Legendary Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto to Compose Entire Soundtrack for Animus Interactive’s Real Time Strategy Game, Avalon Lords: Dawn Rises
Hitoshi Sakimoto composing soundtrack for Avalon Lords: Dawn Rises
Legendary composer Hitoshi Sakimoto is composing and performing the entire soundtrack to Avalon Lords: Dawn Rises.
Best known for his work on Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy Tactics, and the Valkyria Chronicles series, Sakimoto has so far worked on over 180
projects, ranging from video games, animated series and CD releases. He also composed the orchestral soundtracks for the Japanese anime 'Romeo x Juliet', ‘The Tower of Druaga' and the Valkyria Chronicles animated series.
He began playing music and video games in elementary school, and began composing video game music for money by the time he was 16. Sakimoto's professional career began a few years later in 1988 when he started composing music professionally as a freelancer, as well as programming sound drivers for games.
Avalon Lords: Dawn Rises Roadmap – Where Are We Going From Here?
Good day my friends!
The staff here at Animus has been pretty busy behind the scenes thanks to all the great feedback and suggestions we have been given. It is all really appreciated, please keep it coming. We wanted to give you a peek at where we are looking to take Avalon Lords: Dawn Rises, so this post here will serve as a sort of “roadmap” for the future. To be clear, any of this may be changed, added to, subtracted from, etc., as we go through the Early Access phase. Your thoughts and suggestions on all this are valued, so please share them and comment on our forums!
Empire Mode/Matchmaking
We know that Empire mode doesn't really do all that much at the moment and we have received some excellent suggestions as to how it can be improved. Since we are a very small team of less than 10 people, we need to prioritize our energies. As such, we will temporarily be disabling the Empire mode and instead replace it with a more straightforward matchmaking system that will allow people to get to the action quickly. Don't fear though, Empire mode will return when we can get it to a point where it is a lot more fun. [STATUS: On Hold]
Battle Mode
In a similar vein as above, Battle mode will be disabled. [STATUS: On Hold]
Practice Mode
For the same reasons of being able to concentrate our efforts, Practice mode will be disabled until we can get a proper Tutorial level going. [STATUS: On Hold]
Factions
Since Empire mode is taking a back seat for a bit, we are also going to remove the concept of the Factions. There was some confusion as to the differences between them, and outside of Empire mode they don't serve a game purpose. They were meant to be sub-factions of the same group of people, more like a Greek city-state, but they kept being confused with the idea of a “faction” in a more traditional sense. To avoid that confusion, we will simply remove them. Which leads me to what we will replace them with… [STATUS: Removed]
New Factions/Orders
For anybody who has read about the game world history, you will see that we have in mind three Great Orders, being Dawn, Darkness and Divine. These are “factions” in the more proper sense (different troops types, building types, etc). The Order of Dawn is the “poster boy” faction, while they do have some magical ability they concentrate more on martial aspects coupled with speed and agility. The Order of Darkness values brute strength combined with advanced (medieval) technology to give them the edge over others. Finally the Order of Divine favors magical power over all other things, even their basic foot soldiers have some very basic talent. Currently the troops/buildings in the game are from the Order of Dawn and for the moment it will remain that way as we develop things. The other two Orders will be added later on. [STATUS: Upcoming]
Music/Soundtrack
We are pleased and honored to say that we have a world-famous composer currently working on the soundtrack for the game. I can’t quite say just yet who that person is (stay tuned for an upcoming announcement on that!), but I can say this person has done the soundtracks for a couple other games you have all heard of and the soundtracks for those games are so good that professional orchestras perform them around the world. [STATUS: Under Development]
Art
We have recently expanded our team to include a new artist. We will announce him more formally soon (Peter wants to get some more concept art completed first). He comes as a personal recommendation by the Art Director of another very well-known game I am sure you have all heard of. The general art direction will be updated graphics to be more in line with other modern games people are playing. First we are starting with the buildings and then our thought is to redo terrain followed by the various troops themselves. [STATUS: Under Development]
UI/HUD
Our Game Designer has been hard at work retooling the way the GUI is set up. We are going to do a complete overhaul of the whole thing, including the General Lobby, the Match Lobby as well as the in game HUD. We have been getting a lot of great suggestions on how this should be set up and I think people will be pleased by what they see. [STATUS: Under Development]
Gameplay Features
