Hey everyone, welcome to Sidequest!
What is SidequesT?
When we launched a new design earlier this year, one of the things we mentioned was "RPG". Since then, we've been slowly introducing new mechanics to the website to solidifying this experience and today that goes one step further: it has a name.
Sidequest is a permanent fixture here on Out on Games; The game within our community. Last month you saw the re-introduction of community events here through Reelfest, our first season in the new system. This introduced Fishing as a skill and added an Inventory to the website where you could collect fish and a Marketplace where you could trade items with other members of the community.
The goal with Sidequest is to create an even better community experience on the website. Together we are going to go on quests, some by using the website itself and others by performing sidequest-specific tasks, build towards a grand village, and take on boss battles, all in the comfort of our browsers.
Boss battles on the website was something that was planned with our first-ever Snowpocalypse event and we just didn't have the technology at the time to make it happen. Now we do.
Skills
Sidequest currently has four different skills, and they are all for gathering materials:
Fishing (enabled again and now with 70 different species of fish!
Foraging
Woodcutting
Mining
You can see the levels of your skills on the Sidequest Dashboard (which is linked on the sidebar) and although they don't do much, they will be more fleshed out in the future with various perks at each level.
We've also introduced a new chance that allows you to sometimes gather more often when you're browsing the website so it's not always a static cooldown. Neat!
Next month, we will see the introduction of crafting skills, which are going to be instrumental in getting us to the next big feature we can expect for Oozefest...
Boss Battles
Starting next month, Sidequest will be adding in our very first number of boss battles. with a Halloween theme. Together we will fight against evil trying to ruin our celebrations. Will we be able to take on strong enemies together?
We'll have to wait to find out! In the meantime though, you should probably go and...
Build a Character
The cornerstone of any RPG is being and making a character, so welcome to the Sidequest Character Creator.
There are a handful of options to customize your character including your feet, lets, chest, hands, and head. There are also accessories, though they are quite limited for now. This character will represent you throughout the community and level up alongside your participation which will include...
Journaling Your Experience
The Journal is a revised interface to the Tacklebox that we introduced during Reelfest. This is where all the materials, and creatures, that we encounter are documented. It's a mini collection to complete and it will, hopefully, give you all the information you need to help chase down the completion.
The Town Square
It wouldn't be much of a game without an actual game inside of the website, now would it? We have a new page under Sidequest called "World" which begins with a Town Square... well part of one anyway.
As we level up our settlement, new features will unlock inside of the area and the map will begin to open up more with new events. At least we've found a small place to call home so far!
The goal with the world is to try and keep most of our interactive elements inside of it, though you will see bosses that can take over pages and REDACTED plus sometimes REDACTED.
Oh right, we can't talk about that quite yet.
Understandably, loading up Sidequest's World may be a bit of an annoyance at times, so we're going to try and find the right balance between on-site and in-game elements. It's possible some things may take place on both, with the on-site element being a fast way to getting to the in-game one, but it's also possible that we might make it that people must discover something in-game to make it show up for everyone out of game. This is a part where feedback is going to dictate the direction of it all.
The Sidequest REalm
Everything relating to Sidequest will have its updates posted within the Sidequest Realm and the expectation that this "forum" is where we discuss things. If people want to try and plan an expedition together or if you want to find someone to trade some items with because you really need a certain type of material to finish your new piece of gear, or you're looking for someone to make a craft for you, this is the place to go.
Sidequest is always going to be a work-in-progress and the hope with it is to turn it into a major part of our community here on Out of Games.
Sidequest is a game at the core, it just expresses itself on an unusual medium, a website. In a way, we're a bit like a Neopets or some of the other browser-based games of the past, though the goal is to be a more modern version of those.
Next month, Oozefest will make a return for the first time in a while and yes, we will see the usual Trick or Treating on everyone's profiles, but it will be a bit more than just that. There's only two weeks to go until we get there, so until then, enjoy poking around at our construction site and be sure to contribute materials to our Breaking Ground effort =)
I can't wait to share more with everyone as we push out more updates to Sidequest and we finish the more interactive elements of it.
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