Good day, Traveler!

Before I get into the details of the Summer Skies update, I want say a few words about the Autumn Valley update. Originally I was planning to release the Autumn Valley during this summer, but giving it some thought, I’ve decided to delay its release. The reason behind this decision is that the Autumn Valley is like the Great Forest; instead of progressing the main story, it is an area that connects Twin Falls to the next story area, the Winter Wilds. While the Autumn Valley has its own secrets, I didn’t feel like it would offer enough for those who are waiting to take the next steps to follow the main quest. Therefore the Autumn Valley has become a part of a bigger content update, The Great North update.

The Great North update will bring three different overworld areas: Spruce Pass, Autumn Valley and Winter Wilds. It will continue the main story and add some side content. I would have loved to show some screenshots of the winter wilds, but unfortunately I wasn't able to finish the necessary assets in time. I have been drawing so much assets lately, that my wrist has been aching and I've had to give it some rest from time to time. This has slowed the drawing process, but it has given me time to work on some other aspects of the game. I will make a proper announcement of the update in the future. The good news is that once The Great North update is released, there will be only one overworld area left waiting to be finished. Yes, the full release is getting closer!

Now, let's focus on the update at hand. Summer Skies update brings some new clouds, the sun and the moon. Every overworld area has now reworked sky with more clouds, and this time they are further away in the sky. I've finally added sprites for the sun and the moon, but unfortunately they are just static sprites with some glow. I did some experiments with moving sprites and that started to be a bit too much performance wise, so I gave up on that idea. Nevertheless there is some change happening with them: In the morning the sun is in the eastern sky, in the daytime it is in the southern sky and finally in the evening it is on western sky. The Moon appears in the northern sky at night. It may not be the fanciest solution, but at least they are there now.

The town of Pramea has gone through some redesigning to improve the performance. There is now a proper town wall around it and the four stone blocks on the town square are now gone. Also the ground textures are new. These changes give some character to Pramea, and makes the area run a little bit smoother. I will try to find some other ways to improve the performance on the town, but at the moment I'm all out of ideas.

The last visible changes are the new title screen and the loading screen. The title screen uses now assets from the 'Well of the Ancients', the first main dungeon, instead of the optional dungeon, 'The Old Tower'. RPG Maker's default loading spinner is replaced with animated 'now loading...' text that is more in line with game's presentation.

Rest of the changes, enhancements and fixes are found in the Patch Notes below.

Patch Notes

New:

• Lots of clouds

• Sun and Moon sprites

• Pramean town wall

• Ground textures in the town of Pramea

• Title screen

• Loading screen

• Enhanced overworld sprites for nikaru and possessed nikaru

• Redesigned skies in every overworld area

Changes:

• Castle can be seen from the Riverside North

• Mountains can be seen from the Twin Falls Forest South

• Changes in the town of Pramea's layout

• Camping and passing time until morning passes the time until shops are open

• Removed two water puddles and two divri mobs to improve performance in the Islands of the Prophets

• Corrected lots of grammar and spelling errors in some of the npc dialog and item descriptions

• Enemy flee mechanic added to impish spawn, divri and lake rat

• Some minor adjustment to river water animation

• Added variety to the background trees in the Great Forest and Pramean area

• Removed some unnecessary stuff, such as test maps

• Optimized the enemy mob events in every overworld area

Fixes:

• Travel crystal bug that messed the day/night cycle when teleporting to Pramea from the Wizard's Tower or the Islands of the Prophets

• Missing step sounds on two squares near the Evertree in the Islands of the Prophets

I think I fixed one or two other bugs, but I forgot to write them down and I can't remember what they were. Otherwise, this is it for now.

Thank you and see you in Twin Falls!

Jani/Witchgrove Games