We have a lot of exciting stuff coming for general game play. Besides improving the overall performance of the game itself we will be improving the AI of the troops so they also perform better. Additionally, a proper tutorial will go in that should help new players who are just learning the game and may even help skilled players become just that much better at things. Also on the list is proper formations so that it is easier for players to control their armies and add that next layer of battlefield strategy. [STATUS - Upcoming]
Heroes
We plan on introducing another popular suggestion made by many people - Heroes! These will be special troops with various abilities and not just your run-of-the-mill footsoldiers. I can’t go into much detail just yet, but know they are on the books. [STATUS - Upcoming]
Online Store
Since Dawn Rises is a free to play game, we will be implementing a cash shop. However, this will NOT be a pay-to-win shop. Nothing offered there will benefit one player’s game balance over another simply because one spent some money while the other did not. General things that will be available includes Troop/Building models, various skins for those models, different unit icons, expanded Taunts and sounds, etc. [STATUS - Upcoming]
eSports
We have the goal to eventually turn this game into an eSport. We know that in it’s current form Dawn Rises needs a little reworking to gear things more in the direction of a competitive game. Plans are to speed up the overall game play so that things happen faster and average match time is cut down. Communication between players and especially team members is important for this of course, so we will also be improving those aspects as well. In the near future we will be announcing some details on plans for having actual tournaments for people to compete in as well as the company we have partnered with to provide some quality prizes. [STATUS - Upcoming]
Player Stats
As part of the eSports thing, we will be adding in a whole bunch more game statistics. This will make it so that you can easily see where you stand on a variety of different aspects and also how you stack up against other players. [STATUS - Upcoming]
I hope that all gives a general look at the direction that we will be heading. Again, any, all or none of this is subject to change as time goes on and we will continue to update people as things get altered. More specific information will come as each thing goes into development so please keep on the lookout for that. Specifically look for some announcements about the art and music coming up in the weeks ahead.
Thanks once again for all the excellent feedback we have been getting from you. We really do listen and carefully consider it all and many of you have already changed things in the game based upon your ideas. Please, keep those coming!
For Avalon!
Chris Schoolcraft (aka “Knightmare”)
Community Manager, Animus Interactive
Server going down for Maintenance
Hello Fellow Avalonions!
The servers will be down for maintenance at 1pm PDT | 4pm PDT for around 20 - 30 minutes.
We apologize for this inconvenience and will have it up and running as fast as we can!
Avalon Lords: Dawn Rises is now FREE TO PLAY!
The real time strategy game, Avalon Lords: Dawn Rises is FREE TO PLAY.
We understand that there are many people out there who shy away from any game that is in Early Access. However, something that simple should not stop people from being able to enjoy the game and, equally important, being able to give their feedback and suggestions. We would like to create the best game that we can and the more people we have sharing their ideas and opinions, the better off we are.
This is not going to effect production in any way shape or form. As a matter of fact, we just implemented a few very exciting things including taunts and a new map and we are working on some new music and concept art at this very moment. We will have some amazing announcements for you moving forward.
What about the money I spent for the game already?
We realize that you have payed your hard earned money for the game so, we have some things to offer you in compensation. First, once the game shop goes in, we will credit you $30USD in shop assets for you to enjoy – even if you bought the game on sale. Secondly, we have a very well known composer working on the official soundtrack for Dawn Rises (stay tuned to further announcements to find out exactly who!) and we will send you a digital copy of the soundtrack once it is complete. You will also get the ability to play on nightly builds, so you get to see fixes as they get put in before official patch releases. Finally, we will give you access to our private internal Discord chat server where you will be able to speak directly to the staff here at Animus Interactive and help shape the game even more with an insider's track.
What if I have questions? I need more information!
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, there are a few things that you can do.
May your sword be quick and your shield be light. For Avalon!
June 1st | Build 0.2.6.188 | New Map, Taunts & More
Greetings fellow Avalonians!
We have been hard at work for you this week with more updates to help you have a more pleasurable gaming experience. Since we are still in the early access stages, we are aware that there may be some issues that popup so please keep giving us your feedback and telling us of the bugs you come across so our team can SMASH them immediately.
