Welcome to the eighth edition of our monthly developer blog! We want to start by saying a huge thank you for all the feedback we’ve received during the playtest so far. Your insights have been invaluable in helping us improve the game, and we’re excited to share how they’ve shaped our most recent patch.

Seekers can now experience a new tutorial questline, new items and NPCs, seamless web3 onboarding, key features like Venari Ascension, and more.

Narrative

• Developed a tutorial questline to introduce players to Caerras and the Kore Outbreak.
• Added new side quests that explore the impact of the outbreak on various NPCs.
• Laying the foundation for future main questline expansions into the Glowing Forest and beyond.

Art

• Created environmental assets for Base and Arbitrum expansions, Squalor Grounds, and Tectarian Groves.
• Designing new NPCs to support upcoming quests and storylines.
• Created visuals for the new Ascension Terminal and Mailbox.

Game Design

• Introduced a new tutorial area to improve the first-time user experience.
• Added various new items, such as player character buff items and pheromones.
• Revisited combat pacing to address player feedback. 

Engineering

• Integrated Sequence for seamless web3 onboarding.
• Introduced Venari Ascension through the Ascension Terminal.
• Implemented new features like the mailbox system, day and nighttime spawning, and optimizations for the tutorial area.

Read ahead to see how the narrative team is improving the player experience with a new tutorial questline and adding side quests that introduce Seekers to Caerras and the Kore Outbreak.

Narrative: Creating and Expanding Questlines

By Mr. Stidz

To help new players ease into the world, the narrative team has been developing a comprehensive tutorial questline. This introduces Seekers to Caerras and the Kore Outbreak, which has affected Venari and the environment, setting the stage for their journey. These quests complement the existing faction questlines from Tecta Horizons, providing a smooth transition into the larger world.

We've also created various new side quests ranging from scout quests, where Seekers have to help researchers, to learning more about how people within Caerras were affected by the Kore Outbreak.

Looking ahead, we're excited to start working on laying the foundation for expanding the main questline further into the Glowing Forest and new areas that Seekers will soon discover. As players progress, they’ll uncover more about various landmarks within Caerras and face new trials that will shape the course of their journey.

But for now, let’s have a look at some of the new assets the art team has worked on for future locations.

Art: Building Assets for Upcoming Locations and Features

By Ven

The art team has worked on bringing exciting visual elements to Caerras, making sure each new feature feels immersive and polished.

In addition to areas like Squalor Grounds and Tectarian Groves in the works, Seekers can already explore the new expansions to the Base and Arbitrum regions and the demo version of Soneium.

To support new gameplay features from the game design team, we’ve created a variety of gatherables (e.g., boulders, trees, and bushes) from which players will need to collect materials to craft new items.

Heart and Bollidium Crystals, rare variants of the Heart and Bollidium Ores.

Flowering Buds, Swerte Hyphae and Cordiam Hyphae, rare variants of Flowering Grass, Swerte Mushroom and Cordiam Mushroom.

As the narrative team continues expanding on the main questline, the art team has been creating new NPCs to complement these quests. These characters will play key roles in the upcoming main quest storyline and quests you encounter.

The art team has also been working on visual elements for other new features, including the Ascension Terminal and mailbox, ensuring these assets fit the overall environment.

With the release of Venari Ascension, we have also been creating videos of Venari that will be displayed on different web3 marketplaces. 

And finally, here’s a sneak peek at one of the new Venari we have been working on.

Game Design: Expanded Crafting with New Items and Recipes

By Ardoyn

For this update, the game design team's goal is to give everyone coming to Caerras a clearer sense of direction and purpose from the very start. To achieve this, we are introducing a new tutorial area to offer an improved first-time user experience for new Seekers unfamiliar with the game’s mechanics.

Our other focus has been designing the layout of various quests, resources, and Venari in two new locations that expand the Base and Arbitrum regions. The new resources in these locations allow players to craft various new items.

Among the many exciting additions are special pheromones that increase the spawn rates of Venari, including Hybrid (Ice, Lightning, Magma, and Nature) and regular elements.

Ice, Lightning, Magma, and Nature, element pheromones.

We’ll closely monitor the data and feedback on these items as they aim to lessen the burden of finding specific Venari variants, like the notorious Nature Saurum.

We’ve also been reviewing all of the feedback gathered so far from the ongoing playtest and worked on several key adjustments. One area we revisited is combat, where we ramped up the pace of battles through a combat patch. This includes lower cooldowns, a revision of the damage balance between basic attacks and abilities, and more.

And, of course, we’ll be looking to hear everyone’s feedback and continue iterating to ensure the gameplay feels more fluid in upcoming updates.

Engineering: Web3 Integration and Upcoming Features

By Architect

In preparation for our playtest update, the engineering team worked on integrating key features that shape the onboarding process for players to engage with web3 elements of the game.

The first is the integration of Sequence, an all-in-one development platform for building web3 games. Integrating with Sequence's SDK allows players to easily log in using email while seamlessly embedding a non-custodial wallet for every user, fully embedded and invisible for a streamlined web3 experience.

With this set in place, we are also excited to introduce the Ascension Terminal, allowing you to ascend your Venari and grant unique in-game buffs. Ascending Venari also mints them on-chain, allowing them to be traded on the web3 marketplace. This first version of the playtest is on a testnet environment.

In addition to the web3 aspects, we also worked on several in-game features:

• New mailbox system to communicate with players, offer compensation, and deliver in-game rewards.
• Improvements to the tutorial area to guide new players more effectively.
• Fresh set of gatherables from the game design team have been introduced.
• Introduction of day and nighttime spawning of Venari.
• Lastly, player character buffs through consumables, such as increased movement speed, to accommodate new items.

We’ve also been pushing several adjustments and bug fixes to the current playtest environment, some of which include quests resetting incorrectly, players getting stuck in certain locations, and hexes being improperly marked as obstacles.

We are also working on larger optimizations to ensure a smoother playtest experience, fast travel within locations, and more in future updates. We’ll cover these in detail in the next developer blog—so stay tuned!

Join the open playtest today to experience the gameplay firsthand, and be on the lookout for additional future content updates! Until then, we encourage you to share your feedback and let us know which features you would like to see in future updates.

Start Playing Here

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.