Welcome to our sixth dev blog- Structure Overview and Research, part 2!

In our third dev blog, we dove into our Structure system and provided an overview of the essential “RPG-like” elements of the game.

Upon the very recent completion of our Research integration, all of what was considered ‘planned’ has now been finalized into the core of the game. We imagine these will undergo more modifications and additions as the game progress, but here is how they currently stand.

If you missed our third blog post, Structure Overview check it out here: https://www.indiedb.com/games/moonrise/news/moonrise-dev-blog-3-structure-overview

We will be continuing on from where we left off, what’s been put into the game, and so forth.

 

 

Given that this project is a real-time strategy, we needed to focus our progression on not just one character, but the collective army as a whole.

As you could imagine, this extends the possibilities into making something very unique, very quickly, by quite a considerable margin.

 

 

The first, and most obvious thing we wanted to do is Stat Progression. This is fairly simple and straightforward- spend Resources to improve ALL of your Warrior’s health and mana. In a world where your warriors die quickly, and mana is something that should be greatly conserved, this should give you that extra edge to survive and fight longer.

 

 

In addition, added survive-ability comes in the ways of regeneration. As, even if you have health and mana very high, it is still limited. Extra regenerative properties makes it that much more indefinite, and sometimes even completely necessary against all the evils of the land.

 

 

 

Lastly comes damage. All the health, mana, and regeneration in the world means nothing if your target has the same properties. This damage modifier effects ALL of the spells any of your warriors can cast, greatly improving everything collectively.

 

 

 

The next area to focus on are basic global elements necessary to function. This includes both Supply and Resource cap increases, making you able to store more Resources, and build an even bigger Army.

 

 

 

Now onto the core-

Being able to uniquely design your army is a fundamental part of Moonrise. As such, some of the personifying factors are things like…

 

 

Class Advancement: While lower-tier Warriors are freely able to be drafted into the army, the strongest ones require something special. Not only do they have a high resource cost just to unlock, but they also require finding their special Tome hidden within the world (more on Tomes below).

Something to note: we have essentially 9 different classes total at the moment, each uniquely different from one another at their core, and will be developed to be much more different from each other as the game progresses.

 

 

 

Spell Unlocking: Similar to unlocking a Class, to further define each Class as a whole, you are allowed to unlock various new spells for said Class, thus defining them in even more detail. The costs will be high and irreversible, so choose wisely.

Aura Unlocking: Wildly different from Spells, but at the same time still similar are Auras. Auras are effects that take place in an area around the user, typically applying status conditions to enemies or buffs to allies. Their effects apply passively, their essentially passive spellcasts. As with Spells, these, too, can be unlocked.

It is important to note- you are never truly locked out of other pieces of content for your decisions. It is merely the high costs that force you to pick and choose what you can afford. In addition, the strict amount of allotted Warriors at your disposal forces a very well-tailored army. As you advance deeper into the game, you are able to unlock more, expanding your choices, until you reach the end game where the desired goal is to not only allow you, but also require you to use everything given to you to be able to progress. We feel this would give the most dynamic and interesting gameplay experience possible.

 

 

 

Lastly, Tomes are the final thing to be talked about. Hinted at above with Class Advancement, Tomes are artifacts used to progress a Class even more. They can be attained anywhere from slaying powerful beasts, to discovering them in the arms of magnificent critters, or even gifted for aiding an important creature.

The Tome is the core piece preventing Advancement, and once it has been acquired, the only thing left is to gather the Resources necessary to pay for such an advancement. Finding them is the true challenge, for they are never handed to you, only earned through venturing and experience.

 

 

Thank you for viewing our post! Support and interest for the project has been rapidly growing ever since we began posting here, and we're incredibly grateful for all the wonderful feedback so far! We hope this project interests you as much as we love developing for it, and please look forward to more updates coming in the very near future!

 

If you’re brand new, consider checking out our trailer and overall description of the game here: https://www.indiedb.com/games/moonrise