Fixed issue where the Worn Millstone given by Challenge Tier 17 would be re-added after reviving.
Fixed issue where dynamic Vestige stats would not be re-added to a player when reviving after death and combat victory.
Fixed costed heal interactables costing less when reduced.
Updated the Roadmap link on the main menu to the new roadmap.
Enemies
Reduced Nim's power even further in Book 1.
Early Access Roadmap ~ Updated!
Hi, everyone!
It’s roadmap time! Since we published our first early access roadmap, we’ve set new goals for Inkbound that we wanted to share with you, our amazing players. Below, you’ll find a detailed list of what we are currently working on as well as some future updates to look forward to.
And speaking of the next major update, we’re so happy to announce that the Next Major Update is planned for October 27, 2023! We look forward to you joining us for its launch!
Click the above image for a larger version.
A text version of the same information follows.
Next Major Update
October 2023
Two new Aspects
Vestige Set Bonuses
Revamped Bosses
Steam Achievements
Game Balance 2.0
Updated Sea Breaches
Updated Rank System
More Daily Challenge Mutators
Trinket Updates
The Future:
More Aspects
Controller Support
The Full Story - Explore the Scribe’s story.
Steam Deck Support
Localization
More Earnable Cosmetics
Improved accessibility
Another Villain
Vestige Lore Unlocks
Stat tracking - record your all-time bests
And much, much more!
As always, thank you so much for your support of Shiny Shoe and Inkbound! You are the best and, if you haven’t already, say ‘Hi’ to me if you see me in the game!
See you in the Atheneum! ~Cami Community Manager at Shiny Shoe
Early Access Patch 0.2.8
Letter from the Team
We are continuing to watch feedback and play data to dial in some of our recent balance changes. This update reflects the latest tweaks.
Release Timing
This patch will be released at approximately 10 am PT (UTC-7) on September 27th, 2023.
Fixed special Villain music failing to play in Villain battles.
Fixed Blazing Barrier showing incorrect damage.
Enemies
Slimpes no longer attack the turn they are spawned from Infestation.
Sparring Dummy will no longer randomly direct attack on the turn it spawns.
Reduced Nim health in book 1 and 2.
Reduced slightly Lusk health in book 2.
Increased slightly Janus attack in book 2.
Adjusted down a few slightly too hard battles.
Adjusted down the HP increase in daily challenges from 20% to 10%.
The Star Captain: VFX Edition
Hello, friends! Shiny Brandon here and I’m the VFX Artist on Inkbound. If you see a sparkle or an explosion, odds are I made that! I’m here to talk about Star Captain VFX. We’ll also look into the general process of making FX.
CONCEPT
In most cases, art assets of any kind get concepted before they are worked on. In the wacky world of VFX on Inkbound, we mostly work off of gut feeling. Most of the time I get a description of the ability and the name. This is enough to get the gears turning for visualization in my brain. But in some cases, my brain fizzles out and short circuits. That’s when I call upon our Art Director, Will. Together we either throw out some options, request a design change that can more easily be worked into FX, or Will sketches me out a concept to go off of.
CREATION
Once we have all the ingredients, the creation can begin.
Most of the time I use Unity’s default particle system for everything. In rare cases where I need more control over things, I’ll use VFX Graph.
All of the VFX in Inkbound also use custom shaders that I create using Shader Graph, which is a great node based shader creation tool built into Unity. Perfect for visual people, like myself, who cannot read or write.
I aim for the main “Thing” of the effect first. Like for the Star Captain sky laser, I went for the beam first and got the timing down.
Timing is very key for us in a multiplayer turn based game (We still goof sometimes). We aim to have all FX wrap up within 1 - 1.5 seconds and sooner in a lot of cases!
We never want to bog down combat with long and drawn out FX or animations, so it’s a tight balance between making FX snappy, but also impactful.
In general I’d say FX for an ability can take half a day to 1.5 days to make, it just depends how much iteration we do on it. Sometimes the first pass works great, other times we have to sit and iterate on the FX all day.
Once we are happy with the look, we get it all slotted in and ready to ship!
SC ABILITIES OVERVIEW
Let’s take a look at each of the Star Captain abilities and I’ll give a rundown on the process.
