Hello there everyone,

What. A. Contest! The quality of your submissions were incredible, even more than last month. We've had a really tough time trimming our selections down to five finalists, as each of us had our favorites... and unlike in the weapon contest, not a lot of overlap! Some of you had fantastic and original ideas that would totally fit Solasta, and trust me when I say that we've had to discard a lot of great submissions. So don't feel bad if you don't see your name in there! By the way you can always ping me on Discord if you're curious about what the team thought about your armor in particular^^

Here is a reminder of our most important criteria: 

• Design needs to avoid being overly complex. No sentient, morphing or world ending armors please.
• Design needs to be SRD 5.1. Please be aware that not everything from the Player Handbook is free to use - Feats and most Archetypes are not valid (Battle Maneuvers are not SRD for instance). Also, none of the material from other books such as (but not limited to) XGtE or SCAG are SRD. 
• Content needs to be planned for Solasta. For instance, any design with Warlock spells won't be selected.
• Design needs to be balanced for a lvl 1 - 10 adventure. Avoid overpowered armors - and even items for level 10 characters are not encouraged since they will be at the end of the game already.

Now without further ado, here the list of the selected armors (and a shield!) for this second round (in no particular order):

• Archer's Nightmare, by Jason Broome
• Armor of Shadows, by Greg W Pola
• Scales of the Remorhaz, by Lathaon
• Cloak of Lightning, by Resy
• Brightwall, by Nortar

Note that we have already applied a first balance pass, so they may differ slightly from the original submission. The lore may also be reworked later by our writers.

Contest Rules

• Voting ends on Monday, May 4th, 11:59pm PST 
• Anyone with a Forum Account may participate in the voting. Limit of one vote per person.
• The winner will have his Magic Armor implemented in-game and be credited as its Designer in the Credits
• All of those who wrote a submission will also receive a Forum Trophy for their participation to the contest
• Necessary disclaimer: We reserve the right to alter submissions or work with their author to fit our design and specifications. You can read the full legal document here (roll Investigation DC15).

• Hide Armor (Medium)
• Grants a Bonus to AC
• Grants a Constitution Bonus when worn
• Attacks with Ranged Weapons against the wearer - such as arrows or bolts - are made with disadvantage (Spells are not affected)
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Plain brown with broken arrows patterns
• Creator: Jason Broome

• Studded Leather Armor (Light)
• Advantage on Stealth Checks
• Grants Darkvision 60'
• No Attunement
• Color Scheme: Black & grey with dulled gray studs
• Creator: Greg W Pola

• Scale Mail (Medium)
• Grants a Bonus to AC
• Can cast Fire Shield (Warm) once per Long Rest
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Blue & orange
• Creator: Lathaon

• Cape
• Can cast Lightning once per Long Rest
• Grants Resistance to Lightning Damage
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Dark navy with lightning arcs
• Creator: Resy

• Shield
• Grants a Bonus to AC
• Can cast Daylight on itself once per Long Rest
• Can cast Light on itself at will
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Mirror-polished steel with darker metal boss and rim, etched with glowing runes
• Creator: Nortar

Hey there folks!

Hope everyone is doing all right out there. On our side we're hard at work with Act I, and we'll soon start cracking at Act II as well. Also, as we'll still be working from home for quite some time, here is a bit of love to our companions who now have to live with us all day long.


Gimli loves to invade our morning stand-up meetings with his peppy chirps.

Little reminder: you still have one week to submit your Magic Armor Design for a chance to have it implemented in-game at launch! On April 28th, we will select our favorite submissions and the voting phase will begin! 


Time to craft your very own your magic armor in a video game!

As our Designers work on creating fun and challenging levels, we have a constant need to create and implement new systems to make their dreams a reality. Well, I say that but sometimes it's something as simple as needing a door that opens when you activate a lever. Or a trap that activates when you walk on a tile. Almost every interaction needs a system behind it, which is why our Programmers will never be out of work! 


Step carefully now, fall damage is no joke!

For instance, we have recently been playing around with pressure plates - traps that only trigger when you step away from the plate, and not when you step on it. We've also implemented gadgets that only react to magic - or even magic of a certain kind (such as spells dealing fire or radiant damage). Solving puzzles and opening secret doors won't be a simple matter of succeeding a Perception check! 


Here are the new gadgets we were talking about above, ready to be used by our level designers!

Systems aren't only needed to build levels, of course. Another example would be the Party Banter feature that we promised in our Kickstarter Campaign, which just made its debut in-game! It still needs a lot of love and tweaking so that the party members aren't talking all the time (trust me, it gets tiresome very fast), but at least adventuring will be a little more lively now. 


Characters will react differently to their party members depending on their personality (and yes, it will be voiced!)

As we're talking about new systems, I'd say it's high time we give you a glimpse of our crafting system! Now before we start, please keep in mind that crafting is not a main progression system in Solasta. It's used to make useful items such as scrolls, potions and poisons - not forge magical artifacts of tremendous power (you're playing a party of adventurers, not a party of blacksmiths). 


"You youngsters and your healing potions! Back in my day, we drank herbal remedies and it cured everything I tell you. EVERYTHING!"

Crafting is done during downtime when travelling - after setting up camp, adventurers can devote time to various activities before going to sleep, including crafting. Still, remember that as with anything else we're showing you in our Dev Updates, all of this may change in the future as Crafting is still in its infancy in Solasta. 


