Woops, totally forgot a witty and clever release title this time. Either way, beta 1.8 is now out!

Beta 1.8 is mostly an amalgamation of 1.7.x changes. This is due to the recently implemented weekly release schedule – which this week just so happens to be a full release. So, if you are updating from 1.7 to 1.8, you can view the changelogs from 1.7.1-1.7.4 and 1.8 itself to see all the changes. Quite a bit there for just a little more than a month! In fact, it’s the biggest amount of updates we’ve ever made in a new version. Progress!

Play Online:

http://www.unlok.ca/wayward/

Downloads:

• Windows (Mirror #1) (Mirror #2)
• Linux 32-bit (Mirror #1) (Mirror #2)
• Linux 64-bit (Mirror #1) (Mirror #2)
• Mac OS X (10.7+) (Mirror #1) (Mirror #2)

Some of the best stuff includes:

• Fixed a bug where Legendaries were not giving skill bonuses.
• Tiles now also save durability between uses. This will make more sense moving forward when some monsters can perhaps break down walls?
• Resource tiles are now physically spawned, rather than items simply spawning on top of them. This will give a large performance boost as well as reduce save file space by 40%+ on new saves. Unfortunately most of this will only apply to newer saves.
• Resource tiles now appear visibly different on the minimap, and are visibly different even outside line of sight.
• Tons of HUD/GUI design changes and bug fixes.
• Lots of performance improvements (especially to the offline version).
• A brand new creature! Along with some graphical improvements to all enemies.
• Fixed a bug where Solar Stills and Stone Water Stills recipes would duplicate in crafting dialog.
• english.js (translation file) now reveals when changes are made to the file to keep your translation up to date easier (Removed/Added/Edited with version information).
• Tons of other fixes and improvements/balance changes. See the changelog for more details.

Trello

In other news, we’ve recently moved over to Trello for the Wayward Todo. This allows everybody to view what we are working on. Donators get to become “Members” which allows them to vote and comment on everything. Additionally, there’s also a fully public board, which let’s everybody submit ideas, suggestions and bugs here.

We got another small-ish patch for you this week, but still full with user-driven feedback and changes abound. We are weeding out a lot of the remaining bugs from beta 1.7 and hopefully much closer to a full beta 1.8 release.

CAUTION

Back-up your game regularly if you care about it, especially with these weekly releases. There’s a Save/Load modification available for this task. Wayward is a still a beta!

Once you go weekly, there’s no going back in your save, it will convert it if you play online.

Play Wayward Weekly

http://www.unlok.ca/weekly

Wayward Beta 1.7.4 Changelog

Bugs

Fixed a bug where:

• Dropping an inventory container would not close it and cause errors.
• Pouring water on open fire would not extinguish it.
• Solar Stills recipes were duplicating on new games still.
• The new favicon was not showing up on certain browsers/configurations.
• Filters would not work after the first game of a session.

Improvements/Changes

• There is now a loading icon to signify loading times. This is only partially implemented right now and will only happen on initial page load and during resting.
• Resting now uses a loading cycle. This will stop the freezing resting was causing especially during night (or with campfire bonus). This change also allows you to see your stats change over the period of your rest.
• The Jelly Cube now has significant more resistance from Blunt damage.
• Chicken feather drop rate has been halved (due to another creature sharing it’s effect).
• Lots of monster graphic changes to make the difference between aberrant and normals much more apparent.
• The version warning/error you get on old saves is now more generalized and helpful
• Sort buttons now titled “Sort” instead of “Sort Inventory” for example. More space!
• Increased monster de-spawn rate a bit.
• Increased talent needed to unlock new monster tiers a bit.
• Default spawn rate decreased a bit.
• Stone Knives reduced to 20 durability (from 25). They also consume 2 sharpened rocks on use (instead of just 1).
• A new “Utensils” group has been added. You will now need one of these for any cooking.
• Removed pole-likes from anything that needed wood in specific (these were changed to Wooden Poles).
• Branches are no longer pole-likes.
• Campfire graphic changed slightly to show the non-requirement of fuel/pole-likes.
• Saplings are no longer pole-likes, but can craft into Branches.

