It's already been over a month since Temtem's release. During this month we've seen a constantly growing amount of questions around the game, its future, and its planned features. So, we want to take some time to share with you what we have in mind for the game so you can have a peek at what's coming.
Please, keep in mind that every detail discussed here is not 100% confirmed for the game. During the game's development cycle, ideas change constantly and stuff we like today we might not like as much tomorrow. So take everything in here not as confirmed facts, but more like the stuff we would like to include in the game.
The same thing happens with the planned dates. We're not really big fans of having public dates for everything, they add a lot of unnecessary pressure on the team and they make making changes and swapping features around a very difficult task. We know everyone else likes dates though, so we've decided to include open dates for each block of features. Take them with a grain of salt and expect delays and features moved around dates.
Also, one of the motives to write this is to gather feedback around the ideas. So feel free to discuss them in our Discord, our forums or /r/PlayTemtem. Temtem is always built around its community so every idea is appreciated.
We've divided the Roadmap in two and we'll also be talking a little more in-depth about some of the features depicted in the roadmap.
Short-term Roadmap
Ranked Matchmaking
Balance
While we plan to do balance patches frequently during early access, our plan is to not be obsessed about reaching a perfect balance until the Temtem roster is complete (in the full final release). Due to having only a limited set of Tems and techniques, it is impossible to balance everything perfectly so we will mostly balance extra overpowered stuff that can break the current meta.
Even with a not so perfect balance, we've seen several team compositions and strategies already, so don't be afraid of trying new things and step into Temtem's competitive scene.
Matchmaking V1
The first iteration of the matchmaking will include a player rating system based on ELO (aka TMR - Tamer Matchmaking Rating). Players will start with some placement matches which will define their initial TMR and after that, they will be matched with each other based on their current TMR.
For this first iteration of the matchmaking, we plan to give pansun rewards for each victory as a reward for the time spent battling (based on the opponent's TMR). Although probably this feature will be disabled when the feature launches until the system is fully tested and stabilized.
Temtem auto-scaling
This is probably one of the hottest topics in the community. We know it is very important for competitive players to jump into the competitive scene as quickly as possible and reduce the time and friction needed to tweak and test new stuff.
So, our idea to solve that is to introduce auto-scaling into the ranked queue. Auto-scaling will essentially perfect your Tems, upping all their SVs up to 50 for the battle and their level to the current level cap (currently 48). With auto-scaling, players will still need to capture and organize their teams, set their preferred TV spread using fruits or training, obtain the necessary gears completing the main or side quests in the game and breeding for their desired egg techniques. But, players won't need to grind for perfect SVs or spend a fortune breeding to reach that point.
This auto-scaling will only apply to the ranked matchmaking queue, so there will be other game modes where having a perfect Temtem (and breeding for them) will be necessary (in-game tournaments, player organized tournaments and battles, dojo club wars, end-game PvE content, etc...).
Spectator Mode V1
Having a spectator mode has been one of the most requested features so far and while we already had it in our internal roadmap scheduled for later, we've decided to push it to the front due to the number of players requesting it. This first iteration of spectator mode will be a basic one and we will iterate on it in the future adding more options.
Basically, players will be able to spectate other players while they are playing a competitive match. While spectating, only the common info will be displayed (HP and STA percentages, team composition after the pick&ban, stages and status conditions, techniques used, etc.) so players won't be able to use this feature to get leverage over their opponents.
We hope including this feature will also help tournament organizers solve some of the issues they're currently facing.
In-Game Chat
The chat implementation we had during the Alpha / Stress test phases was a temporary one and it was lacking a lot of features, so we decided to disable it entirely for the early access release. Our plan is to remake the chat from scratch, increasing its performance and capabilities.
The chat will feature several predefined chat groups (e.g. Global, Local, Trade, Club...) and it will also support private messaging between users (whispers). We're also going to add chat bubbles which will appear above every talking character. We know some players find chat bubbles a bit intrusive sometimes, so we will give players the choice between two different levels of chat bubbles (displaying the full text or just a notification to know they've talked) or disable them entirely.
Club Management[/h3] Clubs are our take on clans for Temtem. Clubs have basically two main features related to them.
The first one is to be able to create a club, assign a banner to it, name it and invite all your friends to join. This will be the first part of the club features that we will tackle.
The second part is the Dojo Wars, which we'll talk more about in the next part of the roadmap.
