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Camelot Unchained offers a status update for the end of January
So, is Camelot Unchained going to have those alpha servers ready in February? That's a great question! No, really, it is; the most recent official development update makes it clear that even the staff is unsure whether they'll be ready to go, as the team is currently a bit short on programmers and is trying to make do. A lot of bugs have been fixed up and several of the items on the game's update checklist have been crossed off, though, and the team is confident that any delays will be for less than six months. The update post also contains new concept art for camouflaged archers as well as a mission statement regarding some of the systems that should be coming to the test version soon. If you can't wait to see the latest news on the game's progress, head along and check out the full update now.
PAX South 2015: Camelot Unchained's proactive approach to community management
In the crowdfunded independent industry, we are starting to see some ups and downs. Backers have seen some games fail and other games soar. One of those games that seems to be doing very well, at least if you ask its Community Manager Jenesee Grey and its legions of fans, is Camelot Unchained. At this weekend's PAX South, I spoke to Grey about her experience as a CM for a crowdfunded game.
Camelot Unchained posts new art, dev checklist items
If you missed Thursday night's Camelot Unchained update, CityState bossman Mark Jacobs recapped it prior to the close of business on Friday, and he also threw in some new art assets and a project checklist for good measure. The latter is interesting if you're following the sandbox PvP title's development closely, as it features both recently completed milestones and some new ones that the team will be tackling in the very near future.
Camelot Unchained funds sound engineer, looks to speed up world building
Dear Camelot Unchained: What's up with the duck? Is that your mascot? Does your artist love duck doodles? Or is it referring to a secret race in your game? Please let us know. Sincerely, Massively. Some good news for fans of this upcoming RvR title as City State Entertainment announced that it has crossed the $3,025,000 fundraising mark and thereby hit a stretch goal to hire a sound engineer for the game. Next up on the stretch goal docket is a "Hug the World" campaign at $3,225,000. If this target is hit, Camelot Unchained will hire more artists to "accelerate the building out of the game world" and improve the quality of other art assets.
Camelot Unchained's latest newsletter tackles player-built structures
Camelot's Unchained's latest newsletter is hot off the virtual presses. It's a lengthy read, too, so grab yourself a snack and a beverage before perusing the community Q&A section, a state of the build update, an art update, and a design discussion on the RvR sandbox's building system. "The world of CU, while it will have some important pre-built structures, leaves the dynamic creation, capture, and destruction of keeps and castles firmly in the hands of our players," City State says.
Camelot Unchained prepares to cross $3M in fundraising
As of the writing of this post, Camelot Unchained is on the verge of hitting $3M in fundraising donations at $2,952,875. City State Entertainment said that when that already-impressive sum climbs to $3,025,000, the team will sign on a sound engineer to kick the game's audio up a notch. "Part of this goal will cover licensing the Audiokinetic Wwise engine and technical support for it, as well as some great plug-ins, while the rest will go toward the salary and expenses of the sound engineer," CSE posted. To help prompt more of those donation dollars, Camelot Unchained began selling unveiled lifetime subscriptions today at the builder's level.
Camelot Unchained's Mark Jacobs on the warrior class and development transparency
City State Entertainment -- an indie studio that's becoming better known to our readers, I imagine, after it ran away with our poll for best studio last week -- has today posted its first class concept reveal. The tentatively named Drengr is the Viking warrior class, and in its long design document, the studio has outlined just how the archetype fits into the proposed Path system that will govern character development in the crowdfunded RvR MMORPG. We spoke to CSE's Mark Jacobs about the Path system, warrior reveal, and the impact of transparency on the game development process. Enjoy the interview below!
Camelot Unchained tackles building systems, ability crafting
City State Entertainment has continued its daily Camelot Unchained updates with another batch of notes on the ongoing state of the build as the team gears up for alpha testing in 2015. Studio boss Mark Jacobs says that his crew has done a first pass on the building system as well as the ability crafting system UI, mage VFX and casting, and the grass system. The team is also working on improvements to client performance. "Last month we rocked the network and PhysX side," Jacobs wrote. "Now we begin to do the same on the client side." Critical improvements to duck pedestal collision are also included in the notes. Check the whole list out on the official site to understand that joke.
