Today is a big day. A day in which we want to share with you some big news. We’ve been planning this day for quite some time, and now it’s time that we share it with you too.
So, the big news is that Inkulinati will soon start collecting funds on Kickstarter. Our great adventure starts in one weeks' time from today, on the 26th of May 2020!! We have our Kickstarter page set-up already, so check it out, give us feedback on it, and add us to your Kickstarter Wishlist.
As we begin this crucial adventure, we would like to thank you all sincerely for all your support and love you’ve shown us so far. It is thanks to you and your feedback that we keep going and creating this game. We do it for you and because of you, so once again thank you for being there for us. You all rock!
Secondly, we want to ask you for further support. If you can, send this message to your friends, family and anyone who you think would be interested in our game. The more people hear about us, the better the chances of us succeeding and realising our dream. We know that together we can do everything! Together we can make Living Ink a thing again!
We will keep you in the loop and let you know more as we go along. We have many little surprises prepared for you over the coming weeks. In the meantime, follow our Facebook and Twitter profiles to stay tuned, and please, visit our Kickstarter page and add us to your Wishlist there too.
Click on the banner to add us!
Oooh, and we almost forgot - here’s a little video teaser that we’ve for you. Is this real? Probably, but most likely it’s a maybe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYdvFI4p3vE
Until next time,
Hildegard, Sir Godfrey, and Yaza Games Team
Working from Home and Single-Player Campaign Tease
Hello Master Illuminators!
It’s a bit of a strange time right now, isn’t it? Even though it might feel like the world is taking a weird turn, I guess we have to move on with our lives and our work. So today, we want to give you an update on what’s been happening with us and what we’ve been working on. So let’s start with the show!
So, just like most studios around, because of COVID-19 we are now fully remote. I guess we’ve worked in remote mode in the past, but late last year we actually got ourselves a little office and it was nice being able to work together in one place. It started to become a bit of a home away from home. But, there’s no point complaining! We picked up our office gear, cleaned the office (if you need removal services, call us), and after enjoying the office life for a few months, we’re back working on Inkulinati at home. Got to say it - we miss the direct contact a little bit, the coffees, and little chitchats. It helps ideas grow, that’s for sure…
Inkulinati meetings - dramatization.
Oooo, one thing to mention - thanks to Steam Remote we had an online Inkulianti tournament! That was pretty fun. Thank the heavens for the internet…
Now it's time to discuss some of the specific changes we've made to the game itself. As you might know, we've been working recently on Inkulinati’s single-player campaign. After all, getting lost in an adventure of your own could be one of the most fun experiences you could have. To make the campaign a bit more interesting, we are working on what we call internally as “Wild Fights”. We can’t reveal too much about it just yet (don’t worry, the time will come), but it’s all about making the campaign a bit more varied. After all, variety is the spice of life. What we can reveal is that we’ve been working on our campaign’s map. Every adventure needs a map and here’s a sneak peek into ours and the real-life references that inspired it.
References:
And our Work in Progress map:
Let us know in the comment section below what you think about the map so far. Are we on the right track? Do you like the looks so far? Let us know! And don’t forget to follow us on our Facebook and Twitter accounts (clickable icons down below!) where we share little bits of info and pointless imagery here and there.
And of course, if you can, add us to your Wishlist. It'll help us out tremendously.
Hildegard, Sir Godfrey, Sir Robin (who still doesn't know how to properly turn on the camera on his computer 🤦🏻♂️), and Yaza Games Team
New Units, New Map, and a whole new Menu
Hello Master Illuminators,
Time flies, we’re having fun, the game is growing, but there’s been no update on Steam lately - what’s up with that!?! Time to change that. Let us share with you the progress that we’ve made recently in Inkulinati - what we’ve added, changed and so on. So, let’s get into it!
Some time ago, on our social channels, we showed new units. We call them The Hybrids. They are completely different from the other units that we've been dealing with so far, and not just in their appearance, but also with their mechanics and abilities. Here they are, these little suckers.
Their unique skill set means that you will need to adapt your strategy on the battlefield to defeat them (or to win with them - depending on which side you take). We will show you the Hybrids in action soon, but the most important question is “If these are whole new looking units, does that mean they will be part of a new army!?! And who is the leader of this army!?!?” These questions must remain unanswered for the time being. But be vigilant, because we will reveal the answers to them really soon. Can you feel the hype already!?!
Another thing that we've been working lately on are new manuscript pages on which the epic duels will take place (aka, maps). Here is one of them for you to take a look at. This new manuscript page (aka, map) is called Towers in a Meadow. But what makes this new page different from the others? Well, on the page of Towers in a Meadow you will find two large towers that are located in a meadow. I know, crazy! Yes it is, but there’s more to it too. The towers aren’t just there for visual purposes. These towers provide an additional level of battling goodness - a balcony where army units can be located and used with poise, grace, and tactical nuance. Seems like a perfect place for some deadly archers, don’t you think? Also, you might have noticed that there are some new obstacles on the page too. One of them explodes too, creating a whole new barrel of laughs (hey, I did a pun - nice!). A new board means that you have to adjust your tactics, and that means more head-scratching fun.