Housing
Every Temtem player will be able to acquire a house since they won't be limited in quantity. We're designing the Atoll Row (the physical location where all houses will be built) to be infinite so you don't need to worry about buying permits or land. Technology in the Archipelago is amazing!
There's one thing you'll need to worry about though, decorating your house! You will be able to decorate your house using furniture bought and earned in-game, and every furniture store in the Archipelago will open their doors and will showcase different furniture in each island (in a similar way as the boutiques with the clothing options).
You will also be able to invite other players over so you can gather around your dining table or join other player's houses and check how they're decorating them. While houses will keep a predominant decorative functionality, we have some ideas to include useful furniture too in the future (think of things like an incubator, a jukebox, a fruit tree...).
Achievements
We all love achievements. Whether they are something simple like completing the Tempedia or something more obscure like defeating an Ukama with a Head Charge, achievements are now part of most games and Temtem will not be less. Temtem will feature a full array of achievements that will reward players with the most precious currency of them all, bragging rights (although some of them will also potentially give some in-game rewards).
Achievements will be supported directly in-game, and we will also support achievements for every system we release on (as long as they have an achievements/trophies feature of course).
Mid-term Roadmap
This section of the roadmap includes features that are very far away, so details about these features aren't yet fully designed and there's still a lot of room for change.
Dojo Wars
Each island in the Archipelago will hold a Club Dojo (so, six in total) which players will be able to conquer and hold. Clubs will be able to challenge the current Dojo leaders each week, by participating in in-game tournaments and battling with other participant Clubs in predefined time frames during different days based on the Dojo they want to capture.
Once a Club has conquered a Dojo, they will be able to decorate it and obtain rewards for their members during the time they hold it.
Trading House
Some of the islands will feature a "Trading House" (they're already in-game, but they have a WIP sign and are inaccessible). The Trading Houses will be the market-oriented locations in the game, where players will be able to post and receive offers without the need to directly interact with anyone. They will act as a bulletin board where everyone will be able to post their offers and requests and others will be able to sort through all these listings.
We're also considering having some other ways to trade in the trading house. Tentative ideas being timed auctions, live auctions, random trades, etc… But are not guaranteed to be included at launch.
We know there's a lot of hype about the Trading House and some of you may be wondering why we aren’t pushing this feature to come out sooner. The Trading House is a huge feature, it requires a lot of planning, work, and testing so we don’t want to rush it and we want to have enough time to properly develop it the way we want to.
Matchmaking V2
For the second iteration of the matchmaking, we want to have different leagues/medals players could reach (e.g. bronze, silver, gold... although hopefully, we find some more clever names for them), as well as seasons which will grant players with rewards based on their position when the season ends.
The plan is to have a pre-season which will last until the game is released and then start doing periodic seasons. Once seasons are live, our idea is to do balance patches only between seasons, so we will have a stable competitive scenario during the whole season.
Spectator Mode V2
The second iteration of the spectator mode will be totally oriented to the professional scene. It will present the ability to create competitive lobbies where players will be able to invite spectators and casters, which will have more spectate options (changing which player they are spectating, what they are choosing to do during the turn or more advanced statistics) and more options geared to organizing and casting professional tournaments in a more efficient way.
Consoles and 1.0 release
We expect to have the console ports ready for when we plan to launch the 1.0 release.
One of the most recurring topics about the console ports is if we're going to support cross-play and cross-save so we want to take this opportunity to talk a bit more about those.
Cross-play is technically simple to achieve. We already have cross-play between Discord and Steam players and every new platform will behave in the same way. The main problem with cross-play is related to console holders restrictions but they seem very open about it lately so we're hoping we will be able to achieve cross-play on every platform we launch.
Cross-save is more technically challenging. Apart from having the same legal and restrictions hoops, there's also a technical issue that needs to be sorted and solved which is a way of joining all your different accounts into the same one. Temtem doesn't have a custom login system, it just uses the platforms' login system in a transparent way (you don't really have a Temtem account right now, just some data associated with a Steam/Discord account), so we'll need to find a way to join them together so you can access the same data in all your platforms. We're pretty confident about it but we still need to figure out some more things and talk with the different platform holders to get their OK.
End-game Island
There will be a mini island fully dedicated to end-game activities (something similar to the Battle frontier in you know what game). The island will have different (3-4-5) buildings, each one with its own mechanics (but all relative to Temtem battles) where players will be able to enter and win rewards based on their performance. These buildings will be mostly focused on PvE activities and will reward players with pansuns and items for their invested time.