Chillazer
I knew this ability was a sort of Star Wars blaster, it bounces, and applies frostbite. So it was pretty easy to come together. We already had the tech for bouncing projectiles thanks to Chain Lightning and Ricochet. I just stuck to the Frostbite color palette and added in some sparkles with a bit of frost.
Mission Leader
Buff abilities are interesting because they are player centered and need to communicate that something changed about the player. I wanted this one to look cool without being too overwhelming on the eyes. Colin initially gave me the wireframe idea so I ran with it! This one was fun because I had some shader stuff to solve. I had to create a donut shaped mask that would reveal the wireframe and also have the wireframe shift in color from the start to the end. So technically the wireframe is a static decal placed on a static plane mesh. The only thing that moves is the donut shaped mask that grows to reveal the wireframe underneath. I also added some pixely looking particles that shoot up from the center. I went with the blue/pink color shift since this ability swaps between adding AP and shielding. Very fun one to make!
Cryoclasm
My initial thought for this one was similar to Lissandra Ult from LoL, but that idea quickly shifted to a giant orbital freeze beam after tossing ideas around with Colin. As soon as I knew that was the plan, I had to request a custom “beep boop” animation from our Animator, Lee. That way I could have a little anticipation with the orbital cannon targeting FX on the ground. This is probably my favorite ability in the game right now thanks to the target locking FX. The giant beam is just the cherry on top. Game feel is great here and I’d like to leverage some slightly longer animations, like the “beep boop”, in the future to build up some bigger FX.
Sentinel Drone Passive
Our master VFX tech programmer, Matt, had to come up with a system similar to the Clairvoyant orb so we could fire FX from a source separate from the player. I didn’t make the Drone model, but I handled the beam FX, spawn in and out animations, and the idle FX. We wanted this to be pretty subtle overall since so many drones could be on screen, and Will helped me come up with the retro thruster vibe. I think it came together very well and definitely does it’s job as a subtle drone joining the fight to deal some extra damage.
CONCLUSION
Well I think that’s about it! Thank you so much for sifting through my scattered thoughts with me. I’m ShinyBrandon on Discord and Skweejji in the Twitch streams. Feel free to shoot me any questions about VFX stuff and I’ll get back to you! Luckily I love discussing VFX, so I’m happy to reply.
SEE YOU NEXT TIME, INKBOUNDERS!
Early Access Patch 0.2.7
Letter from the Team
This is a quick follow up after the Mid-Season update we have a few bug fixes and balance tweaks. We will keep an eye on feedback for further tweaks in the short term.
Release Timing
This patch will be released at approximately 10 am PT (UTC-7) on September 22nd, 2023.
Fixed text on Lucky Horseshoe Crab and Oozing Jelly status effects to match the effect and text on the fish themselves.
Changed Barrier Potion to give a flat 10 shield again, instead of 5 or 20 randomly.
Enemies
Reduced Nim's HP, in book 1 6500 >>> 6000 and in book 2 15000 >>> 13500.
Increased Rhinferno's attack slightly.
Adjusted other outlier battles that were too overwhelming.
Starship of Terrors - Mid-Season Update
Letter from the Team
We’re excited to announce a variety of new features that we’re launching in a Starship of Terrors Mid-Season Update (0.2.6). Rather than wait until our next major update we wanted to get these improvements in your hands as soon as possible. We hope you’ll enjoy them and look forward to hearing your feedback.
Release Timing
This patch will be released at approximately 10 am PT (UTC-7) on September 21st, 2023.
We have added a simple matchmaking system, replacing the prior “open my party for joins” system that was rarely used. This new feature can be found by clicking the “Find Party” button in the upper left HUD area while in the Atheneum.
Our goals with this feature were to reduce the friction to finding a party and to allow people to do other things while waiting for a match. Here’s how it works: upon opening the UI, you’ll see the three types of runs listed. If you immediately click “Start Search” you will be placed into the matchmaking pool for all three run types. If you wish to only look for certain types of runs, you can toggle the others off.
While you are waiting for a match you are free to do whatever you want with only a few restrictions. This includes playing Quick Dives and Deep Dives. A spinner with a button to cancel the search is shown in the party area of the HUD.
