Hello! Thank you for reading this.

This summer is a bit of an unknown for me right now, so I might not get a ton of work done on Spellbound personally. As such, I wanted to discuss the future of this project. But not in a sinister "we need to talk" kind of way. More like a "this is just the beginning" way.

I've received great feedback from a number of people who played the Spellbound prototype I released last month. If you're one of those people, thank you! This project is very new but I am very excited about it.

From January to May, I built up the prototype on my own. It's got plenty of issues, but it's a great starting point and a way to get some discussion going around the core idea of the game: an RPG with spellcrafting as the core mechanic that sets it apart from other role-playing games.

As summer enters full swing, Spellbound has unofficially entered the "alpha" stage of the game, where I will be doing much more frequent (and regular) releases, and being more public about it. The alpha stage is where the bulk of the work will be, since it will involve building all of the core features and gameplay mechanics that I imagine the game having.

Some examples are:

1. A questing system with support for scripted events and procedurally generated content.
2. A much more expansive and in-depth world, filled with random events and things to explore.
3. Co-op multiplayer
4. Villages scattered around the world that form communities where you can partake in events, visit shops, and build relationships with NPCs in the game.
5. A much improved magic and combat system.

Future stages of the development process (beta and onward) will be dedicated to refining and supplementing the core mechanics. But for now, since there is a LOT of work that I need to do on the codebase in order to support all these new things, there won't be a public alpha release for some time. Especially since I am probably not going to be at my desk all summer, by design.

LOOKING FOR CONTRIBUTORS

I recently decided that I want this game to be a collaborative effort, and not just the work of one person. I believe this will help the game gain traction. If this project interests you, I invite you to join the new development Discord server I created for the purpose of collaboration:

https://discord.gg/Nzq69qh

If you're a play tester, artist, developer or just want to be close to the process, this is the place for you! My dream is to have a small community of people who like the game's concept as much as I do and want to throw new ideas around to see what sticks.

Right now, the code is licensed under the GNU Public License, version 3. I have published it here on Github. Please note that the "dev" branch is where all the bleeding edge changes end up.

I think that's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your day!