I’m very sad to say that we need to begin closing down Artizens. We’ve been unable to find a funding partner to bring the game beyond its current point and we can no longer keep the servers online.
I’ll be available to answer questions in the comments below, but I wanted to also provide an FAQ to cover most of the major questions.
Q: Why weren’t you able to find funding? Why can’t you keep working on the game?
A: We tried a number of avenues including traditional capital investment, angel investors, indie publishers, major publishers, and working on the game in our spare time. We received small amounts of funding that kept us afloat for a few years, but never enough to expand the game into its full potential. We’ve been working on the game since 2012 without compensation and we’re financially unable to continue.
Q: But you raised a bunch of money on Kickstarter and sold copies of Early Access on Steam. Where’d all that money go?
A: We used the money to pay our animator and artist for the content in the game, server costs, legal fees, marketing expenses, trailers, and our booth at PAX East. All money was spent on either making the game better or in trying to raise more money. Our goal for the Kickstarter was to raise enough money to develop an alpha of the game and we were able to get very close to that. However, an online multiplayer game with a feature set as big as ours requires a lot more money than we were ever able to raise to develop all of the content we needed to make a full game.
Q: What happens next?
A: Artizens will be removed from the Steam Store within the next few days. The servers will be closed two weeks from today on November 16th. That will give everyone two more weeks to play the game.
Q: Not all Kickstarter promises were fulfilled. Will there be refunds?
A: All of our resources were spent on making the current game or trying to raise more money. We were unable to make Mac or Linux ports or meet any of our stretch goals. The game also never developed past the demo phase. We tried our best to raise more money responsibly and were unable to do so. Unfortunately this means there is no money for refunds.
Q: Wow, this sucks.
A: Yes, yes it does. We really believe this game had promise and it’s upsetting that we weren’t able to find a funding partner. No one is more disappointed in Artizens closing than we are.
Update on Reboot Progress
Over the past few months, we’ve come to realize that this project can’t be done well or quickly by a team of three part-timers. However, we believe we have accomplished enough to make a convincing pitch to publishers. A publisher can help us with development funding, marketing, distribution, and potentially a lot more, so our main effort now is going to be in finding a great partner.
During this process, we’re also working on changes to the design, art, and story based on what we’ve learned since the start of development, and we want to share those with you now.
Welcome to Doma
Doma is the new world in which all things Artizens exist. It has some earth-like qualities, but its most special characteristic is its frequently shifting tectonic plates. This means that levels will be semi-randomly generated, which will allow for a lot of level design diversity.
Introducing Wilby, the Maker
Wilby is the creator of everything, including Doma. He made all of the flora and fauna on the planet, including the Artizens. He’s a good natured fellow who enjoys creating more than destroying, but he is also very interested in balance. Wilby will teach you how to play, give you your missions, and restore you when you’re defeated.
The Villain, Mefirsto!
Mefirsto was the first Artizen ever created and Wilby gave him near infinite creative powers. Unfortunately, Mefirsto has selfishly used these powers in an attempt to conquer Doma with his own creations and overthrow Wilby. All enemies you fight will be Mefirsto’s monster creations and you may even fight Mefirsto himself if you’re so unlucky.
And the new Artizens
Unlike in the previous story, in this world, the Artizens have always looked like mannequins. They are creations made by Wilby that have the power to change their own appearances and abilities by crafting new body parts and equipment.
It all starts in the Mallea tree
This massive skyscraper of a tree supplies the wood from which every Artizen is carved. It also serves as a treehouse homebase. Here, Wilby will give you missions of all varieties to go out and stop Mefirsto’s progress. The treehouse also includes your own studio, workshop, arsenal, and shop just like in the previous design.
Defeat Mefirsto’s Monsters
Unlike before, the monsters you will be fighting are creations of Mefirsto and not natural creatures. No need to feel remorse when destroying these abominations. Each monster will have a signature mechanic and when you defeat them, you will be able to tap them for crafting resources associated with that mechanic.
We really hope you like the new art style and story. Wish us luck as we try to find a partner who can help us make this all a reality.
Happy New Year,
Charles, Adam, and Simon
New Baby, Features, and Moving to Unity
Our Game Designer is a Dad!
Our apologies for the delay in updates, our game designer recently became a dad and has been changing diapers in between scripting new features. In fact, little James Edward is having a nap on his lap right this minute as he types out this update. :)
New Features and Bug Fixes
Despite the lack of sleep, we’ve still been able to make some good progress and have recently pushed our changes in an update to the game. Here’s what’s changed:
Features
New fall damage system and landing animations - There are 6 new landing animations in increasing levels of intensity based on your landing velocity. At low velocities, you’ll only be slowed down on landing, but at higher ones you’ll begin taking damage, and at the highest level, you’ll also be stunned on the ground for a period of time proportional to your landing velocity. Generally speaking, you need to fall from about 3x to your normal jump height before you start taking damage. Unlikely without mods in most areas, but beware falling off the mountain in the southern forest. Keep in mind that the damage and stun is related to velocity, not distance fallen, so if you’re able to perform a double jump right before you land, you won’t take any damage.
