Notice Kickstarter Updates (for non-backer convenience)

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Tweak, Feb 27, 2015.

  1. Tweak

    Tweak Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    (Most recent first) UPDATE 21 Digital Bestiaries sent out Dec 11, 2014

    Hey everyone!

    The Windows (exe) Digital Bestiaries have gone out to backers today, check the email address you backed with for a link! We're having a few issues with our Mac Developer's account/configuration but we're doing our best to get it sorted out. For now we're sending out the Windows .exe of the Bestiary to backers who pledged for it, and we hope to get the Mac version out shortly after!

    Posters have been printed and are ready for shipping. Many thanks to the brilliant Oliver Sin for the design and handling most of the fulfilment. Head on over to his twitter and show him some love if you like the design. :)

    We'll let you know when the mac version is ready, and apologies if we haven't gotten around to answering your emails/messages/comments. We're catching up now!

    Many thanks,

    - Lou

    UPDATE 20 Bestiary update Nov 5, 2014

    Hey everyone,

    As you've probably noticed the Bestiaries haven't gone out as promised. We'd like to apologise for this, there's no credible excuse: it really just comes down to poor time management on our part. We've been so carried away working on other aspects of the game that we didn't put enough time aside for this one, but we've learned our lesson.

    In the future we'll plan more cautiously and for now, continue to working overtime until it's done!

    We'll update you when it's ready to be delivered. We're hoping it will be this evening. If we haven't responded to your help requests on the survey, we'll be getting around to them now.

    Thanks for your patience, and sorry to let you down. Hopefully it won't happen again.

    - Inglenook

    UPDATE 19 Surveys are Go Oct 31, 2014

    Hey everyone,

    The surveys have launched. :D We'll need you to complete them by December 1st, but they should only take a few minutes of your time.

    If you have any problems or spot an error with your order don't hesitate to get in touch. You can message us over Kickstarter or shoot us an email at: Witchmarsh@gmail.com and we'll get back to you as quickly as we can.

    Also, you can keep in touch with us on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Don't be a stranger!

    So what's next? First up is the Bestiaries, which are going out this weekend. Followed by the Town Council invites, stand by for those!

    After that we're looking at early 2015 for gold beta testing, and mid 2015 for bronze beta testing. We'll let you know when the dates are confirmed. Glad to have you along with us on this crazy ride, this update marks the first major important milestone on the road to release. :) THANK YOU!

    Psst. Matt, Coder on the Multiplayer part of Witchmarsh and Risk of Rain has a new game coming out.

    Check out the trailer for Wanderlust Adventures and see what you think. :)

    It's pretty late over in the UK so we'll be on tomorrow to answer any questions you might have regarding the surveys.

    Best wishes,

    - @Polysquid

    UPDATE 16 Bestiary Progress + Town Council Delay Sep 22, 2014

    Hey everyone,

    October's almost upon us, where does the time go? We've got a small update for you regarding the Digital Bestiary, which is due for delivery later this month.

    So far progress has been good and we're still hoping to make the deadline by the 30th, but we've made a couple of changes which could see it pushed back slightly. Monsters are now animated dynamically. Giant toads hop around their illustrated frames, skeletons scuttle about their crypts (see above image); this has added a bit of coding time to the process and has delayed us by about a week.

    Secondly, we've decided to write descriptive text for some of the enemies. Without them the book felt a bit clinical, like a booklet of statistics. This has also added some time to the building of the bestiary.

    We believe these changes are worth the wait, and we're still hoping to get it out to backers by the end of the month. If they happen to be a bit late though, we just wanted to let you know why. :)

    This has also delayed the surveys and with them, invites to the town council forums. But have no fear council backers, you'll be colluding in the shadows soon enough.

    All the best,

    Inglenook

    End of backer-only updates

    All other Kickstarter updates should be visible to everyone.
     
      Last edited: Feb 27, 2015
      Tsuruda likes this.
    • Nerva

      Nerva Parsec Taste Tester

      Darn, too bad I didn't hear about this game until the Kickstarter was already over. That bestiary actually sounds really neat.
       
      • Tweak

        Tweak Scruffy Nerf-Herder

        Aye, it is impressive, but far from complete (in the table-of-contents portions there are greyed out links to entries that read "coming in Volume II" or some-such). I think it will act more as a post-release bonus than a pre-release bonus. Volume I is just a good preview of what to expect of the final volume.
         
        • Tsuruda

          Tsuruda Title Not Found

          Yeah. If only I had discovered this project earlier T__T

          Looking forward to learn about monsters the hard way :3 (Through repeated death and retrial).
          And I sure hope we have some kind of in-game bestiary (No need to be as fancy and complete as the backer's, just something to keep track of monster names and maybe drops)
           
            Last edited: Mar 3, 2015
          • Flapdoddle

            Flapdoddle Witchmarsh Developer

            Hey Tweak,

            Thanks a lot for posting this. The team's been awfully busy lately and we've somewhat neglected the forums.

