[h3]In response to the requests for a final sale before de-listing, City of the Shroud and the soundtrack will be discounted to 90% off for 7 days starting March 1. After that, both the game and soundtrack will be de-listed and no longer available for purchase.[/h3]

Before purchasing, please be aware that the game will not receive any future updates or support. Here are the most important points to be aware of:

• There will not be any future updates or support for the game.
  
• Only the first chapter of the game is available - this is about 6-8 hours of gameplay for most players, and more for those who play through all 5 plotlines.
  
• Online battles will continue to function.
  
• The game will persist in users' Steam libraries after it is de-listed and will remain downloadable and playable to those who purchased it.
  

Hi Everyone,

I have some important updates for you regarding City of the Shroud - I wish I had better news for you, and its very difficult to write this.

First, the hardest news: the game will unfortunately not continue development past whats already released. The game launched to non-existent sales, which we tried to counter with a large-scale update to improve the game and an additional round of PR - sadly, it didnt work. We continued working on Chapter 2 until part-way through 2019, but by the summer, it became clear that the game could not be developed any further. We explored a few options to continue the story, but they never bore fruit.

Im really sorry that the game wont be finished, and I wish that werent the case. Despite our best planning, we launched at a time that turned out to be unexpectedly difficult (not just for us but for all indies), and the financial blow, not to say anything of the blow to morale, was so powerful that the project never fully recovered. Coupled with everything that happened throughout 2019, supporting development further was and is beyond my means - I've been trying to find a way to make it work, but I've exhausted all the potential options. Its been a long road both leading up to and following all that, but please know that it was never our intention for the project to end before we finished.

Ive said it many times before, but I want to reiterate: we are extremely grateful to everyone who supported us throughout the development process, and I am extremely proud of what our development team accomplished. Building - and releasing - something like City of the Shroud is an accomplishment in and of itself, especially with a team of our size and funding, even if the main game was never finished. It was amazing to see our idea for player-driven narrative come to life during our first Kickstarter campaign, and to relive a bit of that experience as we started building Chapter 2.

To try and keep this post as short as possible, here are some quick bullet points:

• The game will be made unavailable for purchase.
  
• Everyone who bought the game or backed it on Kickstarter will still have access to the game on Steam, and the online battle mode will continue to work.
  
• If theres a way to let you see or play what progress was made on Chapter 2, I will update you. It is possible to play through all 5 story arcs, but the battles all use the same default group of four enemies and there are no rewards configured.
  

Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,

With the holidays behind us, I wanted to give you a quick update on the status of Chapter 2.

Per the last update, the script for Chapter 2 is written, and weve also got the quest logic roughed in. But just when we were going to start plugging everything into the games database... Moira bravely sacrificed her arm to save her child.

Thats perhaps an overly dramatic way of putting it, but just as we were getting back from the holidays, Moira took a nasty spill on some ice while carrying her baby and, though she used her black-belt reflexes to keep the baby safe, she dislocated her (dominant) arm in the process. Ouch. (The baby is fine!)

This all means were waiting for her to heal for a few weeks before we can finish getting Chapter 2 hooked up and put through the QA wringer. This also means that, since release, weve had 4 cases of the flu/mystery illness in a row and then a critical injury. It keeps life interesting, but I think wed all prefer a slightly more predictable schedule with fewer physical ailments.

Were sorry for the delay - please bear with us while we heal/get it finished!

Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,

Were hard at work on Chapter 2, so I wanted to take a quick moment to update you on our progress and to give you a small preview of whats coming.

First, a recap: after Omar pulled ahead of Zem during the last few days of Chapter 1s influence period, the current standing among the faction leaders is:



You can read the full recap here!

With Azura ascendant and her ally Sohrab left vulnerable, what does that spell for the city? Thanks to you, the old alliances are crumbling, but what will take their place is in its infancy. This tumultuous situation will be felt throughout the city in Chapter 2.

In terms of our progress, we recently locked the script for Chapter 2 (its quite meaty, especially when you consider having all five factions in there) and are preparing to get everything hooked up and tested.

At the same time as weve been updating the AI, weve also been coming up with the boss battles youll face. Weve settled on something we think will give you a solid challenge, and look cool to boot (weve made new visual effects for some of the enemy abilities youll encounter).

Designing and implementing bosses takes a lot of work (especially since we spent a good chunk of time focused on AI improvements), but we hope youll enjoy whats coming.

The holiday season tends to slow everything down substantially, but were going to get as much as we can done before family obligations kick in. Well keep you updated as we get closer to Chapter 2s release!

And as for what youll encounter once it arrives: the city is more divided and fearful than ever before, and the old alliances are crumbling. As the evil plaguing the city grows bolder, its leaders continue to focus only on themselves and their grudges. Even gestures of goodwill towards the people carry not-so-hidden meaning, and the people are becoming more and more frustrated. And Sohrabs diminished status has not gone unnoticed...

Chapter 2 focuses on the city - your quest will bring you into contact with people who are caught up in the chaos but are trying to do whats best, either for themselves or for those they care about. The movements of the faction leaders still play a prominent role, but you will be seeing more of their impact on the citizens of Iskendrun this time around.

I hope youre excited to see how the story continues to unfold in Chapter 2, and were excited to see how you drive its evolution going into Chapter 3 and beyond!

Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,

Were happy to announce that Patch 1.05, which contains our updated enemy AI, is now ready for you to play! The AI in this updates is much more clever and aggressive than the previous iteration, which should make combat much more lively and engaging.

Major Updates:

Revamped AI:

• Enemies are more aggressive in their movement and usage of combos.
  
  
• Enemies are better at picking out vulnerable targets and hitting them with clever combos. This speeds up combat and makes timing and use of defensive abilities much more critical, especially on higher difficulties. They may also pursue vulnerable targets if the target tries to run.
  
