Wicker and the Whispering Flame

What is Wicker and the Whispering Flame?

Wicker is a fast paced retro inspired first-person shooter and roguelike.  You play as Wicker, the child of a monster hunter and a witch, fighting your way through a monster-infested forest. Sling spells, discover unique weapons, explore procedurally generated environments, and uncover secrets as you try to make it out alive. 

Wicker is being developed as a senior thesis project at The College of New Jersey's Interactive Multimedia program. The current final product is planned to be more of a demo, or small slice of a full game, as opposed to a complete game. Think of it like a proof of concept.

How far along is Wicker?

Right now, Wicker is still a playtest. 

Wicker still has a few months left in development. As it exists now, the game contains the majority of features planned for the final version, although quite a bit is still missing. The game is still fairly light on content, and the gameplay loop currently in place is there more for testing than anything else. It also has quite a ways to go in terms of polish. 

What's coming next?

Wicker is being developed on a pretty tight timeline, with the definitive end to the project coming in mid May. It's possible I continue to develop it past that point, but May is the current endpoint. 

The duration of March will be spent on spicing up Wicker's procedural generation and creating a more finalized gameplay loop. Expect more coherent level generation, with more  unique areas, like small biomes, graveyards, as well as abandoned towns and buildings. The game should also have more structure - less sporadic item generation, more interesting objects, battle arenas with rewards, and a placeholder boss fight.

April will be focused on content, although this is more up in the air.  We plan to add more enemies, weapons, spells, and relics to the game during this month, as well as expanding upon the procedural generation changes from March. The goal is to make the world of Wicker feel more full, and make individual playthroughs of the demo more unique. I would also like to use this month to finalize a boss fight. If things are going well, I may also add a new feature or two - potion brewing/crafting or item shops. 

Help make Wicker a better game!

The timeline given above is vague. Things are bound to change as the game develops and priorities shift, but more importantly, I want your help figuring out what needs changing. Please play through our current release of Wicker, and fill out our playtesting form! All feedback is valuable!