Weekly Discord-exclusive content starting from today.
As a token of gratitude to those of you who joined/will join our Discord channel, every Friday we will be posting exclusive content related to the game.
Today we posted a short video demonstrating more of our upcoming EA2's melee combat.
The link to our Discord once again is: https://discord.gg/jtcjaWd
Plenty of goodies to share today...first things first though:
Want to get a taste of what we have been working on all this time? Very well, we present to you our Early Access 2.0 Reveal trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q5bDpHHYPs
Now that we got that out of the way, some more news:
We got a new website at www.thesoulkeeper.com
We are accepting Beta Testing applications (visit official website to get more info on that)
Join our Discord channel, every Friday (starting tomorrow) we will be posting exclusive content there, so if you want to be getting access to more content before release, that's a very good way to do just that.
Dev Blogs will be posted on our official website from now on, as well as here.
From January 2019 we will begin weekly Twitch streams, so we can communicate our progress, vision and ideas better, as well as be able to receive real time feedback from you. Stay tuned for more on that.
We would appreciate all the support we can get between now and Early Access 2's release, so please do make sure you follow us on Social Media, as well as spread the word. When it comes to indie game development, making a good game is a two way street :)
Alright, that's all for this update!! Let us know what you think of the new trailer.
We know, we know, it has been a while since July 12th...
However there's a good reason for that.
We know you've been craving some new screenshots, or even better, some new videos, and all these are coming very soon, but today's update is about bringing you up to speed with why we have been quiet since the last dev blog update.
All these months since our last update here, our team has been working harder than ever, at insane speeds and quality. Sure it doesn't feel that way when looking in from outside, but worry not, before the year's out you will know what all this hard work was about. That was a fancy way of saying, you will find out more this December! ːsteamhappyː
In the meantime, just to give you an idea of the amount of work our team has been putting in, in the last 2 months alone we have implemented over 300 fixes, new features and updates. Our Trello board is on fire! Speaking of which that's what graciously covers today's header image, all the blue labeled posts are part of the fixes, updates and features that have been done in the last couple of weeks alone. Sorry for the bluring out of the trello image, but again, December is around the corner, and so are the details that will come out about the game.
Being a small team sometimes brings up the dillema, whether we should put time and energy into the development itself, or somewhere else. Naturally we know an equal amount of time and energy to all aspects is ideal, but more often than not, things are not ideal, so prioritizing makes all the difference in the world, and the last couple of months were all about prioritizing quality as well as quantity on the development front, hence our PR front was a bit left behind.
Nonetheless we have been working even on that front, and we have come up with a plan that will allow better communication, more transparency, as well as more involvement, and most importantly more fun interaction with all of you supporting us and sticking around to see where this goes.
So with that said, it is time to bring this short update to an end and get back to work, so that in December we can share with you all the exciting things we have been working on so hard!
Finally, don't forget to support us by following us through the links below.
Coolest regards from the entire dev team!! ːsteamhappyː
We know...you didn't expect this update to follow only a day after the last one ;)
Well, here it is, and what an update we got for you today!!
While we will be focusing on wearable helmets, if you go through the trouble of watching the vids posted later in this update, you will walk away with a much better understanding of the combat mechanics as well as more eye candy.
But let us not stray too far from the topic at hand, the helmets.
As we have been saying again and again, for us immersion is one of our top priorities. Sometimes we will throw features that have no practical application yet make the game more immersive, other times we will implement features that are both immersive as well as useful. In Early Access v.2.0 there will be plenty of ways to beef up your protection against your enemies. Shields, armor types, all will play an important role to how well prepared you are for a fight.
But what good is an armor and a shield if your head is vulnerable? In addition, since this is VR we are talking about, how about we take it a step further and make the different helmets you can obtain in-game wearable?
So yes, not only you can pick up them helmets, not only can you push up your overall armor stats and be better protected against your enemies, but you can actually wear the different helmets you come across. There will be a variety of helmets, each with different attributes, such as armor and durability to mention a few. You will be able to obtain helmets in more than one ways, whether you buy them or find them throughout your quests. And of course each helmet will look different both when you hold it/look at it, as well as when you wear it (first person view).