New

• A brand new creature has been added.

Not as much happening this week with Wayward, besides playing around with the interface a bit. There’s quite a few changes with the UI as you can see from the screenshot. Not sure how many of the changes will stick around and make it into Beta 1.8, but a neat experiment nonetheless. Let me know what you think!

CAUTION

Back-up your game regularly if you care about it, especially with these weekly releases. There’s a Save/Load modification available for this task. Wayward is a still a beta!

Once you go weekly, there’s no going back in your save, it will convert it if you play online.

Play Wayward Weekly

http://www.unlok.ca/weekly

Wayward Beta 1.7.3 Changelog

Bugs

Fixed a bug where:

• Starting a game with an equipped torch would not provide a light bonus until you moved.
• Equipping a torch would not provide a light bonus until you moved.
• Dialogs could be moved past screen a bit.
• Dialogs would move a bit when you closed and opened them back up after resizing them.
• Hitting a creature in water while on ground would produce Swimming skill gains, particle effects, and even cure “Burning Pain”.
• Moving into chests or other blocked tiles while encumbered would reduce stamina and potentially hurt you.
• Legendary items would change their bonuses on each pick-up.

Improvements/Changes

• Rendering performance improved a bit.
• A Pole-like is no longer needed in the Campfire recipe.
• Added a meta tag that should stop iOS (beta) from displaying the top/bottom bars.
• Dialogs now support smaller minimum widths and heights to support more customized placements/layouts.
• Dialogs now appear to be transparent if not hovered over them. This will allow you to possibly leave them open more frequently now as you can see enemies behind them.
• Other various improvements done to dialogs like condensing everything a bit, adding some new styling, and adding the filter into the button bar instead of inside the dialog.
• Raw Clay can now be placed back down as a tile.
• When you place a tile over grass, it will now die and turn to dirt.

New

• Added favicon and app icon support for iOS/Android/Microsoft including retina displays with a new Wayward icon (instead of the “U” from Unlok).

Technical

• Release variable now added instead of it being hard-coded in all the file pathing.
• A few minor edits were done to the language/english.js file.

Following along with our Wayward Weekly, this week we have beta 1.7.2 for you. Focusing once again on bug fixing with beta 1.7… there’s a lot of them! There’s some pretty cool new stuff as well. Read below for all the details.

CAUTION

Back-up your game regularly if you care about it, especially with these weekly releases. There’s a Save/Load modification available for this task. Wayward is a still a beta!

Once you go weekly, there’s no going back in your save, it will convert it if you play online.

Play Wayward Weekly

http://www.unlok.ca/weekly

Wayward Beta 1.7.2 Changelog

Bugs

Fixed a bug where:

• Solar Stills would never finish purifying water.
• Monsters would no longer spawn in late-game Daily Challenge Mode.
• Some newer items would display the wrong item on the ground/pick-up animation.
• Solar Still/Stone Water Still recipes would duplicate on new game.
• Shooting a bow/sling without ammo would give an “undefined” message.
• Fishing a Raw Trout would not unlock the Cooked Trout recipe.
• Tool-tips and item menus would appear behind windows/dialogs.
• Tool-tips did not have smooth movement on some windows/dialogs.
• Firefox would receive many errors when trying to swim near the starting point of the world.
• Treasure guardian message would show even if no treasure guardians spawned.

Improvements/Changes

• Removed monster spawning limit, increased monster de-spawn rate.
• Vined trees will now only show up near swamps.
• Saplings have been added back as gathered resources from trees.
• Large rocks/shale no longer spawn as “resource nodes” on Sandstone.
• All arrowheads can now be used as sharpened items and for carving.
• Sinew is now a rope-like.
• Golden Sword can be used for carving.
• Sapling is now a pole-like and can be used to stoke fires.
• Increased default fishing success by 35%.
• Wooden Spear can now only be crafted with a Wooden Pole.
• Range of treasure guardians increased a bit.
• The non-pixelized font now defaults to your system’s default sans-serif (instead of Helvetica, Arial) for better character/localization support.
• You can now right-click to see the water status on Solar Still/Stone Water Still.
• You can no longer dig up a still that still has water in it.
• Fixed an issue where 0 durability items were not showing up as red in the tool-tips.