Right now we are prioritizing match speed above all other considerations, which means it is highly likely matched parties will consist of 2 players. We may extend this with more options and functionality based on demand and how much the feature is utilized.
Once a match is found, both players have 10 seconds to accept or decline. If someone is AFK, they auto-decline after 10 seconds. If all players accept the run, the run immediately starts. Note: this means you will be pulled out of whatever you are doing if you accept the match and the run starts.
Let us know what you think.
Improved Ping System
Did you know that in multiplayer you can ping things and other players see your pings? By default it's mapped to the “G” key on English keyboards. Other players in your party can see your pings. We’ve significantly improved the utility of pinging in terms of both visual and functional clarity.
We’ve also added a player-requested feature related to exclusive items. Now if you ping a player-exclusive item on the ground it will reveal the item to the rest of the party immediately. This way others can pick it up without requiring the player who owns the exclusive item to have to pick it up and drop it again.
Change Challenge Tier in UI
For a while we have had a way to modify the challenge tier of Deep Dives by typing in the special commands “/rankup” and “/rankdown” in chat, capped between the lowest tier and the highest tier of the party members. Of course those types of chat commands are very hidden. We’ve moved this functionality to the UI in the upper right corner to make it more discoverable.
This can be handy if you want to play a Deep Dive at an easier difficulty level.
Reworked Systems and Quality of Life
Trinkets Saved Per-Aspect
By popular demand we’ve changed Trinkets to be saved per-Aspect, so you can more easily have your favorite Trinket equipped to each Aspect you play without having to visit the Trinket Cabinet.
Smaller Islands for Faster Runs
We’ve shrunk the physical size of the environment art across all Books in the game. This means runs will be shorter and interesting decisions will be closer together.
Score Visible in Daily Challenges
You can now see the running total of your current Daily Challenge score in the HUD while playing that mode.
Additional Stats Displayed in HUD
If you pick up bonuses for non-core stats at the Font of Wisdom they will now be displayed in the HUD, as in this example where the player picked up some Poison Damage.
Aspect Complexity Meter
When selecting an Aspect we now show an estimate of how complicated that aspect is to play. This change is designed to help new players select their first Aspect and have a better understanding of what to expect.
Balance Changes
Our goal with this patch is to approach a shift in how we balance intended for Season 3, so moving into Season 3 it will be less of a huge change. The first thing to be aware of is that you now have a 50 HP heal after all boss fights. Also in general we've made the Guardian boss fights (the ones at the end of books) much more difficult, but brought down damage and health up slightly from 'normal' enemies. Our goal here is to have the average fight mostly do 'chip' damage, while you want to conserve your health for the upcoming Guardian fight, which might end your run if you're not fully prepared. Win though, and you get that full heal and on to the next challenges. Our other goal here is to generally bring up the 'baseline' difficulty of the game, you can't quite sleepwalk as much through Daily Challenges and Quick Dives, while reducing some of the pain points at higher ranks.
Improved Performance
We’ve made a number of performance improvements to CPU utilization, particularly in busy Atheneums with lots of players running around. We hope this will benefit players who have mentioned they’d like to see performance improved.
Other Changes
General and Quests
Unlocked the Obelisk Aspect by default.
Ctrl+Clicking to move and collect an orb has been significantly improved, and now should work consistently.
Challenge Tier 1 no longer increases Minion’s Attack, Minion HP increased by 20% >>> 10%.
Challenge Tier 14 Minion HP increased by 40% >>> 20%. Reduced Minion Attack scaling.
Challenge Tier 10, 20, Guardians no longer scale their HP as much when buffed by a Challenge Tier, as their base HP has increased significantly.
Creeping Blight now appears 1 turn sooner, but creeps in slightly slower.
Creeping Blight for Guardian combats now appears 2 turns later.
Reduced the number of waves by 1 across various combats. Our goal is for certain higher hp enemies to last longer, and for battles themselves to be resolved quicker, once they’re already won.
Slightly increased threat of Book 1 Hard Encounter 2 and Hard Encounter 3 encounters, to match their 1st wave threat a bit better with the first encounter in Book 1.
