Hello people!
May is here, and summer is right around the corner. The team has been starting their work on Act II, and we've been polishing Act I as we go. Hopefully we'll soon be able to share some longer videos, so keep an eye on our Youtube channel if you're not already subscribed! Also, here is an obligatory picture of two of our furry companions during these hard times.
Linus & Oliver can be seen hard at work during most of the day. Sleeping that is.
Community Magic Armor Contest
April's Community Contest is over, and the winner is... Brightwall, by Nortar!
With more than 30% of the total votes, this runic shield will banish the darkness no matter how far deep underground you decide to venture. And with the ability to cast Daylight once per long rest, even magical Darkness won't hinder your party! We want to extend our congratulations to all participants, including of course the four runner ups: Greg W Pola with Armor of Shadows (23%), Jason Broom with Archer's Nightmare (22%), Resy with Cloak of Lightning (14%) and Lathaon with Scales of the Remorhaz (11%). As usual, we will be sending Forum Badges as a reward to all participants - as well as some bonus XP so you can level up and get access to more avatars!
Speaking of armors - even though the winning submission was a shield - here is a quick peek at the new armor icons that you will find in your inventory. We had hoped they would have been ready for the Community Magic Armor Contest, but better late than never!
We apologize but the summer catalogue didn't get approved by the adventurer committee, so no armored swimsuits
Power... Overwhelming!
Let's swap things around a bit this time, and start off with spells instead of finishing with them. Our VFX Artist has been very productive these last few weeks, and we have every intention of sharing her work with you! I present to you Frost Bolt, Guidance and Guiding Bolt!
We also have some more spell icons to share! Have fun finding out what spell each one represents. First one to get them all right get a Forum Title from yours truly!
Speaking of magic... Where did our adventurers end up this time? That's more books than you could read in a lifetime... several lifetimes even. I won't spoil too much about this location, but let's say if you expected Solasta to be all about going around caverns murdering orcs and goblins, Wendy you've got a surprise coming to you.
Caer Cyflen Wasn't Built in a Day - Part 2
Oh boy, more Caer Cyflen. Being the main city of our game, it's very likely that we'll keep polishing it while working on Act II and even beyond. That means you get to see it evolve alongside the development team in our bi-weekly Dev Updates! Hopefully that's something you enjoy, make sure you tell us how you feel about that in the comments.
The marketplace is slowly taking shape, now the next step is to add some life!
Fruits and vegetables aplenty! Tonight we feast!
As its name implies, the marketplace is where you will be doing most of your shopping. Fun fact: we used to have all the vendors scattered across the city so that they could each have their little corner with its own ambiance and decorations, but after playing for a bit we realized that running back and forth between the different shops was more tedious than anything else. The first time going around the city was great, but doing that every time you come back from an expedition was excruciating to say the least.
This is also when we decided to reduce the playable area of the city. Now that may sound like a bad thing to do, but think of it for a moment - larger cities don't necessarily make for a more enjoyable experience. Unlike playing on tabletop, you can't just skip the long and boring walk between the city gates and the castle - the DM isn't going to make descriptions of the same streets for 15 minutes every time you come back into town (at least I hope not). Adding fast-travel would be a work-around; but in that case what's the point of making a large city in the first place if players are always using fast travel after the first time? Therefore, we decided to pack most activities in a smaller playable area of the city - less time spent running is more time spent adventuring!
Here you can see the canal before adding the water, we'll have another screenshot ready for you once it's filled!
Welcome to the Art Corner
A Dev Update wouldn't be one without showing some of the fantastic work from our Art Team. Icons, concept art, 3D models - there's plenty of things to share with you!
Another example of Concept Art being made into an in-game prop by our wonderful 3D artists
More item icons, crafting components and potions!
Bloopers!
There's plenty more we could show, but we wouldn't want our Dev Updates to become too long now would we. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of bloopers at hand this time, so here is a doodle from the latest Tactical Skribblio showdown, where the artistic capabilities of each and every team member are tested and judged. And by that I mean the lack of artistic capabilities.
I'd say this drawing was already pretty high tier compared to everything else.
That's it for today! Hope you enjoyed our Dev Update, and make sure to drop by next week for May's Community Event. Here is a taste of what's coming up...
Read our previous articles here:
Article by Tactical Myzzrym
I don't recognize the frost bolt spell. Are you guys creating new spells for this game?