  
• Enemies have under-the-hood personality traits. Each class has a base set of preferences (prefers being aggressive / defensive / using support abilities, etc.), and these can vary across individual units.
  
  
• Enemies now have a better understanding of the map. They will now go after AP bonus tiles and the like more frequently, for example.
  
  
• Enemies are now better about maintaining an optimal range for their class and preferences. For example, Gunners will generally try to keep their target at the edge of their range while avoiding being in range of their opponent, even if it means giving up an immediate opportunity to attack. Meanwhile, Mages are more aggressive and will generally tolerate a higher degree of risk if it means they can pull off a powerful attack.
  

Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,

Today, were rolling out version 1.04 of City of the Shroud! This patch contains new NPC portraits, a number of quality-of-life improvements, and overall polish.

Read on for details:

Major Updates:

• New NPC Portraits: weve added several variations on existing NPC portraits to give more variety to the artwork.
  
  
• Combat Details:
  
  
  
  
  • You can now press the (re-assignable!) Combat Details button during combat to display:
    
    
  • A preview of your selected characters range at a highlighted potential destination
    
    
  • Character shortcut numbers over your team members heads to make it easier to see both where they are and what to press to access them instantly
    
    
  • Enemy indicator arrows over all (conscious) enemies to give you an immediate read on their layout
    
    
  
  
• Combat Details can be viewed in real-time or with Wait Mode activated, so you can use them for an at-a-glance overview or to thoroughly analyze the battlefield.
  

• The game now prompts you to choose a difficulty and game speed when starting a new game (these can both be changed later from the Options Menu).
  
  
• Machinist bombs and turrets now spawn without causing small hiccups.
  
  
• The AP cost of moving to a highlighted tile is displayed on that tile before moving.
  
  
• A controls reminder window displaying the button assignments for Wait Mode and Combat Details will appear in the bottom-left corner of the screen during the first segment of the game.
  
  
• Wait Mode can now be set to toggle by holding the button or tapping the button to turn it ON/OFF in Gameplay options.
  
  
• The Team Menu and Online VS buttons are now visible but greyed-out and inaccessible until unlocked, instead of being hidden.
  
  
• Improved flow for connecting to another player for an Online VS battle.
  
  
• Indicator arrows for controller and enemy location are now drawn on top of other geometry (no more clipping!).
  
  
• Fixed hidden tiles acting as pits in the Market Gate map in the Refugee Quarter.
  
  
• Fixed position of a building in the Old Town Steps maps that covered up part of the range indicator.
  
  
• Fixed location and portrait of an NPC who should have been a refugee in the Refugee Quarter but appeared as a regular Citizen in Old Town.
  
  
• Adjusted the level of fog in the final boss battle of Chapter One in Old Town so that it is easier to see the game map when the camera is pulled back.
  
  
• Long quest names in the Quest Tracker should no longer bleed out into the border graphic.
  
  
• Return To Game button on the pause menu no longer enters the selection sprite state when pausing even if the player is using mouse/keyboard.
  
  
• Return to City Map button at the end of battles no longer plays the click sound effect twice if using mouse/keyboard.
  
  
• LeftButton and other odd mouse binding names changed to Left Click, Right Click, and Middle Click.
  
  
• New Game confirmation prompt now properly fits all button sprite configurations.
  
  
• The warning sound effect for flashing red tiles will now fade out properly on scene transitions.
  
  
• Cleaned up some typos.
  

Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,

We’re working on the first big patch for City of the Shroud while Moira writes Chapter 2, so I wanted to take some time to go over what’s coming:

Major Updates:

Revamped AI:

• The AI is getting an overhaul to make it more interesting, more challenging, and to let it better highlight what makes CotS’ combat unique. When the new patch releases, enemy characters will:
  
  
• Enemies will be more aggressive in their movement and usage of combos. Enemies will be better at picking out vulnerable targets and hitting them with clever combos. This will speed up combat and make timing and anticipation much more critical.
  
  
• Personalities: enemies will have “personality traits.” Each class will have a base setup (prefers being aggressive / defensive / using support abilities, etc.), and these can vary across individual units.
  
  
• Ability-specific decision making: the classes in CotS are designed to be deep, with variety within each class coming from the types of Link Gems they have equipped. The AI will have a better understanding of how it can use the abilities it has equipped on a character to torment you more effectively, and rewarding you for keeping track of and responding to them.
  

• Combat Details Display: pressing the new “Combat Details” button during combat will display a variety of useful information on screen. This includes:
  
  
• Range Preview: when you press the Combat Details button, yellow range indicators will appear on the tile you are currently hovering over, showing you what your range would be on that tile before moving there.
  
  
• Player Character Shortcut Numbers: the shortcut number for each of your characters will be displayed over their head so you can quickly pinpoint where everyone is relative to the UI on the side of the screen.
  
  
• Enemy Location Arrows: all (conscious) enemies will get a red arrow specifying their positions.
  

• Update: We have made additional NPC character art for characters who are not important to the story to avoid repetition.
  
  
• Update: The game now prompts you to select a difficulty when starting a new game.
  
  
• Update: The AP cost of moving to a highlighted tile is displayed on that tile before moving.
  
  
• Update: Shortcuts for Wait Mode / Combat Details are now displayed on-screen during combat during tutorial battles.
  
  
• Update: Wait Mode can now be set to toggle by holding the button or tapping the button to turn it ON/OFF in Gameplay options.
  
  
• Update: Improvements to flow when connecting to another player for an Online VS battle.
  
  
• Bug Fix: Tile Targeting arrow for controller now gets drawn on top of Machinist’s backpack geometry.
  
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed hidden tiles acting as pits in the Market Gate map in the Refugee Quarter.
  
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed location and portrait of an NPC who should have been a refugee in the Refugee Quarter but appeared as an regular Citizen in Old Town.
  
