Most venerable Knights of the Valley, I've been working on the Alpha 3 release for three out of the planned six months of development now. Half-time is always a good moment to take a look and assess progress (any association with the ongoing European soccer championship is purely coincidential), so if you're wondering what has been accomplished so far, this update is for you! [h3]Trading and money[/h3] We already had stores and market vendors in Alpha 2, but they could not be interacted with for trading purposes. This is no longer the case. Alpha 3 now contains a system for trading items, and all stores and market stalls have been unlocked. This includes general traders, tailors, jewelers, blacksmiths, weapon smiths, horse breeders, herbalists, bakers, grocers, toolmakers, and potters! [previewyoutube=XXFBthf9Xv0;full][/previewyoutube] In this context I also implemented the concept of item ownership - a crucial component for the handling of some illegal acts from the "Crime & Punishment" feature set including theft, robbery, and the sale of stolen items. The monetary system has been overhauled as well, now allowing for dropping coins and offering them to NPCs. In the spirit of a realistic game world, coins add to the overall weight your character is hauling around, so it might sometimes be of advantage to part with lower value coins. There will be other ways of lightening the load though: shortly after Alpha 3.0, something like a banking system will be added, where money lenders will exchange coins or keep them for you safely. Safely, right...? [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40033947/e5dd9abd5620c45508c69d4d27431d0312955adc.jpg[/img] [i]Offering coins to an NPC[/i] [h3]A new type of dungeon[/h3] The legendary ruins of Dinas Affareaon are now somewhere out there and will soon become part of a quest (just like with any map location in the game's open world, you do not need to follow the quest to explore it though). Those ruins are all that's left of a once mighty fortress and the headquarters of the Knights of Saint Audin, a knightly order in the Valley (and one of the name-givers of the game). The fortress had been built close to goblin territory, a faction that is in a state of lingering war with the humans. Many decades ago, an earthquake shook the region and caused some of the walls to crumble. The goblins saw their chance and overrun it while the knights were still trying to dig themselves out from the debris. Knights that managed to escaped the onslaught fled to the nearby city of Borderton, and a new era began in the Valley - an era, where human dominance has been put into question. Any type of dungeon in the game not only comes with a completely different art style, but also with custom logic to procedurally generate its maps. [i]Knights of Frontier Valley[/i] is designed for replayability, so all dungeon maps will look differently in each run. Maps are also logical and purposeful, and you won't find endless levels containing hundreds of rooms that have no real use and are connected with hallways that make little sense, sometimes even leading back to the same room. I absolutely love classic retro titles like the original Rogue, Nethack, and many others of that kind, but the game world in [i]Knights of Frontier Valley[/i] was always supposed to feel immersive, so each dungeon room in it has a purpose and is furnished accordingly. Connections between rooms are efficient, and rooms that should be close to each other, they are. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40033947/bac271b654146006b43be14e60304abbdf88283a.jpg[/img] [i]The ruins on the travel map[/i] [h3]New game mechanics[/h3] Some new objects added in Alpha 3 come with new ways of interacting with the environment. For example, there are now switches triggering effects like moving walls, and also weapon racks that allow for adding and removing items, showing the contents correctly from the outside. More things will be added over the next three months, including traps. As different character types should be balanced, you will soon be able to climb over heaps of rubble blocking a dungeon corridor (assuming sufficient athletic skills), rather than just clear the path with your muscles and a pickaxe. Many more of those mechanics are planned over time, so expect the game world to become ever more dynamic. [previewyoutube=ub6tFvsObFk;full][/previewyoutube] [h3]Tons of additional content[/h3] Of course, any new version will always contain more content! In the case of Alpha 3, this includes new NPC professions, new map locations to explore, new objects to interact with on the map, and plenty of new items to loot. Those things all come with new custom, hand-drawn art. Speaking of art: it has been mentioned before, but in a time where generative AI has become part of our daily life, I'd like to stretch that all our map and illustration art is hand-drawn and custom made just for this game. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40033947/c79b7abb1f98ee1b5d82e9a4b5e6f86887e3f449.png[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40033947/b6bff03be5a8c3f33aa6f2ee89252a3e5250d8e5.png[/img] [i]It's certified![/i] [h3]... and much more![/h3] Many other things have been added or improved: [list] [*] A complete overhaul of the tactical combat system. It is already so much better than in Alpha 2, but this effort is ongoing and combat will continue to be improved until the Alpha 3 release. [*] New music tracks and sound effects [*] New tutorials [*] An improved UI [*] Improved Pathfinding [*] Improved FOW-mechanics [*] Many smaller improvements as well as bug fixes [/list] I do not want to spoil too much, but it's hard to hold back when you're excited, so here are a few things I'll be working on over the next three months: [list] [*] Many additions to the player character progression system including leveling, the improvement of attributes and skills, traits, and survival aspects [*] New NPC AI mechanics [*] Massive improvements to the Crime & Punishment feature set [*] New quests [*] More combat improvements, as mentioned [*] Implementation of a bug-tracking system that can be used by Alpha 3 testers [/list] And there are a more exciting news to share. [h3]Participation in Steam Events[/h3] Even though there are quests, Alpha 3 will still mostly be a sandbox game. It will have enough content for about 6-8 hours of fun and will be fully playable, but I still consider it to be a "demo" and not even Early Access, as there are still a lot of features missing from its ambitious vision. This is why Alpha 3 will be available for download during Steam events later this year, for free and for everyone, including you! Stay tuned for more info here. [h3]Community and Team[/h3] You know by now that the game's art and music were made by talented artists, but it has always been a one-man show when it came to game design and coding. Considering the scope of [i]Knights of Frontier Valley[/i], that is an enormous effort, especially since everything was made from scratch, including the homebrew 2.5D engine. In the past this meant that unless I was willing to stretch the development time significantly, there has been little time left to engage with the community through social media, Discord, or other channels. And really, who would want to wait for that much longer? So the focus has always been on pushing this project forward, at the expense of building a community and interacting with it. Until now, that was the right thing to do. Recently though, with a playable version being available, interest in the game has gained traction and more of you have asked for ways of interacting with the team. I'm super-excited about this interest, and I will not ignore those pleas! So I am happy to announce that two new members joined the team, and they will support building our community and answering your questions. Those two very cool guys are (in alphabetical order) Orest and Sihui, and they sure like gaming just as much as we all do! You can expect an increase of activity on social media very soon, and we will open our public Discord channel within the next few days (a separate announcement including the invite is to follow). [i]Knights of Frontier Valley[/i] is a true indie game, and the plan has always been to go without a publisher. I'm going to stick with that plan. [h3]Upcoming new trailer video[/h3] Work on a new gameplay trailer is in progress - the one you can see today on Steam and YouTube was made during the Alpha 1 era, and a lot has changed. There's so much more to show now! [h3]New Languages[/h3] Immersion works best when you're abie to easily understand the text presented in the game. So we will soon start translating it into new languages - starting with the Steam page, but later expanding to the game itself. Other than English and German, we will add Simplified and Traditional Chinese, as well as Korean, with more languages to be added later. So much for today - now back to work... there's still a lot to do for Alpha 3. Martin