While we admit that just being able to wear a helmet in VR already makes the experience so much more believable, and got us pretty worked up and all excited, but there is more than meets the eye. In the following video notice how easily the player receives large amounts of damage (screen flashing red) without wearing any helmet, while once the helmet is placed on the player, the damage received is a lot less. Then we remove the helmet during combat (not recommended) just to show the amount of damage we receive again:
Wearing helmets in VR will limit your FOV (field of view) but that is done on purpose, as to fully emulate real life. We actually tried a bunch of different medieval and ancient helmet replicas ourselves so we can replicate the exact feel. We didn't want you to feel too comfortable when wearing a helmet, as it should be seen as a feature that is used only when the circumstances require it (e.g. large number of enemies).
Helmets certainly provide a significant amount of protection, but wearing one doesn't mean you become invulnerable. You can still receive damage while equipped with a helmet. And of course your helmet can only take that much damage before it breaks and becomes entirely useless. Once a helmet is worn out, it will break with the last blow and it will automatically be removed from your head, so always be mindful of the possibility of finding yourself exposed in the middle of a fight.
Screenshots and videos can't do it as much justice as wearing a helmet in VR, but we think they give a pretty good idea of what to expect.
Last but not least, here is a minute long video, showing some dual melee combat, along with some other surprises, and of course all while using a helmet!
As this is the 6th dev blog update in this format, let us know in the comments below how you like them so far, and which one has been your favorite up to now, as this would help us give you more of what you want with future updates.
Finally, don't forget to support us by following us through the links below.
Coolest regards from the entire dev team!! ːsteamhappyː
Hail virtual warriors and spellcasters and welcome to the fifth dev blog update!
We have always felt that immersion is among our top priorities with our game. We believe in achieving it through many different ways. Realistic graphics and detailed environments, detailed interactions and mechanics, detailed sound design, believable characters that feel alive and so much more.
In the above statement you probably noticed one word being repeated again and again...detailed. We feel that the secret to building an immersive world is within the details. Sometimes some of these details might be insignificant, or have no purpose other than to satisfy the need for eye-candy or other times to satisfy the need for having fun.
Today we discuss one such "useless" yet -in our opinion at least- fun feature, a feature we feel adds a little bit more immersion in our game. That feature is in-game drinking. Some might feel it is a waste of time to implement such a feature, others might be quick to judge it as "bad influence" to the audience, but in truth it is all much simpler than that. We felt that if you walk into a medieval tavern or a similar environment, you should at least be able to pretend you are having some mead, just for the sakes of being able to do it. We feel it adds that little bit of immersion to such an environment, and in VR it feels as if that is even more necessary than it would in a non-VR game.
We feel there is value in being able to pick up a bottle and a mug, and be able to pour some wine from the bottle into the mug and then be able to gulp it all down once you bring it close to you. Does it give you any special abilities? No. Do you gain anything in terms of game advancement, such as XP points or gold or some other reward? No.
Its sole purpose is to give you one more fun and simple way to interact with your environment, one more small tool to allow you to Role Play (!! :D). So you want to pour a drink into your mug and drink from it? You can do it. You want to drink directly from the bottle? You can do that too. Just don't overdo it (on second thought do go ahead and overdo it ) or you will feel the side effects. If you have too much to drink, you will get virtually drunk, and yes the world will look differently (if your gut is sensitive with VR in general, we strongly do not recommend getting drunk in the game, much like we wouldn't recommend getting drunk in real life :) ). Curious what getting drunk in the game looks like? Check out the video below:
Even though we feel this is one of these mechanics that players get excited about at first, try them a couple of times and then grow used to them and end up pretty much ignoring them for the rest of the game, we feel that it is worth the extra work we had to put into it, as once again, immersion is among our top priorities.
So, we hope it is a feature you will have have a couple of laughs with, all while it makes you feel our virtual world is even more believable. Till the next update then and cheers!!
Finally, don't forget to support us by following us through the links below.
Coolest regards from the entire dev team!! ːsteamhappyː
Hail virtual warriors and spellcasters and welcome to the fourth dev blog update!
