Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since the last update, but I’ve been busy bringing you whole new systems to explore, test, and enjoy. 

This milestone marks a big step in Nix, The Last Songborn, bringing the world to life with our first interactable NPC, a new explorable region, and the first creature with semi-autonomous behavior. Behind the scenes, this update lays down powerful new systems for dialogue, memory, and living world logic. Let’s dive in:

Prototype Build V0.1.5 – Fixes & Updates

New Content:

• Pacorn, the Campfire Watcher
  Our very first NPC, Pacorn, now sits by the campfire, offering warm greetings when Nix passes by. Pacorn uses the same animation rig as Nix, complete with multi-layered, synchronized animators: one for their expressive face, and another for full-body gestures — allowing subtle emotional nuance even mid-conversation.

• Dialog System – First Iteration
  A rich new dialog system is now in place, powering Pacorn's interactions and paving the way for future storytelling. It includes:
  • Global Memory. The world now remembers. Things like "First time meeting Pacorn", "Has visited the bridge", or "Time of Day" are tracked and used to shape how characters speak and behave. These facts are stored and managed based on scope:
    • Dialog: reset at the end of a dialog sequence
    • Scene: persists as long as the scene is active
    • Session: lives across scenes until the game is quit
    • Persistent: saved and reloaded across game sessions
  •  Events and Reactions. The world listens and responds. When something happens — like the player approaching or starting a conversation — that moment can trigger reactions elsewhere, or update memory for future decisions.
  • Dialog Manager. Selects which sequence to play based on memory, time of day, and more.
    • Supports resumable conversations ("Like I was saying about that bridge…") and paused interactions ("We'll talk more about the trees another time.")
    • Future-ready for reputation-based dialogue, where choices and behavior shape how NPCs treat Nix

• Contextual Bark System. NPCs react to the world.
  • Pacorn gets nervous when the bell swings wildly nearby
  • They wishes Nix a good night if they rest at the campfire
  • These lines are chosen based on the player's actions, time, and memory states

• A New Map Area – The Long Meadow
  Taking the path near the campfire now leads to a broad meadow plain.
  • Since this region shifts the direction of exploration, clouds now drift toward the horizon, giving a sense that the world extends far beyond a single path.
  • In the distance, the sun sets in the east, grounding the geography of the world with real directions and a feeling of scale.
  • Right now, it reuse the same assets from the previous areas but in the future new flora and set decorations will be added.

• The First Creature: Mossback Beetle (or Mosby)
  Meet Mosby, a massive but gentle, cow-like pillbug with a garden on its back.
  • These gentle creatures roam the meadow, eating grass and dozing peacefully
    
  • You can ride them across the plain and enjoy the scenery at their pace
  • Built with a hybrid animation system:
    • Legs adapt to terrain and support their own weight (and yours!)
    • Antennas wiggle with the breeze, and the body shifts based on where the legs are planted
    • This lets Mosby climb hills, tilt naturally, and react subtly to movement

• Creatures With Minds of Their Own
  A robust new system for autonomous creature behavior:
  • Behaviors are driven by facts and events, just like the dialog system
    • During the day, Mosby wanders and grazes
    • At night, they search for a cozy undergrowth to rest in
    • If something knocks them out of their sleeping spot, they’ll shuffle back to it
    • In the future, Mosby may call out to friends, investigate interesting sounds, or react to danger
• A Living World – Even When You’re Away
  When you leave and return to the meadow, Mosby and their herd don’t reset to a starting point.
• Instead, they remember where they were and what they were doing and resume from where they left off.
• If significant time has passed (e.g., returning at night after leaving at noon), they initialize with an appropriate state (already sleeping in the undergrowth).
• This creates the feeling that the world continues — with or without you

Note: While Mosby and other creatures are now alive in the world, their systems are still a work in progress. You may notice occasional bugs — like snappy animation transitions, the player floating slightly during creature turns, or Mosby standing still after reloading a scene. These will be smoothed out over time as creature behaviors are refined, animations polished, and new interactions added. Thanks for your patience while the world learns to breathe!

Updates:

• Gameplay Feedback - Screen Shake FX
  To give movement more weight and impact, a subtle screen shake now happens when Nix hits something hard, Lands from a high fall or Takes damage.

We’re setting up the foundations for a world that breathes and shifts even when you're not looking. Soon, creatures will interact with each other, respond to the weather, and form tiny communities.

And of course — more travelers to interact with, more exploration, more weird creatures.

Development will slow down a bit this summer since it's the big season at my day job, but I still have a lot of things in mind to further develop the world of Whisperlight!

Feel free to reach out with thoughts, bug reports, or just to say hi. 
🔥 See you at the next campfire!