Verdant Skies [In Development]

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
User avatar
Kross lover/fan
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Posts: 1897
Joined: Sep 27, 2010 11:27 am
Contact:

Post  Posted:

I don’t know the first thing about how to mod but I have to agree that Anthony is pretty cute :wink:
User avatar
LeBurns
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Posts: 1329
Joined: Sep 26, 2011 10:48 am

Post  Posted:

Will these mods be able to be shared? Not much of a modder myself, but would love to find mods in the STEAM workshop or another site that I can just download and add to the game.
Archiel
New Seedling
New Seedling
Posts: 9
Joined: Sep 27, 2016 6:42 pm

Post  Posted:

Yeah, I thought people would be pretty excited about the mods :D

The mods are pretty easy to write. You don't even need a compiler- you just need a text editor.

Yep, you can upload them to Steam workshop and download mods directly from the steam client. If you don't use steam, you can install them by just dropping them into the mods folder. The game has a button to open that folder for you, so it's easy to find. And you don't even need to restart the game to load new mods. I think if someone was interested, it could be integrated with Nexus mod manager pretty trivially too, but I'm mostly expecting people to use steam workshop.

There's a modInfo file that a mod author can write to describe the mod, the what version the mod is, and if it has any non-pg13 content.

I'm glad everyone likes Anthony so much :) Beth just finished his main character arc yesterday, he's got a pretty interesting story when you get to know him!
User avatar
Liliana93
Carrots... yum
Carrots... yum
Posts: 483
Joined: Aug 27, 2012 10:29 am

Post  Posted:

It's really nice to see that you're adding modding in though especially cause games tend to survive longer if modding is accessible (Baldurs gate and skyrim/oblivion are two great examples), also so far Anthony is my favorite appearance wise <8D

Also, how do you create the system to enable mods (or how do you make it available)? I'm currently pursuing a major in Game Design development (still in early programming classes though), and was just curious about what is required.
Archiel
New Seedling
New Seedling
Posts: 9
Joined: Sep 27, 2016 6:42 pm

Post  Posted:

Liliana93 wrote:Also, how do you create the system to enable mods (or how do you make it available)? I'm currently pursuing a major in Game Design development (still in early programming classes though), and was just curious about what is required.
I'm happy to answer questions! :)

The main strategy for Verdant Skies is to put all of the game data into JSON files. The main data for the game - (the non-modded stuff) goes into a set of core files. When they get deserialized, they end up in pretty normal data structures like hashmaps.

Then the modding versions of those same JSON files are loaded- in the order that the user specifies in the modding dialog box in-game. That new data is added to the hashmaps- but if there's already something in there with that key, the data is replaced. This allows users to add new content or to replace existing content. If multiple mods touch the same thing, then the last one ends up taking precedence.

When I was young, I "modded" games like Escape Velocity- you could edit the resource forks of the data files and change the parameters for the game that way. That was pretty easy for people to do, and you didn't really need programming skills. Writing mods for games like minecraft requires a lot of technical skill, decompiling, hooking into obfuscated code.. even just using a compiler is a big hurdle for a lot of people. So I wanted a system where people could mod the game without any previous computer science experience.

Hope that helps!
Archiel
New Seedling
New Seedling
Posts: 9
Joined: Sep 27, 2016 6:42 pm

Post  Posted:

I just posted a video of the animal incubator on twitter, and I wanted to share it here too. It normally takes 48 hours to incubate an animal, but I sped it up for the video:
Liliananonny
Anonymous Fish

Post  Posted:

It's Liliana93, thank you for providing the information on mods :) it's nice to know some of the procedure behind making it available to others, also fast growth cycle for animals sounds pretty fantastic, is that an early accessible feature or one that comes around later?
Archiel
New Seedling
New Seedling
Posts: 9
Joined: Sep 27, 2016 6:42 pm

Post  Posted:

You need to get the animal sampler tool before getting started on animals. If you know what you are doing, you can focus on that and get to that point in just a few days. But for more laid back players, you'll probably get there after a week or two in-game. (I won't spoil the specifics as to how to unlock them yet!)

It'll always take 48 hours to incubate an animal, the time speed-up is a developer debugging tool. Of course, time flies if you take up activities like painting.
Archiel
New Seedling
New Seedling
Posts: 9
Joined: Sep 27, 2016 6:42 pm

Post  Posted:

Final Stretch!
We're grateful to all of you folks who have been patiently waiting for our release! We haven't nailed down an exact date yet, but we're in the final phase of testing and clean up, so you should expect to see us on Steam sometime later this month or in early February. Thanks for your patience and engagement throughout the development process. You are why we do what we do!

