Version 1.0. Released!

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DavidBVal

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Edited 29-8-2017

After 3 years and a few months of development, Exiled Kingdoms is complete.

Certainly more will be added and improved (mage class, more areas...), but finally it can be said that it is a completable game, with over 100 hours of hand-crafted content, a unique world and lots of replayability. The first thing I'd like to say to everyone is thanks. Thanks for your patience, involvement, and support. Wiki editors, beta testers, translators, or just enthusiast posters have made this road much less lonely for me than it's supposed to be.

In the 8 months that went from 0.9 to 1.0, there have been quite a few improvements to the game. Here is a list of the most relevant ones.

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Content: 33 new areas including 12 outdoor sectors, 3 towns (including Nivarian) and very popular dungeons like the Abbey. All of the incomplete quests finally found their conclusion, and 14 new quests were added. More importantly, the main quest is completable, with the largest and most complex dungeon in all the game and several possible endings and resolutions. The Ark of Lothasan involved months of effort, in terms of writing, design and artwork. I hope you enjoy it!
Status: Done

Character customization: New advanced skills were added in Nivarian for all classes to enjoy, and more importantly, there was a constant revision and balance of the skills introduced in previous updates. Off-hand weapons were introduced, as well as over 100 equippable items including all the end-game gear.
Status: Done

Translations: Thanks to a hundred volunteer translators the game is now partially translated to 7 languages (Czech, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish). Some of them are already over 50% translated! This required a big development effort as well, as I needed to alter almost all the UI elements in the game.
Status: Done

Controller support: Many players are already enjoying EK using an external Bluetooth controller.
Status: Done

But of course much more was done. You can see a detailed list here.

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Soon I'll be creating a new post with the list of features planned for 1.1. Thanks for reading.

EDIT: the posts below are older than this message, as they are updates on how I was developing the game from 0.9 to 1.0.
 

DavidBVal

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Re: Roadmap to version 1.0. Features I'm working on!

I stay 100% focused in all the code changes related to multilanguage localization. Almost every little tiny bit of the code needs to be touched because of this, but work is going well. However this is a lot of work, I've already invested 120 hours on code refactoring alone. It's a good thing that GreenDragon is helping out coordinating the translation, so I don't have to take care of that too.

This was not going to be my priority until summer, but the *amazing* response from the translation volunteers has exceeded my expectations; the least I can do is put everything in to make their hard work show in the game as soon as possible. I want the next update featuring translations even if they're still partial.

I know what most of you (english speakers) must be thinking: you'd prefer instead new areas, new skills, more quests, etc. Well, think about it this way; localization will likely increase sales a lot, which will ultimately mean more content both in this game and in the next ones. Trust me, this is the right order to do things! ;)

EDIT: just to clarify, next update will also feature new content, and new skills.
 

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Re: Roadmap to version 1.0. Features I'm working on!

Right now, the new content is over 80% done. It includes 3 new outdoor areas (10 maps), one town, and 5 quests. I have to say I'm enjoying writing the new stuff and I think you'll like it too. Most of the content will be targeted at levels 10-14, with some high level encounters as well.

The new 8 skills are still halfway done. They're already designed (hardest part) and descriptions & icons are in place, but I still need to do do most of the implementation. Not too much work, but it'll likely need lots of tweaking by the testing group to adjust them.

I'm leaving bugfixing for last. Probably I'll just fix the most important ones and release the test update, then work on the long list of small things while the testers work.

I'm not sure how far will localization go in this update, but most game menus will be translated at least. I'll try to load localized dialogues too but I don't want to delay things more, so localized dialogues might need to wait, maybe I'll add that in a "minor" update as it doesn't affect gameplay.

This update is the first in which I add a decent chunk of the map and also new skills. This (plus localization) is why it's taking twice as long. But fear not, the game development is not slowing down one bit, and after this one is out, we're one step away from the main quest being completable.

There's also some great new portraits done by Yuvon, a player and member of the community. She is also helping me with some scenery tiles for the endgame areas (yeah, I've been working on the game ending for many months now, it's going to be cool)

That's all for now, back to work!
 

DavidBVal

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Re: Roadmap to version 1.0. Features I'm working on!

As lots of people are asking me, here's a short update. The new content is 99% ready, But I am still working on the skills and bugs. Also, processing some of the language files will take me a few days. I hope by next weekend testers will be able to download the update. 2-3 days before it is out, I'll open more slots for beta testers (enough for everybody wanting to join) and announce it here.
 

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Re: Roadmap to version 1.0. Features I'm working on!

I just opened 100 new slots for new beta-testers. You can join here:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/ne ... ek.android

Beta-testers should get the new update (together with a zillion bugs) this weekend.

If you are a tester and want to leave the Beta program and receive only stable releases, you can opt out following the same link.
 

DavidBVal

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Re: Roadmap to version 1.0. Features I'm working on!

Everything is ready, but I have some mess to sort out with the localized files. I hope to release the test update tomorrow.
 

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Re: Roadmap to version 1.0. Features I'm working on!

All seems to be done, just a few mechanical chores, data conversions, etc but it should be up for testers in a couple hours.
 

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Re: Roadmap to version 1.0. Features I'm working on!

Updated first post. With 0.9.991 out of the way, I've learned my lesson and will make sure to split into smaller updates.

Actually, the next one will probably come out relatively quickly (this month). It will be a technical update with a few additions, mostly the partial translations. Maybe I'll have time to squeeze in some content, who knows.
 

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Re: Roadmap to version 1.0. Features I'm working on!

Small development update. Working nonstop these days, and the last week has been very productive.

Next update will include a dozen new maps, very combat oriented, most of them high level areas. Ark of Lothasan will be completable and *probably* also the Master's Laboratory. I'll also include a few new fast-travel options, or at least it's on my list!

I'll also be adding more translation files for existing languages, plus including Turkish and maybe French and Italian languages if they are ready. Sorry for not being very actively talking to translators, but Greendragon is on exams and I am working hard on the areas and new required assets.

I don't have an exact target date, but I definitely want testers playing this in late june or early july. Hard to estimate with so much to do...
 
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