This week’s (and last week’s) updates bring a number of changes including:
The goal of these recent updates is mainly to address reactivity of the world and characters during and out of combat.
This week there’s some exciting news: the Game Demo’s release is coming next week.
You can find it on Steam here. While the playtest period is still closed, a couple of FAQ for those that participated in the playtest:
There’s a bug reporting tool on the main menu, so if you do run into issues feel free to let me know.
Hello all -
The Hermit Demo is out today!
You can try the Demo today on Steam: Hermit Demo on Steam
There’s also a Newsletter/Devlog to accompany the release that can be accessed here:
Hello all -
Another update for today: Hermit will be participating in the Ancient Costumes Game Festival by Cube Game!
Thanks so much for including Hermit - information about the event is below:
Hello all -
Well, there have been quite a few updates to the game lately. From the recent patch notes:
Added a gameplay setting to speed up or slow down dialogue speed; setting this to ‘fast’ will instantly load NPC speech
Made some optimizations that should reduce overall VRAM usage for the game
Item descriptions on weapon classes now parse damage type classes into readable text correctly
Resolved some colour grading issues in the main menu
Added a new bandit tent area along the main road
Added a new note item and chest to the new bandit area
There is now a notification prompt to open the map when coming to the crossroads after exiting the tutorial area
Fixed an issue with shield unequipping that could potentially cause shields to disappear if unequipped while no room in inventory is available
Fixed an issue with silver rings sometimes disappearing when dropped from inventory
Added support for multi-line on-screen notifications
Placeholder widgets for on-screen text notifications have been replaced with 2D UI art assets
The bandits along the road at the first ruined cart now have new flair animations and SFX
The bandits along the road at the first ruined cart are now slightly weaker than before (enemies in other areas will remain unchanged)
There are now on-screen prompt notifications the first time that players handle different aspect of inventory
The goal is to guide players towards hot-keys for simpler inventory management, as many were not aware of keyboard shortcuts for quick-transfer, quick-drop, and rotating items
Lighting updates to allow for darker nights are now live
Expect more changes to lighting and color over the next 2-3 patches as this is refine
Major lighting changes have been included in this build; the overall goal is to make fixes to weird lighting that could sometimes occur during some weather and also to make nighttime slightly darker
Fixed overly bright lights in some buildings
Fixed some navmesh generation issues in the mineshaft which should help prevent bugs related to movement spells in this area items, and the ‘press and hold’ interact widget that appears when attempting to interact with multiple overlapping items should no longer be missing text for some interactables (e.g., Minecarts in the mineshaft)
The mineshaft area has been extended to include an additional tunnel and room to house a new miniboss
Added new flair animations to some enemies
Added ambient water flow SFX around the river
Fixed an issue where it was possible to pick up and steal the blacksmith’s anvil and the anvil from the keep
Added a new miniboss to the mineshaft area
Expanded the mineshaft area to accommodate the new miniboss
Added a new named weapon to the game (Foreman’s Pickaxe)
Hey, just saw your post today. I congratulate you for the demo release. I will be playing tonight and whenever I am free this week. A few months ago, I also got a really an opportunity to design levels for a really cool RPG as well; I’m still working on it. I would love for you to try our demo as well when we are ready since you love RPGs as much as I do. Again, huge respect for doing all this on your own. I will dm you all my honest feedback by next week. Awesome work, and congratulations again!
Hello @Krabworks! Just checked out Hermit and I am blown away! The art direction and atmosphere of the game are really great. And is that a pet donkey I see? I never knew that I needed a pet donkey in-game until now.
Cheers, thanks so much! Still a lot of work ongoing, especially on QOL features and balance - but it’s come a long way in the past few months. <3
Hello y’all -
Some recent updates and a sneak peak at what’s coming!
In Development
A long-requested feature is being added: the ability to swap quickly between weapon types and torches without going into the inventory. This has included a major re-write of the way equipment works, so the player can now carry one melee weapon, torch, shield, and ranged weapon all at the same time.
This is part of an overall QOL pass to help smooth over some of the rough edges with regards to the inventory and item handling systems.
The new hotkeys will allow you to easily cycle between weapon loadouts quickly, which will help a lot in those places where swapping between a torch and weapon quickly is important for survivability.
This update is expected to be finished some time in the next week or so.
