We’ve used the term TMORPG ever since Book of Travels was announced back in September 2019, and if you’ve ever wondered why, we’re here to explain... The T in TMO signals an alternative to the more common industry standard MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) putting 'tiny' in the place of 'massive'. Essentially, it means that players per server are limited and meetings between players will be uncommon.
If you’ve seen our Kickstarter campaign video the abbreviation may sound familiar, and we’ve been really pleased to notice that for some, it’s one of the game’s biggest attractions. While it’s not exactly a genre, we think it works pretty well to describe a game where the amount of online players is capped. The result is that meeting other players is not commonplace and therefore, something a bit special.
It all began with Meadow
Might and Delight’s first networked game,Meadow, was something of an experiment, bringing the style and ambience of theShelter series to an open game world where small groups of players can bound around together in animal guise, unlocking magic obelisks and communicating with emotes. The response we had from players was incredibly positive – they loved the magic of sharing wordless adventures together. Four years on, we’re proud to say that the Meadow forum and Discord channel is filled with stories of special moments of meeting and connection.
Find the Few
Feedback on the emotional impact of these connections took us by surprise, and we soon knew that the TMO experience was something we wanted to explore further. Players of Journey will know exactly how moving it can be to chance upon another player, especially in a non-directive, non-linear game world. In Journey, the multiplayer aspect is pushed to the limit of its definition: meetings with ‘companions’ being as few as one per game (and make for a truly sublime emotional beat). In Meadow up to fifty animals share a grove, and in Book of Travels we’ll be using our Early Access period to experiment with player numbers.
The game design challenge
While this isn’t entirely new ground for us, we know it's going to be a challenge. There are many table top roleplayers in the Book of Travels dev team, and they know just how important player interactions are in bringing adventures to life. So, striking a balance between rich roleplay and sparsity of player meetings is the challenge that we now face! We’ll be counting heavily on your feedback and the help of beta testers to finetune that balance.
Help us in our endeavours!
What games have you enjoyed where player meetings are infrequent? Do you love RPGs? How do you feel about fewer meetings? We’d love your input, right here in the comments section. If you'd like to join our mailing list for updates and occasional free extras, join us here.
And of course feel free to add “Book of Travels” to your wishlist using the button below!
We’ve been deeply gratified to read all your comments on Kickstarter, Steam and Discord. In particular those that have lead us to books, art and other media that you feel share similarities with our TMORPG. Therefore we’ve dedicated a post to the key inspirations behind Book of Travels. Read more in this post: Inspirations for Book of Travels!
Revealing the Early Access World
Later this year Book of Travels will be available for Early Access on Steam. In Chapter Zero parts of the Braided Shore will be open, and among the places to visit is the gem of the region – the city of Kasa. Read more here.
Join our Discord
Join our super friendly Discord to exchange ideas on all things Book of Travels as well as art, games and books.Join here.
Narrative Designer Dennis Gustafsson has previously published nine comic books and worked on 35 games. Book of Travels brings him from Malmo to Stockholm, usually by motorbike, but soon as a permanent relocation. We hope you like his Q&A. Be sure to ask any questions in the comments, Dennis will be popping in to answer them!
Where have you been until now?
I have been in too many places to mention since my first game was released in 1991. Most recently I worked for King as a combined Art, Level & Game Design Lead in King's Malmö studio.
How did you find your way to Might and Delight?
I’m an old friend of Joel’s [Studio Manager], and when Book of Travels needed to evolve its narrative, he got in touch and offered me a position supporting the Game Designers as a Narrative Designer. I’ve always dreamed of working on a game that’s as ambitious as Book of Travels is, but until now I’ve never had the chance. As a professional Game Developer getting the chance to influence the type of game you work on is the rare exception rather than the norm! Book of Travels will be my first indie game and I'm honoured, humbled and delighted in equal measure to be invited to join the team and the studio.
What do you most enjoy about your work at Might and Delight?
Being part of a game team who's design vision is driven primarily by aesthetics and feel, all else follows in its wake. Another rare exception in game development.
Where you get your inspiration from?
Music, mainly – it has a lovely habit of kicking down hidden walls in my imagination!
Today we’re really excited to begin our fortnightly programme of updates with this video of gameplay clips. For many of you this will be a first glimpse of the fully functioning game world - we hope you like it!
These clips were recorded on a single player server, so they give a sense of the game world without the presence of other players. We hope they give you a glimpse of some of the areas, environments and features that we're currently working on. Book of Travels is a TMO and we're looking forward to sharing more about how you'll interact in those occasional player meetings at some point in the future. Our next video update comes in November, when we'll be sharing longer, uninterrupted gameplay footage!
