Chronicles of Vaeltaja: In Search of the Great Wanderer - colorful open world grid-based blobber - now on Early Access

[Vaeltaja]

I took some stereoscopic screenshots while testing the game last night with Nvidia 3D Vision. Google 'cross eye' technique to view these, if you're not already familiar with it.

3D screenshots

 

[Vaeltaja]

Chronicles of Vaeltaja's 'Ghosts 'n Qualities' update's announcement is finally released with details and date. Quest journal, enhanced textures, new dungeon, new enemy, improved crafting/forging and more!

Steam: Update Announcement

Update details

New Features: Quest Journal and Codex

1. 'Quest Journal' can be accessed from the menu or you can use Journal (formerly known as 'Guide's Handbook') from the inventory's 'Books & Scrolls' section and place it into the 'quick bar' to access it. This way you don't have to navigate the menu every time you want to open it.
2. There are own categories for available and completed quests and also sub-categories for the main and side quests. Each quest has a name.
3. 'Quest Journal' has a 'Quest Tracker' that can be activated by choosing a quest from the Journal. 'Quest Tracker' will appear as a small info box on the right side of the screen and it tells you the current objective(s) of the activated quest. You can turn off the 'Quest Tracker' by deactivating the quest.
4. 'Quest Journal' will keep track of every received quests and updates their description and objectives automatically. It also tells who gave the quest and the location where the quest was accepted.
5. 'Quest Journal' has a 'Codex' which contains information about key bindings, character classes, stats and skills, but this is just the beginning. With the coming updates I will start to add some lore books that can be found around the kingdom. Those lore books will add 'Codex' entries which will tell more about the kingdom of Twin Falls and it's history. Each found 'Codex' entry will also give some experience points.

Re-Textured Twin Falls and Lake Road

Twin Falls' areas and Lake Road both get enhanced textures, but there's more to it than just a simple overhaul. After this update you won't be finding spruces from the Twin Falls Beach (except one) or Twin Falls Forest South. Spruces can still be found from the other areas in Twin Falls. Also the more exotic palm resembling tree can be only found in the Twin Falls Beach and Forest South. This change gives the Twin Falls' areas more distinct look and feel.

Because of the new spruce textures in Twin Falls, Lake Road's textures had to be improved too. There's also some colour changes to the trees, so Lake Road looks better than before. The update will also bring better tree sprites to both, Twin Falls and Lake Road.

These new textures and sprites will affect the battle backgrounds, which have been remade for Twin Falls' areas and Lake Road.

Additional graphical improvements contain the new Temple Guard sprites and new icons for 'Quest Journal' and crafting materials.


Re-Designed Crafting/Forging

Crafting/forging at the Blacksmith's shop, which opens after the player deals with the situation in Pramea, has gone through changes. Instead of just delivering some ore to Blacksmith and choosing an item, crafting now has it's own scene. In it you can see the list of items that can be forged and also the materials needed. This change will allow to improve crafting/forging and add new craftable items more easily in the future. But it doesn't end there: Blacksmith can also repair broken items you may come across while exploring, if you've got the right materials.


New Optional Dungeon

A one floor dungeon will be added to somewhere in one of the Twin Falls' areas, that will give some proper use for the 'Eye of an Oracle'. You will actually need the 'Eye of the Oracle' to get into the dungeon in the first place.


New Enemy: Ghost

With the new dungeon comes a new enemy: Ghost. The scariest thing about ghosts is that you can't normally see them when exploring dungeons, until you encounter one and the battle starts. But fortunately there is a way to make them visible: the 'Eye of an Oracle'. When you turn on the 'Eye of an Oracle', it will make all the ghosts near the player visible, but only for as long as it is turned on. Ghosts can also appear in other places than dungeons, so it might not be a good idea to take a stroll in the cemetery at night.


New Tool: Spirit Lantern

There's a way to protect yourself from ghosts and it is called 'Spirit Lantern'. Though it can't reveal ghosts like the 'Eye of an Oracle', it can protect the player from their attacks when turned on. If a ghost is encountered while the 'Spirit Lantern' is turned on, the ghost will vanish and a small amount of experience is granted to the party. But 'Spirit Lanterns' are not easy to come by.


Minimap Improvements

The square player icon in the minimap will be replaced with an arrow that will show the direction the party is facing. It's a small change but has a big impact and makes it easier to read the map and to navigate.


