Fablecraft News

Welcome back, Mages! The Riftweaver team will continue its Steam Next Fest Stream-exclusive adventure beginning at 11am PT on June 14th, 2024. Watch us play on our Steam page!

You'll be able to gather your friends and begin telling a story of your own in just over a week's time. Fablecraft will be free-to-play on Steam, on PC and Mac platforms, starting this summer. Wishlist to be notified at launch!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2176900/Fablecraft/

Welcome to another weekly update from Riftweaver for Tales of Fablecraft. We have some fun info to share with you this week, Mages! 🧙

Today, we’ll showcase some of the animated battlemaps we’ve been cooking up. We’ll also show off a new GM-focused feature that will allow you to set the exact scene you want without breaking immersion. Finally, we need your help to stress test Fablecraft’s servers, and we’ll reward you with a dice skin for doing it.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Let’s begin.

[h3]From illustration to animation[/h3]

Earlier this year, we started the fun process of taking our beautifully hand-drawn battlemaps and giving them life with animation. We’re showing off four of those animated battlemaps; but, let it be known that these are only the beginning.

A quick note: Players always have the choice to disable animations on story scenes and battlemaps. Just click the options tool in the top-middle of the screen.

We’ll start with the Docks battlemap set in the Coral Coasts region of Mythas. This map has a night variant, too.



What adventure would be complete without a stop at a bustling tavern? This Tavern battlemap features three variants: summer (seen below), winter, and ocean.



The Village Square below is also region-agnostic, and it has winter and summer variants set both at day and at night.



Finally, the Mountain Impasse in the Highlands region features a narrow bridge and a seemingly bottomless drop that you can totally convince your GM to utilize with a nice shove and a Might check.



[h3]A wise word on battlemap animation from Greg[/h3]

Greg Platt, our Senior Motion Graphics Designer, has been working hard to animate our battlemaps and make your adventures through Mythas more dynamic.

“I love being able to breathe life into these beautiful illustrations to create a more immersive experience for the players,” Greg told us.

“What I enjoy most is that each one is like a little puzzle to figure out, with different challenges each time. For the Docks, how do we make the water feel realistic without causing too much motion sickness? How can I draw from my experience growing up in the Northeast to create a blustery winter village scene? What little creatures and insects would be buzzing around in Mythas?”

“These scenes are ripe for storytelling opportunities.”

[h3]Drag and drop meets night and day[/h3]

If you’ve run a session or two in Fablecraft (the demo’s available now!), then you know how easy it is to drag and drop batlemaps and story scenes as you build your narrative.

Currently, if you want to take a fight to the Rooted Terrain battlemap at night, for example, you need to take a couple of steps. You have to drag the battlemap onto the stage. It defaults to day, and that means your players will see you switch it to night.

Now, we're building a feature that lets you decide on variants as you drag and drop. It’s easier to show than tell, so check it out below.



The GMs on our team love this feature, and we hope you do, too.

[h3]Uncle Dill wants you for a Fablecraft stress test![/h3]



What about that stress test?

Okay, Mages! We need your help here, and we’re offering these fancy Galaxy Dice as a reward.



We’re looking to test concurrent server load, and we’d like to have as many players as possible log on during a 30-minute window. That window will be from 1:30pm to 2:00pm EDT on June 2nd, 2024.

We’ll share more details about this stress test, including exactly what you need to do, across our platforms over the next week, but please mark your calendars! Don’t worry—it’ll be easy to get those sweet Galaxy Dice once you make it online during the set time.

That’s it for this week’s news! Next week, we’ll show off the combat arena mode that’s coming to the demo in its next major update.

Until then, you can always chat with other players, find your next party, and hang out with the Riftweaver team on our Discord.

See you next week!

👋 Hello, adventurers!

Before we dive into this week’s update, let’s catch up on a few exciting things that have happened recently! First up, the Demo for Tales of Fablecraft officially released last week. If you have not already, go download that bad boy on Steam!

We’re so excited to finally share what we’ve been working on with all of you. As always, your feedback is invaluable to our team and we’ve already seen some amazing responses flooding in. So, thank you!

[h2]Look mom, we’re on IGN[/h2]

In addition to our Demo drop, we released a brand new Gameplay Overview Video – AND IGN SHARED IT!! We’re beyond thankful to IGN for the coverage. It’s thrilling to see our game out there in the world, especially within the tabletop community. 🎲⚔️



Check out the gameplay explainer, shared by IGN, here.

[h3]30k Wishlists on Steam[/h3]

Aaaaahhh!! Tales of Fablecraft now has over 30,000 Wishlists on Steam!!



This is huge you guys, and it’s all because of your support. Wishlists help indie studios like ours a lot. Your excitement for our virtual tabletop RPG means so much to all of us on the Riftweaver team. 💙🧙‍♂️

[h3]The Road to the Starfall Festival[/h3]

This week we talked to Riftweaver’s Lead Writer, Claire Purcell, about her writing process and the steps to building our starter adventure, The Road to the Starfall Festival.

The YouTube video linked below will provide you with a deep dive into Claire’s process, from Claire herself.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Take a peek behind the curtain as we go over what she had to share with us!

[h3]Starting at the beginning[/h3]

Let's rewind a bit and talk about where it all started – the world of Mythas.

Having a solid grasp on the world setting was key to bringing our adventures to life. We wanted every corner of Mythas to be alive with possibility – from long forgotten Old World Ruins to bustling Coastal towns.



When you understand the world you're playing in, you can create adventures that feel truly authentic and resonate with players on a deeper and more immersive level.

And that’s where our storytelling journey began.

