Updates

The Making of the Oracle Temple [SPOILERS!]

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Michael “Hutch” Hutchison]

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains spoilers for the Oracle Temple scene that is the story climax of Episode 1…

Hello All,

With R47, we have finished the art requirements for the climactic Oracle Temple scene! When I stopped to consider the long road leading up to this point, I was struck by how this scene, perhaps more than any other single scene in the game, involved contributions from nearly every member of the Shroud team, either directly or indirectly. It is also a great example of how our iterative process worked to build one thing upon another.

Like anything else it all started with an idea. In this case, it was Richard’s initial idea that was the creative spark, and what followed was a process of evolution over years, as ideas changed, and grew, and became fully formed. Development of the objects, characters, and story followed a sequence of connected tasks, each one informing the next. Over time, it was this deliberate process that built all the smaller parts that contributed to the cohesive whole.

The importance of the Oracle becomes evident from the very first moments of the game, when you meet her in the Confirmatory on the Isle of Storms. That’s part of what makes the Oracle so special – she is there when you start the game, is present throughout your progress, and is there when you ultimately reach the story climax. But long before the Confirmatory was included on the Isle of Storms map in Release 31, the Oracle had already undergone several iterations.

Early Development

Everything started, of course, with Lord British himself. During the initial development of what became Shroud of the Avatar, Richard worked directly with concept artists (beginning very early with Scott Jones and then a bit later with Stephen Daniele) to develop the look of the Oracle architecture, her Watchers, and the Oracle herself.

Early Oracle design as seen in concept art…

…and with the 2013 statue head decoration

While the initial glimpse of the Oracle came in December of 2013 with the Oracle Statue Head (made by former team member Jay Reichman), it would prove to be merely a teaser of what was to come…

Read more…


Community Livestream – Reaper Rampage!

Get ready Avatars, it’s Release Week here on Friday’s Community Livestream! We haven’t really shown the Reaper before, which was introduced back in Release 46, so Dan and Keith will be leading the tour of all the scenes that Reaper can be found in (well, not all of them…).

And as usual we will be giving away more prizes (this time of the new Release 47 items), 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:


Make a Difference Expansions

In accordance with Portalarium’s founding purpose to promote goodwill and make a positive difference in the world, we are excited to add more “Make a Difference” charity items to our store as a channel through which our community of backers can contribute to causes that they support.

In Release 47, we are adding a Kobold Indoor Toilet for Water.org’s International Toilet Day, as well as a whole suite of hospital themed items to support Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Doctors Without Borders just in time for the Extra Life Streamathon on November 4.

In the giving spirit of the holidays we have also expanded the Make a Difference concept outside the confines of the Make a Difference Store and now over 90 items in the Add-On Store are also tagged to share revenue with charities. Just look for the virtue symbol! In total Release 47 represents an expansion of over 100 items that will Make a Difference.
Read more…


Release 47 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 47 access for all Early Access backers begins this Thursday, October 26, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

Release 47 is the second release in which we focused on our Top 10 Priorities for Launch. We continued to make strong progress on load time reductions, story polish, and scene rebuilding. We also created more side quests and tons of other new content, including a whole new set of Make a Difference items. Read more…


Avatar’s Update #250: SotAMap Now Under Official Development!

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

SotAMap Now Under Official Development

[From a Forum Post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

Greetings Avatars,

Our original plan for maps in Shroud of the Avatar was individual hand drawn maps of various quality levels for each scene. These would be found, collected, quested after, etc. by the players and then could be used to navigate the world. We managed to implement a few of them but the scale of production involved in making them prevented us from staying abreast with the pace of the hundreds of scenes we were creating. They also failed to account for scenes with player housing that would dynamically change, sometimes dramatically.

Then along came the incredible tool, SotAMap, created by community member Jakub White and contributed to by other community members. Using a Google Maps type functionality, this amazing third party external application maps the entire world of Novia and allows POT owners to customize their town maps.

We liked SotAMap so much that we officially integrated it into the game in Release 40 back in March of this year. We quickly realized that this would be a fantastic solution to our problem of creating maps for every scene. After testing it out in the game for a couple of releases, we decided to approach Jakub about acquiring SotAMap so that we could make it a fully integrated and optimized feature of the game. We are very excited to announce that we have now come to a purchase agreement for SotAMap with Jakub White!

This means we can now proceed with a large list of changes that will improve the experience of using SotAMap. These will be broken up into two phases. We hope to have Phase 1 complete by the end of the year and Phase 2 by Launch.

Read more…


Community Livestream – The Oracle Chamber

Get ready Avatars, this is going to be another great Friday livestream! Michael Hutchinson will be leading the tour of the grand Oracle Chamber with a couple of other developers. We can’t wait to show you all of the collaboration that it took to design this scene!

SPOILER ALERT! The Oracle Chamber tour is going to reveal the finale of the game story, so do not watch if you wish to discover all the story secrets on your own!