Other Changes, Improvements and Fixes

• Most NPCs will get names.
• Some of the dialog has been improved.
• Certain side quests have been tweaked to work better, for example the 'Hermit Quest', which can be found in the Marsh of the Condemned, is re-designed and is called 'A Grudge For Resurrection'.
• 'Missing Scout' quest has now a proper ending, or at least the simplest solution has. There are couple of quests like this that will be extended in the future updates, but most of the side quests that can be found are already finished.
• 'Instant Movement' has been re-designed and it finally works properly in the settings menu.
• Day/night cycle has more variety in the lighting, for example there's now evening period before the day turns into night.
• Optimization.

 

[Vaeltaja]

Update has been released with some surprises and here are the patch notes:

Patch Notes

Added:

• Quest Journal
• Codex (Lore books will be added in the future updates)
• Magic Map for dungeon mapping, shows mapping percentage
• New optional dungeon hidden somewhere in Twin Falls areas
• New enemy: Ghost
• Improved crafting system
• New textures to Twin Falls areas, Witch Grove and Lake Road
• New battle backgrounds to Twin Falls areas, Witch Grove, Lighthouse and Lake Road
• New tree sprites to Twin Falls areas and Lake Road
• New Temple Guard sprites
• Blacksmith offers new weapons to craft
• Nine Sister Shop's second sister has arrived and she can sell or craft you some new jewelry, if you've got the materials
• Royal Cartographer added to Castle's East Wing
• Spirit Lantern to protect from ghosts
• Lots of new material for crafting
• Enemy drops: Some enemies occasionally drop crafting materials
• New equipment to be found (weapons, armor)
• Loot added to one secret areas: Twin Falls Forest North, Lake Road, Pramea Shore, Lighthouse, Wizard's Tower
• Loot added: Marsh of the Condemned, Bandit Cave, Smuggler's Cave, Underground Passage
• Names to most NPCs
• New player icon for outdoor minimap that shows direction
• New icon for crafting materials

Changes:

• Some minor changes to Bandit Cave and Lighthouse's basement, doesn't really change the map layout or affect the gameplay - these are for the 'Magic Map' to work correctly
• 'Missing Scout' quest's simplest solution has an ending, others will follow later
• 'Unknown Silk' quest has ending
• 'Broken Sword' quest has ending
• Re-designed 'Grudge for Resurrection' quest
• Better day/night cycle
• Some changes to enemies at night in some Twin Falls areas
• 'Eye of an Oracle' drains 'energy points' slightly slower
• Cloaks and Gloves moved into 'Equipment' menu in Magic Shops
• Rings added to Castle Town Magic Shop
• Curiosity Shop has Spirit Lantern (can also be found somewhere else, if you haven't found the membership card)

Fixes:

• Fixed an error that had been copied to all damage formulas, this means that combat may need some more balancing in the future, but now the formula works exactly like intended
• In dialog choices the first option is highlighted in shops and conversations
• Fixed some light bleeding in Bandit Cave
• Shadows work again properly
• Zombie in the Great Forest North walks now properly and starts the right battle
• Smuggler's Cave jar loot fixed
• 'Instant Movement' options menu fixed

 

[Vaeltaja]

To celebrate the new update the game is 20% off in Steam:

Steam: Chronicles of Vaeltaja

 

[Vaeltaja]

I finally have some news about the next update. Those who have been following this project knows that there's still one character class coming and yes, it will come with the next update. But I also have some bad news: I've been designing Shapeshifter character class, but I don't like how the builds work. It will need much more work than I thought it would, so I decided to leave that be. So, Shapeshifter isn't coming. If I ever get better ideas for it, I will make it and release it free after the game is completed, but for now it's not coming and I really don't know if it ever will.

So the new and last character class is called Guardian and it comes with a new weapon class: Polearms! But that's not all, because with Polearms comes three different weapon types: Combat Staves, Spears and Halberts. They have their differences, as Combat Staves are not as effective as Spears and Halberts, but they give better defense bonus. Halberts on the other hand are more powerful, but their damage bonus is small. Spears are something between them.This leads to Guardian's defense abilities. Because Polearms are 2-handed weapons Guardian can't equip any shields (but like mentioned above, Polearm weapons offer defense bonus, just like daggers). Guardian can only use light armor, but he has a better evasion bonus than other classes, even better than Shadow. One crucial detail about the Guardian is that his attacks reach from the backrow, so the player is free to choose wether to use him in the front or back row.

