Marsh-Frog Mondays 11: PI Spotlight
over 6 years ago – Tue, Aug 01, 2017 at 12:09:42 AM

Hey everyone,

Apologies for the summer news slowdown. We’ve been hard at work, as always, this time on the game’s NPCs, enemies and backgrounds.

We understand that it’s been a long wait - and we’re just as eager to release the game as many of you are to play it - but by delaying we’ve not only made time in which to add a bunch of new features, we’ve also improved the overall quality of the existing ones.

As a reminder, you can subscribe to our Newsletter, which will go out alongside a Kickstarter Update, as soon as we have solid news or a major announcement to make.

Until then, we hope you’ll enjoy this character spotlight. This week we have a little more information about the PI.

Primary Attribute: Senses.

Melee Weapon: Blackjack.

Suggested Roles: Firearms, Search.

A reliable source of ranged damage, the PI can detect secret items and traps using his primary attribute, Senses. He can withstand more incoming damage than a standard ranged damage dealer, too, and boasts a passive resistance to psychological maladies such as fear and confusion.

Passive Traits

• Detective: Search mode (toggled on/off via the UI) is always active while the PI is alive and in the group. Also, the party will suffer no combat penalties for searching while in combat.

• Interrogator: The PI gains a +5 bonus to Craft during dialogue sequences, unlocking bonus choices otherwise out of his reach.

• Hawk-eyed (Talent): Grants a minor boost to the Search skill (see below), in addition to the bonus he received from his primary attribute.

Core Skills

• Search: Investigators with the primary attribute of Senses (the Curator, Trapper and PI) gain a passive boost to the Search skill. This allows them to excel at finding objects hidden within the world, such as treasure, traps or secret doors.

• Firearms/Armor: The PI might not be able to critically hit like his ranged damage peer, the Trapper, but he more than makes up for it in fortitude. The PI has more health points than the average investigator, and has access to heavy armor. He can also hold his own at close range, dealing moderate damage with his blackjack.

Weaknesses

• Spellcasting: Despite having a poor grasp of Arcane and Nature magic, he can eventually unlock beginner Priest magic if properly trained.

The next Marsh-Frog update will be landing in two weeks.

Until next time, thanks for bearing with us!

Inglenook Games

Floating Skulls, Shrines, Brief Catch-up
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 10:16:41 PM

Hey everyone!

Sorry for missing the schedule update (and for letting the Marsh-Frog updates slip), but we're still here and we're working hard. No solid news to report, but we thought we'd check in and let you know the project's alive and well.

This month we've been working on the game's enemies and exploration systems. This includes improving the secrets system mentioned in an earlier update, as well as adding in some randomised Shrine Encounters.

Uncovering shrines will provide the player with experience points, as well as a temporary buff, plus if they're lucky: rare treasure. They're often well-hidden away, and some are heavily guarded.

Which brings us to the enemies. Take a look at some of these animations Joe made for the flying skull monsters. They come in three flavours, frozen, regular, and blood magic.

You'll want to keep some distance between you and these nasty chompers, as they possess powerful short-ranged magic. However, they're pretty fragile, so you're better off letting your ranged attackers take care of them.

New features this month:

- Combat Pause and friendly AI commands are fixed. They were out for repairs during the last alpha, but they will feature in the next (hopefully) before summer is out.

- Character Creation now allows for saving, loading and editing character templates. Allowing you to quickly create new teams from previous configurations.

- The Technician will feature in the next alpha. She currently has three gadgets but we're working on more.

Outside of the features there's a bunch of new content we can't wait for you to try. Hopefully from here on out we'll be able to stick to regular fortnightly Marsh-Frog updates again. Until then, you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter for minor updates and posts.

Thanks once more for sticking with us.

Best wishes,

Inglenook

Marsh-Frog Mondays 10 - Branching dialogue, choices, pacifist mode?
almost 7 years ago – Mon, May 15, 2017 at 09:32:01 PM

Hello Monday frog-friends!

Sorry for missing last week’s scheduled update. We hope you’re ready for a writing-heavy one this time. This month we’re busy with the story, cutscenes and branching dialogue, so there won’t be much to show in terms of new artwork.

Usually we don’t like to talk too much about the narrative aspects of the game, but it’s worth noting that we’ve come a long way since the Kickstarter launch. For example, rather than displaying text in a speech bubble, with 2-4 responses, the engine now supports up to 8 choices in a scrolling text box.

