Micro MMO Travels has big plans for the future
Associate Editor Lauren Morton chooses Travels (opens in new tab) as her personal choice (opens in new tab) Game of the Year in 2021, but she also conceded that its unusual approach — which, as she put it, was “obviously inconvenient” — could disappoint some players. That appears to be the case in December 2021, when developers Might and Delight lay off staff (opens in new tab) Although it vowed to keep developing the game, most of its employees.
To their credit, Might and Delight persevered.Earlier this week, it released a new early access development roadmap, and today it digs deeper what it all means (opens in new tab)and the future that players can look forward to.
“It’s important to understand what we’re trying to solve,” the studio wrote. “We always say we’re not going to stick with this game. The downside of doing this is that sales suffer because people say there’s no content. We have a few Ten negative comments, people playing for hours, finding nothing to do, and reacting negatively.”
The challenge, says Might and Delight, is to get people into the content without giving up its no-hands commitment: “Pushing the player forward without drawing a big arrow that says ‘it’s here’,” As the studio said. Some of the changes that will help make this happen will be small and subtle, such as tweaks to item descriptions and gossip, and others, such as adding a prologue that will help “pave the way for Casa”, which is the main city in Travel Notes, it will be more obvious.
Vehicles are also being rewritten to make them “more reliable” and predictable, a new motion system that may include controller support (which is apparently still in the air) is in development, a new timing system is in development, and permanent death” will There’s a return” and there will be “significant changes” to the in-game economy.
The issue of missing quest logs is also under study, although it’s a particularly thorny complaint given the overall goal of Might and Delight’s game.
“We’ve heard frustrations about not being able to write things down in the game and not having a direct quest tracking system,” the studio wrote. “We could add a mission tracking system, but that breaks our not-hand-held goal. We have an idea that fits both ends, but basically keeps track of where you’ve been and if you’ve seen or heard anything useful , but not saying, ‘There’s something behind that tree’.”
It has to be in a tough spot: wanting to keep a purposeful and unusual game unique while still attracting enough audiences to keep the lights on. Might and Delight obviously has some ideas about making it easier to get travelogues without giving up their essential features, and I’m very hopeful that it has a chance to implement them.