A tactical RPG where all players' choices come together to drive a living story, created by a AAA veteran and a chart-topping author.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
We're part of the Indie Megabooth at PAX East!
about 6 years ago
– Mon, Apr 02, 2018 at 08:58:20 AM
Hi Everyone,
I have some very exciting news: City of the Shroud is an official Indie Megabooth selection for PAX East in Boston this week!
In case you're wondering:
"The Indie MEGABOOTH is a traveling showcase of independent game developers working together to bring indie games to the forefront of the gaming community and conference goers’ minds. We aspire to give indie games exposure to new audiences by creating a network for developers and creative communities to support each other and connecting them with fans, publishers, platforms and individuals in mutually beneficial partnerships."
We'll be there with games like Guacamelee 2 by Drinkbox Studios and and Boyfriend Dungeon by Kitfox Games, to name but 2 of the 100 games that will be on the show floor. I think we're in good company!
You can catch a glimpse of CotS in the Indie Megabooth gameplay montage trailer below:
I will be in Boston showing the game at Indie Megabooth from Thursday through Sunday. The build I’ll be demoing is brand-new and it’s got:
Our brand-new introduction/tutorial (from the final game!)
New map
Never-before-seen dialogue (with the Hat Merchant, of course!)
The Machinist as a playable class in public for the first time
Tons of technical improvements and updates
If you are going to be at PAX East, I hope you’ll come by our booth and play! The booth # is 17087, and we’ll be located here:
That’s some prime real estate, right there.
And if you can’t make it to the show, don’t worry - I’ll be putting the latest demo on Steam after PAX for everyone to try.
With all that, I hope any of you who are planning to go to PAX will stop by to say hello and check out our new demo!
All The Best,
Keaton & The Abyssal Arts Team
Releasing This Summer! New Trailer! New Announcements!
about 6 years ago
– Thu, Mar 01, 2018 at 11:09:13 PM
It’s happening! We’re getting ready to launch City of the Shroud this summer! Ahhhh!
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. If you want to see some high-res screenshots, head over to the game’s updated webpage (actually, just go check it out - it looks awesome!):
In the post, we talk about the game’s combat system and adapting it for controller (we’ve added full controller support). If you read it, hopefully it will give you a bit of insight into what sort of things have gone into setting up the controls the way we have.
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.
How do I get the Definitive Edition?
All of our backers’ Steam copies of the game will get the update once it’s ready for free - it’s part of the package!
Will consoles get the player-driven story?
Nope. The console version are releasing after the story is complete, since 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.\
Now that the game is getting ready to launch, we’re going to be kicking our announcements and promotional efforts into high gear. We’ve got some really exciting news coming in the very near future!
We can’t wait to get started!
All The Best,
Keaton & The Abyssal Arts Team
Surprise! Bonus Campaign for All Backers on Steam Now
about 6 years ago
– Wed, Jan 31, 2018 at 06:00:57 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
A Big Holiday Update!
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Jan 03, 2018 at 08:47:33 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Building and Lighting the Battlefields
over 6 years ago
– Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 04:00:43 PM
Hi Everyone,
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:
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...
