"What we have tasted, they have only wished. What we have seen, they have only dreamed… "-Account of Celean Conquest

Did you enjoy your taste test of SKARA?

The best is yet to come.

We have gotten SO much out of the great feedback that we received from you over the last two months. We want to cap it off with a Dev Q&A session THIS FRIDAY on Twitch.



Here’s what we have learned so far:

First, we learned that our vision IS going to work, that our brand of multiplayer close-combat is also what you have been waiting for. The more people playing SKARA, the more fun and competitive it is. We have the core of a great game in the making, but there is still a ways to go.

Second, we now know what we need to do to streamline the game so that it is faster, more fun and more cruel.

Anything that you found annoying about the UI or game progression (having to play through the tutorial, the graphic settings, etc.) will be fixed for Beta release. Also, expect more from the existing game, including a complete revision of how the free-for-all arena works.

Third, we learned that the game really needs the final pieces we have planned (player-to-player communication, party chat, game forum integration, faction infrastructure) to be worth your and your friend’s time.

Thanks again for providing all this feedback to us!



Did we miss something? Let us know by getting in touch. Ask us a question here, on Twitter, Facebook or by email, and we will answer it at our September 30th Dev Q+A on Twitch.

We will also post a video of this (in case you miss it) and as usual will be responding to any and ALL comments.

See you on the Battlefield (for a little longer)!
Pablo and the SKARA Team

The newest build of Skara has just hit Steam, so we decided over at Skara HQ to put it to the test.

So tomorrow, starting at 6:00 pm Central European time (5:00pm UK time) the development team will be playing with anyone and everyone who can join. Let’s see how many our new dedicated servers can fit!

We will be hosting a special North American Megatest at 6 Eastern Standard and later at 6 Pacific time.



For the Europe Megatest we will be streaming live on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/skarathebladeremains) So tune in to watch that and get on the chat with us to find out what is going on. (WARNING: it may be mostly in Spanish, but don’t feel shy about talking in English!)

So what have we worked on in Skara 0.6.2? The list is pretty long and includes: A massive amount of bug fixing, which should render the game more stable. We have optimized almost all of the maps. With a good machine, you should be able to easily hit 30fps (60fps with a gaming graphics card in some maps).

We have also perfected the combat animations and some of the combat values to make it smooth and fair no matter who you are playing with. We have also improved bot-intelligence (even Reddbot). That also includes Groth!

Finally, we have perfected the game’s lighting, so you can get a good look at the devastated world of Skara.



Any questions? Get in touch! We respond to every message or post, so again don’t be shy. We are on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SkaraTheBladeRemains) and Twitter (@SkaraTBR).

See you on the battlefield!

Pablo and the SKARA Team

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=733163365

Some of you may have already tried the new build we released a few days ago. For the rest of you: Welcome to the new and improved Skara!

Months in the making, this version of Skara is truly a step up from earlier versions. We have totally reworked the game from the ground up, including a new replication system, combat system, a different dueling arena, dedicated servers and much more!

Have a look at the gameplay:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=733163430

We will continue to improve this build in direct response to your feedback. In fact we just released a Patch (Skara 0.6.2). It includes a few things we would like you to know about:

• The game should load and play more quickly than it was before. We also worked on eliminating run-time crashes and other bugs that make the game freeze and die in the heart of battle. These are the most crucial problems we found, so if you still experience them--LET US KNOW
  
  
• We have further balanced out the new combat system, specifically the strength of the Tamvaasa ‘Ice trap’ attack and the Shinse poison attack. Both have been reduced a little, as has the strength of the Shinse dash and heavy attack.We have also reduced the Shinse hit stun-- Celea stand a chance now :)
  
  
• Animations are smoother now, and players should see more feedback when fighting Groth. We know that a lot of you notice these little changes, and we hope you can appreciate them.
  
  
• The lighting in the tutorial has been adjusted (it won’t be so dark for new players) and a few other adjustments in the arenas have also taken place. We would love to hear more about the arenas--especially from players who remember 0.5.6 and before.
  