            New KS Update coming soon, I'll sticky this. :)
             
              Tsuruda likes this.
            • Tweak

              Tweak Scruffy Nerf-Herder

              Tsuruda likes this.
            • Tsuruda

              Tsuruda Title Not Found

              Saw it, shared it with some friends. I am not having trouble goading some friend into buying the game, as the content the developers release do all the work of selling itself. :3
              Now I am eagerly waiting for that promised March update. And the site with more info on the characters.
               
              • DatYandereGirl

                DatYandereGirl Big Damn Hero

                Not bad, just cannot wait to get my copy of it.
                 
                • Tsuruda

                  Tsuruda Title Not Found

                  Save us Tweak! There is an evil Backers-only update that needs to be unveilled /o/
                   
                  • Tweak

                    Tweak Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                    Update 25 (Jun 9, 2015)

                    Teething Problems + New AI and Ranged Combat


                    Hey everyone,

                    We're still here and putting our all into Witchmarsh! Progress has been solid on the environments, interface, story, and animations, but certain aspects of the code have been giving us trouble.

                    We've also been trying to tackle the issue of communication within the team. Poor communication has resulted in several setbacks, including some confusion over the handling of updates.

                    Both of these issues, we feel, are now behind us, and we can get down to the good stuff; building lots of content.

                    AI and Ranged Combat Systems

                    As mentioned in a previous update, friendly AI and ranged combat have been the primary dampers on progress. We thought we had them checked off, but as we progressed with development, the two systems proves less than watertight. Rather than apply a few bandaid solutions and press on, we decided to remake the systems from the ground up.

                    In between working on other aspects of the game, these new systems systems have finally been implemented. Here are the main changes:

                    • More responsive ranged combat, especially when swapping between melee and ranged.
                    • Several bugs which occurred in the old system have been eliminated.
                    • The big one: rather than hitting the closest enemy, shots can be aimed at a specific enemy target, bypassing enemies you don't want to hit. This allows for more strategic encounters.
                    • Friendly AI system allows for more commands than attack and follow.
                    (Media link) The new ranged combat, and commanding an AI-controlled teammate to fire. Both this video and the one below have placeholder sound effects and still need a bit of polish in regards to menu transitions and animations.

                    (Media link) Teammate AI. Now more flexible, efficient and responsive!

                    The friendly AI system is now more responsive and gives the player greater control over commanding their computer allies. Although this looks similar to the old system, under the hood it's much more efficient and flexible.

                    Delays?

                    Because of the issues we've already touched upon, a release date delay is starting to look probable. Rest assured the project isn't in any danger of being cancelled. It might take longer than we expected, but we're more determined than ever to bring Witchmarsh to life.

                    Item Icons!

                    Finally, we've increased the item icon size to 30x30 (up from 25). This allows for more personality and detail in the swag you'll be pulling from the pockets of bootleggers, and hollow tree stumps.

                    [​IMG]
                    Thanks for sticking with us on this difficult road to release. With our communication and code problems straightened out, we know that we can make this game happen. Thanks for your patience!

                    Stay tuned.
                     
                      Crossfang, Tsuruda and The | Suit like this.
                    • The | Suit

                      The | Suit Agent S. Forum Moderator

                      Wow those icons look amazingly beautiful, except for the java cup which looks a little off.

                      Otherwise everything else looks fantastic.
                       
                      • Tweak

                        Tweak Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                        Not a backers-only update, but since non-backers wouldn't have been notified, I might as well share all the updates. Right?

                        "Hey everyone,

                        As you might have guessed, things are still behind schedule. Rather than set new dates for the beta and make a bunch of fresh promises, what we’ll do is go over where the game’s at; where we hope it will be in a few weeks, and hopefully we can take it from there with more frequent updates.

                        Thanks to all the alpha testers who sent feedback for the version 0015 release. If you’re a late backer who backed after the sendout, just sit tight and the next version, 0016 should be rolling your way shortly.

                        Alpha 0016 will feature:

                        - A boss encounter!
                        - The first road test of the brand new cutscene and dialogue systems.
                        - New weapons; TNT, darts, shotguns, thrown knives, bear traps.

                        You can track the Alpha’s progress, see what we’re working on, view bug fixes and more in this document (Google docs).

                        [​IMG]
                        Dialogue System Upgrade

                        Rather than simply displaying text and presenting players with a few choices, dialogue and NPC interaction in Witchmarsh now sports many shiny new features. In addition to adding to the game’s Action-cRPG feel, the new system can handle features like skill checks and special dialogue paths for certain player specialisations.

