In today's Something's Brewing, we're giving you the inside scoop on Ale Abbey's development. We clocked in some work on character animations and coded moving furniture and equipment around the Abbey to give you a bit of a hand when your initial planning stops being efficient, or worthy of an interior design prize. Add to that the incorporation of an in-game notifications system, and you got yourself quite the read for the day!
Also, although we hardly keep anything behind the scenes, there are a few things we've been working on that we believe are better left for a later post; for example, our work on Ale Abbey's planned tutorial (which is still being under discussion amongst the team) and some small changes in the Recipe Crafting UI that is very close to completion (keeping our fingers crossed we can show a final version next week).
Onwards to this week's news!
-- Notification System Online!
Maybe a tad futuristic of a title for the late Middle Ages... We just incorporated the in-game notifications system. Looks barebones right now, but it's good for testing in the internal builds so far. Through feedback and constant iterations (and don't we have plans for that one), we are sure we can give you UI that is both tasty and very immersive!
-- Moving furniture and equipment around the Monastery
Quite early in its development, we also laid out the foundation of moving equipment and other pieces of functional furniture around the Monastery (in between the same room types, of course). The UI looks and feels smooth and it seems to work quite well, for a WIP. We still need to make a few decisions on the time it would take to move things around (and whether or not this would occupy the Monastery's inhabitants as well), but this is still a matter of discussion as it could host a number of gameplay issues.
-- Character animations are still going strong
All of this work could not stop progress in the rest of the creative department, and the animation of characters is a big part of that. A very laborious task since each new Monk and Nun model/archetype we introduce to Ale Abbey comes with its own cute details and every room and action hides a number of potential animations... We can only thank Raimo, our artist, who is very on top of that!
-- Real-life notifications in fermentation
Talking about the in-game notifications kinda made us think about the ways this works in real-life brewing. And the more one brews the more one understands that your beer can tell you what went wrong, especially during the pitch-and-forget stage of fermentation.
So, here are some of the dreaded signs that your brew's fermentation didn't quite cut it and what they mean:
- High Final Gravity -> if your beer's final gravity is higher than expected based on your recipe, it suggests that not all the sugars were converted into alcohol during fermentation
- Sweet Taste -> if your beer tastes sweeter than anticipated, it's - yet again - a clear sign that residual sugars remain in the beer
- Lack of Alcohol Content or Low Attenuation -> alcohol shenanigans can be identified in two ways, lower than expected alcohol content, or lower attenuation (the percentage of sugars that yeast has converted into alcohol). When the fermentation is incomplete (probably due to stalling or yeast issues), the alcohol content of your beer will also be affected
- Flat Mouthfeel -> this should hint towards carbonation... Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of fermentation so if your brews fermentation was incomplete, there might be insufficient carbon dioxide production, resulting in a flatter mouthfeel
- Cloudiness -> yeast and other solids might not settle properly if fermentation isn't fully completed and this could explain higher levels of suspended particles in the beer, causing cloudiness or haziness (remember that there are beers that call this a feature!)
- Lingering Off-Flavors -> yeast metabolizes compounds that give certain characteristic flavors to a beer. If the fermentation is incomplete, your yeast did not have the time to fully break them down, resulting in lingering undesirable flavors
- Lower Attenuation -> attenuation refers to the percentage of sugars that yeast has converted into alcohol. If your yeast's attenuation is lower than the range specified by the yeast strain you used, it could indicate incomplete fermentation.
It is wise to remember that the above are almost always subject to the type of beer you're trying to brew as their very unique properties might not only welcome but call for "happy accidents" to happen. Keep your eyes peeled, see what went wrong, find a potential solution, and test it with another brew... It might sound cliche, but your next best brew is waiting to happen!
Tune in next week for more of Ale Abbey's news! For now, enjoy your weekend responsibly ;)
-- Hammer & Ravens
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