Concept-Art

After re-thinking the process of harvesting resources, presently a few new sprites were needed to represent natural deposits of rock, wood and metal (from left to right). Take a look at the new natural formations, which are going to be scattered all over the island.

Clockwork Knights belong to the taller and more dangerous breed of Q-Bots. Their internal clockwork relentlessly drives them forward, albeit void of purpose. Their main weapon is a steam-powered laser-visor which can devastate whole structures with a few glances. Clockwork Knights are thus a dreaded sight to settlers, fortunately they are spotted seldom.

Rumor has it that certain Clockwork Knights could be successfully caught and re-programmed.

While talking about taverns, we might as well introduce the innkeeper, who is always eager to buy fish, game or wild mushrooms to support the food-supply for the according settlement.

A tavern should be build early in every settlement as it provides important support for its neighborhood (besides the booze): it increases both the stats of food-supply and community of the according village, which in term influence NPC-happiness.
Food is provided by either building farms or taverns, or by just continually foraging (or shopping, for that matter) for fish, game, wild mushrooms and so on yourself. Community-value is raised by both building a tavern as a communal hang-out and by placing NPC-structures not too far away from each other.

This is the arsenal, one of the unique buildings on Qubus’ Island. It is part of the old harbor-city at the southern shore (so far dubbed Takama Port as a working title). For the first time players will be introduced to the arsenal during the tutorial-level which requires a player to fix a damaged bridge at the marina. Later, during the game, the arsenal is essential for a few quests during which deliveries need to be fetched for local innkeepers or merchants from Takama Port.

We are currently knocking together a tutorial level, besides working on a gazillion of other odds and ends (or so it seems). The short opening single-player-style chapter will teach important game-mechanics and introduce a few unique NPCs. These two nice (or rather not so nice) fellows will help along learning Coobico’s casual combat-system: Theodor Flint, one of the shadier characters on Qubus’ Island and his sidekick Rusty, a rather old and re-programmed Clockwork Knight (a type of Q-Bot which is introduced here).

A mischievous, mean spirited species of half-sentient fungi sprawls over the remote forests and grassy plains of Qubus’ Island: the hot-tempered Phoenix Mushrooms. They seem to burn with an inner fire and notoriously ambushing innocent wanderers, so it’s not recommended to go on a mushroom foray to find them. Still, their smoky-tasting mushroom-flesh is very famous with gourmets and can be sold at your local tavern.

Steam Tyrants are the most hulky and hazardous breed of Q-Bots from Dr. Qubus’ Laboratories—thankfully they are not encountered regularly these days. Knowledge of these towering steam-powered automatons’ primordial purpose is lost, but thanks to their wacky and wicked artificial intelligence Steam Tyrants seem to indulge in tearing down buildings. Therefore they are a dreaded sight to settlers.
Other notable Q-Bots found on Qubus’ Island are Steambots and Drillbots. 

Bossies are a native species of oxen on Qubus’ Island, a short article about them with a concept-sketch and a Flash-mockup can be found here. The above image is the final draft of various bossies rendered in 3D. Broken bossies and mini-bossies (to the right) can be encountered at farmsteads and are usually quite harmless. However, unbroken bossies (left) met in forests and remote plains will occasionally attack wanderers.

Confused about all the different locations on Qubus’ Island already mentioned here? This is a map overview of the island (click here for a larger version). While the center of the island sports one of the important villages, several other landmarks are located around the coastal areas. Since the island needs to offer enough space for quite a few settlements, the map is heavily scaled down, depicting only a rough version of the landscape.

The game doesn’t start with such complete overview though. The island-chart is subdivided into several so-called map-extracts representing the parts of the island which a player can access. In addition to their initial map-extracts new players can buy further extracts with in-game currency, enabling them to travel to uncharted regions of Qubus’ Island.

Later in the game, new regions of the island will be unlocked, both to accomodate more settlers and to provide more insights into various places connected to the story of Qubus’ Island.