Cosmetics Store and Monetization
Temtem is an online game that requires monthly server costs, maintenance fees, and a growing and sustainable development team. Players are only required to pay once for the game, with no monthly fee required. In order to keep sustaining and growing Temtem, we'll be introducing a purely cosmetic store in-game around 1.0 launch.
It’s still very soon to give more details about what the store will feature, but we’re working on several different customizable options (players’ clothes obviously, housing furniture, emotes…). The store will hold different cosmetic items periodically that will be purchasable with microtransactions.
Like we've said since our Kickstarter, microtransactions will never be tied to any pay2win or pay2skip scenario (no good/better Tems, stat boosters, exp boosters, TV fruits or anything similar that puts a player in an unfair advantage).
Cosmetics Battle Pass
After launch, we’re aiming to introduce a battle pass-esque system which will introduce an additional leveling system for players during the current season. With the seasonal battle pass, players will be able to obtain certain seasonal cosmetics for free just by playing the game during that season and completing objectives, and it will also feature a premium version with even more cosmetics and non-P2W rewards.
Nuzlocke
For those of you unfamiliar with the Nuzlocke game mode, it is basically a hardcore difficulty mode for the game. In Nuzlocke every time one of your Tems gets knocked-out, it will be permanently released. Also, the amount of capturable Tems is limited and you will only be able to capture one or two per area, so you will have to perfectly balance your resources in order to complete the game.
Nuzlocke players will play on a different instance of the server, and they will only play around other Nuzlocke players. Trading will be limited due to the Nuzlocke rules, but PVP will not. So if you're brave enough, you will be able to duel other players and face a permanent loss...
Just a quick PSA. Temtem will release on January 21st at 10 am PST / 1 pm EST / 7 pm CET (you can check your local time here).
The launch is global, so everyone will have access at the same time. Remember, you will be able to buy the game through Steam or the Humble Store, you can wishlist the game right now and be notified when it launches.
Recap of latest trailers
Ever since we announced the early access release, we've created three more trailers and while we've been putting them in our Twitter and our Discord, probably some of you haven't seen them yet. So here they are!
2020 is shaping to be a very busy year for Temtem. We're very excited to share with you everything we have ready for the next coming months, but that news will have to wait a bit because today we need to talk about the Alpha and the upcoming Stress test.
The Alpha is reaching its end
After 13 months of continued support and non-stop access to the Temtem Alpha, the time of farewell is coming really soon. As we work on moving forward with the public Early Access launch for Temtem we need to stop the Alpha access so we can work freely on improving the server and doing the final touches to get everything ready.
Alpha will close on Jan 9th @ 10am PST / 1pm EST / 7pm CET.
After this date, players won't be able to log in to the server.
Stress test dates and FAQ
Just before launching publicly, we want to run a stress test to properly test everything out. The stress test will help us test the maximum capacity of our servers and will also allow us to identify potential problems before going public. These tests are going to be distributed between different days and timeframes:
Jan 11th @ 10am-2pm PST
Jan 17th @ 11am-1pm PST
Jan 19th @ 9am-11am PST
What is the stress test?
It is a public and free test for Temtem. We want to run this test in order to have a better estimation of how the servers will behave on launch day.
As a user, participating in the stress test will allow you to take a first look at Temtem before the game is released and in the process, help us out.
You will be contacted between Jan 9th and Jan 10th, and you will be given a Steam key which you can redeem for test access.
If I play during the stress test, will I own the game when it launches?
No. The Stress test key will only grant access during the stress test hours. In order to keep playing Temtem when the game is released on January 21st, you'll need to buy the game.
Will progress made during the stress test be kept on the release?
No. Everything will be wiped out from the server before going into the Early Access release.
Are there any limits on available content during the stress test?
No. Everything currently available on the Alpha will be available during the stress test (the campaign, co-op, pvp, trading...).
I am a backer. Do I need to get an invitation?
No. If you currently have access to the Alpha, you'll get access to the stress test. You will be able to use the same player you currently have and the same installation you have for the Alpha.
Will progress done during the Stress Test carry forward when the game launches?
No. Everything will be wiped before launching the game into Early Access.