In this build we have new things like additional icons to help identify troops. Performance improvements. A brand new 1v1 Map called Scattered Islands. Voice taunts to throw at your enemy with the v key and more!
AL-1820 Fix construction menu categories not working
AL-1818 Research queue implemented, but still can't queue more than 1 research
AL-1817 Wall, free space between wall pieces after the slope
AL-1816 Music Playing Too Frequently
AL-1814 When researching in resource buildings research doesn't appear in queue
AL-1811 When all research item has been placed in queue, the information window of Blacksmith and University becomes blank
AL-1810 Some buildings can't start research
AL-1809 Banners detached from squads and stuck on screen.
AL-1808 [Internal] Game crashes
AL-1807 Increase Empire Mode Population Cap to 500
AL-1806 Rally flag missing texture on the polle
AL-1805 [Internal] Missing resource node model
AL-1804 [Internal] Missing mine model
AL-1803 [Performance] Disable reflections on water in the castle lvl 1 fountain
AL-1802 [Performance] Enable occlusion culling in current map
AL-1801 [Performance] Unit flag performance improvements
AL-1800 Edge scrolling works while using the right mouse button to pan.
AL-1799 Building Information window does not show any information on Spectator Mode
AL-1797 Add Chat Box To Spectator Mode
AL-1796 Match titles No Longer Work
AL-1794 Building UI broken in spectator mode
AL-1792 University has a Unit Queue field which overlaps with some research items
AL-1788 [Irrelevant] When scrolling research with mouse scroll wheel, scroll bar doesn't update
AL-1787 Mine UI shows "trainable units", and "unit queue" labels. Misleading
AL-1786 Move unit queue before research in the building UI, cannot see if i added units to production
AL-1780 Remove range limit on hover info.
AL-1756 Add New Ambience Sounds For Structures/Fighting
AL-1753 Add Faction Chat To In Game Chat Menu
AL-1748 Range Marker does not disappear when you zoomed out
AL-1736 Make walls always be upright when build on slopes.
AL-1734 [By Design] Deleting units refunds you
AL-1732 Chatbox Selecting Player
AL-1724 Remove research items from a University/Blacksmith that are already being researched by another.
AL-1723 Allow research to be queued like units.
AL-1630 Cannot use mouse scroll wheel in university and blacksmith to scroll research.
AL-1598 It's possible to start same research in separate buildings.
AL-1586 Spectator user portrait visible when closing menu or clicking icons
AL-1540 Soldiers went crazy, when an spectator joined in on new map
AL-1810 Some buildings can't start research
AL-1809 Banners detached from squads and stuck on screen.
AL-1808 [Internal] Game crashes
AL-1807 Increase Empire Mode Population Cap to 500
AL-1806 Rally flag missing texture on the polle
AL-1805 [Internal] Missing resource node model
AL-1804 [Internal] Missing mine model
AL-1803 [Performance] Disable reflections on water in the castle lvl 1 fountain
AL-1802 [Performance] Enable occlusion culling in current map
AL-1801 [Performance] Unit flag performance improvements
AL-1800 Edge scrolling works while using the right mouse button to pan.
AL-1797 Add Chat Box To Spectator Mode
AL-1796 Match titles No Longer Work
AL-1792 University has a Unit Queue field which overlaps with some research items
AL-1788 [Irrelevant] When scrolling research with mouse scroll wheel, scroll bar doesn't update
AL-1787 Mine UI shows "trainable units", and "unit queue" labels. Misleading
AL-1786 Move unit queue before research in the building UI, cannot see if i added units to production
AL-1780 Remove range limit on hover info.
AL-1756 Add New Ambience Sounds For Structures/Fighting
AL-1753 Add Faction Chat To In Game Chat Menu
AL-1748 Range Marker does not disappear when you zoomed out
AL-1736 Make walls always be upright when build on slopes.
AL-1734 [By Design] Deleting units refunds you
AL-1732 Chatbox Selecting Player
AL-1724 Remove research items from a University/Blacksmith that are already being researched by another.
AL-1630 Cannot use mouse scroll wheel in university and blacksmith to scroll research.
AL-1598 It's possible to start same research in separate buildings.
AL-1586 Spectator user portrait visible when closing menu or clicking icons
AL-1540 Soldiers went crazy, when an spectator joined in on new map
A First Look at Upcoming Changes - Dawn Rises going Free To Play!