  
• Now for the new goodies. We have worked on some of the new skins! Check out the new Tamvaasa axe designs for the Rockaxe, Bentaxe and the Lakwarguard helmets and armor. As you can see, they are brighter and even more impressive--truly worthy of our favorite northern fighters.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=733222966

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=733224432

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=733223971
Expect more to come next week!

See you on the Battlefield!

Pablo and the SKARA Team

The last month before releasing a new Skara build has normally been a crazy, non-stop working spree.

The work leading up to Build 0.6.0 was no exception. Our programmers have been coming to the studio to work on most of the Sundays and EVERY single Saturday for the last 2 months. The amount of work that needed to be done to bring our vision of a close-combat multiplayer fighting game is humongous.

First of all, our entire replication system had to be re-configured and adapted to the new dedicated servers. The new Skara is finally going to be available for a whole bunch of players, not just a few chosen testers. For that to work, everything had to be rock solid to avoid lag on multiplayer matches.

Doing this may sound a little bit crazy, but is was certainly worthwhile. There are a lot of different situations that had to be reviewed and coded over again. The team had to try and consider gameplay situations from multiple perspectives to ensure that everything looked the way it should. This included situations like when a player is hit in the middle of a dodge. What animation and distance displacement should each of the players see? There is a lot of prediction involved in the code of most multiplayer games, and Skara is no exception, but that comes with thousand of hours of hard work testing, coding, compiling, and testing again.

Ciro and David were our chosen programmers for this, while Juanma worked on the dedicated server integration. Jacobo, meanwhile, has been working on the interface logic to include player parties, in-game chat, and a social/friend system in Skara.



Yes, that is right: Skara is being made by only 4 gameplay programmers!

Our designers had a hard time on all these features as well. Since the whole combat system was going to be re-configured Joan - our Lead Game Designer - took advantage of the great feedback our player base provided and re-calculated distance and power for all the attacks in the game to re-adjust the character balancing. Sara and Adrià, junior part-time designers, helped him out to test and adjust each one of the blueprint and animation montages to make sure everything matched.

The Art department meanwhile gave a warm welcome to a couple of new additions. Marc Obiols joined the team as an Environment/Materials artist, and Adrià Najar is now the Lead Artist in charge of the whole department.

As some of you may know, the Jaarvi Duel Arena has been totally redone. Most of the animations - more than one hundred animations for each character - had to be re-adjusted to match the new gameplay and replication logic. We also seized the opportunity to connect a couple of Kinect Ones and try some motion capture for the first two in-game cinematics. You will see them the first time you open the game.



Finally, we were waiting to add a lot of new cosmetic and customizable options for your characters in the game store. New complete skins, isolated items, helmets and looks will be available in Skara 0.6.0… and this is only the beginning! We are planning to release a new character customization system in version 0.7.0 to allow players to choose their character faces and skin color, individualised mockeries, and a lot more content.

See you on the battlefield!

----------------------------------------------------------------

Tasks 27/05/2016 - 24/06/2016

Art

· Textures of 12 iso elements
· Skinning of 12 iso elements + 8 complete skins (Armor + Weapon + Helmet)
· 4 menu pedestals (one for each character)
· Master material for all the new cosmetic elements (in this version you should see a big difference between the old and the new skins. We will progressively polish the old ones)
· R+D to cover a character with blood when he hits or gets hit.
· R+D for the new map: Jotheim
· Tamvaasa skin 004 modeled
· New Celea body
· New Shinse body
· New Tamvaasa body
· New concept art for the loading screen and the lobbies
· Faces customization concept study

Animations

· New animation template
· New Celea animations + adaptation of the old animations to the new combat logic
· New Tamvaasa animations + adaptation of the old animations to the new combat logic
· New Kharn animations + adaptation of the old animations to the new combat logic

Design

· New combat system design, test, adjusting values, improving the feedback of the animations: timing, intensity etc.
· Matchmaking first iteration design

Code

· Replication improvements
· Adaptation of the whole combat system to a dedicated servers logic
· Friends list
· Single party matchmaking
· Group party matchmaking
· Chat menu + in-game chat
· KPI’s
· New Groth behaviour