Note: Old screenshots ahoy, as we don't want to spoil the NPCs/dialogue we're working on currently.

This newer method, which has a distinctly cRPG feel to it, allows you to loop back to important conversation points, and unlock choices based on your specialisations. So far, the game’s key supporting NPCs have around 25-30 pages of optional dialogue each, allowing for some in-depth scrutiny of the game world for those who wish to seek it out.

For those who just want to get straight to the action, we’ve tried to keep the core dialogue and cutscenes pithy and to the point.

Other dialogue features we’ve recently added:

• Dynamic Dialogue Choices: Differently worded trees depending on the investigator doing the talking. The enigmatic Moose communicates via gestures and mime, whereas the Gentleman’s lines have a touch of the King’s English.

• Skill Tests: Reach a set value in a skill to unlock bonus choices in certain encounters. This is mainly used to test your charm, intimidate or barter skills, but there are more obscure branches of knowledge (psionics, rituals, antiques).

• Attribute Tests: Based on the five main attributes, Might, Senses, Agility, Craft and Spirit. Most commonly these will take the form of feats of strength (Might), like moving heavy objects.

• Antiques: While this isn't strictly a dialogue change, we have expanded the old relics item type, and renamed it to antiques. Investigators who specialise in antiques will be able to equip artefacts, cow creamers, salt shakers a whole host of mystical trumpery which has absorbed the strange energy surrounding Witchmarsh over the course of several decades/centuries.

• We're still posting up Luciana's item icons on Tumblr and Instagram, as well as tiny snippets of environments and pixel art. Come join us!

Non-combat Route?
One question we’re often asked is whether there will be a peaceful route through the main story. Although such a run wouldn’t be officially on the cards, we are looking forward to seeing what you can do. To aid you in this, we’ve been investigating new ways for players to earn EXP outside of combat, and scripting a few non-combat resolutions to previously linear encounters. We’ll be sure to cover this more in a future update.

That’s it for this time. We should be back in two weeks with another report.

Thanks for waiting. :)

- Inglenook

Marsh-Frog Mondays 9 - UI reveal
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Apr 24, 2017 at 11:38:59 PM

 Happy Monday, frog-fellows!

Sorry for posting this up a bit later than usual. April's been all about progress on the combat, UI and branching dialogue. We're still not ready to estimate a new release date, but we're definitely getting closer to the next backer test. Thanks for bearing with us.

Features and recent additions:

• The UI now has an optional text log (below), and new group status effect icons.

 

• An active Search Mode should be fully in place before the upcoming backer test. Toggle to boost the team's ability to detect hidden objects and creatures.

• We've numbered the hotkey bar for ease of use. EXP bar has been given a facelift.
  
  
• Like item icons? You should definitely follow us on Instagram!
  
  
• We've been busy rewriting and polishing many of the game's tooltips, abilities and item descriptions. Hope you like puns! Also, the game's main menu will feature a help section (reached by hitting Esc), where you can re-read tutorial popups and view an A-Z glossary of terms and gameplay mechanics.
  
• Several branching dialogue encounters should be ready for you to test by the summer, too. We won't talk much about them, but we may post up some character designs in future updates!

Well, we'll get back to it. Stay tuned for more news. :)

- Inglenook

Marsh-Frog Mondays 8 - New website, instagram launch, newsletter reminder
about 7 years ago – Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 12:00:09 AM

Hey everyone,

Another brief one this time!

This month's progress is all about story, as we're busy writing new scenes and converting branching scripts into in-game events. We've also been doing a bit of housekeeping, and have more-or-less caught up on messages and emails. If we've missed yours, just give us a nudge and we'll get to it as quickly we can.

New Webzone

We're happy to announce that we have a new official website. Hope you like it!

Community Info

If you'd like to be notified whenever major Witchmarsh developments occur, you can sign up to our Newsletter. We also have a shiny new Instagram account, so follow us there for mini gameplay snippets, screenshots, art and assorted pixels.

Well, that just about covers it. Between now and next time, a question: would you be interested in reading snippets about the main NPC characters in Witchmarsh? Would that veer too deeply into spoiler territory?

Let us know what you think.

- Your friends at Inglenook.