Tonight we bring you our first video of some actual Elysian Fields gameplay!

Whilst adventuring there are plenty of friends to find scattered throughout the cosmos (but we’ll talk more about exploration later on). They may wish to trade, have mission offers, or just want a good chat.

Once you land on a new or familiar plorb, Elysian Fields switches to a VN style dialogue and menu system. For example, the video shows off Solbreak, and talking to Inovo in particular. Even though parts of the game still need a lot of work, the core mechanics of the dialogue and trading system probably won’t change too much, even if the design gets an overhaul.

Internally, we’re using Bolt, a visual scripting tool for Unity, to make creating branching dialogue and options easy to handle, as well as handle any additional logic dialogue may cause (Transferring items, starting a mission etc). As development continues, we hope to add more dynamic sprites, and already have a system underway to handle complex animated sprites when we we’re ready to add them.

Trading

Almost everyone on Solbreak is open to trading, but as you explore the various sectors some people may be less inclined. Some people may even only be willing to buy and sell special or rare items with you, or they may even buy goods at a massive markup from the common markets, meaning that travelling to the edge of the universe might be worth the journey.

In addition, Elysian Fields will feature shifting markets, meaning that over time items may become more valuable, or there may be a sudden demand for certain products. Of course the opposite is also true. If you manage to sell 50,000 eggs in a week, the prices will drop to meet the new demand. Who needs cryptocurrency when the egg market is this volatile?

That’s all for this week, but there’s more info coming soon!

-Team Novadawn