Finally, we did a revamp of our main menu. We wanted to make it a bit clearer and cleaner. Look, there’s not much sense in writing paragraphs about the new menu. How about we just show it to you? Yeah, that sounds better...
These are just a few of the many things we've been working on lately. Let us know what you think about them in the comments below. Also, let us know if you would like more Update like this in the future, or if you have some questions about Inkulinati, just ask away too! In the meantime, you can watch us on our Facebook and Twitter profiles - we also share a lot of information about Inkulinati on there too. And if you haven’t already added us to your Steam Wishlist, ad us to it - you have no idea how much that helps us.
Since many of you wanted to see more frequent updates about the delicious stuff we got cooking for you, we’d love to give you a sneak peek about what’s currently going on.
First, we are excited to announce that we finally moved on to our new office (actually it’s the first one). We got new furniture such as desks, chairs, computers… but the most important one being: the kettle. Now we can enjoy working while drinking a nice cup of tea.
Next up - we have two new unit references for you! That of the Bishop cat and the Great Snail. As we’ve mentioned before, Inkulinati is based on marginalia found in medieval manuscripts. All of our characters are inspired by real-life medieval doodles. Yes, they are figments of the imagination of people long gone.
Let’s start with the cat. Contrary to popular belief, the cat in the Middle Ages was NOT a demonic animal. They were highly respected because they would hunt mice. In fairy tales, a cat appeared as a cunning mouse bishop who devoured his faithful. They were associated with 'cat' music and quite often they had an instrument. And in the bestiary, cats notoriously licked their bottoms (or “Eye of Sauron”- anyone that has a cat which wakes them up in the morning, probably knows what I am talking about. Thanks Wesley…)!
And now, to our Great Snail. During the 13th and 14th century it was common to see in manuscripts of that time a brave and shining knight facing a snail. As opposed to the cat, people don’t have a clue what the snail could represent. There are theories, but no clinical facts. If you are interested in those theories, you can check the link down below: Medieval Marginalia: Why Are There So Many Snails In Medieval Manuscripts?
If you liked what we’ve shown you today, leave a comment/question/anything at all down below. And if you want to see more of Inkulinati, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Until next time!
Yaza Games
EGX Berlin, RPS Stream, and a New Fresh Store
Hello everyone,
November has come and gone. It was pretty quick, wasn’t it? Like a flash you might even say. And although those November days have gone in an almost-instant, they did leave some good memories for us. So gather around, and let Sir Robin tell you the tale of what Yaza Games were up to last month.
So, the first big thing that we need to talk about was EGX Berlin. That event was pretty special for us as it was our first event outside of our homeland in Poland. The event itself was great - we’ve met a lot of great people, spoke to many journalists, got featured in the press, and got to hang out with you - our fans. Your feedback was invaluable to us, and it was fun watching you play Inkulinati. We can genuinely say that you guys and girls, you are damn good illuminators.
Apart from us being at EGX Berlin, which is great in itself, we had the opportunity to be featured on the official Rock, Paper, Shotgun EGX Berlin Stream (yeay!!). We had a chance to showcase Inkulinati to a live audience and in case you have missed it, you can watch the stream right here, just below this very last few words you are currently reading: [previewyoutube="B63Tc5ae59E;full"] So if you missed the stream, or you want to see our dev Marcin, or you want to see Inkulinati in action (or maybe all three at once??), you can now do so, over and over again.
And lastly, you might’ve already noticed it, but just in case you haven’t, we have a new Steam Store page with a new description and a few gifs! Please, check it out, let us know what you think, and tell us if you like it or not. Don’t be shy…
That’s it from us for today. Tell us - did you like our little write-up? Maybe you were at EGX Berlin and you played Inkulinati yourself (if that’s the case, you HAVE TO give a “hey ho” in the comment below). Or perhaps you have burning questions for us which you want to get off your chest? If so, write it all down in the comments below. Also, you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get all the latest updates too. And if you haven’t done so already, add us to your Wishlist! That will mean the world to us...
Until next time
Michal | Yaza Games
Inkulinati is part of EGX Berlin 2019!
Hello everyone,
A quick message to all our fans that will be in Berlin next weekend. Inkulinati is part of this year's EGX Berlin! You can play our latest demo starting Friday November 1st, right up until Sunday November 3rd.
If you're at the event, come over, meet our team, play our game, and have a merry olde time. And if you're not in Berlin next weekend, don't stress - we will be showing more of our game soon, so stay tuned for further updates.
And do you see those social icons below? Yep, those grey ones. Click on them and give us a follow. We'll be updating our newsfeeds with fresh info there as well.
Until next time we speak (most likely after the event).
All the best,
Michal | Yaza Team
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Hello everyone,
Ok, I have to confess. This month's update is going to be a bit of a short one. A few of us have been on holidays, there’s been a lot of “under the hood” work, and a lot of boring but necessary polishing. So to be frank - there isn’t that much “new and improved” type of content and updates to show. HOWEVER! That doesn’t mean that this is it, the update is over. Oh no, not on my watch!