New

• Resource tiles are now physically spawned, rather than items simply spawning on top of them (as shown in screenshot). This will give a large performance boost as well as reduce save file space by 40%+ on new saves. Unfortunately most of this will only apply to newer saves.
• Resource tiles now appear visibly different on the minimap, and are visibly different even outside line of sight.

Technical

• Upgraded to jQuery 2.1/jQueryUI 1.10.4.
• english.js (translation file) now reveals when changes are made to the file to keep your translation up to date easier (Removed/Added/Edited with version information). The default english.js file now also includes a statement at the bottom which will switch the user’s font to their default sans-serif font for better character/localization. There was several language changes made in 1.7.2.

If you read near the bottom of the last release post, you may have been tantalized with the idea of a weekly Wayward release. Well, Thursday Night Wayward is the realization of that idea. Every week on Thursday night (sometime) we will be pushing a new public build online. This will be separate from the normal http://www.unlok.ca/wayward URL.

These weekly releases will be different because:

1. No offline builds will be produced.
2. Are not extensively bug tested (not like that stops the official builds from being buggy, ala the beta 1.7 release).
3. No huge promotional push/launch. A simple post and social share only.
4. Mostly filled with small changes, tweaks, additions.
5. Will help build more solid non-weekly releases by catching all the bugs faster/sooner.

I can’t guarantee each weekly release will have tons of new stuff and bug fixes like this one does (relatively speaking), but it should help people out that are struggling with bugs or issues and want to see new changes rapidly to their game and world. Why Thursday? Because everybody plays Wayward on Friday during work, duh!

CAUTION

Back-up your game regularly if you care about it, especially with these weekly releases. There’s a Save/Load modification available for this task. Wayward is a still a beta!

Once you go weekly, there’s no going back in your save, it will convert it if you play online.

Play Wayward Weekly

http://www.unlok.ca/weekly

Wayward Beta 1.7.1 Changelog

Bugs

Fixed a bug where:

• Legendary equipables were not giving skill bonuses.
• The spyglass was not working (not updating the mini map).
• Mod loading messages were always in red, and even resulted in success if there was an error.
• You could not use previous/next buttons in the Hints (or Help) dialog.
• Moving into a locked chest would open an empty container dialog.
• Ponds and houses spawned too close to the shore (again).
• Crafting with an item that had 0 durability resulted in an error. Items with 0 durability can no longer be used in crafting.
• Environmental items did not have a minimum durability added.

Improvements/Changes

• Dialogs now go over HUD elements once again.
• The load modification input now clears on load/attempted load.
• Skill gain is now doubled in Daily Challenge Mode.
• Shale is now usable in everything that needed a “Sharp Rock” specifically before. Shale has also been added to Sandstone drops.
• “An Arrowhead” is now “A Stone Arrowhead”.
• Patches of clay can sometimes spawn around shores now.
• Some spawned houses are now wooden-build. All generates houses can now contain fixtures such as Campfires, Furances, Locked Wooden Chests and more.
• Exceptional, Remarkable, Legendary crafting chances lowered slightly.
• Most “Build” items now have much higher durability when set down or affixed to the world. They can also be repaired. For example, Wooden Chests (normal quality) had 3-6 durability, but now have 7-10, and can be repaired.

Refine/Define is the theme for this release. There’s tons of tweaks in beta 1.7! Hopefully lots of them are meaningful and noticeable. There’s some love in this release for both new players and old players alike. Hopefully we are getting close to a release which could be Early Access quality for a Steam release.