As always we would love to hear your thoughts, and the team will be checking in to answer your questions, so please ask away! And if you have something about the game that you want us to talk about or show, let us know right here in the comments section.
Game Designer Beta was brought onto team to help balance the play experience in Book of Travels. Currently she's working on resources distribution across Early Access levels alongside colleague Andreas Wangler. We're super excited to have Beta with us all the way from Brazil! Here's her Q&A – we hope you like it, and if you want to ask her any questions, pop them in the comments section!
Where have you been until now?
My arrival in Sweden happened in 2017, after working as a game designer in different Brazilian studios – Aduge, Aquiris and Black River. Here in Sweden, I studied Serious Games in the University of Skövde and worked at Attractive Interactive in Karlskrona.
How did you find your way to Might and Delight?
After playing Tiny Echo, I got inspired to reach out to the studio. Joel [Studio Manager] was super sweet and invited me for a coffee. It wasn’t until 2018 I managed to get there, and it was such an inspiring day!
What do you most enjoy about your work at Might and Delight?
The nurturing environment and kindness of everyone. No wonder the studio creates such unique heartfelt experiences. It seems very natural to me that the games are what they are. After all, they carry bits of several beautiful souls.
What are you most excited about with Book of Travels?
To me it’s the fact that the game is built around the aesthetics of serenity. That, combined with the genre defying aspect – a TMO instead of an MMO – frees me up to explore so many unique designs.
What do you love doing when you're not working?
Making more games? That shouldn't count, right hahah! A few years ago I rediscovered nib calligraphy and that's been a passion again. Either writing or drawing with nibs.
We hope this update finds you well. It’s been a long and strange summer for us all, and during its course the team realised they needed to make a new schedule for Book of Travels – that schedule means a bigger, better early access gameworld and a new programme of regular game dev updates here on Steam.
Our first gameplay video drops in November
As you can see in the graphic above our next stop is going to be a gameplay video along with a major update in November. We're REALLY looking forward to this and we think you're going to love seeing the progress that we've made!
Fortnightly game updates
Your enthusiasm and anticipation really have been soul food to us through these trying times! And we're going to be much more present from hereon. With our new schedule in place we've been able to make space for a new series of regular, fortnightly updates which will give details about where development is at and how the game is shaping up as well as lots and lots of screenshots. They'll start on October 2nd and we'll be waiting for and responding to your questions and comments. Later in the year we’ll be continuing our series of insights into different aspects of the development process in our Ask the Devs videos.
We’ve also heard your desire for merchandise and will soon have an Art Station store which we'll be adding to as our library of artwork grows – we'll post an update when it's ready.
We're enormously grateful for all of your encouragement and kind words these last months and we're looking forward to connecting more on our travels on the road to release. Stay in touch!
Best Wishes, Helen and the team at Might and Delight
The T in TMO signals an alternative to the more common industry standard MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) putting 'tiny' in the place of 'massive'. That means fewer meetings, which we think means more magic... Read more here: What is a TMORPG?!
Revealing the Early Access World
Later this year Book of Travels will be available for Early Access on Steam. In Chapter Zero parts of the Braided Shore will be open, and among the places to visit is the gem of the region – the city of Kasa. Read more here.
Join our Discord
Join our super friendly Discord to exchange ideas on all things Book of Travels as well as art, games and books.Join here.
You probably know by now that Book of Travels isn’t a game that fits neatly into any kind of genre, well the same can be said of the writing in the game. Together, the different modes of ingame text comprise the contours of the story world: the backstory, NPC dialogue, item descriptions and UI text all play their part in bringing Braided Shore to life. Of course we can say this about all game worlds, but Book of Travels is a bit different: it’s a non-linear, exploratory, immersive experience where questing isn’t centre stage. So in this case, the main role of text isn't to drive forward stories or point players through the next beat of an epic plot. This means we can have a bit more fun and allow it to enhance the experience in different ways.
NPCs as story book characters
One of the major differences between Book of Travels and conventional RPGs is that you won’t be able to converse with the NPCs you meet. In Braided Shore NPCs speak repeatable, poetic lines - they'll still do all the conventional work of lore seeding and world building but since they don’t simulate conversation the NPCs work more like two dimensional story characters than limited chatbots. We hope that by creating them this way players will have a less wall-breaking and more immersive experience, and with its pop-up book aesthetic and 2D feel Book of Travels feels like exactly the right place to invite the player to encounter text in this bookish way. For me, the more poetic lines echo the painted, two dimensional ‘scenery’ of Braided Shore - they add atmospheric detail and depth to the world as you navigate through it. Here a merchant and musician speak some character 'poems'.