And as usual we will be giving away more prizes of the spooky and ghoulish type, 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:


Community Spotlight – Mynwent Haunted House

This week’s spotlight takes us to the Player Owned Town of Mynwent to the Mynwent Haunted House. Here is the town’s story as told by community manager Berek:

In my latest travels amidst the towns and peoples of New Britannia, chance would have it that my path lead to Mynwent. Surely, this was an opportune time for me to resupply before braving the dangers of Nightshade Pass, but as misfortune would have it, my attempt at respite inadvertently exposed me to an even greater danger. At first glance, Mynwent was an inviting town, but upon closer inspection my realizations horrified me. One might think me mad for saying this, but the town of Mynment has a dark history, and deep within its borders lies a house, so haunted, that I barely escaped alive to tell you this tale, oh Outlanders!

So take caution upon your travels to Mynwent, and heed my words! Make resupply in Etan Glen, perhaps Britanny, for the horrors you shall face in Mynwent are not worth the bobbles and trinkets you might procure, and likely, anything you might acquire from this forsaken town is cursed by the depraved spirits still lingering within.

And to further dissuade you, friends, I shall share with you a story. A story so tragic that perhaps it will overwhelm your curiosity and thankfully allow for good common sense to take hold. Read on only if ye dare, adventurers, for this wicked tale is one of great sorrow…

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #249: R46 Postmortem Telethon Results and SotA Con Weekend

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

More Make a Difference, R45 Telethon, Halloween, and SeedInvest Item Screenshots

As mentioned in a previous update we created several new threads to show off content that we have been creating for SeedInvest Perk Packs, Telethons, and the Holiday Season. We will be making and posting in these kinds of threads going forward so that our players can stay up to date on the latest images of these items as we make them. In the case of the Telethon and holiday content they will first go in Dev+ and then later be included here in the Weekly Update.

Last week we created a thread about the R45 Telethon items and we added more items to the SeedInvest thread. This week we started a thread about some new Make a Difference items we are working on for Water.org and Children’s Hospitals / Doctors without Borders.

Make a Difference:

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Starr “Darkstarr” Long]

Greetings Avatars,

As part of Portalarium’s founding purpose to promote good will and make a positive difference in the world, we’ve provided these “Make a Difference” charity items as a channel through which our community of backers can contribute to causes they support. For each of these items purchased, Portalarium will donate up to 50% of its share of the purchase price to the designated charity (see each item for percent contribution). By purchasing these items you get to have fun with them in Shroud of the Avatar, as well as make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves.

We are excited to be adding more items to the store this year including a whole new section in support of Children’s Hospitals/Doctor’s without Borders (this will also be in support of Xtra Life).

Water.org

First up is an ingenious contraption that brings bodily evacuations indoors through the clever use of Kobold technology. This is in support of Water.org’s World Toilet Day on November 19, 2017.

World Toilet Day is about inspiring action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Today, 4.5 billion people live without a household toilet that safely disposes of their waste. The Sustainable Development Goals, launched in 2015, include a target to ensure everyone has access to a safely-managed household toilet by 2030. This makes sanitation central to eradicating extreme poverty. In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly officially designated November 19 as World Toilet Day. World Toilet Day is coordinated by UN-Water in collaboration with governments and partners.

Kobold Indoor Toilet
Read more…


Release 46 Postmortem Telethon

** $80,000 **

Telethon Funds Raised


Telethon Stretch Goal Rewards:

  • ACHIEVED! $10K: Skull Cloak
  • ACHIEVED! $25K: Prisoner’s Mask
  • ACHIEVED! $35K: Torn & Tattered Wedding Dress & Tuxedo
  • ACHIEVED! $50K: Spooky Fountain
  • ACHIEVED! $65K: Dead Hedge Fence Set
  • ACHIEVED! $80K: Nightmare Statue with flaming mane and glowing eyes

Greetings Avatars,

This release’s Postmortem Telethon is going to be Halloween themed! Expirations are back, new stretch goal items are ready to be achieved, and themed contests are kicking off this month to celebrate Release 46!

Read more…


Avatar’s Update #248: R46 Postmortem Telethon and SotA Con Next Week

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

Making of North Midmaer Way and North Quel Way

We have been focusing many of our scene rebuilds (aka “un-clones”) on the lower tier scenes near the cities along the paths of Truth and Courage. These are all Tier 1 – 3 scenes that players encounter near the beginnings of their play experience. In addition to being rebuilt, we are also adding side quests to them.

In Release 47 these scenes include North Quel Way and North Midmaer Way. North Quel Way is a forested road in the Quel region that features a caravan trading post that has been overrun by undead. North Midmaer Way is a spider infested densely packed forest of old growth trees in the Midmaer region.

North Midmaer Way

[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Travis “Vas Corp Por” Koleski]

Some more preview shots:

Read more…