Hello there folks,
It's been quite some time since our last Community Vote, hasn't it? Wait, what's that? There haven't been any Community Votes since our Kickstarter Campaign? Oooohhh bummer. That won't do, that won't do at all!

• You must be logged-in in order to vote.
  
• The vote will run from Friday December 13th to Sunday January 13th 12:00 am PT.
  
• You can vote for two out of three archetypes.
  
• You can't change your vote after casting it.
  
• Feel free to argue your case as to why the Archetypes you chose are by far superior to the last one in the comments below to educate the others (but stay civil).

Community Votes

When we stated back during our Kickstarter that we wanted to build the game with you, our community, we really meant it. Not "build the game FOR us" though - that's a very important difference - as we do have a solid creative vision for Solasta. Rather, we have all sort of cool ideas (at least we hope they are!) and a limited amount of time to implement them, so we thought... why not let you, our future players, decide on that!

And that means we have a little something prepared for you every month until Solasta is released, starting this very month of December with a choice between three Wizard Archetypes. As you already know, one Archetype has already been revealed in our Kickstarter Demo - the Shock Arcanist, wielder of potent and destructive evocation spells. Now, the time has come to decide what the other two will be.

Trust us when we say, we've already had a hard time narrowing the candidates down to three. It is now up to you to choose the remaining two who will make it into the game at launch.

********************************************

The Archetypes

Greenmage

Stonemage

Loremaster

Article by Mathieu Girard (CEO of Tactical Adventures)

Hi everyone,
Over the past few months, we have given you regular production updates on what we have been working on. I thought that now would be interesting to share the bigger picture with you.

And it is thanks to you!

The Kickstarter Campaign has been a great experience for us – be it on the production, community or financing side. As we hoped for, the additional funds will allow us to add more content. You have joined us as a community, providing feedback, suggestions… and also reassuring us on the interest for Solasta, for it is always a leap of faith to start working on a new game! Don’t worry, we also know we have to improve the camera system 😊 and we are working on it.

Something that’s probably less obvious is that the production of the Kickstarter demo has been an amazing learning experience as well. It required us to set up a production pipeline very early in the development cycle, and forced us to confront challenges that usually only appear later when working on a video game. The Ruins of Telema were a boon because it was a “stand-alone” dungeon: we had to face not only the complexity behind designing a level with verticality in mind, but also keep an eye on balancing encounters and cutscenes to avoid slowing down the pace too much.


First combat encounter of the Kickstarter Demo, good ol' baby spiders.

I think one of the biggest findings is that it’s really, really cool to have a demo showing off the quality level we'd like to achieve . Some Kickstarter projects only have a trailer, others a very early demo without sound or full of placeholders… We wanted to give a slice of what could be the final game (within reason of course), which is why we did some voice recording, had some music tracks produced and even added some last-minute tool-tips and tutorial elements. Obviously, we were trying to convince you that the game will be good, but it was also very useful for us – we get to tackle questions and clear some of the unknown before entering full Production. The state that we reached was critical to me, because it resonated with my passion for the MVP principle. But what is exactly MVP?


MVP Methodology illustrated by Henrik Kniberg

MVP stands for Minimal Viable Product. It might be obvious for some because it is a well-known principle in Web / Apps development, but it isn’t really widespread in the video game industry. In a nutshell, MVP focuses on producing something step by step, by fulfilling the first requirements set by the user, without working all the details and options, before moving towards the next step. In the picture above, all items in the bottom row depict a mean of transportation – you may not need a car when a bicycle would suffice! Not to mention your wallet would sing a different tune if you got one or the other.

In the video games industry, projects are becoming more and more complex, with large teams of sometimes several hundreds of people. The way they are planned, organized and divided into tasks often end up with a “waterfall” pipeline where the game evolves through conception, prototype, production, alpha, beta and release stages. But it is rare to have a glimpse of the final product until the end, leading to some projects failing and a lot of frustration for the team. It feeds the “wait and see” mentality, where even if things don’t look too good, you always hope everything will be fine when you assemble all the pieces together at the end.


Our first prototype was fairly rough! But you could still play it, and that's what's important.

Before the studio was staffed and we had offices, I started a first MVP focusing on showing the game core pillars: character creation, dungeon layout, exploration mechanics, basic character presentation, combat, a magic system, and GUI to use all that. I did not go into all the options and details, nor did I make “quick and dirty” code: I did the best I could for the objectives I had within the 9 months I gave myself. The result allowed me to show this project to others, demonstrate how it worked – and from there, hire a team and secure initial funding. Once this MVP cycle was done, we aimed for a new one: adding visual polish, lighting, new textures, to convince even more people, get more funding, and understand how far we could get. The next MVP cycle was building an FPP (First Playable Prototype) which rapidly became the Ruins of Telema (which you now know as the Kickstarter demo).

