ARISE v18.00
Summary:
Our 2 main goals in v18.00 are:
Improving random treasure chest rewards to incentivize Treasure Hunting.
Refactor existing systems so ARISE can be updated without always needing to delete old saves.
We improved the treasure chest rewards by adding a bunch of new cosmetic and decoration items. Some items are “seasonal items” that can only acquired during specific times of the year. Seasonal catalogues give exposure to these special items, and new shops allow players to learn about items sooner. (previously shops were hidden behind 2-3 levels of questing, now they are available almost immediately). New shops also give purpose to some of the previously idle buildings in the reef (Anchor Fitness, Shaina’s Barn, Hermy’s House, The Office).
Preventing the deletion of save files is a technical challenge that relies on a few main things:
A controlled index of all important game ids, so that objects referenced by serialized data can be migrated between versions. (quests, items, characters, etc.)
Saving as little state as possible, so that less state has to be migrated between versions. For example, the list of active conversations used to be serialized and saved as quests were actively queued, but now it is computed at runtime based on other game states.
Refactoring the save system to check multiple places for save files, depending on the previous version of the save.
New Features:
Seasonal Items
Seasons now exist in the world of ARISE.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Halloween, Holiday, New Years, Valentines Day, St Pattys Day, 4th of July.
Some shops will have special sections during some seasons.
A Seasonal Catalogue Menu allows players to view the current season, along with its relevant items and how to acquire them.
New Shops:
Hermy’s Junk Drawer (Hermy’s House, miscellaneous)
Anchor Fitness (sports related items)
Shaina’s Barn (farm related Items)
Digging & Treasure Hunting:
The quests that introduced treasure hunting were removed so that players can start treasure hunting sooner. They will recieve the shovel item at the firth hiding spot they encounter, and will be taught how to pick locks as soon as they get to one.
Lock Picking:
Slide Puzzle Lock Picking
Cosmetic Items:
~20 new cosmetic items that can be bought/found and given to characters.
Hand items can now be given to all characters.
A new cosmetic item menu makes it easier to give and take items.
Decoration System:
~ 15 new items.
The camera now scrolls automatically when moving a decoration near the edges of the screen.
Characters:
Characters now have animated eyes and eyebrows.
Key Object Outlines:
Outlines no longer overlap eachother.
Day / Night cycle:
The day night cycle and skybox have been enhanced (brighter days, darker nights)
Technical Improvements:
All quest requirements now use scriptable conditions.
Conversations are no longer queued, and instead use scriptable conditions to enable/disable themselves
An external database of important IDs has been created in AirTable to help manage ID consistency across versions.
Save System managers have been consolidated into several reuasable types (fixed build system manager, inventory manager, & internal analytics managers)
Quests UI & scrolls are now loaded from resources by state machine.
Not Safe Area now uses a cutout mask generated at runtime.
Cinematic framing now created at runtime.
Planned Improvements:
An art update to most portal environments.