Greetings Khelim!
Since our last community update, our team has expanded quite a bit, and we have been hard at work on many different parts of the game. As you all know, there have been technical challenges for us to overcome, and we’re slowly but steadily reaching a point where our work is not just happening on a systems and tools level that is mostly out of sight to our players, but where we can actively put out new gameplay content, and expand the world of Braided Shore.
We are now at a point where we have a wonderfully diverse team of engineers, artists, writers, user experience, level and audio designers, and this has enabled us to work on many features and events in parallel. For now, we will focus on the work that’s been done in recent months, but know that you’ll get to know more members of our team soon!
We have put a lot of work into our backend, development tools, and improving the game performance overall. This work has enabled us to finally inch our way to opening the gates to not only Kasa, but other new areas in Braided Shore as well. Right this moment, there are ways to sneak into the locked city, and as the mysteries of Kasa develop, you will find new stories to pursue, and new areas to explore. There are both technical and narrative reasons as to why we’re rolling out the city in these “chapters”, but we’re confident that the slow burn will be worth it, and we hope that you’ll find the new adventures rewarding.
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Before we get into some of the other features being worked on, we have a note from the narrative team:
Greetings from the scholars of Braided Shore!
Kasa is a city with a long history. With parts stretching beyond even the Asken Folk’s arrival on Braided Shore. Even though parts of its history happened many ages ago, it can still be felt in her inhabitants and current events. A dire incident has recently closed down the city, and has impacted not just the ones stuck outside, but also the ones trapped within the city walls.
With the helpful recent addition of a new Quest and Flag system, we now have a lot more tools to work with in order to design more reactive, varied and branching events. With these new tools we have been hard at work, writing and designing events and quests for the recent addition of Kasa and beyond!
Just the Old Town district of Kasa has currently surpassed the Event count of the town of Crossings, with more being worked on and added in coming updates. It may take many trips into the locked city to uncover all her secrets and lore. Expect to meet Moonsoakers, Alley Grocers, Visiting Historians and more.
Other parts of Braided Shore have also received new events with new items, along with updates to older ones. A Mystical Gravedigger, an Old Travelling Smith and a Fall Gem Searcher are just a few of the additions and updates to the outside.
To complement the new fishing update that we rolled out a little bit ago, we have also included 20 new fish and fishable creatures to the waters around Braided Shore, with many Prize Catches hidden in certain out-of-the-way locations for the brave and talented Fisher to discover.
-Simon, Narrative Designer
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As you can tell from this update, many of the features being worked on overlap in some way. The fishing update ties into a bigger collaborative effort to introduce cooking to the game. This work is not limited to only the cooking itself, but includes a complex system of recipes that are culturally significant to the inhabitants of Braided Shore, as well as inventory updates to support the feature.
Similarly, many disciplines have come together to design an in-game journal. Since many of the Book of Travels developers are also active players of the game, we’re well acquainted with the habit of keeping a notebook on your desk as you play, to take notes on both areas that you’ve explored and interactions you’ve had on your travels. Our goal is to create a journal in-game, and that we can update it with new features overtime, so that you have proper in-game tools to chronicle your journey.
But wait, there’s more! (we say, as if we were a peddler found at the outskirts of Crossings, trying to trade you overpriced umbrellas on a sunny day)
For the past couple of sprint cycles, we have been able to focus on combat once more. It’s a long process of reviewing what we already have, redesigning some of it, and creating completely new animations and ways of fighting. It is also very rewarding work, though, and it’s bringing us one step closer to finalising the vision that we set out with back in 2019.
We’re very excited to show you the things we’ve been working on during the first half of the year, and as we get closer to releasing these completely new features for the game, you can expect in-depth looks at them, both through updates such as this, and videos.
Until next time, take care, fellow travellers, and may your tea never grow cold.
Best wishes,
Eira & the team at Might and Delight
