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Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.


Latest Release: "Last Gasp of Winter" Alpha v010 (2/12/2021) (Last Unity version, no Godot version yet available)

What is it?
To Ash and Ember is a singleplayer Dark Fantasy RPG about making hard choices. It plays like a board-game without needing to shuffle decks, set out a board, or read manuals. This is a game of time management and decisions, of who to save and who to sacrifice, and of a city whose windows and streets grow darker and stranger the longer your battles continue.

What does it play like?
If you like the Arkham Horror (2nd Edition in particular) boardgame, World of Horror, or the Consuming Shadow: this is going to be a bit like a mashup of all of those with its own unique flavors. If you don't know what any of those are this is going to play something like an oldschool RPG that's shacked up with a dice-based boardgame.


Pretty Dang Early Teaser (old version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTT677rMh8k

Soundtrack preview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S1yaklS_xU






Who's making this?
Just me except for some of the music; the cool-rear end tracks up above are from IX who is graciously donating their time and sound to the game for free. "The Forgotten Workshop" is just the name of my little solo-dev studio.

What's this running in?
It's Unity! I've got a poo poo-ton of custom inspectors and editorwindows I built to make this project even possible to do solo without going mad myself. Godot! (Because Unity's told me who they are and I believe them)

When is this thing going to be 'done' done?
I'd planned on it launching a year ago after finally finding the time and money to work on it again -- and then the Unity fiasco happened which killed all my interest in working on any of my Unity projects. I was creatively burned out for a bit as a result, spent a few months trying to learn how to use Godot and GodotScript, and started work on To Ash and Ember again but in Godot. The project is still in its early days (this is the sixth week of work on it as I write this post) but I am recreating or importing all the art, music, and events from the prior project to Godot.

Are you going to kickstarter?
I'm thinking about it -- but my release schedule for this thing's already pretty tight I feel and I'm just unsure how much attention it'd even get on crowdfunding platforms. Slap me with some data and interest if you feel I should be getting on it and/or getting on it immediately.

Why does your username sound familiar?
If you're one of the folks who was in the Star Ruler 2 thread: howdy, long time no see. I was co-lead developer on that project and did a lot of yacking here on SA since it was, more or less, a goon project. I worked with the goon-mmunity back then to help tighten and drive that game into becoming (tooting my horn) something that had the potential to revolutionize Space 4X (or at least their Diplomacy systems). Y'all changed how Steam treated indie devs with Star Ruler 1 and all the e-mails. I'm still super-grateful for all y'all did for this stupid goon back then who was like 'yeah, let's just get on Steam in 2010 no big deal' and just expected it to happen. This one's a solo act though so it's a 100% goon-made game -- there's no studio or co-lead developer or publisher behind me.

Useful Links
Wishlist the Early Access/Release on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1189320/To_Ash_and_Ember/

I do journalist/lets-play things and think my audience is up for some eldritch bullshit
PM me! More than happy to toss a few copies out there if some goons want to parade it around. Due note: on a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is a simple prototype and 10 is a complete game, I'm presently at 1 here. Currently there's about 10-30 minutes of gameplay in the game's tank right now.

Firgof fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Feb 14, 2024

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Desdinova
Dec 16, 2004
I had to be on my toes, like a midget at a urinal!
Sounds promising, I'll grab the alpha and tell you my thoughts.

Are you looking for anyone to join the team? Seems a lot of work for one guy and a sound dude.

Kickstarter couldn't do any harm, at the least it's publicity.

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.

Desdinova posted:

Sounds promising, I'll grab the alpha and tell you my thoughts.

Are you looking for anyone to join the team? Seems a lot of work for one guy and a sound dude.

Kickstarter couldn't do any harm, at the least it's publicity.

Thanks!

It'd be great to have a full team working on it but I have basically no money to put into the project at this point. I'd be looking if I had the money to properly pay people for their work. Not sure I could bring myself to even ask folks to work for rev-share, let alone free/credit, especially with how bad the last year's been for most folks in America.

My only hold up with KS is it takes a lot of time away from the project. It'd still be absolutely worth it if the game does well enough but if it fails then the project is just poorer for it. Except on the edge case of something like 'it got within $100 of reaching goal, so even though it didn't get funding it did get lots of exposure and interest'. As long as folks really feel strongly that I could convince a general audience to fund this weird thing I could be convinced to make that leap even if it's unsure whether it'd get funded.

