Exiles of Embermark

Exiles of Embermark started a few years ago as an idea for multiplayer RPG battling, a minute at a time. Since then it has grown to include PVP strategic duelling, a loot system that kept players upgrading and a constantly-changing world where players would have a direct influence on the storyline.

That’s still the idea-- an idea that I’m still beyond fired up about-- but I’m frustrated, heart broken, and sorry to report that the game’s production is currently on ice. Over the past half of the year, we’ve had to let all of the Gunslinger staff go, leaving just two of us working away at the game and studio.

To answer the question of “why”-- the short answer is $. The longer answer is that we staffed up, expanded the game’s scope, reworked combat several times, got a bunch of awesome systems in place, and then found ourselves near the end of our financial runway. We hoped for additional funding for the project that unfortunately didn’t come through.

If you’re taking part in the playtest, then you have a sense of where we’re going, and it’s a huge honor to have had you around here for so long, forming a community with you and having such a great exchange of ideas and feedback. 

However, this doesn’t mark the end of Gunslinger Studios-- nor Exiles of Embermark. After we let the team go (many of you in Discord noticed the devs disappear from chat), we asked ourselves the question: in a world where we’re unable to get help and thus unable to keep our staff on and get this game out, how do we sustain the studio and keep moving?

The answer came in two parts-- the first was we focused in on the multiplayer combat portion of Exiles and got a test going in hopes that the data (which was great but limited in scope) would convince existing partners to jump in and fund. This hasn’t led to adding additional funding or resources yet.

So the second part of the answer was begun in secret-- that answer was funding from game revenue... a NEW game. Something we could finish quickly, with two people, and was in a genre with growing interest. 

I’ve been playing incremental games for years now, and been fascinated by what seems like shouldn’t be fun, but so is! In fact, it feeds whatever crazy rpg-progression appetite I’ve developed over far too many years playing far too many RPGs.    

Thus, that’s what we’re making-- an incremental RPG. It’s a send-up, a tribute, a love-letter to RPGs. 

It’s called Dungeoning (yes-- a verb). The title speaks to what it is-- a crazy little loot hunting fantasy murder factory. And you can play the pre-alpha in short order (that link is to the game’s opening rant, instructions are there, read on).

Does this mean the end of Exiles? NO. Exiles still represents our vision for Gunslinger-- quick draw multiplayer gaming with obsession-level depth and great stories. If you’re reading this and want to play the test build (and have an iOS device 6s or later), we’ve made the Test Flight link public (find it HERE). If you’re reading this and want to partner, we’re open to discussion-- we need the help. And if it doesn’t come now, we hope to fund it or its offspring ourselves (but seriously,  “potential partner who does this kind of thing”-- here’s a game that’s 75% done, has systems, characters, art,  the coolest world in a mobile game ever and a badass backend, ready to head toward the finish line. Hit me up).

Shall we play?

We’re about to embark on our first closed test of the Exiles combat system, starring... you! That’s right, we’re firing up Test Flight, and if you signed up for closed testing (or on the site, “Beta”), then you will have a chance to be among the first guinea pigs for Exiles. The first batch of players will be small-- probably around 50-- then we’ll gradually open it up to more as we see how stable we are and start eradicating bugs.

We’ll be inviting people from our dedicated Exiles Discord community as well as some from the lists first. Then we’ll expand to some of the rest of the list randomly in batches. We won’t get to everyone in this little test. That said, if you haven’t signed up anywhere, go here and get on the list!

WHAT WE’RE TESTING

This is not a Beta. It’s a closed pre-alpha test of the Combat System and Arena Tiers (plus some power curve balance). 

It’s important to note that we won’t be testing the whole game. We’re just testing combat and the new Arena Tiers mechanics to get them feeling right and get feedback. 

The rest of the game is in various states of development and isn’t intended for testing-- BUT-- feel free to plunge the depths of FPO (for placement only) and buggy unfinish, but beware-- things won’t be as they seem and most of it will only sort of work. This is particularly true of PVE-- when you hit the World Map and start to click around, there will be some Quests-- there will be some fights, there will be what seems to be progression. But don’t get too excited about it, and don’t report bugs-- we decided to leave that stuff open so that you can at least take a look at where we’re going. As you know, we’ve been open about the state of things, so when you click anything other than your Character and Arena, you take your functionality lives into your own hands. 

Here’s the link to the test welcome forum post. 

So... what are Arena Tiers?

ARENA TIERS

The Arena Tier system is new to Exiles and the focal point of this test. When players participate in an Arena battle they are eligible to earn Renown. Renown represents a player’s skill. Players can gain or lose Renown either by winning or losing battles. Earning Renown unlocks new Arena Tiers which reward the player with new abilities to use, more powerful equipment, increased drop rates, a new environment to fight in, and eventually new monsters to fight in another system we’ll cover later called Monster Dive.  

In this build you are able to:

Gain Renown (30) from your victories and lose Renown (-26) should you suffer a defeat.

Increasing your Renown will progress you to higher Arena Tiers:

Arena Tier - Training Grounds - 1st try

Arena 1 - Wildewoods - 60+

Arena 2 - Askala - 150+

Arena 3 - Vanisir - 300+

Arena 4 - Siege - 600+

Arena 5 - Bog - 1,000+

Arena 6 - Cave - 1,400+

Arena 7 - Ruins - 1,800+

Arena 8 - Addrighar - 2,200+

Champions Arena - 2,600+

View your current Renown total. Indicated by the number to the right of the flag icon in the Arena Lobby:

Poor “MageGod” has zilch for Renown, but will be gaining it quickly.

Click an Ability slot, then “Equip” to replace your Abilities with others.

As you go up in Arena Tiers, new Abilities become available.

REFERENCE RESOURCES FOR COMBAT

The tutorial system at this point is pretty bare bones, and the wiki (many thanks to SecretOwl and the gang for starting one) is early, so we’ve put together a few one-sheeter reference guides for combat. I’ll post them both as images here, but grab the PDFs here if you want to have clear readable copies.The first is a legend for Battle. It outlines the various parts of the UI and some of the feedback that will pop in as you battle:

A key concept in the above is that of Generate/Consume. We’re experimenting with ways to get that across (currently it’s via circle or upside-down triangle, respectively). Will be interested in opinions on this...

The second is more of a definition list for rules. The various Abilities in the game will display and execute a number of effects that you’ll want to keep track of, so until the game itself teaches these concepts, here’s a handy reference guide:

WHAT ELSE TO CHECK OUT

As I mentioned, the only sanctioned areas of the game are Character and Arena. You enter the rest at your own risk. However, if I was going to recommend a stroll through anything else to see where we’re headed, it would be the following:

The Map - we’ve shared lots about this feature, and it is the gateway to PVE. The current state of PVE is that you can do some things, but there will be lots of bugs and you’ll get stuck. And it won’t make perfect sense narratively, so go easy. But the map is cool and its functionality is something we want to dive into. 

The Forge - it doesn’t work, so don’t click around too much. Don’t try to salvage yet -- this is a known issue and we are deploying a fix on it as we speak. You’ll be able to see the intent, but not to do what you will definitely want to do... yet. 

House (it says “Guild” in the nav) - this is a mockup, so you can choose a House and fool around with the concepts, but it’s not actually live. 

CHAT!

Yes, good Exiles, there is chat in the app, so bang on that feature if you’re in the closed test. It is basic functionality at this point (don’t expect DMs or history), and the Discord Channel is probably still the best bet for player-to-player comms, but click that little icon in the bottom left of the home screen and voila!

FIND FRIENDS & RIVALS TO FIGHT

If you’re in the test and not in the Discord Channel, let’s change that. If you are in the channel, then you’re all good for communicating with potential opponents (and you’ll need this type of communication to find people ready to fight, given the small-audience nature of this test). 

If you don’t find a live opponent when you hit “Battle” in the Arena hub, you’ll still find player characters to fight, but AI will be your foe. If you’re wanting to direct-challenge someone, you’ll want to use the Search function (the magnifying glass), and you’ll be able to find specific names or find foes by Arena Tier or Class. 

Anyone online will show up on the results list as green, while offline people will show up as red. You can still click the reds to “Spar” them (fight the player character as an AI). 

MOAR VFX

This update has focused on the test that we’re starting up, but, as always, we have a few visuals to share, some new some updated for the modern exile...

First, it’s the Mage class with a hot seat that this Ember Elf is not going to appreciate (and I cut out his reaction so you can see it yourself in the test if you venture into the very early PVE experiences...)

ROGUE VFX

Hey, Dwarf Brute, GET SOME...

WARRIOR VFX

And a Quake Stomp wouldn’t be very quaky without some earthquake VFX busting this Ember Beast down to size. 

NOW.. DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER…

The test is on-- check the forums and Discord for bugs and feedback, and if you’re not in yet (but want to be), send TheWizard a PM in the forums, and we’ll see what we can do (no promises).

And if you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

CONNECT WITH OTHER EXILES

I’m outright reeling from the last couple of months of production. So many systems have come online, so much content has reached the game’s latest build and so many tools are now in use. Here’s a rundown:

THE ROGUE (our long-promised 3rd character class)

PVP - ranked, spar, direct challenge

PVE 2.0 - connected quests across the world map, dungeons

Combat 3.0 - covered in last Update

The Animation Previewer - you may never see it but we use it always

A New Materials System - improving our art pipeline to bring you moar

Backend 2.0 - tools for ongoing content creation and game management

The Addrighar Zone & The (new) World Map - see section on it below

You’ll see more detail on many of these in this Update, but the reason I outlined the advances here is this: 2018 has been the year of the remix. Exiles has always been about the answer to the question: can we create a satisfying multiplayer RPG experience played one minute at a time? This question uncovered so many interesting design ramifications that when the year began, we took a long look at the game and its systems and decided we could hone some things, simplify others, deepen still others. And we did. Everything in that list above is an improvement over what we had going into the year, and I’m excited to say the results of those efforts are bringing us within shooting distance of what we hope is something special.

