First Creatures! : Thu, 04 Sep 2025
The past few weeks we've been doing a lot of backend work to get some creatures up and running, and doing a lot of work thinking about gameplay implications and what creatures we want to have and stuff. But now, we finally have some stuff to show! We have our first 2 mobs, very basic, but they are functional (mostly)!
The cow and the (wip) rat!
It might not look like much, I'm aware, but we actually have some pretty fun mechanics planned for both of these. Without spoiling too much, one of the main mechanics of Briarhelm is creatures becoming mutated at night, and to that end we have some pretty fun (albeit a bit silly) ideas for how these two animals could pose a serious threat to you and your amazing fortress. The cow was implemented by me, and the rat is one of our other developers first creature and first feature programmed into the game. Round of applause for having more people start to understand and have fun with the codebase! Hopefully we can get our other two to maybe make their own creatures as well as their introduction to programming Briarhelm? We'll have to see.
We've also been working on RPG type mechanics and how that all slots into the basic gameplay, and brainstorming a different tool progression system that really takes advantage of our modular tools system.
Stay tuned everyone! Alpha will be here sooner than you know it ;)
Initial Setup : Wed, 20 Aug 2025
Today we did some awesome (but pretty tedious) work.
Yes, I said WE on purpose. We have a full on team now! Today we spent basically the entire day setting up a couple computers, getting everything installed, and brainstorming a bit on the project. Tomorrow, we will have the rest of our small group here to do the same since they weren't available today. We hope that soon we can get the last couple of the PC's we'll need, and we'll be able to go full force into Briarhelm development!
We have a ton of ideas, and a ton of ambition, so stay tuned! We plan on working toward some initial, playable alpha version. Then, releasing a launcher alongside early access as we develop the game from alpha onward. Hopefully you all stick around with us, and I may even have some eye candy next time!
Site launch : Sat, 16 Aug 2025
We now have a website! Forums, everything. Super thrilled :)
Hopefully all of the login, forums, and everything else works. Be nice to each other, everyone!
That's it! You've reached the end of the news posts!