Firgof fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Feb 12, 2021

Desdinova
Dec 16, 2004
I had to be on my toes, like a midget at a urinal!

Firgof posted:

Thanks!

It'd be great to have a full team working on it but I have basically no money to put into the project at this point. I'd be looking if I had the money to properly pay people for their work. Not sure I could bring myself to even ask folks to work for rev-share, let alone free/credit, especially with how bad the last year's been for most folks in America.

Could always give the option of revshare, and see who applies. If no-one does, you haven't lost anything except the time it takes to advertise vacancies.

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.

Desdinova posted:

Could always give the option of revshare, and see who applies. If no-one does, you haven't lost anything except the time it takes to advertise vacancies.

Fair enough. I suppose it's at least worth seriously considering.

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.


Progress on the first unlocked Season of Bloom mystery, "The Rose's Thorn", is going along nicely. A number of new events and enemies have been added and I'm now wading waist-deep into the waters of making this Mystery the first 'Dungeon-type' Mystery to solve. In a Dungeon-type mystery, like Darkest Dungeon, you'll have as much time as you like to prepare yourself for it but once you're committed you're in the Dungeon until either its resolved or you perish.

Dungeons will be either 'Logical' or 'Noneuclidean' and are made up entirely of Rooms and Hallways. 'Noneuclidean' will be the first type to be supported; it'll draw randomly from the Rooms deck and the Hallways deck and you'll only be able to 'move' into a new room/hallway when you want to Move. When you hit a Room it'll either have an Encounter, an Item, an Event, a Respite, or an Omen. Omens give status effects and also have a chance to move you immediately to the Final Encounter of the Dungeon. Clearing the Final Encounter clears the Dungeon and, with a Dungeon-based Mystery, also clears that Mystery.

Once I finish building that Mystery out it'll be on to finalizing the "Season of Bloom" patch in earnest and moving towards the release after it, "Of Gods and Men" where I'll be introducing a new character class, revamping the Church, adding Bless and Curse mechanics and conditions, and adding a suite of related events and an indicator for what Conditions you're presently suffering from. Getting the Dungeon type of Mystery done also helps me build the bones for the Confrontation phase of the game where you'll square off against one of the Slaughtered Gods themselves.

I've also got an interview coming up with a games development company in the next few days which, I'm hoping, will stabilize my income and allow me to de-stress some and work more intent-fully and schedule-wise on this game.

Fingers crossed! :derp:

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
Given a few ongoing health concerns and my general lack of funds to deal with them, I'm tee-ing To Ash and Ember up for an Early Access release in the very short term future.

But putting that aside from now, I've got news on the development front of Dungeons! The tools I've been building to make creating and managing the game's Dungeons are coming along very nicely and should soon be ready. Once they're complete I'll begin implementing Dungeons straight into the game. I'm expecting the full process to take around one to two more weeks to finalize.

Here's a snap of me building out a Dungeon in the new editor!

Orv
May 4, 2011
Oh hey, this looks cool as heck and it's cool to see you doing stuff again, Firgof. Definitely will pick it up.

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.

Orv posted:

Oh hey, this looks cool as heck and it's cool to see you doing stuff again, Firgof. Definitely will pick it up.

Hey Orv! Nice to see you again. Hope you like it but lemme know what you think even if you don't!

Did some napkin calculations to determine about how long Dungeons are going to take to clear and I'm thinking hard about how long I want a Dungeon -- and ultimately the game -- to take to clear.

Presuming it takes around 5 Mysteries for a player to feel comfortable about their odds in taking on a Slaughtered God and that 2 of those Mysteries are Dungeon Runs that take ~3-5 minutes to complete each and assuming each non-Dungeon mystery takes about 10-15 minutes to complete, each Divine Confrontation takes 10-20 minutes itself and you have to take on at least 3 Slaughtered Gods to reach the final stage of that run which will probably be its own hour to two hours of play...

So with the current configuration, assuming a pretty competent player who spends almost no time deciding what they need to do, always gets the Equipment they want and need, doesn't spend time training up skills, spells, or gaining allies more than absolutely necessary, and makes a bee-line straight for the end and plays well enough that they never need to Enkindle a new investigator in the process or et cetera and that they do well enough that a Cult doesn't bring a Slaughtered God you banished back, that's about 4-6 hours per run to beat the game.

