Rombo's progress

It's been a while since we've updated itch. Rombo has been undergoing a ton of work and major construction, and we haven't updated a new build because it's not as neat and complete as our first milestone.

The pillars for our cozy sandbox game are as follows:

• Terraforming [complete]
  • This was one of our first features, and is pretty much complete. Rombo can dig both the front and back layer of the world, and can place tiles to rebuild it.

• Farming [complete*]
  • Rombo can totally farm now, and garden. It can till and water rich soil, and plant a carrot. It can also plant native flowers and plants from seeds, as well as bushes and trees. Anything Rombo cuts down or picks, a seed (sometimes more than one) is given so that it can be planted again. *This system needs more refinement, and we definitely need to build out the number of plants in the game, but the proof of concept is complete.

• Exploration [in progress]
  • Rombo can now move between two levels instead of being stuck in one. It can interact with a signpost to go from level to level. Eventually, Rombo will have an enormous world and swift travel abilities to go anywhere it wants.
  • Creatures have been added to the world and it feels so much more alive.
  • Level 2 is being actively developed and polished, and has a really awesome level design document to help us build unique assets to make for satisfying exploration.

• Quests [in progress]
  • We have one quest! It works. Now we need a lot more. We've disabled the auto-bestowal of this quest for easy testing.
  • We have a quest tracker in the HUD that shows Rombo's current objectives at all times. This will need more iteration as we explore the possibility of multiple quests at a time.
  • We definitely need a way to create quests that is more designer-friendly. The system is very difficult to use right now, and was created quickly by our engineer to show proof of concept. One of the reasons we haven't made more quests yet is the difficulty of it. So that will need some work.

• Social [not started]
  • When humans arrive on Rombo's planet, it will be able to befriend them. There may even be a human economy!

• Upgrades [not started]

  
  

  • Rombo will be able to upgrade itself and become more powerful/fun as it advances through the game. This will be similar to crafting, in that there will be a list of requirements before an upgrade can be made.

• Crafting [not started]
• Rombo will be able to craft a ton of items using its menu or interactive objects in the world.
  

While there is still a lot to do, the game has come such a long way. We're looking forward to posting our first updated build on itch for folks to check out. Thank you for reading! https://linktr.ee/black_heart_games to see what we're up to and follow us on social.