Hello and welcome to the fifteenth CardLife DevBlog,

We’ve done it! We’ve completed most of our foundational code and have another release. This one is a big leap forward and everyone here is really happy with the work we’ve done.

Live Build

The new build is still pretty rudimentary at the moment but as a proof of concept to test both the terrain and the multiplayer I think it’s worked really well so far. We’ve already started to get to work on actual gameplay so I imagine you’re wondering what’s next?

Crafting

I (Brian) am working on laying the groundwork for crafting. You won’t start the game with a spade, at first you’ll only be able to dig with your hands. And to be honest, this will probably be a bit slow. So the first thing you'll want to do is to craft a spade. Once you have the resources you’ll be able to craft the current spade as well as a pickaxe and an axe. These will give you a big speed boost when digging through the terrain.

An Axe

Obviously an axe wouldn’t be much good without some trees to cut down! And that’s what Mike is working on. He’s fleshing out the look for the forest (where you start) and has an amazing look for the trees. I really didn’t understand his ambition until I saw them on screen.

That little building in the distance is the cabin you start outside. Can’t wait to see everyone walking around this forest - just like the wolves below. They’re not textured right now and we still haven’t written any A.I. for them (so all they do is stand there) but we’ll have a vibrant, lively forest in another couple of weeks.

Underground

Now that Cian has moved on from the creature rendering he is starting work on caves, ores and everything underground. Soon it won’t be just plain dirt underground. You’ll find little caves and as you get deeper you’ll come across massive caverns! These will have layers of rock running through them and will be peppered with various ores. Once you mine some iron ore you can replace that wooden shovel with a sturdy iron spade. Then you’ll be digging quickly!

I’m going to leave it there and get back to work on that crafting system. If you’ve made it this far please let us know at @CardLifeGame what your favourite creature is. Could be a lion, a balrog or the sock monster. Maybe you’ll be able to craft it in the game some day!

Cheers,

Brian - Lead Coder