So first, I’d like to announce that Dwell just got accepted to show at Minecon! Michael and I are very excited about the opportunity because it will be the first time we have shown Dwell at a major conference in almost 2 years. A week afterwards, we’ll be headed down to San Diego for Twitchcon in order to talk to streamers. If you’re going to either of these events, please stop by our booth or arrange a meeting with us– we’d love to talk to everyone we can!

In development news, I have been improving Dwell’s feel, accessibility, and input. In other words, I want to make sure that everyone will understand how to play the game when they boot it up for the first time. Although most of these changes are not major feature additions or flashy new systems, they have improved the game by lot.

One way we’ve tested Dwell’s accessibility was by showing at a local Washington DC indie developer’s showcase– we received lots of amazing feedback! Since then, we’ve been working nonstop to improve any confusing systems. As a result, actions are now action-oriented, not menu-oriented. Left click interacts with objects and performs a default action based on what you’re holding. Holding an axe? It will chop a tree. Holding a pickaxe? It will mine an ore node. Right click pulls up a menu in order to access more advanced options, like reading an object’s description or accessing an object’s options panel.

We also condensed forests’ foliage generation in order to give the world more life. Previously, everything felt spread apart and sparse. With vegetation condensed, it forms procedurally generated forest clearings which will guide you.

Soon, we’ll be adding more tips and description text to the items and menus in the game, and improving the inventory system.

Finally, I would like to briefly explain how our stats/skills progression system will work, and why. For most of early August I was trying to prototype a progressions system that would fit within Dwell’s design goals, and I even implemented a few placeholder systems (skill trees, perk unlocks, etc) to test them out. Eventually, we settled with a “crafting skills” system which progresses as you craft items, and includes skills like “alchemy”, “construction”, and “cooking”. Each crafting skill has crafting recipes which you can unlock. If you have any questions about how it will work, feel free to ask me personally in our Discord channel!

Thanks for reading~
Brady