  
• Bug Fix: Long quest names in the Quest Tracker should no longer bleed out into the border graphic.
  
  
• Bug Fix: Return To Game button on the pause menu no longer enters the “selection” sprite state when pausing even if the player is using mouse/keyboard.
  

Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,

Chapter 1 is a wrap! Here are the final results:



A last-minute push over the weekend has placed Omar ahead of Zem. Azura’s merchants are now the most dominant in the city, followed by the rebellion, and then the Syndicate. Navid is trailing his arch-rival Zem by a significant margin, and poor Sohrab can’t seem to catch a break.

What happens now? To start, Moira will be looking at not only how each of the factions stands in relation to the others but also at how their alliances and beliefs have shifted over the course of the chapter.

As you played, you were not only changing your chosen leader’s influence, but also what they think of the other leaders. So far, you have undermined several alliances, but not always mutually - in many cases, you have one leader who still trusts their ally, while their ally no longer trusts them back. I wonder how that will play out?

It’s not all seeds of distrust, though - you’ve also strengthened some bonds, and even managed to push hard for one we would never have predicted. And remember, these characters’ allies and enemies are all tangled together (for example, in Chapter 1, Navid is allies with Omar and Sohrab, but Omar and Sohrab hate each other), so these effects will ripple across the entire fabric of the story.

I don’t want to go into too much detail to avoid spoilers, but you’ve given us some incredible material to work with.

What does it mean for the city to have the Merchants rise to power as everyone begins to turn on each other, the old balance becomes untenable, and the City Guard, ostensibly keepers of the peace, watching the city descend into chaos while they are powerless to stop it?

We’ll have to wait for Chapter 2 to find out!

Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,

This is a quick announcement to let you know that we’re extending the influence period for Chapter 1 until the end of this coming weekend: Sunday, September 16 (PDT). Some newcomers have arrived, and we want to make sure they have a chance to make their mark on Iskendrun.

And if you haven’t finished Chapter 1 yet, now’s your chance!

This is a small patch to address one specific issue. Behold!

• Fixed issue where players may not receive receive rewards from random battles after completing Chapter 1’s story
  

Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,

This is a quick announcement to let you know that the influence period for Chapter 1 will be wrapping up in just under two weeks, on September 10.

That gives you two more weekends to complete Chapter 1 in order to make your mark on Iskendrun’s Balance of Power and the city’s leaders!

Once the Chapter 1 influence period ends on September 10, the Balance of Power and other under-the-hood influences will be locked in and will no longer change (you can still play the game as much as you want!). This will let us begin parsing your decisions and writing Chapter 2!

As a reminder, this is how the system works:

• A chapter is released, with a several-week period where player decisions influence the state of the game world via the Balance of Power and other under-the-hood methods
  
• After the influence period is up, we lock in the Balance of Power and other decision vectors as they stand
  
• We then use this information to write the next chapter
  
• You can play up to the most recently released chapter after the influence period is over, including alternate branches of the story; it just won’t affect the next chapter’s story
  
• We release the new chapter, and the cycle repeats!
  

Greetings, Fellow Citizens of Iskendrun,

It has been a little over a week since City of the Shroud launched on Steam, and players are already having a dramatic impact on the state of the game world. As we work our way through each chapter, we will be posting semi-regular updates on developments within the game world to keep you up to date. Welcome to the State of Iskendrun: Volume 1!

A brief explanation for those who are new to the workings of the city: as players work their way through the branching story of Chapter 1, every decision they make impacts the the Balance of Power between the five factions vying for control. This Balance of Power is shared by everyone - every player’s every decision permanently alters the future course of the story as written by us, the developers.

On top of this, you as players will make decisions at critical junctures in the story that impact how the faction leaders view and relate to each other. At the start of the tale, each leader has two allies and two enemies, but based on your choices, allegiances are already beginning to shift...

As of the morning of August 20 when I took this screenshot, the current Balance of Power is:



The Merchant Queen, Azura nin Fateh, is the current leader of the pack, followed by the Syndicate Leader, Zem. Trailing them are the Rebel Commander, Omar; the Head Priest, Navid; and Sohrab, Captain of the City Guard. But their lead isn't set in stone yet - since the end of last week, Navid & Sohrab have risen from only 2% to 12% -- at the expense of Zem and Omar.

What will Azura's allies and enemies think of her jump to prominence, if indeed it remains by the close of this chapter?

The faction leader's alliances will be playing a major role in how the story unfolds in future chapters, so your choices will have massive repercussions for the city of Iskendrun and its citizens - and the choices you’re making are very, very exciting. We can't say more or we'll leak spoilers, but we're excited to see where you're taking the city!

This is one of the most fun aspects about working on a game like this - it’s thrilling to see how you all are impacting the world and the decisions you make take form. It’s truly inspiring, and we can’t wait to see where this all leads.

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

P.S.: In general, we intend to provide details on future updates to the game, patch notes, and other information in separate posts. For now, the State of Iskendrun will focus keeping players up-to-date on developments within the game world. Suggestions are still welcome, of course!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPZ23AcAI5E

We've launched the first chapter of our real-time tactical RPG with a player-driven narrative today on PC and Mac via Steam! Chapter two will release later this year, followed by later chapters every few months. We’ll also be releasing a definitive edition containing all four chapters for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2019 (and as an update on Steam).

Joining chapter one prior to the development of chapter two will let you make decisions that impact who lives, who dies and who rises to power in a truly player-driven narrative, and the collective in-game actions of every player will be the key driver for future episodes written by us, the developers. While you will be able to revisit the first chapter and all story branches at any point, only choices from the first playthrough of a chapter will have permanent consequences on subsequent episodes - choose wisely!

