And at long last, Serpent in the Staglands is complete. We are extremely proud of the result of one adventurous year of learning and development. You helped us make this happen, and we are thrilled with how the game shaped up. You need but look at the original Kickstarter video to see how far the game has come. We think it’s pretty remarkable.
I would have said there really isn’t an opportunity for a 2-person team to make a niche game like this beyond being a hobby project, but with Kickstarter and you all wonderful folks that was made possible. We’re so grateful to have had the opportunity to make this game and we hope you get a sense for the type of experience we were trying to make the moment you start to boot it up. We’ve said Serpent in the Staglands is a 90s CRPG in everything but the release date, and we meant it. No handholding, fun puzzles, and we tried to make every element and feature in the game fun first and foremost — we think you’ll love it.
Alright, lets get to it: LAUNCH UPDATE.
A special thanks to all our backers who provided their mugs for the game — they brought a ton of character and atmosphere to the game.
As we’ve mentioned before, do read The Manual prior to playing. You start the game proper right out the gate, so your tutorial is in that text. We’ll be getting it packaged up for GOG and the folks with Accounts with us a standalone soon, and Steam folks will be able to download it from the link above.
DEMO
We’ve included the first couple areas of the game for folks to slaughter some wildlife and explore a temple to get a feel for the gameplay! If you know someone that may be interested, pass it along!
What’s Next
We have some patches planned to smooth out some skill and enemy balancing, as well as some economy balancing, and will continue to push hard to support and polish up the game so it’s tip top in time for the free expansion! We have a dedicated forum for any technical issues or bugs, and if you find anything please let us know! We will strive to make the game as perfect as it can be, and while we did a lot of thorough testing ourselves with the help of the beta testers for early areas, we’ll need your help finding anything we may have missed.
If you haven’t already received a Kickstarter message or email from us, you will throughout the coming day. We’re drinking some cafera and continuing to go through the list through tomorrow— Steam and our DRM-Free releases early afternoon, GOG early morning (US Central Time). This is a manual process for us, as we're sending a key to each of you line by line, so we appreciate your patience and hope to have this wrapped up today!
Helping us out one last time!
One last thing you wonderful folks could do for us is talk about the game. With just the two of us wearing all the hats needed for development, we haven’t had the opportunity to spread the word as much as we would to have liked to. While the game is being distributed to various journalists and You-Tubers, we really think the word of mouth will be the best driving force behind letting more people know about it.
Whatever social media thing you’re on we’d be so grateful if you gave our game a shoutout. If you enjoyed the game and are inclined to leave a review on a distributor like Steam, that would be immensely helpful for getting traction. We’d also love to hear about what you think about it, so always feel free to let us know in email or on the forums.
Making of/Art Book
We’re currently finishing up this digital book and will have it out soon! Everyone who has a package including it will be getting an email containing account info, and will be able to just download it from the link provided when it’s available. The book turned out real fun, and is full of design decisions, tons of art, how to live off butter-coffee for a year, and plenty of small little easter eggs or things a lot of folks may have missed playing (lots of spoilers, so take heed). We’re so appreciative of everyone who continues to purchase the upgrade for this package, and we think you’ll all get a kick out of it!
Soundtrack Available!
The game’s wonderful music artist has the soundtrack available on his Bandcamp and also available on our site (all proceeds will go straight to him)! It’s a really terrific OST for the game, full of atmospheric tracks. Definitely worth your interest!
Thank You!
This was our first Kickstarter campaign and our first game of this size, and while this was a moderately sized campaign compared to a lot of games we’ve had an immense amount of support from everyone, and we really appreciate all the words of encouragement over the past year. We’ve tried to run a fun and honest campaign with our updates, and hope you’ve enjoyed the look inside development as the game was in progress. We’ll continue to post any big updates of patches or other news. Thanks again everyone.
Remember to bring a notebook and some mead, and enjoy your time in Vol!
Cheers!
Joe & Hannah
Build Concept #3: The Trapping Teleporter!
This build works great in unison with other casters laying down crippling spells on the exit point or archers sending volleys into enemies while they helplessly get pushed through the portal and grounded.
Teleporting itself also works well for some battlefield control with bottlenecking enemies or sending them off a distant away to get some breathing room. Both great for utility application and damaging groups of enemies and sending them away from the caster for defensive purposes.
