Kickstarter Devlog 1: New team member & dev progress
over 4 years ago
– Sat, Dec 18, 2021 at 02:11:05 PM
Happy Holidays!
I've been waiting to write an update to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season before the end of the year, as well as put out our first official Kickstarter devlog here to give a summary to those who hadn't joined our Discord or Twitter following yet. (Make sure to join the Discord for your role! The new Discord is up!!!)
We have some very important news and some great progress updates to show, so without further delay, here is our first devlog!
New developer joins the Below the Stone team,
A very unique moment in Strollart's history has also taken place, with the clear demand to get Below the Stone into the hands of fans, we picked up a new helper on the development team, Primož Vovk of Emberheart Games! Some of our Apogee fans may recognize him from the remakes of Crystal Caves HD, Secret Agent HD, and most recently released - Monster Bash HD. He is also the developer for Courier of the Crypts (found on Steam), & Wizordum (In development).
Primož has been helping us quite a bit with much of the User Experience side of Below the Stone, most importantly the UI side of the game inside the Kingdom area. Those of you who saw us at PAX West this year may have known, the demo had a few quirks that needed to be ironed out, and so far many of them have been smoothed out-- which will be covered in the next section, Art & UI updates!
Art & UI updates
Following the winter theme, I decided this December to draw the Yeti enemy in Below the Stone, a rare creature which will be found deep below the surface, and where lucky dwarves will be able to spot the mystical hominid cryptid, and cousin to Bigfoot.
Most of December however has been personally focused entirely on making end-of-year orders on merch/rewards which will be covered in the end of this update, so UI will be taking the front stage for this section!
As many at PAX West desired, the bag inventory is now full accessible at the Kingdom area! Due to a small oversight, we were not able to get the bag working in the Kingdom in time for the PAX Demo, this is due to the Inventory UI objects being separate from those of the Cave area, and we are currently in the process of unifying both UIs.
Another major focus of the UI and user experience was the bank inventory, which previously was quite bare bones, and left players with only so many slots to work with, now we plan on creating an upgradable bank system which will allow for players to continue adding more slots to keep more of your equipment and resources safe for when you descend down into the mines. Animation & sound created with the great help of Primož!
Music update
While on the subject of sound, our lead composer Karam has given us quite a bit to look forward to when exploring the many biomes of Below the Stone, including those of the 'Bioluminescent Crystals' biome, and the Spooder biome!
One of the major goals of Below the Stone is to create a unique experience on every descent, and as you explore deeper into the caves, you will find various biomes which have their own unique flavors, creatures, resources, rewards, and even music. This is why we decided to do a 1 hour soundtrack for Below the Stone.
Spooder Den is another track Karam has produced for the Spider Den biome, another unique biome which will be full of hazards to watch out for!
Rewards/merch update
A huge part of supporting this campaign was of course the many rewards we plan on giving those who support us. One of our big Stretch Goals was keychains, and I had over 200 keychains made in order to give out to everyone who donated more than 50 dollars!
I will also be ordering mugs, shirts, enamel pins, 3D printed logos, and stickers prior to the end of the year, these items will likely be shipped sometime during 2022 & 2023. Some items may take longer as a set, due to various development times and production times of the game itself and the items themselves. Rewards such as Big Boxes, Soundtracks, Physical Game Copies may take slightly longer to produce as they are reliant on the final release of Below the Stone & completion of the soundtrack.
Items will likely be sent all together to help save on costs so Strollart can focus the financial resources on development, this is for full transparency of the plans I have for shipping out our rewards to all of our awesome fans.
Final notes
Wrapping this update up, I welcome you guys to ask any questions in the comments to be answered, as well as welcome everyone to join our Discord and our Twitter to keep up to date with us on the daily. I will also post our Patreon here since many have been asking for other ways to support us passed the Kickstarter.
- Support on Patreon -- (Patreon rework in progress!)
Thank you and I hope everyone has a Happy Holidays!
- Mike @ Strollart; Below the Stone