Working with an MVP approach is not simple: many people like to keep the big picture in mind and worry about covering all the bases from the get-go, which can significantly complicate and slow down the production cycles. Keep in mind that it is far easier to use the MVP approach when you are a small and agile team, which is also one of the reasons we’re using this method. What is also essential is to understand than the MVP must work in pair with refactoring (which means going back in existing systems to improve them). When I developed the first prototype, I needed a quick minimal AI for the monsters, and used a simple machine state simulation. As it proved totally inadequate for complex situations, our AI programmer then replaced it with a more advanced AI system. Refactoring takes a bit of time, but you get to know what you need to change and improve because you get to test the previous system in-game. On the other hand, the classical approach would be to design a full-fledged AI on paper at the start, and then hope it works as well as you imaged once it’s fully implemented in-game (plus sometimes you realize that half of the work you did was pointless because another system was removed from the game later due to lack of time).

But there is one nagging question here… what about quality?


I can tell you, these skeletons were NOT smart. But they did the job!

With the MVP method, one may think that quality is not most crucial point of the process. It could be considered slacking and doing sloppy work, as you cut the chase to the most immediate result. One might even argue that it could be a way for us to be cheap and deliver an incomplete game. But it is exactly the opposite: because we rush asap to a playable result, we have ample time to improve, polish, refactor, and start the cycle again. Increasing a game quality is also a very satisfying moment for the team after you hacked your way out of the jungle of features development, and the sooner the better thanks to MVP!

Another thing that was really nice with the Kickstarter demo was that we got meaningful and detailed feedback since the demo was a fairly representative vertical slice. By placing the customer experience higher up in our list of priorities, you get more interesting feedback than with a buggy / obscure prototype. Obviously, that is easier said than done 😊 This also helped us decide to develop the rest of the game in a similar way as the Kickstarter demo. We have cut Solasta into different acts and started from the very beginning of the game: creating the party, playing the introduction, exploring the beginning of the campaign, exactly like the player will do when they start playing the final game.


We're working on Act 1 as we speak, but we're trying to limit spoilers.

Therefore, our new MVP objective (what we are working on right now) is building what we call the “Exposition” of the game, meaning the first few hours the player will get to enjoy. This requires creating many new systems, content, and levels compared to what we had for the Kickstarter. Among others, we must have character creation and customization, classes and archetypes, introduction and tutorial, world map and navigation, first campaign missions, and lots of stuff I cannot speak about right now. I know that a lot of you might be very eager to play Solasta, but we want to make sure to reach a certain level of quality before placing it into your hands – and we also don’t want to have too much of the game spoiled for you. That being said, keep an eye out for updates – we do want to give our community a little something!

That is pretty much it for today, aside from another topic that emerged from Kickstarter feedback: Content and Modding. This subject has become a priority and we are also working on it - we will provide you with an update sometime later.

Thank you for your attention!

Tactical Archimat

Hello dear readers!
December's here, and that means we have yet another batch of amazing stuff to share with you. Take a chair, grab a cup of coffee (or hot chocolate) and let us tell you of the newest developments in Solasta.

Important Note: As a reminder, everything you're about to see is Work In Progress! That means some of it may look clunky, janky, broken, empty, ugly - and even if it does look "okay" or pretty good, it's not final (so it will look even better in the final game)! Also the design is not final, so things may work differently once the game goes live.

What do you show new players when they enter the Character Creation screen? Sometimes, seemingly simple questions like these bring up quite a lot of discussions. Do we go for simplicity with a static, cool-looking concept art of the party? Wait... how would that work since the player is supposed to create his four characters from scratch? Who do we show on screen in that case?


Research on a dynamic Character Creation landing screen (sketch), which would display the 3D models of the characters you create.

While we're still early in development and everything can be subject to changes, our Art Director proposed to go with a dynamic landing screen. By default, you would get four pre-generated characters on screen - and clicking on one would take you to the Character Creation screen where you can switch them with your very own creation, changing the Character Creation screen accordingly every time you swap party members.

Speaking of Character Creation, our Concept Artist has started working on a wide variety of haircuts, beards and moustaches! Note that haircuts and facial hair can be chosen separately, they are not linked together.


Picking up adventuring comes with a complementary trim at the nearest barber shop.

We've talked a lot about adventurers and their ilk, but what about the true citizens of Solasta? Those who are shunned by the more "advanced" societies just because they happen to enjoy a little bit of violence and murder. Discrimination, that's what. Of course, it would be hard to have a good High Fantasy setting without the classics. Orcs... and Goblins! You've already met your friendly orc neighbours in the Ruins of Telema (and perhaps even enjoyed a fair few rounds of fisticuffs, they do so enjoy physical activities), so prepare to greet our Goblins!