Kisiwa is the hilly cousin of Tucma, its main feature being the impassable Kilima Range that divides the island into two distinct halves. Hotter and dried than any of the other islands, Kisiwa features an unrivalled variety of landscapes. The eastern side has Vumbi and its famous dojo, as well as the wild Kusini Highlands beyond the Jino Gap, inhabited by a variety of Neutral Temtem. The only viable ways to cross the island are the tunnels excavated by the tireless Kisiwans – Chini in the wild southern solitudes and Juu in the north, near Lake Moyo and the capital city of Uhuru. The western deserts are deceptive in appearance, for they are home to many species of Earth Temtem.
What's new
As usual, we won't go deep here in terms of spoiling the new area, the new quests you'll find there or the new Temtem. Instead, we will talk a bit about the new features present in this patch, starting with...
Co-op! Starting today, you will be able to play the whole Temtem experience in cooperative: traverse the Archipelago, capture new Temtem or progress in the story along with your friend. You can also play PvP being in coop, but currently, only casual battles are supported. We'll try to support competitive rules for coop in the future.
Temtem is a very strategic and complex game, so coop partners need to have very good communication between them in order to succeed in their mission. The game currently doesn't feature any voice chat, and the current chat can be a bit wonky sometimes, so we recommend you to use third-party apps to communicate with each other. Or just join our official Discord server and hop on one of the new voice chat channels!
Coop impacts lots of other features and areas in the game, so it has been a massive challenge for us. There are a million cases and we tried to test everything out, but it is expected you will find some problems with it. Remember that our Forums are the best place to report anything strange you find.
We're introducing the competitive rules for PvP in this patch. This means that you will be able to choose between casual or competitive battles when challenging other players.
Competitive rules introduce the pick&ban system, where players will take turns banning their rivals and picking their own Temtem to create their final squad of five Temtem for the battle. Players need to start thinking about the strategy since the very first pick&ban turn because every choice will matter in the battle.
Another very requested feature. You can now add other players as friends (up to 50) and mark some of them as your favorites (up to 3).
Marking a friend as a favorite will make the server prioritize your connections so you (almost) always share the same server instance.
We also reworked the interact screen to display the new options and to make it more pretty!
The Temdeck has also been reworked to display more info of each Temtem: equipped gear, level, and gender. And players are also now able to mark their Temtem to better visually organize the boxes.
One last thing, we implemented a sort and filter option, so you can now perfectly find the Temtem you want!
And more!
As usual, the patch is filled with more stuff. In this patch, we've focused a lot on quality of life and visual improvements. We've added a small intro animation for untamed Temtem, a unique Luma sound and effect when a Luma appears, a special icon on Lumas, a recent pocket on the Backpack and many many more stuff.
First of all, check out our new shiny gameplay trailer!
As you have already guessed by the title of this update and the video, Temtem will be releasing on Early Access on January 21st!
The Early Access version will only be available on PC (Steam and Discord). Among lots of other stuff, the Early Access will feature ~50% of the story content, three different islands (each with its own unique biomes), co-op, player customization, breeding, luma hunting, competitive ruleset with pick&ban for battles... And no more wipes (hopefully)!
Did I read... co-op?
Yes! You did! You will be able to play co-operatively the whole campaign.
Stress tests
We are going to be running a couple of server stress test in order to get everything up and ready for the public release.
The tests don't have a date yet, we're working on getting everything ready. But, if you are interested in participating, head over http://playtemtem.com/ and sign up with your email.
All backers will also be invited to the stress tests!
A headstart for our backers
Without our backers, we wouldn't be here today. So, as usual, you will be among the first ones that will be able to test the new island and some of the new features coming in the Early Access.
We are going to release a new content update for the Alpha you are already playing on Dec 12 and you will be able to play it until a week or two before the Early Access launch.
Join us on this new Alpha update, help us iron out all the bugs and spend some quality time with your character and your Temtem before they are... gone.
Our latest naming contest already finished and we finally have official names for our first breeder Temtem. Tamers, meet Zephyruff and Volarend!
Temtem will be available in german
We've decided to add german to the list of languages Temtem will be available on!
So with this, Temtem will be enjoyable in seven languages: English, Spanish, Chinese (simplified), Japanese, Korean, French and German!
Translations availability
We've been asked a million times about this so we want to throw a bit of light on the topic.
We're working to have all the seven languages supported at the Early Access launch! We can't make any promises yet because it's a tooooon of work but we're working on it already and it is looking very plausible so far.
