Welcome to the fourth edition of our monthly developer blogs. Firstly, we would like to thank everyone who participated in the closed playtest and shared their feedback. After carefully considering your suggestions to improve the game experience, we are excited to unveil our new crafting and gathering system. Read ahead to see how we are bringing this system to life in future playtests.

Here’s a quick run-through of what we have been working on:

Narrative

• Drafting lore for in-game gatherables.
• Concepting fast travel mechanic.

Art

• Creating visuals for new gatherables and mineable items.
• Refining the art for new environments to seamlessly weave into the game's narrative.

Design

• Introduction of the crafting and gathering game mechanics.
• Strategic deployment of Venari for resource gathering.

Engineering

• Optimizing game engine performance.
• Optimizing internal tooling for future feature development.
• Client-side optimizations for a smooth gameplay experience.

Starting with the narrative team, let's see how they are working to lay the foundation for the new crafting and gathering game loop.

Narrative: Items and Resources for Gathering

By Mr. Stidz

In order to set the scene for game design and art to start working on our crafting and gathering systems, the narrative team has been focusing on the lore for each item and resource that will be featured. The names of the items and resources have been set up to ensure lore accuracy. In turn, internal and external descriptions for the items and resources are being crafted to provide the art team with adequate descriptions to create them and align with the design team's vision.

Parallel to this, we are laying the groundwork for worldbuilding in Caerras, with a focus on the functionality and mechanics of a fast travel system. Next up, the art team and how they are bringing this new game loop to life visually with some early previews.

Art: Gatherables Design

By Ven

Collaborating closely with the narrative and design teams, the art team has been working on creating various artworks currently in both the concept and production phases. Here’s a glimpse at a few of these:

• We’ve been working hand in hand with the design team to create visuals for mineable items that will be featured in the new Items tab in the inventory.

Mineable ores in their resource form in the inventory view.

• Additionally, we have also created concept art for some of the new gatherables that Seekers will interact with in future playtests.

Concept art for Oria berry gatherables.

• Foliage within Tecta Horizons and the various biomes in Glowing Forest are both being polished.

In-game models for foliage within Glowing Forest area.

In addition to these, we have been working on the concept art for various landmarks beyond Tecta Horizons. These environments are being refined to ensure they align with the narrative team’s vision. That wraps up the updates from the art team. Now, let’s hear how the design team plans to integrate these gatherables into the game.

Design: Introducing Crafting and Gathering

By Ardoyn

First off, I want to thank each and every one of you who logged into the December playtest. The feedback and internal data have been invaluable for us in iterating upon combat and other systems.

One of the feedback points that resonated with us the most was the request for more depth and more content. And internally, on the design team, we agreed! We have already been working on the next major game mechanic behind the scenes, and we’re super excited to announce it to you guys: Crafting and Gathering. Spawning in active nodes throughout the world, gatherable resources will be ripe for the picking by players, utilizing the new Venari gathering skills. Initially, there will be three different gathering skills: Mining, Foraging, and Logging. Through these skills and gathering of resources, players will be able to collect many different items that can ultimately be used to craft unique and powerful items that will help the players during their expeditions.

Careful readers might have noticed the term “Venari gathering skill” used above, and they would be correct. A unique aspect of our gathering system is that gathering is not done by the players themselves but rather by the deployment of Venari. Players can assign their Venari to gather resources at a gatherable node and then continue exploring. The Venari will autonomously continue the task and return to the player upon completion. In doing so, we’re giving players the strategic choice of adventuring with less than a full roster of Venari in favor of saving time and maximizing efficiency. Be careful, though; there might be some wild Venari that get… aggressive.

Furthermore, each major zone in the world presents different tiers of gatherables, scaling according to the zone’s difficulty level. Every Venari, regardless of its strength or skill, can gather the lowest tier of resources. This allows new and seasoned players to easily start in the gathering system.

Moreover, different Venari have distinct gathering and exploration identities, making them more suitable for certain tasks or accessing certain gatherables. Players can experiment with different Venari combinations and strategies to find their most efficient gathering use cases. The resources gathered can be utilized in the upcoming crafting system, which features many items that will help players during their expeditions.

We are excited to see how players will interact with the new crafting and gathering systems and are eager to share more about the crafting, items, and gatherables. But for now, stay tuned until the next issue from the design team!

Engineering: Performance and Optimization

By Architect

In this cycle, the engineering team has focused their efforts on improving the backbone of the upcoming open-world exploration gameplay–the game engine itself. Currently, our primary goal is to improve the structure and performance of the engine so that we will have a robust foundation that will allow us to efficiently implement future features on top of the core gameplay. These engine improvements will also allow us to support more in-depth features that the game design team has outlined.

Alongside the engine improvements, the engineers have been working in tandem with the game designers to reimagine how players interact with resources and the upcoming gatherables. This also includes the various inventory and storage interfaces that players will interact with on their journey.

Moreover, we are continuing to upgrade our internal tooling for worldbuilding, allowing the art team, narrative designers, and game designers to expand on game regions more easily and add content. These upgrades are not only about adding content; they will also allow the world to become more immersive through storytelling, exploration, and more player engagement avenues.

Lastly, as we implement more features, we are making sure to prioritize client-side optimizations heavily to make sure that players can experience the gameplay smoothly on mobile and any other devices.

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We really appreciate the enthusiasm shown in our December playtest, and as we open future playtests, we look forward to letting more players experience the new crafting and gathering system.

Stay up-to-date with all the latest happenings in Caerras by exploring our comprehensive Notion introduction, filled with community tutorials and resources.

Additionally, make sure to stay connected with us on our social media channels to keep up with the latest updates.

Compiled and edited by BestPwnz and Vanguardian007 from the Community Team.