This week it's been Anne's turn to work on Driftmoon, and she got a bit carried away with this idea of a hockey minigame. Who gave her the idea? Own up!
The new areas are progressing well, I hear, more on that soon. 
When buying games, people often have a look at playing time estimates to see how much gaming time they'll get for their money. But there are many problems with this approach. More is not always better, the same game spread over more hours doesn't make the game any better. If a game playing time is inflated by useless grinding for 200 hours, only a select few will like that more. And of course, if you have a huge backlog of games, shorter games might actually be preferable. With Driftmoon our target has always been to get as much fun and adventure into each minute as possible.
Early this year we started collecting playing times from Driftmoon, and in the end of May we added a new area into the game, Nomon Docks. Now that the new area has been out for some time, we can have a look at how much playing time you're getting with the current alpha version of Driftmoon. Only one playtime per given player was counted into the average. Here are the results (averages updated on June 17th): The average playing time (saves and reloads excluded) is currently 8 hours 9 minutes, with variation between 4h 42min and 18h 58min.
And here are some detailed statistics, for those among you interested in them: The average was shorter for those playing on the easiest level of difficulty (6h 23min), than for the three harder difficulty levels (8h 59min). Those playing their first playthrough had on average a longer playtime (8h 18min), than those who were on their second or more playthrough of the game (7h 41min). For the players who had discovered and passed most of the quests, the average playtime was again longer (8h52min), than for those who had passed less of the optional quests (7h 19min). I'm actually glad to see that the playtimes for the easy mode were noticeably shorter than for the other modes, because it means it's working both for those who like to really think the battles through, and for those who like to play the game faster, and more as an adventure.
Keep in mind that Driftmoon isn't complete yet. There's still a huge chunk of the game missing, and the rest of the adventure is coming soon! Happy days and jubilation!
Game Changelog
- The Quiver of Jagged Arrows now works.
- Fixed bug with pausing the game in combat resulting in combat sped up.
- The sound elemental will now hit back if shot with a ranged weapon.
- Fixed random words being randomly offset by one pixel in the dialogue screen.
- The required level for a talent was not shown when you were at the level immediately before it.
- Word will now help you fight Mitten.
- Portraits for Robert and Seria.
Modding Changelog
- New script action: createRotateJoint
- New script condition: angleIsBetween
The new Driftmoon alpha is now downloadable! If you haven't preordered yet, this is a great time to support the development of a unique indie roleplaying game! If you'd rather wait until Driftmoon is ready, you can always sign up to be notified when the game is released.
Welcome to Nomon Docks! Nomon is the new major area available with the new version, where you will find the Steam Whale Company. You get to meet Sarah, Seria, and many others, including Eelie the incredibly shy Zap-Eel. My own favourite is Captain Catdog, who is always ready with a new exclamation. Skinny sumowhales! Loopy lowlife Lobsters! Just watch out when he sneezes.
So if you haven't tried Driftmoon yet, try out our long, free demo!
If you've already played through the previous alpha, you can load your last saved game, and head straight on to Nomon Docks. But if you definitely want to catch every new little thing in the beginning of the adventure (and make sure your character is developed to the max), you're naturally free to start from the beginning as well.
Modding Changelog
- Negating a script condition now helpfully shows the negated effect. For example negating the condition "itemCountIsLess" now makes it "itemCountIsEqualOrMore".
- Race variable affectedByDifficulty affects whether a particular race of bots is affected by the selected player difficulty level.
- SetVariable, MultiplyVariable, and AddToVariable calls now handle health correctly. A bot can be killed by using the calls, and the health is capped at the maximum for each bot.
- Roof type objects can now have an alpha value.
- The alpha setting in the editor is now a multiplier used on top of the scripted alpha fades.
- Object texture size setting now affects wall edges if they don't have a top layer.
- Script action: setPortrait. Useful for changing portraits within dialogue.
Coming soon: The Lost Island of Eione! Meet the horrible undead man!
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