There will be some changes to the equipment system too. After the update Cloaks, Gloves, Amulets/Necklaces and Rings will have their own equipment slots. This is for the sake of balancing, so now a character can't wear four cloaks at the same time.

Pramea gets a Shadow Merchant and he can be found at the Inn. This means that Shadow's techniques and gear can't be bought from the Pramean General Store anymore and they are replaced by the Guardian's techniques and gear.

The Great Forest gets better textures and it will look better than ever before.

The update will also bring lots of enemy balancing and some bug fixes too.

Screenshots

 

[Vaeltaja]

I decided to write a little rundown on the subject ‘Why Chronicles of Vaeltaja is worth a try’, because the game has improved a lot since the early access release and it has a lot more going on than many might even realize. There have been some doubts along the way because the art style is not like in the other blobbers, it is build with RPG Maker and it’s coming from someone no one has ever heard before.

Well, perhaps this will change your mind. Though I must warn that this is going to be a long one and if you don't have the patience to read it, you probably couldn't stomach all the npc dialog in the game either. Anyway, let’s start with the basics.

Character Classes

After the next update there will be 11 character classes to choose from: Guide (main character), Warrior, Hunter, Shadow, Mage, Priest, Witch, Knight, Witch Hunter, Conjurer and Guardian.

So there’s a nice variety of melee, caster and ranged characters. But that’s not all: Mage, Priest and Conjurer have secondary classes to choose from. Mage can become Warlock or Wizard, Priest has Healer and Saint, and finally Conjurer can choose from Summoner and Necromancer. There’s also the option to improve both secondary classes for one character, so Mage can become something in between Warlock and Wizard.

Each of the classes have their own battle skills and spells to use in combat. Some classes also have skills that can be used when interacting with the game world. For example Hunter can disarm traps and Shadow can pick locks. The main character’s Guide class can do both, but it’s also the only class with skills such as 'stealing', ‘speech’ and ‘nature speech’, which can be helpful in solving quests and finding secrets.

The player can hire all the companions, but there can only be six in the active party. This grants an opportunity to try out different party combinations while progressing in the game without the need to start a new game. While most of the hireable classes have male and female versions, there are classes that only let one of them to be hired. These classes include Hunter and Shadow. Some classes have only male version, such as Knight, Witch Hunter and Guardian. Witch has only a female version. From the other classes (except Guide of course) both versions can be hired and this will allow the player to have two Mages in the party: one can become Warlock and the other Wizard or they both can be Warlocks or Wizards or something in between. The choice is yours.

Stat and Skill System

Stat and skill systems are rather traditional with most common stats, such as Strength, Stamina, Intelligence, and skills, such as weapon & armor skills, lock picking, speech and so on. But the thing with stats is that there needs to be some sort of balance. Sure, the player can put all the stat points to strength for a warrior, but it will only lead to a character that has a bad defense, acts last in combat and has only a few ‘energy’ points for battle skills. And those battle skills will be needed.

Examples of how stats affect:

- Strength naturally improves melee damage and some battle skills.

- Stamina improves defense and affects the amount of hit points.

- Agility improves ranged damage, but also gives a little boost to defense and melee damage, also affects some battle skills.

- A good Perception helps to find secrets, such as buttons hidden in paintings or extra loot in some places, but it also affects ranged damage and some battle skills.

- A good Charisma helps to get some npcs to talk about certain topics (‘speech’ may be needed to keep the conversation flowing) and Conjurer with a strong Charisma have stronger summons.

- Intelligence improves magic damage (also defense against magical attacks) and affects the amount of energy points that are needed to use battle skills or spells.

And there are too many battle skills and spells to describe. Some are more straight forward (damage dealing attacks, elemental spells, healing spells), while others apply different buffs and status effects.

Combat System, Damage Types and Status Effects

Combat is important part of most RPGs and Chronicles of Vaeltaja is no exception. The game has a turn-based combat system with combat rows for the party. Melee enemies (with some exceptions) don’t reach the backrow with their hits and therefore they don’t even try, but flying enemies do and there are also ranged enemies, so casters have to be wary too. Same goes with the party: Warriors are useless in the backrow, but a Hunter with bow or crossbow on the other hand can be very effective. Though there are two melee classes that are effective from the backrow too: Witch Hunter and Guardian. This is because their weapons (whip and polearms) have a better reach.