I expect that works out to about 20-40 hours for most average players, given at least one restart, players wanting to optimize their equipment and level themselves up to give themselves an easier time, and general desires to explore to find content beyond exactly and exclusively what brings them towards the endgame the fastest. I feel that's about right for a game like this, though I'm basing my expectations off Darkest Dungeon.

So I guess: How did y'all feel about Darkest Dungeon if you played it? Did it feel fast, slow, or just right in its pacing?

e: Also some footage of what that editor looks/feels like to use!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w8golghHP8

Firgof fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Feb 19, 2021

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
I'm prototyping some screens while I prepare a pitch to HumbleBundle's HumbleGames. Thought I'd share what the map view might look like when I have time to get to its overhaul!

Desdinova
Dec 16, 2004
I had to be on my toes, like a midget at a urinal!
Completed the Flowers in the Mist event sequence, well-written and atmospheric, really evocates the Lovecraftian vibe.

A couple of nitpicks:

1) You're probably already aware but I didn't see any way to equip the rusty knife, clicking and/or dragging didn't work, though I could eat the sandwich.

2) Some flavour text upon confronting the Red Queen would go a long way to add character to the world, as it stands going from dead urchin to combat seemed a tad hurried.

Looking forward to what other Gods and scenarios you come out with, this has a lot of potential!

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.

Desdinova posted:

Completed the Flowers in the Mist event sequence, well-written and atmospheric, really evocates the Lovecraftian vibe.

A couple of nitpicks:

1) You're probably already aware but I didn't see any way to equip the rusty knife, clicking and/or dragging didn't work, though I could eat the sandwich.

2) Some flavour text upon confronting the Red Queen would go a long way to add character to the world, as it stands going from dead urchin to combat seemed a tad hurried.

Looking forward to what other Gods and scenarios you come out with, this has a lot of potential!

:derp: Ah! Thanks so much for playing it through even though it's so rough at the moment.

Weapon equips are currently broken because Unity/C# is seeing it as an 'invalid cast'. I'm not sure how to correct the cast as I'm not sure what it's disagreeing with (Weapons are a Subclass of Equipment and both Armor and Accessories are also Subclasses of Equipment -- but it only gets annoyed with the Knife for some reason). Once the Knife gets in, and Skill Equip gets in, you'll gain a new Skill by equipping the Knife called 'Slice' that you can use in combat.

The Confrontation Screen (that's the screen you run into before you have an Encounter) needs a graphical and mechanical overhaul, yeah. Being able to show images and fade between them and play sounds as a result would go a long way to helping sell the drama and atmosphere of that encounter. Without those things it does come out a bit flat and hurried, unfortunately. Might just increase the amount of description/choices there before that overhaul hits?

Hoping you'll like the follow-up Dungeon-type Mystery I'm working on for it!

Desdinova
Dec 16, 2004
I had to be on my toes, like a midget at a urinal!

Firgof posted:

:derp: Ah! Thanks so much for playing it through even though it's so rough at the moment.

Weapon equips are currently broken because Unity/C# is seeing it as an 'invalid cast'. I'm not sure how to correct the cast as I'm not sure what it's disagreeing with (Weapons are a Subclass of Equipment and both Armor and Accessories are also Subclasses of Equipment -- but it only gets annoyed with the Knife for some reason). Once the Knife gets in, and Skill Equip gets in, you'll gain a new Skill by equipping the Knife called 'Slice' that you can use in combat.

The Confrontation Screen (that's the screen you run into before you have an Encounter) needs a graphical and mechanical overhaul, yeah. Being able to show images and fade between them and play sounds as a result would go a long way to helping sell the drama and atmosphere of that encounter. Without those things it does come out a bit flat and hurried, unfortunately. Might just increase the amount of description/choices there before that overhaul hits?

Hoping you'll like the follow-up Dungeon-type Mystery I'm working on for it!

Seems like you know what you want to shape it into, definitely would add greatly to the experience of the already highly mysterious encounter, though didn't expect to win punching and kicking, though the time before I was wiped out by a mad old dude. Well done for making me kill an urchin you swine!

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
And well done for making it through the forest by resting/sammiches (unless you did a double-LV on willpower or somesuch?).

Them Urchins stick together, man, even to the end. I'm curious how long it'll be for someone to beat the check on the Urchin and reveal his motivation for the flowers.