Camelot Unchained moves on to its third pre-alpha test
The bad news of the most recent Camelot Unchained update is placed front and center of the latest development update: Some of the features once slated for inclusion in the second pre-alpha test have been kicked back to the third pre-alpha test. This also counts as good news, though; because of the small number of features remaining on that particular checklist and the progress already made on the third checklist, the team decided to just go ahead and shift the items to the new checklist whilst moving on to the third test. Got all that? Good. Pre-alpha test #3 will contain the first pass of the game's building system, among other updates. While it has yet to be fully fleshed out, the core building blocks are working. So if you're a big enough backer to take part in these initial rounds of testing, you'll have the chance to start trying your hand at making new things when the test dates roll around.
Camelot Unchained's fourth newsletter covers the state of the game
The build for Camelot Unchained is constantly improving in functionality. Dual-targeting is now implemented, allowing players to have separate friendly and hostile targets for various effects. The hotbar UI is improving. Auto-run is in the game. How do we know all of this? It's all in the latest newsletter from the development team, which discusses every aspect of the title from the stability and performance of the current build to future plans and technology integration. Aside from the current state of the alpha testing build, the newsletter answers several community questions about possible new races and weaponry, shows off some of the armor designs that are being explored for mages, and talks about the game's reward structure. And even that isn't a full rundown of everything in the dispatch. If you're a fan of what's going on with Camelot Unchained, it might be best to just curl up with some holiday leftovers and read the full newsletter.
The armor of Camelot Unchained's mages
Mages have a certain amount of freedom with armor. Where other sorts of classes have to wear something bulky and, well, armored, magic-using characters tend to be able to dress simply for impressive image. The downside is that they tend to be vulnerable to sharp objects directed at their internal organs, but the upside is that they get to swing around the world looking stylish as hell while getting sharp bits jabbed at them. Camelot Unchained promises to be no exception to the trope. The latest development blog for the game shows off a variety of concept art for mage outfits, ranging from dyeing styles to headwear to cloaks and capes. It's simultaneously a traditional look and a somewhat diverse one, offering the caster-on-the-go a variety of options that are both active and stylish. Check out the full post for a comprehensive look at the modern Camelot Unchained mage's activewear. [Thanks to Matthew for the tip!]
Camelot Unchained explores the designs of the Tuatha De Danann
Armor is not a fashion statement. Well, all right, it usually is, but it's not just a fashion statement. How a race looks in a given game often says a lot about what that race represents and what matters to the members as a whole. Camelot Unchained's latest update talks about the Tuatha De Danann, both a concept that the team may use for the realm's armor and the updated visual design of the Baen Sidhe. Unlike the design for the Baen Sidhe's previous more macabre appearance, the updated design is still ethereal whilst being less overtly malformed. The scars and wounds that led to the death of an individual Baen Sidhe's line still play into the designs via shadowed tattoos. Meanwhile, the Tuatha De Danann as a whole are so in tune with the seasons and the flow of the natural world that several concept designs for season-themed armors are shown. If you want to see how you can protect your character while still making a fashion statement, check out the full update.
Camelot Unchained devs play music, talk audio stretch goal
If you've ever wanted to see Mark Jacobs fend off a wasp attack, the latest Camelot Unchained dev diary video is for you! It's also noteworthy because Jacobs details how the crowdfunded PvP sandbox met its previous stretch goal and how it is now on to a "sound and effects" stretch goal. "This is a very serious attempt to have triple-A sound and effects," he says, before going on to explain how CityState will hire a dedicated engineer, license a top engine, etc. Click past the cut to watch Jacobs, a wasp, Grumpy Cat, and the CU dev band.
Camelot Unchained 'in great shape' following first pre-alpha test
Camelot Unchained's first pre-alpha test wrapped up after running this past weekend, and according to reports from the devs, the MMO saw strong server stability and performance. Mark Jacobs reported that a "vast majority" of testers approved of the detailed character creation system and up to 200 players were able to duke it out in the same battleground area. "It is safe to say that, considering where we are in development as compared to other games Andrew and I have worked on, that we are in great shape. Especially since we are building almost the entire engine from scratch," Jacobs said. Camelot Unchained will continue to run pre-alpha tests, with the devs promising "at least one testing day" every week or two.