Today we are discussing some of the activities you can perform on the side, more specifically hunting. There are several aspects to hunting in the game, so we decided to split it into different parts and today we will take a closer look at the first one.
From the start we wanted to offer a large, open world environment. It is not an easy goal to reach, not only because of all the technical challenges this presents -even moreso in VR- but also because of the design challenges it brings along.
Sure, you would love to be in a highly detailed environment in which you can travel miles upon miles, admire the breathtaking views as the sun's rays cross through the leaves of the trees to cast a golden light over your highly detailed and carefully crafted equipment, all while listening to the exquisite soundtrack of birds singing, hearing the streaming river nearby get louder as you get closer, only to hear that at the end of that stream there is a waterfall, all complemented by a relaxing and pleasant musical soundtrack, but is that enough?
The answer -for us at least- is no, this is not enough. Certainly the various quests will be keeping you busy for hours upon hours, but what if you need to catch a break from questing? And what if that break can still be more than a sightseeing tour of the detailed environments we are putting together for you? What if that break can be interactive?
We feel that interaction is one of the basic components of Virtual Reality, as well as interactive entertainment (see what we did there), but it shouldn't be there, just for the sake of being there. It has to have a purpose, be useful, all while still being fun (although sometimes perhaps cruel).
Traversing through the vast landmass of the forest we are preparing for you, it became quite obvious that an interaction between the player and the wildlife within the woods was necessary.
As you can tell from this update, as well as from an older twitter post (if you aren't following us there, please do so, from time to time you'll catch details about the game that might not have made it anywhere else ;) ) we will be featuring ranged combat in v2. We won't get into the details of the ranged combat mechanics in this update, but rest assured that's coming soon as well. So having a bow and arrows in your hand, all while walking through dense forestation, filled with wildlife, led to the easy conclusion of hunting becoming a feature in the game. You can hunt different kinds of wildlife, and it does have a purpose other than just mindlessly targeting and killing AI. Different kinds of animals, will provide you with different kinds of resources, all of which can be used in the game to some purpose.
Today we briefly showcase the player hunting for deer, as well as rabbits.
https://youtu.be/PR9G5Ay5y_s
https://youtu.be/BhfOZoKgXlQ
Don't be fooled by the passive nature of the animals in the above media, not all wildlife will be there waiting for you to take advantage of it. Some of the animals will be fighting back!! But more on that on a next update :)
Until then stay tuned as a lot more updates will be following based on the same format, covering all kinds of cool and interesting topics, including of course combat and so much more!
Finally, don't forget to support us by following us through the links below.
Coolest regards from the entire dev team!! ?steamhappy?
Hail virtual warriors and spellcasters and welcome to the third dev blog update!
We are taking a look at some of the navigation mechanics, more specifically the compass.
It's probably safe to say, we all agree that navigation in an RPG is quite important. Especially when an RPG has a lot of activities to immerse yourself in, besides the main quest(s) that is!
Traditionally we are used to on-screen radars, or compasses (in all forms and shapes) placed somewhere in a non intrusive corner on our screen, or sometimes near the edge, usually on the top side. These of course, are great and proven methods of providing players with quick, easy and useful in-game navigation, so they can find their way around the different objectives and activities that await them in the various game worlds.
In VR however, this proven method doesn't translate that well. Even though display is one of the three words that make up the HMD abbreviation, as a developer you simply cannot treat HMD as a display, as a device if you prefer. When the user wears an HMD, you want to avoid reminding them they wear a device, instead you want to make them feel they are teleported in another (magical) world, fully immersed, and not bothered with "on-screen" notifications, as much as possible anyway.
So after much trial and error, much experimentation with conventional and classic compass designs, as well as some quite unorthodox ones, we ended up going with a solution we felt satisfies both the requirements of a practical and easy to use compass, as well as the necessity for full immersion within VR.
We tried at first placing a compass in your inventory (as promised in Dev Blog #2 more on inventory in a future dev blog, near future that is XD ) and we felt it would be pretty cool to hold an actual compass in your hands that shows you different points of interest in a map. Sure, it was great the first five or six times, but much like the portal ring ( in case you missed it, you can read all about it in
Dev Blog #2 ) taking an item that is used so frequently out of the inventory, grew repetitive and tiresome, so instead we had to find a way to allow the player to access it at any time, with no effort at all.
