Blood Bond: Into the Shroud
State of the Game - To All the Wishlisters We've Loved Before
Every now and then I will post a state of the game report, and generally do it on a theme. Today is sales, wishlists and how our first two months went.
What Went Well
We bust through most of the launch bugs, responded to community requests for controller support and better level 1 clarity and have now reached a stable status for the main content updates to come.
We have received a good balance of reviews. Strong positives from curators, two positives from gamers and 2 negatives. We take it all in and expect nothing other than honest feedback from our community so we can improve together.
Stats and Data
We have some surprising stats and some expected ones. The US accounts for more than 40% of our sales on its own. No surprises there. We have customers joining the community from as far out as Georgia, India, and Japan. Considering we have not localized to anything other than English so far - very surprised about that.
Sales - The Good and the Bad
Sales have started well for us since our official exit from Early Access and that is thanks to all of you that supported us from the get-go. I am happy to report that the small team is now able to pay salaries to most of the team through sales both last month and this month across our intake from Steam worldwide and Green Man Gaming in the UK. I can still cover the remainder of the team until we break even - which is expected in the next few months.
It is a proud day for an entrepreneur when that happens and we have been very fortunate to have been supported that way by our community. The only downside I can see from these two months so far is that a very large number of wishlisters have still not taken the plunge to complete their purchase.
I completely understand the risk of supporting a new developer like ours with your money, and like every small company, cashflow decides many things for us. Although we do not need more money to complete the upcoming episodes of Into the Shroud, the money stuck in unfulfilled wishlists would come in handy for our upgrades to the game we are working on for the Game+ mode coming in Q4 this year, and work we are now undertaking on adding more voiceovers, better effects and enhancements to the game that was not originally part of the budget.
So for those of you that are lingering and starting to feel confident in pushing the button, please do go ahead with your purchases as we currently have almost $20 000 pending in the Steam wishlist alone.
What We are Working On Next
The most immediate content update is the Chapter 3 release due at the end of this week. This adds your NPC sidekick Birger, additional game levels, additional craftables and really brings the game up a notch as the main story line progresses into hostile parts of the Jordenheim world.
The Big Picture
Additionally with the impact of sales being larger than we expected for these two months work is beginning earlier than expected on the second game. Keep an eye peeled for an announcement on that in May.
I leave this with a massive THANK YOU for your support of our endeavours that has been made possible by the initial commercial results we have had and welcome you to our discord community if you want to engage directly with me:
discordapp.com/invite/kq574nz
best regards
Kosala Ubayasekara
Founder, CEO, Game Developer and what have you....
Patch 2.0 slightly delayed
I am putting the final touches on Chapter 3 and while the work on the chapter was underway, Epic Games released Unreal Engine 4.22. There are a number of animation optimizations I am interested in incorporating from that build and a host of other optimizations including file footprint (smaller downloads for you guys) and performance enhancements that will impact the game positively.
As such I am taking an extra week to upgrade the game to Unreal Engine 4.22 before we deploy chapter 3. Expect it to drop for you guys on Friday the 3rd of May.
There will be screens and videos of the new chapter available throughout the week as a preview on our social media channels and on our discord. See you back in the game soon!
best regards
Kosala
Patch 1.4 - The Community Features Patch
Welcome to Patch 1.4 ladies and gentleman! It goes live on Friday the 5th April and this is a community feature request update patch and contains some of the most asked for features by our gaming community.
Our goals with this build
Broaden input types to the game by adding controller support for a wide array of controllers and add the most asked for community features.
Features
- Controller support has been introduced with support for Xbox, PS4, Steam and most generic gamepads and controllers. You can have the mouse and gamepad/controller connected to your PC simultaneously and switch between them at will during the game as you like.
Improvements
- Idle animations improved and diversified.
- New crafting recipes and vendors added to Vallentuna
- Visual improvements to color grading, shadow depth, and overall polish added
Happening in Jordenheim
The Shroud has parted alarmingly close to Vallentuna. Expect more random monster encounters and danger closer to the town areas. There is a heightened militia guard presence across the Vallentuna area.