"Can we do a long rest yet? What do you mean we did one just before this fight, my character likes to sleep a lot alright?"

We've also been working on adding merchants to the city of Caer Cyflen. You can see here that your relation with certain factions will now come into play when bartering with them, as a bad reputation may result in shopkeepers raising their prices. The opposite may also apply and who knows, they may even have some special items in the back of their shop for you...


"Hugo, listen to me. I didn't mean to stab him, I thought he was a bandit you see? Now can you stop gouging your prices?"

Speaking of Caer Cyflen, its empty streets are slowly getting filled with life! It's a long process, but we're confident that it will look fantastic when we're finally done with it. We'll even have citizens walking around soon - that may not sound very impressive, but currently every NPC in town is just standing around looking like a tree so hey, progress!


"My dear, you must absolutely tell me where you got pennants that are so white." "Oh, those are just missing their texture."

We've also worked on what towns and locations will look like on the World Map which, again, changed quite a bit since the last time we showed it to you. 


This world map is getting more and more eerie at night, isn't it. 

Also, since we're talking about towns... 


What is it? Where is it? You'll see...

The great thing about spells in D&D is that there are plenty of them. The bad thing about spells in D&D is that there are plenty of them - wait what? Jokes aside, it can be very hard for new spellcasters to choose between all the spells that are available to them - which is why we've added filters on our Spell Page for you to easily find the right spell to prepare for the right occasion! 


Maybe I'll finally stop preparing only concentration spells too, it didn't work too well last time I did that. 

Our VFX artist has also added Levitate and Knock to Solasta. Who said we only show flashy destructive spells? Feast your eyes on these!


Something something "Open Sesame". I'm out of bad joke slots for the day, need a long rest.

As it is often the case, our bloopers this time are once again a result of our Animator breaking things. Although this time he was helped by our Graphic Programmer in his quest to make our NPCs as derpy as possible. 


"No, being able to look at two directions at once does not grant you advantage to Perception."


OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT.

That's it for today! Hope you enjoyed our Dev Update, don't forget to participate in the Magic Armor Design Contest if you haven't already!

Read our previous articles here:

• https://www.solasta-game.com/news/48-dev-update-2-dungeons-dwarves[April Contest] Design a Magic Armor
• Dev Update #11 - Day & Night Cycles
• Dev Update #10 - New Gameplay Footage!

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

Hey there folks,

We're back at it with a new Community Contest - Design a Magic Armor! It wouldn't be fair if we only gave a chance for weapons to shine now, would it? So get your creative juice pumping and your fingers cracking, you have another chance to get your design in-game!

Note: The rewards for the previous contest have been sent! If you can't find your Weaponsmith Trophy in your Profile, please don't hesitate to create a thread on the forum or contact me on Discord.

1. Submissions have to be done through the official form: https://forms.gle/pwThRmnHauS3DG6W9
2. Submissions end on Sunday April 26th, 11:59pm PST
3. Anyone with a Forum Account may participate in the contest. 
4. One submission per person.
5. Discussions & questions about the contest will take place over there: https://forums.solasta-game.com/forum/april-contest-design-a-magic-armor 
6. Please keep your submission Safe for Work. Nothing 18+ (writing included)
7. Must not contain copyrighted material. 
8. From April 28th to May 4th, the voting phase will take place. We will select a few of our favorite Magic Armor Designs, and the community will vote for the final winner!
9. The winner will have his Magic Armor implemented in-game and be credited as its designer in the Credits
10. All of those who wrote a valid submission will also receive a Forum Trophy for their participation to the contest
11. Necessary disclaimer: We reserve the right to alter submissions or work with their author to fit our design and specifications. You can read the full legal document here (roll Investigation DC15).

1. Design needs to avoid being overly complex. No sentient, morphing or world ending armors please.
2. Design needs to be SRD 5.1. Please be aware that not everything from the Player Handbook is free to use - Feats and most Archetypes are not valid (Battle Maneuvers are not SRD for instance). Also, none of the material from other books such as (but not limited to) XGtE or SCAG are SRD. 
3. Content needs to be planned for Solasta. For instance, any design with Warlock spells won't be selected.
4. Design needs to be balanced for a lvl 1 - 10 adventure. Avoid overpowered armors - and even items for level 10 characters are not encouraged since they will be at the end of the game already.

Hello everyone,

Are you ready for the first Dev Update of April? Well you better be, for we have tons of things to show you!

Annnnd stop! With 32% of the total vote, the Arcane Shieldstaff wins March Community Contest: Design your Magic Weapon! Second place goes to the Manacalon Javelin of Sure Returning (21%), followed by the Winged Dagger (17%), the Mace of the Midday Sun (16%) and finally the Mountain Breaker (14%). Huge congratulations to our winner GreyWarden77, the runner-ups Woolynelson, Maruo Sartori, Ithron and Shadow of Olympus, as well as everyone else who participated to the contest. We will soon be sending Forum Badges as a reward to all participants - as well as some bonus XP so you can level up and get access to more avatars!


Bronze for participating, Silver for getting selected, Gold for 2nd place, Diamond for winning!

We've also been informed that the Arcane Shieldstaff looks similar to the Staff of Defense found in the Lost Mine of Phandelver D&D 5e module. However, it doesn't grant a +1 Bonus to AC, and it can also cast Shield as a Reaction (Staff of Defense can only cast Shield as an action). Oh and it also doesn't have a 5% chance of blowing up every morning, we can already imagine the amount of bug reports about "Items disappearing from Inventory" if we did that. 