MOAR ON COMBAT

Last update, we outlined the changes to the Battle system in detail, and since then, we’ve been working on the UI and making the controls represent the system as clearly as possible (while keeping everything right there in front of you-- phew!). 

To review, there are 3 resources in the game-- Martial (red), Magic (blue) and Mystic (green). We’ve moved to a look in Battle where you can immediately see all of your available Abilities for ease of reference. In addition, you can see if the Ability generates one of these resources (the circles on the buttons) or consumes the resources (the upside down triangles) for devastating effects and combinations. 

NEW CAMPFIRE

See those little embers bust out from the fire and hit the ground? I know you do...

ADDRIGHAR

So excited to share the World Map Zone of Addrighar in its designed glory, because it’s so important in so many ways:

It’s the largest in Embermark

It’s the center-- the connector to so many parts of the continent

It’s been visibly ravaged and preserved - part of the area near where the original Breaches opened got straight-up destroyed and visibly changed (the Southwest), while parts fought back and preserved their original luster

It’s where House Majesty used to be and is now (look closely to see its ruined former location)

Battling within the Addrighar confines will initially have you trouncing bad guys on the plains at the base of its many sheer cliffs. 

THE MAP IN ACTION

The map has made leaps and bounds, and as you saw from the details of Addrighar, we’re filling in the blanks on where you’ll fight enemies and uncover locations of hidden treasure and lore.

With the heartland of the continent filled in, check out another peek at the work-in-progress World Map in action:

PVE will take the form of interactions on the map, choosing items to engage in across the continent. Here’s an engineering proof-of-concept showing how one can lead to another after completion (there will never be this many, have no fear):

The pop-up map pips you see will guide you on Quests, let you make decisions and uncover traysure. Some will even open dungeons, which you’ve seen glimpses of in past Updates. And no, there won’t be random ones scattered out over the ocean. Or will there...?

THE MONTHLY VFX PEEK

As has become our tradition, the new VFX applied to various Abilities and NPCs from the month are presented for your consideration.

First, a very unfortunate Bear:

Next, an edit to an effect shared previously. Realized we were covering you up too much and shaved a bit off the back:

And, of course, the blade-trailing Sweeping Strike effect for maximum BA-ishness:

THE ROGUE IS NIGH (LIKE, SUPER NIGH)

Usually, I say a couple of things before visuals, but instead:

This guy is sooo close to being in the game-- and we’re really excited to see him do his thing. His base loot and animations are in the engine, and we hope to have him playable in another build or two. 

(this was a bug, he won’t be cutting his hands on his daggers-- but we thought it was kind of BA, so I’m sharing)

And while there’s not an Ability called “Stabby Stab Stab” per se, here’s a dual-wielding animation of an Ability you probably wouldn’t want to receive in our (or anyone’s) world. 

Stay tuned for details on his Abilities and strategy (you can get a sense from the opening image of this post). And check out another mid-level chest piece you will find along your Rogue-ish journey:

EMBERBEASTS IN EMBERMARK

Other than noting the markings and glow of what can only be infusion from Embers, I’ll leave this new beastie here: 

LOOOOOT

Higher-tier (later level) gear is rolling off the presses as we ready what will be the initial batch of loot for rewards, finds and drops. Some of it is adapted from earlier designs and some of it is brand-new, but we’re organizing it all to create a meaningful distribution as your character progresses through the game.

Hammers:

Shields:

A SNEAK PEEK AT THE ADDRIGHAR SATTARI

Addrighar, the Zone revealed earlier, is home to several unique species, not all of whom the player will fight. One they will fight, however, are the satyr-like Sattari, a group of plains-dwellers who make their home at the edge of the wastes created by the cataclysmic Collapse in the Southwestern edge of the Zone. They’ve been raiding down into that area for years, hunting and fighting what they find there as well as gathering what resources they can. 

We’re just getting started on this key race-- here’s the concept:

BONUS: Why Are You Hitting Yourself?

Accidental features are the 2nd best. Despite your best efforts and obsession, you can’t anticipate everything in game production. And you try and anticipate disaster, which probably isn’t healthy. But sometimes-- every now and then-- you don’t anticipate a welcome feature that rears its head. Automated battles between any two characters in the game (even yourself) are now a thing-- we just have to figure out how we’re going to use that...

BONUS: Another House?

A few Updates ago, I shared the new designs and names for the Houses that vie for influence over the castoff continent of Embermark. There are six. 

But somehow, a mysterious unsanctioned seventh made its way into the Exiles Discord, check it out...

BONUS: AN EFFECTS TEST GONE AWRY

The Sweeping Strike VFX shown earlier, given a few tweaks, gets out of control:

“(unintelligible language that seems familiar, but you just. can’t. place it.)” - the Bard in Embermark

You’ve seen him before, but now he’s alive! And we have big plans for bardery in Exiles-- plans unlike those you’ve experienced elsewhere. Welcome back to the Exiles Dev Update!

Last update, we focused on the “Explore” feature in PVE, a swashbuckling boss baddie, Embermark populations and the reveal of the Houses redux. This time, it’s the latest evolution of our Combat system, more VFX, the dungeon system coming online and big changes for the World Map. Read on…

COMBAT EVOLUTION

The evolution of the combat system in Exiles has been the source of much sharing and discussion since we’ve been chronicling the game’s development. We’ve been designing and honing and throwing out and changing things all along the way as we develop something players enjoy doing 'til the cows come home. And we have more to share, but first a quick history:

The Exiles of Embermark Combat System: A Chronological History of Systems and Why They Were Shelved

Thems Pokeemans - The first combat system, super straightforward and simple, much like combat from a certain favored “RPG” about collecting and training little creatures. 

Why No: too simple. While easy to grok, this system was far too dependent on the setup of the character (loadout, abilities, talents). If you had the wrong one, tough-- you were dead regardless of your choices. 

The Deck - Similar to a CCG, we took Abilities and had the player “draw” them in a shuffled order. 

Why No: in a quick battle, you didn’t have time to wait for the “right” move to come along and combination-planning was difficult.

The Stance Dance - the player had 8 abilities in a battle, and each had a “Stance”-- Martial, Magic or Mystic. The Stance employed a typical Rock-Paper-Scissors superiority circle to give players some guessing and gamesmanship, but they were also incentivized to stick in Stances for a while, because there was an Initiative bonus for doing so. 

Why No: Too much going on-- you needed to be a real student of the game, every Ability and which ones were what Stance to be successful. The brain load was too much for the quick Battle.

And now, what we’re calling Combat 3.0 (even though it’s really 4). Please note that we are currently testing this thinking, and it’s not an official “thing” yet, but as you know, we like to discuss all things with you along the way. It’s a “Mid-Mort,” if you will.

The Basics:

It’s “I Go, You go.”

You: “Whaaaat? I thought this was a We-Go game?”

Me: “It was, but clear communication of combat events and the player’s ability to make smart counter-choices in a We-Go mechanic never got there for us.”

It uses “Charges” of resources that build up.

Types: Martial, Magic and Mystic (no surprise there).

Players “Consume” those charges to unleash certain attacks.

This gives the game some systematic interplay between Abilities that we didn’t have before (e.g., one Ability Charges, another Consumes, they both do damage and other effects).

It creates choices that are “better” in certain situations where you have the resources to make them.

Most importantly, this opens up design space for things like Breaks, Steals, Cleanses,  and more-- you get the picture.

In a nutshell, we created a distillation of many of the concepts that you’ve been hearing about all along. Without losing anything other than We-Go, we’ve entered into a combat system that still fulfills on the original Exiles promise of quick-but-strategic battles. 

Is this our final format? Maybe, maybe not-- but it’s a really exciting step for us toward something we can put into peoples’ hands.  

BATTLE BACKGROUNDS GET ANIMS AND FX

The way we’re churning out battle environments has been shared much in the past, so this month I’m highlighting some of the Little Things-- specifically, how we’re animating environmentd to give them more life and character. From leaves to popping bubbles to embers or snow or water, each will have (mostly subtle) animations to give you that little extra immersion while you fight for your life. 

Here’s a close-up of that little bog-bubble in the environment above, cuz if I don’t share it, it may not get its due:

Leaves and water and embers will start to dot the various “places” players spend the majority of their time in. 

And, where appropriate, a little dust/smoke/etc...

DUNGEONS

The system is coming along quickly, from the concepts I’ve shared before, to the backend system that we’re implementing as we speak. In fact, I clicked through my first dungeon experience on Friday (was just a few wolf encounters and alas--no traysure-- but I was still excited). In the coming weeks, we’re adding story choices, treasure, exploration (for RNG content) and bosses. 

Below, you can see the entrance, where encounters are, random exploration (the ? mark), treasure for the taking, blank rooms that could hold anything and a big boss ending. 

AN ONSLAUGHT OF VFX

They’re coming fast. Player abilities and NPC moves will involve some additional animations and VFX that clue players in to what effects they bring. 

Here, summon the Arcane Wall FX, wrap your character in a protective shell and thwart all manner of negative effects. 

Manifest a sword of ice with which to smite your foe? Check.

And the most powerful looking Magick Missile evar:

I mean, we all grew up with a MM that can’t miss, but this is way beyond what I first saw in my head when casting it...

THE NEW MAP

As the systems change, the lore changes and now the map is changing! The development of Exiles history, geography and flora/fauna has been going nonstop for the last several months (you’ve heard about story changes and House changes in particular), and here’s a first look at how geography has morphed to accommodate: 

(compare this with the original map)

MEET ADDRIGHAR, THE CENTRAL HILLS AND BORDER TO THE SCAR

Another Zone takes shape. This one is both key and exciting for the Gunslinger team here, as it bridges the gap between the Zones that we’ve already produced art for (namely, the Western mountainous Zone, Siege, the Eastern starting Zone of Wildewoods and the Southeastern coast of Askala).