Talking about the Early Access...
Another common and constant question we receive is about the dates for the Early Access launch and the Alpha 0.3 release.
We want to be very cautious about giving dates because the development process fluctuates a lot and it's very hard to nail dates when you're not super near to them. Having to delay something after announcing its date is heartbreaking for us and for the fans waiting for the content so we prefer to give dates only when we are 100% sure of them.
Having said that, we want to talk a bit about the next steps for Temtem before reaching the public Early Access release:
Alpha 0.3 (including a new island, ~30 new Temtem, and new features) will be released during December.
We will support 0.3 with frequent updates to fix any potential bugs and problems during a couple of weeks after its release.
When everything feels stable enough, we will close the servers and Alpha testers won't be able to play anymore.
Then, we will work in the dark for a few weeks more to get everything ready for the public Early Access launch, working on new features, more polishing, server improvements and including the translations.
New naming contest
The winner of our choose-a-Temtem mini-game #3 was still missing a name and we promised to choose it publicly with a naming contest. So, here it is! This time we want to test something new, so we will start by choosing a name for only the initial form of the evolutionary line. When we have done that, we will open a new contest for both of its evolutions so you will be able to use the first form name while thinking names for its evolutions.
As usual, you need to join our Discord server to participate in the contest.
Today we bring you a special update talking about one of our Breeder backers and their Temtem. But first, we haven't posted the definitive names for #035 and #036 so let's fix that.
Give a warm welcome to the community-named Temtem family to Orphyll and Nidrasil!
The first Breeder Temtem
Back when we were creating the Temtem Kickstarter campaign, we decided we wanted to give the opportunity to create new Temtem to some of our backers and we tied that opportunity to the most expensive reward. We ended up filling all the spots available and that means we will have five Temtem families designed by our community!
The first breeder we want to talk about is Soma Ghost.
Creating Soma's Temtem
When we contacted Soma asking for their input on the Temtem, they sent us back their ideas and lots of helpful details about its appearance, biology, lore and personality.
Soma wanted to create a two stage evolution line Toxic/Wind bird with a majestic body shaped like a Archaeopteryx, cloud-like tufts and toxin filled feathers. The initial idea was to create a phoenix-like bird but based on Soma's description of the Temtem, we ended up doing something more fierce and less mystical.
When creating a new Temtem we always start with the same step, doing several concepts and tossing ideas around. We created five different proposals for both the first and second form.
Based on these concepts, Soma picked their favorite parts and with their input we created some more variations changing some details and refining the general idea for the Temtem.
And then, even some more detailing to finally end up picking a final design (number 2) After the second form was chosen, we did the same process with the first form. We made some tweaks and variations and ended up choosing the final design (number 5). So, after choosing the final designs, polishing them a bit and making some room in our Tempedia, we present you #109 and #110!
And what are their names?
Welp, you (the community) will need to answer this question because Soma has decided that we run a community based naming contest to name both Temtem.
So, starting today, you are able to propose names for these couple of fierce Temtem and in a few days you'll also be able to choose the final selected name (although in this occasion, Soma will be able to deny some of the names if they don't like them).
As always, the contest is running in our Discord Server, so go there and check the announcements channel for more info on how to participate.
First of all, sorry for the lack of news during this past month, most of the Crema team has been enjoying some vacations, so work has slowed a bit during this time.
We're now back and filled with energy. While we keep working on Kisiwa's plains and mountains we want to keep moving forward with our pending naming contests and today we will start with the Choose-a-Temtem #3 runner-up: #129 is a Toxic/Mental Temtem and is a single form Temtem (doesn't evolve to or from any other Temtem).
This time, we're making the contest a bit different. Up until now, we requested the community to propose new names for the Temtem and when we had enough we (Crema) internally selected our 10 favorite names and then make a public poll with those names.
Now we're going to get away from the process and we will relay everything in our community. The naming contest will have three phases:
Proposals: Every user in our Discord server will be able to propose new names using our custom TemtemBot. You can propose all the names you want.
Slaughter: During this phase, users will be able to vote on proposed names with a like or a dislike. When you vote one name, a new one will appear!
Final Vote: When the likes are tailored, the final top 10 choices will be revealed and used in the final poll.
And all phases will be done in private, so there won't be any direct influences on the votes!
The only requisite for participating is to be part of our awesome Discord server, so if you still haven't joined, do so and check the #129 channel for more info.