Bugfixes
- Climbing glitch by wolf on Chapter 1 fixed
- Bug that caused Chapter 1 boss to follow you to spawn location if you died has been fixed
- Bug that caused Chapter 1 boss to despawn on your death 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 Social Media
This is where you tell us how amazing we are...cause we all need to be loved....
https://www.wrks-games.com/community/
Our Discord
This is how you talk directly to the team (mostly me).
https://discordapp.com/invite/kq574nz
Patch 1.4 delayed a week
A heads up that we are making some changes for April patches. There was a patch due out today, that was initially planned for some optimization updates.
In the past weeks we have received two major feature requests that we want to implement sooner rather than later:
- Controller support
- Custom keybindings
I want to make sure that we implement these well in the next patch, and in order to give me time to do that I am delaying patch 1.4 to April the 5th.
Additionally, since we are out of launch month and all the small post-launch issues are dealt with and the game is stable, we will be moving away from weekly updates to two-weekly updates.
Patch notes will come out on Wednesdays every other week, and the patch itself will come out the Friday of that week.
best regards
Kosala Ubayasekara
Patch 1.3 Patch Notes - The Crafting Patch
Patch 1.3 goes live on Wednesday the 20th of March. It combines a host of features announced in patch 1.2 Notes as well the additions mentioned in these notes.
This is a massive update to the released Chapters 1 and 2 and starting a new game will be required. This is the only time this will happen, and my apologies in advance for any inconvenience.
The full Patch 1.2 Notes can be found here.
Our goals with this build
The traveling craftsmen, Klara Finursdotter - a renowned potion maker and herbalist, and her husband Sigvard Josefsson - a noted Bowyer and Fletcher - have come to town.
Features
- New crafting recipes have been added.
Improvements
- The Jorgensen Crypt has been redesigned and improved.
- Quest and Story triggers have been streamlined
Happening in Jordenheim
The North Bridge has been down for some weeks while the Militia have been investigating the cause of the Shroud creatures invading the habitated lands more frequently than before.
Alarming and sketchy reports are coming in, that the attacks from wild creatures are getting more numerous and that some have been seeing heading into the Vallentuna area.
Over the coming weeks, the Jarl has announced that greater security measures will be taken on the roads in the region and to expect more guards around the town of Vallentuna and the North Bridge exit as well.
Bugfixes
- Boss AI issues that stopped enemies from attacking have been resolved.
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 Social Media
This is where you tell us how amazing we are...cause we all need to be loved....
https://www.wrks-games.com/community/
Our Feedback Form
This is the structured feedback form that we do for each build. Fill it out as often as you want.
https://www.wrks-games.com/feedback
Our Discord
This is how you talk directly to the team (mostly me).
https://discordapp.com/invite/kq574nz
Patches 1.2 and 1.3 will be combined for a launch on Wednesday
Patch 1.2 is completed now and ready to go live - and I was planning on releasing it today. However, as the delivery date for Patch 1.3 is this Wednesday and that work includes the crafting update, I will delay two more days and just launch both patches updates together in one live launch.
Many thanks for your patience this week, a huge update is now on the way!
best regards
Kosala
Patch 1.2 Patch Notes - The Big Re-Think
Patch 1.2 goes live, not as usual on Wednesday, but this week on Sunday the 16th of March. One of the benefits of launching a game as a phased chapter-based approach is that you get to see you, our gaming community, embrace a game and its features before rolling out the whole thing.
I recently did a blog post covering why this kind of release approach is integral to any game today and you can read the full thoughts on this here: W.R.K.S Games Blog
Our goals with this build
Looking at YouTubers and streamers that have started playing through the first chapter - I have noticed two serious issues that were unexpected:
- People are skipping the story points or missing them unintentionally, and
- The level design of levels 1 and 2 are the reason this is happening
During a long phase of development where I am the only developer, its easy to get blinded to level design issues as I play the game many times a day while developing. It's only when I first see people take to it, that subtler problems like level design getting in the way of gameplay - comes to light.
While we still have time (some 4-6 weeks) before Chapter 3 drops, I am going to take the time to rebuild Levels 1 and 2 based on the feedback I have gotten the past week and a bit since launch, and from what I have gleaned from watching you all play.
Note: When this patch drops you will need to start a new game, as a result of the comprehensive nature of the changes. My apologies for this and this will be the only time where this will be required. I believe you will find it worth the effort.
Features
- Chapter 1 completely re-designed.
