Its been a while and sure time passes slowly if you are waiting and nothing happens. Eventually people start to worry. On my end however time passed much more quickly - which is how time works I guess if you are in head over heels. My first intend was to delay news just until I got everything sort out and something solid to present. Shouldn't take too long - right? STEAM Early Access put a lot of pressure on us. More then some of us could handle. We worked insanely hard for month before Early Access even started and even more after release. People who are with us since ever know we are no quitters - we are used to work hard but his was beyond our design parameters as humans. Slowly I started to loose sleep and for the first time in many years I had no idea how to fix things since I'm a technical guy yet the problem was not primarily of a technical nature. In a tragic way we fell victim to our own initial success and the nature of STEAM itself. My plan was to successfully launch on STEAM and build up a small team with its own office etc which would have reduced the pressure and work hours. The first few weeks it looked promising. Early Access went up like a rocket but just like the law of physics: "What goes up must come down" It wouldn't take long until it came back crashing right into my front yard. At times it felt like being a small fish in a pool of sharks trying to survive. I don't want to point fingers but darkfalzx's words in his Legend of Iya Newsletter #31 make much more sense to me now: "To make matters worse, the once mighty STEAM has become a cesspool of shovelware and asset flips, where good games go to die." I by no means want to imply KOL is a good game but darkfalzx's "Mystik Bell" totally is. STEAM may not be the right place for us - and even if we manage somehow at some point - for now we have to withdraw the game. Maybe we can relaunch as free to play, maybe we have to leave STEAM entirely and go back to our own website and game service. I don't know yet. Whatever comes next there are some changes to the game which we would need to incorporate in order to reduce workload and incorporate the feedback we got so far. The biggest change would be a much more simplified art style, procedural generated maps, double the view distance by reducing the assets size or double the game engine resolution, re-code the player control module ... just to mention a few. I know its still pretty vague and more so most certainly not what most of you signed on for but at least this puts an end to all of you worrying about the people behind the game more then for the game it self. I'm deeply sorry that I have no better news for you. Presbyter & his Team.

First of all let me apologize for the unusual late news. Obviously something essential to the project kept us busy and that's why todays news starts with a message from our pixelartist Vierbit: I shouldn't write this statement in the first place. But the current state of KoL makes this a necessary. As many of you noticed the development is crawling along at snail pace, and understandable the questions arise why that is the case. Without going into personal details, let's just say due to health issues I wasn't able to work to my fullest potential, especially during the last few months in 2017. We're a small team and everyone is a crucial part of the development, with me being responsible of creating the art assets for KoL. Working too slow on my side also slows down the whole project. While that is no excuse, being transparent about the issues is the least I can offer. While doing so, it's also necessary to address our estimated release date. While still more than a year away it becomes more and more apparentthe full release will get delayed. To clarify, this doesn't mean Kingdom of Loot is cancelled. But the development hit some rocky ground, and it's necessary to address these problems rather now than later. Vierbit KoL's Pixelartist Right now we evaluate options to get this solved. With such a small team where every single team member is essential to success above could happen to anyone of the team. Normally we just push even harder but off course there are limits. Especially while being in EA. Right now its too early to present other then what we did create since the last news ... and its even more then I can show right now. But as Vierbit tried to explain the situation binds a lot the teams workpower on finding and evaluating options rather then just merrily working along. New login screen adjusted for new Overworld concept:
Region is completed by completing a special Tower:

Twilight Mine Teaser (map assets completed by now): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MOAQHG9Dy8 That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

First of all let me apologize for the unusual late news. Obviously something essential to the project kept us busy and that's why todays news starts with a message from our pixelartist Vierbit: I shouldn't write this statement in the first place. But the current state of KoL makes this a necessary. As many of you noticed the development is crawling along at snail pace, and understandable the questions arise why that is the case. Without going into personal details, let's just say due to health issues I wasn't able to work to my fullest potential, especially during the last few months in 2017. We're a small team and everyone is a crucial part of the development, with me being responsible of creating the art assets for KoL. Working too slow on my side also slows down the whole project. While that is no excuse, being transparent about the issues is the least I can offer. While doing so, it's also necessary to address our estimated release date. While still more than a year away it becomes more and more apparentthe full release will get delayed. To clarify, this doesn't mean Kingdom of Loot is cancelled. But the development hit some rocky ground, and it's necessary to address these problems rather now than later. Vierbit KoL's Pixelartist Right now we evaluate options to get this solved. With such a small team where every single team member is essential to success above could happen to anyone of the team. Normally we just push even harder but off course there are limits. Especially while being in EA. Right now its too early to present other then what we did create since the last news ... and its even more then I can show right now. But as Vierbit tried to explain the situation binds a lot the teams workpower on finding and evaluating options rather then just merrily working along. New login screen adjusted for new Overworld concept:
Region is completed by completing a special Tower:

Twilight Mine Teaser (map assets completed by now): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MOAQHG9Dy8 That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

As announced earlier today the latest installment of KOL has arrived. All serves are patched and ready to go. It's the biggest update released so far in Early Access. It introduces the long awaited new Overworld concept of navigating the world as well as a total overhaul if the game world it self. It took a hell lot of work to transform the game based on your input, reports and suggestions. Together with our friends over at chrono.gg we will offer a heavily discounted 2-pack the next 24 hours. If you or your friends have been hesitant to check the game out to this point - now its the time. Stay tuned since this is just the first update of a series of updates required to get everything we got done online. But as always - lets take one step at a time and this weekend belongs to gaming on your end and some rest on ours. That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

