The most important problem with The Fall of Avalon, one we’ve labeled as a critical issue to fix as soon as possible, was that the game’s performance wasn’t exactly… great.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a thing that can be easily fixed and improved, so we needed time… and so, for the past few months, we’ve been hard at work to make the game run better on low-end and high-end machines.
In our previous updates, we’ve been saying things like “the performance is X% better”, but since we’re pretty much done with performance improvements (FOR NOW! We’re constantly tweaking stuff!), we thought it’d be valuable to share what was actually done in the past few months in the technical department.
So, our next patch – scheduled for the end of September – should bring a lot of improvements in terms of the game’s performance, and here’s a very brief overview of the major changes we’ve implemented.
Performance Improvements
First of all –
The biggest “cost” in terms of performance in this type of game is rendering (in short: graphics). In the release version – the one you can play now on Steam – this was the main issue that kicked us in the ass. Rendering was very expensive both for the CPU and GPU.
We’ve implemented several systems to get rid of this problem, mostly on the side of the CPU – but we’ve also seen a significant improvement on the side of the GPU.
Why were we focusing on the CPU, some of you may ask, when the game was running at *only 80 fps* on your RTX 4080? Well, the problem wasn’t your GPU – the problem was that the CPU was a bottleneck that didn’t allow the game to run any better. We’ve managed to clear that bottleneck, so the high-end machines should see a big spike in performance now.
But people playing on low-end machines should see a performance improvement, too, because some of the new systems gave us an immediate boost, AND all of those improvements we’ve been implementing were also forcing us to handle various things in the game differently – in a much more efficient and cost-effective way.
Here’s what was happening – in more detail:
New Engine Version
Even though Unity doesn’t exactly recommend this for big projects, we’re always switching to the newest available versions of the Unity Engine. We’re trying to stay as “current” as possible and utilize everything that we’re given as fast as possible. We couldn’t do it just before launch, but we did immediately after we were done with hotfixes.
This switch gave us a nice boost to the game’s performance pretty much out of the box, but it also allowed us to improve or implement several other game systems. Such as:
ECS
We’ve been waiting to implement this for a while – and we finally did. We needed the new version of Unity Engine and a couple of months to make sure it works properly – and so now a significant part of our game runs on a system called ECS or DOTS.
The ECS, or Entity Component System, allows us to fully utilize multiple cores in a processor. A very common problem with processors is that a lot of their power is wasted on fetching data – ECS helps with that by storing a minimum amount of data for a given job in a very optimal collection so the processor can do real work instead of fetching new data (and data is separated in a way that allows “jobs” to be spread to different cores).
So, to explain this in a less technical matter, ECS keeps only the important information, and it keeps it in a special place so the processor doesn’t waste time looking for it. Also, the cores can work together better because they can share their tasks or work on different things at the same time.
This ECS technology also spreads to rendering – so now we have something that’s called a BatchRendererGroup, which keeps similar objects in a single buffer. This means that it puts similar things together in one group, so the computer can draw them all at once, which is much faster.
Also, thanks to that, culling (a system that makes the computer only look at the things you can see on the screen so that it doesn't waste time and power trying to draw things that are hiding behind walls or far away where you can't see them) can be done in a more performance-friendly way, and drawing objects requires less work (for both CPU and GPU).
Additional Renderers
And on top of that, we’ve implemented Medusa Renderer and Drake Renderer. The first one uses the ECS rendering and BatchRendererGroup to render static geometry, which is "always" visible. That makes it the fastest way of rendering in our toolkit. Drake is very similar, but it manages dynamic assets (they can be dynamically removed or added) – this makes it a bit slower (because we cannot always ensure the best data alignment) but thanks to Drake, people with high-end machines should see a performance improvement.
HLODS
So, most of you probably know what a “LOD” is – and for those who don’t, it stands for “Level of Detail”. Whenever you see things in games that pop into a better quality version of themselves, you’re witnessing a LOD change. This means that objects that aren’t important at the moment aren’t shown in their full quality all the time but are “loaded” when they’re actually needed. We’ve been using that, and everyone else in the industry does, but we’ve improved our approach and implemented a system called “HLOD”.