Beautiful. Now that's a face that'd make any seasoned adventurer swoon.

Now that their 3D models are done, our lead animator Grégoire (who was the guest of our previous article on Animation) is going to spend a good chunk of time bringing them to life! Walking, running, attacking, dying... There's plenty to be done.


Little known fact: Goblins can actually fly by wiggling their ears very hard. Not.

Aside from Goblins, our Concept Artist has also worked on bringing some wildlife to the world of Solasta. Behold the wolf!


Who's a good boy? Who's a good pupper! Yes you are!

Our Art Team wasn't the only one hard at work, as our Design Team has been working on some new levels that you'll get to enjoy. We don't want to spoil too much by giving away location names or showing too much of the level itself, but here are a few gifs to enjoy.

Gif too large for Steam, click to view


Watching your neighbors over the fence as they are doing a barbecue and didn't invite you.


Orc Totems Concept Art.


Close-up of the totem in-game.

One of the much needed features that we couldn't implement in time for the Kickstarter Demo was a functional 3D Map of the level so that players wouldn't get lost in the level. We haven't forgotten about it, and we are now testing a new version that's already working much better than the previous one. Note that it still looks very rough for now, and we plan to remove some elements to improve its readability.


You'll be able to move the map around, zoom in and maybe even fast travel from there.

We've also created a tool that adjusts the water level of the ground to add muddy pools and make humid caverns look more realistic! Hopefully those are tools that will be available for the community once the Modding SDK is made public.

Gif too large for Steam, click to view

We're now reaching the end of today's update, which was packed with a lot more visuals than usual! I picked a few spells and animations from our FX artist and lead animator for the finale - we like to leave the best for last.


Rapier attack animation, minus the rapier since we still need to make it.


Barkskin Spell Animation


Hold Person Spell Animation

That's it for today! Among what you've seen today, what made you the most excited? Please do drop a little comment below as we always enjoy reading your messages :)

Read our previous articles here:

• TL;DR #7: A primer on animating Solasta
  
• Dev Update #2 - Dungeons & Dwarves
  
• Lore Chronicles - The Eastern Realms

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1096530/

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

Hello there folks! We're back with... TL;DR? What is this nonsense? Well, we thought that having two different type of articles named "Dev Diary" and "Dev Update" might be a little confusing, so we decided to rename "Dev Diary" into "TL;DR". As a reminder, "Dev Update" articles present the work we do on Solasta on a bi-weekly basis, while "Dev Diary / TL;DR" focus on a particular topic - like Game Design, or in today's article, Animation.

If I had to name one person as a reliable source of entertainment in our studio, it would be Grégoire - our Lead Animator - for he truly is a mystery. On one hand, he is a one-man army who constantly produces high quality, buttery smooth animations at an incredible speed. On the other, he regularly unleashes cosmic horrors upon the rest of the team for his own amusement (...and ours too, let's not lie about it). Just check the gif at the end of the article, you'll see what I mean.


Now that's a face you wouldn't want to see in a dark alley.

I, therefore, decided to sit down and have a chat with him to learn more about his secrets. What does an Animator do at Tactical Adventures? TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) at the bottom. Note: I am by no means an expert in animation, so this is a simplified look - there are tons of tasks he's taking care of, we will be focusing on the most common ones.

In order to make a character in Solasta, you usually go through several major steps: Concept Art (2D), High-Poly Model (3D), Low-Poly Model (3D)... But that's not the focus of today's article. Point is, when our 3D Artist provides a complete 3D Character Model to our Lead Animator, there is still a lot to be done. Unless you plan on having this character be stuck in a T-pose somewhere and not moving - ever - you will need to do some rigging.


Wow, imagine all the microtransactions we could sell with those sweet moves (that was a joke, put down the pitchforks).

To put it simply, rigging would be like creating the skeleton of the character. For example, if you have bones for the arms but not the hands, you character will never be able to form a fist or open his hand. Some rigs can be quite basic, like rigging a bow so that the bowstring can be pulled to let the arrow fly - while others can be extremely complex, like a character's face in cinematic games with facial motion capture (such as in Detroit: Become Human). Rule of thumb is, if it's animated, it was rigged beforehand - no matter if it's a character or an object.


Thankfully, these bows don't break - otherwise I'm pretty sure we'd be ordering a replacement as we speak.

A proper rig is key in order to achieve smooth and complex animations, so it's a very important step. On top of that, one has to keep in mind all the technical constraints that come with the game - are we running a pre-rendered scene, in which case we can have very elaborate rigs because performance is much less of an issue? Is it real time rendering, in which case how many characters are shown on the screen at all times?

