Glorious Ashes of Creation community!
The team here at Intrepid Studios is excited to be opening the Divine Gateways on August 20, 2019 at 11:00 AM PDT as we start up our Apocalypse testing once again. We’ll have more details about the test posted on our website and social as we get closer to the date, so stay tuned!
We learned a lot from our previous tests due to all of your help. The data we gathered revealed the need for some architectural refactoring that we are glad we were able to spot early on, and we are happy to say that after rebuilding some of these systems from the ground up, we have resolved those issues! We cannot wait to have you join us as we start testing again, and as we move forwards towards Alpha One of the MMORPG Ashes of Creation.
During July we had another round of content for you all that we hope you enjoyed, but if you missed out on it, below is a synopsis!
Our Creative Director, Steven Sharif, released another Creative Director’s Letter introducing some of our new team members, announcing our new test date, and releasing a video covering our Mayoral Caravan System!
As with every quarter, we’ve been updating our Team Page to include new members! From left to right we have:
- Danielle is our Senior Customer Service guru and resident cupcake maker. (Seriously, you have to try her cupcakes!) She’s been working on solidifying our support processes, and reducing the time users spend waiting for their Customer Service tickets to be resolved.
- Our Design Team had three new hires! Our newest member, J.R., is a Senior Game Designer working on a whole slew of things from user interface to world design. Brian is a Gameplay Designer who has been working on systems, abilities, and combat balance! Terrence is a Senior Game Designer with a wide range of design experience who has been working on everything from systems to gameplay.
- Last but not least is Jincy, our newest Character Artist! She’s very talented, and you’ve already seen some of her amazing work on the Fellbeak Macaw!
We opened voting on our “cute small pets” Kickstarter stretch goal – the winners were Peacat (who wiped out the competition) and Doggit (who had to compete in a neck and neck race with the Husky, winning by just four votes)! As these creatures are being made, we’ll be sharing the process like we’ve done for many of our other creations on our website and through our social media channels.
Steven and Jeffrey Bard, our Lead Designer, also sat down to discuss the process of building a system like the Mayoral Caravan. In this video, they showcased the blueprinting of a system, the testing phases on their local clients, and also what the prototype looks like once it’s in-game. While these systems are coming to fruition, we plan to share more videos like this. We’ve nailed down the basic node system, but finishing and polishing up the caravan and the mayoral systems will get us one step closer to our Alpha One phase. These systems are crucial to making the nodes a living breathing world, allowing players to make decisions with consequences that will affect and change the world around them.
In our most recent live stream, Steven, Jeffrey, and Margaret Krohn (Community Marketing Lead) were joined by another round of guests from our Development Team! Alex Khudoliy (Programmer) discussed his work on the engineering of Castle Sieges and even showed off a video of the Trebuchet in action. J.R. Vosovic (Senior Game Designer) talked about the user interface work he’s been doing, and provided us with some screenshots of the new and improved UI in action! Devin Lafontaine (Senior Artist) talked about the polish work he’s been doing on the Apocalypse starting area, and showed off some of the new Py’rai concept art for their environments in the world. Keith Kovach (Senior Character Artist) joined us with a display of amazing characters that he and his team have been hard at work creating. After all of that, we also did our monthly Q&A, answering the community’s questions on a variety of topics!
The ecology of the world of Verra has always meant a lot to us. We want each creature to have a purpose, and as the world around them alters, have them react to that change. The Quarrior is a creature that knows all too well the consequences of such shifts. You’ll definitely want to read their lore, and check out the in-game screenshots of them out in the wild. We also included a video that displays the creation process of Quarrior from concept to completion!
If you haven’t partaken in our Dev Discussions, we highly recommend it! We’ve been absolutely loving the feedback you have all been sharing in each of these threads on theforums, Facebook, and Twitter! In July, we asked everyone to share their PvP stories and experiences with us.
- Many shared their excitement of large-scale PvP where gains and losses mattered.
- Some expressed the fun of outmatching opponents who outleveled or outnumbered them, and being able to showcase their PvP prowess.
- While others mentioned that proper communication and tools to do so were key as PvP experiences are often cooperative.
The Maestros of Merriment
The cosmetics below will not be available after August 7, 2019 at 11:00 AM Pacific.
The Ashes of Creation shop offers 4 unique and limited packages, which grant access to our Alpha and Beta phases. Each month these packages will change, offering a limited-time cosmetic set. If you own a previous month’s package or are a Kickstarter or summer backer, you are able to add the cosmetics found in our monthly pre-order packages as addons. The cosmetics in the packages are limited and will not be available again for purchase after they are changed!
Wayfarer Pre-order Package
- Access to Beta 2
- 2 months of game time ($30 Value)
- $25 in Embers (in-game marketplace credits, NO P2W!)
- Merrymaker’s Sparkpack
Expeditionary Pre-order Package
- Access to Beta 1
- Access to Beta 2
- 4 months of game time ($60 Value)
- $50 in Embers (in-game marketplace credits, NO P2W!)
- Merrymaker’s Sparkpack
- Troll of Joyous Artillery
Voyager Pre-order Package
- Access to Alpha 2
- Access to Beta 1
- Access to Beta 2
- 6 months of game time ($90 Value)
- $100 in Embers (in-game marketplace credits, NO P2W!)
- Merrymaker’s Sparkpack
- Troll of Joyous Artillery
- Cinderhorn Steer
Voyager Plus Pre-order Package
- Access to Alpha 2
- Access to Beta 1
- Access to Beta 2
- 9 months of game time ($135 value)
- $125 in Embers (in-game marketplace credits, NO P2W!)
- Merrymaker’s Sparkpack
- Troll of Joyous Artillery
- Cinderhorn Steer
- Mantle of the Merrymaker
- The Wonderwisp
- Odeon of Sorcerous Awe
- Name Reservation
