#40 – STREAMS
Welcome back to our studio’s development blog! Two weeks ago, we returned from the holidays – with fresh minds and fresh eyes. Most of us also returned with a cold (thanks, winter weather!), but since then managed to get over it (thanks, honey and ginger; and a little bit of whisky).
One New Year has already passed and another New Year (Lunar) is just around the corner. Perhaps, like us, you are waiting for The Wandering Earth, the first film based on Liu Cixin’s book? Here in Vilnius, we don’t get holidays around the Lunar New Year, but at least we get the film (if we find a platform that will release it here; after all, film industry is still not as progressive as games industry).
In 2019, we are fully committed to releasing Spire of Sorcery in Early Access on Steam. Anything that we need to speed up the release, we will do. We’ll cut a few more features and we’ll commission a few more freelancers to help us – whatever it takes to release the game sooner. We thank all of you who follow this project for your patience, and we promise not to test it too much.
Meanwhile, I’m out of my lovely Chinese tea, but this will not stop me from writing these updates. For New Year, I received a gift of black tea with cardamom from Sri Lanka. If you see a lot of exclamation marks in this blog, it is because this tea is so strong!! Very strong!! Unbelievably strong!!
The big news of this issue is that in 2019, we started running weekly streams of Spire of Sorcery here on Steam, right on the game’s page. This is not some sort of an advanced marketing campaign, but rather a part of our promise to be as open and honest with the community as possible. We have nothing to hide from you. If some parts of the game look bad, please tell us about this. Not that we have illusions: there’s still work left, for sure.
The streams happen every Friday at the following time:
- 23:00 in Tokyo
- 22:00 in Beijing
- 17:00 in Moscow
- 15:00 in Berlin
The recordings are then made available via studio’s YouTube channel, in case you cannot watch in real time.
One week we talk in English, another - in Russian. I wish I could also do a stream in Chinese, but I can only say 你好, 我的朋友 and then comment with 好, 不好 and 很好. So perhaps nobody will enjoy it except for me (and maybe my parents).
As I write this, the game’s Encyclopedia is being prepared for localization into Russian, English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. The first final content will finally start to accumulate inside the game, and it will serve as the initial tutorial to those of you who will choose to join the closed beta.
In our experience, you can feel the first “breath of the spring” – also known as “this game will be released in a few months” – when the first texts are sent to localization, and yes, we are indeed reaching this point of no return.
Everyone in the studio now plays the build of Spire of Sorcery every day. Artists and programmers are good at seeing it as a “sketch” of the final game, viewing imperfections as temporary. This is not so easy for me, the producer; I’m allergic to beta interfaces and every button that is not precisely where it should be is driving me mad (or maybe it’s that Sri Lankan cardamom tea?!!).
The first campaigns are being lost, in a funny way. The first quests are being failed, also often with a smile to (I sent one character to forage mushrooms; she was so bad at it that she did not bring any, however she ate a whole lot of rations while going to the forest and back). The first fine-tuning of the world also happens (for example, of the events that happen to disciples when they are generated - and, consequently, of how they look).
Artists now work on creatures that are closer to the Spire and are a matter of everyday interactions. Nothing too dramatic, but nevertheless a challenge. Maybe the giggler will not kill anybody, however a disease may take root and require considerable healing efforts. The same goes for the new inventory items: we’re adding skins of squirrels, garlic, et cetera. Common items that will be in demand from day one.
Concepts of the Giggler.
The big thing that remains to be done: a revision of the global map; and the part of game logic responsible for spells. The global map is a tough cookie because it is both functional and sets the mood. It is probably one of the toughest issues to solve across the whole game.
Concepts of Wood Weepers.
Well, this is about all for today. Please come see us during the Friday streams and say “Hi” in the chat. Starting next week, we also resume the regular dev blog. Like with the game, where release is now more important than trying for perfection, we will try to keep the blog as regular as possible, no matter what. Except for the day when we’ll be out of office watching The Wandering Earth!
Concepts of Earth Leeches.
As always, for updates on work in progress, please check the game’s official Discord server.
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ːsummer_magicː Spire of Sorcery – Character Generator (Steam)
ːsummer_magicː Official Discord server
ːsummer_magicː Twitter (game updates)
ːsummer_magicː Facebook (game updates)
ːmaliceː Official Discord server
ːmaliceː Twitter (game updates)
ːmaliceː Facebook (game updates)
ːmusicː Original Soundtrack on Spotify
ːnotebookː Twitter (studio news)
ːnotebookː Facebook (studio news)
ːnotebookː "Behind the scenes" Instagram
ːnotebookː YouTube