Count Uvula
Dec 20, 2011

---
I have so much feedback on your copywriting if you want it

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.

Count Uvula posted:

I have so much feedback on your copywriting if you want it

Absolutely! I have no spellcheck in the game and have barely edited anything that I've written so far (and that includes my marketing, which I never have enough/spend enough time on due to the rush in my life lately) so there's lots to be polished. Knowing where to focus those bits of polish would really help me out.

Feel free to pastebin, dm, et cetera. However you like.

Firgof fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Feb 20, 2021

Count Uvula
Dec 20, 2011

---
I was gonna :justpost: but alright, I dm'd it to you :v:

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
Gave it a thorough reading through and I think I agree with the majority of that. Gonna throw some of my own spice* in there but you can expect to see a bunch of that being phased in tonight. Much thanks!

On the games dev front: Dungeons weren't saving or loading -- that's fixed now. I also took a harder look at Equipment and, though I've yet to test it, the specific override I put in should capture a Weapon Equip event and deal with it appropriately, letting the player equip weapons for now until I get back to refactoring and polishing all that up. Also fixed a nagging bug that unfortunately's in the demo right now: once you're in the stage of Flowers in the Mist where you have to find where the Urchin lays their head down you keep running into the same event even if you run all the way out into the Forest.

When the next patch hits* you can spend some time trying to earn some cash or XP to try and take the path of greater (but less violent) resistance to clear that questline. Thanks for those reports and reminders, y'all!

I also got an anonymous bug report alerting me to some main menu errors that I'll be trying to correct once I'm finalizing this big old patch. Thanks for using the in-game feedback button and keep them coming if you don't feel comfy bringing it up in the thread with your name attached or want to send it in while it's fresh and you're still playing! :love:

Firgof fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Feb 21, 2021

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
Basic Dungeon Crawling is about 30% in now. You can traverse hallways forwards and backwards, have encounters, run into obstacles/traps/loot/puzzles, and enter and exit rooms that can have their own events, encounters, and whatnots.

There's no way to exit a dungeon presently. The Objectives for the Dungeon are also not being evaluated just yet. It's a one way ticket to 'eternal survival mode'.

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
Some big changes coming down the pipeline to combat, leveling, and Actions. Right now Actions do a fixed amount of damage (e.g. if you Punch an Enemy it does 2 Stamina damage to said Enemy) and you have a fixed amount of Time to use Actions in, per Round.

This is changing. In the next patch, Actions will be tied to one of your Stats and do a bonus amount of damage. (e.g. Punch is now Strength + 1, where what that means is you 'roll your Strength Dice', add any successes, and then add 1 to get your damage dealt). I'm also planning on possibly making the amount of time you have in a round based off your Endurance rather than being a flat amount.

In addition, Actions will gain a 'maximum damage'. Say you roll 3 Successes on your Agility for your Kick and add the +1 bonus -- that's above its default maximum of 2 so you would deal 2 damage.

All of these things will become parts you can individually spend XP on to level up. So rather than leveling your Strength up for 200 XP you might spend 60 XP to boost an Action's maximum damage by 1 or spend 250 XP to make it roll Mystique instead of Strength when you make a Punch -- or even reduce the cost of throwing those Punches. Additionally, if you can find the folks who're willing to 'buy' your Skills, you can trade those customized skills in for Funds or a partial XP Refund to reset them to their natural state.

This new Action Economy and Customization System won't be fully present in the next update but the foundation for it is mostly setup at this point. Expect combats to get longer, items to become more useful, and for character customization to dramatically expand.

I'm feeling confident that Dungeons will be included in the next update, even if they're just an optional 'survival mode' to grind out experience, items, and funds. The present dungeon is non-euclidean and is outside normal space-time so you can get a ton of XP, Items, and Funds fast -- but you're also going to be put into a lot of danger that you won't easily be able to escape from. All-in-all I'm really liking my playtest of these new changes so far. It's adding a lot of variety and flavor to the Wanderer and Professor too.

BTW: Next game patch in maybe a week or two? Look forward to it!