Updated some Book 1 combats and slightly increased their number of units.
Prevented large units from gaining physical and magic resistance Challenge Buffs.
Removed Quill Augmentation from Book Mutator pool. Added it to the Challenge Buff pool.
Removed Quillion Hybrid from Challenge Buff pool.
Updated Challenge Buff Inkdrain: "When hitting a player, heal 20% of maxhp and permanently drain -1 maxhp." >>> "When hitting a player, permanently drain -1 maxhp."
In multiplayer enemies have slightly more HP.
Ensnared no longer stacks but now reduces movement by 35.
Updated Prickly Puffer: "On hitting, 50% chance to inflict Hex and 50% chance to inflict Shattered." >>> "On hitting, randomly inflict either Hex or Shattered."
Blight Puddles duration has been reduced from 3 >>> 2 turns.
Increased post-guardian Font of Healing to heal from 10 >>> 50. Our goal with this change is to allow bosses to be much more threatening in terms of ending a run, but less likely to cause you to die shortly after them.
Healing cost at merchants now 150 Kwillings due to the lower incoming damage from average battles.
Dazed damage reduction reduced 30% >>> 25%. Dazed can make certain battles significantly easier, especially in multiplayer, and we wanted to bring down how critical it can feel to acquire.
Overall our crit buffs multiplying with each other was making it somewhat too easy to get ‘out of control’ builds, and we’re trying to do some targeting adjustments down to make it take more work to create truly off the rails crit builds.
Reduced crit damage from fonts, in order of rarity: 120 >>> 100, 80 >>> 60, 60 >>> 45, 40 >>> 30, 20 >>> 15.
Uncommon crit chance upgrade at fonts from 5 >>> 4.
Rare crit chance upgrade at fonts from 8 >>> 6.
Epic crit chance from 10 >>> 8.
Healing from fonts has been reduced slightly: from 5 >>> 4 and 7 >>> 6.
Updated the Victory Board quest that required 100 Crit Chance to require 70 instead. Sorry to folks who already did it. With the lowered amounts we needed to bring it down some.
Slightly increased boss damage in higher player count runs. Moreso in higher ranks.
Guardians now drop more Kwillings.
Enemies
Increased Rhinferno Book 1 HP from 2500 >>> 5000.
Increased Rhinferno Book 2 HP from 9000 >>> 16000.
Rhinferno now faces the attacker when preparing for a charge.
Rhinferno's AOE has an additional ring.
Slightly increased the size of the Rhinferno lava charge.
Rhinferno lava only lasts 1 turn.
Rhinferno now enrages at half HP and does more damage.
Updated Lusk the Blightbag Book 1 HP from 4000 >>> 5000.
Updated Lusk the Blightbag Book 2 HP from 9000 >>> 15000.
Lusk the Blightbag now creates more Lil’ Lusks in the second phase.
Increased Book 1 Lil’ Lusks HP from 80 >>> 100.
Increased Book 2 Lil’ Lusks HP from 260 >>> 300.
Increased Book 1 Nim the Lost HP from 4000 >>> 5000.
Increased Book 2 Nim the Lost HP from 17500 >>> 20000.
Decreased Nim the Losts damage.
Increased Book 2 Nimbits HP from 400 >>> 600.
Decreased Nimbits attack slightly.
Increased Book 1 Janus HP from 2600 >>> 5000.
Increased Book 2 Janus HP from 9500 >>> 14000.
Decreased Janus attack slightly.
Increased Mimic Book 1 HP from 3000 >>> 5000.
Increased Mimic Book 2 HP from 12000 >>> 20000.
Reduced Mimic attack slightly.
Increased Book 1 Captor HP from 1200 >>> 2000.
Increased Book 2 Captor HP from 6000 >>> 7000.
Decreased Book 1 Captor attack slightly.
Increased Book 2 Captor attack slightly.
Support Spindlecasters no longer heal themselves or other Support Spindlecasters.
Fixed Inkzooka being named as ‘Inkblaster’
Increased the size of the Burrower emerge attack.
Updated Bombbit to explode on turn end instead of on next turn.