These are but a few questions from a long list that will impose restrictions on the number of bones allowed in a single rig (again, think skeleton). Going back to our previous example, maybe that character doesn't really need bones for his hands. Maybe he's a brawler who will always appear on screen with his fists clenched, ready to fight. On the other hand, creating very different rigs for each character can also be very time consuming - so even if he doesn't need his hands animated, he might still have a rig with hand bones included. There's a very delicate balance between the time needed to create custom rigs, the quality of animation we want to achieve, and optimizing the game so it doesn't run like a wizard who rolled a 1 on Athletics.

So we've got our Character all rigged up! Now let's start churning out animations. 3D Animation shares a lot of similarity with 2D Animation: you focus on creating keyframes - in this case, the most important moments that define your animation - and the software does the inbetweens to smooth it out (although in traditional 2D animation, inbetweens would often be drawn by hand by more junior animators).


1st pass (Keyframes only) - Rough intentions


3rd pass (Keyframes only) - Additional keyframes to improve the animation

The quality of the animation will heavily depend on the keyframes - their quality, but also their quantity. Having too few keyframes will often lead to some very strange looking (or even completely absurd) animations.


1st pass - Animation with inbetweens. It looks very floaty and wrong because there are too few keyframes.


3rd pass - Animation with inbetweens. The spider now looks much more threatening and energetic.

On the other hand, creating too many keyframes means you're spending a lot of time on a single animation set. Is it really THAT important to open a chest with style, when you know there's a ton of work to be done? Climbing, walking, flying, jumping, talking, sitting, attacking with a spear, attacking with a sword, dagger, bow, crossbow, axe, etc etc... Turns out you really need A LOT of animations to make a game. But wait a moment, you think. Wouldn't it be cool to add a special animation for critical hits? That's just one more animation in the middle of so many, right?


Come on and slam, and welcome to the jam!

This is when you have to start thinking about time - how many animations can we possibly make without putting our release date at risk? That cool "crit" animation wouldn't work the same on every weapon, so you would need to add as many variants as there are weapons... In a game like Solasta where there is a large choice of weaponry, that small "cool idea" suddenly becomes a large timesink. Not that I'm saying we won't have cool ideas - our backlog is full of it. You can bet that we'll do our best to bring you an immersive and beautiful game!


"What are you gonna do, stab me?" - Dead character after failing his Intimidation Roll

The last part is integrating all of these into the game. Integration both means that you add the character in-game so that others may use it (like the game designer who needs to put monsters for an encounter, or an NPC for a quest...), and plugging the different "gameplay actions" to the animations (so that clicking on attack while you hold a sword activates the sword attack animation).


Here you can see that the running animation changes depending on speed and inclination (stairs)

This last part can often lead to fairly entertaining results when mistakes are made, such as having the rogue smashing his dagger on someone's head as if he held a hammer, tiny spiders jumping to climb stairs instead of crawling up, or Violet using an orc's face rig. Except that last one was on purpose, and it was less entertaining and more terrifying.


And that's why every party needs a Cleric. To keep these abominations away.

Et voilà! I hope you enjoyed reading this week's article on animation, and if you did go @Halfling on our Discord Server to shower him with love. And do tell us in the comments, what animation are you most interested in seeing? We'll share it on our Social Media when we have it ready!


Article's over, time to head out. It's beer o'clock.

TL;DR: Animator puts bones in 3D model, like skeleton. Makes it move. Tells game to show correct move when player clicks button. Makes funny gif otherwise.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1096530/

• Dev Update #2 - Dungeons & Dwarves
  
• Lore Chronicles - The Eastern Realms
  
• TL;DR #6 - What is Level Building?

Article by Tactical Myzzrym & Halfling

Hello folks!
As promised, we're back with our biweekly Dev Update to give you some visibility on what's going on behind closed doors. If you haven't read it already, you can find our first Dev Update over there! But first, a little message for our backers.



Pledge Manager - CrowdOx Surveys are out, make sure you read this article to avoid any issues later on! And now, onto our Dev Update!

Important Note: As a reminder, everything you're about to see is Work In Progress! That means some of it may look clunky, janky, broken, empty, ugly - and even if it does look "okay" or pretty good, it's not final (so it will look even better in the final game)! Also the design is not final, so things may work differently once the game goes live.

When you think city, you think... well, many things depending on the person, I'm sure. Our Concept Artists have started working on houses & shops to populate the as-of-yet empty streets of our main city - it's going to be bustling with life in the end, and you'll get to see it progress at our side! As a reminder for those who may not be too familiar with the process of video game development, it is always possible that some ideas you see as concept art won't be making it into the final game - whether it is because of time constraint, technical requirements, not fitting with the art direction... Still, enjoy some of our houses, it's... on the house! (Please don't hit me.)


No, you can't roll initiative to start a fight with me. I don't care how lame that was, that's not how it works.

