Hail, Elyrians!
Like the Savannah after the rains, our land is beginning to sprout with new life. The team continues to grow and development progress is steady. As the season continues, you will see the landscape fill with new announcements, videos, designs, and technology--sustenance for you and your young!
The team is focused on the playable demo for PAX East, which is ultimately a subset of things that will be available in the Prologue. As a general rule, our work style can be described as doing the right things in the right order so as to reduce rework. It's no secret that we are a relatively small team for what is typical for this kind of undertaking, so it's essential that we work smart. It doesn't always net visible progress but, much like a snowball rolling downhill, it will begin to gain mass and pick up speed as we roll along!
Some of the aspects we've been working on are difficult to show. Rather, they should be experienced, such as the sound of your footsteps on different types of terrain, ambient noises while in town or out in the wilderness, the way it feels to move around, the speed of your run, the height of your jump, how heavy you feel when you land, etc. It's been a while since we did a video, so we'll get some in the pipeline soon so we can share at least some of that kind of thing. Something else that is in progress, but without an obvious way to show it, is our integration with SpatialOS. We are crafting an online game and we are building our foundations now. The Prologue will be offline, so the first chance to see this in action will be when Kingdoms of Elyria and ElyriaMUD are released. It's happening though, I assure you!
However, we are making visible progress in other areas and here are some juicy screenshots from our end-of-sprint playthroughs. Somehow the environment is more beautiful than ever...
The mountains peek through the trees, calling to Andry
Andry comes across an abandoned cabin in the woods
Andry finds the cabin is in good repair and its windows intact
After a short rest, Andry sets off toward the mountains
As the elevation increases, so changes the flora
After a long while, Andry crests a great hill and finds the mountains still far off
Haelgror prepares to return from his delivery in Silver Run
Haelgror comes across an interesting outcropping of rocks
Haelgror turns back to admire the mountains where Silver Run is nestled
The forest is peaceful and quiet as Haelgror hikes
Keveth heads to market to barter and resupply
Keveth passes through Silver Run the next day
Pirthieria enjoys the mountain air from her deck in Silver Run
Joining the team now as our Lead Programmer is Steve ‘Cynax’ Hoelle--a programmer with a dozen years of experience on a variety of MMORPGs and online games. He’s worked on Star Wars: The Old Republic, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, as well as some lesser known and cancelled projects including Strife, Imperium: Galactic War, and Dark Millennium Online. Steve’s hobbies include tabletop RPGs, reading every fantasy fiction book ever written, and being a star country singer in his car. Steve likes to imagine he is a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus. During debugging sessions you might overhear him muttering about machine spirits and belief-based programming rituals. We are extremely excited to bring him into the fold! He has dramatically increased the studio's collective stats for Positivity and Sarcasm, as well as fixed some bugs that have plagued us for a while...all in his first week!
We retired our stretch goals at the end of 2016 so that we actually have the time to include everything by launch. That's not to say that some things won't show up after launch, such as Mounted Combat. Earlier this month we hit $2 million and many folks on the forums were wondering about the fate of the Dig/Bury/Sensory Map stretch goal. I'm pleased that I can share that we fully intend to include the Dig/Bury feature at launch, even though the goal wasn't hit by the deadline. Now, hiding things underground is one thing, but the Sensory Map is a whole other beast, so it won't be included as a part of that system. I think we can all agree that a system for burying something is a lot easier to conceptualize than how to create a visual analog to taste, touch, temperature, orientation, and overall body awareness, so this should not be a surprise. The surprise is that, regardless, you'll get the Dig/Bury feature!
We ended the Elyria on Earth contest last week and we had a great time going through all the entries. In case you missed it, the announcement of the winners can be found here. Take a gander and give some hearts and retweets if you are so inclined. I'm sure everyone would appreciate a little appreciation!
Okay, so I already included a bunch of screenshots in this update, but I have more and I have to share them or I'll burst!!!
Whew! I feel better.
It's already been two weeks since I announced the next Live Q&A. That may as well be a lifetime ago when one is hustling and bustling like we are. So, partially because I can't believe how fast time is flying and partially in case it slipped your mind too, the Settlements Q&A is tomorrow! Join us on our Twitch.tv channel tomorrow, Thursday, January 26th at 12pm PST / 3pm EST / 8pm GMT to learn about Settlements in Chronicles of Elyria!
Caspian and Jason “Death” Welter will be answering your questions in a live Q&A stream that will be at least 1 hour. The questions in question are coming from this reddit thread, so head on over and upvote your favorites!
There have been some design journals that have touched on elements of settlements before in different ways. They are here, here, and here. Check them out ahead of time so you can be well-informed!
For those who miss it, the recording will be watchable on Twitch.tv for a limited time afterward and on our YouTube channel forever. So even if you can’t make the live session, your question from reddit may still be answered.
Please follow these rules when posting questions for the Q&A.
Don't forget, many of the most common questions about CoE can be answered by reading over our design journals. If you're new to CoE, there is a wealth of information to begin with there.
We hope to see you Thursday, January 26th at 12pm PST / 3pm EST / 8pm GMT!
Pledged to Your Continued Adventures in Life, Both Actual and Fantasy,
Vye