There are different damage types to bring some tactical depth: for example ‘ranged’ damage is more effective against the backrow than the first row, because arrows get more momentum if the target is a little bit further away. There are also other damage types, some of them are more effective against certain enemies than the others, and some of them can give certain advantages when combined to status effects.

There are approximately 30 different states or status effects. Many of them are basic stuff, such as ‘stunned’, 'crippled' or ‘bleeding’, but some of them don’t act exactly like in some other games. For example if a character gets stunned, he can still act, but with great penalties to attack, defense and other things ('unconscious' is a separate state). There are also some more exotic status effects, such as ‘hypothermia’ and ‘oiled’. Try to cast a fire spell to an enemy that’s oiled, even better if the fire spell is strong enough to cause ‘burning’ status effect (just don’t cast a water spell after that because it will remove the burning). Or perhaps a lightning spell to an enemy that is soaked with water.

Lots of Equipment, Tools and Items

There are lots of weapon types: daggers, swords, axes, maces, whips, polearms (combat staves, spears and halberts), staves, bows and crossbows. Basic melee weapons, such as swords and axes, are effective from the front row, but useless in the backrow. Bows and crossbows can be used from both rows and same goes to melee weapons with better reach (whips and polearms).

There are four armor types: robes, light armor (leather), medium armor (chain) and heavy armor (plate). But there are also accessories, such as gloves, cloaks, necklaces and rings with different qualities (stat boosts or protection against certain states or damage types for example).

Equipment can be bought or stolen from the shops or found in the game world (there are LOTS of secret areas and treasures to be found).

Tools are items that can be used for certain things and some of them can be assigned to ‘quick bar’. Most basic tools are torches and lanterns, shovel and pickaxe. Torches will burn out, but lanterns are reliable, and they can be assigned to the ‘quick bar’, so you can turn them on/off with a press of a button. Some lanterns even have special qualities, such as hit point or energy point regeneration and some can even banish ghosts, but they are not cheap or easy to come by.

So, why use torches if lanterns are better? It all comes down to one question: How do YOU want to play the game? You don't NEED to use the lanterns, just like you don't need to use a gaslight or candle while trying to read in bed at night in real life. There is no right or wrong way to play, just an easier and harder ways. If you don't want camping gear to revive fallen party members while resting after battle, just buy the basic camping gear instead of premium one. I want to offer choices, not tell which ones to choose.

Shovel and pickaxe are used automatically, when standing on a digging spot or activating an ore deposit.

But there are more uniques tools also, such as the Eye of an Oracle. Basically it works like lanterns, but not only does it light the surroundings, it will also make hidden secrets, such as invisible levers or floor plates and, certain enemies, such as ghosts, visible. (Ghosts can engage combat even when they are invisible.) But the Eye of an Oracle also consumes the main character’s energy points, so it’s not wise to use it as an only source of light.

I’ve also added an optional Automap that can be assigned to the ‘quick bar’ and used in the dungeons. If you don’t want automap, just refuse from it when talking to the Royal Cartographer.

Overworld and Dungeons

At the moment there are following overworld areas (and most of them are split in smaller areas):

- Twin Falls, the center of the kingdom is split into following areas: Castle Town, Castle Fields, Cemetery Forest Area, Riverside North and South, Forest Area North and South, Beach and Witch Grove

- The Great Forest is split in Northern and Southern parts and Forest Grove

- Pramea has the town of Prame, Shore, Jungle and Smuggler’s Cove

- Marsh of the Condemned

- Lake Road

Each of the areas have their own secrets to find (chests, digging spots, ore deposits, dead bodies), some of them have npcs to talk to and side-quests to tackle. There’s lots of npc dialog without profanity to flesh out the game world. Yes, I think mature themes can be handled without unnecessary cursing.

And then there are over 10 dungeons filled with puzzles, enemies and secrets. Some of the dungeons are optional, while most main dungeons must be completed so the story can progress. But there are choices too: should you take your chances against the necromancer in the Halls of Onkalo just to gain entrance to the Wizard’s Tower or should you try to find some other way in? Do you really need to kill the Leecher Queen if you can also talk to her?