That being said, thank you for staying vigilant and telling us about these kind of issues - if we do conclude that it's too close to an existing item in the end, we may change it slightly while keeping the intent intact (so it won't suddenly be doling out fireballs by the dozen, but it may trade Mage Armor for a +1 to All Saving Throws for instance)

Day & Night Cycles

You might remember us showing you a little sneak peek of the Day & Night cycle when talking about our new World Map screen in early February (Dev Update #7). For those who missed it  - or who simply forgot, it's been 2 months after all - here it is!


You can even see the clock at the top showing the passage of time!

Back then, you were only able to see the changes in luminosity on that specific screen... But it is no longer the case! When your party is inside a location, time keeps going - so when you do a short rest or a long rest (1h / 8h), you will see the level change with the time of the day. 


Before / After a long rest, from 10:50 am to 6:50 pm (8h)

Now for the fun fact: even when you're not doing rests, the time is actually flowing in real time. That means if you were to leave your computer with Solasta running for a few hours (without being in a menu), you may very well come back and see that the luminosity now looks a lot different! This should almost never happen if you're just playing normally, but just for fun here is what it looks like with a (very) accelerated video. As you can see, it's not just a question of having one "Day version" and one "Night version" of the level - the luminosity changes with the in-game time! It's also important to note that the changes aren't only visual - after a certain hour, you will be fighting under Dim Light conditions - and who knows, maybe even in total darkness!


Once the night hits, you better have those torches and Light spells ready!

Alright, hope you enjoyed it! All of that was made possible thanks to our Graphic Programmer, who made a fantastic tool for the team to play with!


Most of his work can be considered as MakeThingsPretty.exe for our Dev Updates

Random Encounters!

Don't you love it when you're traveling back to town from dungeon-delving, half-dead and completely out of spell slots - only to be hit by a random encounter? Well, now you can experience these rage inducing moments in Solasta as well! That's what you get for culling down the locals, you damn murder hobos. Anyway, random encounters - they have now been implemented in the World Map, and you can even get ambushed under certain conditions. This means we've also been working on a small encounter map - and will probably end up making a few more so that you don't always fight "random" encounters in the same "not so random" location (damn it Fred, I told you we should have gone around that clearing, we've been ambushed the last 5 times we went through here!) 


Hey look guys, more XP and loot to entertain us during our journey!

New Levels in the Work

We've been showing you a lot of the same locations slowly being improved - which is fairly important considering those are the first levels which new players will be seeing - but I'm thinking some of you might want to see some new locations. Well, here is a little something for you - although we won't be telling you where that is! Always keep in mind that all you're see here is Work In Progress, it's far from being done!


Ohhhh toasty. Did things get a bit heated over here, or did the wizard just drop a fireball to clear the area?


"Mellon"! "Mellon"! Damn it guys, it's not working.

Concept Art & Icons!

Time to show some love for the Art Team, who've been kept busy working on... icons. Lots and lots of icons, for all kinds of stuff! Turns out that when you want your Character Creation to be free of placeholders, there are plenty of little things you need to take care of - Divine Domains for Clerics, Fighting Styles for Martial Classes, Spells for Spellcasters, Archetypes for everyone... Anyone, here it is - once again, not everything is final so some of these icons may very well change in the future!


We finally have an image for the Acolyte Background! With this, all 8 Backgrounds are now ready


First version of divine domains & some extra archetype icons


First version of crafting component icons (ooohh crafting... another topic to discuss sooner or later!)

VFX Corner!

Today's a good day for VFX lovers. Why, you may ask? Well, how about... Fireball, one of the signature spells of D&D? Feast your eyes now, before you grow weary of it after spamming fireballs at every issue you find in your way.


How do level 5+ wizards deal with their problems? EXPLOOOOOSION!

However, it wouldn't be fair if we only showed Violet all the time. Here is Vigdis with a brand new Solasta-flavored power: Channel Divinity - Holy Retribution, from the Law Domain. When you lose HP from an enemy melee attack, you can use your reaction and Channel Divinity to immediately <s>smack that impudent swine</s> strike back with some added psychic damage!


RETRIBUTION, HERETIC! IT TASTES LIKE VICTORY!

Bloopers!

Unfortunate as it is, no blooper this time. There weren't so many funny bugs as there were unwanted crashes, and error messages aren't the most entertaining screenshots to share. So instead, here's a rejected helmet design doodled by our Lead Animator during our last Sprint Review.


A giant spoon for a helmet? Someone fire this man right now.

That's it for today, April Community Contest is right around the corner!