This stands for "Hierarchical Level of Detail." It is an extension of LOD that takes optimization further. Instead of just having different versions of individual objects, HLOD groups multiple objects together into clusters or hierarchies. When far away, these clusters are replaced with simpler versions, reducing the number of individual objects that need to be rendered. This results in even greater performance improvement, especially in large and complex scenes with many objects.
In our case, they now use ECS and persistent colliders. This means that collisions are stable, and there is no need to recalculate physics when HLOD switches itself. This means that rendering stuff around the player is almost as fast as rendering simplified models from afar.
Vegetation Streaming
It isn’t probably very intuitive, but all that grass and trees that you see in the game are pretty costly in terms of performance. So, last but not least, we’ve managed to find a way to stream vegetation.
Previously, our vegetation was placed in the game world at runtime (so there was the possibility to change it at runtime), but we traded that possibility for better memory usage and lower processing power requirement. It means that vegetation is baked and streamed from your SSD (and we hope you’ve installed The Fall on Avalon on your SSD drive!).
So these are the MAJOR improvements we’ve implemented into the game in the past few months. Overall, we hope that the new patch will make the game run way, way, way better on your PCs!
Dual Wielding
One of our design goals with The Fall of Avalon is to do our best to let you play the game the way you want – this means that all playstyles you can think of should be viable. One of the core fantasies that we need to accommodate for this to work is obviously dual wielding – I bet some of you would like to play the game carrying two swords or two axes. But I’m also sure that at least a couple of you are going to create joke characters in order to test the limits of the game – playing, for example, with two shields, right?
So, good news: it’s going to be possible. We’ve implemented proper dual wielding. There ARE certain limitations regarding your movesets and we’re sure that some of you will want even more flexibility… but well, we had to stop somewhere, and we hope you’re going to like the compromise we’ve arrived at :)
https://youtu.be/CFO-UNUtLIk
https://youtu.be/3xZ4QxHMVLQ
Combat AI
We weren’t happy with the way our AI behaved in combat, and we’ve heard a lot of your complaints, so we’ve spent quite a while trying to figure out what can be done in order to improve the feeling of combat – in terms of how our enemies behave.
There are a trillion issues when you start delving into this topic – you can’t do [this], you can’t do [that], and if you do [this] then [that] will break when you move from an exterior space to the interior… and so on. The solution we’ve found is to create something we call a “combat director” and enhance various systems related to how the game handles combat situations.
So, the way it worked in TFOA on launch was that every AI was an autonomous entity. It made its own decisions – this, combined with the system of “combat slots” which decided where AI positions itself, was a pretty okay implementation and served its function. However, it didn’t make the AI very “smart” or fun to fight with.
We decided to add another brain on top of it all – a combat director – and improve the system of combat slots so that now there’s another “brain” that controls all enemies present in combat and decides which one of them should take action at any given moment (and where it should position itself in order to do whatever it intends to do).
In short, in our upcoming patch, the overall combat experience should be much more fun, and AIs shouldn’t be as dumb as they were :D
https://youtu.be/jqQ-4abr8sM
Some gameplay-related additions
After launching the game in Early Access our team grew – and among our new hires are folks who are currently in charge of making the whole map play better and making sure all dungeons are actually fun to play through.
I think we’ve improved every single dungeon in the game – but I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprises that await you! One thing I can say is that – if something isn’t dictated by context or story – we made sure that our dungeons will support various playstyles (for example stealth).
We’re also coming up with various ideas on how to differentiate some “magical” areas of the game, so here’s a sneak-peak of what you can expect in one of those places:
https://youtu.be/WNLsbbsImnw
We’re also constantly improving the game in various aspects and adding stuff that we feel needs to be included (because the game’s based on “player fantasies” more than anything else).