Updated Rhinkling. They now appear in Book 1 instead of Book 2. HP reduced from 1500 >>> 750. They now turn to face the attacker for their charge attacks.
Increased damage scaling of Rhinkling AOE rings
Replaced Book 2 Rhinklings with Armored Rhinklings. They gain 15% of their HP as armor each turn.
Book 1 Treasure Pot HP increased from 450 >>> 600.
Book 2 Treasure Pot HP increased from 1500 >>> 1800.
Decreased Figment damage slightly.
Increased Book 1 Enemy Inkpot HP from 350 >>> 650.
Increased Book 2 Enemy Inkpot HP from 1050 >>> 1450.
Decreased Inkpot AOE damage scaling from 200% >>> 100%
Increased Book 1 Enemy Ink Pen HP from 175 >>> 300.
Increased Book 2 Enemy Ink Pen HP from 350 >>> 600.
Decreased Ink Pen attack slightly.
Ink Pens now have a chance to start with either their AOE or their direct attack.
Decreased Gunk duration specifically from inkpots and ink pens from 2 >>> 1.
Increased Book 1 Enemy Inkling Slasher HP from 170 >>> 350.
Melee Inklings now have a chance to start with either their AOE or their direct attack.
Increased Book 1 Enemy Inkling Jabber HP from 60 >>> 150.
Increased Book 1 Enemy Sparring Dummy HP from 200 >>> 250.
Increased Book 2 Enemy Sparring Dummy HP from 600 >>> 650.
Sparring Dummies now have a chance to start with either their AOE or their direct attack.
Increased Book 2 Enemy Ghostquill HP from 600 >>> 900. Slightly decreased their attack.
Decreased Book 2 Enemy Chompy HP from 450 >>> 400.
Decreased Book 2 Enemy Chompy attack slightly.
Increased Book 1 Enemy Figment Earthshaker HP from 650 >>> 900.
Decreased Book 2 Enemy Bombbit attack slightly.
Decreased Book 2 Enemy Inkstain attack slightly.
Decreased Book 2 Enemy Inkzooka attack slightly.
Decreased Book 2 Enemy Slimpe attack slightly.
Magma Miner
Updated Magma Miner passive: 3 Shield at 5 stacks of Heat >>> 2 Shield and 15 Movement every 5 stacks of Heat.
Slightly increased Bonk width from 1.2 >>> 1.5.
Smash base damage increased from 120 >>> 150.
Fixed Rare Magma Miner vestige Miner’s Gloves granting incorrect amount of ability power.
Mosscloak
Slightly increased Hunter's Dash width from 1.25 >>> 1.5.
Hunter’s Dash now also grants 20 Movement. Updated ascensions to match.
Decreased Flurry damage per shuriken from 35 >>> 25.
Decreased Flurry ascension Relentless Barrage additional damage per extra shuriken from 10 >>> 5. Increased Flurry ascension Relentless Barrage base damage per shuriken from 20 >>> 25.
Weaver
Slightly increased Thread width from 1 >>> 1.25.
Increased Constrict damage from 100 >>> 150. Updated ascensions to match.
Obelisk
Decreased Ironclap base damage from 30 >>> 20.
Slightly increased Shield Bash range from 4 >>> 5.
Increased Shield Bash base damage from 75 >>> 90.
Increased Shield Bash ascension Battering Ram Will cost from 1 >>> 2 to match the base Binding and other ascensions.
Decreased Ironclap ascension Ground Slam damage from 50 >>> 30.
Decreased Ironclap ascension Impulse damage from 50 >>> 40.
Decreased Ironclap ascension Shell shield gain from 2 >>> 1.
Decreased Shield Bash ascension Headbutt damage from 75 >>> 25.
Star Captain
Decreased Chillazer damage from 30 >>> 25. Updated ascensions to match.
Decreased Chillazer ascension Freezing Ray frostbite damage gain from 15 >>> 10.
Draftable Bindings
Updated Toxic: "On defeat, inflict stacks of poison to nearby Enemies." >>> "On defeat, inflict half stacks of Poison to nearby Enemies."
Updated Wildfire: "On defeat, inflict stacks of Burn to nearby Enemies." >>> "On defeat, inflict half stacks of Burn to nearby Enemies."