As announced earlier today the latest installment of KOL has arrived. All serves are patched and ready to go. It's the biggest update released so far in Early Access. It introduces the long awaited new Overworld concept of navigating the world as well as a total overhaul if the game world it self. It took a hell lot of work to transform the game based on your input, reports and suggestions. Together with our friends over at chrono.gg we will offer a heavily discounted 2-pack the next 24 hours. If you or your friends have been hesitant to check the game out to this point - now its the time. Stay tuned since this is just the first update of a series of updates required to get everything we got done online. But as always - lets take one step at a time and this weekend belongs to gaming on your end and some rest on ours. That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Today we finally release the long awaited update EA.021 which introduces the new Overworld concept as well as a new map "Funghi Forest" next to a huge amount of changes to the overall integration to the gameworld and the way you will navigate and explore it. The update is one of a series of updates addressing the input we got from you the players and the problems we discovered when developing - especially balancing and expanding. We will celebrate this milestones with our friends over at Chrono.gg with a huge discount on a two player bundle for the next 24 hours. Event will start in about 12 hours and can be checked via chrono.gg website. Okay back to work, still alot things to do before acutally patching the gameservice. Expect some downtime the next 12 hours while patching is in progress. That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Today we finally release the long awaited update EA.021 which introduces the new Overworld concept as well as a new map "Funghi Forest" next to a huge amount of changes to the overall integration to the gameworld and the way you will navigate and explore it. The update is one of a series of updates addressing the input we got from you the players and the problems we discovered when developing - especially balancing and expanding. We will celebrate this milestones with our friends over at Chrono.gg with a huge discount on a two player bundle for the next 24 hours. Event will start in about 12 hours and can be checked via chrono.gg website. Okay back to work, still alot things to do before acutally patching the gameservice. Expect some downtime the next 12 hours while patching is in progress. That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, I just upload two new videos to YouTube showing the latest progress. Time to publish a new Insight. Overworld: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Kms2v3VHU From a technical point of view the new Overworld is almost done. Whats left is to implement a way to balance its maps more easily. Right now we have to change actual data instead of just "turning a knob" to increase or decrease difficulty. Work also continued on content creation to fill up the empty Overworld spots. New Map: Fungi Forest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cTN_czSxP0 Video also shows the Anglel shapeshift of the Cleric Class in action for the first time. Fitting all the new stuff together to a playable update is our major focus. It will be the by far most complex update since entering Early Access and I do not dare to give an estimate on when it will be ready. Right now it looks like we are on track to release a complete first zone upon Easter 2018 which will be used as a template for the other zones to come. Fingers crossed. That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, I just upload two new videos to YouTube showing the latest progress. Time to publish a new Insight. Overworld: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Kms2v3VHU From a technical point of view the new Overworld is almost done. Whats left is to implement a way to balance its maps more easily. Right now we have to change actual data instead of just "turning a knob" to increase or decrease difficulty. Work also continued on content creation to fill up the empty Overworld spots. New Map: Fungi Forest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cTN_czSxP0 Video also shows the Anglel shapeshift of the Cleric Class in action for the first time. Fitting all the new stuff together to a playable update is our major focus. It will be the by far most complex update since entering Early Access and I do not dare to give an estimate on when it will be ready. Right now it looks like we are on track to release a complete first zone upon Easter 2018 which will be used as a template for the other zones to come. Fingers crossed. That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, last time I showed a static image of the new Overworld concept. Today I finally can show you an actual ingame implementation of what is to come. Its recorded directly from the development system and has some frame rate issues which will be ironed out in time but you will get the point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcsV5JYJF9g&lc= Right now we spend all available resources into replacing the old Overworld with the new one. Also while redesigning the Overworld and more or less the entire game world in respects of size and content with it we laid out the entire development roadmap until release. More on that in future Insights. What I can show you right now however is a concept preview of the first boss:
I would really like to keep you guys and girls more into the loop of whats going on but its pretty hard to develop and push forward while making time to just stop what you do right now and send this out. I hope that once we made the huge step from the old game world architecture to the new one we got much more settled down in terms of actual content creation instead of constant prototyping. Lastly we finally also got the tools finished to re-work the GUI to your recommendations. Once the Overworld is done we will make time to work on that as well. Also more on that in future. That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, last time I showed a static image of the new Overworld concept. Today I finally can show you an actual ingame implementation of what is to come. Its recorded directly from the development system and has some frame rate issues which will be ironed out in time but you will get the point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcsV5JYJF9g&lc= Right now we spend all available resources into replacing the old Overworld with the new one. Also while redesigning the Overworld and more or less the entire game world in respects of size and content with it we laid out the entire development roadmap until release. More on that in future Insights. What I can show you right now however is a concept preview of the first boss:
I would really like to keep you guys and girls more into the loop of whats going on but its pretty hard to develop and push forward while making time to just stop what you do right now and send this out. I hope that once we made the huge step from the old game world architecture to the new one we got much more settled down in terms of actual content creation instead of constant prototyping. Lastly we finally also got the tools finished to re-work the GUI to your recommendations. Once the Overworld is done we will make time to work on that as well. Also more on that in future. That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, last two weeks we worked on finalizing the Development Roadmap until release and finishing up the re-design of the overworld concept. Both are close to be finished and I attached the latest version of the overworld down below. The Development Roadmap incorporates all the data acquired since the start of development and especially Early Access. Biggest part of it is of course the creation of graphical content like tilesets, maps and monsters. We took into account the time left until release (Easter 2019) and past performance as well as funds available to make this all happen. We will transform the Development Roadmap to a progress bar and publish it at the storefront to be more transparent on where we are right now and what's still to be done as well as whether or not we are ahead or behind schedule. Of course the bar is only as accurate as its data and most of it are estimates and rough guesses especially when it comes to coding and fixing bugs it is almost impossible to estimate precisely since there is more to it then lets say the repetition of creating maps. More on this when we actually got something to show for. Release Preview Overworld Map:
(Fullsize Image link) That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, last two weeks we worked on finalizing the Development Roadmap until release and finishing up the re-design of the overworld concept. Both are close to be finished and I attached the latest version of the overworld down below. The Development Roadmap incorporates all the data acquired since the start of development and especially Early Access. Biggest part of it is of course the creation of graphical content like tilesets, maps and monsters. We took into account the time left until release (Easter 2019) and past performance as well as funds available to make this all happen. We will transform the Development Roadmap to a progress bar and publish it at the storefront to be more transparent on where we are right now and what's still to be done as well as whether or not we are ahead or behind schedule. Of course the bar is only as accurate as its data and most of it are estimates and rough guesses especially when it comes to coding and fixing bugs it is almost impossible to estimate precisely since there is more to it then lets say the repetition of creating maps. More on this when we actually got something to show for. Release Preview Overworld Map:
(Fullsize Image link) That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, today we patched update EA.020 which adds a dynamic camera system to the game. Due to the non proportional size of the screen (16:9) view distance in the y-axis were limited to a point where especially distance attack based classes hoped for a way to compensate. The camera can be adjusted or deactivated via the new "Graphics & sound" option on the 'ESC' screen and based on your movements compensates by scrolling the screen in the opposite relative direction. Makes the game feel much more dynamic as a side effect and was on the suggestion list of players for month now. Demonstration Video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0izyPjVvVb0 Work also continued on the revision of the overworld layout but unfortunately STEAM does not upload images to the news section right now due to an error message?! Hopefully they will fix this soon and I can add some example screenshots to better show what we did and how it looks. Lets check back later. Maybe I can even record a demonstration video - lets see.
That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, today we patched update EA.020 which adds a dynamic camera system to the game. Due to the non proportional size of the screen (16:9) view distance in the y-axis were limited to a point where especially distance attack based classes hoped for a way to compensate. The camera can be adjusted or deactivated via the new "Graphics & sound" option on the 'ESC' screen and based on your movements compensates by scrolling the screen in the opposite relative direction. Makes the game feel much more dynamic as a side effect and was on the suggestion list of players for month now. Demonstration Video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0izyPjVvVb0 Work also continued on the revision of the overworld layout but unfortunately STEAM does not upload images to the news section right now due to an error message?! Hopefully they will fix this soon and I can add some example screenshots to better show what we did and how it looks. Lets check back later. Maybe I can even record a demonstration video - lets see.
That's all for now and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. We continued to work on the overworld redesign to keep the scope of the game to a manageable size and complexity of the finished game. Its still at prototype stage and not final in any way. Just wanted to show you what we got so far: Click to watch YouTube Prototype review
Show full image:

First is "normal entrance" Second is "locked because hero level too small" Third is "locked entrance" That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. We continued to work on the overworld redesign to keep the scope of the game to a manageable size and complexity of the finished game. Its still at prototype stage and not final in any way. Just wanted to show you what we got so far: Click to watch YouTube Prototype preview
Show full image:

First is "normal entrance" Second is "locked because hero level too small" Third is "locked entrance" That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. A few SS ago I rambled about the future of KOL. How Steam EA went so far and what we learned after reviewing your suggestions and feedback. In the end we have to come up with something that will be released eventually and given how EA went so far is realistic in regards to funding and manpower. Moreover this is EA which means we are in this together and make your feedback count. Most KOL players complain about the lag of guidance and goal in KOL. The MMO aspect adds a nice touch but in the end the game needs to be enjoyable being solo, just with another friend or a full party. Combat needs to be enhanced and the entire gameplay more streamlined. Also the average playtime and amount of content one buys into should be more apparent. So this is what we came up with so far: KOL will be released with six classes. The final game world consists of four different climate zones (grass, desert, ice & snow and volcanic). We will add a goal to the game - its basic and generic - since its not the focus of KOL ... the focus will still be getting better and better gear. Its killing the "Darklord". You will be able to buy the game on a rainy Friday afternoon and kill the "Darklord" the same Sunday late evening unlocking the next difficult level. The world map will be modified to guide you through the world by unlocking locations step by step. Like now you will start at "High Castle" and fight your way to the "Lair of the Darklord". Size and level of detail of the game world are accounted for in regards of funds and team size and the given time frame for release. It will be a complete game - not something that will rely on future dlcs or expansions. Early concept of the complete game world:
Blue circles = Town hubs Red circles = Open crossroad maps White/red circles = Instanced theme maps White/purple circles = Final map of the given climate zone Very early concept of the new world map:
Still got to iron out quite a few things but you should have a better idea now about what may finally be released. More on that in future newsletters. That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. A few SS ago I rambled about the future of KOL. How Steam EA went so far and what we learned after reviewing your suggestions and feedback. In the end we have to come up with something that will be released eventually and given how EA went so far is realistic in regards to funding and manpower. Moreover this is EA which means we are in this together and make your feedback count. Most KOL players complain about the lag of guidance and goal in KOL. The MMO aspect adds a nice touch but in the end the game needs to be enjoyable being solo, just with another friend or a full party. Combat needs to be enhanced and the entire gameplay more streamlined. Also the average playtime and amount of content one buys into should be more apparent. So this is what we came up with so far: KOL will be released with six classes. The final game world consists of four different climate zones (grass, desert, ice & snow and volcanic). We will add a goal to the game - its basic and generic - since its not the focus of KOL ... the focus will still be getting better and better gear. Its killing the "Darklord". You will be able to buy the game on a rainy Friday afternoon and kill the "Darklord" the same Sunday late evening unlocking the next difficult level. The world map will be modified to guide you through the world by unlocking locations step by step. Like now you will start at "High Castle" and fight your way to the "Lair of the Darklord". Size and level of detail of the game world are accounted for in regards of funds and team size and the given time frame for release. It will be a complete game - not something that will rely on future dlcs or expansions. Early concept of the complete game world:
Blue circles = Town hubs Red circles = Open crossroad maps White/red circles = Instanced theme maps White/purple circles = Final map of the given climate zone Very early concept of the new world map:
Still got to iron out quite a few things but you should have a better idea now about what may finally be released. More on that in future newsletters. That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. A lot of people keep asking about the Cleric class and its date of release and so on. Since its still not in the game I guess its a good time to show what we got so far:
As some of you guessed already - Cleric "Superskill" is to transform into an angel. Also the "Hornet's Nest" map has finally been released and with it some changes to the "Emerald Forest" which shows the amount of details we are aiming for when it comes to building the game world. Here are some comparisons between EA.018 & EA.019:


Last but not least the finished the basic gear & paperdoll sets for each of the six classes with six tiers of uprgrades:
That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Next SS we will talk about the future of the game. Which of your suggestions and feedback will make it into the game. Its size and changes to what we got now etc ... will be interesting. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. I delayed this issue a little to make sure to not get back to you empty handed. Which I wont. Gameservice will go down 30/31 of August to patch in the latest updates. The new "Hornet's Nest" map will finally be added to the game - it's been a little more work then usually because the map is not in chronological order of expanding the game world since it will fill the gap between "Emerald Forest" and "Lost Temple" and required adjustments on "World" Map, "Emerald Forest" and the implementation of the map it self to make it work. Vierbit already started to work on the next map which will hopefully be announced with a little teaser next Sunday. Last few weeks we got a few inquiries from third party sites who are interested in adding KOL to bundles or other means of publishing. We gave it some thoughts and decided that we will not expose the game to a bigger audience at this point - other then just being on STEAM EA. I mean surely a partnership beyond EA would lead to increased sales numbers and income - which would help as well but the response we got from you the players so far is encouraging but also pretty unanimous when it comes to the verdict that there is quite a lot wrong in the Kingdom of Loot and I'm not talking about minor tweaks and shifts. I'm talking about major shortcomings in gameplay, concept and engine. Fixing some of them just requires work and that's it - some on the other hand shake the very foundation of the game. It will be challenge - a huge challenge. Expanding on a flawed foundation may bring the entire structure down at some point - so we are super careful on how to proceed and overcome the problems at hand. Unfortunately this takes a lot of time out of what's recognized as progress on your end. After four month in EA we got a pretty good understanding on how big the "niche" is for a game like KOL and eventually will become during the cause of EA. At this point we sold about 10.000 copies and have 15.000 wishlist entries. Further work on the game will hopefully have a positive effect on sales - but to be honest - not a single update had a positive or even stabilizing effect on statistics. Our resources will remain limited and with the above in mind the challenge just got a little bigger. So let's release EA.018 update and step by step work your suggestions and reports into the concept of what KOL will finally become and hope for the best. Challenge accepted. That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Last week we patched in a hugely requested feature - custom key mapping. Better game controller support will be next. We also finished the "Hornets Nest" map which will fill the level gap between the "Emerald Forest" and "Lost Temple" if all goes well the map will be patched in by the end of the week. Vierbit also finished all the graphical assets required for the cleric class, so expect some solid progress and more details in the next weeks. I don't wont to spoil the reason why Cleric class took such a long time to create the graphical assets but old SEYKEN veterans may already have an idea. I also worked my way through the suggestions a little more and its becoming clear to me that we need to rethink most of the concepts of the game in regards of gameplay. I read also some of the online reviews and this one is pretty close to my own understanding of where we are at this point: Kingdom of Loot – a quick look at the early access (0.17) As I said in the EA launch afterthoughts - we will be together for a long and bumpy ride. It might just gotten a little longer. People are still taking an interest and provide feedback and thoughts, please continue to do so. Next Sunday we will hopefully talk about EA.018 and its release. That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Cheapest it has ever been. chrono.gg

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some insights about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Last week we continued to work on the GUI and controls and got to the point where it seemed perfect to get started on customizable controls so the new GUI and controls would take advantage of this right away.