New Diving Stab mod for Sword and Shield - Add it as a Pro at the Mod Station and it will unlock the diving stab attack. If you jump into the air and attack below yourself, you’ll dive down at a 45 degree angle in the direction you’re facing. If you hit an enemy, you’ll take no fall damage, but if you miss...ouch. It takes some getting used to, but can be a very powerful move when paired with jump and booster mods, especially against poor Trittentrat and her babies.
New animations for dashing - We added new animations for dashing forward, backward, in the air, and on the ground.
Increased default dashing speed and distance -The dashes are also faster and move the player further, making them a viable defense strategy. You can also evade very quickly after attacking.
New Instant Block mod for Sword and Shield - Look for it in the mods screen as ‘Instant Block’ in the Pro section. It allows you to interrupt your attacks with a block, making it much easier to defend mid-combo.
No more broken mannequin - It was a shame to lose your custom looks after taking a few hits, so we’ve removed that feature for now. We still want to show where you’ve been damaged, so we’ll be replacing this with a system that damages your custom looks instead of replacing them.
Bug Fixes
Tiny jumps - Lightly tapping the jump key could lead to some seriously weird jump behavior, including floating high into the sky. Bonus points if you ever exploited this.
Dying while in mid air - This would usually lock up the player and sometimes crash the game.
Bow and Arrow and Dashing transitions - There were some visual issues with transitioning from dashing to walking with bow and arrow.
Blocking while dashing - This would lock the player in a blocking animation, but they would no longer be blocking.
Moving to Unity
But the really big news for Artizens is that we’re moving the game from our own custom engine to Unity. This latest update has really shown us how much we’d benefit from an industry standard game engine: being able to port to Mac and Linux faster, having access to its huge suite of tools, and most importantly making it easier for our whole development team to program new features.
When we began production years ago, Unity wasn’t a great fit for us, but it’s really blossomed since then and we’re long overdue in making the switch. What this means is that the next update to Artizens will be a very significant one. We’re taking this opportunity not only to move the game over to the new engine, but to bring new life into our gameplay, visual design, and story world.
Charles, Adam, and Simon will be the core team covering all aspects of production, so we’ll no longer be looking for funding to fill empty roles. This means we can actually bring you the progression features the game has been sorely lacking and get builds out to the Mac and Linux players who have been waiting to play anything at all.
To say we’re excited about this change is a huge understatement. It’s been a real drag having to split our time between production and fundraising and not being able to add new features in our existing engine. With the move to Unity, we can finally focus on getting you guys the game you always wanted. We also think you’re really going to love the changes we’re making to our approach this time. We’ve learned a ton over these years and with a fresh start, we believe we’re on the verge of making something really special.
May Progress Report and Upcoming Features
We’re close to releasing a whole suite of changes to combat, but I didn’t want the month to go by without an update on our progress.
Below is a list of the features we’re going to be adding to the game in the coming weeks, and in approximate chronological order. This is not all we have in store by any means, but it’s where the changes begin.
Improved Evasive and Defensive Maneuvers
Forward and backwards dash will be accessible regardless of what craft is equipped.
New mod that allows for interrupting any action with an evasion.
Making the dash jump a mod instead of a standard behavior.
Fixing the bug of blocking while dashing.
New mod for Sword and Shield that allows for interrupting any action with a block.
New and Improved Sword and Shield Attacks
An all-new standard 2-hit combo jump attack to replace the current flimsy swipe.
Improved 3-hit combo animation.
New attack mod that replaces your mid-air down attack with a diving stab.
Bug Fixes
Moonwalking when entering a new area while Bow and Arrow is unsheathed.
Dying while in mid-air tends to break things.
Investigating some Humdinger and Spangly Tom server crashes.
Fixing a layer ordering issue with back crafts.
Cosmetic/Aesthetic Changes
Have monsters’ eyes follow their target.
No longer have the custom looks break and reveal the mannequin underneath.
New, bigger, nastier hit effect on attacking enemies.
Make an attempt at some hitpausing.
Improve the Sword and Shield’s hitbox in an attempt to improve the ‘hit feel’.
Tutorial
Have an NPC explain how shifting to new areas works.
Possibly add signs at shift areas to make it clearer you can move there.
Move the controls tutorial into the game via NPCs.