That might sound easy, but it was quite a challenge, especially when considering how many more items we allow the player to access quickly and on the fly (more on that as well in a future blog).
Finally, we ended up blending a bit of modern logic into a medieval and fantastic world. We attached the compass to the player's hand, similarly to how one would wear a wristwatch, yet with proper decorative elements, and most importantly, with proper objective or point of interest visual representation. It was important to us to make it feel more like an instrument that could be found and used in a fantasy setting, rather than a contemporary time keeping piece.
Yet it does utilize the same level of practicality a wristwatch does. At any given moment, you can effortlessly track where the next milestone for your main quest is, or where a side quest might be awaiting you, or perhaps an NPC with something important to say, or even better, some secret treasure that will fill up your coin purse significantly enough!
As with everything else in the game, it is a feature designed with the user first and foremost in mind, to allow an immersive, seamless, easy to follow and practical to use experience.
On to one more screenshot and a short video, both from inside the game:
https://youtu.be/knArEtsQ62k
As always stay tuned as a lot more updates will be following based on the same format, covering all kinds of cool and interesting topics, including of course combat and so much more!
Finally, don't forget to support us by following us through the links below.
Coolest regards from the entire dev team!! ːsteamhappyː
Today we are briefly discussing a new feature we have added in, one that we feel is of great convenience to the player.
Imagine yourselves in the middle of a quest, in a dark and hostile dungeon. You just managed to get yourself out of a difficult battle with two undead warriors. You won, but your health was depleted quite significantly. You have all the gold in the world, but you can't find any potions anywhere near, and you kinda need them right now.
Do not despair! You have been equipped with a special ring, which once touched for several seconds, will open up a portal that will take you back to your safehouse, from where you can ensure you heal yourself or take care of any other unfinished business you might have there!
Given the complexity and size of the maps in Early Access v.2.0, we found that such a feature can be extremely practical, besides the fact that it looks and feels cool to activate and walk through that portal.
The design is simple and seen in some of the best RPGs of the past, but it was more challenging to get it right in VR.
Our very first intention was that the player will cast a spell, by gesturing and drawing a symbol, much like spellcasting worked in early access v.1, however we quickly moved away from this idea. You see, in this upcoming version of the game, you will be playing as a ranger class, so you will have access to several types of weapons and combat styles, but not to magic, so it simply made no sense that you are able to cast even one single spell.
So we kept thinking, if you are not a wizard, but still need to cast a spell, what alternative methods could you use? What about a scroll! The player can have a scroll in their inventory and use it every time they need to open up a gateway back to safety!
Sure...that sounded better...for a while. Nonetheless, constantly opening up the inventory for something as important (and simple at the same time) as this, felt like it would be somewhat cumbersome to the player. Especially since our inventory doesn't open up with the click of a button (inventory will come at a later blog though ;) ).
So we kept thinking...what if the player can touch an object they carry on their person, something easy to find and accessible, yet without being in the way? And that's when we came up with the idea of using a magic ring for that very purpose! It could justify the player's access to magic (even though the character is not a wizard), while it is easy to find, easy to access, and not getting in the way at all.
Rest assured we didn't want our players to spam the mechanic, so there is a required regeneration time prior to being able to respawn the portal from your ring.
Stay tuned as a lot more updates will be following based on the same format, covering all kinds of cool and interesting topics, including of course combat and so much more!
Finally, don't forget to support us by following us through the links below.
Coolest regards from the entire dev team!! ːsteamhappyː
This is the first of many Dev Blog updates that will follow between now and the release, not only for Early Access v.2.0 but also for any following updates all the way to the full release. For several months now we have been working hard, restructuring the entire game, rendering it unrecognizable since the first version that was released in August 2017. After months of intensive development under the radar, we feel now it is a good time to start sharing more information with all of you who have been patient enough with us while we kept quiet.
The first thing we would like to share with you today is some information on the significance in-game literature will play.
As you freely roam through the highly detailed environments of our world, you will be coming across different forms of literature you can actually use in-game.