For example, we always knew it was going to be possible to go fishing in the game (it was one of the first minigames we implemented in the game’s prototype stage). So here’s a video of it actually working (disregard the camera movements, it’s still a work in progress):
https://youtu.be/f61lTmUcFTQ
We also knew that we were going to eventually add the possibility of buying and furnishing a house. Here’s a screenshot of a planned UI and a video of a very rough prototype of this system at work :)
https://youtu.be/lAnGmddvptA
These features may or may not make it to the next patch, depending on the time and effort required to make them feel good, but they’ll definitely make it into the game *eventually*.
Oh, and one thing that is going to make it into the next patch is a permanent wood source ;)
https://youtu.be/rd7JL363sVE
That’s it for today!
There’s a lot of stuff that we still didn’t tell you about, but let’s leave it for next month ;)
Development update - June
Hey everyone!
Another month, another update from the development front! There is quite a bit of progress that we are happy to report, so grab a beverage of your choice and sit by!
MOAR PERFORMANCE!
First of all - in the last update we were happy to report that the next Major patch will increase performance by about 30%. Well, last month we pushed that even more and decreased the usage of RAM quite significantly.
We know that performance and bugs are two big things that TAINT () your experience on Avalon, so our team is prioritising it pretty heavily.
Long story short - our codemasters are doing their magic, so that once the next major patch comes, the game will run super-smooth.
Map updates!
Now, last update we were talking a little bit about upgrading the current map. Happy to report that we have some first examples of that! We were able to make some locations much better looking, but also we were joined by new level designers - so we will change a few small things here and there for better gameplay experience.
Oh, and we finally have vertical cliffs, so things that are not climbable will look like it from first glance :D
Galahad new model (and dungeon)
We are also re-working Galahad a little bit. We wanted him to have his unique look (not a Caradoc copy :P) AND quest / personality.
In the current version, we feel like meeting him did not have the punch that it deserved. This is why we will be adding a bit more content around him, possibly a whole new dungeon and possibility to talk with him!
Questing beast!
Now, time for a big one! Last time we showed you quite a weird looking concept, right? Well, we already have this monstrosity almost finished! Say hello to Questing Beast!
Those of you familiar with the Arthurian lore might know Questing Beast as the mysterious creature that many great knights hunted without success. It is a symbol of wasteful pursuit and a hunt for “glory”. You can expect that in Tainted Grail, it will have its own dark version of this legend!
FX upgrades!
Now, we have also created a bunch of FX upgrades - in general in the next major patch you can expect to have tooooons of those, but here we will just showcase a few selected. Check it out!
NPC actively looking at you!
Well, ok, this one might not be a game changer - BUT it really helps the immersion ;) Also, might be helpful once we implement stealth and stealing systems (and they are coming too!)
Undead Enemies!
Last but not least - we also re-worked good, old undead enemies! Now, they should look much better ;) Check them out!
OK! That is it for this month. We are still working pretty heavily on everything and we really think you guys will be happy with the upcoming Major Patch. It is still some time away, as we need to pull everything together and test it hard - but we expect a drastic quality jump in all the major areas!
We hope those monthly updates cast a bit of light on what we are working on and get you a little bit excited for the patch! ;)
As our team is deep at work on the next major patch for Fall of Avalon, we did not want to leave all of you empty handed, so we have a fresh update with some of the news from the development front!
Before that, we just wanted to take a moment to once again thank you all for taking this Early Access journey with us. Your support is amazing and having so many active players at this stage of the project feels very rewarding. Thank you!
After the EA release, our team had some very much deserved time off, but now we are back deep in development work and we are reporting back with some of the upgrades we have already managed to get done!
We will be doing updates like this every month to give you a unique look at the development process. Obviously, we look forward to any feedback (good or bad!) you might have and are always happy to hear any suggestions.
So, let’s see what we have in store for you today!
Visual upgrades!
There are quite a few visual upgrades happening all around! Our team has been able to enhance the world, enemy and special effects. Let's see some examples, shall we?
