Fall Production Update
Our production team has been working hard and pieces are really starting to come together into a cohesive game experience. Everything is building to a crescendo for a big exciting moment that we’ll be revealing to you very soon. For now, check out our updates below on what you can expect to see in the Forgotten Runiverse.
We have a first exciting look at some of the gameplay to share with you all!
Gameplay Basics
We’ve been doing a lot of testing as well with weekly internal team playtests to improve and test a variety of gameplay systems from tutorialization and first time user experience to crafting and resource management.
One of those systems we’ve been working on is the incentive system that defines how you’ll earn rewards in-game for your efforts!
Mana and the Font of Memories
We’ve been working on a rewards system in the game that revolves around Mana. Mana is an important aspect of the Runiverse, since Mana is magic and the Runiverse is inherently a magical place. The Mana system is our narrative way to add rewards and systems to actions you’re taking in the game. When you are creative and active in the world, you create magic. You’ll receive Mana by making offerings (breaking down) items that you have created at Temples throughout the world. You can also re-infuse Mana into the world to increase your creativity and receive rewards for your participation in the world, such as infusing your crafting with Mana to make your crafting better.
To keep the world growing and magic flowing through it, the Wizards have access to the Font of Memories. This magical receptacle is powered by Mana and acts as a source for the collective Cult to push back against the Absence. By contributing Mana to the Font and helping to return Magic throughout the world, you’ll receive blessings from the Font that connect you to the past memories and discoveries of the Runiverse.
Cities and Locations
We talked about cities in our last production update, and we’ve since made loads more progress on them. Last time we showed you a sneak peak of some of the cities you’ll get to explore inside the Runiverse. Today we’re going to introduce you to some of the Wizards you’ll find inside of them and some ways that you can create a neighborhood with all of your Wizard friends.
NPC Characters
Cities and some areas of the Wild are populated by NPC characters you can interact with. These characters will help you learn about the Runiverse, guide you along your journey, and may also have rumors that can kickoff new quest lines for you with their own unique rewards.
Each city of the world has its own interplay of politics, major characters, and minor players who will help to flesh out the world you’re experiencing. Our plan is to keep adding new characters to the world as the lore of the Forgotten Runiverse expands and continues to grow – fed by the experiences and stories created by the community.
Player Neighborhoods
As our vision for Cities and how players will interact with them continues to evolve, we’ve begun implementing the systems that will allow you to quickly jump between neighborhoods when you visit one of the main hubs of the world. Neighborhoods will also provide the opportunity to create exactly what their name implies – areas that fit into the bigger city but are occupied and organized by you and your friends as a specific community! Owning a plot next door to your friends can make it that much easier to embark on epic quests, corner the market for legendary Red Wizard forged gear, plan out your next battle tactic, or just gather as a Guild at your local Guildhall to kick back and relax while planning your next move.
Hedge Wizard Encampment
The Hedge Wizard Encampment is a location where Wizards are starting to re-attain their important memories of the world and collecting mana to infuse magic back into the Runiverse and push back the Absence. This Encampment acts as a player hub and your first entry point into the world where you’ll learn the basic activities in the game such as forging and enchanting to create equipment and crystals (which will be your go-to items as you play the game).
Since the Hedge Wizard Encampment is a gathering point for Wizards of all colors, it also makes for a great location to meet a few NPCs from around the Runiverse and learn about the wisdom of the world.
Temples
Temples are where you go to offer crafted items in exchange for Mana. As part of the process of returning magic to the world, the inhabitants of the Hedge Wizard Camp have erected a Temple as one of the first buildings of their foothold into the Runiverse. Since Mana is the most valuable resource you can acquire and can improve the possible results of any crafted item, you’ll want to pay the Temple a visit. You can offer any crafted item to a Temple, but the rarer and higher tiered the item is, the more Mana you’ll receive for it.
Crafted Items
We’ve talked a lot about crafting and even wrote a whole blog post about it, but we have yet to show you what a crafted item looks like. We’re excited that the crafting system is in-game now, and wanted to show the results of a few attempts at crafting from the team. Below you’ll see the results of crafting different tiered items. The final item will have different affixes and strength depending on the results of the crafting RNG for your recipe.
Development Status
We’re still what we’d define as ‘pre-alpha’ for the game overall, but that’s not to say we haven’t made amazing progress this year. We’re very excited to have a special gameplay event launching very soon for you all to experience. The next thing you’ll see from Forgotten Runiverse could best be described as a Vertical Slice. We’ll be using that to test features and gather feedback before entering our proper Alpha release. Here’s a look at how we’re defining these stages.
Vertical Slice: Vertical slice of gameplay meant to show off basic versions of systems to get early feedback on the feel of gameplay. Many gameplay systems are incomplete or not included.
Alpha: All gameplay systems are included but are unpolished and are meant for testing and iteration on feel and balance. May still include large changes in features or game design.
Beta: Near-complete version of all gameplay systems meant for fine tuning of feel and balance but lacking full depth or variety of content.
Full Release: Fully polished and complete game experience with extensive depth for game systems and content. New content added and balance patched at regular intervals.
It’s all coming together, and we’re very excited to show everyone soon what we have for you so stay tuned! Be sure to sign up on https://premint.xyz/forgotten-runiverse to maximize your chances of staking a claim in the Runiverse.