Welcome back for another Elvidian Update for, May, 2012.

Adam Ipsen has triumphed this month, and has finished writing ALL Kickstarter quests! Everyone who has purchased from the $100 tier and above now have a guaranteed place in Candor, with a memorable character(s) to show off when the game is released.

Zeedox has been continuing his work on Kickstarter Items/Locations, like this intricately modeled and textured traveling caravan:

Jazza has spent his time finishing monster/creature portraits (to be used in the dialogue screens and thumbnail portraits), and will in the next month be creating the in-game Kickstarter rewarded creatures.

May saw part of the Elvidian team taking a week to visit Philadelphia to celebrate Pico Day at the Newgrounds Headquarters, with a week prior being spent making a platformer game to fund the travel expense. The game is Portal Panic, and can be played on Newgrounds.com

The Elvidian website is nearing it's refining stages and will be released before next months update, and will include access to our small collection of projects, and a blog system so each Elvidian team member can say what they want to their heart's content.

That's it for May, there's a lot planned for this coming month so stay tuned! Remember until the Elvidian website is complete you can follow our progress and contact us on our facebook pages and twitter:

Elvidian Facebook
Ortus Facebook
Elvidian Twitter

Hello ladies and gentlemen, it's time once again for Elvidian's monthly update for Ortus!

This month has seen new editors designed and implemented to allow new unique items to be added to the game to enhance the kickstarter requests.Additional work has been done on the combat system to allow for better and more interactive game play. 

Work has continued on the long list of NPC’s and quest received.Each of these NPCs has multiple dialog options and the quest will take players all across the vast lands of Candor.  By the end of the game it is hoped that players will be as familiar with Candor as many people are with Middle Earth.

Map locations and props are continually being designed to make the localities of Candor as detailed and rich as possible.  There are dozens of map locations so far ranging from populated cities to empty barren fields laid to waste by the ravages of war.

April has also seen a whole redesign of all the items in the game.  More detail and designs have been added to the wide range of clothing and armor option that will be available.  This was done to bring the items up to date with the map, NPC and quest rewards of the kickstater donators.

Voice recording has also started for some of the characters in the game.  A lot time has been spent recruiting, coaching and editing voice clips to make sure that they suit the individual characters.

There is more exciting news this month with the whole Elvidian team all getting together in the same place for the first time!

Moonkey, the New Zealand branch of Elvidian (and Ortus coder), has crossed the Tasman Sea and joined the Victorian branch.  He will now be able to work more closely with producer Josiah ‘Jazza’ Brooks and writer Adam Ipsen.

When Ortus first started, all the way back in 2010, different members of the Elvidian team were spread all across Australia and Moonkey living in New Zealand.Being spread over such a large distance can often cause communications difficulties leaving team members sometimes unsure of what each other is up to and causing problems when different sections need to coordinate.

It is hoped with the team moving closer together that communication and cooperation will move more smoothly and allow more efficiency and better time management when designing the many different parts of Ortus.

The team is still working industriously on all the kickstarter rewards and requests. There was such an overwhelming response to the proposal last December that team members have been snowed under making sure to get through everybody’s unique requests. 

Rest assured no one has been forgotten, it will just take more time to ensure that all requests are met to the best of the team’s ability. 

That’s it for April, the Elvidian team will continue working hard into May, improving and building on the material already created.  Look out for next month’s update to follow Ortus’s progress.

G'day G'day!

Jazza here, and since the last update we made a lot of progress! I'm sure I sound like a broken record saying that with every update, as if to just keep you guys happy, but when game development often comes in ebbs and flows, and having been through over a year and a half of development full time on this game, I can confidently say these have been our most productive months so far!

So straight to the point, I'll give you the usual per-person update, and at the end up updates from now on, we'll share a screenshot and quest blurb sharing some of the work we've done implementing the quests/characters that kickstarter backers have influenced! (We figure since they'll be interacted with by thousands of people when the game is released, it's no biggie if we give you guys a sneak peek first).

MOONKEY: In the last month this bad-ass has created a massive loot-pool system, whereby we can create groups of loot, setting guidelines for gold, randomized pickups and rare items and the percentage at which they spawn. We can make as many of these pools as we want, and essentially, very quickly, populate the entire game with massive amounts of loot in a very short time. Aside from that, the biggest thing is the creation of a system to place and rig 'generic NPCs', which means setting up animals, guards, and rigging dungeons and combat encounters. This is a big milestone and has taken a long time to get to. Good work Moonkey!