As you start your journey, you take on the role of an unremarkable commoner thrust into the position of a hero after a chance visit to the city of Iskendrun. You, as a peasant-turned-savior, must fight a losing battle on multiple fronts. The city is facing collapse as the nobility neglects the impoverished citizens in favor of war. Matters are complicated by five faction leaders vying for power and an unknown evil plaguing the city through wicked and powerful sorcery.

The gameplay is tactical RPG meets classic fighting game inputs in a fast-paced, real-time combat system (with optional pause!). Master think-on-your-feet strategy by chaining together devastating combos using down, left, up, and right through the game’s Combo Wheel.

We hope you enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS6pFzP_7qg

We’re launching the game on August 9!

Chapter One will be available for Windows and Mac for you to experience, and influence, the story of Iskendrun and its inhabitants.

Chapter One is big! It’s got five narrative branches, multiple boss fights, tons of quests, rebindable controls (you can play with one hand on a controller!), multiple difficulties, adjustable game speed, adjustable text speed, our Balance of Power story-influencing system - and that’s not even everything. There’s a lot going on!

We’ve been working extra hard to get the game to this point, and there’s still plenty of bug fixing and polish to do between now and release, but we’re really happy with how the game has come together.

In fact, last month we added a frequently requested feature we call “Wait Mode.”

What is Wait Mode?

When we took the game to shows, we’d often get asked if there was a way to pause the game so that it’d be possible to survey what was going on or to issue commands (it's essentially "real-time with pause"). After a lot of hard work and planning, we found a way!

You can now press the (rebindable!) Wait Mode button and the action will freeze - except you can still navigate the map and issue commands to your characters.

That means it’s possible to pull off simultaneous combos across characters, like this:


Staggering Shot + Combobreaker!

Now, if you want the game to play slower and give you unlimited time to deliberate your next move, the option is there!

Want the game to be faster but to let you pause to issue commands? Done!

Or, you can disable Wait Mode altogether and play the game in its “classic” setup. The choice is yours!

Visible Status Effects

We also made another quality-of-life improvement: the status effects on a given character are now visible in the UI, along with how much time is left on them and how many stacks there are.

Say one of your Brutes is Corrupted - you’ll see a Corruption icon next to their entry in the side UI along with how many stacks (if applicable!) of that status effect they have. The grey countdown circle shows you how much time is left on the effect, too!


That’s a lot of Corruption all at once!

We're super excited to get City of the Shroud into players hands and start the player-driven story. It's been a long road of nights and weekends for our team of six (with plenty of help along the way), and we're nearly ready to get the story underway!

If you haven't, please consider Wishlisting us on the City of the Shroud Steam Page - it makes a big difference!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp95C4IqAiE
Its happening! Were getting ready to launch City of the Shroud this summer!

Weve been working super hard to get the game ready for launch, and were almost there. Its been a long road, but were nearly at the end of it - or the beginning, rather!

We are so excited to get the story underway and see what you all do with it. We have tons of ideas about where the story could go and how it could develop, but ultimately it will be up to you and everyone else who plays to determine how the story plays out.

Were also really happy with how the gameplay has come together - several members of the team have spent thousands of hours playing the game, and we still have a blast. Hopefully you will too!

The footage in the trailer above is all up-to-date, though YouTube compressed it quite a bit. The game looks great at any setting level, but it looks particularly glorious in 4k. We've updated the game's Steam page with a ton of new screenshots, if you're interested:

City of the Shroud on Steam

We also wanted to take a moment to cover some questions that might come up:

• Whats the Definitive Edition?
  
  The Definitive Edition is our fancy name for the game once the story is complete. After we release Chapter 4 (the final chapter), we will proceed to tweak the game to fit a more standard single-player narrative structure, rather than the interconnected web of players driving a narrative that the game will be when it launches.
  
  Ultimately, it will be an update to the game, after the story is complete, to make it feel more like a traditional game to make it easy to replay and experience the story from other angles.
  
  


• Will consoles get the player-driven story?
  
  Nope. The live campaign is a Steam-exclusive. This is because managing City of the Shrouds narrative structure is going to be a big undertaking for our tiny team, and trying to make that work across multiple platforms would be prohibitively difficult and time-consuming. Were sticking with our original plan: release on Steam, then play with you to create the story. Well then port the results to consoles when we release the Definitive Edition on Steam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp95C4IqAiE
It’s happening! We’re getting ready to launch City of the Shroud this summer!

We’ve been working super hard to get the game ready for launch, and we’re almost there. It’s been a long road, but we’re nearly at the end of it - or the beginning, rather!

We are so excited to get the story underway and see what you all do with it. We have tons of ideas about where the story could go and how it could develop, but ultimately it will be up to you and everyone else who plays to determine how the story plays out.

We’re also really happy with how the gameplay has come together - several members of the team have spent thousands of hours playing the game, and we still have a blast. Hopefully you will too!

The footage in the trailer above is all up-to-date, though YouTube compressed it quite a bit. The game looks great at any setting level, but it looks particularly glorious in 4k. We've updated the game's Steam page with a ton of new screenshots, if you're interested:

City of the Shroud on Steam

We also wanted to take a moment to cover some questions that might come up:

• What’s the Definitive Edition?
  
  The Definitive Edition is our fancy name for the game once the story is complete. After we release Chapter 4 (the final chapter), we will proceed to tweak the game to fit a more standard single-player narrative structure, rather than the interconnected web of players driving a narrative that the game will be when it launches.
  
  Ultimately, it will be an update to the game, after the story is complete, to make it feel more like a traditional game to make it easy to replay and experience the story from other angles.
  
  


• Will consoles get the player-driven story?
  
  Nope. The live campaign is a Steam-exclusive. This is because managing City of the Shroud’s narrative structure is going to be a big undertaking for our tiny team, and trying to make that work across multiple platforms would be prohibitively difficult and time-consuming. We’re sticking with our original plan: release on Steam, then play with you to create the story. We’ll then port the results to consoles when we release the Definitive Edition on Steam.