Read our previous articles here:

• https://www.solasta-game.com/news/48-dev-update-2-dungeons-dwarvesDev Update #10 - New Gameplay Footage!
• [March Contest] Design a Magic Weapon (over)
• Dev Update #9 - Flinging Spells at the Environment

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

Hello there everyone,

The submission period is now over, thank you to all participants out there! We’ve received more than a hundred magic weapons in total, and trimming that selection down to five finalists was hard... real hard! So don’t feel bad if your idea didn’t make it to this final round, there were so many great submissions that we simply couldn’t include them all.
Before we reveal the winners of the first round, I want to share with you some of the criteria we used to select them:

• The weapon had to be balanceable. We can easily lower a +4 attribute bonus to +2, a +2d8 necrotic damage to +1d8, 5 charges of magic missile to 2 charges - but a weapon that can cast Cloudkill, a 5th level spell, can’t be balanced unless we removed the spell from it (and that would completely change the idea behind the weapon).
• The weapon had to not be overly complex. Some submissions had great flavor, but simply were not possible to implement because they were too complex - such as weapons that would transform into other weapons or even monsters under certain circumstances.
• The content had to be SRD. We had a few submissions that included spells that simply don’t exist in D&D, or that had content only available in the PHB like Battle Master maneuvers.
• The content had to be planned for the game. Some weapons included Warlock Spells (which aren’t planned for Solasta at release)

Now without further ado, here the list of the selected weapons for this second round (in no particular order):

• Arcane Shieldstaff, by GreyWarden77
• Mace of the Midday Sun, by Woolynelson
• Manacalon Javelin of Sure Returning, by Mauro.Sartori
• Mountain Breaker, by Ithron
• Winged Dagger, by Shadow of Olympus

Note that we have already applied a first balance pass, so some of these weapons may differ slightly from the original submission. The weapons’ lore may also be reworked later by our writers.

Contest Rules

• Voting ends on Monday, March 6th, 11:59pm PST
• Anyone with a Forum Account may participate in the voting. Limit of one vote per person.
• The winner will have his Magic Weapon implemented in-game and be credited as its Designer in the Credits
• All of those who wrote a submission will also receive a Forum Trophy for their participation to the contest
• Necessary disclaimer: We reserve the right to alter submissions or work with their author to fit our design and specifications. You can read the full legal document here (roll Investigation DC15).

• Can cast Mage Armor once per Long Rest
• Can cast Shield thrice per Long Rest
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Purple & Gold trim
• Creator: GreyWarden77

Shieldstaves are a rare artifact from ages far past. Crafted by an ancient mage during war time, this staff promises to keep its user safe and able to focus on other magical pursuits, leaving defense to the staff

• Deals additional Radiant Damage on hit
• On a Critical Hit, target is affected by Faerie Fire
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: White & Gold
• Creator: Woolynelson

The handle of this weapon looks as if it were carved from alabaster, with a bright golden striking head.

• Grants a Dexterity Bonus when wielded
• Returns to the wielder when thrown
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Wooden, with silver decorations and a golden head
• Creator: Mauro.Sartori

A javelin of magnificent workmanship, perfectly balanced. Decorated in pure silver along its entire pole with a precious weave easily referable to the ancient Manacalon empire. Its golden tip seems to release a faint light in the dark, a sign of the magical power that this artifact contains inside. An ancient artifact created before the cataclysm by the powerful magicians of the Manacalon empire, very little is known of its origins - but in some ancient representations found in a crypt in the Badlands by a group of archaeologists and scholars of the New Empire, the artifact can be recognized as the main architect of crucial victories in historical battles.

• Grants a Strength Bonus when wielded
• Can cast Thunderwave centered on the wielder once per Long Rest
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Silver & Steel
• Creator: Ithron

Leather wrapped haft with a beveled head with silver inlays. The maul looks like it should weigh more than it does when initially lifted, but re-gains that apparent weight ten-fold while descending in a strike. Crafted by long dead leader of a clan of the Snow Alliance. Designed to be equally useful for combat, and for breaching the defenses of other clans when they came into conflict.

• Can cast Feather Fall on self once per Long Rest
• Can cast Misty Step once per Long Rest
• Requires Attunement
• Color Scheme: Silver with a black handle
• Creator: Shadow of Olympus

The grip is of a hard, glossy black material and is in fact crafted from the beak of an enormous raven. At the base of the Winged Dagger, the pommel, is a stylized bird’s claw in platinum grasping a mysterious, cloudy, spherical gem that when gazed upon appears to bear moving shapes inside like clouds in the sky. The platinum quillons spread as wings, majestically from the dagger’s hilt. The platinum blade is diamond in cross section, and long and tapered, ending in an impossibly sharp tip. The Winged Dagger was crafted in a gentler time to less gentler men. The Dagger was crafted in exchange for services rendered by Yxaethenes Soulbender, a Manacalon magister of minor renown. The Winged Dagger, once created, was employed through many a nefarious exploit by accomplished burglar, “Bad” Omen Starsbrite. Starsbrite actually prefered, and in vain attempted, to promote the more flattering nickname of “The Perfect Crime”. Nonetheless “Bad” Omen Starsbrite gained much notoriety and infamy for somehow always being able to gain escape from seemingly impossible odds. He often worked alone, not out of preference, but of the fear of his singular reputation. His tendency of emerging as the sole survivor after a particularly perilous operation went south had the effect of thinning the ranks of his working companions. “Bad” Omen “The Perfect Crime” Starsbrite eventually met his ultimate fate after taking one too many chances and one too many coffers of gold.

Hey there everyone,

The current situation may not be ideal, but it’s not going to stop us from making our scheduled Dev Update! We hope you’re all doing well out there - on our side we’ve all switched to working from home. The good thing about being a small team is that it makes us a bit more agile, so we’re still able to make good progress on Solasta as we speak!


As you can see our productivity remains unaffected.

Little reminder: you still have one week to submit your Magic Weapon Design for a chance to have it implemented in-game at launch! On March 31st, we will select our favorite submissions and the voting phase will begin!


