Across the Obelisk News

We’re now in the final phase of The Cardback Design Contest and we are thrilled to announce that our developers have carefully reviewed all the incredible submissions and selected the top 10 designs!

[h3]Important Note:[/h3]
We’d like to re-emphasize to all our participants that the primary and most important focus and factor has been and will be the overall concept of the submission and not how well it was drawn. The final vote lies with you but once the winning design is selected, the artwork will be redrawn to match the art style of our game and you will be credited as the original designer of the card concept in the game.

[h3]What Happens Next? The community Vote![/h3]
Reveal #1 - 20th August, 2024
5 of the 10 submissions are revealed to the community.

Reveal #2 - 21st August, 2024
All 10 submissions are revealed to the community.

[h3]The community Vote - 22nd August, 2024[/h3]
It will be up to YOU, our amazing community, to choose the winner! A poll will go live on our Discord server where you can cast your vote for your favorite cardback. The design with the most votes will be crowned as the winner and earn a place in-game!

[h3]How to vote?[/h3]

1. Head over to our discord server - https://discord.gg/across-the-obelisk-679706811108163701
2. Cast your vote - Simply click on the corresponding reaction to vote for your favorite design.

Each of the top 10 designs were submitted with a unique description, giving context and inspiration behind the artwork. If you're curious to dive deeper into the stories and creativity behind these designs, we’ve provided a link to a dedicated forum where you can read the full descriptions. Feel free to explore and get inspired before casting your vote!

Dive deeper - https://pdxint.at/4dS80fF

[h3]Voting Period:[/h3]
The poll will be open from 16 CEST on the 22nd of August to 10 CEST on the 26th of August. Make sure to get your votes in before the deadline!

[h3]A Special Thank You[/h3]
We want to extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who participated in the contest. Your creativity and passion have truly amazed us, and while not every design could make the top 10, each submission was a testament to the incredible talent within our community. We encourage everyone to keep creating and sharing your wonderful ideas!

Hi everyone, welcome to our latest Dev Diary!

Today, we’re celebrating an anniversary: Ours! That’s right, it’s two years since the full release of AtO. Like all good birthdays, this one features gifts. But in this case, we’re the ones doing the giving.

As a thank-you for your support and to celebrate our birthday in style, we’re gifting all players a free skin pack containing 12 unique skins. These “What if?” skins explore what might have been for some of the game’s most loved characters. They’re a glimpse into how minor changes in their histories may have changed their look.

So, read on to find out how this idea came to be, the process behind the art and when you can expect your gift to be delivered. Let’s dive in!

[h3]The origin story[/h3]

The idea of “What if?” skins was born from a recurring community joke about Magnus. As you may know, one of the most popular variations in the game is to play Magnus as a mage.

One day, riffing on this theme, the community created a mock skin that hilariously depicted Magnus dressed as Wilbur. But the fun didn’t stop there, and you came up with lots more brilliant concepts.

You gave us playful suggestions about Cornelius being an ice wizard, musings on what if Malukah was actually possessed by her snake and the entertaining idea of Gustav being an isekai hero.

These delightful ideas sparked our imaginations and inspired us, so thank you to everyone who got involved!

[h3]From concept to creation[/h3]

Seeing the enthusiasm and creativity of our players, our team started brainstorming. We asked ourselves: What would happen if we took these "What if?" scenarios seriously? What if we created skins that explored how our heroes' stories could have developed differently with just a few small changes?

We envisioned exciting alternate possibilities where our beloved characters had new avatars born from these variations in their backstories.

[h3]Bringing “What if?” to life[/h3]

Our artists dove deep into each hero's lore and personality to imagine how they might look and act in these new scenarios. Below, you can see all 12 skins, along with the concept behind each look:

• Magnus—Our treasured wolf warrior reimagined as a mage raised by the chieftain Gorio.
  
• Gustav—A frog no longer! What if Gustav had been summoned to Senenthia in human form rather than reincarnated as an amphibian?
  
• Sylvie—From denizen of Faeborg Forest to possessed by the Fox Spirit, an all-new canine-flavoured look for our crack shot scout.
  
• Nezglekt—From first mate to first in command. Here’s how Nezglekt would look as captain of the airship in place of Tsnemo.
  
• Malukah—Now more Medusa than Malukah. A vision of our voodoo healer if the Serpent God of Aquarfall had placed a curse on her.
  
• Laia—We all know Basthet raised Laia. But how would she look if the powerful paladin hadn’t been chosen as the goddess’s trainee?
  
• Navalea—Navalea’s original look was shaped by her experience in the deserts of Ulminin. But what if she had chosen to stay with her people?
  
• Yogger—Yogger loves his steak. But what if he decided to shun meat at an early age and become a vegetarian?
  