It’s bordering on the Breach-ravaged Scar, has more land than any other Zone and is home to all manner of House (Majesty), creature (Bogans and Draccai) and landmarks (Tallwind Lake and the Zandri Wastes). We’re just getting started, but you can see where some of the main locations and landforms will be.

THE SERPENT

The Serpent will get a better name than “Serpent,” but until then, we’re working on bringing her to life, featuring a hypnotic, menacing ready pose...

...and a lightning-fast strike to your dumb face:

NEW GEAR SAMPLES

A Warrior isn’t a Warrior isn’t a Warrior in Exiles, and the gear will reflect that. Besides horned helms and plate mail, we’ll also have more menacing garb like a hood/mask that promises to hide the combatant’s intentions from their opponent...

...and the Mage gets some new shoulders that shouldn’t restrict their spellslinging movement too much:

THE BARD LIVES

He’s wily, this one. As shown in the Update’s intro, the Embermark-ian bard isn’t your classic lute-player in a floppy hat with questionable martial skills. This one is a mystery-- is he from the continent or beyond the Breaches? Is that a mask or his face?

And what does he want?

These, and other questions will be answered as players progress through the game, but one thing is certain-- this is not your father’s bard.

Despite his otherworldly appearance, he’s still got some familiar jestery moves that will both delight and enrage the player.

I mean-- no one likes a jig danced at their expense. This guy is cruisin’:

DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER…

We’ll keep sharing details as we head toward testing (go here to sign up for testing and be among The First), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

CONNECT WITH OTHER EXILES

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly crew with plenty of daily/weekly/sometimes-planned shenanigans.

BONUS: BUGGED SKELETON GIFS

Bugs are never pretty, but sometimes they’re amusing. When skeletons go awry, we get a mix of visuals. And no, my good Discord community, these will not be in the game...  

“I know you took my sandwich.” - the Ranger whose importance will soon be revealed

You’ll get a better look at him below, but as we populate your Player Camp and work through the storylines and Quests for Exiles, we’re designing the key actors in the dramas that you will encounter. One is your guide, your friend, your compatriot in knowing what’s what out there in the wilderness, and he will indeed fix you with that Gaze.

Last update, we focused on the Adventure Log, enemy Abilities, the full terror of the Bear, the new Forge and the long-promised 3D traveling camp.This time, it’s the “Explore” feature in PVE, a swashbuckling boss baddie, Embermark populations and the reveal of the Houses redux! Read on…

THAT MYSTERIOUS RANGER

As mentioned, we’re developing this character to help you, inform you and play a part in the drama that goes on within this castoff continent of Embermark. If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice some details from other characters we’ve show on him, and you’ll also covet his gear. Don’t worry, we’re figuring out how to get it to you. 

His order will wield a blade such as this, but his will be... different. 

Here we are in the new player camp, with an assortment of scrolls, maps and tomes upon the Ranger’s oaken table. Don’t take the “Ranger” menu button seriously-- we’re figuring out what parts of the UI will be housed under this guy’s purview. 

THE BLIZZARD

Few Abilities in the game come with a more chilling effect than the Mage’s cornerstone Blizzard. As we crank out the VFX for this milestone’s Abilities, we get a sneak peek at where this damaging, slowing spell’s look is developing. 

And, of course, we need to see the caster’s effects too:

EXPLORE

As you Quest across the broken lands of Embermark, you will encounter an array of NPCs, make choices about everything from which political side to join to whether or not you should show mercy to a passerby. In addition, you will Explore. The twist on the typical random encounter here is that any given place on the world map where you can Explore can actually have any of the game’s PVE content available. In the below example, an Explore node of “Raiding The Realm” comes with a bunch of hidden content that the player will be served one of, after which they can replay the node to round out the exploration to the number of times available. You can imagine a node full of baddies, a lost treasure that’s super hard to “roll” or a key choice for you to make that you best not leave unchosen (lest some reputation not go the way it needs to).

DARKEYE AND HIS SYNDICATE

The Levels 1-10 experience, where players learn all of the various systems mechanics in the game, will have an assortment of foes to face on the way to freeing Wildewoods from the treachery of the Darkeye Syndicate. 

That Syndicate is led by a boss you will eventually face, and he not only dual-wields nasty swashbuckling swords, he’s hiding a blunderblaster behind him... and he WILL use it. 

He’s not going to come at you every round of combat, though. He’s mortal, after all. He’ll need to reload. 

BADDIE POPULATIONS

This is very much a work-in-progress tool, but the design team is exploring how to visually represent populations and danger and such on the map. An early experiment in this is a heat map we’ve put together to show where some of the key enemies (or simply beings) are concentrating themselves.  

It’s not data driven yet, so don’t get too caught up in where the Ethereals lie, but if you want to fiddle around with some of the thinking behind starting populations, check this out. 

QUEST INTROS

Part of the design challenge for an RPG like this-- making it fiercely mobile while satisfying the needs of a fantasy enthusiast-- is providing enough lore and setting for those who desire that flavor while making it super-fluid and quick for those who don’t.  How a player gets into an Encounter has changed a bit throughout the game’s development as we think through that challenge. 

THE DUNGEON AUTHORING TOOL

A few Updates ago, we previewed the mocks for the way dungeons in Exiles will lay out and and work. And now, we have a TOOL. 

It might not be pretty, but it’s awesome. The tool we’re putting together allows a designer to create, edit, populate and publish an Exiles dungeon to the game in real-time (as long as the NPCs, lewtz, and other assets are in the database). We’ve baked in the ability to change configurations of “rooms,” author the difficulty of bad guys, copy and paste and create multiple-run dungeons.

And no, there won’t be a dungeon called this one’s name (but I wish there were).

HOUSE BANNERS

Houses. It’s a system we’re working on to give players cooperation, competition and purpose. It’s a piece of the Exiles lore that frames up history, factionalism and ideals. 

We’ve shared a lot about this system in the past. And I’ve shared that the ongoing lore development has led to some changes. Two Houses remained largely the same. Two changed names but not details. And two changed both. 

On top of that, we’ve designed the banners to represent not just the ideals of the Houses (that your Guild will one day declare for), but some of the finer points of their cultures too. You will find in each banner multiple images or designs (notice the borders even) that tell you multiple things about each House. 

Take a look-- and plan on hearing much more about each...

(higher res version here)

ROGUE LOOT

Many in the Exiles community have been pining for the introduction of the game’s Rogue class, and I assure you-- no one is as impatient for backstabbing and guile-y hijinks than me. But we’re slowly getting into the production of our 3rd Class as we do a million other things, and the fruits of that production are starting to show. 

In the form of loot! Soon enough, you’ll be wielding daggers like this:

Medium chest-pieces like this:

And (if we can make it work) even cloaks! (which would naturally be in the Shoulders loot slot) like this: 

NEW BATTLEGROUNDS

As we dive deeper into where you’ll be battling baddies (and each other), another couple environments that we’ll use quite a bit include the spooky ruins...

...and the Bog of Boggeyness (soon to be renamed).

DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER…

We’ll keep sharing details as we head toward testing (go here to sign up for testing and be among The First), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

CONNECT WITH OTHER EXILES

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly crew with plenty of daily/weekly/sometimes-planned shenanigans.

BONUS: THE ELF LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN HIM

We’ve shared much about the Exiles version of elves (the Highs left during the Collapse, the Woods are sooooper angry about it, and the others-- well-- we’ll get to that). And though we won’t light them up in the game this way, the model is quite dramatic presented as such. 

BONUS 2: DROPPING A COSMIC SHELL ON YOUR DUMB HEAD

You’re not there yet, but you can imagine what it would be like, right?

BONUS 3: A PRE-TEXTURE ARCANE WALL

Ability: Arcane Wall. Effect: Serious blocking. 

“Forge a Glorious Axe of Glory? Who do you think I am?” - the Armorer in your Camp

While a Glorious Axe of Glory is not a thing in Exiles, the Armorer is, as you’ll see in the 3D Camp that players will use as game navigation, upgrade station and management central. Welcome back to the Exiles Game Dev Update! We are plugging away at the current milestone (the Levels 1-10 experience) and the team has gotten regular builds going again as the big new features and system redesigns have started to come online. 

Last update, we focused on Inventory Management, how to navigate the World Map’s iconography, stat changes and an early look and the Dungeon system. This time, it’s the Adventure Log, enemy Abilities, the full terror of the Bear, the new Forge and the long-promised 3D traveling camp. Read on…

A TRUE CAMP

Screenshots in the past have featured an established town as the basis for Camp, where you will manage and develop your Character through his/her adventures. But the idea is a true Camp- something that evolves with you, travels with you and shows you a little bit about what’s going on in the world. 

We’re starting with a base for the ground and background to show you where you adventured last in Embermark-- in this case, the wild woods of-- um-- Wildewoods. 

As you progress through the early game and earn additional features and tools, the camp will populate with others to help you achieve your goals. And they’ll bring with them their various instruments of usefulness. The Blacksmith will open the Forge, the Merchant Dwarf will open up the cart, etc. 

It won’t also be “you” sitting there at the table, ready to dispense counsel, it’ll be someone else-- here’s a peek.

THE ADVENTURE LOG

There’s a lot to do in Exiles. And as we’ve moved through the development of PVE and PVP, we uncovered the need to help deliver on the game’s promise of progress-in-1-minute. Thus, we’re working on an Adventure Log, easily accessible from various points in the game that will give you a snapshot of what you might want to do in the game today, what events are going on, how far you are on Daily or Weekly Tasks, and the like.

Along the top nav of the early work-in-progress design here from left to right are Events, Tasks, Dungeons and Quests:

To illustrate the Tasks section, you can see the early design on Dailies, whereby players can earn all sorts of rewards, both mundane and exotic, for various activities within the game. Some are time-based, some stick around...