There are several applications for this mechanic, some related directly to the gameplay, others related to the lore.
We have been designing The SoulKeeper® IP since 2002-2003, and as a result we have such a vast amount of painstakingly detailed lore in our universe, ranging from environments, cultures with their histories and mythologies, secretive and non-secretive organizations, individual heroes, villains and other figures and so much more, that we could literally write volumes upon volumes of books, based on this information alone.
In truth, this being not just an early access title (presently) but also a VR title, renders it a lot more challenging for us to fully realize a version that covers the vastness of our universe, as we would in a non-VR 200+hr version that this IP deserves and has always been ultimately aiming to become. Yet we have often been vocal about how VR presents an opportunity to create a much more immersive realization set in this same vast universe, to the point that perhaps this medium ultimately one day becomes the most effective way to share all that fiction with you, but it is too early to know at this stage.
In any case, we feel that VR presents us with a unique opportunity to share some of the vastness of this fictional universe, not only through the raw gameplay and character interaction or storyline through the quests, but also through virtual literature. As a result you will find books you can actually pick up and take as much time as you want to read, and in the process discover a little bit more about small parts of the huge world of The SoulKeeper.
We have developed a system that allows us to have as many books as we want, each with as many pages as we want. Virtually speaking (ːsteammockingː) we could have full books with hundreds of pages each. But of course we have to be practical about it, so instead we will divide bits of lore and information into books that are no longer than a couple of pages each. Some books will feature 4 pages, others 7, others 10, and so on and so forth. We are still filling the world with such books, so rest assured if reading is something you enjoy, or if you are eager to discover more about this universe's lore, then there will be plenty of material to satisfy your urges. But naturally, such activity won't be a requirement to complete quests. We understand some of our audience is more inclined to fast paced action, thus we would not want to disappoint them by forcing them through such a process.
On the other hand, there will be some in-game literature, be it a book or a scroll or a parchment with some notes, which will facilitate you in proceeding with your quests, be it a solution to a puzzle or a useful hint about some NPC's whereabouts, or perhaps even a map pinpointing the location of a secret treasure! So picking up literature and giving it a quick look, is certainly encouraged, but rest assured such "important" literature will be placed in such a manner, as to facilitate all types of players to find it.
Stay tuned as a lot more updates will be following based on the same format, covering all kinds of cool and interesting topics, including of course combat and so much more!
Finally, don't forget to support us by following us through the links bellow.
Coolest regards from the entire dev team!! ːsteamhappyː
It has been a while since we shared any details on the latest progress of our game, and that has been for a good reason. We have been hard at work, putting apart all the old mechanics, even features and content, creating new while redesigning and replacing the old, all in an effort to bring a very different version, not only of our game, but also with ground breaking features and mechanics that have not made an appearance to any other VR RPG to date.
The amount of new features as well as improvements done thus far, and still being done, is so vast, that we will need a couple of blog posts to fill you in on the details -something we intend to do between now and release of Early Access 2.0.
In Early Access v.1 there was a lot of unknown territory in the field of VR RPGs, as well as in gameplay for VR overall. As you probably already know by now, we have been taking all received feedback into consideration, and we have been putting it back in the game. But we have also been adding a lot of new features, unseen in any other VR RPG to date, and that has been -and still is- a lot of work, as we want to bring you a well balanced, well polished and most of all fun, exciting and enriched experience with the second version of the Early Access.
Whether it is AI, combat, interaction, environment, NPCs, sound design, or anything else, we have really taken the game into a very different direction and we can't wait to share it with you all soon enough!
Today we share 3 new screenshots representing a small fraction of what's coming up, just to tease you a bit and show you some of the progress being made.
We would also like to inform you that we intend to keep you posted between now and release of the Early Access v.2, through developer blog posts/updates in which we will be discussing many of the new systems in place, helping you not only make a more informed decision on whether you want to support this game or not, but also to get you pumped about what's coming.
As always, we appreciate the patience shown up to this point that we kept quiet, now it is time to finally start sharing more! Stay tuned and feel free to drop us a line, be it here on the Community Hub/forums, or on our Discord and Social Media.
Twitter
Facebook
Discord