• Ottis—Here’s a look at how the jolly pigman might look if he had worshipped a different god, one with a bit more of an edge.
  
• Evelyn—What if Evelyn had decided to stay with her grandfather rather than train under Amelia?
  
• Cornelius—The master of fire. But how would Cornelius look if he had chosen to specialise in cold magic instead?
  
• Andrin—Here’s a glimpse of an alternate future for Andrin the scout if he had decided to join a rather peculiar assassin’s guild.
  

[h3]Making the sausage[/h3]

Now that you’ve seen the skins, let’s look at some of the techniques we used to create them.

The first step in our process is deciding which heroes need a new skin or which ones could have an interesting look that fits the theme we're exploring.

Once we’ve chosen the heroes, our talented artists, Juanjo and Alice, take the stage. They create several preliminary sketches of possible skins, exploring different styles, themes and concepts.


With a collection of initial sketches in hand, we get together for a review meeting. Here, we discuss which designs we like best and weigh up the potential advantages and disadvantages of each.

This collaborative discussion is crucial as it allows us to bring together different perspectives and refine our ideas. After reaching an agreement, we tweak the chosen designs to get closer to the final versions.



Once we have a definitive version of the skin, our focus turns to the colour palette. Selecting the right colours is essential, as it ensures the new skin stands out while still fitting within the game's aesthetic. We experiment with various combinations to find a visually appealing palette distinct from the current skins.

With the colour palette chosen, Juanjo and Alice begin working on the final line art and rendering. This phase involves meticulous attention to detail, making sure every element of the skin is polished and cohesive. The goal is to create a finished piece of art that captures the essence of the hero’s new look.



When the PSD file of the skin is complete, the next phase begins—integration into Unity. This involves a couple of technical steps:

1. Boning: The character model is rigged with a skeleton structure to prepare it for animation.
   
   
   
   
2. Animating: The animation for each new skin must be redone to ensure fluid and natural movement. This takes time, but it’s crucial in order to maintain high-quality visuals.
   

Finally, we create all the necessary images, additional assets and other technical requirements for the skin to work in the game. With that, the process is complete, and the new skins are ready to be added to the game.



[h3]Coming soon[/h3]

Hopefully, this Dev Diary has got you excited to see the new skins in-game! But when can you expect that to happen?

Well, while we can’t share the exact date (sorry to be those guys!), let’s just say that you don’t have too long to wait. What we can tell you is that, due to some technical limitations, the skins will be released alongside AtO’s launch on Xbox X|S and Playstation™ 5. You can look forward to a confirmed date soon. In the meantime, thank you for your patience, and we hope you’re excited to celebrate this special anniversary with us.

Before we go, we want to say thank you for the incredible submissions we’ve received for our community cardback design competition. Your talent and imagination have blown us away.

The closing date is rapidly approaching, and we’ll have a shortlist of finalists for you to vote on very soon, so keep an eye on our socials for updates.

That’s it for this Dev Diary. Thank you for taking the time to celebrate our second birthday with us and your ongoing support. You are the driving force behind our creativity.

- The AtO team

We are thrilled to announce an exciting contest for you!

Here’s your chance to leave a lasting mark on Across The Obelisk by designing a unique cardback. The winning design will be implemented in the game, giving you a permanent place in our game's history.

[h3]Contest Details:[/h3]

Objective: Design a unique, original and captivating cardback that will be implemented and featured in-game in Across the Obelisk.
Disclaimer: While your card design and concept will be used as the basis for the final card, the artwork will be redrawn to match the art style of our game and you will be credited as the original designer of the card concept in the game.

By submitting your design, you grant Paradox Interactive AB the right to use your submission for marketing, promotional, and in-game purposes.

Rules & Guidelines:

• Each participant can submit only 1 design.
  
• Create an original design that’s bursting with creativity and doesn’t infringe on any existing copyrights.

Eligibility:

• Open to all fans and players of the game.
  
• No professional design experience required – creativity is key!

Theme: Should be an ATO aligned theme.

[h3]Design Specifications:[/h3]

Dimensions: 400 x 640

File Format: JPG or PNG

[h3]Submissions:[/h3]
Once you have your design ready, head over to our Discord channel and send us your card back design along with a brief description of your design idea and inspiration.

[h3]Timeline:[/h3]

• Submission Period: July 25th, 2024 – August 15th, 2024
  
• Judging Period: August 16th, 2024 – August 23rd, 2024
  
• Winner Announcement: August 26th, 2024

[h3]Judging Criteria:[/h3]

• Creativity and Originality: How unique your design is.
  
• Artistic Appeal: How visually attractive your design is.
  
• Theme Alignment: How well your design fits with the game's fantasy.
  
• Team Picks the Top 10: Our team will review all submissions and select the 10 best designs based on the criteria above.
  
