We’ve decided to change the engine and the art style of Call of Elyndra. We will use Godot and combine pixel art sprites with 3D environments. This marks a huge shift for the game. We have more planned. Read on to find out.


Ever since we announced the game, we’ve mostly seen enthusiasm and excitement. Call of Elyndra is a beautiful game. It’s also a lot of fun. Those who have played the demo know that already. Still, some have pointed out some things that could have been improved. The framerate, the game feel, the ease of work, possible quality enhancements… Plenty of room for improvement.

Our huge strength and also the biggest hindrance was the engine. RPG Maker is a phenomenal bit of software, and there are some masterpieces of gaming made with it. Some of our team members are also known in the RPG Maker community. At first, we wanted to make the most technically advanced game in the engine, which we may have achieved as RPG Maker makes up only about 30% of our code. Our team has long gone past the predetermined boundaries. We made the engine do things that it shouldn’t have been able to do. Alas, it still wasn’t enough. Some of the inherent solutions and limitations simply couldn’t be helped. Also, the looks, while quite beautiful, could have been improved upon. There are many games with stunning pixel art and we knew that we needed to shake it up a bit.


Godot is becoming an increasingly popular choice for game studios. It has a bunch of features that indie teams, like us, are looking for. It’s free, open source, and allows for a huge degree of customisation and freedom. Luckily, our team is made up of very gifted individuals. They were able to either adapt or remake the vast majority of mechanics and code in the new engine. If the game is a success, we’ll also have an easier time with porting it to other platforms. Not saying it’s something that’ll happen, but it could, if enough people are interested.

A huge part of Godot is that it is able to use 3D quite well. Now, about that…


There are so many beautiful classic games. Call of Elyndra draws a lot of inspiration from them. Still, since Call of Elyndra is a contemporary title, we felt that presenting it in the style reminiscent of 2DHD of Octopath Traveller, Dragon Quest 3 Remaster, Live A Live, and a couple of other games is the right call. Juxtaposing our beautiful sprites against 3D environments will make them pop even more. On the technical side, the game should perform even better now since RPG Maker renders visuals using the CPU and Godot uses GPU processing, superior in terms of efficiency and performance.

In regards to gameplay, the new art style allows us to create more interesting environments. After all, we’ll be able to use verticality for exploration, combat and puzzles.


We’ll be revealing more stuff here and on our social media in the future. We also plan a new version of the demo, so keep an eye out for it as well. The development of the full version should take us more time than we previously expected, but we’re on track and quite happy with where we are. Our understanding of the current circumstances is good. We know what to do to make Call of Elyndra as good as it can be, and we’re committed to getting it right.

Thanks for reading, talk to you again soon!

We’ve mostly talked about the game’s story and action in our devlogs so far, but this time we want to focus on something different - farming. Since you can choose between going on quests or working the land, let’s dive into the farming side of things!


If you’ve tried the demo, you know that farming is pretty simple. Just follow these steps:

• Till the land to make tiles.
  
• Sow the seeds.
  
• Water them a few times.
  
• Harvest.
  
• Repeat.

[/b]
[/list]
You’ve also got a few easy-to-use tools. To make farming smoother and more enjoyable, you don’t need to switch equipment every time you want to do something different. Just hit the space bar to get things done - except for watering, which demands clicking and holding your left mouse button. It's possible we'll change that in the future. You can sell what you harvest, and some items might also be useful for crafting.


Farming is pretty chill, and you can take it easy while making progress. But we know some of you want to be as efficient as possible, and there’s plenty to discover and optimize.

First up, soil deterioration. If you overwork the land, it might get mushy or barren. Right now, this happens randomly, but we might tweak it based on your feedback. We’re also thinking about adding more depth to the system - like factoring in fertilizing, watering, and planting the same crop repeatedly.

To fix mushy soil, just sprinkle some gypsum on it. It shouldn’t happen often during regular gameplay, but it’s good to keep some gypsum around just in case. This will help keep your fields looking nice and productive.

Next, plant synergies. Just like in real gardening, some plants grow better together. For example, basil helps keep pests away from tomatoes, while tomatoes give basil shade and support. Radishes loosen the soil and attract bugs that eat pests on lettuce. We’re working on similar pairings in the game that will boost your crop yields. We haven’t decided yet how you’ll discover these combos - maybe through experimenting or other in-game hints. Got any ideas? Let us know!

We’re also thinking about adding crop rotation and other farming mechanics, but it all depends on how the game develops and what players want. We don’t want to pile on features that might not get used, so we’ll see how things go.

---

We hope you enjoyed this look into farming in Call of Elyndra. Some players might even make it their main gameplay focus, so we wanted to give it some attention. There’s a lot more to explore, like advancing the story through farming, and we’ll cover that in future updates.

Also, stay tuned for some big news coming soon! If everything goes as planned, we’ll be making a huge announcement. Keep an eye out - you won’t want to miss it!