I hope you studied the source material we covered last time and know exactly what Level Building is! No? Anyone? No one? You can't just keep blaming failed skill checks on the dice rolls you know, at some point the Game Master is going to notice. Anyway, our Level Builder has been working on some levels that we're not quite yet ready to fully reveal, but that we can already tease as they're being made!


It would be a shame if these ladders were to... Remind me, are you proficient in Acrobatics? No reason, just asking.

We briefly talked about it during our last Development Update, our Art Director is currently (among other tasks) working on a visual for our World Map, that will be used to travel from location to location. We're still very early in this topic, so there may be a lot of changes coming up!


Welcome to Solasta, the temperature outside is currently 22°C and we hope you enjoyed flying with TA Airlines.

Our bushy bearded friend is making his debut in Solasta! We've made some tests to see if our current clothes could fit by morphing them to size, and it turns out he's quite handsome when fully clothed. Please give a warm round of welcome to our Dwarven brothers!


Adventurers by day, dancers by night.

Anyone here hates loot? Alright, security please grab this imposter and throw him out. Who in their right mind hates loot? Are you telling me that there are some adventurers out there who aren't just a bundle of greed? Wait, saving the world? When did that come into the equation? Anyway, we've been working on adding more equipment - and by we, I meant our Concept Artists. Here is but a fraction of what has been produced during these few weeks - and if you're a weapon lover, keep an eye out on our Twitter Account during December! We'll be doing a little Advent Calendar of our own.


Reminder that not everything you see in Concept Art pictures may make it to the final game, and that's normal!

I remember watching a video of someone playing the Demo during Kickstarter, and going "that's some good-looking door!". It made me very happy, because people often focus on the story, the gameplay, the characters (and there's nothing wrong with that)... but you rarely get any comment on the environment, the little details here and there. Hidden somewhere at our Artists' Table is our 3D Artist, who's been making all kind of contraptions for our Level Builder to use. Walls, floors, pillars, doors, banners, decorations... everything that brings a level to life instead of being a bland combat area that looks just like the previous one.


I wouldn't be sure, but I do believe it has something to do with the door. The locked door? The one you tried to open by force?

We'll close this Dev Update with another round of Spell VFX. Before that, we want to correct something we said in the previous update - while we originally wanted the visual effects to scale with the level of the spell, after further scoping this may not be possible depending on the priority of other features - the usual hurdles of Game Development! That means the effects we've shown in our previous Dev Update may be toned down, since these were low level spells (remember, we're still very early in alpha so things will change a lot). But enough of that, check out Spare the Dying and Inflict Wounds! You can click on the gifs for higher resolution videos


Inflict Wounds Spell Effect


Spare the Dying Spell Effect

I hope you liked what you saw! As usual, don't hesitate to head to our Official Forums or Discord Server to talk about everything Solasta. Dev Update #3 will be back in two weeks!

Tactical Myzzrym

By Heironymus Shearwater, Loremaster of the Guild of Antiquarians

The nations that border on the Marches developed out of the Outer Provinces of the Manacalon Empire. After the Cataclysm, all that remained of the Empire was the devastation of the Badlands and the anarchy of the Marches. With the Empire’s central authority gone, each outer province was forced to fend for itself, and each responded in a different way.

The Eastern Realms, as they are sometimes called, consist of the Principality of Masgarth, the Snow Alliance, the Kingdom of Gallivan, and the New Empire. Each is home to one of the organizations that sit on the Legacy Council, and it is this shared approach to Badlands exploration that distinguishes them from the nations further west.


Called simply “the Principality” by its own people, this land is centered around the great city of Caer Cyflen, where the Legacy Council is based. The Principality commands a recently discovered route through the mountains to the Badlands, which is by far the easiest and safest route known. This has given the Principality a strategic position and the potential for a virtual monopoly on Manacalon antiquities, which has drawn covetous glances from its three neighbors.

For centuries, a fragile balance was maintained by skillful diplomacy, as no one neighbor dared try to conquer the Principality for fear of reprisals from the other two. As this new route was discovered, the Legacy Council was founded to ensure that all of the Eastern Realms had equal access to recovered antiquities and ancient knowledge. While the Council is made up of delegates from scholarly institutions, it is no accident that each delegation comes from one of the four Eastern Realms, and it is well known that their respective governments take a keen, if unofficial, interest in their doings.

The current ruler of the Principality is Her Royal Highness, Princess Ceiwad Silverflower. Descended from the Imperial governors of the province, she is young and considered flighty by some; fortunately, she is served by a Privy Council of experienced and capable officials, which does not bother her with the petty details of day-to-day government.

The Circle of Danantar is better known for training spellblades than for serious scholarship. The Princess herself is an enrolled member of the Circle and sits on the Legacy Council as a member of its delegation, but her membership is a matter of courtesy rather than merit.