What’s new in the 0.6.0 build:

· Dedicated servers.
· Huge replication improvements.
· Matchmaking.
· All animations rework.
· New rankings refreshed every two weeks: one global ranking with the sum of all the ranking points from all your characters + one ranking for each character.
· Groth chained into the Lava coliseum. Visible from the first second. New animations.
· HUD: Frag display screen redesign.
· Skins: 1 mastery skin per character. This skin will be purchasable only with · in-game currency (not premium currency) when reaching a certain level.
· Skins: 1 new purchasable skin + 3 isolated items (helmets or weapons) per character.
· Skins: Old skins visual improvements.
· Arenas: Jaarvi (duel arena) complete redesign (design + art).
· Arenas: Tutorial visual improvements.
· Arenas: Two matinees in the tutorial, one at the entrance, the other at the end.
· New gameplay feature: dash.
· New gameplay feature: dash attack.
· Optimization: VFX.
· Optimization: maps.
· New menu feature: Friends invitation and friends list.
· New menu feature: Menu chat and in-game chat.
· New menu feature: Parties. You will be able to group with your friends to enter all together into the matches.
· Menu improvements: Karats packs visual redesign.
· Menu improvements: New menu animations for the characters.
· Menu improvements: better user experience. It is faster to equip and purchase items.
· Menu improvements: Menu personalized for each character (personal background + pedestal).
· Menu improvements: Cards visual redesign and cards rarity logic.
· Spanish localization.

Skara is advancing towards its last phase of development. For the last 2 YEARS we have been sharing the progress on Skara’s core mechanics, defining every single aspect of the game with the community. The feedback you all provided has been incredibly valuable, and, as a result, the upcoming Build 0.6.0 will be amazing.

It has been quite a long journey, and our team has worked really hard to bring your vision for an awesome skill-based, close-combat game to Steam. This summer, that dream will become a reality!

The list of features that came from ideas and suggestions from Skara’s community is impressive: the manual targeting system, range attacks, the improved defense and dodge mechanics… even Groth! Our beloved Boss of the Lava Coliseum was born as an idea from our players and they even got to name him!

For this reason we want to especially thank our most committed players who have been helping us out with long testing sessions, chats, forum post, reviews and suggestions. Huge shout outs to Villspor, Ares, ric and Hersher, who follow us from our Kickstarter campaign. R, Anax of Rhodes, Challenger, ZAToM, Kris, ReImagination, ivansolidsnake, Jushi, 3dogaru, deathrow_nzl, Maximum Sloth, Adellion, Reddblock, Zeta, and so many more users from the Steam forum have been testing each version and providing valuable feedback, in turn helping us determine how to move forward and where to put our limited resources to the most valuable use. THANK YOU AGAIN GUYS!



This is still really only the beginning. Once Skara 0.6.0 is out this summer, we’ll continue adding new features, cosmetics, items, skills, and animations. The sword-wielding Durno will be our next character. A new faction system will be implemented soon for you and your friends to be able to create your own clan and determine the future of Skara. Jotheim, our Team Siege arena, is being developed as we speak. Check out the latest tests and assets by following our social media accounts!

Although Skara is taking shape, there is still room for your ideas and suggestions for these and all the features that will come in the future. The World of Two Suns remains in your hands. :)

See you on the battlefield!

Pablo (Chief Skaradev

BUILD 0.5.6 CHANGELOG

Below find a summary of all the work we have done on Skara the last couple months. It will be a totally new experience once we have the new build running!

Want to see it in action? Sign in to our Twitch channel on Thursday, January 28, at 6 CET, 5 GMT, 12 EST, 9 PST.

http://www.twitch.tv/skarathebladeremains/

· Optimization: Characters & Environments will be optimized in this version. LOD’s for meshes and textures have been added to every skin and basic character. Coliseum and Zem have been compressed with batch files so they can be procedurally loaded to maximize performance.

· New AI behaviour: Our beloved bots get an intelligence boost! Now they can use Talents and Skills as well react to Team Deathmatch situations (conquering towers or attacking the leading team).