Build Concepts!
In case you missed it in our last update, over the next couple weeks we're going to be showing some examples of how you could combine different skills to create builds for a character.
Figuring out how to build effective character skill-sets for 5 characters that work well as a unit can be a ton of fun, and you have Aptitude utilities, spells and skills for all sorts of interesting and unique varieties of builds to play with.
Here's two examples:
We'll be updating the Online Manual prior to release with Grade 3 Spells and Skills so you can get an idea of what kind of builds you'd like to make before playing.
With the release just a little over a week away, we’re excited to show off our launch trailer! It showcases new areas you haven’t seen before, some new spells, neat puzzles and some of the voice acting from a wonderful VO that will be in the game, so we hope you’ll check it out!
GOG and the Humble Store!
Last week we signed on with GOG to distribute Serpent in the Staglands, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of their catalog! The game will be for sale there on May 28th as well as on the Humble Store! Getting the game DRM free is something we hold dear to our hearts, and we're excited to have these avenues to distribute the game through!
Getting your rewards from Kickstarter
How you’ll get your rewards varies based on your backer level and which option you chose for the survey, so bear with us as we lay out the different paths:
For $15 and $20 backers: If you chose Steam or GOG: You’ll receive an email on the 27th or morning of the 28th with your key, Handbook (if applicable), and Manual,
If you chose DRM-Free through Whalenought: Around those same times we’ll set up an account for you on our website where you’ll be able to download the game at your leisure. You’ll receive an email notifying you when the account is created. You will be able to login to the Account page after that to download your packages.
For $25+ backers: If you chose Steam or GOG: You’ll receive an email on the 27th or morning of the 28th with your key. We’ll also set up an account for you on our website where you’ll be able to download the Art Book/Making of book and Erlein’s Handbook. You’ll receive an email notifying you when the account is created. You will be able to login to the Account page after that to download your packages.
If you chose DRM-Free through Whalenought: We’ll set up an account for you on our website where you’ll be able to download the game, the Art Book/Making of book and Erlein’s Handbook. You’ll receive an email notifying you when the account is created. You will be able to login to the Account page after that.
Build Concepts
Part of the fun of a classless system is combining skills to create interesting builds for all your party members that work as a unit, and we’ll be showcasing some fun examples over the next few weeks on Twitter to help inspire you to create your own. The first is a favorite for ranged characters, and has some utility options for swapping Pin Shot or any other buffing or battlefield control skill: “The Poison Bombardier,” who's goal would be to proc as much unblockable damage as possible as a strafing archer instead of relying on raw physical damage.
We’ll be adding Grade 3 Skills and Spells to the Manual soon so you can check all out and get some ideas rolling.
Raffling a Physical Journal!
Comment on our new youtube trailer for a chance to win a handcrafted leather-bound journal! See details here:
Demo & Walkthrough Video
We’ll be back for another update soon with links to our Mac, PC and Linux demos, as well as that walkthrough/combat aid video.
Thanks for all of your support and making this game possible, we can’t wait for you to to start playing!
Cheers!
Hannah and Joe
New Portraits preview!
We're finishing up with the last of the portraits for companions and character generation and wanted to show off another preview of some new faces! No Lachovinians or Ameythevians in this one, but have some dashing Pasaarans, Varuchovs and Taratoriths (4 of whom are backers portraits!)
Total there are 50 character generation portraits to choose from, and 30 companions able to be put through the grinder found and cherished!
The Varuchov male featured is actually the most powerful companion you can find, and is one of the rare surface dwelling Vykins within the Staglands (Vykins are the equivalent of our historic knights — honored in ceremony, monsters in reality). He's quite difficult to obtain, but I'm sure the savviest of Spicers out there can manage.
Manual 2.0 Available!
We've update the online manual for Serpent in the Staglands to include lots more pictures, gameplay hints and information for the survival of any Spicer trekking the peninsula.
We got to answer some great questions hosted by the wonderful folks at RPGWatch for the second time! They interviewed us really early during our Kickstarter campaign, and it was terrific to answer some more questions about the game and development.
Pete Ozzy from Pixelated Paradise has written a wonderful preview with his experience of the game thus far, check it out!