Decreased Restoration ascension Greater Restoration heal from 10 >>> 8.
Vestiges
Health Stimulant vigor granted reduced from 5 >>> 3.
Braced Belt now shield granted reduced from 10 >>> 5.
Twin Fangs crit chance boost reduced 5 >>> 3.
Dun's Head crit chance reduced 10 >>> 8.
Shocking Corecap crit chance reduced 15 >>> 10.
Amulet of Floral Transposition crit chance reduced 10 >>> 7.
Counterassistance has reduced crit damage 15 >>> 10.
Inkritto crit chance reduced 10 >>> 5.
Lucky Horseshoe Crab now gives 20 >>> 10 Damage Resist and 20 >>> 10 Crit Chance.
Oozing Jelly now gives 15 >>> 10 Crit Chance.
Shaheen's Shimmering Shadow now happens on gaining crit instead of on critting.
UI
Added note in initial Aspect select to let new players know they can change Aspect after completing the initial tutorial quest.
Fixed bug that caused displayed player challenge tier above the heads of remote players to display incorrectly in the Atheneum.
Improved UI for interactables that have a Kwilling cost within runs.
Fixed bug where if you finished a Daily Challenge while the timer rolls over to release a new challenge you would not be shown the “Yesterday” leaderboard automatically at the end of run.
Audio
Added new Nim spawn/summon sounds.
Visuals
Added spawn-in animations for all enemies.
Polished and improved a variety of visual effects.
Lore Secrets, Part 2
Hey everyone, Redbeard/Brendan here with another lore update! This time with a peek into something I’m personally excited for in one of our future updates: Vestige Lore!
As I mentioned in my previous post, there's a lot of lore for the world of Inkbound both because it’s necessary to create a believable world but also because it’s just fun to write. Since there's so much of it, though, and it often doesn't relate directly to what's happening in the game or with characters at the time, I still wanted a way to expose some of those less-relevant-but-still-interesting facts for those who wanted to dive deeper into the world of Inkbound.
In our previous game, Monster Train, we had a similar feature: all cards, enemies, and items in the game had lore/flavor text that you could read and learn a little bit more about the card/enemy/item/thing itself and how it fits into the larger world. In Inkbound, we've taken the same approach to our vestiges: not only giving them flavor text but designing their visuals from the ground up with that lore in mind. We always want each new asset in the game, whether it be a Vestige, Trinket, character, Book, or Aspect to feel grounded in the game universe and that means making sure that the visual design for those assets has a strong lore foundation to give it context in the larger world of Inkbound.
That's not to say that the gameplay design of these items isn't what ultimately drives the creation of new vestiges, aspects, etc. (it often is), but that once the gameplay details have solidified a bit, I can come in and provide some in-world context for "why" this new thing exists in the world. So, in a sense, the lore for all of these vestiges has always existed, we're just polishing it up and making it visible now!
Here are a few examples:
The Dam wasn’t all bad, just mostly. The original intention of the DARVe, to study the written creations for sentience, was a noble one. It was just led by people who couldn’t handle the chaos that ensued.
It’s a pretty tremendous undertaking, the cataloging of the Atheneum, so it’s no surprise it only happens maybe once an Age. Didn’t stop those Counselors from reindexing the whole damn library, though. Gave each book a chit and everything for easier retrieval. Takes all the fun out of the hunt, I say!
A gift from Allyra with the inscription: “Perhaps we were wrong”. Sent to Allyas, no doubt. How juicy! Lys bet me those two would get back together someday, and this feels like sure proof that they haven’t yet! Lys doesn’t agree… As to what they were wrong about, your guess is as good as mine.
Ahh, another memory best left forgotten. The poor couple’s introduction to the shadows and the Whispers. Oh, it was a carnival once upon a time, but after Witt… left… it became something much darker.
There used to be more of us. Lots more Binders if you can imagine! It really put a squeeze on the Ink going around, though. So these little badges were given to Trackers for the Vowed to exempt them in their use of Bindings.
