The Exile of Aphrodisia map system, planned Steam / Itch.io Release Date, and Exile sequel plans (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Sorry for not being too chatty here lately--we've been busy working behind the scenes on The Exile of Aphrodisia on a feature we've been wanting to get in for the upcoming Steam release.

~~~ The Exile of Aphrodisia mapping system ~~~

As you can see in the screenshots, the trail has been made a little less amorphous with the introduction of hexagon-based maps. These maps allow you to see the landscape the party is traversing through to help give a sense of progression throughout an actual world and not just some numbers ticking down.

There are a total of 18 map segments that show the terrain between groups of landmarks for the Grasslands, desert, jungle, and ice roads terrains. Players can toggle between free camera movement to look ahead or behind them and see the trail ahead. Alternatively, players can have the camera follow the party as it traverses the local landscape.

At this time the mapping system is largely cosmetic. It does not alter existing game-play or how encounters are triggered. The party follows the pre-defined trails that run east to west, making detours around geographic features or keeping the party from hostile strongholds, until arriving at the final destination, the City of Niu Heym on Aphrodisia's western coast. We may experiment with this a bit before release, such as trying to ensure encounters spawn relevant to their region on the map (like having river crossings happen near rivers, forest encounters when the party is surrounded by trees, etc). This may lead to balance issues and cause a strange distribution of encounters, however.

Maps can also be turned off entirely to keep presenting the scrolling parallax background if the player desires.

~~~ Release Plans ~~~

We are currently planning on a PC public release date this December in time for Christmas, ideally about a week before. We are aiming for twin releases on Steam and Itch.io with the same price tag, though as stated previously, we are planning on offering Steam or Itch.io keys to Patreon backers with a lifetime pledge above a certain amount.

~~~ Exile Sequel ~~~

April and I (Judoo) have also been discussing our plans for the next Blue Fairy Media project which will be a sequel to The Exile of Aphrodisia, or possibly a prequel. This game will be a more character-driven, player-character focused, RPG-esque experience and will utilize a lot of the feedback we've received over the years from The Exile of Aphrodisia and Transformation Tycoon. The game will utilize a hexagon world map not too dissimilar from what you see in the screenshots here, but will allow the player party to traverse off-road wherever and whenever the player desires--so long as they are up for the challenges that region brings!

 Stay tuned for more on this later!

Questions / comments? Leave a comment here or come join the Blue Fairy Media Discord server: https://discord.gg/NAQR7TSJfE