First - the buildings’ interior and, in particular, the TAVERN! We want to make sure that going inside buildings will be a good, thematic experience, so we are adding some much needed details here and there. And what place could be more important than the good, old tavern?
But the outside world is getting some extra love as well. We are working on enhancing the environment to be more… well, three dimensional. Below, you can see how we are changing the overall quality of the game’s environment and terrain.
Now, obviously we are also giving some extra love to enemies you encounter near Horns of the South. Today, we are really happy to show you the reworked drowners and undead - we simply felt that they could use a design overhaul. We hope you enjoy the changes!
Speaking of enemies - we were finally able to implement overall clothes and give them proper physics, so that means… CAPES! And obviously many other options for humanoid enemies and NPCs that will look way better and more natural ;) Check out the first iteration below!
Not only are we making current enemies prettier (and smarter! More about that later ;), but we are adding some new ones, too! Here, you can see the 3D sculpt for Moonlight Guardian - what is interesting is that he is the first enemy with a shield, so defeating him will require a bit more finesse :D More shield-wielders to come!
But we are also working on concepts for monsters for new zones and you can expect some really cool designs. Here is the first spoiler of things to come! ;)
We are also working heavily on improving the combat, as one of the biggest feedback we got from you is that you would like for it to have a better feel. Right now, it is still very much a work in progress, but we promise you that this is a strong focus point for the whole team, and we are aiming for a really great feel from every type of combat.
Below you can see the first improvement to bows (special arrows VFX), as well as the very first iteration of critical hits. Thanks to these, it will be much easier to tell when you performed a special attack and obviously, that will provide that special satisfaction of seeing its effect on the poor enemy ;)
Last but not least - a small spoiler of things to come! As promised, we will be adding quite a lot of new content and we are aiming that for every new chapter/zone, we will have a different environment, so that every zone will feel unique and have its own character.
Without further ado, here’s the first iteration of snowy mountains! We hope you enjoy it!
THINGS HAPPENING IN THE SHADOWS
There is also A LOT of work happening in the background that is aimed at drastically improving the game. That includes:
Working on improving the UI
Fixing and ironing out bugs
Technical research on the open world aspect of the game and better optimization
Improving enemy AI
Improving balance, reworking items, skills etc.
Reworking the crafting mechanic
All of this is happening simultaneously and we hope that we will soon be able to show you the first effects, as well as invite you to test it on your own during the next major patch!
In general - as you can see, the work is moving forward quite nicely and we are super excited about developing Fall of Avalon further. We can’t wait to share with you all the improvements and new content we are working on.
As always, thank you for being here, supporting us and sharing your feedback! We really do appreciate that! See you, in about a month, in the next update!
Hey y'all! Here's a quick note with patch notes for the newest build :)
Quality of Life:
Compass can be hidden in settings
The game can now be saved inside buildings
Items in shops should restock after a while (including WOOD!)
Keybindings:
Reworked key rebinding, allowing binding of keyboard keys to mouse buttons and vice versa. Previous setups will be incompatible and deleted so you'd have to bind keys again.
Lockpick rotation axis rebinds together with movement horizontal axis.
Added an option to rebind "LootAll" prompt.
General fixes:
Fixed missing map markers after entering a dungeon
Fixed visual indicator of crafting availability
Fixed resetting equipped item effects after restarting the game
Slow modifier should be properly discarding when the game's saving when your bow is pulled
TGTFOA_roadmap_final_final_final35
Hello everyone!
Thank you so much for playing the game and reaching out to us with your feedback – we've been reading everything you had to say and adjusting our plans for the future accordingly.
Some of you have been asking about a roadmap for the future, or at least what to expect in the upcoming months or from the final version of our game. We hope this update answers at least some of your questions on this topic!
But before we dive in, it's essential to keep in mind that the process of developing a game isn't set in stone, and it's impossible for us to foresee certain problems that we may encounter along the way.
We cannot say definitively that "this and that will happen FOR SURE."
