August 2020 Update

Dear backers,

Welcome back to my monthly Unsung Story update.

It's crunch time. I feel like the entire studio is at the threshold of major milestones, so you can feel the focus and energy being put into all our projects right now.

In May, I listed the main areas that we hadn't gotten to yet. You can read that update here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/littleorbit/unsung-story-tale-of-the-guardians/posts/2825525. That list included a Q&A stream, gameplay stream, opening a Discord for backers, and reaching out to more backers about their art and design rewards. We got through most of that, and we're making progress on the rewards, so I feel better about getting caught up.

For those that haven't gotten on Discord to discuss the game, you can join here: https://discord.gg/fhfvH4x. I try to get on as best I can to chat with players and sneak in small non-spoiler updates. Our lead designer also got on and shared some updates to player feedback.

Also make sure to follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/unsungstory.

Last month, I gave a high level overview of what the rest of this year would look like including goals for July and for August. You can read that update here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/littleorbit/unsung-story-tale-of-the-guardians/posts/2881552

We are now closing in on the next major milestone: the Alpha for Chapter 1.

This is currently scheduled to be released to all backers in late August / early September.

Yes. That's right. Potentially this month*.

I'm going to put a big caveat around that date due to what is occurring in the US. We have seen events and circumstances here that I never thought I would see in my lifetime. I sincerely hope that you and your families are doing okay on a physical, emotional, and financial level. With so much happening, it is impossible for me guarantee we will hit that date, but we're going to do our best. I think it's critical that we stay on track for Alpha this month and then Beta next month, so that we have enough time to continue our dialog with players, collect feedback, and implement enough changes before we release the finished Chapter 1 in late October and early November.

With that out of the way, let's talk about what we did in July.

General Update on Progress

First, I can officially say that we're now playing through all 7 missions in Chapter 1 including many of the story cut scenes. I had hoped to get some video of missions 6 and 7, but my art team was too busy. Those locations are very very cool, so I might get antsy and post a sneak peek on Twitter later this month.

Second, we did have a couple blockers. So in July we didn't stick to the exact sprint tasks. Instead we had to hop around and work on other items we could finish, and then backtrack to the original tasks. This means we worked on items from both July and August.

• The UI is still in development, although nearing completion. The primary focus for July was the Timeline and World map screens at the beginning of the game's flow and the remaining functionality in the Hub for buying/selling items, recruiting new units, and more.
• We got through many cut scenes, but we have a handful of complex story sequences that are still being worked on.
• We are still working through the remaining job outfits for Chapter 1. I will likely devote an entire blog to this as we get closer to the Alpha.
• Lots and lots of weapons being finished. It seems like these go across my desk in a steady stream right now. Each of the 20 main jobs has a unique weapon and there are multiple tiers/variants you can unlock during the game, so the math adds up quickly.
• The Hub is coming along nicely, but there's a bit more to go. There is so much functionality across the many NPCs in that location who help you, and each one has unique UIs. Also, there was no way to hold anything back till after October, because everything unlocks in Chapter 1. That means we are building out all of the game's systems now so they can be usable for this release.

With all of that in mind, there are a lot of things I would have liked to share, but I don't feel they are quite ready yet. Just know we have a couple more surprises in store.

I generally like to include some work in progress in each update whenever possible.

So here are a couple for the August update.

--MINOR SPOILERS TO FOLLOW--

Let's start with the World/Timeline Map for Lasfaria.

Players use this map to navigate between various points in history, each of which tends to focus on a specific region and one perspective of the 77-year War. There are a couple cool things that happen with this map over the course of the story, so we had specific design considerations. This may still shift a little, but I think we're pretty close to final. I think I'm going to make a giant print of this to frame in my office at home.

World/Timeline map for Lasfaria

I also thought it would be fun to see some of the weapons. Hopefully you've had a chance to see the stream where a few of these were shown off. But these should help give an up close feel for the style we're going for.

This is the Tier 3 Mercenary sword hilt. The Mercenary job itself was born from the School of Nature, although you can find them all throughout Lasfaria. We will never get this close to it in-game, but we wanted it to have the same influences as Saxtel.

Tier 3 Mercenary Sword hilt

This next item is the Tier 4 Loremaster Staff. Right at the beginning of the game, we meet a character who uses this item. Loremasters are one of the five prestige classes in the game that we've given to specific Story Characters. If you bought the extra class add-on, these will get added to your job tree and you can play them.

Tier 4 Loremaster Staff

And lastly, this is the Tier 3 Physician potion bottle. Physicians originally came from the School of the Technology in Branholme, so you can see the brass influences from that region. Again this isn't intended to be seen this close, but I think some of the detail is cool.

Tier 3 Physician potion bottle

More coming soon as we ramp up to distribute the Alpha build.

Sincerely, Matthew Scott