Blood Bond: Into the Shroud
30% off Blood Bond - Into the Shroud
The great Steam Summer Sale is on - and we are participating. I do feel that I price our games in line with what they are worth, and as a general policy do not do regular sales throughout the year.
However, we have customers and wishlisters from all parts of the world and in all age groups and income brackets. I recognize that for some people a few dollars makes a big difference for legitimate reasons and that gaming is a major source of mental wellbeing and happiness in life that should be accessible to all.
As such twice a year, Summer and Winter, we will be participating in Steam's sales and on those occasions will give a huge discount instead of dotting minor discounts throughout the year. If you have been waiting for a cheaper time to buy the game - now is it - enjoy!
Keep in mind that we are still in Chapter release, and the game will not be complete till end of August. Come visit our community forums for the details on the current state of the game.
best regards
Kosala
Welcome to the Steel Series community!
If you are visiting as a result of the collaboration we are doing with Steelseries this week - we are super happy to see you and welcome to the world of Jordenheim.
Don't forget to swing by the community forums and say hello and peruse our guidelines, discussions and the current state of the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/820890/discussions/
best regards
Kosala "Kos" Ubayasekara
Founder and CEO
Patch 2.0 - Chapter 3 arrives redux
Its finally here, patch 2.0 will be available for download Monday the 24th of June. Well past its original date. I should probably explain why :)
One of the key drivers of the chapter based release was to give people who were not hardcore gamers a step by step introduction to experiencing an RPG and us as a small development team the time to find issues, iterate on design and concepts together with the early users before we committed to the end content of the game - where such errors would be more unforgiving.
This plan played itself more successfully than originally planned and a boatload of feedback and issues were found by the community and as a result, I wanted to make sure we were addressing those issues as we launched the new content chapter.
Our goals with this build
Release content Chapter 3 and move the main storyline forward a step. Address the community concerns and feedback and iterate significantly on our main features.
Features
- Chapter 3 is now in the game.
Improvements
- Mapping and Navigation system completely overhauled. Now available as a top of the screen navigation reminiscent of Skyrim or God of War.
- Crafting system completely overhauled. Now crafting skills are learned by quests or interactions with the world events - and after that are permanently available in the right-click radial menu to use whenever you want.
- Some effects have been improved.
- New background music has been added to the rotation of random music. All original pieces from our composer Christoph Barth.
- Birger the Bastard, your NPC sidekick has been added
- Additional voice overs added to Birger
- Pathing AI and NPC AI improvements for performance
- Monster AI improvements
- Main HUD improvements
- Notifications have been moved from floating combat text to side fly-ins
Life after this patch
We are moving to a weekly patching schedule for more frequent iterations for faster bug fixing on issues found and faster and smaller changes and quality of life improvements. Saturday will now be patch notes day, Monday will be patch update day.
Bugfixes
- Crash that happens at the guard house by the bridge to Icy Peaks fixed
- The leaning bug that happened that caused Astrid to intermittently lean after combat askew from her normal standing angle has been found and fixed
- Idle animations for Astrid improved
- Flickering bug that caused small vegetation to flicker weirdly during wind animation fixed
Our Public Trello Board
This is where you see what we are working on and upcoming features.
https://trello.com/b/jHITy0q3/blood-bond-release-schedule
Our Discord
This is how you talk directly to the team (mostly me).
https://discordapp.com/invite/kq574nz
Whew - almost there!
There has been some radio silence for over a week now so just wanted to drop a note on progress. Chapter 3 is getting its side quests ironed out the next couple of days. I took a small breather from it to deal with some critical issues found by one of our community members on the forums here and decided they were serious enough to delay the Chapter 3 launch to fix.
That has been dealt with now and I have also incorporated the new map/navigation system and the new crafting system while I was at it. So Chapter 3 has turned into more of a feature upgrade than initially expected and all these upgrades will go live with the Chapter 3 content update :)
Now I am working on tying up some loose ends on side quests and aligning them correctly with the main quest line before I can drop this into your hands for some actual gaming.
Stay tuned for a further update towards the end of this week and many thanks as always for your patience!
best regards
Kosala
Chapter 3 preview screenshots on our Discord
While the wait for Chapter 3 continues, you can find three preview screenshots of the zone on our Disocrd channel. Come join us there:
The WRKS Games Discord Channel
best regards
Kosala
Chapter 3 update and insights
We have had a very successful push in marketing efforts this month on getting the word out about our game and our community, adding over 1600 people now as owners of Blood Bond - Into the Shroud.