Firgof fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Feb 25, 2021

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
I've got the full structure for Dungeons up and running now. It's running on some older events and encounters, has almost no UI, and some of it isn't quite as slick yet (e.g. requiring 'a save' when the Save is a guaranteed success with stuff like Loot) but it's there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkk8xeSAHU4

dead gay comedy forums
Oct 21, 2011


hey, this looks right up my alley and by god after Cultist Simulator it is about time a game of this sort did gameplay right so I am definitely following

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.

dead gay comedy forums posted:

hey, this looks right up my alley and by god after Cultist Simulator it is about time a game of this sort did gameplay right so I am definitely following

Cultist Sim, The Consuming Shadow, Darkest Dungeon, and Hand of Fate are all extremely 'my jam'. If you're on that wavelength I think it's pretty likely you'll like this one too!

Also updated the main post with a teaser. Still not great footage because I'm still racing pretty hard here but, hey, better than just 12 minutes of unedited footage right?

Saving y'all some mousewheel scrolls/swipes/home key press for those who wanna see it but are coming here from the User Control Panel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTT677rMh8k

Firgof fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Feb 26, 2021

LLSix
Jan 20, 2010

The real power behind countless overlords

Cool.

Coolguye
Jul 6, 2011

Required by his programming!
If you want a small group of nerds that have already helped focus-test two projects like this one, I'd love to invite you to my Discord community.

Obviously that's kind of what this thread is for, and so should it continue to be, but the other creators of the (admittedly much smaller) projects rolling through my server said that people being willing to hop into voice for a quick stream or to have a specific conversation about something helped the build process a ton.

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.

Coolguye posted:

If you want a small group of nerds that have already helped focus-test two projects like this one, I'd love to invite you to my Discord community.

Obviously that's kind of what this thread is for, and so should it continue to be, but the other creators of the (admittedly much smaller) projects rolling through my server said that people being willing to hop into voice for a quick stream or to have a specific conversation about something helped the build process a ton.

Absolutely! Shoot me some contact info; I'd love to get some more focused feedback.

Pladdicus
Aug 13, 2010
hey bought it, love the art and aesthetic.

fake edit: hey played it, love your take on this particularily unique and underexplored gameplay style. writing is solid and I can definitely see this game nailing it as it continues to develop. great work.

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.

Pladdicus posted:

hey bought it, love the art and aesthetic.

fake edit: hey played it, love your take on this particularily unique and underexplored gameplay style. writing is solid and I can definitely see this game nailing it as it continues to develop. great work.

Thanks so much! Every purchase y'all make fills me with confidence that this game is worth the effort I'm putting in.

The new update is quickly shaping up and I'm really eager to get this into y'all's hands before I start firming stuff up. All the critique and feedback y'all have given has really helped out. I'm sure all the changes are even visible at just a glance now from the posts above. A whole ton of stuff is going to hopefully make it in to this patch. Not just dungeons but weapons, the ability to upgrade/equip/buy/sell Actions, and a few minor UI overhauls for both visibility and polish all coming together to make the game feel a lot more... well, more haha.



Coolguye
Jul 6, 2011

Required by his programming!
I'm hoping to carve off some time to do a test run myself when the new update hits, you got a fistful of folks really excited in my Discord so I feel like I've gotta dive in too. :)

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
Wrist is loving up a bit today so I'm taking it easy. Still hopeful for maybe a patch launch late tonight or tomorrow but I'm taking frequent and extended breaks.

Meantime, new footage of the upcoming (still not quite yet done) build!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf5fpx1CPSo

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
Wrist is still bothering me, but I'm taking frequent breaks, doing stretches, et cetera.

Happy to announce that the next patch is going to come with a lot of goodies such as:
* Dungeons
* Skill Equipping, Skill Customization, and Skill Purchase/Sale
* Tooltips attached to a large number of objects (first draft of it shown below)
* New map-based travel system for the overworld
* New art for the general store owner and the street bard
* (Hopefully Two!) New Mystery/ies
* Some purchasable equipment at the Store
* First pass on Rituals at your Homebase to lower the Terror Track
* Opening up the Sewers Location and, along with it, Church-specific Game Events
* Bunch of new music for the game, again provided by the fantastic memoraphile.

Sorry for the long pause between updates, I've just been super busy getting this all prepared for y'all to at least a playable if not fully polished state!

Pladdicus
Aug 13, 2010
Sustainable development is my favorite kind. I got the game already you take your time. New changes sound great, a huge leap!