Exceptional in that it was never conquered by the Manacalon Empire, the Snow Alliance is a loose confederation of small mountain cantons. While they are quick to unite in the face of any external threat, each community maintains its own traditions, rules its own lands, and minds its own business. Its nominal capital is at Valkarokkupun, ("White Rock City" in the snow dwarf dialect), where a council of elders meets on an occasional basis to discuss matters of mutual interest.

The society of the Snow Alliance is clannish but egalitarian. All are treated equally under the law, regardless of race, birth, or other factors. Wealth is respected as a measure of success, but personal ability and integrity are respected more. Snow dwarves form the majority of the population, followed by humans and sylvan elves: other races are rare.

The Snow Alliance is home to the Guild of Antiquarians, a scholarly organization dedicated to recovering and studying the remains of the Manacalon Empire and pre-Imperial times. Under the leadership of Chancellor Hertha Gormsdottir, the Guild has become a respected member of the Legacy Council.


The Kingdom takes its name from the Gallivan, or Ash River, which brings most of the Kingdom’s wealth through trade. After the Cataclysm, the Imperial province of Gualafyn collapsed into a patchwork of small city-states as local warlords vied for power, but they soon realized that their only hope of survival lay in unity. The King of Gallivan is not a hereditary ruler, and upon his death the nobles will meet to choose a successor from among themselves.

The Tower of Knowledge is represented on the Legacy Council, and after the Guild of Antiquarians it may be the most learned organization in the world.


Alone of all the Imperial governors, Lerithir Imradir managed to keep control of his province in the wake of the Cataclysm. He crowned himself the first Emperor of the New Empire, vowing that he and his successors would reconquer the lost provinces and establish a new Imperial age.

The New Empire is founded on the same harsh rule as the old, with high elves in charge and all other races reduced to servitude. The dreaded agents of the Silent Whisper gather intelligence and arrest those who step out of line, while the Arcaneum, which sends representatives to the Legacy Council, is regarded as the best school of magic in the world.

Hello there folks!
It's been quite some time since we last showed you what's going on behind the scenes, hasn't it? Worry not - I have you covered. So, what have we been up to since the end of our Kickstarter campaign?

Important Note: As a reminder, everything you're about to see is Work In Progress! That means some of it may look clunky, janky, broken, empty, ugly - and even if it does look "okay" or pretty good, it's not final (so it will look even better in the final game)! Also the design is not final, so things may work differently once the game goes live.

There's one question that has been asked quite a few times during our Kickstarter: "Is Solasta a pure dungeon crawling game?" If you've been following our updates, you'd likely know the answer is no! We actually just started working on the main city - which will remain unnamed for now as we don't want to spoil too much. We're still evaluating how much of it will be open for you to visit, we'd hate to pour too much time into that and end up having to cut other locations as a consequence. For those of you out there who are wondering - yes, there will be a tavern, for what's a city without one!


Now throw in some NPCs, add some alcohol, a player party. Baby, you got a brawl going.

It's no secret that most games nowadays need tutorials to ensure that the player understands how the game works. This could be as simple as pointing out elements in the UI (for instance, many people complained they couldn't find the "Rest" button in the Demo), or as complex as explaining the rules of combat to someone unfamiliar with the tabletop ruleset (Action, Bonus Action, Reaction...). So, in order to do that without boring our future players to tears, we've been working on including those during our Campaign Introduction Levels!


The prison we showed before is in fact one of the Campaign Introduction Levels!

There's quite a lot we still need to refine in terms of rules and how everything works in Solasta. For instance, we've been working on Design Documents on two significant topics that weren't part of the Demo: Traveling & Random Encounters. What is revealed on the World Map (more on that later!) and what isn't? How do you travel to undiscovered locations? How do other RPGs handle traveling? This is but a tiny glimpse into the mass of questions we have to find answers to when we put a design onto paper in order to avoid wasting time coding something and realizing afterwards that... well, it just doesn't work (or it does, but it's not fun).

Other topics we've been tackling include climbing (how high can you climb? What affects the DC?), sleight of hand (can it be used for something other than stealing? What happens if you get caught?), rethinking the inventory system again (by the end of the project I think fingers won't be enough to count how many times we've revamped the inventory) and... Party Banter! (Kickstarter Stretch Goal)


Hope you brought some good climbing equipment! (Mock-up Image)

Tools and what now? When you're creating a level, you need tools and gadgets to do what you want. Sometimes, it's something as simple as saying "This door can be lockpicked" or "When I activate this lever, I want that door to open"... but the simple things are often the most crucial ones! So, our Programmers make sure that our Level Designers get what they need - as once they make the gadget, our Level Designers can use it as much as they want. Now some of you might already have an inkling of a larger picture here... If I said modding, would that help?

