, that wouldn’t help us identify the key things that need to be tweaked and adjusted. Our goal is to make this Alpha as close to a playable game as possible, because the better it is, the more meaningful feedback we can get from you, our awesome community.

That being said, we know it’s an Alpha, and some rough edges are to be expected, but we’re focused on getting the foundational elements just right. Your patience has meant the world to us, and we truly appreciate your understanding as we push forward. You may see the Discord Bug Section start to come to life as we are getting closer to pushing the Alpha out to you ;)

In some exciting news, our team is growing! Until now, I’ve been the only full-time developer on Elements, but I’m thrilled to announce that our part-time programmer is now full-time, which means things are moving faster! Additionally, we’ve brought on a part-time level designer to help refine the game’s world and experiences. This marks a huge step forward for us, and we can’t wait to show you the progress we’ve been making. Here are some images from one of the new villages.

Here is some footage from one of our latest builds running on the Steam Deck. We still have some optimization and bugs to work on, but I’m happy to say it is already performing very well—and it will only get better! Next time I get some Steam Deck footage I will try and improve the video quality.

On a personal note, from Devon:
Elements is more than just a game to me. Balancing the expectations of backers and the limitations of the team isn’t always easy. I may have set timelines that were too ambitious, but I am striving to make up for any delays and deliver the game you’ve been waiting for. I’m already considering ways to make up for not hitting the dates I promised.

We’re still committed to delivering the best experience possible, and we’re confident that once we solve these final issues, we’ll have an Alpha that’s not just functional but truly fun and engaging for you to test. Thank you again for your continued support and patience—it means everything to us!

To everyone who took a leap of faith in me and Elements, it means the world to me. I hope one day I get to thank you all in person. ❤️

Full Time Game Dev Podcast
3 months ago – Wed, Aug 21, 2024 at 09:10:01 AM

Hey everyone!
Just wanted to post a quick update. I was fortunate enough to be a guest on the Full Time Game Dev Podcast with Thomas Brush. Thomas has launched multiple games and is currently working on a game called Twisted Tower. I have been a subscriber of Thomas’ channel for a long time, so it’s quite the honor to have a chat with him. Our chat talks about my background and how I got into game development, so if you are interested that video is here.

August Update! 🎮
3 months ago – Sun, Aug 18, 2024 at 10:29:37 AM

Hey Everyone! 
Thank you so much for your patience. We have had our heads down working hard on the game. Here are some of the things we have been working on.
 

Slime Enemy
A fantasy game wouldn’t be complete without a slime enemy. We just finished some new textures for these guys. They are lower tier enemies who will be found in the Nature, Dark, Fire and Water biomes.

Owl Blacksmith Armor
We also just finished some new textures and rigging on the Owl NPCs blacksmith armor. We still haven’t finalized the name for the Owl creatures so if you have any suggestions. Let us know!

Fire Armor
We showed the Rare Fire Armor in an early update and we have just finished the Legendary version. The Legendary version is a big visual and state upgrade from the Rare version. We hope this will encourage players to upgrade their gear. We are planning to have unique perks for each piece; Helmet, Arms, Chest, Legs, and Boots. What kind of perks do you think the legendary armor should have?

Two-handed Fire Sword
We featured the Rare version of the Two-handed Fire Sword in a previous update. We have now finished the Epic and Legendary versions.

Earth Sword
Nature and Earth sometimes get mixed up. In many worlds and games Nature and Earth are the same Element. In Elemythia, Nature includes anything that grows; grass, plants, trees and even creatures. The Earth Element includes anything found under the ground. This included Rock, Dirt, and Magma. We finished the Earth One-hand Sword. It is our first piece of Earth gear so far. We will be working on more weapons and armor, ensuring they are distinct from Nature, and have their own look and feel. What do you think?

Dark Weapons
We finished some new Dark weapons, giving us a full set. We just added the Dark Shield and Dark Daggers. Some ideas we have for perks for Dark gear are; enhanced vision, closing distances, teleportation, and blink dash. Let us know if you have any ideas for perks for the Dark weapons and armor.

Below is a quick video testing out the new daggers. You will also see the new grass we are testing. We want the grass to be able to propagate fire, but it is a little more tricky than we initially thought. It’s still on our list of wants, but currently lower in priority. What do you think of the new grass?

Custom Font
We want Elements to have its own identity so we had a custom font made. This font is based on the Elements logo and will be used in menus and in game. We are also thinking of creating a “worn” version of the font. You can see our custom font in the start screen menu. This is a work in progress, but we have some ideas on how we want that to look. What game has your all time favorite start screen?

Check Point System
We added a checkpoint system to the game. These checkpoints will activate when you are within a certain distance and instantly save your progress. If you have a misadventure you will spawn at the nearest checkpoint you have found. We are thinking of having different versions of these in each biome.

Bee hives and Wells
We added wells and beehives as interactables in the game. Wells will give you water which can be used in crafting and cooking and beehives will give you honey and may also have some other added benefits like speeding up growth of plants that are near by. Now we need some simple recipes that include honey as an ingredient. Let us know if you have any ideas!

Ice Building Pieces
The building pieces you use in Elements will be based on the biome you are in. This will give your builds some variety and add unique pieces for each biome. We added some new building pieces for the Ice Biome that fit more with the look and feel of that area. It’s more work adding different pieces for each biome, but we think it is worth it.

Alpha
We want to ensure everyone has a good experience with the Alpha, so we conducted a poll on our discord (link here if you haven’t joined) https://t.co/2lbf96ROqt asking which GPUs you are running. 3000 Series was the winner with 34%, but we also noticed that Steam Deck was a large portion with 17%. 

Optimization is typically saved until closer to the end of the development, because of the size of our game and world, we thought it was important to work on some optimization now. We are happy to say that it is working on the Steam Deck and each build is more stable and runs better.

Speaking of the Alpha, we are in the later stages of internal testing. We don’t plan on squashing all the bugs, but we want to have things for you to do and as many pieces of the game ready for testing so the Alpha testing is beneficial to development. We hope to start giving Apogee Playtesters access at the beginning of September and although we can't give an exact date, if all goes well the Alpha code you put in Steam should be ready to play at the end of September. 

Some of the problems we are solving now means we won’t have to solve them later in development. Who would have thought making a large open world would be challenging 🙂

If you haven’t received your Alpha code, please see the previous updates on how you can access it. 

Once the Alpha goes live we will be listening to feedback, adding updates and fixing bugs. The Alpha is a big step to getting something amazing into Early Access. In the discord you will start to see bug reporting channels being added. 

We have opened up the game a little bit more than just the Nature biome. You will be able to explore some of the neighboring biomes, Fire and Dark. This will give us some good feedback on balancing the different biomes and how elemental damages and resistances will play a part in your play through. 

Thank you all for your patience and support. I know things are taking a little longer than we planned, but I hope you know we are working our hardest and fastest to get something in your hands that you are proud to have supported.

Hope you are having an amazing summer! ❤

More Alpha Keys! 🎮
5 months ago – Tue, Jul 02, 2024 at 07:27:57 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Initial Alpha Keys Sent!
5 months ago – Sun, Jun 30, 2024 at 07:38:51 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.