Hello all!

Over the past months, there has been a lot of progress behind the scenes:

One of these updates we'd like to announce is our participation in this year's Indie Arena Booth at Gamescom! With the help of CODE NZ, we're able to travel to Gamescom in Germany for the first time!

We will have our latest demo (build v0.10.8) at this event, and worry not for the majority of you who cannot attend in person, as there will also be an Indie Arena Booth Steam event featuring our latest demo online!

Our two new artists, Bella and Shei, have been hard at work producing new art assets for our new build and promotional material.

One such piece of artwork is our new promotional splash art, which you may have already noticed on our Steam page.

An extra announcement will be made here for when the Indie Arena Booth event goes live, and also stay tuned for our upcoming development blogs and milestones!

Until next time,
Cynthia

If you're interested in joining alpha/beta tests and haven't signed up, sign up here[tenthousandcoins.com] to our mailing list for the latest news and a chance to be an Alpha/Beta tester for future builds!

LudoNarraCon 2024 officially begins! Check out our demo, as well as all of the other awesome narrative-driven games in this event!


Our developer stream will broadcast at 3 PM on Saturday 11th of May PDT. We will pre-record the stream a day before to avoid any technical difficulties.

If you have any questions you'd like to ask us, Ask your question here[forms.gle] and we'll hopefully be able to answer on the stream (subject to time left).


We have also updated our gameplay trailer to reflect our latest progress!

Ten Thousand Coins: The Golden Merchant will be featured in LudoNarraCon 2024's Official Games Selection!

We're very excited to be a part of this awesome narrative games event on Steam (9-13 May), and big thanks to Fellow Traveller for this opportunity!

What to expect from this event:

• An updated playable demo with some of the latest features and content
  
• A new gameplay trailer
  
• A developer stream where I (Cynthia) will be giving commentary on a playthrough of our demo while talking about our progress, design choices, inspirations, etc, as well as a Q&A at the end.

A small Q&A session will be included at the end of the stream, so here's your chance to ask us your questions[forms.gle] regarding the game or development journey and I will answer them during the stream!

Ask your question here[forms.gle]

The best questions will be picked, with your name (or alias) mentioned.

Stay tuned for further announcements!

Our latest demo is live on #TurnBasedThursdayFest! Check us out along with many other amazing #Turnbased games from 4 - 8 April!

🏷️Check out other games at this awesome event: https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/sale/TurnBasedThursdayFest

Many thanks to #TurnBasedThursday!

I hope everyone is off to a great start in 2024!

We have been hard at work since our last build, and have taken in all the feedback from our players to redesign and improve our game systems. Here is a preview of what we're currently working on:


Some of the major feedback we have received regarding the old combat system includes:

• The current combat system is too basic. Need more actions and more ways to attack.
  
• More RPG elements like in other turn-based RPG combat systems
  
• More interaction with the rest of the game, such as weather, more emphasis on nighttime, other items, and weapons?
  
• Be able to control the guards separately as well. More notable guard abilities.

A preview of our new combat system in the works:

• Multiple actions per turn.
  
• A focus on balancing between attacking and defending.
  
• Using goods in combat provides different special effects to attacking AND defending.
  
• Managing enemy intents (are they going to attack or do something else)?
  
• Guards in the convoy will each have their turns as well.
  
• Negotiation updates depending on the state of battle (e.g. you may receive a favourable offer to you if you're winning).
  
• Removed a lot of the randomness from combat with more strategy put back into the player's hands.

From all the feedback gathered, we will continue to prioritise making significant improvements to the following systems:

• Combat system (currently in progress)
  
• Wilderness system
  
• Settlement buildings, interactions, and NPCs

Along with other improvements and updates in the coming months, we will continue to playtest and gather feedback before moving on to more content development.

Until next time,
Cynthia

If you're interested in joining alpha/beta tests and haven't signed up, sign up here[www.tenthousandcoins.com] to our mailing list for the latest news and a chance to be an Alpha/Beta tester for future builds!

Follow us on Twitter Instagram [www.instagram.com] if you would like to preview all of the latest development news!

Game System

• New System - Needed Goods Value Graph
  
• System Update - Trading System
  
• System Update - World Map

Art and Content

• Content Update - Narrative
  
• Art Update - UI Value Graph
  
• Bug Fixes

We have updated the game's economic system to encompass an ever-changing needs system, allowing needed trading goods value to change daily based on settlement demands.

