Game
Selling Sunlight - Wandering Merchant RPG
6 years ago

Monthly Update #10


Hello friends! Late October devlog, for we forgot to post it here. Apologies!
Here’s what we’ve been working on:

MUSIC
Our composer Devin Vibert sent us the theme song for the Orange City, and you can listen to it right now, HERE.

Devin also made us some much-needed sound effects. They have been implemented into the game, and all the menus now bloops and bleeps in an appropriate and satisfying way.

ART
Anita is working on the merchants that will populate the Orange City. She’s currently in love with this NPC, the local artist weirdo:

5d097945e7625.jpg

Chiara started working on the penultimate city: the Teal Atheneum, where fishes are books and fishermen double as librarians.
Our pitch for this location was “a Chinese Venice”. Here is a sneak peek:

5d0979471517c.jpg

GAMEPLAY
There’s a reason we still haven’t updated the alpha for high-tier backers: we are currently reviewing the bartering system, because it simply wasn’t very fun.

We listened to your feedback and we researched other bartering systems, trying to find new ideas.
This article by Sin Vega on Rock, Paper, Shotgun was a big inspiration. It made us understand money is usually the least interesting part about a trading deal, and gave us the idea to check tabletop RPG systems.

The updated bartering system retains the same core, but all the elements work a little differently.
The list of changes includes:

  • Multiple currencies.

  • Each merchant has a default patience level you can increase by befriending them. Grumpy merchants start with lower patience, thus adding some variety.

  • Patience doesn’t reset after every transaction, but at the end of the day. Makes merchants feel more human and limits exploits.

  • A renewed focus on trading services and goods. You will be able to complete a transaction without using money, if you want.

  • New skills during bartering now gets unlocked as you befriend the merchants. Gain their trust, and you will be able to unlock risky prepositions like “give me a discount and I will search for this item and bring it to you”.

Many of those skills require creating new systems from scratch, and that’s why they’re taking more time than expected.
Game development is hard. We hope the result will dazzle you.

5d097947c444a.jpg

Final design for the artist NPC.

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