The only thing we can tell you is that "we want to do this and that, and we assume that it is possible within a certain time period."
With that in mind…
FIRST MAJOR PATCH
IMPORTANT: THIS PATCH WILL ERASE YOUR SAVE GAMES
We estimate that we'll release the first major patch within the next 3 or 4 months.
This patch will focus on updating and polishing the game experience.
The main areas we'll concentrate on are:
Technical Issues:
Further work on the game's performance
Fixes for all (or at least 95%) bugs and outstanding issues (such as broken quests, etc.)
Gameplay:
Improvements to enemy AI/behaviors
Enhancements to general combat (more enemy behaviors to counter player behaviors)
Significant balancing and changes to various numbers, skills, and the game's economy
More possible playstyles (cloak & dagger characters, etc.)
New Features:
Enemies patrolling the open world
Thievery
Faction reputation system (gating quests so that you're not overwhelmed by available quests in places like the Horns)
Quality of Life:
Numerous new map markers and states of those markers
Better indication of active statuses (and what they do)
General Polishing:
More dedicated animations and VFX
More music and improved sound quality
Art and gameplay-related improvements
Story-related Additions:
Working & finished quest in the Blood Lake
Improvements to the ending of Chapter 1 (an option to speak with one of the more crucial NPCs and other fixes where needed :)
Possible Additions (if everything goes well):
Horse riding
Planting crops and fishing
Player Housing
This isn't everything, of course – we're continually improving the game and adding numerous new features, some of which aren't precisely interesting to anyone except us and possibly the most hardcore players.
We're also clearing our backlogs from some easier stuff - for example: we're going to change the basic model used for our generic Undead enemies. We're also changing models for Drowners (and adding new behaviors for them but more on that later!) and they'll get a proper weapon ;)
AND WHAT NEXT?
Well, the most accurate thing we can say here is that the game's going to get… bigger.
Clearly, we will be working towards completing the whole story (no spoilers :D), but the exact amount of side content, map zones, and side quests are still very much a work in progress.
We don't want to promise anything – not before we're sure we're heading in the right direction – but we have some exciting plans for the future and can't wait to share them with you. However, we ask for your patience since we're not yet sure WHEN and HOW we'll share new content/zones with you.
One thing you can be 100% certain of - with your support (THANK YOU!), Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is happening big time. We will be putting in tons of extra work during this Early Access and creating the game we have always dreamed of.
Even if major patches will be rare (that's due to the nature of this game, being an open-world RPG and all), we will keep you in the loop with monthly updates to show you what we are working on.
We'll let you know the moment we have more information, and we're at least 90% sure that our planned features will work the way we want them to ;)
There are two spoilers of where we're going with the game, at least the ones we can share relatively safely – and they should be understandable for fans of the board game. You'll definitely be able to meet a couple of characters they should know very well from Cuanacht… And it should also be possible to get closer to the Forlorn Swords during our adventure! ;)
Hello everyone! We're back from our Easter break and here's a new hotfix addressing a couple of things :)
The main patch note for today is that we've addressed an issue of the very high RAM cost of the game on High and Ultra settings, so - without further ado - here are the patch notes:
Performance
We've greatly reduced the memory cost (RAM) of running the game on High and Ultra settings. This should result in fewer crashes (because many were happening precisely because of too high RAM requirements).
To illustrate - Ultra settings were using around 13GB of RAM, and now they require around 7GB. Please let us know if the game-constantly-crashing-problem was resolved!
General Bugfixes
Camera shouldn't move away on its own during dialogue
"Game saved" text should properly disappear now
Fixed an issue with Killer Instinct skill dealing too much damage
Fixed a bug that caused people to randomly run around naked
Fixed a bug that caused map markers to disappear
Fixed sharpening cost being stuck at 500
Damage-based proficiency gain is now capped by target health
New Hotfix - 0.5c
Hi folks! We have a new hotfix for you!
The Hightlight? Much requested stash for your items!