Getting the tone right
Writing dialogue for NPCs is an obvious opportunity to enrich the fairytale picture book aesthetic of the game world, and the style and tone that we hope to have achieved is a mixture of folk wisdom, upbeat chit chat and lore-based whimsy. Each class of character has a range of ‘lines’ that are each designed to reveal a little about their role in the world along with a tint of personal attitude. We’ve crafted them to be a little bit poetic - some use rhyme, others use phonic or rhythmic patterns. The intention is to create a style that enhances the feeling of being in a picture book world at the same time as withstanding a fair degree of repetition. Players will also encounter dialogue that imparts something less ordinary, little parts of story or information. We wanted these to stand out a little bit and be less two dimensional so they are written in a tone that is more personal and direct - these are the aspects which signal happenings beyond the ‘scenery’ and rhythms of everyday life. Stories, if you like!
Seeding lore
As with all RPGs, the text is a worldbuilding, ambient component of the game world and being so, must seed notions of the past history and current issues affecting its inhabitants. When I write dialogue I try to write it as though through the eyes of someone living its lore and history, so that fragments of these are revealed naturally when characters ‘speak’. This is one of the major ways that players will discover things about the magic, infrastructure and social practices of Braided Shore. There are a lot of unique and complex aspects to life there and they all matter to its inhabitants - we hope that over the course of your time there you’ll be able to learn from them and to piece together its unique culture. When I’m writing text I have all this in mind - the challenge is to seed little bits of lore without being overly explicit or compromising the integrity of character voice, it’s a balance I think I’ll always be in the process of perfecting!
Glimmers of story
While there’s no overarching questline in Book of Travels, there are intrigues to explore - eventually players will start to see signs of a region-wide drama, but mostly they are event chains with narratives that have the small-magic feel of folklore. Both will be seeded throughout the dialogue, so look out for hints or between-the-lines implications.
Finding the balance between subtle, naturalistic exposition and something more clearly revealing isn’t easy, so we expect to be working hard at that balance and we’ll be listening to your feedback to do so. Thanks for reading, I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments below!
We proudly present part three of Ask the Devs - this time Rasmus and Alex answer community questions about animating Book of Travels. (Get ready for some dancing...)
We'll be taking a break from video production over the summer, but we'll be back in August to let you know who will be next in the hot seat. If you have a particular area of game development you'd like us to feature, let us know in the comments and we'll hunt down a team member!
Thank you so much for all your attentions – we hope you're well and staying safe and connected.
After some delay, we're pleased to show you part two of Ask the Devs in which Sofia and Jens answer your questions about programming Book of Travels. We managed to sneak this interview in before the beta launch, from now on you'll see a lot less of them as they are fixing bugs bugs bugs. But we'll ask you for questions for our next interviewees (and reveal who they will be) on Discord in the next few days, so hop in and join us there if you haven't already! Please let us know your thoughts or about any processes you'd like to hear about in the next video in the comments below!
That's all for now - we hope you are all well and staying safe and connected.
One of the most crucial parts of any RPG is the interface: your inventory, your character screen, your skill book. Today we want to share the progress that's been made and invite you to look, judge and comment on this omnipresent factor: the UI!
The interface is probably one of the more difficult parts to develop in any game, mainly because it comes with so many expectations. Its core purpose is functionality, but it’s also a vital visual component - one that appears on your screen almost the entire time you are playing.
Our idea is to make a somewhat classical interface that leans on many conventional solutions found in other games. But we also want to do it our way, adding flavors from the game’s ethos. One example is that we're using a lot of icons and symbols instead of text - not everywhere, and not only, but often. Together with inspiration from classical pen and paper roleplay, the style makes for an interesting mix of traditional and new. To get around the annoying inconvenience that symbols can entail, one can always press the question mark to read about a particular UI-screen or use mouse over to write out the name of symbols.
The look itself is inspired by paper and cards. Items and Skills are presented as cards and when creating your character you get to choose between different background cards that tell the story of your character. Being able to bring life to your character through its personality is vital for us, and we have added in many options to write your own custom information besides the choices of traits, origin and other factors that you must choose.