Wait wait wait, what does this have to do with modding? Well, if and when we release modding tools, we want people to be able to easily make more dungeons and levels - and that's where all these tools & gadgets come in. Everything we add for our Level Designers, we want Modders to be able to use it later on.


A retractable door? And I get to troll my companions with it? Oh boy!

Designers & Artists often get to show off their work with pretty screenshots and gifs, but Programmers? They work in the shadows, carefully biding their time before they can finally OVERTHROW THE TYRANNY OF... Sorry where was I? Ah yes, Programmers. Among other things that you cannot see, but are very important, they've been making improvements on all types of movement (Jumping, Climbing, Crawling...). Because yes, even little things like your character going prone to crawl through a duct automatically when you click on it needs some programming love behind it. Otherwise you'd be stuck with manually having to tell your character to go prone, then crawl, and then manually telling your character to stand back up. Ugh.

Fun fact, our CEO also implemented Character Creation! If you remember the Kickstarter Update where we showed you a sneak peek, back then everything was on paper - now we can actually create a character in-game.


Either our QA Lead is extremely lucky, or she's been using weighted dice.

Some things in life are just unfair. Like your car refusing to start in the morning when you're already late, your colleague taking the last bag of tea right before you, or that guy getting a better roll on that item you've been trying to get for weeks. Another thing that's unfair is how good our Art Director's work looks compared to all the other images that show up in this Development Update. Without further ado, let me share his research work on Incantation Circles that will appear when you cast spells. He's also been working on a runic alphabet which we'll keep to ourselves for now.


We'll show you the rest of it at a later date

You know what's the best thing about getting a new Race thanks to Kickstarter? We get to show more cool pictures from our Art Team. Here is some concept art for the Half-Elf (Man & Woman), from which our 3D Artist will create the future in-game models.


We might end up reworking our Elves a bit to further differentiate Half-Elves from Elves

Of course that's not the only thing they've been working on - we've moved forward on quite a few topics, such as adding new haircuts to see how they interact with Character Creation and various hats / helmets, or finally getting our Dwarves some fabulous bushy beards. On a side note, you wouldn't believe all the wonderful things you can do by duplicating beards to cover various part of the body. We've spent a very productive morning laughing over screenshots sent by our Graphic Programmer. More seriously, we've also done research and concept arts on the outfits of the common folks of Solasta - yes, NPCs need clothes too, who would have imagined?


Finally some good facial hair!

Tired of reading yet? Well, let's end this week's Dev Update with some VFX. Remember how spellcasting used to look in the Demo? Well, prepare to be amazed! Reminder, this is still a work in progress. You might notice there's a lot of flashy effects for Burning Hands, so the "base version" (spell slot level 1) might be a little less grandiose in the final game. You can click on the GIFs to watch the high-resolution MP4 video instead.

Roasting some spiders with Burning Hands

Reaction - Casting Shield

Reaction - Casting Featherfall

There's a ton of additional work we haven't covered in this Dev Update, such as Environmental Research & Modelling, Animations and Cutscenes improvements - but I believe this article is already long enough, so we'll talk about these another time! Don't hesitate to drop by our Discord Server or Official Forums to discuss everything Solasta.

Cheers!

You often hear about LD (Level Design) when reading about Game Development - but what about LB (Level Build)? What is Level Building? Did you even know it existed? In this article, we've asked Tactical Error to give us more insight about this very important step.

Level Building is all the steps between the functional level made by the Level Designer, and the actual level that you'll see in-game. To put it simply, it would be like "dressing up" a bare bone level following the vision of the Art Director, while still respecting the constraints from the Gameplay Director. It may sound easy, but there's actually quite a lot to keep in mind - such as making sure the "decorations" don't impede the player when they move through the level. How many of you had a "Wait, I was supposed to go through THERE?!" moment when playing a video game in the past? So, you need to both keep Gameplay Mechanics clear... while also not ruining the immersion with props (items) that look like they don't belong to the level.


See this ray of sunlight and the vines crawling down? The goal is to attract the player's attention immediately when he passes by.

It all starts with the Gameplay Director giving a technical brief of the level. What's the idea behind it, what gameplay mechanics the player will have to use, basically what the purpose of that level is. From there on, the Level Builder will start writing a document listing the assets he needs to dress up the level. To ensure his vision stays in line with the Art Director, the Concept Artists will usually draw a Concept Art, and the Art Director puts together a Mood Board - most often a mash up of many visual references found online to help getting a better idea of what the level should look like in the end.


Concept Art - Ruins of Telema (Entrance)

In the meantime, the Level Designer creates a skeleton of the level with cubes in Unity. It is a very important step as we need to start testing the gameplay inside the level as soon as possible - especially in a game like Solasta where verticality is key. Doing so early ensures we don't run into very obvious issues later on, such as "the room is way too small for the encounter", or "this fight is too easy due to the layout of the room". We call this step "Whiteboxing", where the Level Designer basically plays with the equivalent of Lego bricks to make an engaging level gameplay-wise.


