Genre: Fighting, Real Time Strategy (RTS), Role-playing (RPG), Strategy, Tactical, Indie
City of the Shroud
De-listing Sale Notice
In response to the requests for a final sale before de-listing, City of the Shroud and the soundtrack will be discounted to 90% off for 7 days starting March 1. After that, both the game and soundtrack will be de-listed and no longer available for purchase.
Before purchasing, please be aware that the game will not receive any future updates or support. Here are the most important points to be aware of:
There will not be any future updates or support for the game.
Only the first chapter of the game is available - this is about 6-8 hours of gameplay for most players, and more for those who play through all 5 plotlines.
Online battles will continue to function.
The game will persist in users' Steam libraries after it is de-listed and will remain downloadable and playable to those who purchased it.
90% was the highest level of discount available, so that's what I set it to.
If you decide to pick the game up and play it, I hope you enjoy what we were able to make.
City of the Shroud De-listing from Steam
Hi Everyone,
I have some important updates for you regarding City of the Shroud - I wish I had better news for you, and it’s very difficult to write this.
First, the hardest news: the game will unfortunately not continue development past what’s already released. The game launched to non-existent sales, which we tried to counter with a large-scale update to improve the game and an additional round of PR - sadly, it didn’t work. We continued working on Chapter 2 until part-way through 2019, but by the summer, it became clear that the game could not be developed any further. We explored a few options to continue the story, but they never bore fruit.
I’m really sorry that the game won’t be finished, and I wish that weren’t the case. Despite our best planning, we launched at a time that turned out to be unexpectedly difficult (not just for us but for all indies), and the financial blow, not to say anything of the blow to morale, was so powerful that the project never fully recovered. Coupled with everything that happened throughout 2019, supporting development further was and is beyond my means - I've been trying to find a way to make it work, but I've exhausted all the potential options. It’s been a long road both leading up to and following all that, but please know that it was never our intention for the project to end before we finished.
I’ve said it many times before, but I want to reiterate: we are extremely grateful to everyone who supported us throughout the development process, and I am extremely proud of what our development team accomplished. Building - and releasing - something like City of the Shroud is an accomplishment in and of itself, especially with a team of our size and funding, even if the main game was never finished. It was amazing to see our idea for player-driven narrative come to life during our first Kickstarter campaign, and to relive a bit of that experience as we started building Chapter 2.
To try and keep this post as short as possible, here are some quick bullet points:
The game will be made unavailable for purchase.
Everyone who bought the game or backed it on Kickstarter will still have access to the game on Steam, and the online battle mode will continue to work.
If there’s a way to let you see or play what progress was made on Chapter 2, I will update you. It is possible to play through all 5 story arcs, but the battles all use the same default group of four enemies and there are no rewards configured.
If you have any questions, concerns, whatever, please reach out to me through Steam and I’ll do my best to address them.
Thank you one last time for the opportunity to go on this journey, and I'm really sorry I couldn't see it through to the end for you.
Quick Chapter 2 Status Update
Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,
With the holidays behind us, I wanted to give you a quick update on the status of Chapter 2.
Per the last update, the script for Chapter 2 is written, and we’ve also got the quest logic roughed in. But just when we were going to start plugging everything into the game’s database... Moira bravely sacrificed her arm to save her child.
That’s perhaps an overly dramatic way of putting it, but just as we were getting back from the holidays, Moira took a nasty spill on some ice while carrying her baby and, though she used her black-belt reflexes to keep the baby safe, she dislocated her (dominant) arm in the process. Ouch. (The baby is fine!)
This all means we’re waiting for her to heal for a few weeks before we can finish getting Chapter 2 hooked up and put through the QA wringer. This also means that, since release, we’ve had 4 cases of the flu/mystery illness in a row and then a critical injury. It keeps life interesting, but I think we’d all prefer a slightly more predictable schedule with fewer physical ailments.
We’re sorry for the delay - please bear with us while we heal/get it finished!