Got pretty far and most of the keyboard input can be re-arranged by the player and his style of playing. Will take a few more days to get all keys re-mapped dynamically but the core system is working. Work also continued on the new "Hornet's Nest" map and requires some changes on the Word &Emerald Forest Map before release. At this time of year there is Summer Holidays Season in Germany and like everybody else we also will be out of office for a few days to get a vacation and some rest. The Early Access launch and first weeks of being online took a huge toll on ourselfs and some time to recharge our batteries is something we really look forward to. We will still be online and check the forums etc - I will also continue to work on the code since its something that actually relaxes my mind, but much more casual and infrequently. That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Last week we released the latest Movement 3.0 update which fixed most of the reported issues like not being able to change direction while actively defending against enemy attacks (parry, block, dodge) or strafing with a ranged class. There is still an issue with diagonal movement where the keystrokes are sometimes recognized with delay or not being recognized at all. Wont be long until 4.0 will be released which hopefully fixes this I hope. I also started to rework the inventory module to implement all the input given by players. Current inventory system is a pain to use and not intuitive at all. Worn gear will not occupy an item slot anymore for example next to other improvements like swap items slots on the fly without having to clear the slot first etc. The entire GUI will need a lot of work to get it to a reasonable state. Work also started on better tools to replicate reported bugs by being able to clone a character into a developer account so we can see firsthand whats wrong. Implementing Inventory 2.0 will require this feature since its almost inevitable that it is 100% bulletproof right from the start. Lastly I spend quite some time on reading and investigating all the feedback given by charge backs, forum, social media and emails. It all comes down more or less to the point that the game needs improvement in almost all areas of development. I would divide the feedback into two directions ... more content regardless of the obvious flaws in the underlying game framework and do not add more content until you got the framework patched up since the players will be drawn out of the game right away before even reaching the content. The feedback we already got will keep us busy for month. Not only in regards of whats already there but also where to go and what's to come. It takes time from actually coding and shifts to brainstorming problems and determining how to address and fix them before adding even more content to a flawed system. It all must be fit in the time frame of reaching beta Easter 2018 and Gold Easter 2019 as well as limited resources and man power. Will be quite an effort but necessary and worthwhile. More on this once we got something solid to talk about. Next content update will add the "Hornet's Nest" map:
That's all for this week and If it happens you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Last week I've been out of office for a few days but nevertheless managed to continue to work down the bugs and requested features list. Among others I fixed the ColorTable used to colorize your gear, improved character movement routine and added icons to minimize or exit the game while login in via fullscreen mode. For for information check the EA.016 update patch notes. Meanwhile Vierbit finished the "Hornet's Nest" map and is finishing up on the monsters populating the map. Rest of his month will be spend on creating further graphical assets required for Cleric class. I will continue on the bugs list and further improvement of the GUI. We also got tons of feedback on how to enhance gameplay. May lead to some mayor changes - got a lot of data to process first thought. That's all for this week and If you have been - thank you for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. As I anticipated - last week was pretty uneventful. We worked down the buglist some more and patched in two hotfixes to fix some problems with the new options and settings screen. The new auto reconnect feature is now online which will take care of everything in case of a disconnect. Designing and "building" the "Hornet's Nest" map is complete - just got a preview from Vierbit - and we will soon start to add it to the "Emerald Forest" map to fill the gap between L1-3 Monsters and the "Lost Temple" L5+ map. The map will also have a "little" surprise - but don't want to spoil anything here. You will like it. Summer Sale ended beginning of the week and was very successful. We got more support in SS which was a week then in an entire month! Thank you. We got some homework to do. Creating better tools to get content online quicker. Work on the server side of the game some more as well as continue on bug fixing and the much requested new inventory and shop revision. After almost two month on Steam we also got some idea on how big the additional budget generated by Early Access will be. The higher the budget the more content and additional support can be created and acquired. We got some more promotional events in the pipeline. More on that in the near future. That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Last week we worked down the bug list and most requested features list. Biggest change was the implementation of the options and settings screen which lets you change character without having to actually restart the game. One feature didn't make it in the EA.015 update which is the auto re-connect feature in case of a disconnect. Also the server sided disconnect time could be reduced from five (which annoyed most players) to two minutes. This week we pretty uneventful because we will just continue bug fixing and finalize the options screen to a degree that we easily can add sub menus and gui components. We will also continue work on the "Hornets Nest" Map and Clerlic Class. That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Last week we changed the startup setting from window to fullscreen mode and fixed the difficult level system for all instances. We also fixed all reported bugs of the "Sunken Sacntuary" which was released just last weekend. Thanks to all the players reporting in. Next week we will continue to work on the new Level 3+ beginner instance inside "Emerald Forest". Its called the "Hornets Nest" and will be released in July:
We will also continue to work on bug fixing and might even start on re-working the gui ... especially inventory and shopping. Depends on how far we get on the bug fixing part. We will see. That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

Kingdom of Loot takes part in the 2017 Steam Summer Sale with a 25% discount. Happy Looting!

