SLARPG: General update August 2021 (Patreon)

It's time for another monthly update! This one is more exciting than usual because it has SCREENSHOTS! Wow!!

Yes, for once, I actually have something to show instead of the usual "I've been working on spoiler stuff so I can't show you anything." That's because I've returned to an area that I've shown off previously to make some big changes. And that area is Noel's Sanctuary!

Longtime followers of the project may remember a character named Noel, a plant elemental, and their little sanctuary in the forest. Quite a bit has changed since the first time I shared this area! Originally, the Sanctuary was nothing more than a location where you'd talk to Noel for their sidequest. Back in the early days when the game had fewer than ten NPCs to talk to, that felt like a significant piece of content, but now? Not so much. As the scope of the game has ballooned over the last few years, I've also needed room to stick more NPCs that wouldn't quite fit in elsewhere. Plus, Bee ended up writing an excellent track for the Sanctuary that was way too good (and too long) to use for a bare bones location that you'd spend so little time in.

And so, it was decided ages ago to expand Noel's Sanctuary into a full-fledged settlement! The screenshot above shows one corner of the revamped area. (Noel is still there, don't worry, they just stand elsewhere.) I use the term "settlement" instead of "town" because "town" implies that there's, you know, houses and stuff, whereas the Sanctuary is a place where adventurers congregate in the ruins with some vendors and a place to rest. But make no mistake, this area will soon have plenty of new NPCs to talk to, like what you saw with Greenridge in the demo! More about that very, very soon...

In addition, now that the Uncanny Valley (the area where Noel's Sanctuary is located) is my main focus, I've once again touched up its tileset. Here's a comparison between its original look a few years ago and how it looks today to show how far the project has come:

I feel like once a year I take a little time to tweak the Valley to bring it up to the ever-increasing standards set by the rest of the game, but this will hopefully be the last time I need to do it as we continue to near the finish line.

Speaking of which, we might be getting close to the point where we can share our projected release window. Maybe... It's still way too early to share a specific release date, but we might almost be ready to narrow it down to a span of months rather than a vague "when it's done." As always, I'll keep y'all posted!