Welcome to another Whispers in the Moss devlog, the first in 2023. What that means is that the retro JRPG with ambitious textmode graphics will be released later this year, woo-hoo! Most likely in the second half, though. Here's a recap of what I've been up to for the past few weeks and a quick look into what's next.

Art updates continue

As mentioned in the December devlog, I've spent a lot of time updating the older sprites and art assets. For the most part this work is now done, I've gone through all the enemy sprites and battle backgrounds and I've also improved a lot of the maps. I will still have to go through some of the earlier maps, since they contain some design choices that don't look too cool at this point.

Inching closer to the end of the game content-wise

I've finished some new endgame areas and segments, and we're approaching the last few dungeons and segments. One of the last endgame dungeons, called the Temple of Tears, is now finished. This is a pretty short dungeon with only one special mechanic, portals, that allow you to warp to different areas of the dungeon. I also got the airship up and running and added an airship-related story segment which also acts as a prelude to the game's toughest optional superboss encounter. The game doesn't have a traditional world map, but the airship allows you to fast travel to almost any location in the game. Next I'll be moving on to the penultimate dungeon, a dwarven mine. It will be a more time-consuming one with several mechanics, including puzzles and excavating/digging. What remains after that is the last dungeon in the game (that's going to be a big one, obviously) and a couple of optional areas.

Spicing up the battles 2.0

In addition to the new players skills mentioned in the last devlog, I've now added a large number of possible new enemy skills/attack types. Previously the enemies have had a pretty limited array of possible attacks, but with the new stuff, there are around 50 unique attack types available. Each enemy can have up to 4 different attacks + 1 special attack that only triggers at low HP. This allows for more varied enemy encounters. Here's a quick look at some of the enemy skills available right now:

• Physical attacks, Magic attacks, Items
• Steal, Steal G (money), Escape
• Counter Attack
• Defense Up, Attack Up, Magic Up
• Drain HP, Drain MP, Void (drops MP to 0)
• Change Form (swaps the physical attack and defense stat with the magical attack and defense stats)
• Re-Animate (summons new enemies onto the battlefield)
• Mirror (creates a weaker mirror of itself and randomly swaps position with them, so the player doesn't know which one to hit)
• Temporary magic/physical defense barriers
• and others + some custom special attacks linked to particular boss battles

I also plan to still add a few more magics for the player and a new mechanic that limits the excessive use of certain possibly overpowered battle skills.

Massively improved visual effects in battles

Until recently, the battle system had quite ugly visual effects, and updating them into something cooler has been on my agenda for a long time. But since my battle engine, coded 10 years ago, is pretty limited, it's been very challenging. But recently I finally figured out an easy workaround which allows for much cooler visual effects. I've now updated most of the spell effects with a new particle-based system, and I'm very happy with the results.

Portraits

I've also finished all the character portraits. In addition to the main characters, the most important NPCs have their own portraits, and they will be integrated into the dialogue system and used throughout the game in key dialogue moments. This will make the important story segments stand out more and give them a cutsceney vibe.

Music

As I've mentioned before, the game's soundtrack has been almost finished for quite some time. Emphasis on the 'almost'! The work continues on this front too, and I have finished a few new songs in the last weeks. There are still a couple of songs missing, and most importantly, that boss battle theme is still escaping me! I'll need to start working on the sound effects soon as well.

What's next?

• Finishing the endgame content
• Finishing the soundtrack
• Last touches on the battle engine
• Starting with the sound effects
• An extensive playthrough, with emphasis on balancing and world coherence / NPC dialogue
• Opening up a Steam page for the game

See you next time!

- T / Uncultured Games