Overview

Hello! Over the last months, there have been a lot of changes that is going to significantly impact the game, all in good ways. For those of you who have been wondering if the game has died, the answer is a definite no. The next update is on its way and is going to be game changing and set the stage for many future updates to come.

Developer's Life

Let's start off with some developer news. I am currently a university student and this game has been a side project for over a year now. Because this game is such a good opportunity to make something amazing and to dip my feet into the videogame industry, I thought that I should try my hand at full time development. After consulting with faculty mentors, advisors at the school, and parents, I am taking a gap year from university to work on this game full time until September 2020. During this time, I have one objective: to start selling the game on Steam!

Steam

Yes, that is right! The plan is to move the game to Steam. The Exploration Update is going to be so massive, that I think it is the best time to move to a different platform. I will be releasing the first part of the Exploration Update on itch.io, and then build upon it with additional content for the first Steam version. While in Early Access on Steam, I plan on developing different features of the game like the Exploration and Persistence updates until a Steam launch.

Add the game to your wishlists!

I realize that most of the players have enjoyed playing IIslands of War for free, and I want all of you to still be able to enjoy playing the game. So, for a limited time after the game goes into Early Access on Steam, I will be handing out keys to anyone who joins the Discord server so that you can keep playing the game for free! I will be setting up a bot on the server to hand out keys to members upon request.

For those of you who have generously donated to the game, thank you so much! If you have already paid for the game on itch.io, you will be able to redeem a key through itch.io. You have kept me motivated to keep working on this game through your donations, and I cannot thank you enough.

Wiki

I have partnered up with the awesome people at Fandom to start our very own official Wiki! The game is already nearing 170 items, and I intend to significantly increase that number in future updates. Instead of trying to build an in game encyclopedia all by myself, I thought it would be a great idea for the community to help me expand on the wiki on a space outside the game!

Click the image to go to the wiki!

This wiki is just at its beginnings and needs you to help expand it, especially since the upcoming Exploration Update will change a lot of the gameplay, and strategy. If you are eager to contribute, I highly recommend joining the Discord server, where we have a channel specifically dedicated to the wiki.

Exploration Update Progress

Speaking of which, it has been 6 months since the last itch.io update, and I have still been working on the same massive update. There have been major shifts in direction as I have been prototyping different systems to see which ones will best fit together. 

Previously, I was working under the idea that each realm would be a massive area, with a boss you need to defeat to progress to the next realm. Now, I have created an entire world with 9 realms split by altitude, so the closer you get to the core, the higher the realm you will be in. Each realm is composed of 1000 chunks, giving you a grand total of 9000 chunks to explore.

There are better island classes so that islands can be generated faster in order to get seamless loading and saving between different chunks, and also some basic civil islands, like farms, houses, or shops! Chunks have been divided up into territory between the three rival factions.

On the map, the colors represent the faction controlling the chunk. Chunks not marked could have anything, from pirate outposts to a new evil faction: the Void. I have taken quite some time to redesign the lore and think things through.

Final Remarks

Most of the basic technical systems are working smoothly, though I still have quite a bit of work left to do to reestablish some great gameplay that has been lost along the journey It certainly has helped to be working on this game full time, and I am hoping to finish the Exploration Update before the year ends.