Happy Halloween! We may not be a spooky game, but I wanted to pass out some treats regardless!

First, now that asset building is complete (yay!), were currently building out and polishing all of the levels for Chapter 1, then putting together their lighting and post-processing effects - all the nice bloom lighting and fancy camera features that make a game pop. This means laying out the tiles, then filling the maps with the buildings and props thatve been building over the last year or so based on the setting for the battle that takes place there. Once thats finished, we go in with lights and effects to make everything look especially nice.

You may recall that we upgraded to Unity 5.5 a while back, giving us access to some nice effects as well as 4k resolution support, which the game takes to very well. To get a sense of how much things have changed, check out the evolution of one of our Docks maps (Azuras turf) from when we did the Rezzed build compared to now:

Then:



Now (Click the images for the 4k version):


The UI is turned off so you can see more of the surroundings.

Bit of a difference, right?

Of course, if were going to talk about Azura the Merchant Queens area, a dinky wooden pier with a fishing boat wont suffice. The docks where the merchants operate need to be something a little more serious:



We also have areas that are set to different times of day, including the late afternoon, where twilight creates a soft glow as the lights begin to switch on across the city.



Additionally, were wrapping up our sound effect creation, so everything in the game is popping, smacking, and exploding in a big, satisfying way. Its hard to show how much of a difference it makes, so I hope youll give it a try once were able to get a new version of the game into your hands. We still have a few bugs to iron out, but the next update will sound more alive than ever!

We have more we could show in terms of levels, artwork, etc., but at this point, Im hoping to hold back so that theres plenty to surprise you when the game releases. Its a difficult balance, but since were an RPG, Id like to err on the side of not revealing too much! That said, there is something major that weve wanted to get out to you for quite some time, but that will have to wait for an upcoming update muahaha...

Happy Halloween! We may not be a spooky game, but I wanted to pass out some treats regardless!

First, now that asset building is complete (yay!), we’re currently building out and polishing all of the levels for Chapter 1, then putting together their lighting and post-processing effects - all the nice bloom lighting and fancy camera features that make a game “pop.” This means laying out the tiles, then filling the maps with the buildings and props that’ve been building over the last year or so based on the setting for the battle that takes place there. Once that’s finished, we go in with lights and effects to make everything look especially nice.

You may recall that we upgraded to Unity 5.5 a while back, giving us access to some nice effects as well as 4k resolution support, which the game takes to very well. To get a sense of how much things have changed, check out the evolution of one of our Docks maps (Azura’s turf) from when we did the Rezzed build compared to now:

Then:



Now (Click the images for the 4k version):


The UI is turned off so you can see more of the surroundings.

Bit of a difference, right?

Of course, if we’re going to talk about Azura the Merchant Queen’s area, a dinky wooden pier with a fishing boat won’t suffice. The docks where the merchants operate need to be something a little more serious:



We also have areas that are set to different times of day, including the late afternoon, where twilight creates a soft glow as the lights begin to switch on across the city.



Additionally, we’re wrapping up our sound effect creation, so everything in the game is popping, smacking, and exploding in a big, satisfying way. It’s hard to show how much of a difference it makes, so I hope you’ll give it a try once we’re able to get a new version of the game into your hands. We still have a few bugs to iron out, but the next update will sound more alive than ever!

We have more we could show in terms of levels, artwork, etc., but at this point, I’m hoping to hold back so that there’s plenty to surprise you when the game releases. It’s a difficult balance, but since we’re an RPG, I’d like to err on the side of not revealing too much! That said, there is something major that we’ve wanted to get out to you for quite some time, but that will have to wait for an upcoming update… muahaha...

Weve been hard at work getting City of the Shrouds UI hooked up and looking good. There is still some polishing to be done, but were really proud of the results!

First, here is our new team menu UI in action:



Ill go into more detail below, but before that, Id like to show you our new-and-improved City Map:



Whats new here? First, the structure of the map means that it is far more screen ratio independent than it was before, so those of you with 16:10 screens (i.e., Mac laptops) will see improvements on that front.

The more obvious difference is that big old chart on the right: the Balance of Power. As you play through each chapter of CotS, the balance of power between factions will change, and that chart will show you the state of affairs at any given moment.

Youll be able to see who youre allied with as well as how powerful each faction is relative to the others for the current chapter (I put the Hat Merchant in the affiliated leader slot because I think hes hilarious - not an option in the final game!).

As people play through the live chapter, those bars will fluctuate based on players choices until we lock the chapters balance of power in order to start writing the next one. Once the balance of power for a chapter is locked, the bars will show the final balance of power for that chapter until the next chapter is released. Once you start the next chapter, theyll be moving again until we lock that one to write the next one, and so on. If you get your influence in early, who knows - your impact may end up influencing other players :)

Weve also streamlined the experience by stripping out what we had originally called the Main Menu because we decided that the City Map could act as your hub - its how you interface with Iskendrun in the campaign, and by moving some functionality around, you can now go from the Start menu straight to the campaign screen with no features or accessibility lost.

The other UI element weve been working on is the team management menu - the screen where youll set up your party, equip your Link Gems, configure your stats, and even equip different skins/mod items.

You saw it in GIF form above, so lets break it down here, screen-by-screen:



The Overview panel shows your current team setup - the class, visual appearance, equipped Link Gems, name, and movement and attack ranges of each of your units.

Clicking on a character takes you to their Moves panel:



Here, you can review and equip the Link Gems youve acquired, read their descriptions, and try out how the Link Gems youve chosen string together using the Try! Button. There are shortcuts for the other panels, as well as the option to switch the currently selected character (and even their class) too.

Next up is the Stats screen:



On this screen, you can see your full Stat Gem inventory, as well as the grid where you equip those gems for the selected units current class. Descriptions of each stat are found below the grid, and the box in between the two explains either the selected gem or stat, depending on which you have highlighted.

