The developers behind Floatlands have released an update on the development of their upcoming, not-quite Steampunk, crafting title. The latest development focus was based around NPCs, the game’s tutorial, and vendors.
Following a month-long absence, the developers of Floatlands -Studio Techtrics- have released an update covering their current work on the upcoming Steampunk-ish crafting title.
Floatlands, for those unfamiliar with it the game, takes place in a shattered world which never transitioned past the cultural Victorian era, despite technology plodding forwards. What this means is that players find themselves on floating, fragmented islands occupied by rural agricultural buildings, yet also musket wielding robots.
The update, the 48th they’d issued, detailed several new elements coded into the game: NPCs with persistent relationships, Human vendors who can buy and sell raw junk and expensive rarities, and also the foundations of a tutorial system. Something the game was very obviously lacking during its previous showcasings.
You can find the gist of the update below, direct from the blog,
“VENDORS – One of many human NPCs will work as a vendor which buys or sells goods (either useless junk or rarities that cost alot).
JUNK ITEMS & NEW SHOTGUN – Andrej prepared a collection of junk items that will be found throughout the world, like empty cans, bottles, lanterns…You can also take a look at his newly redesigned pump action shotgun.
NPCs RELATIONSHIP & LAST SEEN POSITION – Vili has improved NPCs ‘Relationship’ because our current robots ingame (humanoid robots) are not clever enough. He is also working on the ‘last seen position’ behaviour.
TUTORIAL WITH HINTS – Mito created some hand drawings for the tutorial system with hints. Hints and these drawings will pop up when interacting with certain world elements.”
With a 2018 beta date currently predicted we’re not expecting to see many updates from the title just yet, although the team have done an admirable job since the game’s announce last year. There’s a lot that yet remains to be seen from the game, including the promise of a kind of said tower defence aspect which is to come into play at night. Regardless of this, the developer has ample time until the planned open beta.
Floatlands is expected to launch for Windows PC in 2018, there has -as of yet- been no talk about console platforms, however the games’ publisher Excalibur Games have shown themselves to be exceptionally capable of organising ports.