Orv
May 4, 2011
Finally picked this up like I said I would a month and a half ago, like an rear end in a top hat. Ultimately I do not have a ton to say on it, it's neat and you've got a solid foundation for taking it in a lot of directions here. The writing is on point for the tone you're looking for, the sound design bothered me in a couple places - NES sorta sounds during combat isn't my jam but I'm hesitant to say it's bad - but was ultimately really good. I will say on that note, if you have the ability to turn down the default audio levels, I have pretty sensitive hearing by most standards but I think most people would still get dented eardrums from that opening scrawl as it is now. I'll definitely need to see the rest of what's in there when I'm not feeling like haute trash, did two of the investigations so far and really liked them both.

Oh and you've got a potential first launch bug where the mouse wasn't registering? Couldn't tell you more than that necessarily, relaunch fixed it.

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.

Orv posted:

awesome feedback

Thanks very much! Some of the sound effects content is still placeholder, yeah. I intend to (and have done a little to) replace the NES/genesis-ish sounds but my priority has been on getting game systems running so it's been a slower than I hoped to 'deprototype' some SFX haha.

I'm sure you'll be happy to hear your feedback already made it into the patch! Well, minus the start menu bug which I'm hoping is just a side-effect of the game losing focus when it gets alt-tab'd which shouldn't be a thing once Version 0.15 launches. It shouldn't be long (probably a few days). Assuming it isn't a trash-fire patch (which, with how constantly I'm playtesting it, it shouldn't be) I'm hoping the patch after version 0.15 will be pure content and will prioritize expanding the game's base content.

In other news I am now 50% vaccinated so my fingers are crossed that by the time I get shot #2 I'll be able to find employment again or will have successfully connected with a publisher who wants to help bring this project to consoles and help me hit all the points I was hoping to with base-game rather than having to go the Darkest Dungeon DLC route.

(this is not an april fools post)

Firgof fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Apr 1, 2021

Orv
May 4, 2011
Hopefully that all works out for you! Not enough games of this style on the aesthetic or the gameplay front, honestly. And yeah obviously no need to rush the unimportant stuff on the dev front, the sounds are hardly a deal breaker I think.

Orv fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Apr 1, 2021

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
Getting close! I'll probably have finalized all the core features of Dungeons in the next few days. Still a few bugs to iron out and a few features to add but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this major feature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--yLrNc7rrQ

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
Some fresh video footage from a two day art sprint on the game since I had a few hours I could spare.

It's surely taking a long while to make this thing but once it's all together I'll be able to re-use all this throughout the rest of the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRkmHCvm_z8

Orv
May 4, 2011
Oh man I had no idea you were gonna do that kinda stuff, that looks wild.

Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
After a year-long struggle to get back on my feet, I'm back and working on To Ash and Ember once more.

I'll be changing a few things with the game and you can read more details on it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1189320/allnews/

Hopefully there'll be a new build which pushes the game much further towards a full gameloop by end of month. I'll be posting major updates as I make my way there. So far, progress has been steady and smooth the past few days despite what I'm starting to think is a sprained tendon in one of my fingers (how does that even happen).

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Firgof
Dec 27, 2009

The Librarian is pure.
Former Star Ruler 2 Dev.
Alrighty, first update! Posted a big old breakdown on what 'Rituals' are expected to be over here: https://firgof.itch.io/to-ash-and-ember/devlog/366898/progress-report-rituals-and-rites. Still in the middle of designing the UI and game systems for it but I'm feeling pretty good about the speculative design of it so far. Might still change stuff once I get to actually start playing with it, though.

Anyway, here's a screenshot of me trying to identify a slaughtered god by a whisper, a memory, and a star I got while playing through Flowers in the Mist. I can tell from it that God 1 or 3 is the Resurrecting God so I paid some time and rolls to reveal their identity. I've got a devcheat on so I saw that the third item's aspect of Growth was 'exclusively owned by the Resurrecting god' so I basically got told who the resurrecting god was. I'm thinking I might make that an ability or a perk or something later on, along with a bunch of other choices possible for this screen to make this part of the game faster/easier/more buff-y.



SimpleDungeons are in and working. You can complete mysteries with them too now. Mysteries aren't properly starting with simpledungeons yet though; you still have to walk over there and enter the place. I'll be adding a bunch of features to SimpleDungeons next, once I get Rituals up and running.

Once Rituals are up and SimpleDungeons are going, I'll probably start finally building the 'intro/tutorial' scenario so the game can start 'in media res' like all the cool games do.

Firgof fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Apr 8, 2022

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