Salt Development Blog

As you may know, we are currently working on adding multiplayer into Salt. Right now we have been mainly working on getting the technical foundation of multiplayer implemented. This means getting the basic systems designed, written, and debugged. This largely consists of getting multiple player's games to talk to each other in an organized and efficient way. 

We've also been working on integration with Steam friends so that you can easily invite your friends on Steam to join you in Salt. You will be able to invite your friends from the main menu, and select a current save to play on, or start a new game. Your friends will also be able to select a save file to play, as long as the world seed matches the seed of the world you choose. This allows players to progress their game either by themselves or with other people, whichever they are in the mood for at the time.

In addition to working on multiplayer implementation, we have also been working on adding two new NPC's into the game. These new characters will be known as the Sea Scholar and the Sea Fisher. They will feature multiple quests that allow you to rank up with their guild. As you rank up, you'll be able to unlock and buy armor, weapons, and other unique items from these vendors. Once you reach max rank, you'll be able to do a repeatable quest for a rare random loot drop. 

We've got some other big changes we are working on that we will talk more about soon. As always we'd love to hear your feedback and thanks for reading! 

- Will Sterling (Sound Lead and Game Design)

If you've ever played many RPG's, you'll know that loot is often a large aspect of the game. Finding rare items, upgrading your gear, and searching for that legendary weapon has become a staple of many RPG's today. This aspect of game design has always appealed to us and we knew early on that we wanted to incorporate it into Salt. Although Salt is a game primarily focused on exploration, we wanted players to have a reason to explore beyond mere discovery. This is where loot came into play. 

Items in Salt are separated into five rarity categories: uncommon, common, rare, epic, and legendary. This rarity is reflected in the color of the item so that there is an instant visual cue for the loot if you open a chest or loot an enemy. The rarity of an item is also reflected in its stats and abilities. Usually the rarer an item, the more powerful and valuable it is. 

We've done our best to add in a ton of different armor sets, weapons, and other items in the game of various rarities so you are always left wondering if you've found them all. 

Another RPG element that we've always been a fan of are quests. Quests can provide a linear sense of objective in an other wise open world.  In Salt, we've included side quests and a main story quest for players to experience. Completing quests gives the player some unique rewards that can't be obtained elsewhere. Side quests are mainly short missions given by merchants that have various rewards whereas our main quest line involves boss fights and gives hints to the lore behind the world. 

We did feel it was important however to leave quests as an optional aspect of the game. One of our early design philosophies was what we called playstyle focus, which essentially just means that we wanted to players to be able to play the game the way they wanted. So if quests are your thing, they are there for you to experience, but you are also free to pick a direction and sail free of any constraints. 

Along the lines of loot and rewards, we wanted to include bosses as well. There's nothing quite like fighting a difficult boss and looting a really rare weapon or piece of armor. We've included multiple bosses in Salt of various types of difficulties. Some are even fairly secret and difficult to find, but of course rewarding should you find them. 

Last but not least, we wanted Salt to have lore. Because of this, we have chocked the game full of lore books. Some books are relevant to the backstory of the world, while others are merely stories of adventurers and travelers. Lore is one of those things that is easy to pass up but should you dive into it, it can add a sense of depth to the game that previously wasn't there. We even try to reward players for reading lore by included crafting recipes and hints to secrets in some of the books. 

Overall, we feel like Salt has a lot of fun RPG elements and we hope that you all enjoy them as much as we do! We'd love to hear your feedback on the RPG elements in Salt and perhaps even some RPG themed ideas you'd like to see added into the game? 

- Will Sterling (Game Design and Sound Lead)

Over the past couple weeks we've begun the process of multiplayer implementation. This is going to be a lot longer than the average update since it's going to require a whole lot of foundation work. There's a lot of technical work that has to be done to get something like multiplayer up and running, as well as a lot of game design choices to be made. We don't have an exact time frame for how long this will take currently, so our goal to keep you up to date as best as possible along the way. As we progress in the multiplayer implementation process, we'll be updating you and getting your feedback along the way.  

We are very excited about multiplayer and we think it's going to add an entirely new element to Salt for those that want to play with others. 

Since the multiplayer implementation is going to take some time, we want to release small updates during the process so that you'll still have some new content to experience. We've got some neat ideas for these updates and are excited to share them with you. One thing we are going to be adding is a set of new NPC's that have quests and ranks for completing their quests. As you rank up, you'll get access to higher level merchant gear through that NPC. If you get through all the ranks, you'll then be able to do a repeatable quest for a random loot drop from a really nice set of items, potentially legendary and epic items. 

Along with these smaller updates we also plan on doing bug fixes and polishes. 

Keep an eye on our dev blog for more updates regarding multiplayer and the patches to release during the multiplayer implementation. 

- Will Sterling (Sound Lead and Game Design)

Our main goal for this update was to finish implementing the remaining main story quest line. Although Salt is a game about freedom and playing at your own pace, we did want an optional story line in the game for players who enjoy that. And so we began working on designing a story with quests and rewards based around a main story. Until this update, you could only progress through the story up to a certain point. Now we've added the remaining quests needed to complete the story so you can journey all the way to the end boss. 

Some of the new quests are going to take you to different island types, on the search for new mysterious items, and even involve a boss fight. If you haven't played the story or don't remember what's going on, a good place to start is to check your quest journal. If you open up your journal and look at the quests tab, that should give you a good idea of where you are. If you haven't even started the main story, the first step is to speak to The Innkeeper. 

Once you've made your way through the last remaining quests, you will be tasked with fighting a very difficult but rewarding boss. We've put a lot of work into this boss fight and are very excited for you to experience it! We've even made it so the boss fight is repeatable and you can get different loot drops by defeating the boss in different ways. 

If you can prove yourself worthy of defeating the final boss, you will be rewarded with brand new legendary gear. These items have some really unique and powerful effects that we think you will enjoy. 

This update also includes some bug fixes and things of that nature. Now that this update is out, we are beginning work on multiplayer! We will talk a bit more about this later, but this is going to be a large update that will take a good bit of time and design work. Our goal is to keep you informed as often as possible about our progress, but also to release some smaller updates throughout the process so you'll have some new content to play while waiting on multiplayer. 

Thanks for reading and as always we'd love to hear your feedback! 

- Will Sterling (Sound Lead and Game Design)