As reported in Update #32, in celebration of Starr Long joining the SotA Dev Team, we are memorializing his Darkstarr online persona with some cool, in-game stuff! This special update showcases some of those items!

The Darkstarr Moondial!

The Darkstarr Moondial is an in-game, home and yard decoration that will track the heavens both day and night! A very useful invention when planning strategies in-game, as this device lets you explore the mists of Revelations and Prophesy, unveiling astronomical events and revealing bits of lore to astute adventurers. The Darkstarr Moondial is included as a reward at the Citizen level pledge.

Our concept artist, Stephen Daniele (aka caravaggiosWolf on the forums), started a thread in the Community Announcements area of the Forums, tracking the work-in-progress of the moondial. It is a popular thread, already at 6 pages long and growing!

Here is what Stephen Daniele (lead concept artist) wrote in the forum posting about the inspiration behind the moondial:

“Starr approached me yesterday with the concept of the Darkstarr Moondial that he, Richard, Dallas and Chris came up with. They were discussing ideas for unique furnishings in the homes and/or gardens of property owners. Starr collects time pieces and Richard collects all sorts of interesting mechanical contraptions. As they were discussing possibilities Richard hit upon the idea of a moondial. Cosmology plays a big part in SotA.

Starr provided me with the reference they had gathered and shared their discussion. I started the concept live on PotA (Pen of the Avatar) Tuesday the 9th.”

Here are the moondial sketches Stephen drew during PotA:

Community feedback during PotA was strongly in favor of version #1, so Stephen expanded upon that concept:

If you would like to view the creative process in its entirety, you can watch the hour long PotA video here:

View Pen of the Avatar ~ 7.9.13 on YouTube

Stephen’s forum posting goes on to say:

“After the show I continued to flesh out the concept wrapping my mind around what would be visually important and how best to incorporate the communities input. The moondial will be metal, brass or bronze and about the size of a table. The planets will slowly revolve in their orbits and there will be something special about the shattered moon. Emits light? Then I sent my Work In Progress (WIP) to Richard for review that evening. Richards feedback was to make sure the shattered moon, Daedalus (created from the collision of 2 moons some 400 years prior) was clearly visible. 8 planets one for each Virtue, moons if I so desired and put the sun on the outer horizontal ring. Bring the snake off the planet so it can be the moondial/pointer.”

Stephen: “I sent this near final version to Richard earlier today. He suggested shrinking the sun and the planet with multiple rings and increase the size of Daedalus. In doing so it was necessary to adjust some of the other planets sizes to keep an interesting visual diversity of scale. I was chatting with Dallas and hit upon the idea of making the hand a different material as an option for the production team.

The final approved concept for the Darkstarr Moondial. I can’t wait to see what Bob [Cooksey, environmental artist] does with the art tomorrow!”

Stephen: “Bob has been busily building out the Darkstarr Moondial in 3ds Max working closely with Richard. Bob determined that 8 rings with planets and moons would cause collision problems as the planets rotate in their orbits. He presented an option to Richard with 3 planets. This is Bob’s latest Work in Progress.”

Stephen: “Bob continues building out the Darkstarr Moondial in 3ds Max and creating materials in Photoshop. This is Bob’s latest Work in Progress with brass and marble for the hand and base. Community what do you think about the marble? Should it be something different, perhaps granite? I would like to know what you think about our material choices! Please share your thoughts with us! Please ignore the floor it is just a generic metal texture.”

Once Bob had a working model, Chris Spears imported the moondial prototype into Unity for animating. Once he had something working, he grabbed a video clip and posted to the forum thread…

Chris: “For those who were following this thread, just thought I would share that I actually put the moondial into the game engine earlier and captured it. Before anyone says anything about no AA, I was using 8X AA, the jaggies are from Youtube compression…Here it is on the upstairs balcony of your future house [note: the globe shows a map of earth as placeholder art]”

View Darkstarr Moondial prototype #1 animation on YouTube

Several community members posted on the thread they felt the green, hand-shaped pedestal (as depicted in the video clip), was too green and suggested we use a more grey-green material (as shown in one of the concept sketches). One of our more prolific community members, Dame Lori (see her superb fansite ForsakenVirtues.com), took our original image and modified it with the darker grey-green texture, and posted it in the forum thread:

We agreed this looked better, so Bob modified the texture color.