Don’t miss your chance to make your magic weapon a reality in Solasta!

We all know it’s been forever since we’ve released gameplay video footage of Solasta outside very short gifs in our Dev Updates. Thing is, you always wonder: when is your game "good enough" to show to the world? Is the lighting too strong here? Does this bug really look bad? Will people understand that X and Y are temporary? So on and so forth.

However, with the Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition making its sudden appearance and Solasta’s Pre-Alpha Demo once again being available (although not anymore, the event ended yesterday morning), we wanted to make sure people understood that the game had evolved since our Kickstarter. This is why we made a short video bundling quite a few previously unavailable features on Twitter last Friday, which you can enjoy in Full HD here.

Click here to watch the video!

One feedback that stayed with us ever since we released our Kickstarter Demo was that Spell Icons were not clear. You would look at your spell bar and go "alright, I’m pretty sure my cleric should have cure wounds, but where is it..."


Aside from a few of them that are fairly obvious, would you be able to name all these spells from their old icons alone?

While they all looked quite beautiful (at the very least I really liked them), our Art Director decided to change the art style of our spell icons - to improve glance value and readability. Here is a side by side comparison of a few of these spells, which are all going to receive the same treatment in the coming weeks.


It’s hard to deny that the new ones are much easier to recognize.

Speaking of spells, we’ve just added Fog Cloud to the game. Time to obscure those lines of sight!



You’ve seen quite a few updates on our Character Creation Tool, and today’s Dev Update is not going to be the exception! Our goal is to have it completely done soon, so we can set it aside and focus on other parts of the game.


The High Elves join the fray in our Character Creation Tool...


And so do the Half-Elves!

Now all that remains are the Island Halflings and the Hill Dwarves, and we should have a complete lineup for our races!

One Snow Alliance Embassy, ready to go! Here is how it looks in-game compared to its original Concept Art.


Pretty impressive rendition of the original 2D concept art, isn’t it!

We’ll also share with you a couple of screenshots of an external location that your party will have to explore fairly early in their adventure. Watch your step, you don’t want to fall in that ravine...




Our second flying enemy just joined the roster of foes you’ll have to face. Give giant eagles a warm welcome!



Tactical Adventures assures you that no eagles were harmed in the making of these gifs.

You may have noticed the lack of Thunderwave so far in our Spells FX updates. Truth be told, we did have Thunderwave in-game (you may remember it was available in our Pre-Alpa Demo) - but the format wasn’t quite right. The spell was automatically centered around the caster, which a few players made sure to inform us about! So we fixed it. And by that I mean, we introduced a new bug while doing so. Here is a little demonstration of what happens after you get hit by Thunderwave.


Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!

We also just hit 2,000 followers on Twitter, which was the perfect occasion for me to sneak behind the back of our Producer and ask our Lead Animator (father of many horrible and hilarious gifs) for a little something for the occasion. And trust me, he delivered! Alas, poor goblin - you were never supposed to do things like this.


Goblins doing thumbs-up, check. I may yet win this bingo game.

That’s it for today! Hope you enjoyed our Dev Update, see you next week for more Solasta goodness!

Read our previous articles here:

• https://www.solasta-game.com/news/48-dev-update-2-dungeons-dwarvesDev Update #9 - Flinging Spells at the Environment
• [March Contest] Design a Magic Weapon
• TL;DR #8: So you want to run a Kickstarter Campaign?

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

Hey there folks!

Did you miss our Kickstarter Demo back in September 2019? Well, you're in luck! We're making it available once again for the duration of the Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition! Enjoy ːredgiftː

Note: This is the exact same Pre-Alpha Demo that was available during our Kickstarter Campaign, so if you already played it there won't be anything new. We're working on other things right now, some of it you might see fairly soon in an update :)

Hey there folks,

Two months ago, you designed a Mayor for Caer Cyflen. One month ago, you've voted for a new Monster to be added to Solasta. And now.. It is time for you to design a Magic Weapon that all future adventurers will be able to find in their quest for mighty loot to save the world! As with the Mayor Contest, we will be selecting our favorites and holding a community vote when the submission period is over.

Contest Rules

• Submissions have to be done through the official form: https://forms.gle/4cvAV4VcbJQJVvJr8
  
• Submissions end on Monday, March 30th, 11:59pm PST
• Anyone with a Forum Account may participate in the contest. 
• One submission per person.
• Discussions & questions about the contest will take place over there: https://forums.solasta-game.com/forum/march-contest-design-a-magic-weapon 
• Please keep your submission Safe for Work. Nothing 18+ (writing included)
• Must not contain copyrighted material. 
• From March 31st to April 6th, the voting phase will take place. We will select a few of our favorite Weapon Designs, and the community will vote for the final winner!
• The winner will have his weapon implemented in-game and be credited as its designer in the Credits
• All of those who wrote a valid submission will also receive a Forum Trophy for their participation to the contest
• Necessary disclaimer: We reserve the right to alter submissions or work with their author to fit our design and specifications. You can read the full legal document here (roll Investigation DC15)

Hey hey friends! February’s Vote is over, it’s time for us to open the lid and count the votes!


Let’s just hope you won’t regret it when you see it charging towards you in a narrow corridor

With a staggering total of 50% of the votes, the Minotaur wins February’s Community Vote by a huge margin! In second place, we have the Ettin with 20% of the votes, followed by the Troll with 16% and the Ettercap last with 14%. Minotaurs will thus join the monster roster of Solasta, prepare to face them in deadly encounters. With the ability to charge and gore anyone in its path as well as being able to attack recklessly as much as they want, Minotaurs will make for tough foes to defeat!

