So You've Starved to Death...

Starving to Death is one of those hilarious risks that comes along with playing a game like Brunelleschi. This may sound ridiculous. You're thinking 'This is a web game. It can't possibly be so serious as to have starvation built right into the mechanics'. Wrong, we say! Food is a major part of a) Life, b) the Renaissance and c) Gameplay in Brunelleschi.

Players Must Eat

While the previous post on Eating and Nutrition outlined the available bonuses Players can gain by choosing to eat food-items, there's a dark underside. After Lvl 50, your characters lose their noob-protection and begin to lose health with every meal-cycle that they do not eat *something*. However, what they eat doesn't really matter. There are many options for food-items and most are cheap and easy to acquire. Before Lvl 150, wilderness actions will be sufficient to provide you with basic sustenance. After that, players will have to rely on district actions and the market to provide their foodstuffs.

Food Sources

Easy foods include Grain, Herbs, Produce, Fish, Mollusks, Oysters, Game, Livestock and Fledglings. These can be gained with basic Wilderness and early District actions. Higher value, and thus more challenging to acquire foods include Meat, Fillets, Bread, Groceries, Beer, Wine, Grapes, Olives, Oil, and Tinctures. These either must be processed through buildings or gathered from higher ranking districts/buildings. Some classes eventually get special actions that may provide foodstuffs, such as the Ritual of Plenty for casters.

So You Starved Anyway...

Maybe you didn't know about starvation. More likely, you just wandered away from your character and forgot they'd eventually need more food added to their storage. This happens to me (the primary tester) all the time. I come back from a week of other tasks to find a whole batch of dead test characters. What to do? You have two options. The first is easy. Click your portrait, take the Death Point and come back to life on the cheap. Non-Hardcore characters will feel a little fuzzy after this return from the dead, but the effects will fade relatively quickly and you can return to normal play. Hardcore characters of course must live with this death point forever, building to their eventual final death, but get to skip the negative effects. Alternately, you can find a Secondary Clergy character above Lvl 200 who can perform the Resurrection action. This will bring you back to life without a death point or that post-death malaise, but it costs them precious action and magic points. Be ready to pay whatever your healer requires.

How To Not Starve Again

There are a couple good ways to make sure your character's belly stays survivable full, if you remember to plan ahead. Brune already includes 'inactive' and 'vacation' states for your character, in order to stave off any and all negative effects that come from leaving your game un-played for a specified amount of time. On the other hand, if you don't want to worry about it, or pay Platinum for vacation mode, or just plain can't predict when you'll be able to play, you can always stock up on Grain. Leave your character's inventory full to overflowing with some cheap foodstuff. Sell it off if you need room for other stuff and let your character eat from 'the pantry' until you come back. Just keep apprised of how quickly they eat, and how many days of food you have stored. It only takes a few clicks to refill your storage with Grain, so keeping your character alive may only take two minutes every week or so.

Brunelleschi at Power of Play!

Brunelleschi is going to Power of Play! For those who don't already know, Power of Play is an indie-game convention going on in Bellevue (East of Seattle) tomorrow and the day after. Many great indie-games are being featured in the 2016 Indie Expo and we at Aesop Games are proud to present Brunelleschi among them.

Aesop Games has recently gained the delightful company of a Community Manager, Angel Parker, who among other useful duties has been working hard to prepare for this event. She and our Lead Programmer, Margaret Staples, will be manning our booth during the two days Power of Play will be running,. Any readers who will be attending the conference, make sure to say "Hi" when you see them. Both ladies are very friendly and are ready to trade jokes and business cards.

Unfamiliar with Brune? Margaret has started a video series to explain how to get started with a new character and settle into the wide world of Brune. In the most recent video we follow the adventures of Sir Dudely as he decides on a home settlement, rents a room, and becomes a librarian.

Brunelleschi is also developing clients for both Mobile and larger scale 3D representation. A demo of the Moblie client is currently available in the Play store, with a special reward for those adventurous players who actually open the app. And I don't just mean the spinny-cube featured in the main-menu.

Go to these events for the swag? Angel has arranged a Brunelleschi T-Shirt Drawing so you too can be represented by the alluring portrait of the Oracle hero. This fierce warrior mage is an even balance between spell casting and weapon skill. While her grace and finesse for management may be lacking, she can murder you in several distinct and dangerous styles. 

Since it starts tomorrow, you might assume it's too late to sign up to attend Power of Play. This is not so! There are still several ways to get into this great conference. As supporters of the industry, Power of Play offers a finite (but not yet gone) number of Indie discount tickets, so register ASAP if you've got a game out or in the works. Everyone else can get their tickets at the door, and students can get a discount if they register before arrival. Just want to come for the Game Demos and eSports? Buy a Saturday Play Pass and skip all that inner-industry stuff. Children are welcome.

So come see us at the event or send your support with views, tweets and mentions! Before you go, have some pretty pictures of the 3D client.

See you at Power of Play!