Good day fellow Avalonians! We will be having some big announcements coming to you over the next few weeks and the team here is really excited about them. To start things off I wanted to let you all in on a change that will be coming very soon... until further notice we will be making Avalon Lords: Dawn Rises free to play! “Why are we doing that” you ask? Well, we understand that there are many people out there who shy away from any game that is in Early Access. However, something that simple should not stop people from being able to enjoy the game and, equally important, being able to give their feedback and suggestions. We would like to create the best game that we can and the more people we have sharing their ideas and opinions, the better off we are. So, if you have been waiting on the sideline for the right time to get the game, then that time is near – June 2, 2016, to be exact!
Does this mean that we will be slowing down production or reducing any of our plans? Not at all. In fact some of the upcoming announcements will be about expanding certain things. How will we fund the game development? For that we will (at some point) be introducing an in-game shop where those who want can buy various cosmetic assets for their account. Now, I know what you are thinking, “Whoopie, another free-to-play/pay-to-win game...” Nope, not here! Anything that becomes available in the shop will be purely cosmetic; there will be nothing available that would put someone in a better game balance position over other players simply because that person spent some cash. One of our goals is to make Dawn Rises an eSports game and the whole “pay-to-win” model is in direct conflict with that, so it simply won't exist here. A quick look around our Steam Community Hub will show you that we really do care about our community. Your enjoyment as well as getting your feedback is much more important to us than making money off people.
Which brings me to the next point. We know there is a whole big bunch of you out there who have already spent money to buy the game. It would be simply horrible of us to just swap over to a free game and not give you something in return for your investment. So, we have some things to offer you in compensation. First, once the game shop goes in, we will credit you $30USD in shop assets for you to enjoy – even if you bought the game on sale. Secondly, we have a very well known composer working on the official soundtrack for Dawn Rises (stay tuned to further announcements to find out exactly who!) and we will send you a digital copy of the soundtrack once it is complete. You will also get the ability to play on nightly builds, so you get to see fixes as they get put in before official patch releases. Finally, we will give you access to our private internal Discord chat server where you will be able to speak directly to the staff here at Animus Interactive and help shape the game even more with an insider's track.
So that's it for now, please stay tuned for more announcements on a variety of things we have coming up. As always please feel free to comment here or on our forums. If anybody has any issues or whatever, you can always email me directly. Especially if you have already purchased the game, please email me with your Steam name as well as your Dawn Rises gamer name.
We will be hosting a "townhall" type meeting for anybody who has questions or comments on our live stream tonight. Join us at 9pm EDT/6pm PDT on our Twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/animusinteractive
May your sword be quick and your shield be light. For Avalon!
Chris Schoolcraft (aka “Knightmare”)
Community Manager, Animus Interactive
cschoolcraft@animusinteractive.com
Giveaways,Gifts, and 1 Penny Keys
We have heard there are keys being filtered around that may not be legit or truthful. Please be wary of anyone offering keys unless it is from an official vendor of Animus Interactive such as Steam. If you feel you have been targeted, or are a victim of such activities. Please report the key, incident time, and site to press@animusinteractive.com. We apologize about the frustration you may be experiencing. Our team is indeed concerned about these activities and we are looking to help those affected.
If the keys are real we still ask you report how you received them. We will not be de-activating them on you. You get to keep using them.
Thank You.
New Maps Coming
We have heard you all loud and clear. New maps are on the way. Smaller and allowing quicker fights. We will be having 3 new maps. One good for 3v3, one good for 2v2, and one for old 1v1 fights. Stand fast Avalonians!
Watch The CEO Fight Live Tonight!
Live on Twitch at 9PM EST/6PM PST we watch Frank Cefalu, the CEO of Animus Interactive go head to head with a community member.
June 1st | Build 0.2.6.188| New Map, Taunts & More
Greetings fellow Avalonians!
We have been hard at work for you this week with more updates to help you have a more pleasurable gaming experience. Since we are still in the early access stages, we are aware that there may be some issues that popup so please keep giving us your feedback and telling us of the bugs you come across so our team can SMASH them immediately.
In this build we have new things like additional icons to help identify troops. Performance improvements. A brand new 1v1 Map called Scattered Islands. Voice taunts to throw at your enemy with the v key and more!