And no, you won’t have multiple “Visit The Store” tasks. It’s placeholder, people!

SUCH UNSTABLE MAGICKS

So much of our VFX for the MVP milestone are rolling out, that it’s become tradition to show a view as they develop in these updates. 

Here’s the buildup and release for the very powerful Unstable Magicks (which will be incorrectly spelled in the game as “Magics”):

From overhead:

Another one we’re nearing completion on is Detect Ritual which is a Buff ability that significantly boosts your resistance to Magic and Mystic onslaughts:

(he has... the power)

THE BEAR

We’ve been sharing the evolution of the Bear enemy at each stage, so we’re excited to show how’s she’s come together at the animation stage. 

Plan on seeing us build on top of the vicious base for this one to create beasties of many sorts. And don’t get in between her and the cubs...

Back away, slowly...

ALAS, MY WINGED FIEND

We’ve been showing the Not-A-Bat-Wait-Till-We-Name-It throughout its development, and found it fitting to share his quite satisfying demise-- please note the tasty puff of smoke and dust as he hits the ground.

THE FEMALE MAGE

We’ve been sharing the female version of the player character as a Warrior, and this month been working on getting all the existing loot to work on her-- here’s a sneak peek of her with relatively modest gear... as a Mage:

What secrets lie in that holstered book, hmmm...?

ENEMY ABILITIES

The growing number of enemies that players will face on the continent of Embermark have a growing number of Abilities to drop on said players. Thus, we’re developing a system of icons to accompany the enemy Ability names to increase quick readability and hopefully add to the player’s ability to start thinking about what to do next on the way to victory.

Each of the categories has several permutations, with colors guiding the initial glance:

Attacks - Warmer colors with the iconography delineating between the type of attack.

Defense: Cooler coloring, with iconography showing how physical, magical or otherwise the defense is. 

Buff: Lighter golds and yellows with iconography for stat, accuracy or multi-effect increases. 

Debuff: Purple comes into play as enemies try to sabotage the player’s character, with iconography denoting the kind, be it corruption, confusion or other nasty effects. 

THE FORGE REDUX

Changes to loot and stats continue to evolve the systems, and those changes have necessitated revisions to the Forge and how one crafts Items Of Usefulness (plus our testing of the interface showed us that we had the opportunity to streamline a bit). Now, everything is recipe-based-- even the “Forge Random”s, which you see here: 

Choose the type of recipe you need between weapons and gear on the left and then the specific recipe you want, whether a random item of that type or a specific Troll Axe of Whatchamacallit. The baseline will be a Rare Item, but you can enhance the recipe (if you have the right materials) to an Epic. Legendary recipes will be just that-- and require unique materials beyond the two mains that now exist-- Scrap and Ember.

THE WORLD MAP IN MOTION

The iconography and navigation of the World Map was covered last update, and the implementation of that design proceeds fast and furious, so in anticipation of showing the new overlay system in action, here’s a longer look at zoom and pan across three different Zones (in order: Vanisir, Askala, and Wildewoods).

Given the brief glimpse at my home phone screen at the end, please feel free to judge me.

THE WISP

This impish Ethereal won’t be a mere pushover, and while his later-stage incarnation will destroy you with fiery projectiles and elements of all kinds, the Wisp will be a caster of a different sort (and here he is doing just that with a guide for further FX bordering his floating body):

HOUSES RENAMED AND REMIXED

“Whaaaat?” - You

“Yaaasssss!” - Me

The House System has been a pillar of the Exiles design since the early days of heady idea-generation and plans (remember this & this?). Design on the system and the Lore of Houses has continued to evolve, and with it come a few changes. Of the 6 planned Houses that vie for power and influence and the hearts of player in Embermark, 2 will remain the same, 2 will remain the same with different names, and 2 will change considerably.  We’re excited to share some details on that, but we’re working on visuals to illustrate, so let’s hear from those of you who’ve been thinking about this-- without knowing which Houses have changed or how, which Houses do you think need an edit (go here to vote and discuss?

For reference, here’s the “before” (with special thanks to Exile Nezuja for posting with original names):

DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER…

We’ll keep sharing details as we head toward testing (go here to sign up for testing and be among The First), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

CONNECT WITH OTHER EXILES

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly crew with plenty of daily/weekly/sometimes-planned shenanigans.

A GLIMPSE INTO WHY...

...Gunslinger is doing what we’re doing and some of what led us to Exiles, as featured yesterday on Tastytrade’s show, Bootstrapping in America. 

And my dumb face.

BONUS: DON’T WAKE A...

"Only twelve Tomes from that library survived the Collapse. That we know of...” --A Mage Conveniently Wandering By As You Contemplate The Ruins

There are tomes galore in Exiles, and it’s time we used one to kick off an Update packed with knowledge, lore and RPG-ishness (oh-- and a record 20+ images/gifs for your work-in-progress perusal). 

Last update, we focused on the Narrative System in action, working tutorials, our visit with TouchArcade at GDC, the way we’re organizing visual tiers of gear and a whole mess of NPCs. This time, it’s Inventory management, how to navigate the world map and what to interact with, stat changes, vicious bears and serpents and how DUNGEONS will run. Read on…

CHARACTER INVENTORY

As we’ve worked through the game loops and understood more about what keeps players in the game, we’ve redesigned how your gear inventory is going to look and behave. 

(For you screenshot-investigators out there: the exclamation points mean something is new here and the green chevrons tell you there are effects on the item greater than what you have equipped. Also, the purple “+SPC” tells you the item does a special, non-stat effect.)

Previously, we had your stash over in the Forge, and each item was available by clicking various Slots on your character’s body. This caused too many interactions to get stuff done, so we consolidated into a readily-available Inventory system that makes all gear easily sortable as well as offers a side-by-side comparison for each item to whatever you is equipped equipped. 

You’ll also notice that quick salvage now takes place here in addition to Transmute, which we’ll cover in an upcoming Update. 

LORE OBJECTS

If you don’t love fantasy lore, we’re gonna have to fight (or you’re banished, not sure which yet). We’ve been working for a while on a base of fiction that you will take and run with through your actions in the game, hopefully to some unexpected conclusions. 

Last update, I gave you a look at the Narrative System and what it will do. Now we’re populating that system with imagery that will direct you on your way. Books, signposts, even tombstones are rolling off the assembly and will not only spice up the story experience, there will also be hidden tidbits in some of them (rest easy and don’t look at these here, though-- there are no secretz baked in yet!).

NAVIGATING ACTIVITY ON THE WORLD MAP

Fight something, search for treasure, make a narrative choice, fish for who-knows-what. All are accounted for in the visuals we’re putting on the map. This milestone, we’ll get a feel for how the map is actually working in terms of pushing players along on their journey (that means Levels 1-10 in this case). We’ll be looking to you early testers to help suss out the easiest and most intuitive way to progress in PVE and part of that is whether we’re building the right visual language for our PVE activities. 

PLAYER ABILITY VFX PREVIEW

As threatened, VFX are coming together on the player abilities. Soon, we’ll be able to show all the VFX that testers of the early game experience will see, but here’s how we’re applying and tweaking them piece by piece:

Eviscerate, a Warrior ability, features a blade glint and impact sparks:

Shoulder Rush, another Warrior ability, features both movement and impact effects as the player moves in for a blunt attack:

Here, we’re experimenting with how far we want to go on weapon trails as well as camera shake with an Ability called Rend:

THERE’S AN EXILES WEBSITE!

This Dev Update Tumblr has served Gunslinger well as the development of Exiles continues, but we definitely needed something to show off the basics of the game as well as an easier way to sign up for consideration in early access programs. And now we do!

If you haven’t already, check out exilesofembermark.com for tons of images, basic info on the game and the early access sign-up form!

WHAR’S THE BAR? OVER THAR

The concepts on this fellow have been coming along (as you’ve seen here), and the Bear NPC is not only ready for animations, he’ll also serve as the baseline model for some of our bulkier 4-legged enemies: 

THE SERPENT ENEMY

You saw his sketch last time. Thus “Ssssss...”

‘Nuff said.

THE WISP ETHEREAL

You’ll see the later life stage of the race we call Ethereals in another image or two, but these fearsome enemies start out as mere Wisps, with little form and little power, though they’re wily and mischievous. They traveled across the Breaches from another world, and quickly weaved their way into the fabric of Embermark life, tricking travelers, stealing belongings and sometimes, ending lives. 

FIREBALLS AND DEATH

Now that you’ve seen where the powerful Ethereal starts in life, here’s the latest on how that power eventually manifests... 

...and when, after a pitched battle, he dissolves into his trip to the afterlife (or does everyone “faint” in this game?).

VISUAL LOOT TIERS 

Last month, we shared a rough guide on loot and the visual tiers we’re developing to give you a sense of how powerful (or rickety) the stuff you’re equipping is. To give that more context on the player model, here’s a 3-tier rundown of some basic Warrior gear:

Low Level - wooden shield, rough axe, lighter plate coverage

Mid Level - bulkier armor, metal weapons, finer craftsmanship

High Level - full coverage, BA weapons, intimidation everwhere

THE BOG OF BOGGINESS

More battle environments are rolling out to give players a sense of where they are on the continent, and the Bog is the latest. We’ve made much of bogs and murky swamps and the enemies players might find there, but you also know we put wolves in there as placeholders to amuse ourselves. 

DUNGEONS

It’s an RPG. So thar be dungeons. And while PVE in Exiles is pretty straightforward, dungeons will have their own special challenges. You’ll fight enemies, find treasure and seek the boss/mini-boss/evil overlord/etc, but you also won’t regenerate HP. And they won’t be the same every time. And you will only sort of know where you’re going, traveling from below and seeking the endpoints somewhere near the top. 