In today’s update, I thought I’ll show you some of the references that we used to create some of our units. As ye olde saying goes, we all stand on shoulders of giants. And that certainly applies to us as well. Now, as you probably noticed, Inkulinati is heavily influenced by marginalia found on medieval manuscripts. What’s really cool - in our minds at least - is that our character are inspired by real-life medieval doodles. Yes, they are figments of the imagination of people long gone. You can say that our concept artists are people that lived 100’s and 100’s of years ago - we just helped bought their creations to life. Below are a few of those references in action.
So if you feel that what we have in our game is twisted, crazy, and just plain weird - it’s not us, but our ancestor’s fault (King Godfrey’s pro tip - always blame it on the dead guys).
Another little thing that might be of interest to you - we were interviewed by the Turn-Based Lovers site. So if you want to find out a bit more about us, our inspirations, and the game itself - hop over to this link here. I hope you’ll find it of interest.
If you like what we’ve shown you today, let us know in the comments below. Heck, maybe you have some marginalia that you like yourself - if so, post below! And as always, you can follow us on social on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Do it - it makes us feel nice seeing that community of ours rise.
Until next time,
Michal | Yaza Games Team
New Look, New Award, and a New Unit
Hello everyone,
Welcome to our update #2. It’s the end of July, the sun is shining, people are on holidays, and the weather is hot hot hot! Well, that’s what we’ve been told by others because we’ve been deep in work mode, working on Inkulinati (nah, it’s not that bad - we’ve been enjoying some time with our friends and families too. I over-exaggerate sometimes...). So gather around, and let us tell you what we’ve been up to.
First up, we’ve been working on a new UI for our game. Now, the thing with UI is that if it’s good, you don’t really notice it. If it’s bad, oh my, trust me - you will notice it straight away! When designing our user interface, we wanted it to be clean, easily understood and has to fit with the feel of the overall design of our game. So, after weeks of work, here it is - our new UI. Below you can see the results - a classic “Before and After” shot.
Next up - we won an award! We had the pleasure of being part of the Cracow Game Days event, where we showcased Inkulinati during the conference. Little did we know that once the show was over, we walked away with the “Most Creative Game” award. Many thanks to the jury - feels nice to be rewarded ;) And many thanks to everyone that tuned in and watched our presentation. If you missed our presentation - don't worry. You can watch it again right here.
And finally, the new unit reveal. This is it. This is the BIG ONE. Ladies and gentlemen, strap yourselves in, as we will reveal to you the next killer unit. Brace yourself, as the heavy and deadly all-powerful snail is here!
https://youtu.be/D5zk4EJEICk
We hope that you enjoyed this update of ours, and please tell us what you think of the new UI and what your thoughts are on the snail! If you want to get more Inkulinati glimpses and tid bits of info, follow us on Facebook and Twitter (did you know we teased the snail there last week? You didn’t!?! Well, if you followed us, you would've known...). And if you haven’t done so already, Wishlist us on Steam - you have no idea how much that helps us.
Hope you enjoyed our update, let us know what you think of it, and we will speak with each other real soon.
Regards,
Michal | Yaza Games
Inkulinati’s Polish Adventure of 2019 - Pixel Heaven and Digital Dragons
Hi everyone,
First of all - hello and welcome to our first Steam Update! I know, it’s crazy! I can’t believe it’s this is actually happening. We’ve been very quiet on this front, and it’s time to change that. So, without further ado, ladies and gents - let’s get into it!
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been traveling around Poland and showcasing Inkulinati to audiences at two major Polish gaming events. First up on the list was Pixel Heaven Festival in Warsaw. Pixel Heaven is a fantastic intimate event, in which we were able to see how people play our game first hand. You see, as a dev, it’s good to come out once in a while and let others play your game - you end up seeing things that you’ve never thought of looking at. It was an absolute blast to watch people fight against one another in our little marginalia world, and the feedback we got was invaluable. We were also nominated for three Pixel Heaven Awards ( "Best Art", "Big Bang!", and "Indie Grand Prix"), and came back with one! Ladies and gentlemen, Inkulinati is officially the winner of Pixel Heaven’s 2019 Big Bang! (biggest surprise) award!
Next up on the list was Digital Dragons in Krakow. For those of you who may not know, Digital Dragons is one of the premier industry events in Central Europe. Pretty much, imagine GDC but set in a beautiful medieval city. Once again, it was great to receive all this feedback from people within the industry. They gave us a lot of good pointers to make Inkulinati even better. The other bonus is that our game also won an award at the show! Dear fans of Inkulinati - we are proud to say that Inkulinati won the Digital Dragons 2019 Indie Showcase tvgry.pl Editor's Choice Award! That’s right, in a space of a few weeks, we’ve picked up 2 awards for our game. We are proud, happy and humbled - all at the same time.
I hope that this update of ours was a worthy few minute read - let me know in the comments below. And if you want to get more Inkulinati glimpses and tidbits of info, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. And if you haven’t done so already, Wishlist us on Steam - you have no idea how much that will help us.