this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. I shouldn't work on Sundays ... just realized that I almost forgot to post the new SS. Yesterday the labor of two weeks working "almost" day and night got online - the new level 25+ "SUNKEN SANCTUARY" map. The map is pretty special because its the first one to incorporate a "medium" = water into the gameplay. Given the complexity of the endeavor it went pretty smooth with only some minor issues to fix (which most I already did) and some people already mapping the whole thing. We already started to work on the next map - which will be announced once we got something to show for and dead set to release a brand new map each month. We also reworked most of the fullscreen code to be able to start the game fullscreen right from the start or at least via the settings tab if requested. Will launch a trail run next week with some other fixes and see how that turns out. Pretty happy with what we got done for the last few days and hope to take the momentum into next week. We will see. That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Today its almost next to impossible to stay indoor and focused. Its a perfect sunny day and I will be out - so lets get this out early this time. Last week we checked how the game runs on Linux, SteamOS and Mac. Linux seems to be okayish but MacOS has some problems. We got it to a point where we can get some more feedback and understand how other OS work together with Steam and leave it with that right now - takes too much time at this point. All assets for the Sunken Sanctuary are complete and about 25% of the map integration is complete. Actually the first floor is almost complete. Maybe I add it as a preview to the next update - we will see. May spoil some stuff however. Prior to adding the new map to the game we had to fix and complete the map difficult system which never actually worked. It works now and monster level, Experience points and Loot vary accordingly. Also saving the progress never worked correctly and being able to cheat completion has been taken care of as well. Next week we will split time between the new map and further bug fixing. We also have to start reworking the GUI at some point. Like Inventory and Merchant REV.01 ... we will see. That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Last week we added a basic quest and npc dialogue sytem to the game. We also worked on the controls some more since we got tons of feedback on what needs to be fixed. Bug fixing in general still takes a lot of time and getting something to a degree where its okay for now feels good. Work also continued on the "Sunken Sanctuary" map and getting one new map released each month is a set goal. All monsters are done and map building is in its final stage with only a few graphical assets left to complete like destroyable objects and traps. We also spend some time on Linux & Mac release since we are almost 8 weeks late - looks good and hopefully we can get something released next week and move on. Next week we will try to fix everything that needs to be fixed prior to the release of a new map and work some more on missing features and additional content. Question: So when is the cleric going to be released? Right now getting the "Sunken Sanctuary" done is highest priority. Cleric has been worked on as well but still needs time. That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Last week we patched in the new character control revision and introduced cycling through enemies (X) and target closest enemy (C) to the game. We also started to work on the quest system and are pretty confident that we will be able to patch in a first revision next week. Work also continued on the "Sunken Sanctuary" map which will be released begin of June. We are sorting out a regular schedule on which we release new maps - perhaps every first Monday of each month. We will see. We still got a lot of bugs bugs to fix and enhancements to make but we are getting somewhere. Introducing quests would be a nice change to build on and would keep people busy besides the usual grind. Questions: Right now our provider does not own server in Brazil. But demand is high, not only from our side so hopefully that will change soon. Work on the GUI also continues and will introduce a new inventory and shopping system to iron out most of the reported flaws. That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Last week we introduced a new targeting and attack system. Feedback was good after an initial rollback of the changes. Melee is okayish now ... ranged want their old system back. Okay lets adjust the target radar to accompany melee or ranged classes with each their own needs add means to lock and change through targets and we should be good to go. We also revised the movement system which will be online in a few days. We decided to get rid of mouse movement and decided on keyboard and controllers only. Otherwise its just too many inputs to hassle at the same time leading to no good controls at all. Work continued on art assets and we hired another hand to speed up things. We also hired a game designer who's only task it is to channel all the cluttered problems throughout the game into a coherent stream. This week I'll work on some stuff open from last week. The rollback of the Rev.01 targeting system, revising and roll out Rev.02 took time away from other work. I had a discussion with player Dransik about what needs to be done first and how to prioritize. Its all little bits and pieces of a huge puzzle. We are a very small team and we didn't get this far because we totally lost track. Sure EA is a totally new thing but in the end its Easter 2019 what matters most. The day we will roll out KOL 1.0. Don't just loose faith so early and get all negative about things. Together we can make this good and that's what EA is about. If you disagree with something let us know we will listen! I got many questions about new content. I addressed this in #4 its still valid. Q) In Kingdom of Loot, what part of the game are you guys primarily trying to have as a part of the game that players will enjoy? For example, multiplayer, community, combat, etc. A) Loot, create and trade better and better gear in order to advance enabling you to get even better loot and repeat. That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Today I have to keep it short since its Mothersday and mothers tend to disagree with their sons being in the office all day. We worked on the very core of the engine this week to implement and improve a new targeting system as well a more arcade style battle system. Coding is complete and we are testing the new system to fix obvious bugs and glitches. If things go well we will release in the next few days. Work also continued on new graphical assets for the guildhall as well as a not yet announced instance inside "Emerald Forest" and the next high level instance "Sunken Sanctuary". Cleric class is also worked on ... fingers crossed we can show something pretty soon. Okay this weeks questions: Q) Will classes always remain gender locked? Will character customization be more widely available with more options later on? We hate gender lock as much as you guys do. But for now its the only way to make the graphical assets required affordable ... lets see if EA goes well we can adjust. Q) What's your planned business model? On other words, will this game be pay to win, or will it make money by just selling things like cosmetics in the future? A) Whats about this pay to win all the time - it ruins games ... we might sell cosmetics and even that inst fully thought through yet. Q) Will there be character customization one day? A) Hopefully yes. Q) There is a possibility in future create a South America server? A) We got many request in that department and checking options. Q) Its a question about the future of your game, I can't stand pay-to-win, and i have to know if down the road you will take that way OR you will NEVER go pay-to-win. A) Question already answered. NO. Q) Some people dont understand how Time-consuming a Class Creation can take, can you tell Us players: how many time its take in general ? (Balance-Skill-Art-test) include. A) Puh there are so many things that are connected to class which also has be be created. I some several hundred hours. Q) i can read that pvp will not be a priority,You will realy add PVP 100% after long time OR Dev team is not sure about the future of pvp in this game. A) Not really sure ... we would love to but depends on the success of the game. Happy Mothersday!!! Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. We worked on some of the most requested changes on the attack system and Rogue class by introducing auto attack and fast attack to the game. We patched numerous bugs and glitches and added the first unique item (Ring of Jordan) to the game. In short - we have been busy. Next week we will add the Adventurer Guild as starting area to High Castle. Entrance will be right building next to the Soulstone - here is a little teaser:
The guild hall will be used to welcome new players and host a Guildmaster who give some advice and a first quest before sending you out to the world on your own. In the picture you can also see the "Book of Wisdom" which will be a KOL compendium. Later we will add a teleport to a tutorial zone especially for each class. We will also continue to work on the controls, ui (inventory), targeting system and various other below industry standard items. There are still some pretty annoying bugs - like the black void bug (teleporting fails and puts you outside map boundaries) and other curious mishaps. Too much to be happy right now but we are on it full force. Vierbit will complete the Guildhall graphical assets next few days and we will pick up where we left at the "Sunken Sanctuary" Map ... which will add a new Level 25 hunting ground for the high level character. Questions next: Q) Is there going to be a user interface reset/reload command or button, so that we can reset the interface if we lose the minimap? (As soon as someone teleported me, I lost my minimap.) A) We will fix the minimap problem with teleporting asap Q) Will you disable the chat notification when a player enters/leaves a realm? I dont think anyone wants to know that bdsmlover has entered the realm.Or allow us to scroll up and down the chat.You could also disable the % loaded when entering a map.Don't think it helps either. A) Chat and notification system will be reworked with players suggestions in mind. Q) Will you make it that when you hit an enemy it shows how much damage you have dealt ? A) Yes, will be a toggle option Q) Will you add a feature that allows you to right click on the portrait of a party member to promote them to group leader? A) Add this to the suggestion forum plz. Q) Do you plan to add a feature which allows a party leader to right click on a party member's portrait and set whether that party member is allowed to invite others to the party? A) Add this to the suggestion forum plz. Q) Are you looking to implement a feature which allows you to set other interesting party related settings? (I.e. Loot division, etc.) A) Add this to the suggestion forum plz. Q) Have you planned to make it so that equipped items do not take up any inventory space? (It kind of makes sense for it not to take up space in your backpack if you are wearing/using the items in question, doesn't it?) A) This will be implemented with the new inventory system asap. Q) Do you need help working on spelling, dialogue and story telling? (I would gladly help you out.) A) Yes, because we are german. Q) Do you plan to address relatively elementary spelling errors such as: "Checkpoint Actived"? (This should of course be "Checkpoint Activated".) A) Please report all spelling errors to the bug forum and I will fix them one by one. Q) Is full-controller support on the roadmap for development? A) Yes but down the line ... first things first. Q) Will you add support for thumbsticks? A) Yes we will. Q) Will there be local co-op? A) KOL is online only. Q) Will there be more things to do besides fighting? A) Yes exploring, crafting, questing etc ... Q) Will there be pvp? A) Maybe but down the line. Q) How bout party vs party action? A) Maybe but down the line. Q) When is all this gonna be gone? Especially the re-working of rogue and cleric A) Rogue is done. Cleric is work in progress. Asap. Q) New gem, but Its will be possible to remove Old gem ? A) Unfortunately not ... maybe later in development. Got your own question? Leave them in comment section below and I will try answer next week or use "suggestions" or "how to ..." forum at community hub. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Last few days we spend an awful lot of time on fixing things and laying out what needs to be done next based on feedback and suggestions: + Highest priority is still fixing stuff to get a solid foundation to build on + Future player starting point will be the High Castle Adventurer Guild instead just being dropped at the Soulstatue with no clue what to do first + We reached out to other artists to help speed up the creation of graphical content + Changed the engine attack system to "hold to continuously attack" instead of pressing attack key all the time + Re-worked Rogue class to add a fast attack feature which burns stamina + Worked on the Itemgenerator to incooperate all item classes correctly and prepare for new items and cleric class + adding new gems to mine for socketing to the game + Work on cleric class continued with a pretty unique feature (no spoilers) but old SEYKEN veterans might know what I'm talking about + created the special visual drop animation for set & unique items + created all the other graphical assets to add unique rings and necklaces to the game +++ Questions of the week +++ Q) What about more boss mobs and dungeons for the higher lvls? A) We are totally aware of the fact that most higher players are eagerly waiting for new content. Feedback, reviews and suggestions however indicate serious problems in the very foundation of KOL which need to be addressed first in order to get a solid foundation to build on. We got a high level dungeon (Sunken Sanctuary) in the pipeline which also brings in interacting with water to the game to diversify game play a little. + We will bring boss fights to the game, game engine already supports basic bosses which needs to be enhanced to standards of the mana series. Q) What about adding an change equip system and tooltip with both Equips and Red/Green indicators which is stronger? A) Inventory and equip system needs to be highly modified and improved Q) What about adding a faster sell/buy system -- Like, hold shift and left/rightclick to sell/buy it immediately -- Also don't reset the value of how many I wanna buy ( Arrows as an example ) A) Once the inventory is reworked the right mouse button should be free to add above features. Meanwhile we could add shift to make it work with current system. Q) What about adding magic/rare/uniq mobs to locations? A) Already working on this. Q) Will you add a system to spot blue and Yellow loot, Its hard right now. A) Yes we will add a system asap. Q) loot sharing dont exist, its free-for-all in the future its possible to see that change ? A) We might change to more modern way of sharing loot. Right now its free-for-all (with some exceptions). Got your own question? Leave them in comment section below and I will try answer next week or use "suggestions" or "how to ..." forum at community hub. Development continues! Presbyter and his team. support@epicbeyond.com PS. If you like the game please consider leaving a review.