“Hideaway” sounds almost inviting, doesn’t it...?

DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER…

We’ll keep sharing details as we head toward testing (go here to sign up for testing and be among The First), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

CONNECT WITH OTHER EXILES

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly crew with plenty of daily/weekly/sometimes-planned shenanigans.

BONUS - EW, WHAT’S THAT

No, this is not an enemy. It’s you. Or, rather, it’s the player Warrior doing a Shoulder Rush animation sans body (the same animation as seen above with body). This is simply presented as a bonus to haunt your dreams-- I was frightened of it, so I want company...

BONUS 2 - MY FATHER’S SKULL!

You thought it was a throw-away caption in last month’s Update, but suddenly, an eerie light emerges from Julius Neomeirus’ father’s skull. Given it was ravaged by some ember-mutated cur, perhaps some knowledge or power remains in that skull, waiting for something (or someone) to unlock it?

“That’s my father’s skull back there, isn’t it, wolf?” - Julius NeoMeirus, Tester Warrior Level 8

The new cave background shown here is coming along nicely, and I only used the wolf again so as not to ruin the surprise-- there’s a bunch of new NPCs rolling off the line, as you’ll see in this latest packed Dev Update. 

Last update, we highlighted gameplay and crafting updates, took a look at Edyrin’s cohort and warcaster friend Elle Manigold, shared info on our coming First-Time-User-Experience and took a look at how we’re going to try and quickly tell you story elements as you pass through this fantasy world we’re working on. This time, we’re focusing on the Narrative System in action, working tutorials, our visit with TouchArcade a GDC, the way we’re organizing visual tiers of gear and a whole mess of NPCs. Read on...

THE NARRATIVE SYSTEM

We’ve gone from concept to implementation on our narrative system since last time, and the features shared are going into the game. We’ll mix up the tells and formats a little, and for the most part present them the way you’ve seen in other games:

Above, you’ll be able to go back and skip out of this (if you don’t care about it) to get back to the action. However, for you narrative Lore Lords, you can scour through any of the longer expositions the way you would a text thread and search for hints, pokes and secrets and such before heading into the next bit of PVE or Event activity:

WORKING TUTORIALS

Don’t worry-- the Exiles tutorials won’t be onerous (or else I imagine you’ll tell us that when testing begins). If you don’t plan to get in on the test, then you will have to rely on your fellow players to guide the Gunslingers toward a healthy balance of learning and freedom. That said, we’re excited about how it’s coming along-- the classic pointers, help text and dimming of things you can’t do will speed you through the early experiences, but we’re trying to throw players in the deep end quickly. Time-to-freedom will be heavily scrutinized...

EXILES WITH TOUCHARCADE AT GDC

A few weeks ago, we headed out to GDC for our annual shenanigans with friends, developers, partners and press. We caught up with TouchArcade during the trip and did a demo of the latest Exiles build. Despite my awful strategic performance, you can see a ton of new content and action in their article and the session’s video posted soon afterward:

A VERY. LARGE. FIREBALL.

We show this guy often, because we dig him (and he will be blasting your face a lot). Here’s the latest VFX going into the Ethereal NPC:

GEAR TIERS

Several iterations of gear tiering and organization have led us to what we hope is a pretty succinct visual hierarchy of gear for your adventuring/gathering/fighting pleasure. As part of the MVP process we’re going through now, we’ve decided to formalize it a bit to show what kinds of details will merit including in any of the 4 visual tiers of loot (from the lowly, dinged up Tier 1 all the way to effects-laden super beautiful-- and sometimes super ugly-- Legendary). 

With that guide comes a bunch of new weapons of various shapes and sizes as we fill in the blanks of missing gear (I’m partial to the wooden mallet though I doubt we’ll make it Legendary...)

FIGHTING ON THE BEACH

Locations within Embermark are rolling off the line, and we’re focusing right now on Wildewoods, the current starting Zone. It’s got a decent amount of coastline, so we’re getting some beachfront battling going (and no, you probably won’t encounter a Beach Wolf, this is just for creation purposes):  

ENEMIES OF MANY SHADES AND NASTINESS

Last Update, I referred to this nasty flying fellow as the Not-A-Bat. And it’s not. But it has moved beyond the sketch you saw then into a fully articulated, vicious monster, with multiple attacks.

He’ll bite and buffet, but I’m really liking this claw attack and would want no part of it were I an exile (in Embermark):

Likewise, our Spider NPC got his animations rolling (we shared a video of his rig last time). Here, for your preview is his twitchy idle:

As well as his Spit attack (more on that later):

And here’s the early preview on the bulky Bear enemy, who will form the basis of quite a few of our four-legged monsters on the girthier side: 

DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER…

We’ll keep sharing details as we head toward testing (go here to sign up for testing and be among The First), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

CONNECT WITH OTHER EXILES

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly crew with plenty of daily/weekly/sometimes-planned shenanigans.

BONUS: A SSSSSERPENT

The art pipeline for Exiles has progressed to the point where we often concept enemy characters right in 3D and move into production, but sometimes we need to nail down a look, some character, some attitude. This serpent is a good example of that, and I really hope we can maintain this look as we move him into the game, because I want to slice his face off. 

“THIS is what I see on my screen.” - Your Opponent

So proud of the Victory image from the UI work we’ve been doing, figured we’d better show the other side of the coin this month. Hopefully, you won’t see this screen too much (unless you’re playing me, in which case enjoy this screen-- remind me I said that on launch day).

Last update, we gave a follow-up to our publishing announcement, detailed the Exiles end-of-battle sequences, and introduced concepts for Archmage Edyrin Zaan, who played a key role in Embermark’s Collapse many, many years ago. This time around, we’ve got gameplay and crafting updates, a look at Edyrin’s cohort and warcaster friend Elle Manigold, info on our coming First-Time-User-Experience (your intro to the game) and a look at how we’re going to try and quickly tell you story elements as you pass through this fantasy world we’re working on.

CRAFTING EVOLVED

The crew here at Gunslinger is working at a fever pitch right now, implementing all of the learnings we’ve had over the course of the last several months about everything from combat (which has been detailed in dev updates here and here) to systems to the way players build characters over time. We’re aiming at a result that brings build strategies to the forefront, communicates what happens during battle in a much more straightforward way and increases the tastiness of loot.

And that’s what we’ll cover this time around-- loot and how crafting has evolved. The loot system is pretty straightforward-- A Common item-- say, a sword, has specific stats on it (how much damage it does, any affects to the player’s core stats like Strength). A Rare Item has a prefix-- say, Mighty. Making a Mighty Sword. That prefix has up to 2 stat effects as well (like a plus to STR and CON). An Epic item has a prefix and a suffix-- say, of Shenanigans and that suffix comes with stats or special effects of its own. Making a Mighty Sword of Shenanigans. Legendary items are bespoke designs and very special and delicious.

Before the current design pass, you could Craft random items for a specified slot (like your Chest or Head) as well as Salvage stuff you didn’t want and create items from specific recipes. You could also Upgrade items, which wasn’t super interesting-- it was just the equivalent of leveling an item.

To make the Forge more user-friendly and increase the fun part of loot management, we’re making the following changes:

Salvage is moving over into your main inventory in the Character screen, since that’s where you usually want to get rid of stuff

Everything you can make is now a Recipe, even the random stuff (so there will be a “Forge Random Sword” recipe as well as a “Forge Mighty Sword” recipe)

Upgrade is replaced with Transmute. So instead of simply leveling a sword from low to high, now you can change its attributes with a reroll, like changing the item’s STR buff into another stat like SPD or CON, depending on how you roll. This will be a feature with limits-- you won’t be able to turn anything into anything else. You can change one attribute, but that will lock the others. 

EDYRIN ZAAN - NOW IN COLOR

Last Update, we shared the sketch concepts for one of the pivotal characters of our fantasy drama -- the Archmage Edyrin Zaan, who started the wheels turning toward the collapse of the continent and the otherworldly shenanigans that made Embermark a forbidding, chaotic place. 

Now we’ve fleshed him out a bit, and he will be making appearances throughout your journey across the land (see the glimpse at the Narrative System below). Is he friend or foe? You may have a hand in deciding...

(btw, if you’ve been paying attention to the Dev Updates, that staff may trigger your imagination)

ELLE MANIGOLD: THE CATALYST

Edyrin didn’t come upon the dangerous practice of summoning-- or of manipulating Mystic power-- alone. He had help.

Enter the deadly warcaster, Elle Manigold, whose story will be revealed over time. Her upbringing, her power and her relationship to Edyrin all had massive ramifications on the continent that’s come to be called Embermark. Have a look at the visual development of this battlemage, who you may or may not fight (but you will definitely want her weapon).

THE TPWER HAS A BEACH BALL

Our friends at Industrial Toys (the studio Gunslinger was born out of) sent us a housewarming gift for the new space we moved into a little over a month ago. It’s a ridiculously large beach ball that caught some infamy momentum on Reddit, given its potential to inflict terror and bodily injury. We’re currently trying to figure out what to do with it. Suggestions welcome in the Exiles forums.

THE NOT-A-BAT

“There are no rats, bats, wolves or skeletons in Exiles.” - TheWizard on multiple occasions

Fine, I lied about the wolf thing (but see-- ours are cool). Well, this is most certainly not a bat. But it is a horrible flying face-eater, and you don’t want it eating your face when you encounter it in its various ecosystems (out in the jungle, deep in the caves, etc).

This nasty is well on his way toward giving us a base for flying enemies, so stay tuned for his color, model and flaps next Update.

THE FIRST TIME USER EXPERIENCE (OH, AND THE NARRATIVE SYSTEM)

We’ve been threatening testing for a while now, and while I’m not reporting a date for that yet (*sideyes the Exiles in the Discord channel), I am reporting a plan. With the gameplay evolutions and the PVE system coming online, it’s time for us to get the game ready for a new player to experience it. Thus, our next big milestone is a working First-Time-User-Experience (FTUE) that teaches the basics of the game and levels a character to about Level 10. With that comes a couple of new systems-- the Tutorials System and the Narrative System. 