• Community Vote: The top 10 designs will be showcased, and the community will vote for the ultimate winner.

We can’t wait to see your amazing designs and are excited to bring one of your creations into our game world!

Greetings everyone!

Welcome to another Dev Diary. Today, we’re talking numbers. As you can see from the infographic below, we have loads of cool stats from the game.

These figures are super interesting to us—over 1 million runs this year already!—but they also help us make important decisions about the future.

We want to make sure that AtO is a game you keep coming back to, and that’s only possible with regular updates and DLC. To create this content, we need to learn about you, our players. That means understanding how, when, and why you play the game. And the key to that is data.

So, let’s spend a little time chatting about the stories behind these numbers, what they mean, and how we use them to continue making improvements.

[h3]Data power[/h3]

Data is a really important tool for us. Together with your feedback, it allows us to look at how you play and make informed decisions about areas of the game that might need to be updated.

For example, our stats show us the death rates for each zone in the game. This information is helpful because it allows us to understand which zones might be too hard or unbalanced.

Some zones, generally the later ones, are intentionally more difficult to create more of a challenge as you progress. But while we want you to feel challenged, we don’t want you to feel frustrated or like the game is unfair. We need to keep that balance and data helps us to do that.

We can also see how often you select each character. If a character is hardly ever picked, that might tell us they are too underpowered compared to the rest. In this case, we might decide to buff their stats or change their mechanics to boost their power and make them more interesting for you to play.



On the other hand, if one character dominates and is picked a lot more than the others, it could show us that they are too OP or that another issue needs our attention. Here, we come back to the question of balance. If a character is too powerful, it makes the game easier than intended, and you might get bored quickly. Nobody wants that.

Corruptors are another good example. These difficulty modifiers give those of you playing Madness an extra challenge. If you take a look at our infographic, you’ll see which Corruptors are picked most often and which are chosen less frequently.

A Corruptor that isn’t picked very often could indicate that it’s too tricky or not fun. On the flip side, frequently chosen Corruptors are likely to offer the right level of challenge.

In future, we may add more Corruptors or change and improve the existing ones. When we do, we will use this data to make better design decisions about how they should work.



[h3]Your feedback[/h3]

A crucial figure we want to discuss is MAU or Monthly Active Users. Simply put, this number tells us how many of you are playing each month.

MAU is vital for us because it tells us about the game's health. If this number falls over time, we need to investigate and find out why. If it's growing, we know we’re moving in the right direction.

This ties in neatly with the topic of player satisfaction and your feedback. We monitor many channels to understand how you feel about the game: our Discord, comments on YouTube, Steam discussion and reviews, social media, and more.

We collect your feedback and measure your sentiment everywhere you talk about the game. By fusing this feedback with stats like MAU, we build a complete picture of the game's state, what is working or not working, and the steps we need to take to ensure that we’re continuing to make the best game for you.

[h3]Surveys[/h3]

Our data insights aren’t limited to what you see in the infographic. We can crunch numbers in all sorts of different ways to find answers to any kind of question about the game you can think of.

But data will often only tell you half the story. Numbers without context can be misleading, which is why we also gather your (invaluable!) feedback through player surveys.

Our surveys ask for your thoughts on all aspects of the game: what you like and dislike, whether you mainly play single-player or multiplayer, the content you’d like to see in the future, and lots more.

If you look at the infographic below, you’ll see that new heroes and pets are the most requested content. With limited options, the healer class has been crying out for a new hero, and our most recent survey's results back that up. So, guess what? ;)



Through surveys, you’ve also told us how you’d like future content to be packaged. Many of you would like mixed packs combining new heroes and stories. But there are also those of you who want content split by type.

We’ve heard you, and we think we have a solution that will please both sides. Our aim is for future DLC to be built in a way that gives you the power to decide what you want to add to your game.

Your opinions about DLC and how it should be packaged demonstrate that data is an overview. What we learn may not apply to all players, and we understand that.

When we combine the numbers with your thoughts from the surveys, we get the complete picture on content, packaging, game modes, things that work and don’t work—everything. Having the whole story allows us to make educated design decisions and keep improving.

[h3]Summing-up[/h3]

Hopefully, we’ve given you a better understanding of how and why we use data. We want you to be happy with the game and as enthusiastic about its future as we are.

Finally, please continue to fill out our surveys, talk to us on Discord, discuss on Steam, and generally give your thoughts on the game anywhere you hang out online.

Your voice is important, and as we’ve shown, it directly influences the future of the game and its content.

Until next time!

- The Ato Team

Hey guys! This is not a drill! It's definitely a Rise of the Machines Weekly Challenge is going live now. Don't forget that you can compete against other players and reach the third floor of the challenge to unlock a card back!

Challenge ends on July 25th!