Hey guys! The past two months have been incredibly busy, so I apologize for not writing more updates. I’ve been traveling a lot recently in order to promote Dwell, and we’ve been working hard to implement every suggestion and piece of feedback we received.

So first things first… Minecon was amazing. We had a booth on the show room floor next to some other amazing indie games and a lot of great people from the Minecraft community came around and checked out Dwell. We got feedback from all ages and demographics– from young kids, to teenage Minecraft modders, to other prominent game developers. One of the best parts was that a lot of people came back multiple times to play because they wanted to see what new things had been built. Because everyone at the event was used to sandbox creative games, Dwell came naturally to them and they had a lot of questions and feedback for us. We also reached a new milestone– Minecon was the first event that I’ve attended where most players reported the game being “fun” instead of just “having potential”. That’s a huge step for us and means we can focus on moving forward, building on our foundation.

The month since I’ve been back has been the most productive in Dwell’s development. Invigorated by all the feedback we received, I’ve made numerous fixes and worked on things like animal AI, item equip graphics, a new networking library, and a new combat system.

Here is what our animals look like!

Our new combat system is simple, yet deep. With a weapon equipped, you can hold down left click to charge an attack and hold right click to shield. Quick clicks create a jab, while held down clicks create a powerful swipe that breaks past shields. Different weapon types (spears, swords, etc) will have different charged attack radii and damages. Also, we have a buffs system in place which leaves room for enchanted weapons like poisoned blades and fire swords.

I had fun one day and decided to add visible item equips. Here is what the player looks like while equipping an axe and swinging at a tree…

Using the same techniques as visible item equips, I also added an outfits system. Our outfits will correspond to different roles instead of material tiers, so instead of “Iron Armor” or “Silk Robe”, you’ll have “Warriors Armor” and “Lords Robe”. We’ll also have outfits for people who want to roleplay as pirates, assassins, or traveling merchants, and they will boost relevant stats. We are avoiding Tolkien high fantasy in favor of ancient folklore, but here is what a wizard’s or magician’s outfit would look like…

As you may have noticed, a lot of our actions lack some tweens, animations and particles (like the tree falling down, etc). Luckily, I’ve also completed a new particle system which takes into account different particle physics (ex. falling leaves/feathers, exploding pebbles, and rising flames). Here is an example of those new particles…

There’s a lot more we’ve worked on too, but it would take too long to explain! Going forward, I’ll be working on that progressions/stats system which I’ve procrastinated on for a while. We also have to redo some of our menus (with server selection, settings, etc) and add a new character creation screen.

Finally, after we complete those tasks, we’ll let in a new group of testers! It could be anywhere from a couple weeks to a month, but we want to make sure that the game has enough content to occupy everyone for more than a couple hours and has an overall goal to work towards.

Thank you to everyone who’s been following along, and thank you to everyone we’ve met at the conferences we’ve attended!

Cheers~
Brady