Developer Diary #7 | Looking Forward to Next Year!
We here at Aesir Interactive would like to wish you all very Happy Holidays and a good end to this exciting year! We’re taking this opportunity for our last Developer Diary of 2024 to give you an outlook for what to expect in 2025:
[h2]Stay Tuned for Kickstarter News![/h2]
As first revealed in last months' Developer Diary, we are super excited to be launching a Kickstarter campaign Soon™. Make sure to follow the campaign over on Kickstarter by clicking the “Notify me on launch” button. That way, you’ll be first to know when the actual campaign goes live, and you’ll be sure to get your pick out of Early Bird backer rewards!
We’ll also be updating that page over time before the campaign goes live, so make sure to check back there occasionally!
We love and appreciate all the excitement we’ve already been seeing for the campaign in our communities, and we can’t wait to show you more. With your support on Kickstarter, Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori can live up to its full potential and get all the time and resources it deserves. 💖
➡️Support Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori on Kickstarter!⬅️
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Playtests[/h2]
It took a bit longer than initially planned, but we conducted our first playtest this month! In the test, a small group of players were able to give the horse riding and camera controls (or “CCC” for Camera, Controls and Character) a first try and give feedback. We’ve kept this initial testing group very small on purpose, to make sure that there weren’t any major technical hang-ups. We did in fact find a few crucial bugs to be fixed before our next test, so that turned out to be a good choice.
We’ve also gotten a first batch of very valuable feedback for how first time players react to the behaviors of camera and control. Making movement feel good is an incredibly important aspect of making a game where traversal plays such a big role, so even though this iteration took quite a bit more time than we were initially planning for, we’re confident that it was worth it. Overall, the feedback from this first test was very positive, which makes our whole team very happy and is a big motivation booster! The fact that we got very specific and detailed constructive criticism from our testers for aspects of the controls is also an indicator that the overall CCC experience is on the right track.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be able to reach out to more people on our tester waitlist and test again with a slightly bigger group, to ensure that the feedback we’re getting is more representative and diverse. Make sure you’re signed up here if you would like to participate too! Note that while we ask for which specific expertise you have in the sign-up, that does not mean we’ll only pick testers who know about all those topics! We want the game to be accessible to more people than die-hard horse fans in the end, so we’ll make sure to test with players from different backgrounds.
➡️Sign up for future Playtest waves here!⬅️
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Gameplay Systems[/h2]
Now that we have a solid basis in CCC, it’s time to tackle other crucial gameplay systems that we’ve been outlining and designing over the past few months. Some of these systems have been implemented in a basic first iteration already and need extra work to function as we want them to, while others are getting the team’s full attention for the first time:
🌬️ Wind, Weather and their impact on the ground you ride on: The plan is that depending on where you ride and which paths you choose, your horse may have an easier or harder time traversing that ground depending on its own traits and preferences, or may train different attributes, giving you a relevant strategic choice for whether you want your horse to (for example) become stronger or faster.
🐎 Horse Care, Traits and Trust: For a bit more insight into our plans for this topic, have a look at our Dev Diary from September!
📜 Missions: While “ride around and explore” is fun enough for some players on its own, the main character in Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori has an actual job (courier rider) that you’ll be doing as part of the gameplay! This means managing your inventory to not overload your horse and getting to specific parts of the game world despite difficult terrain along the way.
As always, note that game development is a very iterative process and that the specifics can change along the way.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Community [/h2]
Building up a following and community for this game has been a very new experience for Aesir Interactive. In the past, this work was mostly done by our publishers for different projects. But we LOVE to be able to communicate directly, more openly and more regularly to you, our players.
While a big part of this activity is of course getting the word out about our project, we also want community to be a two-way street. Meaning: please do join our Discord or leave comments here if you have specific questions, hopes, requests or even concerns about Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori! We will do our best to answer what we can and give insight into our dev process wherever possible.
So we’re ending this year and this Developer Diary with a handful of questions to you, the community:
[hr][/hr]
Thank you all for your trust, your enthusiasm and your unwavering support over the past few months! We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t wholeheartedly believe in the potential of our project, and we’re excited for you to join in helping us make that a reality.
Stay tuned for more info very soon!
[hr][/hr]
[h3]Previous Developer Diaries can be found here:[/h3]
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Join the Community[/h2]
Facebook Instagram TikTok Twitter
Discord Twitch Website
[h2]Stay Tuned for Kickstarter News![/h2]
As first revealed in last months' Developer Diary, we are super excited to be launching a Kickstarter campaign Soon™. Make sure to follow the campaign over on Kickstarter by clicking the “Notify me on launch” button. That way, you’ll be first to know when the actual campaign goes live, and you’ll be sure to get your pick out of Early Bird backer rewards!