A value graph UI system has been added to allow the player to track the value of the needed goods in each settlement. To unlock these graphs for each job, the player can either:

• Travel to the settlement and speak directly to the traders of the settlement (unlocking all graphs), OR
  
• Speak with travellers and other NPCs to gather information about the value of goods in nearby settlements

This is a big update to our previous more static system. It allows players to take advantage of goods in high demand better to profit accordingly if they can gather the information, shifting our game closer to an ideal merchant experience.

The next step in development is to implement more ways for the player to influence this market.


Ten Thousand Coins: The Golden Merchant was featured on G.Round, allowing members to playtest and submit feedback. We have gathered a great deal of useful feedback moving forward, so we'd like to give a big thanks to everyone at G.Round!

We have also just finished a round of closed alpha playtesting as well, gathering additional useful feedback for development. Thank you to all playtesters who have signed up and submitted your feedback! There will be more playtest sessions in the near future (with new playtesters invited) so stay tuned for the news!


From all the feedback gathered, we will prioritise making significant improvements to the following systems:

• Combat system
  
• Wilderness system
  
• Settlement buildings, interactions, and NPCs

Along with other improvements and updates in the coming months, we will continue to playtest and gather feedback before moving on to more content development.

While the game has definitely taken longer to develop and release than initially planned, it is all for the sake of bringing the best experience possible at launch.

I would like to give a big thanks to everyone who has been following the development of Ten Thousand Coins: The Golden Merchant! I truly appreciate all of your support and patience.

Look forward to continued updates and improvements, and the eventual announcement of our release date!

Until next time,
Cynthia

If you're interested in joining alpha/beta tests and haven't signed up, sign up here[www.tenthousandcoins.com] to our mailing list for the latest news and a chance to be an Alpha/Beta tester for future builds!

Follow us on Twitter Instagram [www.instagram.com] if you would like to preview all of the latest development news!

Game System

• System Update - Company Building
  
• System Update - Company Upgrades
  
• System Update - Combat System

Art and Content

• Content Update - Narrative
  
• Art Update - Wilderness Environment Art
  
• Bug Fixes

With this build, we have updated Company Mode, specifically how upgrades are handled and what they look like.

Upgrades to your build are made by paying the upgrade cost for each separate room of the building, renovating it step by step, and you will receive rewards and boosts with each upgrade.

Seeing your company building rebuild bit by bit with your hard work is the goal we aim to achieve with this update, and we will continue to improve and expand on this mode.


Combat has been adjusted slightly to move the quick-time event as a bonus damage event instead of a requirement when throwing goods.

Combat will continue to be one system we'll look to adjust and refine according to player feedback.

Wilderness movement environment animation has also been improved.


With a lot currently happening behind the scenes this month (which may lead to some good news soon), we have decided to delay our alpha test this month very slightly to the now-confirmed date of the 4th of November.

Minor Update (4th of Nov): There's been a slight delay on Steam's end as we are setting up the playtest version of our game. It might take a few extra days for everything to be ready. Thanks for your patience.

If you've been chosen as a tester, we will email you your alpha Steam keys so keep an eye out!

For those not yet chosen, we plan on having many more tests in the near future as we introduce more and more testers to each playtest round!

If you're interested in joining alpha/beta tests and haven't signed up, sign up here[www.tenthousandcoins.com] to our mailing list for the latest news and a chance to be an Alpha/Beta tester for future builds!

Follow us on Twitter Instagram [www.instagram.com] if you would like to preview all of the latest development news!

Until next time,
Cynthia

We have a big alpha playtest planned for later in October November 2023. (Update: see next post for details)

New gameplay features, as well as the Company Mode (not featured in the Demo), will be playable in this upcoming build for feedback!

The first 50 participants to complete this short questionnaire will be guaranteed a playtest Steam key for Ten Thousand Coins: The Golden Merchant! 

Get Your Key Here[forms.gle]

Your name can also be added to the game credits as a game tester (if you wish to)!

Your key will be sent to you by email once the upcoming Alpha test starts (later in October)! Your key will work for all future playtests as well!

If we exceed 50 responses, don't worry, we will keep the emails of those after 50 and put them on the top of our list for any upcoming playtests (which we will roll out regularly).

Wishlist and Follow our game here on our Steam Page for the announcement of the exact date of this Alpha test later in the month! Also, sign up for our Mailing List[www.tenthousandcoins.com] to be the first to hear any news!

- Cynthia

Our demo is live one more time and will be playable until the end of Sep 22nd!

Improvements once again have been made since our previous demo a month ago!

A big thanks to the organisers of the Game Devs of Color event!