Rivals is a small update adding the ability to fight specific named mages in the game. These mages specialize in one of the schools and present a unique challenge to the player.

We play tested the game and found some problems. This led to a revised design session and programming changes. All good things to find before it comes out!
We’re continuing play test this week and will see how it feels. Then we will announce it on the Beta branch.

Exploration

Exploration is our next major update to the game, greatly enhancing the overworld and out of combat experience.

We’ve been discussing “purpose” in our design sessions and feel we may need to increase the scope of this update to include closing the game loop and providing the player with real clear purpose. Exploring the map in a better way may be great, but without a “why” it will eventually fall flat.
Programming just finished on Elite named monsters and the quest type to go after them.
Dynamic Quests is the game world (and NPCs) creating their own quests. Programming kicks off tomorrow to take the prototype made late last year and put it into the game.
UI work continues, here is a mock up of how the store/vendor interaction could be:

Notice the player character portrait in the bottom left of the HUD.

Other Studio News

I’m happy to report the hire of a very much needed position: Quality Assurance. We’ve been trying to make due with artists, musicians, writers, and blabber-mouths like me testing. Sometimes we let bad bugs slip through. 😢 With the game getting bigger, it is an increasingly difficult task which will only get harder. Alex starts May 1. We can’t wait!