The Tutorial System isn’t super exciting (I mean, I’m excited about it, but sharing the part of a game that many players go “can I skip” isn’t what I’m all about right now, so suffice it to say, there will be one, it will show you what to do to get started and then it will get out of the way for your climb to heroism).

The Narrative System is more exciting -- to share, anyway. One of the ambitions of Exiles is to tell a sweeping fantasy story in many ways directed by players’ actions. The system we’re building to tell that story lets us do just that. There are three parts to it:

1) Trackable Items

Just about anything players do in the game is tracked-- the fights, the wins/losses, the enemies killed, the foes bested, the factions helped or hindered, the narrative choices one makes, the aggregate leveling done, the events outcomes, you name it. This provides the Exiles designers a bed of history from which to trigger events and tell stories about what’s gone on in Embermark. 

2) Talking Heads

Seen below, this is your paged spoken-word info. Characters will appear on-screen, point you toward important stuff (Quests, new map locations, events) and disappear. You’ve seen this a million times in games, but we’ll make it easy to digest quickly.

3) (Human) Written Episodes

After every Season (which is currently a month of real-world time), Episodes of Tales of Embermark will be published, outlining the ongoing narrative and player actions that went down during the preceding Season, creating a historic log from the beginning of the game and hinting at things to come. 

FROM BANDIT TO BOSS

Along with the FTUE comes a string of baddies for players to smash (or be smashed by). Wildewoods, the Zone that you see above and the training grounds for new players, has all sorts of nastiness to encounter, including wolves, ogres, elves (who aren’t really nasty, but they will shoot you with poison arrows) and a scheming band of bandits known as the Darkeye Syndicate. 

We’ve shared in the past our method of creating endless variation for NPCs (particularly humanoid NPCs), and this is the first in-game implementation of that system. The Quests we’re designing to onboard a new player will involve these thuggy outlaws, a semi-organized rabble preying on new Exiles and the folks in Wildewoods alike, all built off of the same model, using gear that’s reusable for player characters. 

And I couldn't resist a quick shot of the bandits’ Cutlass ^... cuz it’s got a skull on it.

And I didn’t claim there wouldn’t be spiders, did I? Cuz there are-- and they’re also going to chomp your face:

We just rigged it up yesterday (see video), so we should be incorporating our 8-legged enemies into quests and battles very soon.

DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER…

We’ll keep sharing details as we head toward testing (remember to PM TheWizard on the Exiles forums with your device type if you want in on closed testing & beta later), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

CONNECT WITH OTHER EXILES

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly crew with plenty of daily/weekly/sometimes-planned shenanigans.

BONUS: A BASHER

Because it’s not an RPG without a ridiculously large, painful-looking 2-handed basher:

BONUS BONUS: ETHEREAL VARIANTS, ANYONE?

Ethereals in Embermark aren’t from here. They’re from... over there. Thus, the Ethereal NPC we’ve shown in the past isn’t necessarily always going to be one of fire-- or of heat-- or of an elemental variety. Sometimes, they’ll be from/of/based on other makeups. Take a look at this video from our VFX crew (of one!) showing how many setups we might explore...

“That’s not the image I see on my screen.” - Your Opponent

It’s that time again-- Exiles of Embermark development continues at a feverish pace, and herein we dive into early works-in-progress, iterations on gameplay and evil plots for the future. 

Last Update, we talked about Breaches, Seasonal Rewards, the Bogan Battleaxe (and its NPC owners) and the environments where players will engage in PVP combat. This time around, we’ll follow-up to our publishing announcement, detail the sequences players will go through at the end of their battles, introduce the early concepts for a certain Archmage that played a key role on Embermark’s Collapse many years ago (and, of course, moar).

Let’s do this, shall we? (And let’s dig into it together in live Discord chat or on the forums!)

HONING GAMEPLAY

If you’ve been following the last few Dev Updates, you’ve come along with us as we’ve been iterating on our core gameplay. From super-simple 4-move Ability sets to a deck of Abilities to Stances, we’ve been iterating the Exiles combat engine for maximum strategy and fun.

As we reached our last milestone, we knew we had a LOT going on. Maybe too much. And as we tested on friends and ourselves, we realized we needed to do a pass on the amount we’re asking the player to remember and how much we’re showing the player during battle. 

As we head into our next iteration, we’re really looking forward to feedback from outside the studio, and we’ll be hustling to get the game there for those of you who’ve been waiting to get in on closed testing. Here’s a brief list to give you an idea of what we’re honing for clarity and immersion:

Core Stat Consolidation - less stats, effects are singular for player clarity

Talent Tree Consolidation - fewer, more impactful choices for Talents.

Armor Restructure - this one is super cool-- armor won’t simply mitigate damage, it will be a mechanic you can mess with mid-battle.

Prefix /Suffix Consolidation - when you get a “Mighty Sword” you’ll know what it does right away.

Categorizing Abilities - want too see all your Martial Abilities at a glance? Magic? Mystic? You got it. Want attack/defense/debuff etc? Done.

And the Mark system - this is evolving and merits its own section in an upcoming Dev Update, stay tuned.

PARTNERING UP

In December, we were very excited to announce the new partnership between Gunslinger and Wargaming Mobile. According to the press release, we “...announced a strategic partnership to publish mobile combat RPG games. Wargaming Mobile is a newly formed division within Wargaming.net dedicated to working with talented mobile game developers to publish innovative mobile products.  Gunslinger Studios is a development studio that excels in creating engaging mobile games along with the technology to support competitive esports and community driven content.” 

TouchArcade, PocketGamer and GamesBeat had some to say, and big thanks to everyone who stopped by the Exiles Discord Channel or our forums to say hi and get in on the discussion about this team-up. 

Besides publishing and partnership-ing and whatnot, we’re REALLY excited about the deadly gift our new friends presented us with:

A battleaxe. Like, for smiting foes. Look at this thing! It’s now made its way to the new Tpwer (aka Gunslinger HQ, more on that in a moment) and will be mounted prominently very soon. 

THE END OF BATTLE

Right now, one or the other of the opponents in a battle fall on their faces and the battle is over. But players will need so much more feedback at that point, due to all the of awesome possible outcomes and rewards that come your way. Thus, here’s a glimpse at the work-in progress end-of-battle sequence, wherein you go from outcome to all of the possibilities of Rank Up/Down (for PVP), drops and Quest progress, leveling and heading back to wherever you “were” before combat:

THE NEW TPWER

As I mentioned, there is a new Tpwer for Exiles development to take place in. Earlier in January, the team moved into a studio space that is quickly becoming home-- lots of space, good light (when we want it), ping pong table, precarious roof access, tables made of old bowling lanes and a super sketchy freight elevator to the back alley that only goes down. You have to walk back up. Where better to craft an RPG?

GEAR LIBRARY

We’ve shared a ton of imagery about gear along the way, but haven’t given a glimpse into the way we’re approaching our full inventory. At launch, we’ll have a wide variety of looks and types of gear (besides having many many effects), and the hope is that we can bring everything you can possibly find in the game-- or most of it anyway-- into a gallery of sorts. Something to peruse for attaining that specific look or style (or effect) you want for your hero. As we form ideas around this, we want feedback, so hit up discussion on the Channel or the thread about this on the forums.

ETHEREALS LOOK CRAZIER

The enigmatic Ethereal is a NPC that players will encounter during their journey from from Exile to Paragon (and, of course, fight). While we’ve shown their look (and their death sequence) before, we’ve just gotten their effects rolling.

After a few battles, their origins and alterations to the face of Embermark will start to become clear, but not in the way that you might expect...

ANALYZING THE MAP & PVE

The world of Exiles is represented by an interactive map that functions much like a Google Map. You can scroll around in it, zoom in and out and interact with various points on the map, represented by icons that tell you what you can do (usually fight something, make a narrative choice or discover traysure).

As we develop the system that opens up these points-of-interest and work through where players will go and what they will do, we’ve started to analyze how the system needs to manage placement of pips on the map so as not to obfuscate the interesting parts of the art we developed. 

You’ll never see this in the game, but just so you know we’re thinking about your various views, here’s an example analysis of where to (and where not to = red) place the things to find and do...

ARCHMAGE EDYRIN ZAAN

If you’ve been following the lore teasers we’ve shared, you read an excerpt from a key scene in the history of Embermark last month (if you click that link, scroll down to “TALES...”). In that excerpt, the figure engaged in summoning a beastie to fight for his assailed House will be a character players will encounter now and again throughout their journey to hero-dom. Designing his look has been fun, because we started in a bit of the classic wizard realm...

...but very quickly moved to a younger, rougher individual to fit the backstory of his place in the universe. His unique gifts, coupled with those of another character that you’ll meet, not only catalyzed the fall of our once-great continent, they also elongated his life beyond what is reasonable (or even desirable).

It spoils very little to say his actions prior to the Collapse aren’t a point of pride for him, and he’s been fighting the proliferation of the Breaches to other worlds since then. Thus, he’s taken on a bit of a wandering, rugged look as he’s evolved. This last sketch is still a work-in-progress, but as he takes shape, we’ll share his look as well as his story...

NEW ARENA HUB

This is an area of the UI that we’ve iterated on quite a bit as we’ve attempted to create a 2-click-I’m-fighting PVP experience. In versions I won’t share, we’ve had the ability to change your Ability set, your Loadout, we’ve linked to the equipping screen, etc. And it was always a bit of a mess. 

But no longer. We slimmed and slimmed and slimmed until only a few items are left and hopefully, this will be an attractive, straightforward play experience. Here, you have your Character, restless and ready, girding him or herself for battle-- a combatant, a champion, a CAGED WAR DOG. 

