Hey Smallfolk!

We bring you the Pathfinders' notes on a creature that many fear encountering out in the wilds of Smalland, the spider...

Read on to see what the Pathfinders thought of these fearsome creatures.

The Spider
Deadly Hunters able to stalk their prey, the Spiders are incredibly hard to kill and extremely deadly due to their speed and venomous fangs.

Sharing the same territory, each Spider prepares their personal domain and marks it with webbings and macabre trophies, as anything they defeat they eat. I can think of very few fates worse than being captured by a Spider.

They never retreat from their domain and prey upon anything that crosses their path, it makes no difference if a trespasser is smaller or larger than themselves, and they are prepared to fight one another to the death. But what lies beyond those veiled webs? What are they guarding? We must find out.



Will you face the fearsome spider head-on when you come face to face, or will you avoid them at all costs?

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Hey Smallfolk!

We don’t like to share these updates with you, but with community being at the heart of Smalland we wanted to share with you as soon as we made a decision.


We have conducted some closed testing sessions recently which have provided so much wonderful feedback. This testing has shown us that there’s more we want to do before we throw open the gates to Smalland. We won't rush anything out.

There’s two pieces of news to share, one is that the demo will not be coming in October, and the other is that the Early Access release is going to move out of 2021.

We are committed to bringing a demo out for Smalland and we’re excited to give players a taste of what awaits them, but the timeline for this is determined by when we’re confident in what we want to show you rather than placing another date in the calendar to work towards. Rest assured we’ll share more as soon as we can.

Both moves are explained by the same motive, which is that we don’t want to put Smalland out until we’re 100% confident. We’re committed to the community and to delivering the experience that you are looking for in Smalland. This is the first internally developed game from Merge Games, and whilst the decision to move anything is never taken lightly, we know that it’s the right thing to do.


There are various levels of testing and QA underway as development continues and we want to thank the community for the support and patience in taking the Smalland journey with us. If you haven’t already, please consider joining the Discord to hear about any future testing opportunities that may arise, you can find the Discord server at https://discord.gg/smalland

We’ve had an open approach to the development process and always aim to share our progress with you via community posts, dev diary videos and just hanging with the community in Discord. This will continue and we invite you to continue the journey with us until Smalland is everything we want it to be and we’re ready to welcome you into our huge, tiny world.

We can’t wait to do this with you, but we’re 100% committed to doing it right.

Much love,

The Smalland Team.

Hey Smallfolk!

We are delighted to welcome concept artist, Sasha Sanfok, to the Smalland Dev Diary series!

Sasha has been a key component of the character design in Smalland, so who better to introduce you to The Elder.

Getting the design of The Elder just right was really important to us, so join Sasha to have a look at the process behind his character design.

As always, be sure to let us know what you think!


Follow Sasha's work here:
Instagram
Behance

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Hey there Smallfolk!

We have some great questions to dive into this week! Let's get into it...

Will you be able to pick a certain map to play on? Because we saw a pool, some gnomes, a forest, and a desert. So can you pick which one to play on?
Smalland is one big map, no loading between areas. The biomes are quite diverse for different reasons but make up a bigger sandbox game world for you to play in. It takes a while but all the areas you’ve called out are connected, you just have to work out how you’re going to get to each one safely.



Is there a way you can give a brief summary of how our inventory is going to function?
We have three categories; Your Quest and Logs which is all the info about what you are doing and why as you create your own narrative. Then there’s everything about your Character, so info such as the current state of your weapons, armour, health, hunger, temperature, dehydration. And then there’s everything Crafting related.

We have a unified theme but have also tried to distinguish each category at a glance so that each looks and feels intuitive.


With the building of shelters and homes being a large part of the player's role in Smalland, what sort of games have inspired the system you guys want to use for building? E.g in Sims and the forest you can place down and extend walls, but in Ark you place them piece by piece (as far as I'm aware)
It's a bit of everything really, so different games make their decisions on different gameplay loops, which may look similar but are actually done for very different reasons. For us, the example above is more like Ark, as it's about detail and personalisation, not getting things down quickly. We have camp items that you need for survival that are quick to use, and your overall goal is to build a place for your people in the safety of the trees which takes longer. But you can also build whatever you like wherever is deemed safe. So this all fits within your goals and progression.

One thing to mention is that we have never liked elements that hinder progression with no risk and reward. A great example of this is putting a wall down in the wrong place, it disrupts the flow but also costs resources to remove and re-build. It’s not fun (in our opinion), and as we have a heavy focus on exploration, collecting the resources is where the core gameplay lies, and building is more focused on personalisation with progression elements. So if you destroy something you have built, you get a full refund of resources.

Initially, we were worried that this may not go down to well with hardcore survival players, but we think is a much better experience….and then Valheim came along and had the same idea, and everyone likes it, which is great, everyone wins :)


Thanks, everyone, we'll go and find some more of your excellent questions for next time!

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Hey Smallfolk!

Let's explore another of the early Pathfinder reports of the creatures waiting to be discovered in Smalland.

The Snail
The Snail is a curious creature, they graze slowly and then move slowly around. To where I do not know, it seems they take life at their own pace. Unfortunately, they act as a keen source of food for some of the bigger Creatures as they are unable to retreat with any kind of haste, not that they seem overly panicked when confronted.

I have successfully befriended a Snail where it followed me around for several days, at a very slow pace of course, but other than that they are seemingly content with their lot in life and don't appear to be too concerned about appearing near the bottom of the food chain.



