Updates

Release 43 Instructions

Avatars,

Please read this entire message, as well as the linked Instructions and Known Issues. Join the discussion of this update in the forums.

Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 43 access for all Early Access backers begins this Thursday, June 29, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

Release 43 contains both a huge amount of new content and a major improvement in performance that will generally improve everything about playing the game (and I do not exaggerate). Framerates have been improved in every scene, doubled in some! This really will make playing the game feel so much better in every way. Additionally, one of our biggest and most complicated scenes ever, Blood River Outskirts, goes live this release. Three scenes got completely rebuilt and four more scenes got major polish passes. Finally, we are expanding the mail system to allow player-to-player mail as well as expanding and balancing the Offline Economy!

On top of all this new content, we also launched our SeedInvest Crowd Equity campaign to raise funds for our commercial launch later this year. Speaking of later this year… stay tuned tomorrow for our Q3 Schedule Update to find out what we will be working on for the next three releases!

Read more…


Richard Garriott at Barcelona Gamelab (June 28-30) and San Diego Comic-Con (July 20-23)

Richard “Lord British” Garriott will be at multiple events over the next few weeks, starting with tomorrow’s Gamelab event in Barcelona! Richard will then be joined by Starr “Darkstarr” Long in San Diego next month for Comic-Con.

If you are at either of these events, here’s your chance to meet them!

Richard Garriott at Barcelona Gamelab

Meet Richard “Lord British” Garriott at the Gamelab Barcelona conference this coming June 28-30th in Barcelona, Spain! Richard is not only set to speak at the conference, but also will be receiving the Spanish Academy of Ineractive Arts and Sciences prestigious Honory Award!

The Spanish Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, a cultural institution devoted to the improvement of a growing creative sector of over 400 companies and 4.000 professionals, announced today that the legendary designer, entrepreneur and adventurer Richard Garriott will receive its top recognition, the Honorary Award, during its annual convention in Barcelona.

Ivan Fernandez-Lobo, founder and chairman of Gamelab Barcelona and former president of the Spanish Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, commented on the Academy’s decision to nominate Garriott for the Award that “the British-American designer and entrepreneur is a truly game-changer for the medium and a source of inspiration for anyone with a creative soul, even beyond the Industry limits”. Fernandez-Lobo also highlighted “the influence of Garriott’s adventurer spirit in the games he designed and the companies he founded”.

[Read More…]

Comic-Con Panels with Richard Garriott and Starr Long

Attending Comic-Con this coming July 20-23? Richard Garriott and Starr Long will be there to meet you! Richard has two panels with one talking about his adventures in space. The other panel is with Starr Long about Shroud of the Avatar!

Explore/Create: Richard Garriott’s Adventures from Gaming Pioneer to Space Adventurer – Richard “Lord British” Garriott authored the famed “Ultima” series and coined the term “avatar”. In 2008, he became the first American second-generation astronaut when he flew to the ISS. Learn more from his new memoir “Explore/Create”.

Shroud of the Avatar – Richard “Lord British” Garriott (creative director) and Starr Long (exec. producer) will discuss their latest venture, Shroud of the Avatar, currently the second highest crowdfunded video game of all time. Learn how they have developed the game while honing cutting-edge crowdfunding techniques.

Panel times and location have not yet been announced. Keep watch for updates on the official Comic-Con website.

Check out the Upcoming Events Calendar for a complete list of events kicking off in the coming months!


Update of the Avatar #233 – 2017.06.23: New Scene Updates, Lord British Birthday Telethon & Sale, New Free Trial, Comic-Con Panels, Reddit AMA, Party Contest, New Videos, SeedInvest Update, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

Isle of Storms Polish

Since this is the very first scene players encounter we felt that it could use some additional visual polish so we spent time this release making various improvements to lighting, terrain, visual effects, and flora.

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

Hello Avatars!

We’ve been busy with lots of improvements and updates this release. We keep improving visual tools and assets to build scenes with, and so it’s fun to re-visit some of the older existing maps and touch them up with our new toys.

Hutch, Damon, and I have been touching up Isle of Storms recently (as well as an update to Arabella from the character team!). Here’s some of our progress:

Before…

After!

Read more…


Community Livestream – Questing in Bloodriver Outskirts

Community of the Avatar

We will be kicking off this week’s Community Livestream by giving players a first look at all the new quest content in Bloodriver Outskirts! Damien “Puuk” Foletto will be driving the master build machine as we quest around the scene and discover its hidden secrets.

