Greetings, adventurers! It's time for a wrap up on what's been going on in the development of Lair of the Leviathan this year.

Firstly, thanks for all your feedback on the great "Top Down vs Side View" debate of 2024! The battle was fierce but in the end, you voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Top Down view. ( Someone actually pointed out to me this is actually a 90 degree isometric view, but that doesn't really roll off the tongue, so top view it is.)

Reflecting on this, I think you guys are right. Both David and I love the visual look of the side-on view, but from a gameplay perspective, keeping things consistent with the world map and exteriors ( which are top down ) just makes way more sense. This also allows us to stage combats inside interiors, and allows me to just use the same code for regular buildings like armourers and taverns, as well as dungeons. Anything that saves me time is a good thing!

Work won't begin on Interiors until probably Feb-March this year, but because I've already got pathfinding and collisions etc from the exteriors, this shouldn't be too much work (famous last words).

So, here we are at the end of 2024 - representing roughly five months since I joined the project in late July this year. David started work on the game at the start of this year, so we're officially twelve months in, though the dream for the game has been in our minds for a lot longer! (Separately of course, as we didn't know each other before July - I only discovered David and the incredible project via a Reddit post, fortuitous as it was!)

Since July, I've rebuilt what David created for the trailer from scratch. The original game was build using (if I recall), a game making framework called Construct. Because I'm much more familiar with the Godot game engine ( and am relatively fresh off 2023's RPG Swords and Sandals Immortals) , Godot was a much more natural fit for me - so I started completely from zero, just using David's excellent art and design as a guide.

Having talked extensively with Anders Laurissen (developer of the incredible Skald RPG), I was convinced I needed to build very robust RPG making tools for the game itself, instead of just jumping into building the game, story, combat and so on. Having good tools inside the game itself allow David and I to quickly create content via drop down boxes, popups and tools , instead of tediously typing thousands of lines into spreadsheets and notepads.

This is the first 'real' game editor I've built, and I'm learning a ton in the process. I wanted the editor to be 'in-game' so we could play the game, hit some shortcut keys and edit things in real time. The editor is progressing very quickly - I'm not yet at the point where I could say it's something that could be released to the public as a modding tool, but it's not inconceivable at all.

In the game editor, I've built everything from a map editor that allows you to set weather, terrain and encounters to an item editor where you can create any number of magical and non-magical items. The Item Editor was finished off just last week, and I'm really pleased with how versatile it is. Items can be assigned properties, from healing to adding powers and status effects. There's even 'Books' that could be read in the world to provide extra lore.

There's also a full character creator largely based off a simplified version of the Pathfinder 2E ruleset ( I want to stress we are GREATLY streamlining it for the purposes of our game ), but this game will be instantly familiar to those who have played Pathfinder or D&D. There's only the standard human/dwarf/elf style hero classes and races at this stage, but plenty of room to add more down the road.

As far as the game itself, David created an incredibly detailed pixel art map of the starting map ( which you see in the game trailer), complete with sparkling rivers and deep forests. This map is where the demo will be set, but the full game will extend off in all directions, from scorching deserts to icy tundra and even underground. I've got a full weather system in place, with storms, heatwaves, rain and flocking birds. If you've ever followed my game dev, you know I love night and day cycles as I love how they change the ambience of a scene, and Lair is no exception.

I've got the characters moving around the map , the game supports both mouse and keyboard (and partial support for gamepad, as we plan on getting this over to consoles at some stage.)

The plan for early 2024 is to finish off the "Powers" editor ( everything from walking and jumping to casting fireballs and cleaving your enemies in twain ) and then turning my focus to the Combat engine - which at this stage will be set on a hex grid. What you see in the trailer does not represent combat, it will be much more detailed and strategic, and less JRPG-esque. Heroes will move around the combat map and use terrain to their advantage. Think "Gold Box" game with a hint of XCom.

David's focus is on getting through all the character animations, weapons and equipment art, then he's moving onto interiors, dungeon tilesets and more.

I think the game editor/engine is realistically 6 months from being in a playable state, then we'll spend maybe 3 months or so using all these tools to put together a nice polished demo sometime in late 2025.

Thank you so much for all your support and enthusiasm for the game this year, it's easily the most fun I've ever had working on a game and I truly believe we're onto something a bit magical.

Cheers, good fortune and health to you and yours over the holiday break!

Oliver Joyce and David Aron,
Whiskeybarrel Studios and Nostalgic Realms