As always we look forward to sharing more snippets of life in Smalland with you, stay tuned for more!

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Hey there Smallfolk!

Back at it with some more answers to your questions for FAQ Friday #9!

Here we go...

Can you say anything about "tiers of resources"?
Yeah, that's an in-game term we use, but to explain it… the player has complete freedom of the world, so if you can fight, sneak, glide, fly, jump or however you want to get past the various dangers, you can. So you can get into areas that you are not prepared for.

Some of these Creatures roaming in certain areas are bigger and deadlier because of their size, others carry venoms that can kill you quickly if you are not prepared. The more deadly the area though, the better the resources, so you could do a lot of grinding in a relatively safe area and have the freedom to build and craft what you like. Or, you could be a little more adventurous as the rewards match the dangers, you find a better quality of resources in these more dangerous/higher tier areas which saves you a lot of time. Entirely up to you, as you have the freedom and your progression is non-linear, it's your choice (and how brave you are feeling).

Will there be multiple different types of weapons such as spears, daggers and maces like Conan or will it just be swords and bows

We have a range of different weapons that have different classes, and each class has a particular style. For instance, we have Swords which are good all-rounders and Hammers are not ideal against multiple enemies and swarms but are great at delivering a big hit on a creature that outweighs the Smallfolk.

Then there are different types of Bow that suit different purposes, or should I say Creature attacks.



Is every creature faction going to have its own armour or are only some going to have armour and others have weapons and other items?

No, not every creature has its own armour, but also there are Pathfinders that give you valuable knowledge, if you can find them, that also provide Quests and armours. Some Pathfinders allow you to form an alliance with a Creature and then you can learn about its behaviour and how it survives, and how that can benefit the Smallfolk. Some give you armour or armours, some give weapons, some give both.

As always, we love the questions and look forward to reading more of them!

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Hey Smallfolk!

We are incredibly excited to share that there will be a Smalland demo available in October!

It's been such an amazing journey bringing the game towards the early access launch and we'll share more on when you can expect that soon.

Whether you strike out on your own, or with other tiny allies there's an enormous world out there waiting to be explored. Will you head out into the wilds hunting various creepy crawlies, introduce yourself to the various factions making a living out in the world, or stake a claim and build your own little corner of Smalland? The choice is yours and we can't wait to see what you do out there!

Here's the latest teaser trailer for Smalland, to give you an idea of what challenges lies in wait...


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Hey Smallfolk!

We have another entry from the Pathfinders' journals to share some more information about a creature you may have seen pop up in some of of the materials we've shared so far, the humble Ladybug

Today I was approached by a Ladybug; a small creature often preyed upon by others, but this does nothing to dampen its plucky demeanour. Watching it I noticed that it will inquisitively seek out anything it finds interesting with mischievous glee. It seems that all Ladybugs are armoured and can withstand certain types of damage due to their armoured shell, the markings on the shell can also ward off potential roaming attackers.

As I broke camp it watched in earnest and then my new faithful companion followed me as we entered the grasslands. But it was here that we heard footsteps approaching, giving away the movements of a large predator manoeuvring through the tall grass. As we ran for our lives my new friend fell behind, and as I made it into the open, weapon drawn to defend myself, my companion was nowhere to be seen, yet the movement of the grass rustling in the opposite direction showed something lumbering slowly away, obviously content with a small meal.

We'll be back next time to take a look at another of the fascinating creatures of Smalland.

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Hey there Smallfolk!

We've been pouring over your questions and have got some answers ready for FAQ Friday #8!

Without further ado...

Since there's going to be quests, are there going to be bosses?
Yes, there are Bosses, one of which you can see in our last trailer; a very large battle-scarred Spider that has a history with one of the Pathfinders in the game...



Will we be able to use items from the house, just like in the movie Arrietty? Like needles for swords, sugar cubes for sweetening tea, etc.
There are crafted items as the Smallfolk are skilled but have limited resources, and it's your job as their Vanguard to find more resources. But yes there will also be special items to find too. We rely on things growing within the world that you can use efficiently to craft, but then there are very special and unique items used to craft very special and unique rewards, and these are found via working with Factions.

This way we don't create an infinite number of say needles, or just one which would make it a race to get there as only one player can get it. This way we can make it feel special and rewarding.

How many variants of armour will there be? Will it be more than what we have seen or is that it?
No, definitely more. Armour is very powerful in the game, so it takes time to earn and has lore attached, making it more meaningful

Keep those questions coming!

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Hey Smallfolk!

We're back to uncover another of the first pathfinders' journals and read their findings on the creatures inhabiting Smalland.

Although they have a distinctive look and sound, the Bees are very much like the Ants in terms of their goals and approach to survival. They work alone to collect pollen for the good of their species, but when attacked they rally in unison like Ants. Unlike Ants, Bees in one area are indifferent to Bees in another area. While faction allegiance does not cross over, certain totems have shown them that I mean no harm and could be a potential ally.

Bees do not eat in the wild, they take pollen back to their hive which surely must contain more secrets that we could benefit from. They are passive but will retaliate if attacked, using their powerful sting in combat creates the ultimate sacrifice, which they are willing to do for the greater cause of their species. Is this a noble act, or blind obedience? I believe the answer lies inside of their hives.

Check back next time to uncover more of the wildlife of Smalland.

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