Hello fellow Looters, this is Presbyter letting you in on some "secrets" about KOL and its development and future. I will try my best to give you a short update on whats going on each or at least every other Sunday - hence the name. Lets get to the point. First week of Early Access is over and what a week it was. We surpassed our wildest dreams in regards of sales figures and player response. In fact we did better than estimated by STEAM themselves. Occupying first place of "Popular New Releases" for almost all week and still are. All thanks to you!!! What we spend most time on last week was getting some really nasty bugs fixed and bring back features which did not make it into the game before the actual release. Since KOL is a vast project - lots of things can and will go wrong - therefore its from utmost importance to have a solid strategy on how to proceed. This is how we intend to keep this rocket flying: "Fix, enhance, expand." We will work on the game with a 3:6, 2:6 and 1:6 ratio for now and hopefully come to a point where we can even out the strategy and go full steam on all three cylinders equally. Right now we are a core team of four people - two coders "Matbtt" & me "Presbyter" next to "Vierbit" who does the graphics and "Claudi" who composes the music and creates sound effects. We also got some additional freelancers and specialists working with us from time to time. We are part of the Square Enix Collective and if you want to learn more about KOL and its vision you should check out our feedback campaign at: https://collective.square-enix.com/projects/227/kingdom-star-of-star-loot Unfortunately the Collective changed to a new design a few weeks ago breaking most of our layout and colors. Unfortunately the campaign is outside our reach of repair but the information is still valid. You can also check out the Team behind KOL with more details with the "Studio" link at the main top navigation. Its still worth a visit. +++ Question of the week +++ The one most of the players asked me was: "What's next?" (in regards of new content). At this point we have to work on many different aspects of content in parallel, like completing Cleric class at least to a point we can bring her in. Completing the missing class skills for existing classes and fixing huge imbalances among the classes - like Rogue being under powered etc. Really new may be the return of the Questboard which will hopefully be back sometime next week. I know that new content is what players are hoping for most and I will try to keep them happy. But bug fixing and changes to game design and mechanics may keep us busy for some time but is absolute paramount to have a solid foundation to build on. We will soon start to expand our Team with Freelancers to speed up content creation to a point where we can release at least one new map every month. I could go on about KOL for hours on end and still would not cover half of whats on my desk already. Stay with us and be a part of development by reporting bugs, sharing opinions & thoughts (good or bad) next to suggestions at the community hub. We will listen. Development continues! Presbyter & his Team support@epicbeyond.com

What a weekend, or for me and my team rather: what a last few month. Friday at 21:00 CET we did what we dreamed of for many years. We launched our own world wide game service and with me were some of my closest friends who worked on what eventually got launched for many years and even decades. It was very emotional. We worked long nights until the very moment and hoped the rocket would fly - being well aware that rockets tend to explode without even moving. You need to understand that launching an MMO means you need a rocket to lift the game and the actual game which sits on top of the rocket and cant do anything until its lifted to its supposed orbital position and stays there. What a takeoff it was - beautiful .... scary but beautiful. Okay so the rocket flies which was my biggest concern, so lets deploy the game and let people play it. Yeah ... lets put it that way --- most players weren't interested in rocket science which is understandable. Too much time had been spend on the rocket totally forgetting about the payload. The game is a patched up alpha build with many problems. First thought which came to my mind was: "Was this too early even for Early Access." Should we have waited a few more month and bringing the payload up to standards. I mean the build had been tested by STEAM and granted permission for release, yet its my responsibility to actually decide to do so - and I would do it again! We did some open and closed alphas beforehand and got encouraging feedback on the game itself. We have a YouTube channel which shows constant progress each and every month for years. We took part in a Square Enix Collective Feedback Campaign and got a staggering 91% score making us the highest voted MMO game on their platform in history. So what went wrong. People coming in contact with KOL at this point were players who already established a desire for such a project - not the average Steam user. It totally missed my mind to ask myself how would an average Steam user react to a GUI like that or clunky controls which need some learning. The answer came quickly - all first 10 or even 15 reviews were negative. People played just a few minutes and already had enough. In time people played a few hours and kind of got used to its quirks and hicks and the reviews got better. Anyhow the point is - if we want to make this a success we have to bring the game to a standards were all interested enjoy it and not only the already established but small fanbase. That means we will be together for a long and bumpy ride but in the end it will show that Early Access can be what is was intended to be - means to bring developer and players together at an early stage in development to make the game better together. Fortunately only about 10% of the buyers refunded the game based on its gameplay and feature --- so there is hope we can make it on Steam - and if we can make it on Steam we can make it anywhere. We already patched and hotfixed some first days issues and the game is pretty stable now. We will fix, enhance and expand KOL in that order. More on this in future announcements. We want to say "Thank you!" to all of you who support us and want to see this thrive. You can contact us anyway you like and we will listen - best though is the Steam Community Hub. Stay with us - development continues. Presbyter & his team.