Truth be told, it’s not always easy to find something to post. There’s a lot I’d like show or tell you about, but it turns out I have a strong aversion to publicly showing things before they’re finished. This is, naturally, a bit of a problem when you’re trying to be more open about your development process. The thought of someone seeing placeholder art or WIP UI elements and thinking less of the game for it bothers me. But plenty of other developers manage it, so I’ll see if I can start scraping together some more actual gameplay shots for you in future.

Another thing that comes up a lot is the release date for the game: to be blunt, I don’t have one. The most specific I’ve ever gotten is “2010″, and I’m still hoping I won’t end up a liar about that. One of the great things about being an independent is being free of externally-imposed deadlines, and being free to take as long the game needs. This is a big game, much more complex than the previous ones. And I’m working hard.

I’ll put up a new character art preview soon.

It was a fairly grueling translation process, but the end result is fascinating to me. It’s a very interesting feeling to see something that you created presented in a language you don’t speak. I can still play it pretty well, though!

Have a look: http://game.goo.ne.jp/premium/game11.html

We all remember this guy: the Cult Guardian. A devotee of the Cult of the Outward Path, this armoured warrior acts as the first line of defense against threats both internal and external.

Click below to see how he’ll be returning in Godfall.

The College of Mages is an old and venerated institution, and the battle mages they train have helped to turn the tide of battle and safeguard civilization for hundreds of years. But when the gods fell, so too did the College. It was initially thought that none had survived.. until the Lord Savant made his triumphant re-appearance.

In the years since, he has rebuilt the institution, and taken a personal hand in the instruction of a new generation of mages. Many end up in the Companies, where their rare skills can best be used. As ruler of the rebuilt city of Savantine, the Lord Savant is a mysterious and influential figure. Though the Clerics distrust him, he is a powerful ally in the fight for survival.

This is bad news in the sense that no new work has been done on Godfall, but good news in that it helps me fund it. Hope to get back to my lovely new engine soon.

Stances

Godfall introduces a new skill category: Stances. These are always-on, with the catch that only one can be active at a time. They generally do not have an associated power cost or upkeep. They are powerful abilities, limited mainly by the opportunity cost of not using the others. For example, the Warrior’s Adrenaline skill is now a stance.

Stances are one half of the solution to the problem of buffs often not being worth the time necessary to cast them. I’ll talk about the other half in a later post.

Terrain

Positions on the battlefield may now have an associated terrain type. There will typically be a couple of these in every battle, on randomly assigned squares. Any character standing on terrain is effected by a passive bonus or penalty. Examples include Cover (reduced damage from ranged attacks) and Unstable Ground (penalty to quickness.)

The purpose of terrain is to mix up battles a little, both by encouraging the player to alter his preferred formation to take advantage of (or avoid) terrain, and to sometimes require different tactics to deal with enemies on terrain squares.

Mitigation

I’m making a real effort to use clearer terminology with the new game. Before, ‘resistance’ meant several wildly varying things. Now, there are three different forms of mitigation, marked by three keywords: reduction, evasion and resistance.

Reduction is a decrease in the magnitude of the damage or effect. Damage Reduction from armor is an example, and the mechanic of Resist Poison from Book of Dread would similarly now be called Poison Reduction.

Evasion is an entirely new mechanic. An evasion stat directly counters a corresponding stat on the attacker. For instance, Hit Evasion counters Accuracy. If I have 95 Accuracy and my target has 20 Hit Evasion, I now have a 75% chance to hit that target.

Resistance is a second chance to shrug off an effect that would otherwise be applied. This is the same mechanic that Resist Stun used in Book of Dread. In general, Evasion will now be more common than Resistance.

Monsters’ Den: The Book of Dread was released two years ago today. That simultaneously feels like forever ago, and only yesterday. Thank you everyone for your part in making it a success.

What are the best / worst skills for each class? Which are essential, and which are useless? Share your thoughts or links with me in the comments.

At the point where I’m designing the skill system for the next game, it’s useful to have as many outside perspectives as possible on this.