And nothing else. Well, other than a Loadout button, which will let players fiddle with their whole build if they like. But all of that is back where you setup your character builds anyway-- in the Character Development screens. Thus, the Arena Hub is now just about... going into the Arena. 

As simple as this sounds, it took us a bit to get there. Balancing tools at your fingertips and simplicity is a really interesting challenge with this game, and I’ll get into how this exercise led us to some really cool modifications to the way you set your builds in a future Update.

ANIMTRAILS!

The VFX we keep adding are now moving into weapons and how to show off impacts and movement during battle. Here’s our bandit character smacking your dumb face with his pistol...

...a particularly nimble dwarf punching same...

...and a wood elf archer with a Sure Shot.

BONUS IMAGE - THE FEMALE PLAYER CHARACTER IS ALMOST IN

Translating the animations and abilities and such onto a different player character setup has been going on the last few cycles and we’re right on the cusp of having her playable!

DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER…

We’ll keep sharing details as we head toward testing (remember to PM TheWizard on the Exiles forums with your device type if you want in on closed testing & beta later), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

CONNECT WITH OTHER EXILES

"Now we dance.” - The Stance Symbols in EoE

Welcome back to the ongoing chronicle of the Exiles of Embermark development!

Last Update, we talked about the female player character, new Abilities, Spectator Mode and Events. This time around, it’s a look at the design of Exiles’ otherworldly Breaches, concepts for Seasonal Rewards, an exceptionally colorful Legendary Axe and its creators and how we’re going to telegraph whether you’re playing a real person or a bot in the game  (and, of course, moar).

Let’s do this, shall we? (And let’s dig into it together in live Discord chat or on the forums!)

As shared previously, each Ability in the game currently is aligned with one of 3 Stances (they can also have “None”), Martial (the fist), Magic (the eye) or Mystic (the symbol that will come to telegraph “Breach” or manipulation of Embers and their energy to you as you go). Their advantages over each other in Combat (in addition to Initiative effects) are thus:

A BREAKDOWN ON BREACHES

It’s easy to blame all of the calamity that ensued after the initial Collapse on the existence of the Breaches, but they’re not an entity-- they’re just the by-product of the weakening boundaries between Embermark’s world and others. Edyrin Za’an is to blame here, and even he had issues to deal with that drove him to dip his toe into a pool filled with awfulness. 

We’ve all seen rifts, portals and passageways to other worlds in games, but Breaches are a bit different. As the boundaries between worlds weaken, those weak points start to show through as almost cracked panes of glass. Glass that’s eerily infused with some sort of power. 

As the boundary weakens further, the intensity increases and we see more of these little flecks of-- power?-- emanate from the opening (spoiler alert-- they’re Embers, and Embers are key to all sorts of everything in the game)

The first Breaches were temporary, opening the way for a summoning or three. When the Collapse ensued, whole rips opened up and stayed open, letting in all sorts of whatnot, from flora to fauna to those with ill intent. Here, we imagine the 1st Breach (to be named something more awesome later), which flung earth, water and structures far and wide. The great center body of water in the continent of Embermark was irreversibly changed the day this one opened up, and will be a location of great importance to players. 

SEASONAL REWARDS AND HUZZAHS (CONCEPTS)

Exiles is a game with Seasons, and the current design is for monthly seasons (subject to change). At the end of each Season players' rank in PvP and House will reset, world narrative will advance, and many tasty rewards will be doled out. To that end, we’re working on some concepts for that presentation to the player as they enter into a new season (and no, even though I love the word, it probably won’t actually say “Huzzah,” it’s just an early concept):

BOGANS AND THEIR BATTLEAXE

Behold the Bogan frontiersman, a wily race of humanoids that continue to cross over into Embermark to this day. They’re pioneers, putting down roots wherever they can, sometimes overrunning whole swaths of ex-civilization. 

They’re notably lacking in pretense and manners, but they’re a pragmatic lot. They use what they find. They assimilate their surroundings into their everyday and they collect. 

Notably lacking in pretense, that is, until they get to serve time as the Bogan Boss, whereupon the Axe passes to them. 

The Axe is an amalgam of tribute paid to the Bogan Boss-- gems and baubles and bits of metal. They’re not the most sophisticated of artisans in the world, but they know how to go gaudy, and this Axe reflects that. Rough stones made into blades and pointy bits, finer gems pilfered from ruins and fused into the sides, beads of necklace or bracelet wrapped around the handle. 

It’s pretty to some, ugly to others, and in combat, packs a wallop. (/bows low to our Australian constituents for their consulting)

TALES OF EMBERMARK on BOUND - THE FINAL PREVIEW

We’ve been steadily building pre-game history/mmm-delicious-lore with our friends over at Bound for some time now, and I’m excited to share one last snippet before releasing “Tales from Embermark,” the series we’ll be publishing on Bound in the coming days (watch Twitter or the Exiles Subreddit for announcement). This snippet comes from one of 7 episodes of Exiles anecdotes, wherein we learn a little bit about the oft-referred to mage that caused many of the problems that led to the Collapse. 

In the words of TOE’s Narrator, the enigmatic Orin:

I did see it, only in passing, from the tallest tower of House Majesty’s estate. A man, in my daze, had climbed to its summit. He wore robes of old and though he may have seen me present on the beach, he made no notice as such. Something to the east held his interest much more acutely, and as I turned to see what that might be, to my horror, I saw the dark legions marching down Tallwind Lake’s easterly sands.

How could I have miscalculated, I thought, rising from the beach.

Frozen, I watched as the soldiers crested the beaches, climbing the lakeside hills. In no time at all they would be butchering House Majesty, driving their blades into the mages as they slept.

But the man on the roof, with his hands flowing quietly through the air, had other plans.

Sinister plans.

---

Next time we talk about Tales, we’ll be telling them.

TRAINING GROUNDS & ARENA

Battle environments continue to roll off the Gunslinger presses, and we’re on track to provide at least one for each of the active Zones in the world somewhere during soft launch. On top of that, we’ve been figuring out ways to tell players where they are (and what they’re currently doing) in as elegant a fashion as we can. 

To that end, we designed a couple of environments for PVP to let the player know whether they’re fighting another player for realsies (the technical term for PVP) or if they’re fighting the other player character while under the control of the computer (we call this feature “Spar”). If you’re fighting another player as a bot, you’ll see this “Training Grounds” environ to let you know you’re sparring:

And if you’re in it to win it with another real person on the other end of the Battle, you’ll see this Arena-style environment during your slaying:

BLOODTHORN

While powerful and dangerously beautiful, the tale behind Legendary Staff Bloodthorn is a sad one that will be revealed over time in the game. It involves love, rejection and a very powerful user of magicks named Kora Dumari. 

IS THAT A GOLEM?

Yes, yes it is. But it’s not your father’s golem. As we got into briefly at the beginning of this Update, what “Mystic” is in Embermark has wide-ranging ramifications...

BONUS: PUFFS

We’ve talked about VFX in the last few Updates, and our approach to them is evolving quickly. After experimenting with some different looks, we’ve moved toward matching up the style with the hand-painted direction for our characters and environs. Which is why I got excited when this smoke puffery became a reality-- stay tuned for its application in the game:

BONUS BONUS: NEW IDLE, NOW WITH COCKINESS

I try to cover some gameplay, art and features in each Update, and there’s always something that we did that I can’t help sharing. This month it’s the player idle animation. Why?

Cuz check out that shoulder shrug at the end of this sequence. Do you want to fight this guy? I do...

DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER…

We’ll keep sharing details as we head toward testing (remember to PM TheWizard on the Exiles forums with your device type if you want in on closed testing & beta later), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

AS WE READY TO BATTLE, WE CHAT

We don’t have an official release date, but when we do, we’ll announce it right here, so stay tuned!

"Fine, this is uncomfortable.” - General Naz Drakonai, a moment before he rips out your gullet.

Welcome back to the ongoing chronicle of the Exiles of Embermark development!

Last Update, we dove into Ranked play, our progress on VFX, tiering Exiles loot, Difficulties, Faction relationships, and a very angry Elk. This time around, we’ll be taking a look at the female player character, some new Abilities brought on by our Stance gameplay system, new battle environs, a Spectator Mode and even a concept for our ongoing Events (and, of course, moar). 

Let’s do this, shall we? (And let’s dig into it together in live Discord chat or on the forums!)

BATTLE UI UPDATE

The current development milestone involves a Battle UI redesign, as well as the introduction of a Stance system which provides some cat-n-mouse choices for players as they battle each other. Each player can load out 8 Abilities (moves) that are either Magic, Martial or Mystic (or none) in nature. The implementation of that system is at hand and you can see your Ability Tray in action here:

Whatever Stance you and your enemy are currently in is located by the new HP bar, which now features animated HP drain as well as a toggle for viewing the exact numbers:

THE FEMALE PLAYER CHARACTER

We’ve so far only shown concepts for the playable female character in Exiles, so we’re excited to show progress toward getting her into a playable state. 

You’ll notice that we’re using the exact same gear as you’ve seen on the male character-- the name of the game for our art pipeline is efficiency (or we’re trying to make that the name anyway), and, just as we are with NPCs like the much-seen Ogre (and the less-seen Mogre), we’ll be figuring out how to share gear and textures and such across male to female. For gameplay, there won’t be any difference between playing male and female, and you’ll be able to use all gear for either. 

WITH NEW GAMEPLAY COMES NEW ABILITIES

Warrior: Haymaker

(Martial Stance, Crushing Sub-Damage Type) 

This one does what its real-life counterpart does: knock the enemy senseless. Besides a hefty amount of damage on impact, the enemy loses 40% of their DEX for 2 rounds. Time for a follow-up!

