Hey everyone! Time for a new update. We've got some exciting news about our Steam page, and a new video, highlighting some of the progress we've made. Here goes!
Steam page
Exciting news: our Steam page is live! Steam is where Dungeon Alchemist will be distributed on release. If you're as excited about Dungeon Alchemist as we are, please hit the "Add to your wishlist" button on our Steam page and let all your friends know. Wishlists are a huge factor in Steam ratings, so you'd really be helping us out.
If you don't have a Steam account yet, now would be a good time to make one. You'll be needing a Steam account to install Dungeon Alchemist later, anyway.
Development progress
We're working full-steam on Dungeon Alchemist itself, and things are coming together! We've been working on new assets, and lately we've been focusing on the Mansion Theme. Whether you're visiting a wealthy merchant's villa or investigating the creepy village recluse who inherited a vast estate, the mansion theme got you covered!
Here's Wim building a small manor from scratch:
Some things to note:
The windows and doors are placed automatically. This is part of the AI: it will try to find a logical spot to put doors and windows, based on examples for each room type. For example, it will never generate a room that is not accessible from the outside. Of course, if you DO want to have a hidden room without doors, you can always delete the door afterwards!
We've added support for what we call "multitile" doors and windows. These are big doors or windows that cover more than one tile on the grid. You can see us placing a double door in the video around the 0:50 mark. This allows us to make monumental archways and gates, so your dragon boss may hide behind a door he will actually fit through ;).
We worked really hard on finding a mouse controlled interface that's easy to use, even for people who use Apple's magic mouse (which completely lacks a clickable middle mouse button). We noticed several other tools on the market just assume you've got 3 mouse buttons, and can't be properly used if you don't. To make our interface as accessible as possible, we studied all kinds of related games/apps on the market, and finally settled on something we think is both easy to use, powerful and convenient. You can see Wim smoothly zipping around the map in the video using only the mouse.
What's next?
We're still working hard on the AI system, and we hope to show more of it in the next few updates. We'll keep producing new assets, and we're looking into the outdoors theme. Coming up next:
Placing objects on other objects (like food on a table, books in a bookcase,...). Just think of the things you'll be stacking!
A more structured way to find objects - with filters by type (Our library's taking on Gargantuan proportions, so this seemed somewhat vital).
Changing the state of an object (Close a door, Open a chest, Open a door, Close a chest, and so much more!)
Stay tuned for more, next month! And while you're at it, join us on our Discord. It's where the magic (and no small amount of punnery) happens, and we'd love to have you join the conversation!