The Alpha Aftermath

It would seem that the Alpha release went rather smoothly, which I'm grateful for. Showing something to the public that you've poured your heart into is a stressful thing.

I got some great feedback from Reddit's Gamedev Community and from the comments it would seem that the major issues currently are:

• Crashes when looting Flowers / Spikes.
• Accidentally pressing escape which closes the game.
• Movement is arduous (Delay before moving in a direction when holding down a key).
• Crashes from the main menu.

The last point is largely due to my horrible lack of memory management. I'll get that, as well as the other issues fixed by Saturday at which time I'll release a new minor version. I'll also try and work in a few small enhancements and some new functionality.

That said, here's a list (in no particular order) of what the future holds for VH. Please note that a lot of this is just speculation and will probably be altered and augmented heavily in the coming months.

• Towns
• Every x levels will be a town which will be randomly generated based on a random theme / building style.
• Towns will contain 
• NPCs that will have random conversations with the player.
• Merchants that can buy and sell items.
• A place for the player to 'unlock' his items (See 'Item Unlocking').
• Trainers for professions / abilities.
• Rooms where the player can practice his professions (blacksmithing, alchemy, etc...).
• Item Unlocking
• Towns will feature rooms (Name undecided) where the user can spend his gold to 'unlock' items. This means that the item can be used by future characters that are created. The price to unlock the item will be based on the quality and level of the item.
• Unlocking items should be something the player decides on as doing so will cost a lot of money that could have been spent at merchants for consumables and gear.
• When a new player is created, he starts out in the University (Name undecided).
• The University
• Voxel Heroes will not have a conventional start menu. Instead, players will start out in the game in a special location.
• The University is a Hero University that trains people in the art of hacking, slashing and dungeon crawling. They send out students into the dungeons below as a sort of final assignment.
• There will be a special room in the University with shelves featuring the items that have been unlocked that the player can choose from.
• Using an item might have an additional cost (on top of the initial cost to unlock it). I might make the university have funds that can be used for this and will be based off some other mechanic.
• Magic
• The plan is to implement a complete magic system.
• Spells will be learned from scrolls that drop off boss creatures.
• Spell scrolls can be combined in towns to possibly form new spells. These spells may be stronger than the original spells but could also lead to both spells being destroyed.
• Abilities
• Even though I'm not planning on featuring a class system, some NPCs (or perhaps items in dungeons) can be used to gain knowledge of new abilities.
• Offensive Abilities
• With this, as well as the magic system, I plan on making combat more tactical and decision based. You might use a bash ability to send the mob back a few spaces or a freeze spell to keep the mob from moving for a few moves.
• Defensive Abilities
• Think things like absorption shields, healing spells and barriers.
• Utility Abilities
• Far Sight, Trap Detection and Disarming, Extra Mob Loot, etc...
• Professions
• Alchemy
• Looting flowers will have a chance (based on Alchemy skill) to yield herbs that can be used to make potions.
• Enchanting
• Enchant items with rare materials dropped by boss mobs.
• Blacksmithing
• Craft powerful items from materials and runes dropped by mobs and bosses.
• Environments
• Currently, the game only features the green, grassy environment. I plan to implement many more.
• Swamp-like, Underwater, Cavernous, Woodlands, Netherworld, etc...
• Multiplayer
• I really don't know much about how I'm going to make this work nicely, but we'll see.
• Miscellaneous
• Equipping items will actually show the items on the player model.
• When hovering over an item name, the tooltip will also display the item model.
• The UI system will be enhanced quite a lot, allowing for scaling, dragging and scrolling.
• The UI will be made much more intuitive and user friendly.
• Some mobs will be able to walk diagonally or be allowed to make two moves per turn.
• An autowalk function that will allow the player to easily traverse long passages.
• Mobs will also be generated with stats (Strength, Armor, Abilities, etc...).
• When fighting a mob, a popup window will be shown with a model of the enemy, his stats and a description.
• Decorations for walls.
• Local lighting (Torches and other light sources that will flicker and give the whole environment a much more immersive feel).
• Free look camera (Both for first and third person).
• Saving (Multiple character slots).
• Difficulty levels.
• A whole lot of new items and monsters.
• Music and sounds.
• Fullscreen / Widowed Modes.