And some of those choices can affect the main character’s reputation.

Overworld has a day/night cycle, so torches and lanterns are needed when roaming the areas by night. Castle Town will close it’s gate for the night, same with shops. Streets get quiet when the night arrives, different enemy mobs appear in certain areas and so on.

Graphics and HUD (or the lack of it)

I know that the graphic style doesn’t please everyone and that’s fine. Graphics will improve (the game looks already quite different compared to the early access release version), but I won’t change the art style. I know there are beautiful pixel art blobbers, such as Mystic Lands or the Darkness Below, but I never wanted to pursue the same ‘adult’ art style. I want Chronicles of Vaeltaja to have a look that separates it from other blobbers. Sure, I like the more serious art style too, but with this game I want to create something else, something almost fairytale like. I simply didn't see any sense trying to copy some other game's style (of course I could have thought all those players who basically want to play the same game over and over with different story or setting) or wanted to go and buy someone else's assets. Sure, I'm still using some premade assets, but they are mostly placeholders and I'm planning to replace them eventually.

It’s also true that I’m not a graphic artist, never have been and probably never will be, and I have no previous experience making pixel art. But I’m learning all the time and therefore there will be improvements. The last update improved textures in Twin Falls and Lake Road and the next update will improve the Great Forest’s textures.

Unfortunately, while screenshots can be helpful, they really don’t do justice to this game – there’s a lot more atmosphere than they can ever show.

Why no HUD? Well, I’m an enthusiast 3D Vision user and I love pixel games in stereoscopic 3d, but unfortunately there’s not that many of them, especially deep rpgs. HUD would only distract the experience and I’ve grown to appreciate this approach. I’ve gotten some feedback that others have done so too.

If the graphics and/or the lack of HUD keep you away from the game, that’s too bad, because then you are missing a quite deep roleplaying game that is created with love and passion. I may draw inspiration from different sources (such as Wizardry and Zelda), but those sources shouldn’t be judged if you haven’t even tried the game: it doesn’t mean that I’m creating some Wizardry-Ultima-Zelda hybrid abomination. Some games might have inspiring atmosphere, others might have inspiring mechanics, while some (like many modern games) are so bad that they inspire to make something much better.

I know there are players and even developers who don't want to change the genre fundamentals, so this might not be a game for them. I, on the other hand, don't want to restrict my creativity with some unwritten rules of the past - I want to make a game that I want to play myself and I have to admit that so far I've been enjoying quite a lot.

Last, but not least

The game doesn’t hold your hand. It doesn’t explain every single mechanic or tell how and when to do things. Instead it gives you the freedom to find and learn things on your own pace. It also doesn’t interrupt and bore you with cutscenes. Personally I hate cutscenes (especially cinematic) and I never bother to watch any cinematic game trailers either, not that there’s really that interesting game trailers these days to begin with, if you ask me. But that’s just me, the older I get the more interested I am to play with my Amiga or dos pc instead of modern games.

And that dislike I feel for modern games is the very main inspiration source when developing Chronicles of Vaeltaja.

Thanks for reading and special thanks to those who have supported this project so far!

Edit: In the end my opinions are irrelevant.

 

[Sotomonte]

How many more overworld areas and dungeons do you plan to add over time?

I really like that there are items that you can get (or not) and that have "interactivity" with the world like what you mentioned about the lanterns that can banish ghosts or that you can use the Eye of the Oracle to make them visible (making them easier to defeat).

 

[Vaeltaja]

How many more overworld areas and dungeons do you plan to add over time?

I really like that there are items that you can get (or not) and that have "interactivity" with the world like what you mentioned about the lanterns that can banish ghosts or that you can use the Eye of the Oracle to make them visible (making them easier to defeat).

I'm planning to add three more overworld areas and at least two of them will be split in smaller parts, but there's also a plan to add one overworld area to the Lake Road also.

I've been now testing the Guardian class and doing enemy balancing. I've also had to do some adjustments certain skills' damage formulas. I'm also testing a new status menu, which will show better information about certain attributes, such as hit, evasion and critical rates, element bonuses and weaknesses.

Glad to hear you like those mechanics. They sure bring that little extra depth to the gameplay.