                        For example, a player skilled in Rituals may unlock hidden dialogue choices when talking to a gang of occultist nogoodniks. We hope that these changes will significantly increase the game’s re-playability, and allow players to dig deeper into the game’s fictional universe and 1920s setting.

                        Communication/Update Status

                        Waiting for solid news between updates - especially on a project with less than a handful of developers - clearly isn’t working. As we’ve focused with laser-like precision on our own tasks, communication with backers has repeatedly suffered. In a major way. All we can do is apologise and try harder to bring you news, even if it’s just to let you know we’re still here.

                        Alpha Status

                        Our present focus is on delivering the second release of the Alpha, currently in version 0015. The good news is the UI overhaul (despite being incomplete), is already a vast improvement on the old version. It’s more flexible, and will allow for features like draggable windows, user customisation, and scaling for large monitors and TVs. It looks a lot prettier, too.

                        [​IMG]
                        The new hotkeys, with functioning cooldowns and ammo counters.
                        The alpha boss is in the testing phase, and we’re hoping to get more functionality in before letting the Gold Key testers take a look. Radial commands - currently undergoing repairs - would be ideal for ordering your followers out of the various hazards that are spawned during the encounter.

                        Release Status

                        Content for the campaign is coming together and acquiring a level of polish that we’d hoped for when we first called for delays. Despite the fact that things are still progressing much slower than we’d like, the main environments of the game: the city, the marsh and the crypts are in the bag. When the alpha is done we’ll be moving on to several key story locations that we want to polish up and turn into unique set pieces.

                        [​IMG]
                        Reward Status

                        A knock to the development cycle has meant the setback of several of our plans, including the delivery of rewards like the design-a-monster and backer portraits. Sorry again for the delays on this, and we will be in touch once we’re ready to start adding them to the game.

                        Well, again thanks for your patience. We hope all the delays and waiting will be worth it once we get the final, polished copy of the game delivered to you all. Again, thanks for helping us to do this."

                        On a much less important note, I'm posting my own stuff in the Town Council for those who have access.
                         
                          Tsuruda, Dunto and The | Suit like this.
                        • Dunto

                          Dunto Guest

                          Thanks for passing the news along! :)
                           
                          • Lucaskw

                            Lucaskw Void-Bound Voyager

                            Tweak, would you mind posting the recent one posted today? I've been following this thread regularly, thanks!
                             
                            • smore566

                              smore566 Aquatic Astronaut

                              Yes, please do Tweak. I preordered not the game so can't see the updates.
                               
                              • Tweak

                                Tweak Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                                Update #31

                                Witchmarsh is an ambitious game to produce, more so than we originally anticipated. In short, we had no idea the project was going to take this long.

                                We're now confident the worst of the technical issues and content re-dos are behind us, and that we’ll be able to supply you with a more frequent alpha very soon.

                                The bad news is the release date may be pushed back once more, we’ll let you know when we’re certain of this, hopefully sometime in November. For the time being we’ll be pausing late backer support until we know for sure.

                                We hope you’ll stick with us, because despite how badly we've let you all down, we firmly believe that the finished product will speak for itself.

                                Character Creation Revamp
                                [​IMG]

                                The updated Character Creation - first look at the new skills tab.

                                Like the new dialogue system, the game’s revamped character creation system is an improvement over the old one, which was unwieldy and hard to decipher. Unfortunately it’s taken longer than we anticipated, which is is the main reason behind the lack of new alpha builds. We wanted testers to have control over their party’s composition, in addition to more content. Once we've finished balancing the skills, talents and abilities, the alpha will commence with version 0015.

                                [​IMG]
                                Lester, the streetwise, tap-dancing recluse.

                                [​IMG]
                                Oscar the rowdy, musical traveling salesman.

                                Best wishes,

                                Inglenook
                                 
                                  Tsuruda likes this.
                                • smore566

                                  smore566 Aquatic Astronaut

                                  Thanks tweak!
                                   
                                  • Tsuruda

                                    Tsuruda Title Not Found

                                    Thank you very much Tweak! \o/

                                    It's sad to know the game may be delayed, but it is way better than receiving an unpolished or even incomplete mess from what could be a great game. And it seems the developers are going in the right direction, so I am hoping for the best :D
                                     
                                    • Tweak

                                      Tweak Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                                      Public Update 32 is also recently released
                                       
                                      • Tsuruda

                                        Tsuruda Title Not Found

                                        I REALLY like this Marsh-Frog Monday idea. Hope they can pull this bi-weekly idea of theirs.
                                        Also, I am really hoping the next spotlight is about the Curator :3
                                         

                                        Share This Page