Indie sandbox Project Gorgon is exactly a month out from its big May update, which added an optional subscription and perks like an offline leveling system to go with it. So what is it up to now? Transparency. Elder Game has posted a big dev blog answering the top community questions in what sounds as if it’ll be the first of many town halls. Here are the highlights:
- EG is still planning multiple skills and sub-skills, including Vampirism, Axe, something for Orcs, and maybe crafting specs. Vampirism specifically is unlikely to happen this year, however.
- The devs are still working on genetics engine for the animal husbandry system. “I expect the first animal-husbandry-enabled pet will arrive in a month or two” – it sounds like wasps and bees.
- “Player housing is 0% complete” and “barely in the design stage at the moment” – but it’ll be in for launch.
- Mounts are in deck for this year, with horses up first and other types to follow, but don’t expect new pets until after genetics and husbandry are fully in.
- EG is hoping to get Orcs in this year, along with a revamp of their starting town.
- Dwarves are in planning for after Orcs.
- Weather Witching is no longer happening, largely because the ideas for it have since been used in other skills.
- Gorgon’s planet doesn’t have a name. Humans call it the Earth; Elves call it Fennyra.
- The team seeks feedback on group encounters.
- The Gender Studies skill is still in the game, but EG admits it doesn’t have many uses beyond synergy levels right now, though it might involve quests in the future.
Elder Game also answers a question on how the company is going since COVID, both in terms of health and of development. EG’s Eric Heimburg says that in some ways, the studio wasn’t affected since it was already virtual. But anxiety and depression, which affected nearly everyone on some level during the pandemic, hurt productivity. “We worked as hard as we could, but ultimately we didn’t get a lot of big milestones done,” he says.
“But the past few months have been a little easier. We managed to finally hit some milestones (the animation-system rewrite and the VIP launch), and we’re making better progress than we have in a while. I’ve been feeling more productive recently; I have ADHD, which makes it hard to work on things if I can’t drum up enthusiasm for it. And for the first time in a long while, I’ve started feeling enthusiasm for work again! (I’d talk about the stuff I’m enthusiastic about, but I don’t want to jinx it.)
“The other really bright spot is our newest team member, a programming contractor named Nick. He’s an expert Unity developer who’s been helping whip our game-client into shape. You’ve seen some of his work in the latest update! He added all the storage-UI improvements, among other things. We’re super happy to have more engineering bandwidth, and I’m hopeful that the money from the new VIP plan will let us expand the team further!”
Finally, there are brief glimpses at Povus, Sedgewick Forest, and Statehelm, shown below. Ormala City, a major city-hub, is coming after launch. (“This is where you’ll actually fight the titular Gorgons!”)