ZEEDOX: Has been hard at work on Kickstarter rewards, namely the unique locations for the $300+ backers. These are individually modelled buildings and props to make the NPC's and quests that much more enriching, and I can assure you they are looking mighty fine!

ADAM: Has been slaving away over kickstarter chain-quests and has almost finished the ones with unique locations. I can personally say I'm excited as to how much he's made them fit into our world and have a great deal of depth and character. Luckily we've been given some great material to work with, so thanks ya'll!

I (Jazza): Have reached the goal I set myself on the last update. The games main story (keep in mind the main story is very un-linear and there are LOTS of difficult things to rig) is playable without any admin controls, meaning the main plot of the game is pretty much set and ready to work in other areas with (namely loot, dungeons, enemies etc). The goal I set myself for the next month is to have Loot and Items finished and implemented in game. This is a big task, but once done the game will be that much richer, and I can move on to enemy rigging.

That's where we are at with dev progress currently, and working very hard as always. Thanks for all your support and input!

For fun we'll share a chain quest blurb and a little screenshot of it's initial location, this ones a lighter-hearted one :)

Near the skirts of Barlett's Field on the lush edges of the Wartorn Lands, a simple farmer is tasked with a solemn duty. The duty of protecting the land of Candor from a dire threat; one that is ignored by the population at large. The threat of `Demonic Were-Chickens'. Now released upon Candor's unsuspecting populace, the farmer tasks you with reigning in these hell-poultry by any means neccesary. Failure ends in one way only; the whole of Candor will be clucked. Locate chickens by their noise and footprints across Candor, spread across maps and hidden behind unassuming objects! Collect them all to learn the terrible truth behind demonic were-chicken kind, betrayal awaits!

Stay cool, until next time!

-Jazza

Hey ya'll!

First things first, backers who haven't filled in their survey information, THIS IS THE LAST CALL! We're already creating the content for backers, yes, right now, and we can't get it done without this information, anyone who has not done so before the 10th of March (yes, we've made a deadline for you!), we will assume does not want their rewards and we will proceed without creating the content, there is no other way we can keep momentum without holding back the process even longer.

Also, a note about these updates, as mentioned in the January update they will take place every month (without fail), but I have the preference to make them after the half-way mark of the month, so I can report on what has progressed, and goals for the rest of the month.

Lots of exciting things have been happening, so as usual I'll update based on some of our main focuses/workers!

MOONKEY (Matthew): Has tripled the efficiency of memory usage in the game, along with coding better map loading, sound integration for NPC dialogue, and implementing creature avatars for NPCs, meaning we can make arrays of talking creatures, cows, cats, and cucumbers to our hearts desires. Next comes using this to implement enemy spawns and behaviors, so we can make some nice juicy encounters/dungeons for you.

ZEEDOX (greg): Has, as always, produced some stunning buildings for us this month, he has finished all of the epic castle buildings (minus one we need done much later), as well as other unique shop buildings, caves/mines, and is going to be working on the unique location buildings for kickstarter backers! We have some cool stuff coming with that! including the twisted tower of a mad Jester, a dark mansion deep in a secluded forest, and many more.

ADAM (adam): Has been his usual busy self, matching up hundreds of story flags with the immense dialogue trees he's built, as well as lining up some deep story bases for some pretty cool mechanics to be built, and is now ready to charge headfirst into the kickstarter rewards to be made. We've gone through quite a few of these together, and you guys have some great imaginations! they're gonna be a treat to have in the game. We've loved these so much we're sparing no expense to fit them into our world as nicely as possible.

I (Jos/Jazza): Have been all over the shop as usual (since I have rather many bases to cover), including things like gathering over 400 NPC dialogue lines (voicing a few of them), writing a theme song, creating several new town maps and many others along the way, and rigging the games main story. My goal until the next update, is to have the entire main game's story/plot fully rigged and playable, including maps and random encounter locations, and getting a start on some more dungeons. Don't worry, we're all just directly injecting the caffeine into our veins.

a BIG round of applause to our talented contributors this month, especially voice actors who have begun the long process of getting the dialogue in game. They're gonna be a real trial to get done and dusted, but will add a LOT to the play experience.

Finally, thank you all once again for your patience and faith. I've said it from the beginning and I'll keep saying it, we're working our guts out on this and are more emotionally invested in it than I can express, it's the biggest task any of us have ever undertaken, but it's our passion, and we WILL deliver, in large part thanks to you guys! 

Also, check out a screenshot of Silverton, Capital of the Northern Lands!

Until next time, stay classy San Diego!

-Elvidian Out