The Nightingale team has a new recap of their most recent playtests for the survival crafting game, and some updates on what’s next.
Inflexion Games has been holding small, limited alpha play tests, but this latest play test expanded the number of testers to over 8,000. The purpose of expanding testing was to get more data and info about how the game scales up for a greater number of players. The team cites some positive feedback, including the aesthetics and the setting, which are definitely different for survival games, and some of the resources and tools they encounter like being able to traverse the environment with picks early on. They've also named the starter area as a positive.
At the starting area, you will be able to select your realm’s starting biome, giving you a customization option right off the bat, as well as difficulty levels for the biomes and the ability to choose your starting loadout. It is a survival crafting game, adding these difficulty settings could let you have a more casual approach to your game and exploration, while cranking things up poses a greater challenge, maybe the need to defeat more creatures for the resources you need to keep everyone safe, and more to work through.
The widely requested feature that the team confirmed in its latest update is third-person mode. Third-person mode was an experimental test during this play test, letting players try it out and determine how well it worked or what didn't work. That they have confirmed the third person mode is in development points to an initially positive experience. Although the default and preferred mode of play will be first person, you'll still get a full experience if you play in third person. It's also a potential accessibility option, which could open the game to more players.
Things are definitely coming together on the road to an eventual early access release. You can find out more, and sign up for testing over at Nightingale.