It’s easy to forget that it takes quite a bit of finishing touches to have a monster be 100% ready for the final game. And by finishing touches, I don’t mean making it look prettier (although it’s always nice) - I mean that there are a lot of "little things" to take care of. One of them, for instance, is their portrait for the initiative tracker during combat.


The reign of random Google Image placeholders is finally over!

Speaking of placeholder icons, if you've never seen what some of them can look like, I invite you take a look at this wonderful gallery of placeholder icons for DOTA 2 - let it be known that Valve has some very humorous artists. Also, do you know what else is important? Audio - and especially audio timing. Imagine your character hitting an enemy... only to hear the impact about a second later. There are few things that can be as grating as audio delay, and it completely destroys game immersion. This is why one of our Programmers worked on a little tool for our Audio Engineer to visualize the different animations and help them time the audio more easily!


And we’re still improving it! You can check plenty of things with it, not just monsters.

Also, little fun fact (if a little useless) that I forgot to mention last time: our Flying Snake’s tail is dynamic. That means if it suddenly froze in the air, the tail would still dangle for a bit (because physics). That also means you could technically make it wiggle very hard, something I have no doubt our Lead Animator already did.


Danger noodle, wiggle wiggle!

We usually don’t show much about our Programmers’ work, for a very simple reason: there isn’t really anything to show. Lines of code don’t really make for good screenshots after all. But today’s an exception - we’ve long been working on it, and we’re finally implementing interactions between spells (and powers) and the environment! It might seem like such an obvious thing, but a monster, a door and a torch are far from being the same thing. There are different systems at work behind each of those elements, and not everything reacts in the same way... That is, unless you want some poorly optimized game or very weird things to happen.


One of the earlier iterations of Spells / Environment interaction, you can see an older version of the combat grid


Doors are no longer safe from Wizards. Open, sesame!


You can now light torches with Fire spells, and extinguish them with Water & Ice spells (we’re still discussing that choice)

We’ve been showing you all these cool haircuts and beards in the past Dev Updates; you’ll be happy to know that we’re slowly implementing them in-game! Soon enough you’ll be able to make a colorful party to travel the lands of Solasta. Farewell, Violet, Garrad, Rhuad and Vigdis, and hello new adventurers with custom faces!


We’ll show you some other races in future updates as well!

We’ve showed you plenty of concept art for buildings and details in the past updates - but what do they actually look like in 3D? Let’s take a look at the Snow Alliance Embassy!


Here is the concept art of the facade of the Snow Alliance Embassy


And here are the 3D models of the window, the arches and the pillars. Pretty faithful, eh?

On that topic, we’ll share a more in-depth article about the city’s playable area in the near future. We know it’s something that a lot of you are curious about, since a game’s main hub is somewhere you spend quite a bit of time after all! Currently we’re working on the Embassy District - and not only the buildings, but also the ground and the rest of the environment. Here are a few screenshots I’ve managed to nab!


As a reminder, here is the concept art of the Embassy District that we shared quite some time ago


Here is the same camera angle, but this time in-game (Work In Progress of course). It’s sorely lacking vegetation for now!


And here is the promontory, overlooking the... well, I guess the lack of city since it hasn’t been merged in the main branch yet

Woohoo, blooper time! Remember when I was talking about having armors adapt to the character’s shape? Well, here is what happens when the settings aren’t working properly.


Adding eldritch horrors to Solasta, check

Here is another hilarious bug that we ran into (and that we shared on our Discord server some time ago) when working on traps. There’s some time loop shenanigans at work here!


This test level was aptly named "Tower of Pain"

That’s it for today! Hope you enjoyed our Dev Update, see you next week for March’s Community Contest!

Read our previous articles here:

• https://www.solasta-game.com/news/48-dev-update-2-dungeons-dwarvesTL;DR #8: So you want ro run a Kickstarter Campaign?
• Dev Update #8 - Choose your Monster & More!
• Welcome to our New Mayor & Forum 2.0!

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

Hello there folks!

Today we're going to go for something a little different, with less focus on the game itself and more on Solasta as a project. Back in September, we were contacted by quite a few indie devs asking questions about Kickstarter. How can you make it work? How do you bring more people onboard? What makes a successful Kickstarter? If you too are curious about this topic, you just came to the right place because we’re about to share what we learned from our own campaign.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to share with you the secret recipe for success because... it probably doesn’t exist. As much as we want it to, there simply is no failsafe method to run a successful Kickstarter Campaign when you’re a small indie studio. Well, that was a short article... More seriously though, while you can’t guarantee anything, you can certainly increase your chances.

Running a proper Kickstarter Campaign takes a lot of work - especially if you’re a solo dev. Aside from creating your Kickstarter Page Description and Project Image, you’re going to need a video and a good amount of visual assets from your game. But most importantly, people want to see gameplay - you’re making a video game after all! This is not to say that you shouldn’t share your gorgeous concept art, but if that’s the only thing on your page you’re going to be in trouble.