The current count of lines of dialog: 37,862!
Image
New Machines
Sarah Seember Huisken has been at it again! Check out these gorgeous additions. The animal genetic splicer will function similarly to the crop genetic splicer (left). Once you get your ideal DNA sample you can bring your new animal to life in the animal incubator (right).
Image
Marsh Crops
There are 14 different crops that grow in three different regions. It seems we haven't shared too many screenshots of them yet, so here are a few of the marsh crops!
Image
New NPC Animations
We've had the chance to work with a group of very talented local artists while making Verdant Skies. The most recent is Ethan Calabria who jumped in to finish the NPC sprite walking cycle animations.
Image
We're still making minor adjustments to the facial features, so these aren't exactly what you'll see in game. Once we've settled on the style of eyes, nose, and mouth that we wish to use, we'll give all the NPCs a more uniform appearance.
Image
UI Updates
Andy's been working hard to make sure that the in game user interface (UI) is uniform and streamlined. Here's a peek at the progress he's made on the achievement panel where players can track their achievement progress.
Image

Introducing Ramón Martínez
Space travel is not something Ramón Martínez would have ever considered if it weren't for his twin sister, Rosie. Though risk-averse, Ramón could not refuse her request to serve as the colony's nurse. Always the overprotective brother, Ramón spends most of his time watching over Rosie... Whether she likes it or not.
Image
User avatar
LeBurns
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Posts: 1329
Joined: Sep 26, 2011 10:48 am

Post  Posted:

Been following on STEAM. Glad to see the release is approaching.
Archiel
New Seedling
New Seedling
Posts: 9
Joined: Sep 27, 2016 6:42 pm

Post  Posted:

Release Date Announcement!
It’s been a busy month, but we’re thrilled to announce our release date of February 12th. We were hoping to have everything finished by the end of January, but we needed a little more time to make sure we give you the best experience possible at release. The biggest time sink has been getting meaningful daily dialogs written for all of the characters, and that’s the main thing we’re still finishing up. Sorry to disappoint everyone with the slight delay, but it’ll be worth it!


If you’ve already purchased Verdant Skies through our Humble Bundle widget, thank you! Your key will arrive a few days before launch so you can pre-load the game on your computer. It will unlock when it’s live on Steam!

New Website and Wiki
We’ve upgraded our website with a cleaner look and more intuitive interactions. It’s one of those things you do when your game is about to be released! Thanks to the folks over at Gamepedia, we also have a wiki: https://verdantskies.gamepedia.com/ They’re already filling it in, so if you’re worried about spoilers, don’t browse too deeply!

We just started a discussion forum on Steam. If you’ve got questions or comments, that’s a great place to ask: http://steamcommunity.com/app/730050/discussions/
Image
Mountain Crops
The mountain crops are the most challenging to grow, since they require unlocking the mountain region and having the tier 3 tools. But the more difficult crops have a higher base price, and having access to all 14 crops will allow you to make the most complex recipes that restore the most energy.
Image
Pair Events and Other Romances
We’ve been writing events that occur between two characters once you’ve reached a certain friendship level with both of them. These have been a lot of fun to write, since the player gets to see their differing personality traits interact. Not all of these events are romantic, but if you’re not dating either of those characters, they might start expressing interest in eachother!
Image
Followup Dialog
To make the characters seem even more alive, certain events have followup dialog. Especially useful when an event didn’t include the player, the followups allow the NPC to confide with the player and share some extra details about the person they were just talking to.
Image
End Game Content
In addition to the blueprints you can unlock through the Planetary Pioneer blueprint system, there are some even more advanced blueprints to unlock through character events. They’re tough to make, but offer some nice boosts once you’ve established yourself in the colony.
Image
Finalized Sprites
In the last newsletter we showed you a few stills from our new NPC animations. Here’s the full lineup of colonists on Viridis Primus! You’ve met most of them, but there’s a few we just didn’t have time to introduce.
Image
Image
Introducing Nessa Collins
Nessa Collins can be found flitting about her laboratory intensely studying samples from her menagerie. A talented zoologist with an interest in cloning, Nessa will help you improve the quality of your livestock products.
Image
User avatar
Blue Rose
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 4311
Joined: Oct 30, 2008 1:52 pm

Post  Posted:

Congrats on the release date, that's very exciting! So soon, too! Really looking forward to finally playing the game. And Nessa looks great.
User avatar
Kross lover/fan
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Posts: 1897
Joined: Sep 27, 2010 11:27 am
Contact:

Post  Posted:

Super congrats!
I look forward to playing this game sometime after release :)
User avatar
Liliana93
Carrots... yum
Carrots... yum
Posts: 483
Joined: Aug 27, 2012 10:29 am

Post  Posted:

Congrats! I can't wait to play it :)
User avatar
LeBurns
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Posts: 1329
Joined: Sep 26, 2011 10:48 am

Post  Posted:

So does this come out today? STEAM says the 12th.
Post Reply