· New Zem look and Game Mode: We have finally implemented the final visual aspect for the Team Deathmatch arena, the Zem Moorlands, as well as completed the Domination Game Mode. Now, besides conquering towers, teams must be aware of the activated Pinnacle phases, in order to attack enemy pinnacles and so unlock conquered towers.

· New character: Tamvaasa. The Northen warriors find their place in Skara with an awesome look and unique combat capabilities. Check the incredible Tamvaasa skills and invoke the powers of the fearsome vilkai, among many other things. The Tamvaasa put the Hack into Hack and Slash.

· New Gameplay feature: Talents. Choose two from four available Talents to enhance your combat style. Want to steal health from your foes with every hit? Try Inner Strike. Want to have a last chance when you are about to die? Trick Death is you talent. Increase the damage of your blows if you are about to die? Try To the Death. Want to recover Health when you are not fighting? Regeneration will do the job.

· New UI look and functionalities: The final look of the UI will be available on the 0.5.6 as well. We have updated the news and content, character customization and a lot more. Pay attention as well to the nice Skara music we added to the menu navigation.

· The store is open: The first iteration of the Skara store will be ready for the 0.5.6 build. Now you can purchase premium currency to buy cosmetic items for your characters. Only a few items will be available in this build, so check them out and be prepared for the next build, in which we’ll add a lot of new skins, fancy weapons and even custom mockeries and taunts!

· Re-factored combat system: Skara should now feel faster and more cruel. We re-defined how stamina and sprint bars work, we added attack cancellations and tweaked most of the values to balance the whole experience no matter which character you use. As usual, please send us feedback on the combat and if something feels unbalanced, let us know about it!

Help Skara achieve Indie glory!

It's official: Skara made the top 100 games of 2015 on the popular website, IndieDB​!

Now it's our chance to climb even further, but only with your help.

Click the link and vote for Skara (in the fighting category) and you're done!

http://www.indiedb.com/groups/2015-indie-of-the-year-awards/top100#vote25621


Want to help some more?

Vote us Best Early Access on MMOGames:

http://www.mmogames.com/topmmos/best-beta-early-access/

You can vote for us there every day, until January 6th!

And last, but not least: Vote for us on MMOSite!

http://event.mmosite.com/gameprize/?action=gameinfo&cid=25&gid=582

A couple seconds of your time will make all the difference for us, as we work very hard to make Skara a AAA level game on an indie budget. Winning these contests include prizes that help us focus resources on game development. It also helps us get the word out to more players.

Thanks!

Pablo, Indie Pirate Developer in charge of making Skara.

PS Look out for more information on the game. An announcement of the next build (including new characters, optimization AND dedicated servers) is coming soon!

Skara has spent a busy and eventful year on Early Access. Thanks to your feedback, we’ve been able to improve the game dramatically. This build introduces many new levels of awesomeness, but the one we are MOST excited about are the way skills work. Within this are new range weapon skills. Now all the characters are specially equipped to fight from a distance.

Try each of them out and let us know what you think!

BUILD 0.5.5 CHANGELOG

Character balancing: Khärn skills were nerfed, since the community generally claimed they were too powerful. Celea skills and damage have been reduced as well, and Shinse has been buffed. Try them out and let us know if this improves the fairness of the fights.

New skills: All character receive brand new Range Special Skills - The Celea maintain the old Disc of Sun, while the Shinse get a new Poison Kunais (a cone attack with poison buff) and the Khärn throw a giant rock! Say goodbye to the previous projectile system (that weird throwing knives- or rocks) and activate your new range skills pressing F on your keyboard or A on your controller.

New frag display: now the UI shows relevant information when you die, including who killed you and their equipped skills, your record at that particular time, and much more...

New Celea skill: We are proud to Introduce Celem’s Blades, a skill that will increase the range of the spear attack with a nice touch of fire.

Camera effects: for Khärn, Shinse and Celea to feel more a part of the battle from the third-person perspective, we’ve adjusted and enhanced the camera.