Recent Updates
Performance & Optimization
Fixed a major performance issue with Donkey Companion movement
This performance fix offers significant gains on low-mid end CPUs while donkey is following the player
The donkey no longer has a compass marker until performance-related issues with this can be addressed in a future update
The donkey can still be called from anywhere, so finding it should not be a challenge
Health & Difficulty / QOL Changes
Health will now slowly regenerate passively, especially on lower difficulty modes
On harder difficulty modes this is reduced aggressively, and on ‘realistic’ health regenerates very slowly on its own
Updated the behaviour of health potions: a portion of health potions’ restore value is now given immediately while the rest regenerates passively over the next two minutes
On easier difficulty modes, more health is given up front; the ratio of immediate-health versus health-over-time is greater on lower difficulty settings
Incoming damage now scales slightly down on normal mode
Food loss no longer occurs on death when playing on the easiest difficulty mode; potential food loss on death now scales with difficulty
Added a tutorial monument and logbook entry to explain various types of bleeds and other injuries; the logbook entry for this now describes different injury status effects, shows their symbols, and explains how to fix them
Stamina regen and sprinting stamina drain are now applied by timer rather than by tick, which should more consistently apply stamina regeneration at low framerates
The apothecary in Gravenstaad will now stock health potions and stamina potions
Stamina regeneration now scales up slightly on easier difficulty modes
Inventory / other changes:
Significantly increased the vertical size of the Donkey Companion’s saddlebags, allowing for more item storage
Cucumbers and some other items can now stack
Increased stack size of several item types
Decreased the weight of several items slightly
Reduced the size of some plants (including wild hemp) which should help reduce inventory burden for commonly used items further
Fixed a Navmesh issue potentially causing enemy NPCs in the hostile keep to get stuck while chasing the player downstairs from the roof
The December Devlog for the game is now out:
Mr. Krab,
Firstly I’d like to say that I enjoyed the demo and it has the makings of a truly great game. It has a lot of potential. That being said it’s still buggy AF. I know it’s still very early, there’s plenty of time. If you should want help rooting out bugs please feel free to contact me and we can figure out how. I won’t ask for any compensation, it would be purely voluntary. That’s how much I enjoyed your game and want you to succeed.
Sincerely,
Zugzuger
This is awesome! Seriously, well done.
I’ve seen you mention it’s a fully solo project. That being said, if you ever need a sound designer to create free custom SFX, I’m here. I’m just looking to build my portfolio with gameplay styles that I enjoy. It could take some time off your hands searching through library sounds. Drop me an email at jwhebben@gmail.com if ever interested and I can share my portfolio.
Otherwise, I wish you all the best with the game. It’s a real accomplishment so far
Hello y’all -
Thanks for checking out the game! I appreciate the comments and offers to assist with the project. For now it’s going to remain a solo project. I’ve come this far, so I want to see this one through on my own - but the next project will probably involve a team, as there are some things I know I just can’t do as well as a professional who solely works in that area.
It’s definitely still got some bugs haha - but this is what the bug reporting form is form, so if you do find some that can be reproduced, definitely let me know…..
The hardest part is specific reproduction steps. I get a lot of bug reports of issues that I cannot fix because I don’t receive enough information to reproduce the problem on my end, so this is the most valuable thing towards improving the game.
Cheers <3
New this week: Portals!
The latest development newsletter is also out now:
Some other new updates on the game - Nemin Caravans!
Excerpt from the Codex Entry for Nemins:
…Nemins are a Nomadic, half-height humanoid species originating from somewhere West of the great mountain range. The name ‘Nemins’ is not their true name, but rather a colloquial phrase derived from the way they speak. What their species call themselves is unknown. They seem to understand Humans, but to Humans the Nemin language is completely incomprehensible. Nonetheless, their grasp of human language allows them to engage in their favourite activity as their caravans slowly traverse the continent: Trade…
…their true place of origin also remains unknown. Although it seems clear that they come from the direction of the Western desert, the Maharajah’s Kingdom does not claim them as citizens and Western traders seem equally confused by their origins. In the East, most peasants are suspicious of Nemins…
Some new tent animations for the game this week 
I’m working on the next Newsletter for Hermit Development Updates But before that, one of the major changes that’s upcoming is a major overhaul of how combat animations look and feel. A quick sneak peek of new one-handed attacks:
The February Development Newsletter is now out!
Some recent updates to the game roads, foliage, and postprocessing
Changes will be live on the Game Demo ( Hermit on Steam ) later this week
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