Clockwork Labs has shared a new letter from the producer update for BitCraft, letting us all know how a development is going, and what to expect next.
BitCraft has been in pre-alpha for a while, and they are still taking applications for testers, which they seem to be adding periodically. The new producer has recently joined as the executive producer of the game and acknowledges that radio silence and a lack of development updates is frustrating for him, so now he vows to give more frequent updates about the game.
So what is going on with BitCraft? Next up is pre-alpha update 8, which has three major goals. They are:
- Ship a new, more satisfying movement system
- Expanding and making our world more interesting
- Adding more stuff to do, by introducing a first version of farming, while we add a layer of polish to fishing and hunting
The movement system is part of the process of them taking player movement off of a grid. Player feedback on using a hex grid for character movement got lot of consistent negative feedback. Freeing movement from a grid is what they're working on and have recently added new tech in place to go forward into testing a new system.
Expanding the world has two parts. One of them is taking water from something that just exists between land to something playable so that characters can walk or swim or even sail in the world. This also means making sure that creating a playable ocean has life in it. Considering exploration, they want to add more ruins and different types to explore.
Another aim is to have more skills and to polish up what they have. Farming is in development and being tested, early animal taming, including potential mounts, hunting, and fishing. Fishing is obviously going to be important when they plan to have the oceans be a playable area full of life.
They're also looking to polish the game up before the next testing round as the team moves towards an eventual alpha build.
