a few questions

[Dohi64]

is there inventory drop on death or other penalties for dying? and if so, any settings or game modes without them? not creative/infinite everything but not something that unnecessarily wastes time (doing corpse runs, etc.).

can the game be saved anytime, anywhere, so no progress is lost between sessions?

are there tedious survival mechanics like hunger and thirst, and if so, can they be turned off?

[Sagestone Games]

Just a few questions! But happy to answer them.

Firstly, I want you to know that the current 'defaults' are based on my own personal preference, and I find many of the mechanics you mention a little frustrating and get in the way of the core game loops. I know everyone has different tastes, so we will add options where possible so players can tune some things based on their own preference.

"is there inventory drop on death or other penalties for dying?" : Currently no, the only penalty is losing your exploration progress (i.e. respawn back at the starting area/spawn point). We might revise this if players feel like they want a bit more 'risk' and consider adding currency and/or item drops on higher level difficulties.

"can the game be saved anytime" : Currently yes. Enemies will despawn, and you will will respawn back at the starting area/spawn point when re-loading. Any dropped items on the ground will be lost however, but otherwise you can save your character and world any time.

"are there tedious survival mechanics like hunger and thirst" : Currently no. There is no hunger, thirst, stamina or durability mechanics. We might consider adding optional support for some of these if there is demand.

[Dohi64]

thanks for the answers. I have to ask every time because I find them frustrating too. stamina and durability as well, but I assumed red is hp, blue is mana or similar and didn't see a health bar on items, so didn't mention them. I'm a big fan of options, so having any or all of them in a game is not a dealbreaker, as long as they're optional, which is rarely the case.

saving seems to be of the terraria variety, not good enough these days (still gotta go back to where I was last time) but better than the lazy end-of-day-in-your-bed nonsense. wishlisted the game for now, we'll see how things turn out.

[Sagestone Games]

Thanks! I hope you keep an eye on Delverium and check it out in future!

I will consider your thoughts wrt saving too. It will take minimal changes to save a players current location as well as any dropped items in the world, but it might have some design and gameflow implications.

[Dohi64]

just saw the roadmap and realized I forgot to ask another cardinal question. it says:

> Add the ability to attack, move, interact and build while the inventory menu is open

is there an option that pauses the game while the inventory (map, crafting window, dialog window, whatever) is open? don't like to get attacked while messing around with items, nor do I want to spend 3 in-game days organizing a few chests or talking to an npc.

[Sagestone Games]

Hey, there isn't an option currently, but that is an interesting point. I will take a note right now to consider adding an option for that.

Obviously such an option wouldn't work in single player and it would have to disable the ability to attack, move, interact and build while inventory/storage is open, so I'd need to make sure that is clear to players if they enable such an option.

[Dohi64]

don't you mean multiplayer? obviously not there but single player shouldn't be affected by multiplayer stuff. a tooltip can easily explain all of this. and it could have a (rebindable) hotkey to switch it on and off on the go, as I can see it becoming annoying in certain situations (still less so than dying while managing the inventory) and also the benefits of building with the inventory open.

[Sagestone Games]

You are correct, I do mean Multiplayer!

You are also right that a tooltip can explain it and is likely all I might need to do. But I have to make sure it is clear to players exactly what the side effects of enabling it are and also consider tooltips/messaging for other potential input types.

The in-progress roadmap changes already feel pretty good without the need for pausing, but your point about time advancing while players are performing inventory management or reading dialogs is good. I expect there might also be accessibility benefits in allowing players to pause the game with these dialogs/UI open so they don't need to focus on gameplay + dialogs simultaneously.

Thanks heaps for your feedback and ideas. I am also a fan of options for players, but have to balance my time against other tasks too (I am doing the bulk of the development work). I have added a note to look at this idea when I am adding other gameplay/control options.

[Dohi64]

yeah, it's not just personal preference (which wouldn't only be relevant for me anyway even if not many people speak up about them) but basic accessibility and functionality in general. they're the most neglected (and for me the most important) part of games because pretty/cute graphics or cloning popular genres/mechanics is more appealing to most people (and 'more fun' to work on as a dev) than rebindable controls or saving.

I'm no gamedev but some of these things must require extra work too. e.g. instant and silent text display and no screen shake is how things start, I imagine, then they add dancing letters, beeping noises and shakes but don't bother keeping both options, thinking they're upgrades without downsides. a bit of common sense and less tunnel vision would go a long way, then they wouldn't have to make lame excuses about too late in development to add an exit button or whatever.

didn't see any sign of dialog on the store page here but on top of optional instant and silent text display (no typewriter effect, no gibberish or other noises, but if so, with a separate 'speech' volume slider, as that's what it imitates, sfx is different), there should be an option for automatic/manual text advancement, so if an npc has a lot to say, the player can decide when to move on to the next sentence.

[Sagestone Games]

You might be happy to know that the dialog text is currently instant, silent (apart from relevant button click audio to trigger/progress) and doesn't have any dancing letter effects. Dialog effects are cool, but I don't have any plans to add them as I'd rather keep it simple and snappy. All dialog text advancement is currently manual too since I don't want to guess at what pace suits players, but maybe that is something I could add down the track if there is demand for it.

There is still lots of usability features and changes to add during development (and beyond), so keep that in mind if you ever play a Playtest build, demo or even the released game. I am always happy to listen to player feedback and consider addressing things they find annoying or frustrating. My dream is to keep supporting and improving Delverium for a very long time.

[Dohi64]

sounds like your game is shaping up to be a whole lot better than stardew valley after its 10+ years of development. would take the guy a few hours tops to add basic stuff but why bother if people without standards are still buying it.

I might try the demo if/when it comes out, if only to see if there's other stuff to address, but I can wait until or after full release and probably a lower than full price and grab it once everything works as I think it should. I'm guessing it's still years away.

[Sagestone Games]

Not sure if it will ever shape up to be compared positively to classics like Stardew Valley, but I am glad you appreciate some of the things I am doing :)

I do hope you try the demo when it comes out. I am certain many players will find things to address, but I will welcome the feedback. NP at all if you prefer to wait for release and discounts too. Release is still a while away as you guess (maybe a bit less that your estimate), but I will make more effort to be transparent with my plans as I continue development.

Thanks again for your feedback and suggestions!