HUD
Skills and emotes are two major focal points of the ingame HUD and to always have access to these is very important. Their importance needs to balanced with the often large space of the screen they cover. So we've implemented functions that allow you to shrink, expand and hide individual parts of the interface - or hide it all together. Besides skills and expressions, energy and stamina status is visible in the top left corner, along with the “shortcut” buttons at the lower middle. Currently these include:
- Game view - Character sheet, Stats, Custom info - Inventory and equipment - Skillbook and Reagents - Map, Diary and notebook - Take screenshot - Menu/Settings
We hope you've enjoyed this first peek at the interface. As fans of the genre it would be amazing to hear your ideas and feedback regarding the UI. Together we can fine tune this part of the experience so that it fits the game that we are creating, and the people we are creating it for! As always, thank you for your time and commitment! Jakob and the Book of Travels team
We are thrilled to share another big piece of the puzzle that makes the core of our game design in Book of Travels - skills! This has been one of our focal points as of late and now we’re ready to offer a deep dive into their function in the game, shedding some light on what makes them special compared to other RPGs and how they look and behave.
Firstly it's important to keep in mind that we’re trying to build a roleplay experience that challenges many of the norms and structures that fans of the genre are taking for granted. It’s our hope that what you read here will shed light on our philosophy regarding skills and that you’ll be as excited about them as we are!
The four types of skills and the four winds
In order to start explaining something as complex an RPG skill system, we need to begin with the foundation. There are four types of skills that your character can learn. Knots, Teas, Abilities and Passives. They each have different tones, uses and gameplay orientation. What all skills share is that they are not all tailored to boost your stats or give you obvious advantages. Many skills are just ways for you to express your character and to use for roleplaying purposes in social situations.
Knots
The tying of knots is a magical practice in the game world and allows for a variety of wondrous effects and functions. The time it takes to tie a knot depends on its complexity, but after untying it, the effects of knotspells are often direct.
Teas
If the knots are the “scrolls” then teas are the “magic potions” of our world. Deeply rooted in the culture of the world, the brewing of tea is a common practice both among ordinary folk and practising mystics. It requires preparation and patience but the results are often rewardingly strong and may last for long periods of time. The only limitation is that just one tea effect can be enjoyed at a time.
Abilities
These are skills that don't work by magical principles. Hiding in bushes, fishing, tricks and perks will instead improve everything from social skills, world interactions to survival gameplay. Some can be used all the time, others require special conditions or even tools.
Passives
Even if the term is common in RPGs we treat passive skills a bit differently in Book of Travels. Obviously they work on the principle of giving permanent bonuses to your character, but many of them can give you unusual and flat out weird bonuses if used correctly. Our idea is that players can use the other categories in conjunction with their passives to create tricky chains of bonuses. An example is drinking a tea that makes you unaffected by the elements, using a knot to call for rain clouds and then having a passive skill that gives you bonuses when standing in rain. With the amount of skills we are prepping, we are quite convinced that you can come up with some pretty awesome combos.
Winds
Besides the four types of skills there are four winds. These are a big part of the world lore and are considered divine or magical. Each skill, regardless of type, has a wind connected to it. The four winds all have their own “personalities” and they represent differences between skills. Skills of the Southern Wind are orientated towards physicality, interactions and trade. Skills of the Western Wind are often focused towards creativity, illusions, and strong magics. Northern Wind skills are cerebral and orientated towards science, protection and group aiding spells. Skills of the Eastern Wind are naturalistic, spiritual and often include animal skills and survival tricks.
Each character has an affinity for one of the four winds, making skills of that wind easier to learn.
How to acquire skills
Unlike many RPGs, your character won't learn skills per automation upon leveling up. Instead we have made gathering skills into something a bit more contextual and roleplay like (you are likely to learn the fishing skill from a fisherman, and a master at a tea house might teach you a magical tea blend). Of course there are numerous ways to acquire skills, such as learning them from NPCs, receiving them as rewards in events, trading for them, or finding them randomly in loot. A skill you write in your skill book must be activated or learned before it can be used. This is done by allocating points in the skills you want to use. Skills vary in how many points are required to learn them, and it’s up to you to balance your array of skills. Will you collect many cheaper, simpler skills, or a few more potent and rare?
Using skills
Skills all have conditions on when and where they can be used. We are not very fond of “do whatever you like” type of RPGs and will prohibit players from assembling a fireplace on a wooden deck in a tea house. Besides the conditions of when and where, skills are used differently depending on type. Passives are always active. Abilities can be used freely without cost but work as cooldowns. Knots and teas both use the same fuel: reagents. These are things that you collect in the wind that you then use to craft knots and teas. A combination is often needed to complete a knot or a tea. “Dandelion” plus a “tuft of animal hair” to give one example. In our world the magical practises are somewhat alchemic and reagents are not always gathered from nature. Coagulated engine oil and driftwood dust are amongst the things you can expect to tie into your knots.
We hope you have enjoyed this summary of skills in the game. Please let us know your thoughts about them in the comments. As always we do actually read everything and will gladly use suggested skills in the future so feel free to brainstorm!