Stat Gems that are granting your unit a Perfect Fit Bonus glow with a thin, blue line around the edges - notice that the yellow Square is not glowing, as its sitting on a non-square-shaped slot (also, the thick, white glow shows which gem you have selected).

If you put a Stat Gem into a slot it isnt meant for, you gain the ordinary bonus but not the Perfect Fit Bonus. So if you want just have to have an extra HP bonus in exchange for losing a Perfect Fit Bonus, you can make it happen! Customize your unit to fit your playstyle - want a high-HP Mage that can take a few smacks from a Brute? The choice is yours!

Finally, we have the Appearance menu:



This menu lets you equip any skins or mods youve acquired. Simply cycle through, and you can view all the available options for a given slot. If you like what you see, youre done! Just leave the settings as-is and youre all set. The next time you use that unit in battle, theyll appear just as they do here.

Its a pretty big upgrade from the old menus, so let us know what you think!

So whats next? Weve got a bit more polishing to do on the menus before theyre totally final, but now that weve got this major UI update in, were turning our attention to the next big event: implementing Chapter 1.

The main content for Chapter 1 is written, all the environment assets are complete, and all of the components necessary to bring it to life are more or less ready and hooked up. So what goes into implementation? Mainly, that means getting the game text into our quest database and connecting them all together (clear Quest X >> unlock Quest Y). Well be putting together our battle maps for Chapter 1 as we go along too.

Stay tuned!

We’ve been hard at work getting City of the Shroud’s UI hooked up and looking good. There is still some polishing to be done, but we’re really proud of the results!

First, here is our new team menu UI in action:



I’ll go into more detail below, but before that, I’d like to show you our new-and-improved City Map:



What’s new here? First, the structure of the map means that it is far more screen ratio independent than it was before, so those of you with 16:10 screens (i.e., Mac laptops) will see improvements on that front.

The more obvious difference is that big old chart on the right: the Balance of Power. As you play through each chapter of CotS, the balance of power between factions will change, and that chart will show you the state of affairs at any given moment.

You’ll be able to see who you’re allied with as well as how powerful each faction is relative to the others for the current chapter (I put the Hat Merchant in the affiliated leader slot because I think he’s hilarious - not an option in the final game!).

As people play through the live chapter, those bars will fluctuate based on players’ choices until we lock the chapter’s balance of power in order to start writing the next one. Once the balance of power for a chapter is locked, the bars will show the final balance of power for that chapter until the next chapter is released. Once you start the next chapter, they’ll be moving again until we lock that one to write the next one, and so on. If you get your influence in early, who knows - your impact may end up influencing other players :)

We’ve also streamlined the experience by stripping out what we had originally called the “Main Menu” because we decided that the City Map could act as your hub - it’s how you interface with Iskendrun in the campaign, and by moving some functionality around, you can now go from the “Start” menu straight to the campaign screen with no features or accessibility lost.

The other UI element we’ve been working on is the team management menu - the screen where you’ll set up your party, equip your Link Gems, configure your stats, and even equip different skins/mod items.

You saw it in GIF form above, so let’s break it down here, screen-by-screen:



The Overview panel shows your current team setup - the class, visual appearance, equipped Link Gems, name, and movement and attack ranges of each of your units.

Clicking on a character takes you to their Moves panel:



Here, you can review and equip the Link Gems you’ve acquired, read their descriptions, and try out how the Link Gems you’ve chosen string together using the Try! Button. There are shortcuts for the other panels, as well as the option to switch the currently selected character (and even their class) too.

Next up is the Stats screen:



On this screen, you can see your full Stat Gem inventory, as well as the grid where you equip those gems for the selected unit’s current class. Descriptions of each stat are found below the grid, and the box in between the two explains either the selected gem or stat, depending on which you have highlighted.

Stat Gems that are granting your unit a Perfect Fit Bonus glow with a thin, blue line around the edges - notice that the yellow Square is not glowing, as it’s sitting on a non-square-shaped slot (also, the thick, white glow shows which gem you have selected).

If you put a Stat Gem into a slot it isn’t meant for, you gain the ordinary bonus but not the Perfect Fit Bonus. So if you want just have to have an extra HP bonus in exchange for losing a Perfect Fit Bonus, you can make it happen! Customize your unit to fit your playstyle - want a high-HP Mage that can take a few smacks from a Brute? The choice is yours!

Finally, we have the Appearance menu:



This menu lets you equip any skins or mods you’ve acquired. Simply cycle through, and you can view all the available options for a given slot. If you like what you see, you’re done! Just leave the settings as-is and you’re all set. The next time you use that unit in battle, they’ll appear just as they do here.

It’s a pretty big upgrade from the old menus, so let us know what you think!

So what’s next? We’ve got a bit more polishing to do on the menus before they’re totally final, but now that we’ve got this major UI update in, we’re turning our attention to the next big event: implementing Chapter 1.

The main content for Chapter 1 is written, all the environment assets are complete, and all of the components necessary to bring it to life are more or less ready and hooked up. So what goes into implementation? Mainly, that means getting the game text into our quest database and connecting them all together (clear Quest X >> unlock Quest Y). We’ll be putting together our battle maps for Chapter 1 as we go along too.

Stay tuned!

First, we're excited to announce that we're going to Rezzed 2017 at the Tobacco Docks in London from March 30 - April 1! Chris and I will be showing the latest demo of CotS (with some help from our friends), so be sure to swing by, say hello, and check it out!



The demo will have a bunch of updates:

• New playable class - the Defender!
  
• A preview of a boss battle (in a new environment!) from the main campaign!
  
• Updated visual and sound effects!
  
• Enhanced visuals and an updated UI!
  

We’ve got a bunch of ground to cover, so I’m going to go ahead and dive right in.