I knew it! Spending my childhood playing with Lego was worth it!

Every cube contains gameplay information required to make the level playable and represents a visual element that will need to be implemented in the final version. For instance, some cubes may prevent both movement and vision (wall) while others may prevent movement but allow vision (fence). Some may be climbable (crate) while others may not (statue). And even though they all look the same, the entire level (even in this state!) is playable from start to finish, and includes most important interactive elements such as doors and traps.

Now since Solasta isn't a Minecraft mod, we can't just leave the level in its Whitebox state. It's up to the Level Builder to start making everything pretty.


Fantastic, that's perfect. I think we can ship it.

When the Level Builder starts working, it's fairly common that not every visual asset for that level is available yet. This is why we have an additional step with temporary, placeholder assets. It helps transitioning from the cube mindset to a more visual one - what the player will actually see. Every cube gets replaced, giving a better grasp on props dimensions and glance value - is it immediately clear for the player that they can't move through this tile? If not, is it because the prop is too small? Or does it just not look like something that would block your movement?


Slowly getting there...

From there on, the 3D Artist slowly works to replace all these temporary assets with usable ones, with the help of Concept Arts and Mood Boards to make sure they stay in line with the Art Director. Walls, floors, rubble, lamps, chairs, mugs... Everything that's needed to bring the level to life! But on top of having to make it look pretty, the Level Builder also has to ensure that the player will understand the level. That they immediately see what areas are reachable, so that they don't get frustrated by getting stuck. Or what areas aren't, so that they don't try to go somewhere that isn't accessible for 20 minutes.


Almost there... Not yet...

At the end of the day, making a level is a huge team effort. From the original brief from the Gameplay Director and the visual target from the Art Director, to the Whitebox cubic level made by the Level Designer, the Level Builder dressing it up, the 3D Artist making the props... It's still not over though. If you take a look at the previous image, something is still missing - and that something is very important. Lighting! At Tactical Adventures Lighting is handled by our Art Director, who does another pass to make sure everything looks extra crispy. There's also a lot of invisible work in the background by our Programmers, who are constantly adding new tools to help make the process simpler, as well as new parameters to tweak the visual effects.


And here we are! This prison is considered v1 (first pass), and will likely get polished again later - but it already looks pretty nice!

That's it for today! Hope you enjoyed the article and that you learned something new! Don't hesitate to drop a word on our Forums or on Discord, and ask if you have any questions!

Hello there fine folks!
Here are the latest news from the Tactical Adventures crew.


As promised during the Kickstarter Campaign, the four Archetypes revealed in the Pre-Alpha Demo are now available on D&D Beyond Homebrew! You will find:

• The Battle Domain (Cleric)
  
• The Darkweaver (Rogue)
  
• The Mountaineer (Fighter)
  
• The Shock Arcanist (Wizard)

Disclaimer: This is a non final version of these archetypes.The Features listed may change, and some may differ between tabletop version (Solasta Campaign Rulebook) and final video game (Solasta: Crown of the Magister) due to balancing issues.



For most of you out there who had payment issues with Kickstarter, it seems your problems have been solved! If it's not the case and you're among the rare few whose credit card was declined continuously by Kickstarter, do not worry - you will be able to join again directly on our Pledge Manager CrowdOx when we send the survey.

As for the survey, we will likely be sending it towards the End of November rather than the start of November. I know, I know, it's a little later than we originally wanted! If you want to know why, it's because we want to make sure we get the best Shipping Fees for all physical items per country. Some of you might know that Essen Spiel - THE largest EU Tabletop & Boardgame Convention - is right around the corner, so manufacturers are quite overwhelmed at the moment and it takes a bit of time to get the answers we need.

On the bright side, no need to worry - we still have plenty of time before us. We'll make sure to inform you here when the Survey goes live!



From next week onward, we'll start doing Development Updates on a weekly basis again on our Website and on Steam.

You can also join our growing Discord Community, filled with wonderful people, heated debates on which class / archetype / race / alignment is the best, and of course sweet, delicious memes.

Cheers!

Hello there everyone,

Every good thing comes to an end. On Friday October 18th at 7 am PDT / 10 am EDT / 4 pm CEST, Solasta: Crown of the Magister's Pre-Alpha Demo will be leaving our Steam Page for good. The Ruins of Telema will finally close their doors to would-be adventurers looking for thrills and treasures.



The team will be switching focus to working on the final game to deliver you an entrée worthy of the appetiser that was the Demo! And don't worry, we aren't going to leave you hanging - we're still going to be posting news regularly on Steam.

Cheers!