SPOILERS: Players following the Path of Truth encounter the Elven village of Bloodriver massacred by vigilantes from Aerie. The elves have fled for their lives into the forests upriver and invaded the home of an Elven hermit who dwells in a ruin deep in the forest. They have set traps to protect themselves from the vigilantes who have pursued them here and are harassing them still. Elven soldiers from Vertas are arriving from the north to protect them while Aerie soldiers are streaming in from the south east to try and stop all out war between the humans and elves. We hope to have this scene live in Release 43.

After the scene changes go live, we have even more content, including quests, you can look forward to in future releases!

The fun begins on Twitch this Friday at 4pm CT. Also join the community watching on Discord chat to ask questions about this scene.


Rock Me Avatarus! – Party Showcase Contest

Get your party spot ready for a contest that’s sure to wow all the guests! Over the next two weeks, you will have the opportunity to show off your party hosting skills in today’s contest – Rock Me Avatarus – Party Showcase Contest. Contest begins now and runs until 12pm (Noon) CT on July 5th, a day after Lord British’s birthday on the 4th!

Read more…


SeedInvest Digital Demo Day – June 22

SeedInvest is hosting a Digital Demo Day tomorrow, June 22nd, and Portalarium is included in the event! Attendees will be able to listen to several companies in addition to Portalarium on their current crowdfunding efforts. A Q&A will also follow, so here’s another chance to participate!

The event begins at 2pm ET and runs until the end of Portalarium’s presentation, which officially begins at 4:45pm ET (3:45pm NBT for you New Britannians).

Here is the complete schedule:

  • TopScore – 2:00pm ET
  • Lendsnap – 2:15pm ET
  • GoSun – 2:30pm ET
  • Trikke – 2:45pm ET
  • Crema.co – 3:00pm ET
  • HearMy Voice – 3:15pm ET
  • Made on Main – 3:30pm ET
  • Likeable Local – 3:45pm ET
  • Whereby.Us – 4:00pm ET
  • Level Therapy – 4:15pm ET
  • Chirrp – 4:30pm ET
  • Portalarium – 4:45pm ET

Visit SeedInvest’s Webinar signup page for details.

*Disclaimer: Portalarium is offering securities under Regulation CF and Rule 506(c) of Regulation D through SI Securities, LLC (“SI Securities”). The Company has filed a Form C with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with its offering, a copy of which may be obtained here: https://www.seedinvest.com/portalarium/series.b


Reddit AMA with Richard Garriott and Team

Richard “Lord British” Garriott and other team members will be hanging out on Reddit today! Click here for the AMA link.

We are focusing this AMA on questions about the game’s development, though will consider what questions we can take related to our equity crowdfunding campaign currently running through SeedInvest. Please know that we will do our best to get to as many questions as possible, but we may not be able to answer everything in the time allotted.

Thanks Shroud of the Avatar redditors for allowing us to promote the AMA! We can’t wait to have a great chat with you.


Update of the Avatar #232 – 2017.06.16: Reddit AMA Next Week, SeedInvest Q&A, New Scene Updates, The New Arabella NPC, Pets & Property Sale, Richard & Starr at Comic-Con, New Events, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

A New Look to Celestis Scene

Celestis is an NPC town currently in the game, but is being uncloned for Release 43. Changes are being made to make the scene look more like other nearby Perennial Coast scenes. In Celestis you will find an outdoor theater, beautiful rock garden, and several hidden ‘easter eggs’ for you to find!

Read more…


Community Livestream – A New Look to Celestis

Community of the Avatar

We will be kicking off this week’s Community Livestream by giving players a first look at changes to the uncloned update of Celestis! Chris “Seawolf” Wolf will be driving the master build machine as we get a look around the scene and its surprises.

Celestis is an NPC town currently in the game, but is being uncloned for Release 43. Changes are being made to make the scene take on the theme of other nearby Perennial Coast scenes. In Celestis you will find an outdoor theatre, beautiful rock garden, and several unmentioned ‘easter eggs’!

After the scene changes go live, we have even more content, including quests, you can look forward to in future releases!

The fun begins on Twitch this Friday at 4pm CT. Also join the community watching on Discord chat to ask questions about this scene.


Lord British Invites You to Upcoming Q&A Events for Portalarium’s SeedInvest Campaign

As you all saw last week, we announced a unique way for you to become a part of the Portalarium team by investing in the company through our equity campaign at SeedInvest.

This campaign has since gone from reservation status to investment status.

If you have contributed but have not logged and updated your SeedInvest account since Wednesday, June 7th to make the switch to investment status, please do so now!

We continue to see a ton of great questions around the campaign with many community members hoping to participate but are unsure how it works. Today we announced two Q&A sessions with investors and those interested in becoming an investor:

Read more…