Updates

Update of the Avatar #68 – 04/11/14: Anniversary Recap, New Asset Pack, More Basements, Duke & Baron Crowns, and More!


Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

  • One-Year Anniversary Recap
  • Dev+ House Pack #2
  • Lord of the Manor’s 2-Story Castle Stone Basement
  • Founder Duke Crown
  • Founder Baron 2 & 3 Crown
  • Benefactor Baron Bed
  • Benefactor Tunic
  • Village Stone Arena Basement
  • Castle Stone & Timber Split-Level 5-Story Basement
  • Rustic 2-Story Village Home
  • Wood & Plaster 2-Story with Overhang Village Home
  • Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 17
  • Alienware $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupons and Release 5 Access Keys
  • Upcoming Events

SotA_Campaign1

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! (Did We Happen To Mention “Thank You?”)

The One-Year Anniversary Telethon was an amazing success, raising over $95,000 and setting a new record for post-Kickstarter single-day funding! The day was filled with tons of community interaction, prize giveaways, and the usual zany antics that seem to be a common theme running through SotA Telethons. If you missed the live streams, you can watch the recorded videos here.

Read more…


A Special First Anniversary Community Spotlight!


cheerIt has been an amazing year, and a huge reason for that is because of you, our Community!  And once a month, we shine our Community Spotlight on one of those amazing community members, fan sites, or player groups who make the Shroud of the Avatar Community the best that I’ve had the pleasure of working with. So, as we celebrate our one-year Anniversary, it seemed fitting that we should take another look back at some of our most favorite Community Spotlights!

Our very first Community Spotlight featured one of our favorite fan sites, Forsaken Virtues; and Dame Lori is still one of our favorite Community Leaders!  Not only did she set the bar for what a fan site can be, she created the Runic Font you see everywhere in game!  She is currently re-imagining the Forsaken Virtues site to be more than a news hub, and we can’t wait to see what she comes up!

Read more…


HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!


SotA_Team_HappyAnniversary

 

It is hard to believe that it was one year ago today, April 7th, that we completed our successful Kickstarter campaign! What a fun and tumultuous ride that 30-day campaign was, with all of our Early Founders helping drive us to almost double our funding goal! If it weren’t for all of you, none of us would be here today!

The tremendous support that all of you have shown over the past year has been phenomenal! Not only did you help kickstart Shroud of the Avatar, but throughout the year you have continued to pour your support into the project with your participation in the forums, your crowdsourced art and music, helping enlist new backers, and your ongoing funding support through pledge upgrades. Your passion, commitment, generosity, and sheer love for what we are all building together is the fuel that drives all of us on the dev team on a daily basis!

We started the One-Year Anniversary celebration last week with our one-hour daily Developer Hangouts, leading up to our all-day telethon today, as well as re-opening Release 4 to all our backers, all day today (it’s open now, so jump on in)! You’ll find more details about today’s broadcast schedule and events below.

Read more…





Update of the Avatar #67 – 04/04/14: Too Hot in the Hot Tub, R4 Perspective, Easter Goodies, Duke Castle, Baron Rewards, and More!


Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

  • The Coconut Horse and Too Hot in the Hot Tub!
  • Release 4 Perspectives
  • Duke Castle Home
  • Baron Rewards
  • Easter Goodies
  • Rustic 2-Story with Balcony Village Home
  • Wood & Plaster 2-Story with Great Hall Village Home
  • Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 16
  • Alienware R5 Weekend Access Keys and $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupons
  • Upcoming Events
  • This Week In The News
  • Only 3 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

The Coconut Horse and Too Hot in the Hot Tub!

SotA_CoconutHorseIt all started innocently enough with the question “Should we do anything for April Fool’s?” That simple question spun out to an incredibly fun and elaborate “not” prank where we made real stuff then pretended it was real, but fake at the same time. We wanted everyone to wonder for several days if we were pranking them for April Fool’s or if the items were real. It was meant to be the ultimate head fake, where at the end (which is now) we could reveal that it was in fact all real, and not a prank. We went so far as to create a new movement mode in the game that is activated by equipping items. In this case it was coconuts that would trigger a skipping animation. This is a real system that we can expand later. We also built the hot tub. The story was that the coconut horse was to be a thank you for the fundraising and the 1-Year Anniversary gift while the hot tub was to be an Add-On Store item.

We realized if we announced an Add-On Store item, but didn’t actually put it in the Add-On Store, that you would all almost immediately realize it was a prank. So we put it in the Add-On Store as a limited quantity and marked it sold out, before the update even went out! The update also went out very late in the day on April 1st whereas most April Fools pranks occur early in the day. It went out so late that most our European backers didn’t even see it until April 2nd.
SotA_HotTub_thumb
When it went out, we got lots of complaints about not being able to buy the hot tub. Complaints ranged from “I was at work!” or “My username starts with an “L” so I was too far down the mailing list to get it in time.” Some folks seemed truly angry about the hot tub being sold out before they got to buy one. Darkstarr, being the Lord of Chaos, reveled in this pandemonium. The team heard Starr yelling things like “I feast on their outrage!” or “My chaotic powers grow with each complaint!” We continued to poke at this prank by mentioning the hot tub when we launched the Add-On Store Credit Conversion, as well as during our video hangouts.

With this update, we can reveal that this was an April Fool’s prank, but not really, because both the coconut horse and the hot tub are real! There is now an unlimited supply of Ye Olde Hot Tubs available in the Add-On Store, and we’ve added the Coconut Horse as a basic reward for all SotA backers!

Thank you all for having a sense of humor about the entire thing.

Read more…