Answers from the Developers

October 2021

The Bitcraft developers are active on the official BitCraft Discord server and often answer community questions. To join the conversation and to read new answers first, join https://discord.gg/bitcraft

When is the Pre-Alpha starting?
When will invites go out?
Have invites gone out already?

No invites have gone out yet. We plan to send invites for the first wave of Pre-Alpha testing before the end of this year. We will make an announcement before the first wave of invites goes out.

How many players will be invited into pre-alpha?

During the Pre-Alpha, we are looking to gather first impression feedback. We plan to invite Pre-Alpha testers in several waves over a prolonged period while addressing earlier feedback. We will continue testing for as long as we need until we have enough information to continue game development in the right direction.

This makes it naturally hard to estimate total participants for the Pre-Alpha, so we can’t provide a fixed number.

We’re incredibly motivated by all of your enthusiasm, but please keep in mind that the purpose of the Pre-Alpha is to test technology and game mechanics. It’s not an early release of the game. It won’t be nearly as good as the final version, and no one will have a heads start.

We will do our best to get the game into your hands as soon as we are able!

Will people be allowed to stream the Pre-Alpha if accepted in?
Will testing phases be under NDA?

The Pre-Alpha is for testing technology, new-player experience, and game features. Since we plan to bring in several waves of players, we need future waves of testers to be as unbiased as possible to gather authentic initial feedback, we cannot allow the sharing of testers experiences with the public.

We will however run many tests later in the development cycle where streamers and other creators are welcome to share their experience.

Will the world be filled with real world animals (i.e. deer, cow, wolf, etc), or will it have more fantastical creatures?

Currently you’ll find the world of BitCraft filled with familiar creatures (of the kind you list), but who knows what sort of effect the mysterious forces of BitCraft may have on the flora and fauna of the world!

Will there be some sort of NPC management system? Like a personal vendor or guards?

There are currently no plans for NPC management. While there are NPCs in BitCraft, they act primarily as connections to the game’s lore or as challenges for players to face such as creatures. All roles in society are designed to be filled by other players, be it guards or shopkeepers.

As with all things, this is subject to change, but that’s what we’re trying for.

Does the game have a heavy level of grinding?

BitCraft is designed around creating long-term progression for players. It’s one of the key things that distinguishes it from a game like Minecraft.

We, of course, focus on designing content to be fun, new, and interesting, but there is some grind. The actual amount will depend on your playstyle. Becoming a true master of your craft will definitely take a while. However, if you plan to become a successful merchant you probably just need to be good with numbers. If you want to lead a city be sure to brush up on your social skills.

Will there be some kind of pet/companion? In this artstyle i think it could be really cool

We feel similarly! We love pets too! But given the development stage, it’s too early to talk about exact details.

If I have a group of friends of around 8 would we all be able to start in the same general area and build our town together?

Will new players spawn only in the newer areas? With no fast travel, eventually inviting friends will be problematic if they have a huge journey to get from their spawn point to their friends.

We can’t share all the details on this at the moment, but we strongly believe it’s important for groups of players going into BitCraft to be able to play together as soon as possible without having to do some arduous journey to their friends. We also don’t want players to have to play for hours just to be able to get to the part where they can play with their friends. I would point you to our FAQ which says “This will not be the kind of world where you can teleport wherever you want.” This is not necessarily the exact same as “no fast travel”, although it does embody that spirit.

We have several plans to address this and we’ll need to experiment to get it right.

Will there be a way to terraform the map?

Yes, of course! You should be able to play in the sand if you’re in a sandbox, but it will be limited and/or time consuming to guarantee it will not negatively impact other players. Since this gets into our anti-griefing measures, it’s probably worth a game design blog post in the future!

Will we be able to implement custom designs such as logos and flags for our civilizations in-game? I know there are various reasons not to allow that but I’m hoping it can be implemented somehow to represent empires.

We would love empires, towns, and civilizations to be able to show their identity in the world of BitCraft as well as directly on the world map. What good is an empire if you can’t see it sprawl across a map! It’s too early to commit to details on this yet, but we’ll definitely be trying to make it work.

Will older players’ civilizations show up as ruins to stumble across when they move on or quit playing? I very much look forward to seeing old relics that were once used by other groups.

This is a great question and it also gets into some of the game design surrounding dealing with player churn and making sure the world cleans itself up. We don’t want the world to turn into a wasteland or to have garbage strewn around everywhere so the game has mechanics to remove this type of thing over time (just like the real world). I think this will be the topic of a future game design post.

