Dear Backers and Members of the Chronicles of Elyria Community,
I know it’s been a long time since any public news has come out of Soulbound Studios, so while today’s announcement is focused on upcoming website changes, I want to take a moment to get everyone caught up.
Development on Chronicles of Elyria and its pre-Alpha experiences, including Kingdoms of Elyria, has been progressing steadily behind the scenes. Updates in the Early Access channel on our official Discord have become more frequent and detailed, with some days seeing multiple updates. I've also hosted live Q&A sessions with Early Access and Alpha 1 backers, live-streamed parts of my development process, and posted check-in submissions of the work I've been doing. Things are rapidly moving forward, and I'm excited that some backers will be diving into new testing experiences early next year.
With that overview out of the way, let's dive into today's news.
Starting this Thursday, over the the next four weeks (estimated), I'll be rolling out updates to the backend of the ChroniclesOfElyria.com website. These updates will introduce new features, enhance security, and ensure compliance with updated guidelines and legislation around online purchasing and privacy. Here's a breakdown of the four planned deployments:
The first deployment focuses on re-releasing the website's home page and game information pages using the new backend. This update will streamline operations, reduce hosting costs, and give me the opportunity to audit and maintain user accounts between deployments.
What to Expect:
This is a temporary measure, and full functionality will be restored in subsequent deployments.
The second deployment will restore account management features, enhance security, and re-enable access to transaction histories. Key updates include:
To further increase security and enable the studio to validate and protect your accounts from social engineering attacks, etc., the following new security policies will be rolled out and require a one-time interaction from all users.
New Security Policies:
All accounts will be marked as "unverified" and will need to re-verify their email addresses to access interactive features. Verification emails will come from [email protected]. Accounts that remain unverified on April 1, 2025, will only receive emails once verified.
Before accessing interactive features, users must set up mandatory 2FA (2-Factor Authentication). Additionally, the website will now require login confirmation via email or authenticator from unrecognized devices and browsers.
Accounts with pledge packages but no purchase history will be marked as "inactive" until verified and 2FA-enabled. Inactive accounts won't receive private messages from other users and can't be the target of any of the website's interactive features.
Accounts with no purchases or inventory must re-verify by April 1, 2025, or they will automatically be deleted.
For now, account registration will remain disabled until it makes sense to re-open it.
The third deployment will focus on restoring communication and community engagement. This includes restoring access to the website messaging system, the forums, News & Developer journals, and an expanded media section.
Unlike before, the forums and developer journals will now require login access, while the news feed will remain publicly accessible.
Some content previously categorized as "News" will now be marked as "Developer Journal," and vice versa, shifting some materials to account holders only. This change allows me to focus exclusively on the backers while informing the broader community of important news.
The fourth and final planned deployment will reintroduce tools for managing account-wide and in-game items. This includes:
While this work is essential, please know that I don't see website updates as taking priority over game development. These changes are necessary steps to prepare for upcoming playtests, improve security, and ensure compliance with regulations so we can continue moving forward effectively.
There's been a lot happening in the Early Access channel, and this is just the first of a couple of public updates I'll be sharing before the end of the year. Thank you for your continued support and patience as we take these steps together!
Pledged to the Continued Development of the Soulborn Engine and the Chronicles of Elyria,
Caspian
