And in the spirit of the season, we’ve added the Replenishing Snowball Box to the basic rewards of all pledge tiers as a holiday gift for our backers. This magical box of 50 snowballs regenerates annually during the holiday season.
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Welcome to this week’s Edition of Update of the Avatar! We have a lot of great information to share about our successful launch of Release 1, plus much more!
Starr Long (Executive Producer) shared his perspective on the Release 1 results in a post on the public forums. Here’s an excerpt:
Greetings Avatars,
Release 1 lasted a short four days but it is having a very lasting impression on all of us. For us it was a chance to bring our loyal backers even closer to the product with hands on experience. For you it was a chance to see what you made happen through your generous pledges. At a more fundamental level Release 1 was a test of this new paradigm of crowd funded and crowd sourced development. That paradigm is about a much more transparent and tighter communication loop between the community and the developers. Nowhere is that more true than with an early test like Release 1. Yes of course it was a test of specific systems like patching, login, character customization, housing, and conversations. At a deeper level it was a test to see if we could give you something so very early in development and have you understand what to expect. We worked on that by being as clear as we could on what to expect, and what not to expect. It seemed to have worked as almost everyone who played understood what they were looking at. This understanding allowed all of you to give us really valuable and accurate feedback that we can act on…
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
It’s been a super exciting week as backers are finally able to log into Release 1 of the game and explore character creation, home decorating, and NPC conversations! Read more about it in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar, which includes:
Release 1 successfully launched yesterday, December 12th, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and exploring the town of Owl’s Head! We need all our backer’s help with stress-testing the servers and testing the game systems, so please join us in playing Release 1.
In this version, you can create an avatar and equip them with different clothing, armor and weapons (scattered throughout town in chests). You can also select a house from the entire list of player houses, even the vast Lord of the Manor estate.There are chests of furniture and decorations all over Owl’s Head for you to pick up and outfit your newly established homes. You will also be able to try out the dialogue system by conversing with NPCs.
[Note: This early release is single player online only. Release 1 access will end on Saturday, December 14 at 10:00 PM Central Time]
Hurry and join us in playing Shroud of the Avatar while Release 1 access is open! (click here for more complete instructions on downloading and playing Release 1)
This week we’re featuring the next installment of the Spoony interview/roast of Lord British! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
British hates the little children.
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for being a loyal backer of Shroud of the Avatar. Early access for all backers at First Responder / Adventurer level and above begins with Release 1 tomorrow, Thursday December 12 at 10:30 AM Central Time. Release 1 access will end on Saturday December 14 at 10:00 PM Central Time. Starting today you can begin installing and patching (see instructions below) but login will not be enabled until Thursday morning.
We are happy to say that we are going to deliver just about every single Release 1 item (except for head shapes in character creation). Here are those deliverables again (along with a few extra notes about each): Read more…
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
Chapter 1 of the serialized SotA novel, Blade of the Avatar (BotA), written by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott, is now available for download! If you are an Early Founder, or you purchased BotA in the Add-On Store, then you will find a download link for the current installment of the novel on your personal SotA account page (log into SotA website and click on “Account” in the top-right corner). If you are a Kickstarter backer you’ll need to have your Kickstarter account linked to the SotA website (click here for instructions to link your Kickstarter account).
Here is a brief excerpt of Chapter 1 (illustration by Denis Loubet, renowned Ultima artist):
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Welcome to this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar. Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday we’re publishing the update early this week. Lot’s of great stuff to share, including the first installment of the SotA novel by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott, and some awesome Black Friday weekend promotions!
The first installment of the serialized SotA novel, Blade of the Avatar (BotA), written by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott, is now available for download! Digital version of BotA is included as an Early Founder reward at all pledge levels $25 or higher, and is also available in the Add-On Store for everyone. Early Founders can download the first installment at the new Early Founder Rewards area in the community forums (accessible to Early Founders only; Early Founders are backers that pledged any amount by May 20, 2013). If you are a Kickstarter backer you’ll need to have your Kickstarter account linked to the SotA website (click here for instructions to link your Kickstarter account).
If you purchased BotA in the Add-On Store, then you will find a download link for the first installment on your personal SotA account page (log into SotA website and click on “Account” in the top-right corner).
This installment consists of the Prologue. Here is a brief excerpt (illustration by Denis Loubet, renowned Ultima artist):
On Monday November 25th from 5-9pm EST, Space Bards will be streaming a live musical event entitled “Neon Shroud of the Telethon”, created specifically for the Shroud of the Avatar game community to help fund the kickstarter for their upcoming album “Neon Milk.”
During the live-stream there will be unique Shroud of the Avatar related pledge rewards and stretch goals, live musical performances, raffle prizes on the hour, mp3 giveaways, and open community discussions about bards and music within the game.
The event will feature special guests Chris Spears and Starr Long of Portalarium, Hearth of Britannia Founder Joseph “Rustic Dragon” Toschlog, Grandmaster Bard Holt Ironfell of Poets’ Circle, Stile Teckel of The Caverns, Steven J Goldman of Four Legs Records, and more – including Shroud of the Avatar creator and astronaut Richard “Lord British” Garriott!
During the telethon, the Space Bards will also be unveiling some original tunes they have composed for consideration in the game.
The live stream will available on www.spacebards.com on November 25th at 5pm Eastern Standard Time.
You can sneak a peek at the Space Bard’s kickstarter page for “Neon Milk” here: Space Bards Kickstarter