"The Transylvanian-esque lands are a dark and tough place to live and every piece of lore weaves an epic, yet foreboding, tale of hardship and intrigue. I spent the better part of two hours walking around the very first building due to taking in every possible detail and reading all the tomes."
Firstly, for those who may have missed it (and need to brush up on Linguistics skills), Serpent in the Staglands release date is May 28th! Prior to that we'll be getting you all uploaded into the accounts page on our website where you’ll be able to get either your game-key or game package directly to download! We’ll announce to you all when you’re in the system to login, and you’ll be receiving an email as well detailing this process.
Physical Journals prepping for shipment!
Despite not having monk robes and torch-lit rooms, we took some time to do some medieval scribe work and bound together Erlein's journals! We'll be shipping these early, planning for the end of the month, so you'll have ample time to look it over. For those receiving these or their digital versions, they are worth thumbing through — Erlein is the Moon Lord's one source of information, and this untimely travel guide has plenty of secrets and lore to peruse.
We'd like to send the first batch of journals soon, so if you haven’t filled out the handy survey Kickstarter sent you recently, please do! I think most of them are in, but we’ll check in with you soon for an address if you haven’t. We have a few extras available, and made some additional ones we'll be raffling off next month. We’d love to hear your ideas for a raffle/contest for the physical journals, let us know in the comments!
Game Manual
The web version of the Game Manual is in progress here: (still a WIP)
http://serpentinthestaglands.com/manual/#page/2
Your copies of the games will ship with a .pdf version of this as well. Both the game manual (and handbook) will have printable .pdf versions also included. The later chapters of the manual which we'll be adding closer to release will contain some helpful information on monsters, locations, and how to survive in the game.
MATT CHAT Interviews!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oabOmGXRKM
We got a chance to talk to Matt about "Rodent in the Mattlands" in a really fun 3 part interview, and he recently put up all of them. We talk about the game, a lot of the adventure-game influences and all sorts of other designs and company info in them. Check it out! (the other two episodes we talk on are 285 & 286):
The things your party will fear
In the Staglands you'll find that when facing your enemies, wits will go a lot farther in helping you kill than any bronze or magic. If fighting a certain monster or enemy isn't going your way, you can find some guidance in-game by talking to villagers and the local law, or reference the manual or handbook for clues as to their weaknesses.
One example of a monster that might be a particular challenge is the Harvester, a creature concept devised by one of our own backers (thanks David!) As the most dangerous of the Shroomer species we wanted to use some of these utility-tactics needed to kill certain monsters. Their natural armor is impervious to iron, bronze and magic alike (though would make for some fine armor if the right smith was up for the task…), and they travel toward their prey by burrow through the ground.
To dispatch them is well known to the Eastern settlers: Get them on their back and expose those squishy organs hiding under that exoskeleton!
Huge armor and underground travel.
There are lots of ways of grounding your enemies — in this case a sorcerer's Festering Ooze does the trick just fine!
Wolves of mist, immortal Bloodless, ethereal shields and more will take tactical insight to be able to overcome. Monsters aren't the only thing that can stop your party in their tracks though. Tratis Saltis, while still housing survivors, is currently ailed by an infested bog of poisonous leeches for the past few years that will wreck havoc on any unfortunate, and unprepared traveler. Certain equipment will be imperative to survive these types of environments.
Best bring antidotes — poison is unblockable damage, and there are lots of spiders. Refuge above the crawling surface.
A good stopping place for some exotic goods for prepping these areas would be Rumin. While the village has set up necessary defenses against the surrounding Spirit Realm dangers, you'll have to secure such safety on your own while traveling.
The things your party will solve
We've talked about puzzles before, and wanted to show off a glimpse of a favorite: the weight puzzles! You won't have to carry around stones and rocks, you can use anything from your inventory to activate panels, including your companions.
Clues for these and other puzzles are often in the form of panels in the environment, which you can acquire a chalk rubbing from!
Indiana Jones approved.
Lots more puzzles that utilize other spells, skills, aptitudes and your wits to solve! You'll make good use of a notebook.
Gameplay Tips Coming Soon!
We'll be back in the next couple weeks with an exciting update where we'll do a demonstration video on getting started adventuring and some basic combat tips.