We'll be taking a couple of days off now for Easter, but we'll be back Tuesday! :)
Quality of Life:
Added stashes (chests) for players' items (you'll find one near Fearghas, second one in the Barracks)
More keys are now available for rebinding.
Fixed a bug that made rebinding some keyboard inputs invisible or impossible. It should now be possible to rebind, for example, the "Q" key.
Saved games / crashes:
Fixed even more broken saves and additional causes of save corruption.
Killing a shop NPC will no longer corrupt your saved games.
Fixed Steam Deck texture quality so that, hopefully, it won't crash immediately after getting to the main map due to memory issues.
Performance:
Introduced a Display Settings category and added new Graphic Settings (so that you can tweak even more parameters related to visuals). Please adjust in case of problems with the game's performance.
General bug fixes:
Iron and Wyrdstone sources should now respawn.
Bromhar No Face will no longer hide underground.
Fixed a movement bug that occurred after killing the Lost Knight.
Fixed encumbrance icon not displaying after loading the game
Fixed character sheet tabs (they sometimes weren't visible on Map UI)
New Hotfix - 0.5b
Hello everyone, We have just released a hotfix addressing some of the issues and bugs you might've encountered while playing The Fall of Avalon. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by these problems and thank you for your patience <3
Additionally, we'd like to thank y'all for the amazing feedback you've been sending us. We read everything as we try to improve the game as fast as we can!
Once again, thank you for your support and stay tuned for more updates!
Here's what's been fixed in 0.5b:
PERFORMANCE, SAVES, CRASHES
Fixed the majority of issues that could cause save corruption
Fixed cases of autosaves in tutorial dropping the player into the void (if you find yourself back in jail while having completed the arena, the bridge button should be active for you)
Added brightness slider to Game Settings
New quality setting in Visuals: Textures Quality, please adjust to lower quality if you're having issues with the open world map, it might help!
New quality setting in Visuals: Three levels of VFX Quality, please adjust to lower quality if you're having issues with the game's performance
Significant improvement in performance of some particle effects (example: Portal or ball-shaped NPC in the tutorial arena)
QUALITY OF LIFE:
Made WASD rebindable
Added alternative keybinding for Temporal Hold on keyboard
Reduced weight of crafting, cooking, and alchemy-related items
BUG FIXES / ISSUES / EXPLOITS
Magic proficiency should level up properly
"Culinary Madness With Rumpolt, Vol. 1" will teach you essential cooking skills only once now
Blocked the possibility of speaking to Vrann multiple times for free XP :[
Keeper Alar becomes inactive instead of disappearing after a certain interaction, feel free to punch him in the face (before we properly implement NPC hostility)
Temporary fix: deleted one option of finishing Gro'derr's quest (because it was bugged)
You shouldn't get a Mistbearer-related quest AFTER killing the Mistbearer anymore
Locked chests shouldn't have the same angle of lockpicking
Doors at Almother Shrine shouldn't be accessible without a key now
Consumable items with percent-based effects should work properly again
Recipe for The Kraken now requires proper ingredients
Some enemies have their names displaying properly again
Fixed an issue with input after exiting the map
Fixed an issue with missing quest markers after loading the game
"Eternal Essence" skill should now restore the correct amount of Mana
"Stamina Surge" skill should now restore the correct amount of Stamina
Oldsteel Warhammer should now display the correct amount of damage
Fixed missing collisions of some of the buildings
First Day Hotfix - 0.5a
Hello everyone!
Today, we have a very first hotfix for all of you that (among other things) should greatly reduce drops in performance/freezes in the game.
But before that, we just wanted to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the day-one reactions for our launch! As you can imagine, we were really stressed about the whole thing. We had been working quite some time on the game and hitting that "Launch" button on Steam was a bit nerve-wracking :D However, seeing y'all playing Tainted Grail and enjoying the adventure we have prepared for you is just an amazing feeling! It makes all the long hours spent on the game development definitely worth it!
Thank you!
