Book of Travels News

[h2]Hello Travellers,[/h2]

We’re so pleased with progress on the game world of Braided Shore, and today we’re excited to reveal just how much of it will be yours to explore in early access. As you can see, this western land mass is cleft by rivers large and small and there are many bays and inlets to explore as well as larger settlements, such as the northern city of Myr. New areas of land will be added throughout the early access period, extending the region across The Verve to the east and south and opening up more land, lore, levels and scope for adventure.



[h3]Wilds, waterways... and a bustling trade city[/h3]

At the south-easterly edge of the early access map lies the gem of the region - the city of Kasa. A huge old harbour city to the south of Braided Shore, Kasa owes its status as the land’s key trading city to its deep waters. The image above offers a glimpse of its outskirts as it looks now (these aren’t final graphics), and in our next post we’ll be sharing more screenshots and information about the city.



[h3]Starting with Chapter Zero[/h3]

Book of Travels’ early access period marks the start of Chapter Zero, the first in a sequence of chapters that will frame the evolving story of Braided Shore. Once early access levels up to full release, Chapter Zero will close and give way to Chapter One. Each new chapter will mark a new phase as the overarching storyline unfolds along with multiple small plots and event chains.

Chapters will also involve unique gameplay features and items which will be exclusive to the lifespan of that particular chapter, a design which we hope will enrich the experience of long time players over the game’s long life span.

We’re still working on this concept and we’ll share more in a future post once we have more details in place. In the meantime, we’d love to know what you think about it, so please do post your thoughts below!

Best Wishes,

Helen and the Dev Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/

With Shelter 3 due for release in Q1 and Book of Travels in Q2 next year, the time has truly come to hire a professional to help share them with the world. Luckily, we came across Anna Westerling, a PR pro with a passion for culture, events and roleplay. Read about her dabbles with vampires and larping right here, and ask her a question in the comments!

[h3]How did you find your way to Might and Delight?[/h3]
I went to a party at Might and Delight and met Jakob and it was game-love at first sight. I liked his approach to making games and the Might and Delight aesthetic. Ever since then, I’ve been looking out for when a suitable position would open up... and then it did!

[h3]What are you most looking forward to in your work at Might and Delight?[/h3]
To step into a new organization and get my hands dirty! Until now, the team has been handling their own PR in between the cracks of game development and marketing, so I’m excited to come in and continue the work with building a PR-organisation and spreading Might and Delight’s games to the world.

[h3]Tell us something about your previous experiences?[/h3]
As a Marketing Manager in the culture/geek sphere I’ve done a lot different things, from filling the Royal Opera with 1200 vampires for their premier of Dracula, to producing the Swedish version of the computer-games exhibition Game On 2.0 for the National Museum of Science and Technology. Previously I've run my own marketing company Westerling PR & Events, and I work with marketing for Sverok, the national non-profit youth organization for gaming and gaming culture. I also do events for the roleplaying game publisher Free League Publishing.

[h3]Tell us about something that you love doing when your not working?[/h3]
I come from a gaming background and love larping and roleplaying. I also love nature, dancing Lindy hop and since Corona I’ve begun working out, and it turns out moving your body is fun!

[h3]Tell us about a favourite film or book...[/h3]
I love Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, both the book and the Ang Lee movie from 1995. It is a debate on whether to use your sense or sensibility in making decisions and that question never gets old.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/

We’ve used the term TMORPG ever since Book of Travels was announced back in September 2019, and if you’ve ever wondered why, we’re here to explain... The T in TMO signals an alternative to the more common industry standard MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) putting 'tiny' in the place of 'massive'. Essentially, it means that players per server are limited and meetings between players will be uncommon.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you’ve seen our Kickstarter campaign video the abbreviation may sound familiar, and we’ve been really pleased to notice that for some, it’s one of the game’s biggest attractions. While it’s not exactly a genre, we think it works pretty well to describe a game where the amount of online players is capped. The result is that meeting other players is not commonplace and therefore, something a bit special.

[h2]It all began with Meadow[/h2]
Might and Delight’s first networked game, Meadow, was something of an experiment, bringing the style and ambience of the Shelter series to an open game world where small groups of players can bound around together in animal guise, unlocking magic obelisks and communicating with emotes. The response we had from players was incredibly positive – they loved the magic of sharing wordless adventures together. Four years on, we’re proud to say that the Meadow forum and Discord channel is filled with stories of special moments of meeting and connection.



[h2]Find the Few[/h2]
Feedback on the emotional impact of these connections took us by surprise, and we soon knew that the TMO experience was something we wanted to explore further. Players of Journey will know exactly how moving it can be to chance upon another player, especially in a non-directive, non-linear game world. In Journey, the multiplayer aspect is pushed to the limit of its definition: meetings with ‘companions’ being as few as one per game (and make for a truly sublime emotional beat). In Meadow up to fifty animals share a grove, and in Book of Travels we’ll be using our Early Access period to experiment with player numbers.

[h2]The game design challenge[/h2]
While this isn’t entirely new ground for us, we know it's going to be a challenge. There are many table top roleplayers in the Book of Travels dev team, and they know just how important player interactions are in bringing adventures to life. So, striking a balance between rich roleplay and sparsity of player meetings is the challenge that we now face! We’ll be counting heavily on your feedback and the help of beta testers to finetune that balance.

[h2]Help us in our endeavours![/h2]
What games have you enjoyed where player meetings are infrequent? Do you love RPGs? How do you feel about fewer meetings? We’d love your input, right here in the comments section. If you'd like to join our mailing list for updates and occasional free extras, join us here.

And of course feel free to add “Book of Travels” to your wishlist using the button below!

Thanks again for spending time with us!

Best Wishes,
Helen and the Dev Team x


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/

[h2]Want more info?[/h2]
[h3]Become a traveller[/h3]
Sign up on our mailing list for news and an in-game treat in our upcoming game at www.TMORPG.com.

[h3]Inspirations for Book of Travels[/h3]
We’ve been deeply gratified to read all your comments on Kickstarter, Steam and Discord. In particular those that have lead us to books, art and other media that you feel share similarities with our TMORPG. Therefore we’ve dedicated a post to the key inspirations behind Book of Travels.
Read more in this post: Inspirations for Book of Travels!

[h3]Revealing the Early Access World[/h3]
Later this year Book of Travels will be available for Early Access on Steam. In Chapter Zero parts of the Braided Shore will be open, and among the places to visit is the gem of the region – the city of Kasa. Read more here.

[h3]Join our Discord[/h3]
Join our super friendly Discord to exchange ideas on all things Book of Travels as well as art, games and books. Join here.