More cool stuff to share with you this update, including Geoff Mellon’s revamping of the male avatar outfit, Bren Wilson putting some moves on the avatar attacks, the Edelmann House Poll, Tracy Hickman’s awesome Sojourner Tales Kickstarter campaign, and changes to how project updates are being shared.
Bren Wilson (animator) has been hard at work adding more animations to our latest male avatar! Here is a video of his new axe attack animation:
Greetings Fellow Avatars! Welcome to the Village Home Edition of Update of the Avatar! We’ve been working on several village-level homes, including the homes that are part of the Benefactor and Founder Citizen Pledge rewards. Please keep in mind that these homes are still “works-in-progress” and are being modified and tweaked as we receive feedback. So please, log in to our forums and let us know your opinions!
Let’s start our Parade of Homes with one of our most affordable village homes, which will be available to all players, backers and non-backers alike. It is a single room, single story dwelling, that we currently refer to as the Shingle-Roof Village Home:
Here is an interior shot of the Shingle-Roof village home, without any decorations:
We have several exciting topics to cover this update, including a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of our first female avatar, the female ranger concept art, the first Challenge of the Avatar (with over $10,000 in rewards), The Double Down on Community Mission, the new Recruit-a-Friend Reward Program, the Hearth of Britannia Telethon, and a survey for the clothing style you’d like to see in Shroud of the Avatar! So, let’s get started!
Since the update on the female avatar is a few sections down, we thought you might enjoy these teaser videos to hold you over until you read that far:
We are eternally grateful to you, our amazing community, that have pledged so much support, and are contributing in so many direct ways to help us make this game great! Some have asked why we are continuing to do fundraising and why we are spending time on “special rewards”, wondering if this was delaying core game features.
Greetings SotA Backers! We’re making history this month by being one of the first (if not the first) game developer/publishers to make game assets available to other developers for use in their own games, before the release of our own game! Traditionally, most big publishers would never allow the public release, or use, of game assets before, during, or after a game launches, for fear it would impact their sales or IP value. We believe just the opposite! We believe that by pre-releasing game assets for other creator/developers to use we will increase our own game’s success, while helping our fellow developers at the same time!
We first wrote about crowdsharing our game assets in SotA Update #21 (Apr 3):
Our first game assets for crowdsharing is the Dungeon Kit used for the prototype we demonstrated during the RoosterTeeth eXpo earlier this month. Check out this Dungeon Kit video that our very own Tech Director Chris Spears put together (the video starts playing in the final minute to showcase the finished look of the assets; Reset the 6-minute video to the beginning for a more complete walkthru of the assets and how to use them in Unity):
View Dungeon Kit Video on YouTube
If you pledged at Developer level or higher ($400+), you can visit the Developer+ Depot to immediately download your Dungeon Kit.
There is still time to upgrade your pledge to Developer+ and receive these FREE Asset kits which can be used in your own personal or professional Unity projects. There will be more kits coming, so it’s a great way to get your hands on some GREAT assets!
We’re looking for dungeons that could potentially be used in some fashion in SotA, so we’d love to see the dungeons you create with our Dungeon Kit! Here is the link where you can submit your work: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1278170/Shroud-of-the-Avatar-Crowd-Sourcing.
Check out these Dungeon Kit testimonials from some of our Dev+ Backers:
Over a hundred Dev+ Backers downloaded the Dungeon Kit in the first couple of days, which required them to complete a short survey. In answer to the question “How likely are you to use the assets?” a staggering 80% stated they plan to use the assets in some way, with 46% stating they wish to make content for SotA!
In response to the question “What kind of assets are you most interested in seeing going forward?” there was an almost equal split between Dungeon Kits, Characters/Creatures, and Houses/Decorations, with Code systems trailing the pack:
Some of the game assets available to Dev+ Backers will also be made available to the general public in the Unity Asset Store. The Dungeon Kit has been submitted to the Unity Asset Store and is awaiting their approval. Look for it in the store sometime this week (Category “3D Models:Environments:Dunegons”)!
If you don’t already have Unity, you can download a free Windows version. Once you have Unity installed, Chris Spears recommends watching this Unity tutorial video, Part 1 and Part 2.
Our own Dungeon Master Bill Kirkman (level designer) put together this Google doc that provides tips for planning your dungeon layout and scene editing, as well as a “Unity Editor How To Mini-Guide“
There is also a great thread going on the Developer+ Forums where community members are providing more tips and tricks for using the SotA Dungeon Kit assets.
As reported in previous updates, we celebrated Starr Long joining the SotA team by memorializing his Darkstarr online persona with some cool, in-game stuff, most notably the Darkstarr Moondial and Darkstarr Metronome!
These exclusive Darkstarr rewards are only available thru July 31st (less than 3 days)!. The Darkstarr Moondial is included in the Citizen Pledge Tier and the Darkstarr Metronome is included in the Virtual Collector Pledge Tier, only available to Backers who pledge any amount by July 31, 2013. These items are also available in the new Add-On Store until July 31, 2013.
Checkout Update #34 for in-depth coverage of the inspiration, brainstorming, and collaboration that went into the crafting of the Darkstarr Moondial and Metronome.
Geoff Mellon, one of our character artists (known as Qball on the forums), is running a community collaboration event over on the forums, asking members to post images of the armor/wardrobe types they would like to see in the game. You will have until this Friday, August 2, to post your suggestions, then Richard “Lord British” Garriott will select all the pieces that will go into a survey for our community members to vote on. We will then create concepts inspired by the top 3 winners in each category.
Stay on top of all the latest game development news by registering on our website, https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com. And if you have not already done so, please be sure to Link your Kickstarter Account, so we can ensure that you receive all of your backer rewards as soon as they are ready to roll out!
[This edition of Update of the Avatar written by Dallas Snell, COO/Executive Producer]
As reported in Update #32, in celebration of Starr Long joining the SotA Dev Team, we are memorializing his Darkstarr online persona with some cool, in-game stuff! This special update showcases some of those items!
The Darkstarr Moondial is an in-game, home and yard decoration that will track the heavens both day and night! A very useful invention when planning strategies in-game, as this device lets you explore the mists of Revelations and Prophesy, unveiling astronomical events and revealing bits of lore to astute adventurers. The Darkstarr Moondial is included as a reward at the Citizen level pledge.
Our concept artist, Stephen Daniele (aka caravaggiosWolf on the forums), started a thread in the Community Announcements area of the Forums, tracking the work-in-progress of the moondial. It is a popular thread, already at 6 pages long and growing!
Note: For the sake of brevity in the Demo, travel shortcuts were used to expedite our movement from area to area. Also, combat, lighting and SFX are still in a prototype stage and not fully implemented in this demonstration.
We are extremely excited to announce that Starr Long (known to some of you by his online personas of Lord Blackthorn or Darkstarr) is joining the Shroud of the Avatar team! Here is the full press release that was issued today:
AUSTIN, Texas, July 5, 2013 — The last time Starr Long and Richard Garriott teamed up to create a fantasy role playing game (RPG) was 1997. That game, Ultima Online, quickly became the first commercially successful massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) and many credit the duo with reinventing the RPG with that ground breaking product. Now Garriott and Long are preparing for yet another collaboration to reinvent the genre, this time on Portalarium’s™ Shroud of the Avatar™ PC based game. Starr Long was announced today as the project’s executive producer.