Play Online:

http://www.unlok.ca/wayward/

Downloads:

• Windows (Mirror #1) (Mirror #2)
• Linux 32-bit (Mirror #1) (Mirror #2)
• Linux 64-bit (Mirror #1) (Mirror #2)
• Mac OS X (10.7+) (Mirror #1) (Mirror #2)

Some highlights in beta 1.7:

• Fixed a long standing bug that would cause the character to continue moving if focus of the tab/window was left while a key was being pressed (among other causes). This would routinely cause players to die as they would continue walking into monsters or getting hurt from stamina loss.
• Translation system implemented. Official translations will be coming later.
• Environmental items are now damaged when dug/carved back up. If they reach 0 durability, you can no longer use them in that context.
• Daily Challenge Mode added. Extremely difficult mode that is only for fun (or frustration) that changes each day. Does not effect your save.
• Removed all “Poor” items. They have been all renamed to match material descriptors instead of quality descriptors. Several minor recipe changes because of this.
• You can throw any item. The distance is dependant on the item’s weight and Throwing skill. The damage is dependant on the attack value of the item thrown, or the weight if the item has no attack value shown in the tool-tip. Some items can only be thrown if the player has the proper strength (based on item’s weight).
• Crafting order is now based on the order it appears in your inventory, equipment or quickslot (in that order). No longer just limited to just inventory items. The hover effect will now only show which items will be used in the craft.

Read more in the changelog:

http://www.unlok.ca/wayward-free-changelog/

Special thanks to vlsd and Orillian on this release.

Release Schedule Plan

Releases seemingly have been taking longer and longer. It’s due to a lot of factors, but I can’t see those factors changing any time soon. I have a plan though, or at least an idea.

Read more…

Work has been quite slow on beta 1.7. I totally blame the huge translation portion… also maybe too much Hearthstone. Considering the Wayward player-base consists of mostly non-native English readers, translations have always been a high priority. Well, we finally bite the bullet and got translations working in the upcoming beta 1.7.

Wayward probably won’t actually have “official” translations for quite some time; however, that shouldn’t stop players from making and releasing their own translations and sharing them abroad. I’d love to also feature them on the Modifications page too – just send me an email!

Interested in translating for yourself? Take a peek or download the current beta 1.7 english.js file. It’s very simple to edit and understand, but let me know if you have any issues. Like every portion of Wayward, translations and translation support will continue to improve as we develop.

Also, yes, we are close to releasing beta 1.7.

Update

As of February 2nd, there was a small change made to the english.js file. A new line was added “fireDropAll”. If you have already started, simply just find this new line and add it into your translation file.

As of February 8th, there was some more minor changes/additions. The old “build” and “plant” definitions are now “builtItem” and “plantItem”, and 4 new lines were added at the end of the Messages definition.

Just thought I’d give a short update and mention a current poll going on for Roguelike of the Year 2013.

Beta 1.7 Spoilers

The first pre-release, preview build of Wayward beta 1.7 has been released for all you donators. Make sure to view the spreadsheet for the link. There’s already quite a few things complete from the to-do list, as you can see in the changelog. Some of the coolest changes and fixes so far include:

• Monsters will no longer spawn on any player made tiles/flooring.
• Removed all “Poor” items. They have been all renamed to match material descriptors instead of quality descriptors. Several minor recipe changes because of this.
• Fixed several errors and oversights relating to treasure items and travelling home (would not always count the proper amount). Removed all treasure finding messages.
• Equipped containers no longer get damaged (preventing several errors and unintended consequences).
• Fixed an error occurring when trying to light a fire with an empty container equipped.
• Fixed a long standing bug that would cause the character to continue moving if focus of the tab/window was left while a key was being pressed (among other causes). This would routinely cause players to die as they would continue walking into monsters or getting hurt from stamina loss.
• There is new status effect called “Burning Pain”.

I’ll try to reveal some more goodies from beta 1.7 coming up soon!

Request for Votes: Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year 2013

The Ascii Dreams blog is once again running their Roguelike of the Year poll. Yes, we all know who is going to win (T.o.M.E. 4), but that shouldn’t stop you from voting on all your favourite roguelikes this year. Please note, you are able to vote for as many roguelikes as you want! Vote here. There’s currently 8 days left to vote and nearly 4000 people have voted at the time of this post. Want to see a bigger full-screen version of the poll? Click here.