We’ll also be updating that page over time before the campaign goes live, so make sure to check back there occasionally!
We love and appreciate all the excitement we’ve already been seeing for the campaign in our communities, and we can’t wait to show you more. With your support on Kickstarter, Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori can live up to its full potential and get all the time and resources it deserves. 💖
➡️Support Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori on Kickstarter!⬅️
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Playtests[/h2]
It took a bit longer than initially planned, but we conducted our first playtest this month! In the test, a small group of players were able to give the horse riding and camera controls (or “CCC” for Camera, Controls and Character) a first try and give feedback. We’ve kept this initial testing group very small on purpose, to make sure that there weren’t any major technical hang-ups. We did in fact find a few crucial bugs to be fixed before our next test, so that turned out to be a good choice.
We’ve also gotten a first batch of very valuable feedback for how first time players react to the behaviors of camera and control. Making movement feel good is an incredibly important aspect of making a game where traversal plays such a big role, so even though this iteration took quite a bit more time than we were initially planning for, we’re confident that it was worth it. Overall, the feedback from this first test was very positive, which makes our whole team very happy and is a big motivation booster! The fact that we got very specific and detailed constructive criticism from our testers for aspects of the controls is also an indicator that the overall CCC experience is on the right track.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be able to reach out to more people on our tester waitlist and test again with a slightly bigger group, to ensure that the feedback we’re getting is more representative and diverse. Make sure you’re signed up here if you would like to participate too! Note that while we ask for which specific expertise you have in the sign-up, that does not mean we’ll only pick testers who know about all those topics! We want the game to be accessible to more people than die-hard horse fans in the end, so we’ll make sure to test with players from different backgrounds.
➡️Sign up for future Playtest waves here!⬅️
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Gameplay Systems[/h2]
Now that we have a solid basis in CCC, it’s time to tackle other crucial gameplay systems that we’ve been outlining and designing over the past few months. Some of these systems have been implemented in a basic first iteration already and need extra work to function as we want them to, while others are getting the team’s full attention for the first time:
🌬️ Wind, Weather and their impact on the ground you ride on: The plan is that depending on where you ride and which paths you choose, your horse may have an easier or harder time traversing that ground depending on its own traits and preferences, or may train different attributes, giving you a relevant strategic choice for whether you want your horse to (for example) become stronger or faster.
🐎 Horse Care, Traits and Trust: For a bit more insight into our plans for this topic, have a look at our Dev Diary from September!
📜 Missions: While “ride around and explore” is fun enough for some players on its own, the main character in Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori has an actual job (courier rider) that you’ll be doing as part of the gameplay! This means managing your inventory to not overload your horse and getting to specific parts of the game world despite difficult terrain along the way.
As always, note that game development is a very iterative process and that the specifics can change along the way.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Community [/h2]
Building up a following and community for this game has been a very new experience for Aesir Interactive. In the past, this work was mostly done by our publishers for different projects. But we LOVE to be able to communicate directly, more openly and more regularly to you, our players.
While a big part of this activity is of course getting the word out about our project, we also want community to be a two-way street. Meaning: please do join our Discord or leave comments here if you have specific questions, hopes, requests or even concerns about Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori! We will do our best to answer what we can and give insight into our dev process wherever possible.
So we’re ending this year and this Developer Diary with a handful of questions to you, the community:
- What feature are you most looking forward to in Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori?
- Which topic(s) would you like to see us tackle in upcoming Developer Diaries?
- Are you planning on backing the project on Kickstarter?
- What could we include to make an even more convincing campaign?
- What sort of backer reward would you love to have?
- What could we include to make an even more convincing campaign?
- Which existing game has your favorite horse(s) and why?
[hr][/hr]
Thank you all for your trust, your enthusiasm and your unwavering support over the past few months! We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t wholeheartedly believe in the potential of our project, and we’re excited for you to join in helping us make that a reality.
Stay tuned for more info very soon!
[hr][/hr]
[h3]Previous Developer Diaries can be found here:[/h3]
- #01 | To the Steppes
- #02 | An Open World
- #03 | PC Early Access
- #04 | Horse Training and Horse Care
- #05 | All Eyes on Khiimori
- #06 | Cantering towards Crowdfunding
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Join the Community[/h2]
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Discord Twitch Website