Rage vortex VFX: An ability which was available for the last two versions was lacking some VFX and visual feedback, so we decided to give it a twist and implement new visual effects.

New card system for the special skills. This will change how players get their skills, let us know what you think.

New slot and HUD cooldown for the range special skills: Now you can activate three skills during your battle! Enjoy the mayhem, and good luck staying alive...

Medals: unlock new achievements every match in each of the SKARA arenas. We start with our old Coliseum. (Check out what happens if you are the player who inflicts the most damage on Groth!)

A new Khärn skin: Currently only seen for the bots, this feature will soon be available for Khärn characters!

New character and account-separated progression bars: Track your progress in SKARA with these new features. Let us know what you think about them.

On October 27, Skara will have been on Steam Early Access for a whole year. That seems hard to believe—except when we really sit back and look at the progress we have made.

Our earliest backers and testers know all about it. We’ve come from one arena and one character (and a lot of bugs!) to three arenas and three characters, special skills, player accounts and rankings…and a whole lot more that players will never see or notice. And we are just getting started!

With our first anniversary upon us, it felt like it was time to celebrate our progress and the rapidly growing community.

ANNIVERSARY EVENTS:

NEW BUILD – we will release Skara. 0.5.5: Complete with a whole bunch of new features, frag display, new class skills and the new range combat special abilities, updated arenas, improved combat controls, and a whole lot more. Look at our Change Log on October 27.

TOURNAMENT—We are going to be holding the very first Skara Tournament in-studio. Players will be able to compete for the honor and glory of being the best. We sadly cannot open this up to the globe, but we will stream it (see below).

Interested in holding your own tournament? Go for it! Keep track of the results, stream it, and send us the winner. They may get a special prize.

TWITCH STREAM—going with our tournament, we will be livestreaming from the studio, playing matches, answering questions and just generally getting to know the player community. Expect there to be some fun and banter. BYOB!

WHILE YOU WAIT the team has started doing game development streams and live game streams more regularly. Check out our Twitch channel: http://www.twitch.tv/skarathebladeremains

Look forward to seeing you October 27, and until then—see you on the battlefield!

Pablo, Skara Indie Pirate in chief

It was another hot summer sweating next to the server fan for the Skara team, but nevertheless we were able to make another step of progress. Welcome to Build 0.5.4!

Here’s a list of the new Features found in the 0.5.4 version:

- A new playable tutorial (including a new environment: The Khilma dungeons).
- Power up items in the arenas (specifically health power ups and damage buffs).
- Try all three characters without leveling up! This is something a lot of our users requested and we were very happy to change.
- Class skills are now attached to different buttons (Q&E on the keyboard, X and Y on Xbox controller)
- The Melee combat is faster now, the Hit stun is reduced. Also the free target mode has been modified to allow characters to dodge without losing focus on the target.
- Rankings! Who will be the best? Find it in the War Log in the UI.
We also changed the Duel Game conditions to make it feel more like a Versus fighting game.
- We’ve worked on the animations for all characters to make them more realistic and more spectacular. Characters should blend to sprint mode now and a lot of other features: Check them out!
- New in-game HUD: Now you can check your enemy’s shield meter as well as the skills they’ve equipped. There’s also a new effort meter when sprinting.
- Finally, we did a lot of Bug and crash fixing to make the game more stable. Please as usual send us feedback if something isn’t working by either writing in the forums, sending us an email, or filling out a bug report.

Community development news.

We know it has been difficult to find other players online, and we want to do everything we can to improve this. We can confirm there are a LOT of you out there!

On of the issues we are facing is no budget for dedicated servers, which means players will not be able to find each other if they are not in the same general area.

This should get better once we get dedicated servers (hopefully soon!), but meanwhile the best way to find other players is to send a shout out on social media, like Twitter, Reddit, or in Steam. We have a million ideas for tackling this, but we are of course always happy to listen to you all. Remember: Sharing is caring.

We have several more announcements coming soon, so stay tuned. And See you on the battlefield!

Pablo and his ragtag group of indie pirate developers. ARRRRG!