Chapter 2 Is Coming, And We've Got A Little Preview For You
Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,
We’re hard at work on Chapter 2, so I wanted to take a quick moment to update you on our progress and to give you a small preview of what’s coming.
First, a recap: after Omar pulled ahead of Zem during the last few days of Chapter 1’s influence period, the current standing among the faction leaders is:
With Azura ascendant and her ally Sohrab left vulnerable, what does that spell for the city? Thanks to you, the old alliances are crumbling, but what will take their place is in its infancy. This tumultuous situation will be felt throughout the city in Chapter 2.
In terms of our progress, we recently locked the script for Chapter 2 (it’s quite meaty, especially when you consider having all five factions in there) and are preparing to get everything hooked up and tested.
At the same time as we’ve been updating the AI, we’ve also been coming up with the boss battles you’ll face. We’ve settled on something we think will give you a solid challenge, and look cool to boot (we’ve made new visual effects for some of the enemy abilities you’ll encounter).
Designing and implementing bosses takes a lot of work (especially since we spent a good chunk of time focused on AI improvements), but we hope you’ll enjoy what’s coming.
The holiday season tends to slow everything down substantially, but we’re going to get as much as we can done before family obligations kick in. We’ll keep you updated as we get closer to Chapter 2’s release!
And as for what you’ll encounter once it arrives: the city is more divided and fearful than ever before, and the old alliances are crumbling. As the evil plaguing the city grows bolder, its leaders continue to focus only on themselves and their grudges. Even gestures of goodwill towards the people carry not-so-hidden meaning, and the people are becoming more and more frustrated. And Sohrab’s diminished status has not gone unnoticed...
Chapter 2 focuses on the city - your quest will bring you into contact with people who are caught up in the chaos but are trying to do what’s best, either for themselves or for those they care about. The movements of the faction leaders still play a prominent role, but you will be seeing more of their impact on the citizens of Iskendrun this time around.
I hope you’re excited to see how the story continues to unfold in Chapter 2, and we’re excited to see how you drive its evolution going into Chapter 3 and beyond!
Patch 1.05 Released!
Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,
We’re happy to announce that Patch 1.05, which contains our updated enemy AI, is now ready for you to play! The AI in this updates is much more clever and aggressive than the previous iteration, which should make combat much more lively and engaging.
Major Updates:
Revamped AI:
Enemies are more aggressive in their movement and usage of combos.
Enemies are better at picking out vulnerable targets and hitting them with clever combos. This speeds up combat and makes timing and use of defensive abilities much more critical, especially on higher difficulties. They may also pursue vulnerable targets if the target tries to run.
Enemies have under-the-hood “personality traits.” Each class has a base set of preferences (prefers being aggressive / defensive / using support abilities, etc.), and these can vary across individual units.
Enemies now have a better understanding of the map. They will now go after AP bonus tiles and the like more frequently, for example.
Enemies are now better about maintaining an optimal range for their class and preferences. For example, Gunners will generally try to keep their target at the edge of their range while avoiding being in range of their opponent, even if it means giving up an immediate opportunity to attack. Meanwhile, Mages are more aggressive and will generally tolerate a higher degree of risk if it means they can pull off a powerful attack.
We still have some more updates planned for the AI - specifically, we’re going to be working on giving the enemies ability-specific decision making, which didn’t quite make it into this patch. We got it in for a couple abilities, but we want to focus our time and energy on getting Chapter 2 ready first.
Also, if you want a recommendation from me, try playing the game on Hard with the game speed set to Fast and disable Wait Mode entirely. You should really feel the difference!
Of course, if you’ve got any feedback on what you’d like to see improved, please feel free to share it with us in the forums!
Patch 1.04 Released!
Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,
Today, we’re rolling out version 1.04 of City of the Shroud! This patch contains new NPC portraits, a number of quality-of-life improvements, and overall polish.
Read on for details:
Major Updates:
New NPC Portraits: we’ve added several variations on existing NPC portraits to give more variety to the artwork.