First, after a lot of deliberation, we’ve decided to move the release date of the game to the summer. City of the Shroud is on track to be basically finished by February/March, but there are some potential challenges for the team if we push to release by that date. We want to make sure to deliver a rock solid game, so we’ve decided to play it safe and put it out a little later.

There are a few reasons, but the biggest issue is that my S.O. and I will have to move internationally sometime between February and April - I had hoped to be able to avoid this timing, but we were not so lucky! With the destination and timing likely to remain a mystery until February at the earliest, it’s best for City of the Shroud if we are stably set up and I can focus everything on the game and its living story - moving the release is the best way to ensure that.

Production is on track (for game development, at least!), but pushing for February or March would leave us with less time to polish and fix bugs than we’re comfortable with. Polishing the game is a major goal for us, and it’s key to back that up with enough time to follow through. It will also give the art team a bit more breathing room to perfect their work!

We cherish the autonomy and flexibility that comes with self-publishing, but that means the difficult decisions are ours to make. We hope you you understand why we’ve decided to move the launch back and support us in doing so.

We love hearing from you, so please let us know if you have any questions!

All that said, we are really excited about the new things we’re getting into the game! Here’s are some of what we’ve got in the works right now:

• Every character class is implemented: All 6 classes in the game are fully playable with all of their abilities. The next step is creating their visual and sound effects, and once those are finished (they’re being worked on right now), we’ll be rolling them out to our Noble and higher backers.
  
  
• New environments: We’ve completed the assets for a new section of the city, and are nearly finished with the assets for the next. Here’s a sneak-peak at one of them:
  
  
  
• Major graphical and performance improvements: We’ve upgraded our shaders to show more detail and in higher quality. Seeing the old and new next to each other is really something. We’re also updating the version of Unity we’re working in, which has given us a nice bump in performance. The game already ran at ~35 fps on a several-year old MacBook Pro, so we’re hoping this upgrade ensures the game runs well for everyone.
  
  
• Character asset mod support: We’ve set up Steam Workshop functionality and are testing the ability to upload and download modified character model files. All signs are pointing to this feature being online very soon!
  

We are finally ready to unveil something we’ve been dying to get into your hands for months: the newest addition to CotS’ class roster, the Duelist!



The Duelist is a martial-arts cowboy… assassin… Basically, she’s awesome:

“The Duelist is a hybrid strength/dexterity class, and also a hybrid melee/ranged class. Armed with pistols and martial arts, she has abilities to dash in and out of melee, as well as abilities that function differently if your target is in melee or at range. This makes the Duelist a very flexible class, capable of setting the terms of the fight. However, as the name suggests, the Duelist does best when fighting a single target, so you can defeat enemy Duelists by sticking together and ganging up on them.

When you manage to isolate your target, the Duelist is without question the deadliest class in the game. The core philosophy of the Duelist is that the best defense is a good offense, and if you can get an enemy in a one on one situation you will be able to use your mobility and disruptive offense to make short work of them.

When building a Duelist, you will have to choose between mobility, disruption, or pure offensive power. Whether you want to focus on staying safe and faking out your opponent while you whittle them down or simply diving in and going for the throat, the Duelist is going to be adept at picking off fragile enemies.”

Here are some of the moves you’ll unlock for her in the game:

Dash: From range, move to the closest available space adjacent to the target. In melee, move to the opposite side of the target. In either case, deal damage to all enemies in your path (if the enemies are lined up, you can use this ability to dash through the entire line, dealing damage to all of them). (Cost: 2)



Flashbang: Toss a grenade at the target which explodes after 3 seconds, damagingall characters within 1 tile of the blast and reducing their damage by 50%. (Cost: 3)



Quick Shot: Deal bonus damage if you have moved within the past 5 seconds. (Cost: 1)



Roundhouse: Damage and knock back all adjacent characters. (Cost: 4)



Here’s an example of how those tie together:

• Dash (Move in on target, dealing damage while you do) >
  
• Quick Shot (you just moved, let’s use the opportunity!) >
  
• Roundhouse (Damage the opponent and get knock them out of range if they’re melee) >
  
• Flashbang (Deal damage and reduce their damage - let’s see them try to counterattack!)
  

City of the Shroud is available for pre-order! We are hosting pre-order sales through BackerKit, where you can grab a Steam key with early access to in-development builds, as well as some of the digital and physical goodies, including the signed novel, from our Kickstarter campaign. Click the link below:

Pre-Order Here: https://city-of-the-shroud.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Pre-order sales help us to build a bigger, better game for everyone - plus, you get access to gameplay content before everyone else and can help guide the development of the game.

In other news, we have made some major progress on the art front, so I wanted to share some of the fruits of our labor! We’ve completed the Gunner’s animations and have put them in the game, along with all of her abilities.



Attacks in CotS use a combination of animation and visual effects to show each ability. During June, we were still in the process of getting animations and VFX set up, but now they’re pretty much ready to go. Since we have the Gunner’s animations fresh off the… animation software, I’ll run you through some of the new ones (and some of the ones that make way more sense now)!

They’re not all tuned yet, meaning the timing on some of the movement and visual effects may be a bit off, but I figure: why wait?

Dynamite: throw a stick of dynamite that deals damage to adjacent tiles after a set amount of time. The danger indicator is new too (and placeholder)!



Buckshot: The opposite of Snipe - deal more damage the closer you are to the target. Can be combined with Scramble and Parting Gift, which deals damage to adjacent tiles when you move away, for an in-your-face playstyle.



Aim Down Sights/Scramble: when the Gunner has certain buffs active, like Aim Down Sights or Scramble, she will take on a unique idle animation until the effects wear off.



Staggering Shot: deals damage and removes a dodge buff from the target, dealing bonus damage if it does (dodge buffs negate an opponent’s yellow gem attacks).



