Building The Wuxia World (Project Aspirations)

I want to talk for a minute about the plans for Heavenly Peaks Cultivation and the direction the project is headed.

I didn't delve too much into why and how Bai Huan arrived on the Immortal Mountain, because those things will slowly be revealed near the end of the game's prologue (which is coming as soon as February's release I hope!)

The first 7 months of your time in Heavenly Peaks, you will essentially be a struggle to prove your right to enter the Golden Lotus Academy -- the prestigious and mythical school where legends are born. Known only to a select few, this place is largely used by high society or prodigious prodigies. Bai Huan is neither! Thus, his appearance is highly irregular.

As you may suspect, the story doesn't end in a small hut on the outskirts of the mountain. My ideas for the immortal mountain are already fleshed out. Once you pass the prologue you will gain access to all new locations, facilities and other npcs by way of other students, faculty and such.

At this point, Bai Huan will have an open curriculum that focuses on giving you tasks that you must fulfill in order to ascend up the school's ladder. Because time is irrelevant in the immortal mountain, essentially students are allowed to progress at their own pace up until a certain period of elapsed time. roughly every 2-3 years, you have the opportunity to move up a "grade", along with it bringing new challenges and requirements.

2-3 years per "grade" may seem like a long time, unless you consider that there will be new places to explore, quests, crafting, bonds to build, fun to be had and all sorts of new trainings to help facilitate your cultivation. And of course, during this time none of the characters age.

Speaking of characters, here is one such coming addition:

In short, the planned content for Heavenly Peaks is designed to be plentiful and flexible. It's also designed to be manageable for me. Once I get to a point where all of the game's systems are in place, I can comfortably crank out content and this will only improve once I solve my issues with getting a new PC. This will help vastly improve the current workflow which is : take renders> upload to the cloud > download > convert > insert into game.

From that to take renders > convert > insert into game is a vast improvement and huge time saver.

One of the project's main challenges at this point are having unique levels built that reflect the Chinese fantasy setting of the game.  I've been working behind the scenes to procure assets that will make this happen and ideally I want something that really fits well into this setting. This will also allow me to provide more new places for players to experience.

On the subject of the academy -- students will be free to wear their normal clothing during informal events, but they will also have assigned outfits for most formal events. Keeping with the look of a wuxia fantasy setting, here's a peek at how some of the ladies may be dressed. 

This may change if I'm able to get some custom clothing done, but for now this is pretty close to a chinese fantasy style and I think it would fit well for the most part.

Needless to say, along with all of the things I've mentioned, I already have a good idea of the "main story" for the game. But like a true wuxia / cultivation tale, you will most likely have many events and challenges before the "main story" even begins in earnest.

My goal is to give you a fun experience , a game that allows you to build the character you want and also assume some risk. One of the more important aspects coming, in that regard, will be the foundation set up.

For those of you who may not know, a cultivation foundation is exactly like a building's foundation. Depending on what it's made of, your building may crumble or fall under the wrong situation. Essentially, this means that you will have to make permanent choices that affect Bai Huan's growth as he progresses through the game. There may even be times where you can mess up your cultivation and require a means to repair it (such as damaging your meridians with some reckless training).

You will be free to take whatever path you want in this regard. You'll be able to acquire the elements you desire, spirit tools, consume the pills that will help build your foundation and so on.

That, along with 3-4 other systems will essentially round out the "foundation" of the project's gameplay and all are coming within the next year.

I can't wait to share some of the new things with you, and also to get more feedback into making the project better.

Special thanks to everyone who has contributed a suggestion here or there, no matter how large or small.

Also, a special thanks to you--the patrons who help motivate me to continue making this project. My hope is that I can grow this game significantly in the coming year to justify making my work on Heavenly Peaks a "fulltime job". But even if that doesn't come to pass, it's really no worries. After all, I started making Heavenly Peaks because I genuinely enjoy playing it myself. I have zero plans to stop anytime soon.

- My Big Little Brother