Camilo Ramírez

It’s been a while since the last update—March 22nd to be exact! I had a month off while I was experimenting with another idea. Whether we keep counting by weeks or not, Solivium has continued to evolve steadily over the past several weeks. Here’s a look at what’s new since the last post.

New Features & Improvements

• Sparkles & Teleportation: Added sparkling tiles in dungeons that teleport the player to different locations.
• Fake Walls: Some dungeon walls are now passable.
• New Enemy – Dread Knive: I’m starting to create the enemies for the first dungeon, trying to think on a cohesive theme for it.
• Spellcasting System:
  • Implemented the core spells system.
  • Two spells available so far:
    • Fireblast: A ranged offensive spell.
    • Aegis Veil: A defensive buff, reduces the incoming damage by half.
• Status Effects: There is a very basic system for the status effects, right now it only works for Aegis Veil, but it can support up to 10 stats at the same time. You can see them in the ztats screen.
• World State Refactor: Made key improvements to how the world state is maintained in memory.

What’s Next?

Looking ahead, here are the main priorities:

• Restoring hit points by staying at inns.
• Completing the first dungeon.
• Adding content for a playable first demo.

Under Consideration

I’ve also been thinking about redefining the UI, moving away from a 1:1 recreation of Ultima II and instead designing an interface that fits Solivium’s own identity more naturally.

Preview

I don’t have as much time as before to work on Solivium, but this is still my main project, so I expect to go back to weekly (or byweekly at least) updates.

I had a couple of days off this week, so I couldn’t work on the puzzles as I wanted, but still, some progress was made this week:

This Week’s Highlights

• Persistent Dungeon Levels: Dungeon floors now save their state between visits, keeping enemies and objects exactly where you left them.
• Rendering Fixes: Adjusted object rendering positions to ensure everything displays correctly on screen.
• Dungeon Cleanup: When the player exits a dungeon, enemies are now cleared. I don’t know if this could be exploited somehow, testing will reveal it I guess.
• Doors & Keys: Added doors to dungeons that can be unlocked with keys, which can be found during exploration.
• New Enemy: Introduced the Giant Rat to the dungeon.

Preview

What’s Next?

This coming week, I’m shifting focus to dungeon layout and puzzle design. Currently I have a small labyrinth I created in a couple of minutes but I want to start creating purposeful, hand-crafted spaces that challenge players and make exploration more meaningful.

Thanks for reading and supporting Solivium! Stay tuned for the next update!

It’s been two weeks since the last update! Last week, I participated in the 7DRL Challenge, but unfortunately, I didn’t manage to finish and launch anything. Still, it was a valuable experience, and now I’m back to working on Solivium with renewed focus.

This Week’s Highlights

• Enemies in Dungeons: I added enemies in the dungeons, they use the same mechanics as in the overworld, although I had to tweaks some stuff like ranged attacks to prevent enemies trying to attack you from beyond a wall, I also added this feature to the overworld.
• Dungeon Combat System: The combat works pretty much the same as in the overworld with the exception that you don’t have to pick a direction to attack.
• Ladders: Added ladders to allow players to climb up and down between dungeon levels.
• Dungeon Tweaks: Made various refinements to dungeon gameplay, mostly on the rendering side, there are still some objects that render a bit offset than they should, I need to think on a better way to do this.

Preview

What’s Next?

Next week, I’ll continue expanding the dungeon mechanics by:

• Adding more enemy types to increase variety in combat.
• Beginning work on puzzles.
• And hopefully finishing this first dungeon.

I’m happy with how the game is turning out, I’m thinking if releasing a demo with this dungeon would be a good idea or if I should make more before any public release, what do you think?

This week was a bit slower due to life commitments, but progress on Solivium continues! The dungeon mechanics are taking shape, I’m also been thinking and designing on how to make them distinct and not just a buch of caves in the world.

This Week’s Highlights

• Dungeon Navigation: The player can now move freely inside dungeons.
• World Mechanics in Dungeons: Features like the stats screen (Ztats), inventory management, and other core mechanics are now accessible inside dungeons.
• Treasure & Loot: Treasure chests and loot screen have been added to dungeons.

Preview

What’s Next?

Next week, I’ll be participating in the 7DRL Challenge, so Solivium will be on a short break while I focus on a brand-new roguelike for the jam. Stay tuned for updates on that project!

Thanks for following along, and I’ll be back soon with more Solivium updates after the challenge!

This has been quite the productive week, I worked on more mechanics for the town and finally started working on the dungeons, here’s what I did:

This Week’s Highlights

• NPC Dialog System: Players can now talk to NPCs. While it’s not as complex as Ultima IV, NPCs provide hints that may help during the adventure. I’m still wondering on how complex should I do this system, I’m trying no to do the game just following the standards but just what I like to see and do in RPGs.
• Merchant Interactions: Talking to merchants now opens the store UI, allowing players to buy and sell items.
• Shops:
  • Added specialized weapon shops and armor shops to towns.
  • Each store offers a selection of items for players to purchase.
• Item Requirements: Equipment now has stat requirements, meaning players must meet certain conditions to equip specific weapons and armor. I might also add a class requirement down the line, I’m not sure yet.
• New Command: ‘D’ for Drink:
  • Pressing ‘D’ opens the potion inventory.
  • Healing potions now restore hit points when consumed.
• Dungeons Begin!
  • Added dungeon tiles to the overworld.
  • Implemented first-person rendering for dungeons, for now the player cannot move in them, but the rendering was the difficult part, now I can focus on all the mechanics in there.
  • The dungeons are going to work like in the early Ultima games or like in Dungeon Master, I have some ideas of how I would make them interesting and unique.

Screenshots and Previews

What’s Next?

For next week, I’ll continue expanding the dungeon system by:

• Implementing movement within dungeons.
• Adding doors, and interactive elements.
• Creating dungeon encounters and mechanics.

The addition of dungeons marks a huge milestone for Solivium, and I’m excited to keep building on this foundation. Stay tuned for next week’s update!