Kickstarter projects funded, Video Games (above) / Tabletop (below), courtesy of Thomas Bidaux (ICO Partners)

And for good reasons too; there has been plenty of successful video games on Kickstarter that just... never released. Whether due to malice (scam projects), mismanagement (money not properly put to good use) or bad planning (the amount was never enough to finish the game in the first place), Kickstarter backers have been burnt in the past when it comes to video games. This is notably why the Tabletop section of Kickstarter is much more successful than the Video Game section - the vast majority of Tabletop campaigns already have a fully playable and complete game, oftentimes playtested at a few Conventions beforehand. They just need to use the money to manufacture the game, the risk of not receiving your reward is low risk outside manufacturing or transport issues. Video games, on the other hand, are more risky - the complete game doesn’t exist yet, and may not ever be finished. And even when it does, you run into issues like heavy delays (up to a few years for some project...) or more recently switching from Steam to Epic Game Store.


Even with large projects like Shenmue 3, backers are still at risk of a bad surprise

Anyway, back to the topic! Point is, for Video Games you’re going to have to work hard to convince people. You need screenshots, gifs, anything that can show the "real game" to your potential backers. In the case of Solasta, we created a public demo for our Kickstarter campaign, which both served as a way to reassure people that the game really exists, and to have them experience the gameplay and send us feedback. And if you’re a game dev, you already know - making a clean demo build can be very time consuming.


For instance, Dungeon Drafters has this nice little gameplay gif at the top of their page

So to summarize, you need to take time to take screenshots, make gifs, have a demo ready (if you can), write up the Description Page, have a Project Images that makes people want to click on it, make a video with gameplay... Time that you’re not spending working on your game! And that’s before the campaign even started. Oh and if you don’t have any gameplay to show... you’re probably way too early in your project to run a Kickstarter Campaign.

Launching a Kickstarter Campaign doesn’t mean people will suddenly flock to your project. It is estimated that only 30% - 35% of the pledges come from Kickstarter users, meaning 65% - 70% come from your own community. No one ever heard of your project before you launch your Kickstarter Campaign? Well, miracles can happen but... do you really want to rely on one?


The team working on Savior had some very nice videos & gifs on Twitter to announce their Kickstarter

The gist here is that you should communicate about your game way, way before even considering Kickstarter. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Discord, Instagram, Youtube... whatever you feel more comfortable with (choose a few and stick to those, you probably won’t have the time to do everything). You might see that as time you’re not spending developing your game, but if you’re thinking of going to Kickstarter it means you’re trying to grow your community. And you can’t grow something from nothing, you need to have a community to start with. Oh and when I say communicate, I don’t mean going to other game devs servers uninvited and advertising your project. Please don’t do that, it’s both rude and unprofessional - and it doesn’t paint a good image of yourself or your game. Create your own spaces, share your work in places that welcome it, engage with those who are curious about what you just showed them.


Everspace 2 had quite a few streamers lined up to play their demo, giving quite a nice visibility boost

And try reaching out to game journalists and websites with a short gameplay video (from the one you prepared for Kickstarter), or influencers you may know - it can only help. At worst they won’t answer or gracefully decline, no harm no foul. And at best? New friend! :D

A lot of people hate talking about money. Video game is a passion after all! We shouldn’t be there counting coins! Yet if you don’t prepare accordingly, you might just end up being another game dev unable to finish his project. You know the saying, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" - at the end of the day if you don’t deliver your game, to everyone else it doesn’t matter if you really tried hard. Well, the silver lining is that you probably picked up a lot of experience so you’ll have better chances next time!

Anyway, you need to sit down, think and plan. How much time do you need to finish the game? How many people do you need to help you, on what you can’t do yourself like music or art? How much more do you realistically need? I’ve seen projects that asked for so little it would barely pay for a single person’s salary for more than 3 months. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that if you have other sources of funding (which you hopefully have) and that Kickstarter money comes to ensure that you can make it to the goal. In fact, it is extremely unlikely that the money raised through Kickstarter alone would be enough to pay for your project, so don’t put all your eggs in a single basket. But on the other hand, don’t ask for too little - else you might not be able to finish your project, or people may believe you aren’t able to scope your own project properly.

Once you have a number in mind, check out how other Kickstarter projects that are similar in scope to yours did. A little sanity check is always important to make sure you’re still in line with reality. Look at the price of their tiers, look at how many backers they had... And make a quick mental note of what the goal you have in mind would imply. If my backers paid an average of X USD, how many backers would I need to reach my goal (and vice versa)? Adjust these numbers until they seem realistic enough - backers won’t pay an average of $100 for your project (at least not in video games), and you won’t manage to get 20,000 backers out of nowhere either. If you feel like you’re going nowhere, your goal may be too high - meaning you need to find money from other sources.

At the end of the day, you should have a solid plan in mind before you launch your Kickstarter. What are your tiers, what are your rewards, how easy they are to implement in-game, how many backers do you need ad minima... Again, a lot of work that is not you working on your game.

Alright, that title might sound a little confusing but bear with me for a second. You’ve just launched your Kickstarter Project, what should you be prepared for? Well, the first 3 days of your campaign are extremely important. This is your first sprint, you’ve got to make those first 72h count. Most successful Kickstarter campaigns make at least 30% of their funding goals in these first 3 days (although exceptions do exist). And those widely popular projects out there that make more than twice what they’re asking for? They usually end with more than 50% of their funding goals by the end of the first 72h.


This is what Solasta’s first week looked like, the numbers go down very quickly.

