Did you know that when Notrium was released back in 2003 I continued working on the game for nearly two years? Most people played the first released version. That wasn't because they wanted to (I bet they would have wanted the latest version), but because the new versions didn't get as far and wide as the first version. I simply didn't have time to track down every site offering the first version, and every compilation CD with an old Notrium version. It was very frustrating, because I knew that the hard work I put into the later versions simply didn't get seen by people trying the game out. Notrium modders had the same problem, people trying out a mod might have had an old version of the game that wasn't supported by the mod. I wish I had thought of automated updates back then! I just spent two whole days making a working update system. Simply put, it notifies you when a new version of the game comes, and updates it if you allow it to. It will ask you for admin permission (only if you have them), so it's compatible with installing the game to the Program Files folder on Windows 7. The updater even restarts the game once you're done, so an update is only one click away! This means we'll handle your updates from the next version onwards! From then on the lucky Driftmoon players (yes, the game is available here!) will be sure to get the latest version automatically when it is released! I'm planning on reusing parts of the code I've created for a fanciful mod distribution system. My idea is that all Driftmoon mods could be distributed through the game, all you'd need to do to install a new mod would be to click one button.  

We've received so much feedback through the ingame feedback button that I've lost count. Amazingly most of it has been unique, there have only been a couple of people reporting the same error, positive comment or idea. We've been putting all that feedback to good use! For example I've drastically changed the day/night cycle, and changed how long the torches work. The image above shows that I've turned all the petrified people grey, just as they should be. Another important addition is that all roofs and ceilings now get out of your way when you get anywhere near a building, allowing you to see where the doors are. I've also tuned the minimap controls, and made it possible to see how much of a torch has been used. There have been dozens of bigger and smaller fixes, making the game easier to use than before. So if you've given us feedback, Thank you! PS. I'm working on a very important feature that's been indirectly requested by many players. Can you guess what it is?

I decided that I liked the fact that you could get Fizz to light your way, but what if I got fed up with him/her buzzing at my face all the time? That's why I added controls for follower distances. You can now tell Fizz your preferred distance.

Have you played any big commercial RPG's lately? Name one that made you really smile. Or surprised you. I have nothing against a game's plot being epic and cool, and involving the world ending. You've got to have some of that in a roleplaying game. But why do most roleplaying games these days have to be so dreadfully serious about it? Are they trying so hard to be cool and mysterious, they forget to be fun? When you're exploring a dungeon in Driftmoon, you don't do that just to level up, or for the loot, you do it because of all the fun you're going to have in that dungeon. You never know what you might find. With Driftmoon we wanted to make a game that keeps surprising the player. We wanted the game to be good-hearted and warm. A game that makes you smile. That's a huge goal, but I think we've done pretty well so far. A few new screenshots. See more here. Here are a couple of comments we've received for the latest alpha (these are from our last newsletter), in case you haven't seen them already:

A new version of Driftmoon approaches! In fact, it's already here! As before, preorderers can access it on the secret download page. If you haven’t preordered yet, you can still get your copy for 20% off! [Update] Check out the trailer! The most visible change is the improved plot, with the addition of the new starting level. It gives the game a much more fleshed out background story, along with a better idea of what the game is about. The new talent system is worth mentioning, with many unique combat skills and passive talents. I've been playing with the more advanced combat skills, and fighting the nasties has definitely become more interesting. There are critical hits, evasive maneuvers, various skills that affect groups of enemies. My favourite is the Arrow Rain Mastery, which reminds me of the legendary triple crossbow in Ultima. I've also noticed the new random object system makes the game a lot more replayable. Since I have to replay it two times every week, I say it's great!

Game changelog:

• A new level in the start of the game.
• Full Talent tree.
• Recipes can be used to create new items with ingredients.
• Shops.
• Quick Travel. Traveling in Driftmoon was very fast anyway, but this makes it even better.
• Improved terrain and plant graphics.
• Critical hits. Take that, you evil undead monster!
• Enabled VSync by default, for smoother graphics and less CPU usage.
• You can now pick up an Astrolabe to tell the time. There's a quest that needs you to know the time, so it's even partially useful!
• Improved texture caching, requires less video memory. You'll see it as a faster load time when changing levels.
• Feedback button. You can now send feedback directly from the game.
• Stealing prompt. The game now asks if you really want to steal from someone.

Modding changelog:

• Script action to fire a projectile from a trap. For example, see the arrow traps in the tomb level labyrinth.
• The selected object ID is shown in the lower left corner. Useful when you need to know the id for a script.
• Possible to force intro sequences from scripts. For example, see the start of the tomb level.
• Scripted objects are highlighted. No longer need to search for that one scripted object.
• Zooming out in the editor now immediately shows the complete map area, no more waiting for it to render.
• Greatly improved minimap rendering time. From 10 seconds to 1 or better. Not that you will need this very often.
• Added a button to reload all textures. No longer need to restart to see your recent changes to a texture.
• Particles can now have a gravity. For example, see the fountain in the starting village.
• Items can now be placed on moving objects, and they move with them.
• Script activation type StartRandom activates a random script at startup. For example, see the smithy basement, where it's used to select the kind of chests placed there.
• Shop prices can be edited within the shop by pressing +/- on the item. This only works if the level was started from the editor.