To answer your question though, yes, we’d love to have this kind of thing. You should also be able to salvage resources from long since abandoned cities and buildings.

Will there be like coordinates or a map or something so you can find your home easily again and not get lost maybe if you went too far?

Yes! BitCraft will have a world map that you will uncover as you explore the world. There is a coordinate system in the game as well, with markers on the map. Your home will always be marked for you.

Will there be a global auction house or local markets throughout the world?

Our vision for BitCraft is to have as much of the game world as is reasonably player driven. Part of that vision is to have the markets be run and administered by players. This precludes a global auction house. We also believe that local price differentials and transportation logistics add a level of depth to the gameplay surrounding trading and the in-game economy. Therefore players will need to move goods from where they are abundant to where they are desired and buy/sell locally. Of course players can agree on a de facto set of cities as the designated trading hubs, but that’s up to them!

Is there protection against griefing and raiding or is that style of play expected?

We do not endorse or allow intentional grief play. No one should be able to destroy your farm or take your items if you don’t want them to. BitCraft is not focused on PvP so many traditional methods of being a pest to other players will not be available. Should any game mechanic turn out to be abused with the goal of spoiling the fun for other players, we will take appropriate actions.

This does not mean there will be no competition in BitCraft, just that direct griefing is not allowed. The details of how you can achieve a grief-free environment in a sandbox world are really important, so we’ll likely do a longer form game design post on this topic.

Will there be seasonal events?

We’re also excited about the kinds of events that we can do in a long running MMORPG and we’ll be revealing more info closer to launch! Although we don’t have much implemented in the way of events in the current game, there’s lots of things you can imagine though, from weather events and actual seasons to treasure hunting events and unearthing of ancient creations.

What will the minimum PC requirements be to be able to play?

Unfortunately, since the game is still in development we can’t provide exact requirements. That being said, we’ve specifically used a graphical style that will allow us to target lower end devices while still being absolutely beautiful. BitCraft will eventually be a cross-platform game, so we intend for BitCraft to even be playable on phones. If it runs on mobile then you can expect that eventually basically every PC or laptop should be able to run the game. We want BitCraft to be able to run on your potato.

Can we catch animals in the wild and then tame them as our pets or mounts?

In the current version of the game taming wild animals is not implemented, but we’re also excited by this idea and would like to add it if we can make it work well with the game’s design. In principle there’s nothing stopping us except a long list of things we need to get to first. Basically, no promises but boy we would sure like to.

Is it going to be on Steam?

We have not made a decision on how exactly we want to make BitCraft available at launch. Also, how we distribute the Pre-Alpha may be different from how we distribute it at launch.

Will there be fantasy like biomes? Like a glowing forest or floating islands?

There is currently no glowing fantasy biome in the making but it sounds like a cool idea. If it fits in with the lore, maybe there will be in the future.

What happens when your character dies?

This is, like many things, subject to change as we balance the game and overall experience. Currently players can bind to a resting place (bed, tent, campsite), and will respawn there if faced with untimely demise. You do not currently drop any items.

It might be helpful to provide some info on our general philosophy on how death should be treated in BitCraft. First, we don’t want the game to be so hard-core that casual players that make a simple mistake lose all their progress. So for example, there will be no perma-death. It should not be possible to lose your character or your stats. Second, we don’t want death to be abusable (e.g New World suicide teleporting). Temporary penalties for dying can help cut down on this. Third, you should never permanently lose items or gear upon death, with the possible exception of opt-in situations where you consciously make a decision to take the risk. We also don’t want you to have to opt-in to that kind of thing in order to progress in the game. It should be completely optional.

So I ask, will there be any methods to personalize or customize a merchant’s business identity, to diversify one merchant player from another?
(I.e. Customizing stationary-shop decor, Creating/Customizing banners for a merchant’s shop/business, or customizing item-shop HUDs )

It’s too early to answer this one, but I will say I hear you. If we can make this work in some fashion we will. User created images are trickier than other options because they require additional moderation, but not impossible. There’s still a lot to be tested with regards to how business and merchanting is carried out within the world as well.

Will playable instruments be a thing or planned to be? If they are will people be able to play them manually or using MIDI files?

The first game that I saw this in was LOTRO and it was very very cool. I would love to do this, but we’ll have to get through the todo list first!