Greetings, backers! We’re quickly approaching the home stretch of the campaign, but it’s not over yet! We’ve made some amazing progress over the past week and the momentum will only continue once we hit the final few days and the 48 hour e-mails go out! We’ve had some amazing support already, but we’re asking for your help once again: if Bevontule: Altar of Roots is to get funded, we have to cultivate the campaign’s final ‘surge!’ To that end, we need our supporters to share the project link as much as possible, especially in the final days of the campaign.

Even if you’re someone who’s held off on pledging simply because momentum may have been slower earlier in the campaign, now’s the time to consider backing us! Worst-case scenario, you’re charged nothing and best-case scenario, your support helps us smash through the finish line! It’s a win-win! :) If you’ve already pledged, consider signing up for our Thunderclap!

Crafting Preview

While we have big plans for our crafting system, we’ve only recently put together a small ‘proof of concept’ to demonstrate what the crafting panel might look like. Bear in mind that this is very much in its infancy and we’re open to feedback and suggestions!

In general, crafting is recipe-based, where each recipe has its own set of items that can be created once the given recipe is learned—these can be purchased, found or dropped by enemies in the field, and in general, if a recipe is known and the prerequisite items are present, the player can craft an item from the recipe.

Similarly, resources can found in the field, purchased, dropped, stolen, or poached from enemies.

Uniquely, it isn’t that any specific crafted ‘item’ requires resources, but the recipe itself will require them. For instance, the Ironworks I recipe grants the ability to craft three different items: Iron Daggers, Iron Sword and Iron Cuirass.

In order to determine what specific item will be generated, the player will enter a separate panel, akin to a mini-game, where they’ll get to ‘decide’ the item that is crafted.

Keep in mind that this is a very rudimentary example of how the minigame will occur and there is still plenty of functionality that is missing! Essentially, the player will be trying to move to a specific item on the grid in order to craft it.

The player begins with a fixed number of Crafting Points (which can be augmented further depending on the items that are ‘put into’ the recipe, as well as the specific crafting character) and must attempt to move to a specific item without exhausting all of their CP, which can be either reduced or increased depending on the ‘nodes’ that the player visits.

In addition to this basic layout, there are one-way paths, timed recipes, procedurally generated ones and many, many other quirks that the player will need to contend with when creating new items.

It bears repeating, but the crafting system is still very young at this point—we’d love to hear any feedback you might have about whether you like the ideas we’re putting forth or whether you have any suggestions, questions or comments yourselves!

Stretch Goal #3 Revealed!

If you’ve noticed our cover art, you’ll see the main four characters engaging a Kelvari in combat! It turns out that Elvali is a very special kind of Kelvari and while she acts as a general antagonist in the later parts of the game, reaching this stretch goal would allow us to add a scenario in which you play as her!

She is an incredibly unique and interesting character, using her massive, whip-like arm to attack foes from range, draw them in and absorb their lifeforce! She can also control other Kelvari on the battlefield, allowing them to fight for her, among many other abilities.

Upcoming Streams!

We also wanted to mention that we’ll be doing two livestream demo playthroughs—one will be on Facebook Live and will begin tonight (Feb .25th) at 8PM EST!

The other will take place on Twitch, tomorrow (Feb. 26th) at 8PM EST as well!

We hope to see you all there! It should be a fun time! :)

Until Next Time!

We’ve still got a few days left in our campaign—let’s get out there and spread the word as much as possible! I choose to remain an optimist and I hope you will as well! And like always, feel free to leave your thoughts, suggestions or feedback in the comment section!

-Derek