New Year, New Update!
After taking some time to process and prioritize everything that we’d like to achieve during our closed development period, our team is excited to announce that we are aiming for the official release of Dappervolk to be within the first or second quarter of 2019!
As always, please keep in mind that this timeframe is subject to changes depending on any obstacles that we may encounter while developing some of our more complex new features. But rest assured, we will have more specific news and updates for everyone regarding our launch timeframe as we continue to make headway through our development projects - so stay tuned!
One of the major projects that we are currently working on for official launch is a brand new town to explore! This location will continue the storyline where many beta testers left off, departing from the sandy shores of Aviar Cove in search for exciting, new horizons - or perhaps, great new depths?
Our current work on this new town and its inhabitants will largely be kept as a surprise for players to unlock during official launch, so we won’t be able to share any new sneak peeks with you - but if you’re curious about our progress, we are currently in the process of finalizing the art assets and fleshing out the quest writing! What we can share, are some fun in-progress assets for other areas of the site that we are currently developing. For example, we will be expanding Peddler’s Port with various new NPCs like the one below.
Some of our most anticipated features for official launch are also some of our most coding-intensive projects thus far! Currently, our coders are hard at work transforming our design mockups for these features into fully functional parts of the site. Below are some of the major upcoming features that we’re working on right now.
USER-RUN GUILD SYSTEM
During our beta testing phase, you may have noticed that our “upcoming things” list was updated with a few bullet points dedicated to a new feature called Guilds! This system is designed to give users the ability to create and run their own public or private group, with built-in features such as a customizable theme and homepage, customizable ranks/permissions, a guild-only mini forum and live chat, guild events, and guild upgrade goals to work toward.
Since our last update, this feature has progressed through the concepting and UI design process, and onto the coding and refining stage! Our coders have made great progress thus far, so be sure to keep an eye out for more details on how this feature will be implemented into the game as we get closer to putting the finishing touches on this exciting project.
ADVENTURE EXPANSION
During beta testing, users got to experience our initial framework and first build for a feature called Adventure! Admittedly, this early iteration of the feature was designed as more of a functional test run of its newly built framework than a fully realized, fun game for players to experience - so we completely understood when many felt a bit disappointed by its beta testing debut.
However, thanks to all of the testing and input that we received from our beta testers, we are very excited to now be working on implementing and realizing the full range of ideas that we’ve been planning for this side scrolling mini-game styled feature!
Some new features that will be coming to Adventure are a variety of new default and unlockable sprite appearances, toggle-able active and passive game modes, better optimization, new regions to unlock, new Adventuring music, an encounters bar, and more!
HOUSING PROGRESS
By far, one of our most anticipated - and most ambitious - upcoming features is the introduction of customizable player homes into the world of Dappervolk!
Once unlocked, users will be able to decorate and arrange the contents of their homes on an easy to use grid-based system. Additionally, we plan to integrate a player’s Adventure sprite into this feature, allowing you to freely hop throughout your home and even invite your friends over to chat in real-time! Each home will also include skills activities and crafting - but more details on this will be revealed in the future, as we are currently focusing on building the framework for this feature and refining the artistic direction that we’d like to take for the massive amount of assets that it will require. Please note that, while we regard housing as one of our most important new features, the sheer amount of technical considerations and graphic assets that it will take to produce this feature is something that we do not want to underestimate during development. Because of this, there is a possibility that housing may not be completely ready for release at the time of official launch. Nevertheless, we are extremely excited about the feature and can’t wait to share more about it with you as we progress further through development!
MINI GAMES & MUSIC
It wouldn’t be a complete update without some news on our upcoming mini game plans and gameplay music, right? Because we plan to officially launch Dappervolk with a brand new town, a new mini game will also be released via the Playground alongside that town! Additionally, we also plan to have some amazing new music to go long with the new mini game, as well as our Adventure expansion.
Interested in listening to our existing Dappervolk music? Visit our talented composer’s Dappervolk page over on Bandcamp! https://stijnvanwakeren.bandcamp.com/album/dappervolk
MINOR DELAY
Over the holidays, an unexpected hard drive failure occurred on the main desktop of our lead artist and project manager, Quis. Thankfully, we keep regular data backups on external drives, so no files or progress were lost in the process. She has since invested in a new desktop to replace this older device, but some technical issues with the new build have delayed her ability to switch over. This is expected to be resolved soon, with the only major impact being on her ability to continue progress on the content that we have set aside for streams.
We’ll be sure to update everyone when our art development streams resume. Nevertheless, it is full steam ahead into the new year!