Here is another video clip that Chris captured, this one has the green pedestal retextured with the darker grey-green, and it is shown animating on a black background so you can better visualize all the moving pieces [note: the globe shows a map of earth as placeholder art]:

View Darkstarr Moondial prototype #2 animation on YouTube

Another of our backers, Sir Frank KC, posted that the pedestal might look more celestial if it were black with white flecks (referred to as Black Galaxy granite). Dame Lori didn’t waste any time mocking up that concept, and she altered the brass/gold color of the bands to look more like copper:

The feedback on the thread kept pouring in! Phredicon suggested the planet in the palm return to the gold/brass color it was before, to enhance the contrast, and Fortunes Footadded it would help all the planets/moons to stand out better if they were also colored gold/brass! Dame Lori quickly followed up with another mockup:

Wow! This level of rapid feedback, collaboration, iteration, and participation is simply staggering! This degree of community involvement in the development of Shroud of the Avatar is awe inspiring! With this level of collaboration between the Dev Team and the community, SotA will continue to evolve far beyond any of our expectations!

Stay tuned to the Darkstarr Moondial forum thread to see what other brilliant community suggestions work their way into the design of this very cool item!

Remember these exclusive Darkstarr rewards are only available for a limited time. The Darkstarr Moondial is included in the Citizen Pledge Tier, only available to Backers who pledge any amount by July 31, 2013. It is also available in the new Add-On Store until July 31, 2013.

The Darkstarr Metronome!

We’re not as far along in the development of the Darkstarr Metronome as we are with the moondial, but wanted to share with you what we have so far.

For those of you planning to play virtual instruments this mechanical metronome can help keep the tempo! Place this in-game decoration near your instrument, set the desired beat, and start the scythe to swinging! At over 8-feet tall and swinging a blade, this Grim Reaper apparition can also double as an intruder deterrent! The Darkstarr Metronome is included as a reward at the Virtual Collector level pledge (and also available in the new Add-On Store until July 31, 2013).

Here are some excerpts from Stephen Daniele’s forum thread describing the inspiration and progress of the Darkstarr Metronome:

Stephen: “Starr provided me with some excellent reference of different kinds of metronomes. Richard added to the reference with various styles and sizes. He also wanted to have a a death theme for the metronome with the quote “As time passes Death Approaches” written somewhere on the object.

“I started my process with a little research into visuals for death. The Grim Reaper along with a skull and an hour glass were the most eye catching. Some of the metronome reference was unknown to me and I felt it would be important to go with shapes that are readily identifiable by the majority of the community. My rough pass incorporates 3 distinct variations. The red indicates the movement of the various pieces.”

Stephen: “From this point I continued the concept creation on Pen of the Avatar…Community input as always was invaluable. The spine for the measure, Grandfather clock size, etc. [were community suggestions]. Initially I thought to use marble and copper (thanks Fire Lotus) for the metronome…I determined that the closed cabinet door would have the left arm of the Reaper on it as if he opened and closed the cabinet. This insinuates a consciousness in the object. I indicated a scroll at the base with the quote in Runic; font kindly created by Dame Lori of our community.”

Stephen: “This is the Work in Progress I sent to the team Tuesday evening. I changed the scroll to be a plaque and finished the color pass on the concept.”

Stephen: “This is the final approved DarkStarr Metronome concept art. I changed the materials to a hard cherry wood finish for the cabinet with brass trim to be more Grandfather clock like. The scythe blade folds down into the cabinet. The skeletal right hand holding the scythe is attached to the pole and there is a second right hand for decoration on the outside of the cabinet when the door is closed.”

As expected, the community feedback started pouring in! Bob Cooksey is in the process of creating the 3D model of Stephen’s concept, so be sure and check out the Darkstarr Metronome forum thread to see the upcoming 3D model and animation!

And for those of you interested, here is the hour-long Pen of the Avatar from 7.16.13 showing much of the creation process and community collaboration for Stephen’s metronome concept art:

View Pen of the Avatar ~ 7.16.13 on YouTube

The Add-On Store and Other Changes to the SotA Website!

We recently published a new version of of the SotA website, which includes an improved navigation menu, and our first draft of the Add-On Store!

We’ll be adding many items to the Add-On Store over the months ahead, but for now we’re testing the functionality with just a few items.

Richard found a box of holiday ornaments patterned after his silver snake symbol, that he had crafted as gifts for his family and close friends. There are only 20 of these ornaments available, so we decided to make them available in the Add-On Store!

In addition to the Darkstarr Metronome and Moondial being included at the Virtual Collector and Citizen Pledge Tiers for all backers who pledge any amount by July 31, 2013, we are also making them available in the Add-On Store thru July 31st for those backers that want to reserve one of these Limited Edition items but can’t afford the pledge tier where it is included!

Please Register on SotA and Link Your Kickstarter Account!

You can stay on top of all the latest game development news by registering on our website,https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com. And if you have not already done so, please be sure to Link your Kickstarter Account, so we can ensure that you receive all of your backer rewards as soon as they are ready to roll out!