AL-1820 Fix construction menu categories not working
AL-1818 Research queue implemented, but still can't queue more than 1 research
AL-1817 Wall, free space between wall pieces after the slope
AL-1816 Music Playing Too Frequently
AL-1814 When researching in resource buildings research doesn't appear in queue
AL-1811 When all research item has been placed in queue, the information window of Blacksmith and University becomes blank
AL-1810 Some buildings can't start research
AL-1809 Banners detached from squads and stuck on screen.
AL-1808 [Internal] Game crashes
AL-1807 Increase Empire Mode Population Cap to 500
AL-1806 Rally flag missing texture on the polle
AL-1805 [Internal] Missing resource node model
AL-1804 [Internal] Missing mine model
AL-1803 [Performance] Disable reflections on water in the castle lvl 1 fountain
AL-1802 [Performance] Enable occlusion culling in current map
AL-1801 [Performance] Unit flag performance improvements
AL-1800 Edge scrolling works while using the right mouse button to pan.
AL-1799 Building Information window does not show any information on Spectator Mode
AL-1797 Add Chat Box To Spectator Mode
AL-1796 Match titles No Longer Work
AL-1794 Building UI broken in spectator mode
AL-1792 University has a Unit Queue field which overlaps with some research items
AL-1788 [Irrelevant] When scrolling research with mouse scroll wheel, scroll bar doesn't update
AL-1787 Mine UI shows "trainable units", and "unit queue" labels. Misleading
AL-1786 Move unit queue before research in the building UI, cannot see if i added units to production
AL-1780 Remove range limit on hover info.
AL-1756 Add New Ambience Sounds For Structures/Fighting
AL-1753 Add Faction Chat To In Game Chat Menu
AL-1748 Range Marker does not disappear when you zoomed out
AL-1736 Make walls always be upright when build on slopes.
AL-1734 [By Design] Deleting units refunds you
AL-1732 Chatbox Selecting Player
AL-1724 Remove research items from a University/Blacksmith that are already being researched by another.
AL-1723 Allow research to be queued like units.
AL-1630 Cannot use mouse scroll wheel in university and blacksmith to scroll research.
AL-1598 It's possible to start same research in separate buildings.
AL-1586 Spectator user portrait visible when closing menu or clicking icons
AL-1540 Soldiers went crazy, when an spectator joined in on new map
AL-1810 Some buildings can't start research
AL-1809 Banners detached from squads and stuck on screen.
AL-1808 [Internal] Game crashes
AL-1807 Increase Empire Mode Population Cap to 500
AL-1806 Rally flag missing texture on the polle
AL-1805 [Internal] Missing resource node model
AL-1804 [Internal] Missing mine model
AL-1803 [Performance] Disable reflections on water in the castle lvl 1 fountain
AL-1802 [Performance] Enable occlusion culling in current map
AL-1801 [Performance] Unit flag performance improvements
AL-1800 Edge scrolling works while using the right mouse button to pan.
AL-1797 Add Chat Box To Spectator Mode
AL-1796 Match titles No Longer Work
AL-1792 University has a Unit Queue field which overlaps with some research items
AL-1788 [Irrelevant] When scrolling research with mouse scroll wheel, scroll bar doesn't update
AL-1787 Mine UI shows "trainable units", and "unit queue" labels. Misleading
AL-1786 Move unit queue before research in the building UI, cannot see if i added units to production
AL-1780 Remove range limit on hover info.
AL-1756 Add New Ambience Sounds For Structures/Fighting
AL-1753 Add Faction Chat To In Game Chat Menu
AL-1748 Range Marker does not disappear when you zoomed out
AL-1736 Make walls always be upright when build on slopes.
AL-1734 [By Design] Deleting units refunds you
AL-1732 Chatbox Selecting Player
AL-1724 Remove research items from a University/Blacksmith that are already being researched by another.
AL-1630 Cannot use mouse scroll wheel in university and blacksmith to scroll research.
AL-1598 It's possible to start same research in separate buildings.
AL-1586 Spectator user portrait visible when closing menu or clicking icons
AL-1540 Soldiers went crazy, when an spectator joined in on new map
Hitoshi Sakimoto composing soundtrack for Avalon Lords: Dawn Rises