Do something to make the workshop stations more obviously interactive.
New Systems and Variable Changes
Fall Damage! Something new to worry about, no more jumping off of the top of mountains unscathed. Also pairs well with the dive attack mod for Sword and Shield for some nice risk/reward.
Play around with run speeds to get a better pace to battles and exploration.
I’ll send out another update as soon as these changes go live. We’re also working on some new crafts and monsters in parallel with the work above, which we’ll be showing off soon as well.
Happy Summer everyone!
- Charles
Results from the Survey and what’s coming next
Development Priorities Survey Results
We’ve received over 100 responses to our survey on development priorities and you can view the results here.
It’s clear that the majority of you want both improvements to the combat system and more reasons to use it (i.e. missions, looting, crafting) more than studio or community features and even before new monsters, crafts, and locations are added. That’s how we feel as well and is also what we’re most excited to work on, so we’ll be focusing our development on combat first and adding features as they support the fun of those core action game mechanics.
Combat Overhaul
First up will be some very important changes to the features and feel of our combat. We’ll be adding new weapons and monsters in the coming months, but we’ll first start by improving what we currently have so that we’ve got a strong foundation of new standards to build from. Some of these changes will be in the form of default stat changes, new animations, and mechanics, but we will also be adding many combat changes in the form of new mods that can give you a range of combat experiences.
We understand that some of these mods may be so necessary to fun gameplay that everyone adds them to their Artizens. When this is the case, we’ll move it over from being a mod to being default to everyone’s Artizen. However, we want to start with them as mods to give everyone the choice of how they want their combat to feel as opposed to saying there’s only one right way. Perhaps being able to cancel out of attacks with a backwards evasion is totally crucial to you, but someone else would rather commit to their attacks and add knockback resistance and lifesteal to make up for the damage they take. We’re hoping to give you all as many interesting and meaningful choices like these as we possibly can.
What’s Coming Next
We have a bunch of really cool weapons and monsters designed and we want to share the ideas with you before they go into production to see what you think. I’ll be using these announcements to post public google docs to our designs where you can see what we’ve got coming down the pipe and give us your feedback to influence the development.
In addition to the combat overhaul, new weapons, and monsters, we’re working on some simple ways to give more meaning to going out into the wilderness before we’re able to finish the full progression system of missions, loot, and crafting. We’ll have more to say on that once we’ve tackled combat and got it whipped into shape.
Thank you everyone for your feedback and thoughts! It’s great to hear from you all and wonderful to see we’re on the same page for priorities.
Tell us what matters to you most!
There is a lot more to come for Artizens, but we want to make sure we're working on the right things.
We've put together a quick survey so you can tell us what matters to you most among the things we're currently working on. We'll be doing this with most of our development from now on so that this game really becomes our game together.
It should only take a couple minutes to fill out, but it will really help us in understanding what you all care about most.
Thanks!
250 Community Looks Added and Official Soundtrack Volume 1 Now Available!
Community Looks
Mix and match, see what's possible, get inspired, or simply benefit from other people's hard work!
We've added 250 community looks to the workshop that everyone can use to customize their Artizens! These were made by Artizens staff, friends, family, and some of our earliest fans and Kickstarter backers. Simply click on the Community tab when you're in the Workshop and you'll see them.
Get your looks into the Community tab If you want to make your drawings available to the whole community, send me an email at charles@artizensonline.com with a screenshot of your look so I know I’m tagging the correct one and I'll get it in there. This is just our Early Access way of letting you use each other's art, but in the full version you won't need to contact me.
Artizens Official Soundtrack Volume 1 by Adam Nash
Much of this music is not in the Early Access game yet, so definitely check it out!
Adam has put together 20 tracks from all across the continent of Rhiza to form the first volume of our ongoing official soundtrack.
It's available as a $6.99 DLC for everyone who owns the base game and gets added as MP3 files to your game folder and auto-detected by the built-in Steam Music Player.
Track List
Become Anything 01:47
Ketsa Cove 03:01
Busy at the Workshop 01:45
Risks and Rewards 01:32
Tober Woods 01:47
Armed to the Teeth 01:54
Armed to the Teeth - Final Push 01:06
Today, We're Victorious 00:47
The Buzzing Terror 01:35
The Buzzing Terror - Final Push 01:09
Sunset on the Plains 02:01
Showdown on the Plains 01:53
Showdown on the Plains - Final Push 00:58
Far Away From Home 02:56
Peaceful Seas 01:11
Reinvent Ourselves 02:05
Reinvent Ourselves (Trailer Cut) 00:50
Something Wicked... 01:14
Cloudbound Cliffs 01:25
Sunset on the Plains (Chronicles of Sound Remix) 03:17
