Updates

Community Livestream – New Log Homes Revealed

We’re kicking off 2018 with a big reveal on our first Community Livestream, live tomorrow at 4pm CT!

Reid “ReditheRollo” Rollo, Bob Cooksey, and Starr “Darkstarr” Long will reveal the new log homes we’ve been working on. There’s also a ton of news to catch up on from over the break, and as usual, we will be giving away seasonal prizes. Stick around throughout the livestream for a chance to win!

The fun begins on Twitch this Friday at 4pm CT. Also join the community watching on Discord chat to ask questions about what’s presented:


Community Spotlight – The Metropolis of Moonglade

Located in the North Paladis region of Novia, the Metropolis of Moonglade was founded as a village alongside the more well known Yew town (which is getting a makeover for Release 50!). Now these two towns share heavy traffic as goods are traded on a daily basis. Moonglade has a lot to offer, so we sent our very own community manager, Berek, to check it out.

Excerpts from Berek’s Novian Travelog…

Berek, friend of Novia, to outlanders far and wide:

By royal decree, my travels have recently taken me in search of Yew, the hidden city of the elves, to learn of their culture and customs. While searching for the reclusive elves, several dark towers marking the metropolis of Moonglade reached above the tall trees bordering the Hallowed Plains. Perhaps the residents of Moonglade could direct me to the hidden city…

Almost forgotten to time, the locals recount tales of Yew long past in which humans, not elves, lived in what we now call North Paladis. Tall, densely packed trees encircle Moonglade, but the town is not the first to grace the forest glade. The earliest recorded settlement was built near the ruins of an ancient monastic citadel, the nature of which has likely been lost to the cataclysm. The ruins can still be explored not far from the city center.

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #260: Shroud of the Avatar in 2017

News Announcements

Community Updates

Greetings Avatars,

2017 was an incredible year for Shroud of the Avatar! Thanks to the support of our amazing community we have been able to move ever closer to our launch next year. Through constant testing, critical feedback, in-game events, real life social events, and of course financial support our community, has all provided us the backbone to make Shroud the game it is today.

Each month we have delivered with our game releases an iterative step forward towards the vision we first shared during the Kickstarter four years ago. Those monthly releases have been critical to moving development forward towards launch early next year when we transition out of Early Access.

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #259: Happy Holidays Community!

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

Making of Yew

The Elven city of Yew has been shielded from outsiders by a nearly constants shroud of fog that only clears during certain alignments of the heavenly bodies. The city itself is full of wonderful Elven architecture and because of the natural foggy defenses has never been fortified. Yew is currently a clone of Jaanaford but is being rebuilt for Release 50. As with other town rebuilds the locations of player lots, merchant locations, and scene exits will not be changed.

[A Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar]

Hey guys! SorcerousSteve here to give you a sneak peek on my latest map!

For Release 50 I have been hard at work on uncloning the town of Yew. Located in North Paladis the town of Yew will be shrouded along its perimeter with a dense fog. In designing Yew we wanted the town to be built around these giant hero trees, and from these trees we created a town that had its structures built around them, giving life to a new elven town…

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #258: Play Release 49 Now!

Greetings Fellow Avatars! Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

Game Development

News Announcements

Community Updates

Play Release 49 Now!

Release 49 successfully launched yesterday, December 14, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes! There’s lots of new content to explore, including:

Read more…


Community Livestream – The Map System

Release 49 is live, and we’ve got one more community livestream this year to celebrate!

We’ll be bringing on Kory “Kor” Kirk, Robert “Undone” Thompson, and Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar to talk about what we’re doing with the Map System (previously known as SotAMap). Also on the show will be Starr “Darkstarr” Long, as soon as he finishes rockin’ it on Avatar’s Radio as Guest DJ for the 2-4pm CT in-game Dance Party (located in Lux Sanctuary player town).

As usual, we will be giving away seasonal prizes, so stick around throughout the livestream for a chance to win!

The fun begins on Twitch this Friday at 4pm CT. Also join the community watching on Discord chat to ask questions about what’s presented:


The New Britannia Carolers Creative Writing Contest

Sing along with us! Just like last year’s contest, this one is simple and fun – for the next couple of weeks, from December 15 to January 2, 2017, we want to see what songs, poems, and other holiday stories you can come up with that are related to Shroud of the Avatar.

When you have a submission ready, please post it in this thread! You are allowed to edit your entry up until the contest deadline.

THEMES

Similar to previous contests, we will be judging entries based on the following themes:

  • “Most inventive”…
  • Romantic theme
  • Holiday theme
  • Adventure theme
  • Character/NPC theme
  • PvP/Combat theme
  • Unexpected theme

If a theme doesn’t get any entries, we will add a winner to a theme that has multiple entries. Please limit entries to no more than 800 words and 3 pages with up to 4 images (if you need imagery). Shorter is usually better, so don’t feel you need to max out these limits.

PRIZES

Each winner will be awarded $25 worth of in-game COTOs, as well as the 2016 Winter Holiday Soundtrack – Wax Cylinders – perfect for replaying holiday tunes well into the 2018 new year.

Have fun being a creative creator, Avatars!

Read more…


Q1 2018 Schedule Update

Starr_avatar

[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

Greetings Avatars,

We are excited to announce a candidate launch date for Shroud of the Avatar! On Tuesday March 27, 2018 (Release 52), we are planning to launch out of Early Access!

So what does that mean exactly for a game that has been both persistent for over a year and been doing monthly releases for over 4 years? Well, for us it means that we are delivering the list of features, including physical goods, promised during the Kickstarter albeit with a few exceptions and/or replacements (see below). It also means that we are going to grow our community through marketing campaigns

As we have stated previously, we intend to publish quarterly schedule updates detailing our monthly releases and those monthly releases will continue. Even though the goals outlined in these schedules are likely to change somewhat as we react to feedback, we feel it is important to periodically provide you with an updated roadmap.

Our priority continues to be to deliver new content to our backers regularly, so that you can give us feedback that will help us iteratively improve Shroud of the Avatar. This collaborative process continues to benefit the game, and often results in sweeping changes such as the recent polish passes to the user interface. As you have seen in previous releases, the flexibility inherent to this process means that we sometimes push things out, but we also often pull new things in.

Most recently we have been collaborating with our partner Travian to survey our backers on their experience with the game so we can correlate feedback scientifically with the metrics we are collecting in the game. Thank you everyone who has participated, your survey answers have helped guide our Top 10 priorities for launch and our Q1 schedule. Read more…


Release 49 Instructions

[From a forum post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

Avatars,

Please read this entire message, as well as the linked instructions and known issues.

Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 49 access for all Early Access backers begins this Thursday, December 14, at 10:30 AM US Central Standard Time (15:30 UTC).

NOTE: The last two releases of the year are much earlier in the months than normal due to the holidays (Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, etc.). However, despite the brevity of this release, you will see that we still managed to get a huge amount of work done!

Release 49 is the fourth release in which we focused on our Top 10 Priorities for Launch. We continued to made strong progress on framerate, story polish, and creation of  new scenes. We also created more side quests and tons of other new content, including virtue armor and holiday content. Read more…


Community Spotlight – Festival

Located as a Nested POT in Owl’s Head, Festival was founded as a village alongside the more well known Owl’s Head town. Now these two towns share heavy traffic as goods are traded on a daily basis. Festival has that frosty holiday cheer to it, so now is a perfect time to visit!

As told by town Govenor, Engineer (aka Datendrache)…

How does a miner become the Govenor of a Hidden Vale reach, home to lavish parties and known as a playground for nobility and avatar alike? Well, friend, let me tell you a story…

Read more…