Feedback button:

The merchant is now dragging a cart laden with merchandise. I made an important improvement, items can now be placed on moving objects, such as this cart, or a chair. Another addition is that you're now prompted when stealing. So if you try to pick up the items on the merchant's cart, the game asks whether you really want to steal his health potion.

What would a roleplaying game be without those little shop and their curious, possibly useful merchandise? I'm speaking metaphorically of course, the plain truth is that removing the shops from most games means you'd have no place to sell your loot, and no place to get a refill of health potions. Sound familiar?

From a typical game design perspective shops are money sinks. The player gets money and items for killing monsters, and they need a way to spend that money, otherwise the money is worthless. And nearly always, the only way to spend the money is to get better gear and more health potions. As far as game designers go, health and mana potions, and other single use items, are the best invention of all time. The player spends their money and they don't get anything more than a bit of health for it. I don't want to do it like that.

You see, the point of a game designer is to make sure the player has an incentive to keep playing. You have to take away his money, so that he feels the need to find more money and play more! This is especially relevant in massive multiplayer games, where you really have to force the player to give up their money, otherwise you get problems with inflation. But the constant deprivation of value from my character always feels like daytime robbery me. In any game I play, I never use single use items. I don't use health potions, I don't use single use wands, I don't even use arrows! I'm the kind of guy who likes to amass a fortune, and never use it before the game ends. Driftmoon must do better than that!

In recent games I've also found an increasing trend in game economies towards more expensive items. Normal items that are prohibitively expensive, or luxury items as some call them. The idea is that once you get it, you can show it to a friend and see their envious looks. I don't really see the point of this in single player games, but they seem to be creeping down from multiplayer games. Well at least you have some place to put your money in. Obviously the items cannot be very useful, just expensive and pretty, otherwise it'd throw off the game balance. But where's the fun in all this? Showing off your fancy character sounds, well, pretty unfun to me. There won't be any useless but expensive items in Driftmoon.

So how are the shops in Driftmoon better? First of all, some types of items can only be found in shops, such as powerful magic armor. Sure, you can eventually find an equally good item on your travels. But it might not be a bad idea to buy that Murdered Man's Helmet the shop owner is showing you. You get a long lasting benefit from buying it, since it'll take a while for you to find a better one, not just a few minutes like it does in many games.

Secondly, some items like ingredients can always be found from the nature, you just have to collect them. But you can also buy them from shops for a pretty cheap price, you're not getting swindled by a merchant selling health potions for a million gold per piece. But if you're like me, and could never think of buying something you only use once, you might still want to do the extra work of collecting the ingredients yourself - it's even a lot of fun since you never know what you're gonna get.

For those of the Modding persuasion: You can open up the shop interface with a simple script in our Incredible Level Editor. Also, you can change the shop prices easily with just + and - when a shop is started through the editor.

I finally got fed up with walking between areas that I've already seen (I've seen everything about a 1000 times!), so here's another one of our recent additions: quick travel! Simply put, you can use quick travel waypoints to travel to a location you've already been to. The only requirement is that no enemies are near you when you want to travel. These are incredibly easy to add in the editor, just create an object with a script to set a waypoint, you only need to think up a name for the location. There's also the added flexibility that since a script can create the waypoint, you can open up new waypoints anywhere you want, even if the player hasn't been there. PS. I optimized the minimap creation in the editor, it's now about a 100 times faster for bigger maps.

Since I've always loved exploration and finding things in games, I wanted to find a way to encourage exploration in Driftmoon. There are a few open spaces here and there with nothing in them except trees, and I decided they needed spicing up. That's why I invented ingredients! Roots, twigs, mushrooms, spices... When you find or buy a recipe, you can use it to combine the ingredients into a new item. I already made recipes for torches and health potions. I'm planning on expanding the system to include arrows and more, if you have any ideas for combined items, just tell me! Of course I couldn't just have my ingredients lying out in the open. Well I tried, but it felt silly somehow. So I invented ingredient mines! You can find a pearl in an inland oyster, you can find green salt on the surface of a green rock. Once you mine the ingredient, it slowly replenishes. Then I needed to find a good way to balance the amount of the ingredient mines available. I decided to make their locations random. All I have to do is place location markers on the map where interesting stuff should be found, and the game handles the rest, according to the probabilities I've set. Ingredients wasn't enough of course, I wanted to add more things to find. So I used the same random location system. Now the location markers I've placed can be bushes, rocks, plants, chests, barrels, seashells, old boots, Snatcher nests, Deathcap mushrooms (which act as dim portable light sources!) or skeletons. I can add any number or strange and rare things, and they exist in random locations in the game. Next I'm going to make some shopkeepers...