Parts and Pieces (Patreon)

So I have this pile of mechanics, systems, and assets.  If I was putting together a bicycle it would be something like the image above.  The problem is, even though you have all of the components for a bicycle, you can't hop on it and ride anywhere... yet.   With Feign right now it's possible to spawn in, run around, see some cool stuff and see the general shape of things but it doesn't feel like a cohesive game... yet.  

My goal right now is to get a build out in the next few weeks (this might be a little ambitious depending on how things go at the day job but I'm going to push for it as much as I can).  The build I'm going to dial back a little bit.  It'll have the swamp town and a bit of the surrounding overworld.  The focus is going to be on getting that piece of the gameplay loop to feel like a proper game. 

• The town should feel like a small sleepy town in the middle of nowhere.
• People in town will have schedules and should have a bit of feeling of life to them.
• The tavern should be the center of the evening life and the place where everyone goes to drink and socialize.
• Outside of town during the day, the roads should be relatively safe, but at night "dangerous" monsters will spawn in the mists and be aggressive towards the player.
• There will also be things to find and gather outside of town.  This will be a way for the player to possibly make money, solve quests, or (eventually) for crafting.

The basic loop will be for the player to wake up in the tavern, leave town to gather resources, find encounters in the wild, or just explore.  Then when night falls they can try their luck against more difficult encounters and then return to town to socialize at the tavern and then fall asleep and heal.  Then repeat the cycle.  

I have a lot of this together already but it's getting the pieces to fit and then flow properly.  

I'll also have the frog dudes ready in this next build and they'll be wandering around over nearby where their dungeon is going to be.  The dungeon is going to be on the backburner until the build after this one (hopefully it isn't nearly as long between these next builds).  

I think that's pretty much it.  I've got a list of all the general mechanics I want in the game and nearly all of them are done.  Crime and punishment is probably the biggest system that I have left to actually make.  

And a quick day job update... so yeah, things have been a lot more chaotic than I was expecting and my schedule is all over the place.  I've still been working on Feign as much as I possibly can without burning myself out.  I'm still really really hoping that things settle down enough so I can get back into a balanced groove (and a more regular sleep cycle!).

But I just wanted to say thank you to everybody for sticking around and following the project!  All of you are awesome and very appreciated and really help motivate me and keep my morale up.  Thank you!