0.1: DEVELOPER ROADMAP

DEVELOPER ROADMAP

Hey everyone! I'm Bryan Nautilus from Hydance Interactive, the studio working on UNOVR, and I'm here for the first of many developer roadmap posts! I'm super excited to share with you today a rundown of all the great features we've got packed into our first release: Beta Island!
So let's jump into it!


Patch 0.1: Beta Island

Patch 0.1 is live now, and has all the features needed for you to start your UNOVR journey.

We've got a Starting Area with a slice of our signature open world exploration. This is Beta Island, a tropical paradise with three exciting areas to explore! First we have the Coastline, a wild and sandy shore filled with tide pools, secret coves, and more than a few glitches, Haha! Take a stroll along the beaches, go for a dip in the pristine waters, or go digging in the dunes for buried treasure!  We've buried a few little secrets of our own out there, but I'm excited to see what you all come up with!

And just a short, scenlic jog inland from the beautiful white sand is the second of our tropical locales: the Canopy! You'll want to check out the sun-soaked upper echelons of this floral paradise, which are filled with fruit, vine walkways, and tree-top trouble. Of course, those here for a side of adventure will probably skip all that and head straight for the shady undergrowth. Careful down there! You never know what might be lurking in the darkness below the boughs. There's no winding trails to guide you home, and it's a long, long fall down to the forest floor.  

The third of our Beta locations is the Crater. Volcanic geysers spraying burning steam fifty-feet into the air. Molten flows of core-hot magma sizzling the very air around you. Pits of boiling mud browner than a beachside fondue pot. Feeling hot yet? I know I am! But those of you that can stand the heat won't want to miss out on the heat-pounding excitement of this red-hot volcanic crater at the top of the island's volcano. 

And it's not all exploring, either! For those of you wanting to try your hand at Catching, we have a special treat: Starters. That's right! The Tall Grass in Beta Island is full of starters from every generation! We're mixing things up right from the word go, in what you'll soon see is our signature UNOVR style. There are 24 starters to catch, so get out there and find your favorite!  

The next feature is my personal favorite: Skill Trees. Part of what I love about UNOVR is how unique the Pokemon and characters feel, and even in the Beta we've been seeing some great strategies evolve as people prioritize different stats and abilities over others. We've seen players dive straight down the middle of the sweeper tree to level up their attack as fast as possible, we've seen players focus on HP for that pure tank feel, and we've seen players instead work on the attack line, making sure their Pokemon have the best coverage possible!

There are a ton of different strategies, and I can't wait to see what you all come up with next!

Now an RPG wouldn't be an RPG without Quests, and we've got a treat for you. Not only do we have Tutorial Mode, that will introduce you to the places, mechanics, and NPCs of UNOVR, but we have a pair of Random Generators that you can freely use to inject some surprising developments into your existing adventures. Random Quests and Random Glitches are available right from the start, all you need to do is input the command! 

I'm particularly excited about the Glitches, as these are a core part of that Beta experience. 

Now I'm sure there are a few of you out there who love PvP. In general, we want UNOVR to be a place of exploration, but to quote a certain Pokemon Professor 'there is a time and place for everything'. And the Arena is the place for PvP action. Square off against other players in mechanical or freeform battles, and test out the full power of your team! 

We've also added a Challenge Tower, which is an exciting area where you and your friends can work together to solve tactical puzzles!

You'd think that would be it, and it is for the launch day patch, but the higher-ups have given me the green light (or the blue light, as we're in North America) to give you a sneak peak at Patch 0.2. Let's jump right in!


Patch 0.2: Beta Island Update

Planned for January, this patch will draw together the story threads that you have built up and move us into the endgame of the Beta patch. Those of you following the Story Quest will see some familiar faces as we launch our first ever Raid. Raids are high level, cooperative boss battles, requiring the teamwork of a large number of players. They are your chance to show off your team, and award exclusive loot. It's worth noting that every Raid will also have major world consequences, both for success and for failure. Every Raid marks the end of an Area, and the opening of a new location on the world map. In this case, the opening off our launch zones, and Patch 1.0! 

Exciting stuff, but we're not stopping there. When Patch 0.2 drops you'll also see some updates to our Random Generators. New Quests, new Glitches, and, as well as some updates to the Story Quest! During this patch we'll also crown our first Arena winner! 

And this is just an update patch! We have a ton of cool new features planned for Patch 1.0, and I'm itching to share them with you, but that will have to wait for the next Developer Update.

That's all from myself and the team at Hydance, thank you all for join the Beta, and I'll see all of you on the beach!