Affiliate editor Lauren Morton selected Book of Travels (opens in new tab) as her personal pick (opens in new tab) for recreation of the yr in 2021, however she additionally acknowledged that its uncommon methods—it is “distinctly inconvenient,” as she put it—would possibly put some gamers off. That seemed to be the case in December 2021, when developer Would possibly and Delight laid off (opens in new tab) a big portion of its workers, though it vowed to proceed improvement of the sport.
To its credit score, Would possibly and Delight has caught with it. Earlier this week it posted a brand new early entry improvement roadmap, and immediately it dove deeper into what it all means (opens in new tab), and what gamers can anticipate sooner or later.
“It is very important perceive what we are attempting to handle,” the studio wrote. “We all the time mentioned we’d not hand maintain on this recreation. The draw back of that is that gross sales suffered as a result of individuals say there isn’t a content material. Now we have dozens of unfavorable critiques the place individuals performed for just a few hours, discovered nothing to do, after which reacted negatively.”
Would possibly and Delight mentioned the problem is to get individuals into the content material with out abandoning its no-handholding dedication: “To nudge gamers alongside with out drawing an enormous arrow saying ‘It’s over right here’,” because the studio put it. A number of the modifications to assist make that occur can be small and refined, like tweaks to merchandise descriptions and gossip, and others, just like the addition of a Prologue that may assist “pave the way in which to Kasa,” the principle metropolis in E book of Travels, can be extra overt.
Automobiles are additionally being rewritten to make them “extra dependable” and predictable, a brand new motion system that will embody controller assist (that is apparently nonetheless up within the air) is within the works, a brand new time system is being labored on, perma-death “will type of return,” and the in-game financial system will endure a “main change.”
The dearth of a quest log can also be being checked out, though it is a significantly tough grievance to handle due to Would possibly and Delight’s general objectives for the sport.
“We hear the frustration about not with the ability to write down issues within the recreation and having no direct quest monitoring system,” the studio wrote. “We will add a quest monitoring system, however that breaks our aim of not hand holding. Now we have an thought that matches between these two ends however basically tracks the place you’ve been and in case you have seen or heard something of use however won’t say, ‘There’s something behind that tree’.”
It needs to be a tricky place to be in: Wanting to take care of the distinctiveness of a purposefully uncommon recreation, whereas concurrently needing to draw an viewers giant sufficient to maintain the lights on. Would possibly and Delight clearly has some huge concepts about making E book of Travels extra accessible with out giving up its important character, and I very a lot hope it has the chance to tug them off.