Combat Details:
You can now press the (re-assignable!) Combat Details button during combat to display:
A preview of your selected character’s range at a highlighted potential destination
Character shortcut numbers over your team members’ heads to make it easier to see both where they are and what to press to access them instantly
Enemy indicator arrows over all (conscious) enemies to give you an immediate read on their layout
Combat Details can be viewed in real-time or with Wait Mode activated, so you can use them for an at-a-glance overview or to thoroughly analyze the battlefield.
Minor Updates and Polish:
The game now prompts you to choose a difficulty and game speed when starting a new game (these can both be changed later from the Options Menu).
Machinist bombs and turrets now spawn without causing small hiccups.
The AP cost of moving to a highlighted tile is displayed on that tile before moving.
A “controls reminder” window displaying the button assignments for Wait Mode and Combat Details will appear in the bottom-left corner of the screen during the first segment of the game.
Wait Mode can now be set to toggle by holding the button or tapping the button to turn it ON/OFF in Gameplay options.
The Team Menu and Online VS buttons are now visible but greyed-out and inaccessible until unlocked, instead of being hidden.
Improved flow for connecting to another player for an Online VS battle.
Indicator arrows for controller and enemy location are now drawn on top of other geometry (no more clipping!).
Fixed hidden tiles acting as pits in the Market Gate map in the Refugee Quarter.
Fixed position of a building in the Old Town Steps maps that covered up part of the range indicator.
Fixed location and portrait of an NPC who should have been a refugee in the Refugee Quarter but appeared as a regular Citizen in Old Town.
Adjusted the level of fog in the final boss battle of Chapter One in Old Town so that it is easier to see the game map when the camera is pulled back.
Long quest names in the Quest Tracker should no longer bleed out into the border graphic.
Return To Game button on the pause menu no longer enters the “selection” sprite state when pausing even if the player is using mouse/keyboard.
Return to City Map button at the end of battles no longer plays the click sound effect twice if using mouse/keyboard.
“LeftButton” and other odd mouse binding names changed to “Left Click,” “Right Click,” and “Middle Click.”
New Game confirmation prompt now properly fits all button sprite configurations.
The warning sound effect for flashing red tiles will now fade out properly on scene transitions.
Cleaned up some typos.
We had originally intended to release everything together as Patch 1.05, which would have the above plus the AI updates, but between illness and an obnoxious AI bug at the last minute that we’re still trying to sort out, we couldn't quite make it happen. Reworking AI and updating the corresponding gameplay mechanics is hard, to say the least! Once we’ve solved the bug, we’ll be releasing the updated AI and gameplay mechanics as the 1.05 patch.
We’re also hard at work on Chapter 2, and we should have an update about it soon!
Thank you for playing!
Patch 1.05 Preview
Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,
We’re working on the first big patch for City of the Shroud while Moira writes Chapter 2, so I wanted to take some time to go over what’s coming:
Major Updates:
Revamped AI:
The AI is getting an overhaul to make it more interesting, more challenging, and to let it better highlight what makes CotS’ combat unique. When the new patch releases, enemy characters will:
Enemies will be more aggressive in their movement and usage of combos. Enemies will be better at picking out vulnerable targets and hitting them with clever combos. This will speed up combat and make timing and anticipation much more critical.
Personalities: enemies will have “personality traits.” Each class will have a base setup (prefers being aggressive / defensive / using support abilities, etc.), and these can vary across individual units.
Ability-specific decision making: the classes in CotS are designed to be deep, with variety within each class coming from the types of Link Gems they have equipped. The AI will have a better understanding of how it can use the abilities it has equipped on a character to torment you more effectively, and rewarding you for keeping track of and responding to them.
Other Additions:
Combat Details Display: pressing the new “Combat Details” button during combat will display a variety of useful information on screen. This includes:
Range Preview: when you press the Combat Details button, yellow range indicators will appear on the tile you are currently hovering over, showing you what your range would be on that tile before moving there.
Player Character Shortcut Numbers: the shortcut number for each of your characters will be displayed over their head so you can quickly pinpoint where everyone is relative to the UI on the side of the screen.