Wayward Island Kingdom

JamesIII has been working on updates to his “Wayward mini-game” as it was previously called. This fully customized world is filled with landmarks, puzzles, story narrative, and more.

If you are looking for some more stuff to do in beta 1.6, this can provide quite a bit of exploratory fun. Check out the forum thread for more information/screenshots.

Graphics are a constant talking point in games. Most of us in the indie scene know about things like “retro” and pixel graphics, but even within the community, there’s a hatred towards them by some. I think the general consensus is that people find them too common in indie games or show a lack of originality. Wayward does it out of necessity, to push content faster. Wayward would never be as deep as it is now if it had AAA graphics; it’s just not realistic. It probably also wouldn’t be very fun because the mechanics would need to be so complex as to interact within a 3d environment. Content over art has kind of been a roguelike tradition, and I don’t see that stopping.

That being said, I’d love to see improvements to the art, the ui and the general game graphics. Recently, I got Dusty to mock-up some “HD” graphics for Wayward. Here’s a screenshot of them actually in the game:

Please note: this is a mock-up concept. Not finalized art.

As you can see, Wayward supports non-pixelated graphics very easily. Just add water (and art)! Even though it works out of the box, it may look a bit strange. This is because there is no support for tile mapping currently. Tile mapping is that thing in games that adapts graphics based on what they are near. Here’s a mock-up that shows what it could look like once tile mapping is implemented:

So, less square grid looking! Tile mapping won’t only be an improvement for “HD” graphics in the future, but also for the pixel art style as well as I briefly showcased here.

Who knows, maybe Wayward will even eventually have a full HD graphic set. Don’t worry though, the pixel graphics aren’t going anywhere. This would be an option or modification for Wayward going forward.

So let’s get this out of the way at the start:

Wayward has been greenlit on Steam! Thank you to everybody that helped this dream come true for Wayward. That’s good news. Even better news would be, say, the release of a new beta. Well, we have that for you too!

Play Online

http://www.unlok.ca/wayward/

Download

• Windows (Mirror #1)
• Linux 32-bit (Mirror #1)
• Linux 64-bit (Mirror #1)
• Mac OS X (10.7+) (Mirror #1)

This has been one of the biggest releases to date in terms of improvements and fixes. Some of the coolest stuff form this beta includes:

• New context/item menu implemented via single click on to item. The new item menu will feature all interactions that you can use the item for. This opens up lots of future possibilities. There’s only a couple of interactions right now, but expect to see more options soon!
• Smooth movement has been added. This is disabled by default (for now).
• Added a series of new milestones to unlock and discover. Milestones now save permanently, and each unlocked on start gives +1% to starting skill, and chance for more starting items. There is now “invisible” type milestones that reveal the progress, but not the name (the reverse of hidden milestones). Which milestones are hidden and invisible are now randomized on game start.
• Fixed some errors when fighting bare-handed.
• Containers are now left open when placing something inside/removing something.
• Sandstone is now a rock-like item. Kilns now require a rock-like (instead of Sandstone, specifically). This is until the world map changes are in.
• Resource gathering is now twice as fast; however, there is a larger wait between actions when you get item(s).
• Using Remarkable, Exceptional and Legendary items in a craft now effect the chances of your craft also taking on these qualities. Reduced chance of creating Remarkable items by default. You can now craft Remarkable/Exceptional items across everything (instead of just limited to equippables).
• Starting items, resource gathering, monster loot, chest loot all now have a chance to be Remarkable (uncommon), Exceptional (rare) or even Legendary (very rare) items.
• A few new unique creatures and tons of new items/crafts including some rare/special stuff. No spoilers!

Read more as always on the Changelog page:

http://www.unlok.ca/wayward-free-changelog/

IndieDB’s 2013 Indie of the Year

The voting period for IndieDB’s game awards are ending pretty soon. If you have a quick minute, throw up a vote for Wayward. Click on the badge below, and a bit down the page, you will find a big voting banner.

Special thanks to arktvrvs and Grom_PE on this release.