Both for those of that are newly initiated in our community and as an update to the many that have been with us on this journey so far - I felt a quick update was necessary.
Chapter 3 update
I am aiming for Chapter 3 to now go live on Thursday. Adding Birger into the game destabilized some combat mechanics that needed to be rebalanced and the addition of our first indoor environment and game mechanics to that needed more work. I am now getting to a good state with that and it's almost ready to put into your hands.
The Chapter Release Schedule
The main game is more or less done end to end across all six chapters. The main reason for us to release in chapters intermittently was to test our a model for storytelling that we wanted to try and to ensure that we were carrying out the first launch of a game in the studio with humility.
It was unlikely that as a first-time game developer we were going to nail the right definition of all the concepts and mechanics in the game on the first try based only on in house talent and thoughts.
We needed a mechanism of ensuring value to consumers by allowing time to adapt to feedback and allow for changes to be incorporated for those that were buying the game. The chapter by chapter schedule ensures that we can catch problems and fix them, and make those fixes available to people that have purchased the game already - thus ensuring good value for money.
If we had tried to perfect the game to a conclusion in house, based on our own ideas only, released it and found them to be flawed - there would have been no way for us to rectify that post-purchase for a gamer. Thus, we would have given poor value to those supporting us - you.
This model has worked very well and done exactly what was intended and the game has gotten much better as we evolved the introductory two chapters we launched since March together with the community.
The Right Way to Report Bugs and Feedback
I noticed that one or two community members are using the review system to highlight issues they find in the game. I am always happy for people to voice their honest opinions on the game in any manner they have publicly available - including reviews. It does, however, help me action the bugs more intelligently if you report them in the community forums here instead - because then we can actually try to narrow down if it is a bug and how to sort it out permanently.
Looking forward to bringing Chapter 3 to you next week and as always the team is grateful for the stellar welcome we have received on Steam for our first title.
best regards
Kosala
Welcome to the Alienware Community Members
We are super happy to see you and welcome you to the world of Jordenheim.
You are just in time for a big content update over the next few days when we launch Chapter 3 - which is the start of big story points in the game after the tutorial and intro portions. Good times indeed - enjoy and swing by the forums to tell us if you find bugs, issues and feedback!
Best regards
Kosala
Polishing and Shining
A heads up to the community that I was expecting to upload Chapter 3 to Steam this past weekend but decided in the last minute not to do so.
Chapter 3, adds a major feature - your NPC sidekick in the game. Although the content for chapter 3 and this major feature is done being developed, the gameplay during testing did not quite hit the spot for me.
As such, going to take a few days to polish and shine what we have now before putting it into your hands. The update will go up on Steam in the next few days, during the week.
Thanks for your patience,
best regards
Kosala
Patch 2.0 - Chapter 3 arrives
Patch 2.0 goes live this coming weekend at last. Our voice over artist has recovered from the flu, lines are recorded and we are ready to rumble!
Our goals with this build
Launch the 3rd chapter of the game, introduce your sidekick in the game Birger the Bastard and evolve the main storyline.
Features
- Chapter 3 is live in this patch.
Improvements
- Main Storyline expanded into next chapter
- New craftables added
Happening in Jordenheim
The path through the Iron Peaks have been blocked unexpectedly. Travel out of the Vallentuna region can only be done through the treachorous Plush Wilds region. A dank, lush wilderness - full of peril. Expect to die a lot.
Bugfixes
- Some small bugs squashed.
Our Public Trello Board
This is where you see what we are working on and upcoming features.
https://trello.com/b/jHITy0q3/blood-bond-release-schedule
Our Discord
This is how you talk directly to the team (mostly me).
https://discordapp.com/invite/kq574nz
The flu, coughs and what has to do with releases!
While it's never cool to announce a delay after we just had a delay, we have been stymied in our efforts to get you Chapter 3....by the summer.
Our newly minted voice-over artist who is doing the voice of Birger has been down with the summer flu, coughs, and sore throats. As such, recording only began yesterday.
I am therefore having to delay the release of Chapter 3 to NEXT Friday and the full patch notes will be out on Wednesday the 8th of May. Apologies again for this, but we have to roll with the punches.
best regards
Kosala