So, there are a few things that are important when designing a vestige and the lore around it:
1. Where does this vestige come from? Is it from the Atheneum? Another world that's been written? Answering this first helps narrow down from designing 'anything' to 'fewer things.' In the case of ‘Predator’s Quintessence’, we knew it would be related to a sci-fi world (the Derelict Starship DARVe from our most recent update!) so that narrowed down the possibilities significantly to something related to that book.
2. How can the visual design closely match and convey the gameplay function as closely as possible? This will usually determine more specifics of 'what' the vestige actually is/does/looks like. The “Predator’s Quintessance’ vestige started with the gameplay prompt: “When you kill an enemy, you permanently deal more damage.” Knowing that this vestige would be connected to the Starship, it made sense to have the vestige relate to one of the captured predators aboard the DARVe, the Thantaloupe (an enemy you can also fight in the latest update!).
3. How does the surrounding universe support this item existing? Is there something that already exists in the world that could be used as an opportunity to reveal more lore or story about the world? This is where the vestige design starts to go from something 'normal' to something 'Inkbound'. It's where we make sure that the item feels rooted in our universe and not something that could just be found anywhere. Cheesecards were a concept for a long time that I wanted to find a place for in our vestiges and putting the visual design to this vestige seemed like a decent spot for it. It’s certainly a vestige where the mechanics tie to the visuals a bit more loosely, but the payoff it gives in terms of worldbuilding makes up for it.
4. What does our lore writer have to say about it? Lore on its own can be interesting, but it's even more compelling when told through the lens of a character within the game; a narrator that can have their own opinions on what they're talking about to reveal information about character dynamics and other tidbits that might not be possible if the same information were just delivered as plain facts. In Inkbound, all lore is written from the perspective of the Chronicler.
Once all this lore and visual description has been written and any additional reference is collected, it's sent to our very talented artists to make my ugly words into something awesome to look at!
—
I hope this gives you a bit more insight into how I design the initial visuals for our vestiges and the lore that supports them as well as give you a little sneak peek into the massive lore dump coming in the not-too-distant future!
We’ll have more details for you as we get closer to launching this new feature, but until then, thanks again for playing Inkbound and see you in the Atheneum!
Early Access Patch 0.2.5
Letter from the Team
This week we have another small balance and bug fix update. We continue to try to improve balance across the game at all difficulty levels.
We have some bigger improvements coming soon, watch for news in the next few weeks.
Release Timing
This patch will be released at approximately 10 am PT (UTC-7) on September 12th, 2023.
Fixed bug where players could get locked out of discovering and completing aspect unlock quests.
Enemies
Reduced Book 1 Guardian Captor base attack from 5 >>> 3.
Reduced Book 2 Guardian Captor base attack from 10 >>> 7.
Inkpots will now move slightly closer to the player and to each other.
Reduced the overall pool of Book 2 normal battles by 1. Many of them were hardly visited and they were bogging down our analytics, making it hard to tell which combat needs tuning.
Tuned down certain battles that were dealing high amounts of damage to the player.
Tuned certain early battles where most players could complete the battle without taking damage.
Visuals
Improved the visuals of Clairvoyant's Hazard Aura dealing damage/killing enemies.
Added animation to back slot wing cosmetics.
Building a Book!
Hi everyone! I’m William, Art Director here at Shiny Shoe. Today it is my pleasure to walk you through how a Book is made, from the first description to the finished world.
GENESIS
Each Book begins with an idea, and from that idea grows the story. Our writer/loremaster, Brendan, who is in charge of all things story and book-related, will decide on the new book location and create the story that is written within. Art and Design will then sync on the idea, making sure all the lore and reference is understood and Art is ready to proceed with concepts for the new book. We discuss the story behind the world, how it fits in the overall narrative, who and what you meet there, and what it should look like. This also includes things like new enemies, weapons, outfits, and NPC’s.
REFERENCE
Once we have a clear vision for the book, reference is gathered based on the location and atmosphere specified in the creative brief. In this case, the setting for the Starship of Terrors takes place on the DARVe, a space-faring vessel that collects, catalogs and experiments on alien creatures. Since we’re going for a 30’s style “art deco sci fi” look and feel, we checked out a lot of art deco architecture, pulp sci-fi, and classic creature features, as well as different environmental references such as laboratory equipment, animal containment, and ship mechanics like boilers, engines, and turbines.