We know that joining Early Access is a risky thing, and we really appreciate you guys trusting and supporting us with your EA purchase. We can promise that on our end, we will do what we can to reward this trust with an amazing game! This is just the start of a great journey we will take on together to develop a game that we can all be proud of!
Today, we have the first set of hotfixes that should visibly improve your experience, but you can definitely expect more soon!
If you enjoy the game, we would really appreciate it if you could leave a review and spread the word. It goes a long way in helping us! Right now, we are eagerly waiting for you to share your builds, story choices, and reactions to finishing the game's storyline. Make sure to share your thoughts and feedback in the comments, on the forums, or on our Discord! We will be reading everything very carefully, and it will help us plan for everything going forward. So, please do write what you like and what you think could be improved!
Again, thank you so much and see you soon!
Here is a full list of changes:
Optimized VFX loading, it is fully asynchronous now. This could've been the reason for many lags/freezes of the game.
Fixed rare issues that could make the hero immortal
Fixed an issue with showing enemy health bar after scene switching.
Added proper loot to one of the chests found in Island Asylum.
Fixed an Issue with "Piercing Precision" skill when it wasn't applying a buff on first weapon change after acquiring this skill
Added missing map prompts
Minor UI improvements
Also, we're already making a new build, and it should be uploaded soon (in about an hour since this post goes live). The change list will be:
Increased hero base equipment load to 150
Fixed an issue where you couldn't equip magic while crouching
Adventure begins now! Early Access is live!
Adventure begins now! Early Access is live!
Join us in this update to learn more about our approach to Early Access and learn how we plan to work with our community to create an incredible open world adventure together!
Hello adventurers!
We have officially launched Early Access, and we couldn't be more excited (and stressed :D)! Although the game’s still far from complete, we have a full first part of the adventure ready for you to explore, and we hope you'll have a lot of fun doing so!
First, let's watch the release trailer!
Now, let's discuss a few things about Early Access in general, how we approach it, and what we're striving for:
This will not be a AAA game.
It's essential to mention this. We are a small indie team with big ambitions in terms of gameplay, story, and general fun-factor, but we are not striving for AAA quality, especially in terms of visuals. Please keep that in mind!
Bugs, problems, balance issues.
Although we've done our best to prepare for Early Access, due to the scope of the game, we're sure you will encounter some bugs and problems. Our team is on standby, so you can expect fixes coming quickly if anything critical appears.
We also recommend saving manually from time to time – and backing up your saves – during your adventures.
Early Access - saves.
The most important thing to note is that if you want to participate in the Early Access adventure, you need to be prepared for the possibility that your saves may be lost at some point with a major patch.
Chapter 1: Horns of the South
In this stage of Early Access you will have a special, smaller price and access to first part of the game - Horns of the South. There is around 10-15 hours of content there! More will be coming with big patches and will be added for free to the game!
How will we work with the community and update the game?
There are several ways in which we’ll gather feedback from you, most notably:
We will closely monitor comments here on Steam. You can chat with us on our Discord server. We will ask for feedback/opinions on specific things via updates.
In the future, we will also add detailed in-game statistics that will help balance out the game.
In general, you can expect us to read almost everything, but we may not always be able to respond due to being a small team with a lot to do.
But we will try our best!
In our previous Early Access, Tainted Grail: Conquest, we were able to work really close with community to create a great experience and we hope to do even better here!
In terms of adding patches and content, here is our base idea:
Small bug-fixing/balance patches - We'll add these to the game as needed, without any specific timeline.
Small content additions - From time to time, we may add small (not too complicated) content additions to the game. This can include things like more character customization options, some extra art assets, or items for the game.
BIG content patches - The most important way for us to progress the game will be through significant content patches, which will happen in estimated three to six month periods. You can expect significant quality of life improvements and extra large amounts of content that push the story forward.
Language support - We plan on translating to other languages, but we want to reach the 1.0 version of the game first - that is, complete all the content and then move through the translation process.
With that out of the way, we invite you all to join The Fall of Avalon! Tons of amazing adventures await you!