Enemy Location Arrows: all (conscious) enemies will get a red arrow specifying their positions.
Minor Updates & Bug Fixes:
Update: We have made additional NPC character art for characters who are not important to the story to avoid repetition.
Update: The game now prompts you to select a difficulty when starting a new game.
Update: The AP cost of moving to a highlighted tile is displayed on that tile before moving.
Update: Shortcuts for Wait Mode / Combat Details are now displayed on-screen during combat during tutorial battles.
Update: Wait Mode can now be set to toggle by holding the button or tapping the button to turn it ON/OFF in Gameplay options.
Update: Improvements to flow when connecting to another player for an Online VS battle.
Bug Fix: Tile Targeting arrow for controller now gets drawn on top of Machinist’s backpack geometry.
Bug Fix: Fixed hidden tiles acting as pits in the Market Gate map in the Refugee Quarter.
Bug Fix: Fixed location and portrait of an NPC who should have been a refugee in the Refugee Quarter but appeared as an regular Citizen in Old Town.
Bug Fix: Long quest names in the Quest Tracker should no longer bleed out into the border graphic.
Bug Fix: Return To Game button on the pause menu no longer enters the “selection” sprite state when pausing even if the player is using mouse/keyboard.
The team has been under the weather with colds and whatnot for the last few weeks, so it’s taken us longer to get this done than we would have liked, but we’re slowly recovering. The patch will need some more time to thoroughly test it before we can release into the wild, but hopefully this gives you an idea of what we’ve been working on since launch.
We’ve also been following the responses to the game and seeing where players are having fun and where they’re not. We’re working on ideas to address these pain points - some will be harder and take more time than others (especially because we want to prioritize working on new chapters), but we want everyone to know that we’re seeing the feedback and will aim to address whatever we can.
Of course, if you’ve got any feedback on what you’d like to see improved, please feel free to share it with us in the forums.
In the meantime, Chapter 1’s influence period wrapped up recently, so if you haven’t read about what went down, you can do so here!
Chapter 1 Results!
Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,
Chapter 1 is a wrap! Here are the final results:
A last-minute push over the weekend has placed Omar ahead of Zem. Azura’s merchants are now the most dominant in the city, followed by the rebellion, and then the Syndicate. Navid is trailing his arch-rival Zem by a significant margin, and poor Sohrab can’t seem to catch a break.
What happens now? To start, Moira will be looking at not only how each of the factions stands in relation to the others but also at how their alliances and beliefs have shifted over the course of the chapter.
As you played, you were not only changing your chosen leader’s influence, but also what they think of the other leaders. So far, you have undermined several alliances, but not always mutually - in many cases, you have one leader who still trusts their ally, while their ally no longer trusts them back. I wonder how that will play out?
It’s not all seeds of distrust, though - you’ve also strengthened some bonds, and even managed to push hard for one we would never have predicted. And remember, these characters’ allies and enemies are all tangled together (for example, in Chapter 1, Navid is allies with Omar and Sohrab, but Omar and Sohrab hate each other), so these effects will ripple across the entire fabric of the story.
I don’t want to go into too much detail to avoid spoilers, but you’ve given us some incredible material to work with.
What does it mean for the city to have the Merchants rise to power as everyone begins to turn on each other, the old balance becomes untenable, and the City Guard, ostensibly keepers of the peace, watching the city descend into chaos while they are powerless to stop it?
We’ll have to wait for Chapter 2 to find out!
Chapter 1's Influence Period Extended Through September 16!
Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,
This is a quick announcement to let you know that we’re extending the influence period for Chapter 1 until the end of this coming weekend: Sunday, September 16 (PDT). Some newcomers have arrived, and we want to make sure they have a chance to make their mark on Iskendrun.
And if you haven’t finished Chapter 1 yet, now’s your chance!
Patch 1.01 Notes
This is a small patch to address one specific issue. Behold!
Fixed issue where players may not receive receive rewards from random battles after completing Chapter 1’s story
That’s it! We have more updates coming in a larger patch that we’re still working on but wanted to get this update out ASAP.