[h3]Making a plan[/h3]

After laying down the worldbuilding groundwork, we created a brief for ourselves to define the player experience that we wanted to deliver. Even if you’re homebrewing, writing a brief for yourself can be a great way to stay focused on the adventure you want to create.



What kind of features did we want this adventure to have? We wanted it to be epic, of course. We wanted players to feel like heroes, embarking on a quest that felt fun and exciting!



Most importantly, we wanted our first adventure to be easy for first-time GMs to run, and to introduce all players to Fablecraft and the world of Mythas.

[h3]Crafting an adventure[/h3]

The Road to the Starfall Festival was designed to be the perfect introductory adventure to Fablecraft!

With a brief in hand, Claire created a detailed outline of each session. Looking back, that outline serves as a great reminder that, sometimes, less is more! While it’s tempting to pack all of your creative ideas into one adventure, for the sake of the players and the GM, it’s better to save some of those gems for later work.



Claire used the outline to create a full first draft of the adventure, which turned into second, third, fourth drafts and beyond! All the while, we iterated and refined our work, playtested the adventure, traded ideas, and gathered feedback, always striving to improve and enhance the experience.

[h3]Putting it all together[/h3]

Once we had our storyline fine-tuned, it was time to bring The Road to the Starfall Festival to life in the game client – and we created our Game Master Guide!



Our UX and Development teams designed and built our very first GMG - and then built a user-friendly GMG Builder so that non-developers (like Claire) could create adventures directly in Unity!



Psst… We hope to eventually make the GMG Builder available to all players for homebrew.

[h3]And voila! An adventure was born[/h3]

The GM Guide makes it super easy to run a Fablecraft adventure, even if you’ve never played a TTRPG before. Check out this deep dive into the Game Master’s Guide in a previous update, if you would like to take a closer look.



Download our newly released demo, and try running a session (or three!) of The Road to the Starfall Festival for your friends.



[h3]Wishlist us on Steam[/h3]

Your continued support makes a huge difference to us indies. Join our party on Discord and Wishlist Tales of Fablecraft on Steam!

It's here. ✨🧙 The Tales of Fablecraft demo is officially available.

To mark the moment, we put together a fun gameplay trailer that features the demo and the adventures that lie beyond Early Access launch (which is coming soon!). Here it is.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]What's in the demo?[/h3]

So, what can you expect from this demo? Well, we put together a rundown yesterday that you can review if you'd like all the details. But here's the short version...

The first version of the demo available now features a tutorial covering basic gameplay and combat that you can play solo. Once you're done with that, you can gather up to five of your friends (that's six players, including yourself) and take on the first three sessions of The Road to the Starfall Festival adventure, which will be available for free at Early Access launch.

Of course, you'll also be able to put on your GM hat and tell your own story with the assets included in those first three sessions.

[h3]Yes, updates are coming![/h3]

The Tales of Fablecraft demo will run through Next Fest in June. Between now and the start of Next Fest, we'll add more tutorials, an arena-style combat mode, and special cosmetic unlocks that you can earn and keep after the game officially launches.

Head to Fablecraft's Steam page and grab the demo. If you like what you play, please be sure to add Fablecraft to your Wishlist.

We'll see you soon, Mages!

We have big news to share today, Mages! 🧙

The Tales of Fablecraft demo will launch on Steam tomorrow, May 15th, 2024.

Today, we’ll discuss the demo’s features, share our plans for its future (yep, we’re updating it), reveal the goodies you can unlock by completing specific segments, and detail when we plan to take it down.

So, let’s dive in!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Tutorials, Adventures, Battles…oh my![/h3]

The Fablecraft demo will receive updates! What launches tomorrow will feature a brief tutorial to show new and old Mages the ropes. That means choices, dice rolls, and a brief combat session.

Gather your parties! You’ll also be able to take your new-found skills on the trail with friends and experience the first three sessions of The Road to the Starfall Festival adventure.



One of you will need to be the Game Master, of course, but you’ll have access to our GM Guide to make it happen. This tool truly makes running a session a breeze for seasoned and newbie GMs alike.

Oh! A note to our Closed Beta players… we’ve updated The Road to the Starfall Festival adventure quite a bit since you played it, so get ready for a fresh take on these opening sessions.

[h3]Future demo updates inbound[/h3]

Over the coming weeks, we'll update the demo with tons of content for future Mages to sink their teeth into.

First, we'll add new battle tutorials for the Elementalist, Gravimancer, and Radiant combat styles. We'll also add a tutorial specifically for Game Masters.



If you’re looking for a tight, addictive loop of top-down tactical combat, we're adding a brand new arena-style battle mode! Here, you’ll battle computer-controlled combatants as you work through a gauntlet of fights and rack up damage worth sharing.

[h3]Alright, fellow dice gremlins, there’s cake on the line[/h3]

Want to earn something special for clearing segments of the demo? We’ve got you covered.



In a future update to the demo, we’ll have two unlockables available for free, and they’re both on the sweet side. Completing the arena-style combat mode will get you the Rainbow Cake Battle Token, and completing all the Combat Style tutorials will get you the Rainbow Cake Dice Skin.

Delicious.

[h3]When’s the demo leaving Steam?[/h3]

The Fablecraft demo will be with us for a little over a month before we take it down. The current plan (and plans can change) is to remove the demo on June 18th, 2024.

Of course, you won’t be without Fablecraft for long, as the Early Access launch is still slated for this summer. We’ll share when we’re set to launch as soon as we can.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2176900/Tales_of_Fablecraft/

Until then, be sure to Wishlist Fablecraft on Steam to be notified of our release. See you soon!