Hey there Armellians!
It was the biggest, most complicated update we've ever done, but Armello's v2.2 Crossplay update is finally complete.
[h3]
v2.2 Crossplay is now live across Steam, PlayStation, Xbox & Nintendo Switch [/h3]
This update is not only a complete restructuring of our multiplayer architecture, but it has brought all consoles up to date with Steam, AND most importantly, has seen the implementation of cross-platform multiplayer (Crossplay) between Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.
There are also numerous bug fixes, quality of life and stability improvements. The data is in and with the time we spent in v2.2's Beta we now have the most stable version of Armello ever released.
Thanks to all of you who stuck with us and helped along the way. And of course, huge shout out to our QA crew, Jono and Stacey, for doing the work they do.
[h3]Remaining Known Issues: [/h3]
- On extremely rare occasions, screen can freeze in a solid colour causing an NMA.
- Some difficulty connecting to online Party functions, ie. Gather Party window doesn't populate.
- Difficulty starting MP games (general issues where games can't start, or less than 4 users appear in lobby). We feel this may be a regional issue.
- No Party Functionality (including Private Games) on MacOSX & native Linux. Due to the severity of this one, we've removed any advertising of support for Linux & Mac from Steam (and shortly Humble Bundle), though folks can still purchase and play those versions. For anyone affected by this issue, you can find more info (including a workaround and refund options) here.
Note: All known issues were investigated over months, sometimes years, and could either never be reliably reproduced, are bugs in third party software we use (Unity, Playfab, Fmod, etc), were happening on hardware below min spec, or to an extremely small subset of seemingly unrelated players, regions or hardware.
Unfortunately, there was one casualty we had feared may happen with being forced into a major network upgrade...
[h3]No More Reconnect[/h3]
We were really hoping that getting Reconnect back online would be a simple solution once the network upgrade was done. After working for weeks on reconnect with little promising progress, it became clear it was going to require nothing less than an entire rewrite. As much as we want to bite that off for y'all and rewrite Reconnect so we can bring it back online, now that we're eleven years into Armello's dev with two new projects heading towards Alpha, we simply do not have the resources or time to invest the focus and effort required into Reconnect. So unfortunately Reconnect will remain offline indefinitely.
The silver lining here is that whilst the forced network upgrade has taken Reconnect from us, it has given us the most stable version of multiplayer in Armello's history. Additionally, Armello thrived for years without Reconnect, so whilst it's a wonderful quality of life feature. Armello's well positioned to live on without it, even if it's removal is against our will.
[h3]Dice Collection Rotations are Back![/h3]
And we're kicking it off with Skeeve's Curiosities! The collection is live in-game now on Steam, PlayStation Xbox & Nintendo Switch!
We'll continue to roll through Dice Collections every eight weeks.
[h3]Long Live the King[/h3]
As many of you know, v2.2 Crossplay also serves as Armello's final update.
Seven years post release and with two brand new games in full production, we are turning our attention to the announce and upcoming release of our new games. We cannot wait for you to see them!
We're not going anywhere. We're still here. We will still be scheduling Stranger Games, as well as rotating through Dice seasons and events. I think we're even gonna start streaming some Armello again. Though this is absolutely the end of the road for content and features for Armello.
We're incredibly proud of what the game has become from our humble aspirations over 11 years ago. We set out to answer the question: What does it mean to bring a tabletop adventure to life?
I can faithfully say I feel we know the answer to that question now. And we have many of you to thank for helping us figure it out.
We may not have pleased everyone along the way, or made the perfect game, but we're pretty proud of what we've all achieved together. So if you've enjoyed our game over the past seven years, how far its come, and everything we've put into it, a positive Steam review is always welcome.
Thank you for being here with us. Whether since the Kickstarter, or last week's Summer Sale. Thanks for adventuring out into the wyld of Armello, for Armello.
See you in-game! I know I'll be questing for the throne over the weekend.
PS. For anyone interested, you won't have to wait long to hear about these new games. Stay tuned.