So prepare yourself and be present during that time. Answer to people’s comments, write updates (at least once a day during the start), communicate on your Social Media pages... And try not to press F5 too often. The start of the campaign is often mentally taxing because you just know how much rides on these first days, so if you can have some friends or family help you relax by just dropping by for a chat, sharing a warm meal, downing a cold beer or just beating the hell out of each other on a fighting game - small things like this can help.


Zhelter is a rare counterexample to the 3 days rule, with numbers staying relatively stable

Now after those first few days are over, things are gradually going to slow down. You’ll get less backers per day and that’s normal. This is the marathon, where you will need to communicate regularly (at least once a week would be my advice, we did twice a week), keep an eye out for questions and comments that need answering - but otherwise you should go back to a more regular rhythm in your development schedule. Unless you put out a demo which needs fixing - that’s a priority as you don’t want your players to be commenting on game-breaking bugs when they should be focusing on the gameplay (minor bugs are okay, it’s an early demo).


What happened on April 12th in the Prodeus Campaign? GmanLives published a video on the game on his Youtube Channel.

So... should you just let the ball roll on its own? If you’re happy with how your campaign is going, you can. If you want more people to drop by, you should keep reaching out on Social Media and the likes. Maybe some game journalists could be interested? There might be some Streamers or Youtubers who specialize in your game’s genre? Even if very few will play a demo because it’s often too short to last for a significant portion of their stream, they might mention your project at some point. Most of the peaks in the middle of Kickstarter campaigns happen because of some huge announcement or a popular influencer suddenly picking up the demo, driving people to your page. In our case, this happened when we partnered with Critical Role for an episode of #EverythingIsContent.


The last 48h of the Solasta campaign compared to the 2 weeks preceding it.

Alright, the campaign is almost over - now what? Prepare for your second (and last) sprint. See, when people check your Kickstarter page they can decide not to back immediately, and instead follow your project. And 48h before your campaign ends, every follower will receive a reminder email from Kickstarter! This means you’ll suddenly have an influx of visitors who were already on the fence before, and if your campaign has been looking good so far (or is almost funded), chances are quite a few of them are going to convert into backers. If you look around on Internet, you can usually see creators talking about follower conversion rates ranging from 10% to 25%. Again, be ready, be present, and have a few cool updates in your pocket for the last two days (and one for when the campaign is over). It is important to note that if your project is far from getting funded at that point, it’s very likely that this last push won’t save you - people usually don’t back a project that they feel will not make it.

You made it, great! People really like your project, and you’re going over your original goal. So... Stretch goal time? Stretch goal time! Before we continue, I want to be very clear: DO NOT EVER ANNOUNCE YOUR STRETCH GOALS BEFORE GETTING CLOSE TO REACHING YOUR FUNDING GOAL. If you do so, people may adjust their perception of how much you’re asking for - instead of looking at the funding goal, they’re already looking at the stretch goals. And that new, higher number may scare them away. Prepare a couple of potential stretch goals before you start your campaign - and for the love of everything that is holy, remain realistic. There has been plenty of great Kickstarter projects that promised the moon, and ended up going back on some of these promises - which is something that never feels good, be it for you or for your backers. That being said, if we’re talking Stretch Goals, it means you’re already successful, so congratulations!

Ah, physical goods... everyone loves them. It can be hard to create different tiers if you don’t have any goodies to throw to the mix, and usually this is also what makes Kickstarter interesting - you get stuff others wouldn’t be able to get at release. But at the same time, I want to place a big, big warning on physical goods. First of all, making a physical copy of a video game is not easy. You have wrestle with certifications, manufacture, deals, transport... A lot of time spent, again, not working on your game per se. Second, if you go for the goodies option, you will have all the physical fulfillment to follow-up on. You will need to design the goodies, find manufacturing partners, decent price but good quality, transport partners to get them to different warehouses where they can be packed and shipped... All of that needs money, time, and knowledge. Do you know cheap yet good manufacturers when it comes to boardgames? I sure didn’t. Thankfully we knew people in the board game industry who helped us out, but not everyone may have that advantage.


If you’re still set on doing physical goods, check out Stonemaier Games’ Kickstarter articles - they are great.

My personal take on physical rewards is: don’t risk it if you don’t have the manpower, time and money to spare. In fact, you may very well end up losing money instead of gaining anything on goodies tiers if you’re not careful.

At the end of the day, a Kickstarter Campaign is a great opportunity to make new friends who can help you out. I want to give special shoutouts to:

• Larian Studios, Obsidian Entertainment, Brian Fargo from InXile Entertainment, Spearhead Games, 6 Eyes Studio, Owlcat Games, for backing our Kickstarter Campaign and helping us out.
• Cohh Carnage, for backing our Kickstarter Campaign and joining Solasta as a guest voice actor
• Thomas Bidaux, for giving us copious amounts of tips and warnings about our Kickstarter plan
• Stonemaier Games, for writing some great articles on Kickstarter and physical fulfillment
• Victoria Tran from Kitfox Games, for inspiring us to write this article to help out other indie devs interested in Kickstarter
• Every single one of our backers and fans, and everyone else that I forgot to mention (really sorry if I did). You all helped making our Kickstarter Campaign a huge success!

I’m sure there are plenty of things I missed in this article as it’s been more than half a year already, so if you have any questions don’t hesitate to hit us up on our Twitter thread! We’ll do our best to help :)

Article by Tactical Myzzrym