Camelot Unchained is a go for pre-alpha testing
Camelot Unchained takes another big step forward today toward launch with the release of its pre-alpha test for founders. The test is actually starting ahead of the original schedule, to the presumed delight of the game's fans. In late August, City State Entertainment announced that it was pushing back its alpha and beta tests in order to bring on more programmers to the team. Details of the alpha test were sent out to backers in emails yesterday. The test will run today, Friday, and Sunday. The studio spent an hour the other day discussing this test in a livestream that you can watch after the break.
Camelot Unchained celebrates new website and forums
Camelot Unchained is now boasting a shiny new website and player forums, according to the game's second newsletter. That's only the tip of the wordy newsletter. A brief community question and answer section addresses a few in-game topics, such as boat travel and caravan details. Then it dives right into a treatise on world game design and how the team is still attempting to figure out how large Camelot Unchained's landmass should be and how quickly players will be able to traverse it. "In our case, we are making what is essentially a medieval fantasy war game conquest map, which means things like territory and resource control, logistics, and force projection are extremely important considerations, but things like good quest flow are less so," the team said. The art department also piped up to say that it's working on the Tuatha Dé Danann race, the Arthurian Storm Rider, and pre-alpha testing support.
Camelot Unchained launches pre-alpha test checklist
Camelot Unchained is running a little bit behind, as we learned last week. It happens; it's the nature of development. But what, exactly, is the source of the delay? The team has launched a pre-alpha testing checklist to explain just that. No, it's not the things players have to do before testing; it's what the team has to get completed before the game is ready for its earliest tests. While there are no time estimates available on the unchecked entries, fans can get a good idea just from the chart how far along the development process is. Presumably, more entries will be filled in as they are completed without other fanfare. If you want to have a one-stop spot to see the state of the game in development, check it out for yourself.
Camelot Unchained alpha postponed half a year [Updated]
On Twitter and during a Twitch broadcast yesterday, Camelot Unchained developers announced that the alpha test for the crowdfunded RvR MMO has been broken into three phases and delayed, which will result in a similar delay for beta and launch. Originally planned to begin this month, the third phase of alpha has been postponed until February of next year; devs cited insufficient programmers as the main culprit, though that's a problem they say they've rectified now. Backers will have limited access to alphas 1 and 2, though dates for these have not yet been set. In a post announcing the new Camelot Unchained website today, Mark Jacobs apologized for the alpha's delay, writing, "I want to thank all of our Backers for their understanding and support regarding the delay of the commencement of Alpha Testing. It is gratefully appreciated by myself and the team." [Thanks to Andy for the tip.] [Update: We've included the revised explanatory video below. Mark Jacobs also forwarded us his letter to backers, which hasn't yet been uploaded to the new-new site. We've embedded it below as well.]
Camelot Unchained unveils first newsletter, talks vets vs. newbs
City State has pushed the first issue of its Camelot Unchained Unveiled newsletter out to backers this week, and the company says that the new format should be "more fun, interesting, entertaining, and informative than our old Afternoon Updates." Content includes a state-of-the-build section with nods to performance and scalability of the client, server, and patcher as well as an engineering initiative dubbed Team Fireball. There's also an interesting design-related blurb focused on what happens when veteran players battle new players. "No matter what, the difference between a veteran and a new player won't be the same as it is in most, if not all, MMORPGs," explains Mark Jacobs. [Thanks Maric!]
Camelot Unchained reveals BSC survey results
Camelot Unchained has put the wraps on its "BSC Week," which was a four-day infosplosion of the upcoming game's mechanics, lore, and ideas. Today City State Entertainment CEO Mark Jacobs went on Twitch to talk about the results from the 1,177 fan surveys from the week. Jacobs also fields several questions and answers from the community. Jacobs said that 74% of those polled were interested in the stat system as talked about and that 65% of those who watched the stat presentation were more inclined to back the game now. If you have an hour to spare and are keenly interested in the development of Camelot Unchained, we have the archived stream for you after the break!