Vault: Jump backward one tile and deal damage while you do it! Great for getting out of melee range and making the opponent pay for it while you do. Works well with Magnetic Mine.



And finally, Spray and Pray: shoot 21 times, spreading the damage across all tiles adjacent to the target.



We’re really happy with how the animations turned out and can’t wait to let backers play with them!

Those of you with keen eyes may notice some slight graphical improvements to the game as well - hopefully you like them!

We’re about ready to roll out the new character class abilities for testing to our Noble-tier and higher backers. We have a bit of tweaking to do before we do (we want you to be able to just get them instead of having to fight random battles until they drop, for example), so as soon as that’s all ready, we’ll be rolling out a new test branch on Steam.

Last but not least, City of the Shroud will be going to Insomnia 58 from August 26 - 29 at NEC in Birmingham, UK.



If you’re going, come by and say hi - we’ll have a (hopefully VERY) updated version of the game on display!

I also want to give a big thank-you to Charlie, creator of Flow Point, and Liz of Sock Thuggery for showing City of the Shroud at Games by the Sea at Develop, where they were showing off local indie talent! We weren’t able to go to the event this year ourselves, but our friends stepped in to help us out. The game went over really well, and “lots of people played it for a really long time,” which of course is a good thing!

Finally, here’s a sneak-peek of something we have coming down the pipe soon:



Thank you all for the support, and we can’t wait to get the game out to you!

PS: We’re thinking about setting up a Linux testing build to see if we can add it as an official platform. Wish us luck, and please let us know if you’d be interested in checking out whether it works!

City of the Shroud’s Kickstarter is approaching its final 24 hours!

The game is funded and working towards unlocking New Game+ and Survival Mode! If you’re interested in supporting the game, this is the last chance before the campaign ends! (And every backer gets a Steam key so you can follow development builds on Steam after the campaign!)



It’s been a quite the ride - we ran our first-ever player driven story back in February, we’ve had deep conversations with backers about designing difficulty, and we even announced that City of the Shroud is getting a novel!

Now that we're fast approaching the Kickstarter's (funded!) conclusion, we’ll be diving straight back into working on City of the Shroud. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us along the way. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Now let's see if we can hit those stretch goals! :)

There are only 72 hours remaining on City of the Shroud's Kickstarter!

Backing not only helps us hit stretch goals and put new modes into the game, but it gets YOU access to development builds on Steam immediately following the campaign!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/abyssalarts/city-of-the-shroud

Back now, because there's not much time left!

City of the Shroud has been funded on Kickstarter in 9 days!

We relaunched our campaign with a brand-new video, page, and an updated build; we added early access builds via Steam to every backer tier and a Steam key as soon as the campaign finishes; and we even took the game to EGX Rezzed at the same time as the launch. All together, we hit 80% in the first 3 days, and closed the remaining 20% 5 days later, and have announced our first stretch goal: New Game+!

The Kickstarter page is here (please consider backing!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWYnJSB4qaA

We learned a lot on our first attempt, and that knowledge combined with the support of our (new/bigger) community let us hit our goal in a very short period of time. Going into the new campaign, we had an existing group of backers in addition to our initial group of supporters, as well as awareness from our Steam Greenlight campaign (Greenlit in 3 weeks!) and our recently set-up Steam page.

We also got in touch with some advisors who gave us tips on how to improve the page and our campaign. As a result, the page is much shorter, snappier, and focuses on the key elements of the game - it's to-the-point. The video was revamped to focus on what makes the game special and show more of the gameplay with context - since the game's combat system is so different from what players expect at first glance, pointing out its unique elements along with showing footage has worked much better than what we had before.

Of course, at least some of the credit has to go to this awesome in-engine render of a Mage taking out a Brute:



We deliberately scheduled the Kickstarter to coincide with taking City of the Shroud to EGX Rezzed, where the game had a really good showing. Players backed the game on the spot, then told their friends to come play the demo and do the same. The brand-new artwork (at the top) certainly helped draw attention as well.



Now that the campaign is funded, we've announced our first stretch goal: New Game+! If City of the Shroud can hit $17,500, we will add a replay system so that players can keep their equipment and team setups while being able to go back and play through alternate paths in the story. That alone wouldn't be super exciting, so we'll be adding in a supped-up AI to battle that will put players' real-time combo skills to the test.

And finally, we've been working on something special. Say hello to a preview of our updated wheel UI:



The UI update will be released in the Steam builds to backers once the Kickstarter is over.

We're very happy about how far we've come and the success of the Kickstarter, but there's still work to do. Stay tuned for more updates!

City of the Shroud hit 80% in 3 days on Kickstarter! You can check out the campaign here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/abyssalarts/city-of-the-shroud



We're totally blown away by everyone's enthusiasm for the game and the support they've shown.

Since we're already approved on Steam, we're giving every backer a Steam key and access to developer builds as soon as the campaign is over.

If you're thinking of picking up City of the Shroud when it releases, this is a great way to grab the game early, help us improve it during development, and get some sweet bonuses while you're at it!

We hope you join us in bringing the game to life!

City of the Shroud’s Kickstarter campaign is now live! Help us raise the funds for the remaining 3 character models by backing us at the link below:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/abyssalarts/city-of-the-shroud

Every backer will get a Steam key with early access builds as soon as the campaign ends!

We hope that you’ll support us at launch - first-day backers have a powerful ripple effect that influences the entire campaign, so your support is amplified!



We’ve got a bunch of other fun backer rewards, including t-shirts, hoodies, and other add-ons. Be sure to check out our Kickstarter page for details.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/abyssalarts/city-of-the-shroud

We’ll also be at EGX Rezzed this week showing the game, so if you’re going, come say hi! We’d love to meet you in person.

Thank you for supporting City of the Shroud, and we hope that you’ll back our campaign. We can’t wait to bring this story to life with you!

Best,
Shibusuke & The Abyssal Arts Team