Development blog: 0.2.2 March – Before the Story Starts
Hello everyone!
Last time we met was in the closed beta of Journey Online, where with the help of everyone participating we located many, many …. MANY bugs! Along with those pesky bugs, you, the community, also suggested a ton of improvements, which honestly made me happy to see people out there that enjoy the game.
During the closed beta two major patches were released (0.2.1 and 0.2.2) and both of those focused on fast bug fixes and easy improvements that could be implemented in a matter of days. Everyone was in unison that the battle system needed to be further polished and sped up. In the version 0.2.2 I pushed a major improvement of the battle system where turns are faster and more on point with the timeframe of the battle even for smaller fights. So, one could say that the 0.2.2 patch improved on a long-lasting issue with the battle system which made the battles slow and sometimes tedious.
So what is coming up in the following weeks? I am currently working on patch 0.2.3, which will be the patch that will announce the official release of Journey Online on Google Play store, the goal I have been hard art work for about two years now. I feel a bit nervous now that its finally happening, and excited at the prospect of other people enjoying a game that I have made together.
With the release there will be two new Fields with unique items. These fields are Rebels Keep and Elemental Uprising. Both of these Fields will be available in all 5 tiers of difficulty and both of them have their own defenders with a hard boss, the forces of darkness are expecting allies and foes alike!
In the Closed beta, testers pointed out that selling and upgrading items have a bit of an issue with the related costs. Selling items will now bring in much more gold and as in the previous patch, selling them is much more intuitive now. Upgrading the items got a bit of a price bump in the later stages of the upgrade process. The price of an upgrade is influenced by the items power and the items rarity.
One word. Music. Yes! There is BGM (Background music) now and players can change the volume of it in the options. Since the development of Journey Online is more or less a one-man job, I had to look for music elsewhere. I found an amazing BGM pack in the Unity asset store that made my life so much easier. As they say, don’t allow programmers to meddle in art and as such I did not 😊, I hope that in the future, I will be able to present custom music which will give the game a more unique aspect.
There is a ton of other changes and improvements coming with the release, to name a few: Boss monsters now actually look more intimidating, in game FAQ, Alpha and beta rewards for the awesome help that the testers made and a brand-new adventurer: the Gnome Wizard.
The feature that I am currently working on, meaning right now in this moment, yes, this moment, right now! Is to improve how damage numbers pop up on the screen. I made those almost at the start of the first month of development back in 2017 and honestly, they stayed the same since. The new ones will be way flashier and have a nice kick to it!
While I do want to kick things off with a great big sign saying “The game is coming out on this date!”, I really do not want to give an official date of release until I am 100% that the game is up to standards that games today should be, or already are at. when I know for sure we will also be announcing it with a brand-new trailer.
The next blog post will be after the official release of Journey Online, where we will talk about initial reactions and the future of the game!
Alas! Off I go to write more code!
Jure Veler, the Creator of Journey Online