- Chapter 2 partially re-designed
- New rendering engine in effect in the game, giving better performance on both low and high-end system and adding a fresher comic style look to the game - as we wanted from the start
- Dialogue and story elements added in greater abundance in Chapter 1
- New sky system added for more realistic skies and daylight
Improvements
- Mob AI improved.
- Climbing changed to make it less of a hassle
- Enormous performance enhancement, 1080p gaming should now run at a smooth 60fps in most mid-range cards
Happening in Jordenheim
The traveling craftsmen, Klara Finursdotter - a renowned potion maker and herbalist, and her husband Sigvard Josefsson - a noted Bowyer and Fletcher - are both making their way to Vallentuna still - but are slightly delayed. They are now expected to arrive mid next week.
Their arrival will significantly boost the Vallentuna towns crafting capabilities and is expected to increase travelers into the region.
Bugfixes
- Quest System now correctly shows completed subtasks
- Saving and Loading moved away from the custom plugin we were using (which proved to be buggy) and now re-written from scratch by me to work
- Pathing issues casing mobs to not activate in combat resolved
- Issue where a bird flies through a mountain in Chapter 1 resolved
- Issue where you could endlessly receive XP for a bugged quest resolved
- Non-aggroing wolf in Chapter 2 resolved
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 Social Media
This is where you tell us how amazing we are...cause we all need to be loved....
https://www.wrks-games.com/community/
Our Feedback Form
This is the structured feedback form that we do for each build. Fill it out as often as you want.
https://www.wrks-games.com/feedback
Our Discord
This is how you talk directly to the team (mostly me).
https://discordapp.com/invite/kq574nz
Patch 1.1 Notes - Performance and Optimisation
Patch 1.1 goes live on Wednesday the 6th of March. Now that we have launched and the one critical bug we found has been already patched over the weekend, the focus of this patch is to make sure Chapters 1 and 2 are running smoothly before we introduce our first piece of live content.
Our goals with this build
Stabilize performance and flow of Chapters 1 and 2 before next weeks live content update.
Features
- No new features have been introduced.
Improvements
- Visual style of notifications improved.
- Rock meshes by the waterfall in Chapter 1 improved
Happening in Jordenheim
Rumour has it that two famous craftsmen, Klara Finursdotter - a renowned potion maker and herbalist, and her husband Sigvard Josefsson - a noted bowyer and fletcher - are both making their way to Vallentuna.
They have been spotted by travelers on the South Road to Vallentuna and are expecting to arrive in the town of Vallentuna mid next week, around March 13th.
Their arrival will significantly boost the Vallentuna towns crafting capabilities and is expected to increase travelers into the region.
Bugfixes
- Visual glitch in the Guard House by the North Bridge fixed, thanks to community member @Squize for finding this elusive bug
- Non-triggering dialogue in the Jordenheim Crypt fixed
- Bug that caused quests that were triggered by completing an objective not causing the quest to complete is fixed
- Completed quests still being offered by the same NPCs fixed
- Overlapping system settings panel fixed
- Overlapping dialogue trees during level up 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 Social Media
This is where you tell us how amazing we are...cause we all need to be loved....
https://www.wrks-games.com/community/
Our Feedback Form
This is the structured feedback form that we do for each build. Fill it out as often as you want.
https://www.wrks-games.com/feedback
Our Discord
This is how you talk directly to the team (mostly me).
https://discordapp.com/invite/kq574nz
Patch 1.0a live now
First of all, my apologies for launching the game on Friday with a huge bug in it. For those interested, what happened was that QA was done on the development build and then the same code base was used to make the live build. However, though that should have resulted in the same version of the game that was on the development build, it did not. Resulting in the bug being missed.
Bugfixes:
- Save game bug that stopped people from progressing to Chapter 2 is resolved. You can now move on in the game. Its recommended that you start a new game and replay the tutorial level. Though, this is not mandatory.
- Axele now runs after the encounter where he pelts Astrid with a rock.
- Collision has been fixed and you can no longer move through people or animals
best regards
Kosala
Day 1 of Launch and one critical issue has been identified
We are finally launched live and so far a few minor issues have been reported, but more critically one game breaking issue has been noted by at least 1 player.
Launching Chapter 2 might throw you back into a save game point in Chapter 1, causing you to not be able to progress. A patch to address this will be out this weekend.
best regards
Kosala