What's next for Evowok Breeder?

[Ryan]

Evowok Breeder has been released in the wild for a bit over three months now, with quite a few minor updates now under its belt thanks to people helpfully reporting issues they've found while playing. Hope some of you are enjoying it, anyway.

So, what's next for the game?

Well, I do plan to release a larger update a some point adding new content to the game. There were quite a few ideas which didn't make it into the first release of the game for one reason or another, which I'd like to get around to adding, as well as some new things that I think would be cool:

New towns: there are four towns (along with the expected new characters, traders and amenities) in various parts of the world which currently exist in my ideas notebook, but which weren't added to the game on first release. These will almost certainly be included in the content update, and will also include some new amenities which will help to balance a few extra economic considerations, as well as new tasks, quests and storylines.

New encounters: my notebook also includes quite a few ideas for additional encounters which I thought of later in the development process when I didn't want to spend time working on these rather than preparing the game for release, but which would definitely be fun to add in a content update. Some of these will help to provide second-chance access to a few resources in the game which it is currently possible for the player to lock themselves out from with particularly poor decisions, while some will tie in with existing storylines - on which note...

Story continuations: what happens to Gemma and Hadley? What does Ebany do next? Does Obsidian have any future? There are quite a few storylines which are never fully concluded under some circumstances, and I'd like to add in continuations and conclusions to some of these, along with additional quests and player involvements. For some of these, I already I have a fairly clear idea of what I'd like to do, and these will possibly add quite a few new story branches to the game.

Updated graphics: there are some graphics in the game which were intended to be redrawn before release, but which Sjoerd simply didn't have time to complete at the time. It's entirely possible that some of these may be included in the next update.

And of course, a content update to Evowok Breeder wouldn't be complete without...

New evowok: I'd love to add some more evowok to the existing 200+ already in the game. Those of you who remember that far back might recall that I originally accepted submissions of evowok designs when I first started making this game, and I'd be open to this possibility again, if anyone would be interested in seeing some of their own creatures in the game? Either way, there are some ideas I have for new breeds which I'd be likely to add in this update, especially focusing on some of the more unusual abilities and characteristics which currently aren't used by many of the breeds already in the game, and populating some of the more sparse environments with a wider variety of evowok.

An update like this will take a while to put together, of course, but I'd definitely like to do it if anyone would be interested in seeing it released. And of course, I'd love to hear any more suggestions, questions or thoughts on this from anyone playing the game at the moment.

That's all for now, anyway. More news when there is some.

Ryan

[CryptRat]

Not sure I would get back to the game anything soon even if it gets a big update, but I got my 200 hours of fun which is already an insanely long time, and I need to applause your devotion again.

[Jona]

I absolutely loved the game! I really hope you do take the time to add some new content. I probably only had 1 real issue with the game, going to start with the real issue.
-With the amount of evowok in this game and not a lot of help on where I can find certain evowoks, I believe that a wagon of some sort would be great to have where you keep new evowoks until you get to the Colosseum. That would allow me to go around exploring without the need to leaving my 2 fighting evowok slots empty and help with the evowok catching tasks. It would be bad if I ended up in an encounter where I get attacked with no evowoks lol. Speaking of dangerous encounters, I would love for that to be in the game more often where people don't want to duel and just want to cause harm to add a sense of caution in the game.

now for questions and thoughts.
-Is there an actual main quest? Or is the game literally how you want to make it? I don't want to spoil anything but lets just say I doomed an entire city lol>.<. sadly I forgot most of those npcs you named since its been a while since I played and there is sooooo many npcs in the game.
- I think there should be some kind of system to help with training new evowoks that you captured to allow you to properly try other evowoks out since not having a skill maxed affects the accuracy of the skill from what I've experienced, Which can be quite the headache when I'm missing so much. :S

I truly had a blast playing this game and I would still be playing it now if it wasn't for that 1 real issue. Aside from that I can't wait for new content.

[Ryan]

I got my 200 hours of fun which is already an insanely long time, and I need to applause your devotion again.

I absolutely loved the game!

Thanks - really great to know you both enjoyed playing.

Is there an actual main quest? Or is the game literally how you want to make it?

...The main quest is to become the world's most renowned evowok breeder, of course.

The open-ended gameworld is very intentional. One of the things that struck me when I first played the original Red/Blue Pokémon games was that by shifting away from the usual storyline-centric approach of most traditional adventure games, and even having the player take a back-seat to the combat, it was a style of game that could potentially allow for a very free level of interaction with its setting while still keeping the central gameplay intact - even moreso than very open-ended RPGs like the classic Fallout games which I also loved, perhaps.

It's something that Nintendo didn't really explore with Pokémon though, which made me want to try it.

-With the amount of evowok in this game and not a lot of help on where I can find certain evowoks, I believe that a wagon of some sort would be great to have where you keep new evowoks until you get to the Colosseum.

Well... I did consider a few different options for tending for additional evowok "on the road", but the limitation of keeping two evowok with you at once while travelling is deliberate - partly for balance in terms of travel and economy (and to force careful decision making regarding which evowok to keep and pair) - and also, of course, because keeping three evowok together at once would open up the somewhat complicated possibility of allowing them to reproduce! That wasn't something I wanted to implement, as it probably wouldn't be very much fun, and would very likely end up sidelining the central character of the game in a way that I don't think would be very desirable.

But hey, who knows? Maybe someday I'll consider adding some sort of sub-game about running an evowok farm.

- I think there should be some kind of system to help with training new evowoks that you captured to allow you to properly try other evowoks out since not having a skill maxed affects the accuracy of the skill from what I've experienced, Which can be quite the headache when I'm missing so much. :S

Boosting skills and prowess for newly caught evowok is a good use for spending your character's Experience points. Also, the EBA's various Display Matches (and Outreach Matches for smaller evowok) might be good places for training.

There will certainly be some additional training opportunities available in the planned content update as well.

Speaking of dangerous encounters, I would love for that to be in the game more often where people don't want to duel and just want to cause harm to add a sense of caution in the game.

Haha, I'll keep the request in mind.

Ryan

[Jona]

thanks for all the answers It makes sense now that I know how you thought all this out.

[Ryan]

Update!

I've now made a tentative start on the expansion, including some of the groundwork for the new towns and some new evowok lineages.

This little guy is one of the new breeds already joining the roster.

DdQ0SwpX0AA-qQ8.jpg large.jpg (14.87 KiB) Viewed 2077 times

At this stage, there's still a lot to be done of course, and also a lot of room for additional new content to be included. If anyone's interested in submitting their own designs for potential new evowok, let me know.

More news soon.

Ryan