Brendan put a fun twist on the ship itself and requested it be more of an airship, floating through gaseous, ether-like space. That meant we could design it with more specific features like rigid sails, tension lines, and propellers. Along with the physical reference, this is also where we begin to decide the color palette and what mood we want to establish using those colors.
FOUNDATION
A little background on the creative strategy behind each Book is helpful here. When developing the style of the game, we wanted to make sure gameplay came first. The most important thing for the player to focus on is the combat, and all the various art elements follow a very strict order of priority. The characters, weapons, and enemies are first in the hierarchy, with high levels of detail and more complex silhouettes. The UI and VFX follow, since those are the key points of feedback for the player. The environment that everything is situated in is designed to support (but not distract from) the flow of gameplay, so the worlds themselves are built with an emphasis on color and shapes.
The art style of Inkbound is colorful, fantastical, and dreamlike. Not too realistic or complex to distract from what the player is doing, but with enough unique silhouettes, color, and detail to create the setting and help tell the story as the player moves through each world. These are all things we keep in mind when approaching the design of a new Book.
CONCEPT
The concept process begins with rough sketches and model blockouts of various areas or pieces of the environment. Since every asset in the game helps tell the story visually, careful attention is paid to the details and why things look the way they do. What happened to the ship? What creature was kept in this cage that could tear it open so easily? From bones on the floor to the books that line the shelves and every microscope, flask, switch, dial, and steel trap in between, everything is crafted to build a visual narrative.
Working from a quick list of assets is very helpful - big specimen tanks for the aliens, shelves, and equipment for the labs, broken open cages for the containment area, clunky consoles and big glowing screens for the bridge, etc. We wanted to evoke the feeling of a haunted house, with monsters and mysteries hiding around every corner. Details like dirt on the floor, cobwebs strung between equipment and bookshelves, and VFX-like sparks and steam all work to build a creepy sci-fi atmosphere. To make the player feel even more like they’re walking through the bowels of a vessel, the edges of each environment are surrounded by splitting hull plates and huge steel ribs, barely holding the ship together.
SPACES
The DARVe is a complex ship with multiple areas to walk through. Each one needed to feel unique, but still be a part of a whole ship. This is where the color and silhouettes of each environment play a key role, helping each area tell its own part of the story.
The CREW QUARTERS is the most relatable environment, with carpet, shelves, tables and chairs. The player is introduced to the ship here and begins their journey in this familiar yet spooky area.
CONTAINMENT is a grimy location where the dirty work is done capturing and keeping aliens (unsuccessfully it would seem due to the amount of broken bars on the cages). Wood and Metal textures play heavily here, combined with trapping equipment and the bones of unfortunate alien critters.
ENGINEERING keeps the ship afloat, although the years have taken their toll as the spinning dynamos threaten to overload and steaming boilers strain their rivets. Rusted steel and copper plates dominate the color palette, complimented by the magenta light of burning Uhn in this utilitarian zone
The LABORATORY is where the mad science happens. Sickly green glowing tanks house aliens waiting examination on steel operating tables, surrounded by chemicals and equipment that add to the cluttered, untidy appearance. This is also where the CAPTIVE can be found, falling apart like the rest of the machinery around him.
The DARVe wouldn’t be complete without the BRIDGE, helping to guide the doomed ship through unknown space. The BRIDGE is more ornate, with decorations surrounding equipment and control screens that glow an eerie blue, and sparks fly from the complex yet antiquated machinery. This technology is barely keeping the ship on course as it slowly falls apart piece by piece on its way through the cosmos.
Once all the pieces are designed and built, the process of constructing each zone can begin and the DARVe begins to take shape, from the very first portal to the final fight with the shape-shifting Mimic.
Thanks for reading and being a part of the world of Inkbound! We look forward to introducing even more worlds for you to explore!
Early Access Patch 0.2.4
Letter from the Team
This week we have another small balance and bug fix update. We continue to try to improve balance across the game at all difficulty levels.
Release Timing
This patch will be released at approximately 10 am PT (UTC-7) on September 6th, 2023.