Warrior: Corrupting Shout

(Mystic Stance, no Damage) 

Mysticism in Embermark isn’t an understanding of ancient peoples or the dead or whatnot-- it’s an ability to manipulate and call upon the energies of the Breaches and the Embers which now inhabit this world. This shout opens up the enemy for further attacks, debuffing their Armor for 2 Rounds. 

Mage: Arcane Spirit

(No Stance, Arcane Sub-Damage Type) 

Why do damage yourself when you can summon an Ethereal to beat up on your foe for you? This one doesn’t change your Stance, and has an Arcane Sub-Dame type.

Mage: Soul Snatch

(Mystic Stance, Ethereal Sub-Damage Type) 

You’ve always wondered what happens when your soul gets snatched. We’re here with the answer: your CON drops 50%. Get ready for a follow-up Fireball in your weakling mouth. 

And this is a new animation for Warrior: Barricade. There’s little relevance to this update section, I just dig it...

A BATTLE ENVIRONMENT FOR ASKALA

Askala is a crucial Zone in Embermark, home to a wide variety of flora & fauna, mountainous AND verdant, seat of House Revenge, witness to the Schism of the elves and in possession of so much coastline, it’s ridiculous (due to the Great Spine Archipelago). We shared a few of its locations recently, but here’s a look at a freshly-created Askala Battle environment:

SPECTATOR MODE

The Battle system in Exiles is WEGO (both players make decisions at the same time, and upon both clicking in, Initiative determines the order of attacks). That makes it turn-based technically, which actually opens up all sorts of interesting spectatorship opportunities. We can recreate just about any Battle (or let someone spectate a live one) but simply feeding the data back through to your game client. Below, you’ll see a work-in-progress concept for the mode.

We’re planning for several viewing options:

Your own historical Battles (as we showed in Battle Log designs)

Best-of Battles from Events

Sending Battles to others (for education, community and, of course - braggadocio)

EVENT CONCEPTS

Events are a big part of what we’re planning for Exiles, and we’ve begun to concept how some of them will work.

The House system has been a subject of much interest and debate and as the system becomes clearer to the dev team, we’re putting together some of the basics for the activities you’ll be able to take part in to bring honor, glory and great rewards to your House (while sending your foes back to their shanties of shame). 

Here’s a concept for viewing a “House War” on our eventual website (spoiler alert: we’ll have a website for viewing all sorts of info and status and such-- how very unmobile of us...):

For this basic House event, one House will be pitted against another for a specific period of time. During that time, those in each House will look for, challenge and Battle each other to rack up victories (or defeats). In addition, when you encounter those in your rival House in Quickmatch Ranked play, those outcomes will contribute to the House War, and the outcomes of these wars will affect the story of the game. Much more to the rules of that Event, but get ready to go hunting. House Banana* must fall!

*House Banana is not a House. These are the Houses.

TIME FOR AN AMA

Throughout development, we’ve been discussing features, gameplay, art and events and it’s time to dig in again to all the latest in Exiles. If you’ve been harboring a question or want to discuss anything in any of the latest Dev Updates... or you just want to bust our chops about when Beta will start, come and join us on October 24, at 5:00 PM CT!

To get ahead of the discussion, submit ideas, questions and whatnot here on the official AMA thread, and join the Discord Channel if you haven’t already!

REPEATING VISUAL ELEMENTS

Every game has an art bag o’ tricks, and Exiles is no different. As you see elements like the VFX Wolf Howl coming next or the Battle environments or even the contents of a Chest, you’ll see a language of imagery flowing through the game. Sometimes it will be overt, like our creeper skull here. Sometimes, it will be hidden. And sometimes, it will tell you what to do.

MOAR VFX

This one might be my favorite so far. I’ll talk about the Ability itself in a later Ability rundown, but you can see in the glowy glowiness the howl of an arcane wolf:

BONUS: FUNTIMES WITH VFX

The vicious bite of our (super smart, organized and evil) Wolf NPC is something we’re re-purposing for other effects. You probably won’t see this exact thing in the game, but I enjoyed it as a GIF.

Maybe we should just make this into its own NPC...

BONUS BONUS: AN OP MAGE

As most development teams do, we test some moves, effects and animations using a ridiculously OP character, in this case Mr “NewNew.” He drops 6,486 in Damage on poor Naz here, who just can’t take that kind of thing. 

BONUS BONUS BONUS: ARTSTATION KARMA

It’s no secret that Gunslinger artist BigDirtyMitch makes Embermark (and everything in it) look good. He also creates his own stuff, way outside of Exiles’ collapsed fantasy world. One of his designs, this Mass-Effect-inspired character concept, attracted the attention of another artist on ArtStation:

That attention turned into a 3D version of this BA, and you can see her in full glory here: Diogo Moniz ArtStation. Thanks, Diogo. Come say hi sometime.

NOW HEY -- REMEMBER...

We’ll keep sharing details as we head toward testing (remember to PM TheWizard on the Exiles forums with your device type if you want in on closed testing & beta later), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

THERE’S CHITTY CHAT CHAT EVERYDAY AS WE READY TO BATTLE

It’s not just a Seer’s Staff. It’s a greeeedy Seer’s Staff. And it’s looking at your stuff, so better hide the valuables.  

Animated gear is just one of many upgrades we got working last month on Exiles, so we’re back with another host of new developments and updates. 

Last Update, we saw the Forge come online, showed a first-look at the evolution of combat mechanics, UI design, animations and the new avatar system. This time around, we’re going to dive into Ranked play, our progress on VFX, tiering Exiles loot, Difficulties, Faction relationships, and a very angry Elk. 

As always, let’s dig into it together in live Discord chat or on the forums!

RANK

Our last build of Exiles featured some long-awaited systems coming online. I’ve written about the Forge at length, but no less exciting for me is the PVP Rank system now in operation. 

It’s a single-point Rank system where players go from Rank 25 down to 1 and then enter the Legendary ladder for supremacy. As you can see from the badges here, there are a number of steps (gems) to progress through each badge, each with commensurate rewards at the end of each Season. 

I’ll share the exact rule system as we finalize it, but we’re experimenting with streaks and progressions. Right now, it’s one win/loss, one point plus or minus, coupled with a couple of streak options. Naturally, I spent the first several hours of the build’s existence power-ranking to 1 to make sure that our resident Bard (SingmeAsong) didn’t attain that rank with his cheater-admin-OP characters. 

/scowls at the Bard.

VFX

Across Player Abilities, NPCs and Battle Environments, visual effects are starting to make their way into the game’s innards. 

We started with effects for Player Abilities, and will soon share these in the context of battle, but here’s 1st looks at

Gravity Prison - Alters the gravity around the target dealing damage and slowing them at an increasing amount for several rounds.

Destruction’s Wake - Deals heavy damage, reduces the target's Martial Resistance and increases Strength of the caster

And my current favorite, Unstable Magicks (that is spelled CORRECTLY) -Consume all buffs to self to cast a chaotic spell that increases in damage by 10% for each buff consumed.

We’re working on applying effects to Legendary items as well. You’ve seen this sword before, but now it’s so much frostier...

Have a look at these and more Exiles effects in this video posted by our own Yoeri Luos Vleer, who’s been cranking them out with crazy gusto.

DIFFICULTIES

The map continues to evolve, as does the game’s PVE systems. For challenge and replayability, we’re working on a system of difficulties for Quests to provide different levels of combat. Here, you’ll see the South end of the Wildewoods Zone, with Port Endmore there above the Difficulties menu. The activities to do on the map here will be filtered by difficulty as well as Events, so you can quickly see what is available to your character and choose (some Events will be rooted geographically, some not).

And yes, with greater risk comes greater reward-- we’re starting to input the Quest chains and their tasty treasures now...

A NEW LOOK FOR LOOT TIERS

We’ve shown the visual tiering system all along the way, and just as the gameplay and UI have evolved, so too has the way we’re approaching tiers. After experiments with changing model geometry and textures, then just textures, then both again, we’ve hit on what we think is the right solution.

The intent is to give the lower-level player interesting gear while offering a significant visual bump up as the same equipment levels-up (via upgrade in the Forge) or is earned in battle once the player is at the appropriate level. 

Here’s the system for a basic Warrior helm:

The Tower Shield:

And the Barricade Shield:

This results in a tough, banged-up, less-refined look at Tier 1 and a more elegant power-lookat Tier 3 (and allows for further creativity to the color-tells of Rare and Epic gear). 

We’ve also been busy “component-izing” weapons to allow us to create as much variety as possible without going back to square one. A system of weapon-LEGOs, if you will. Using this, we’re starting to see the opportunity for --in the example here-- 9 different weapons, including axe, mace, spear and staff variations from one-ish set of parts.

BOSS ENEMIES GET TURNED INTO LOOT

You might feel sorry for ol’ Grimhowl until you learn what he’s been up to. And you will, but not for a ways into your levelling Quest line. Suffice it to say, he’s not a nice wolf and this fate is perhaps too good for him. 

He does make a nice set of Shoulders though.

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

There will be a near-limitless number of looks you can achieve with your character’s gear, but here’s one based on the helm we showed last Update, the Narrator’s chest piece, Grimhowl’s Pelt and the weapon/shield combo from this post. 

Note: comments about his ears clipping through the helmet will merit a SMITATION. We fixed it.

NEW BATTLE SYSTEM COMING ONLINE

Last Dev Update, we covered the changes to the combat system that we’ve been working on and this month, those changes are going into the build of the game. By month’s end, we should be testing those changes in earnest and we’ll report on the results right here. 

Notice the current Stance-- the eye next to your avatar and health bar-- as well as the Stance you will move into should you choose each Ability. 

(Go here for an explanation of Stances). 

Here, you will cycle through your available Ability Loadout. 

FACTIONS INFOGRAPHICS

We’re starting to experiment with how to display the goings-on within Embermark for your lore pleasure. Factions within the continent will be allies, indifferents and mortal enemies of each other, and your actions within the game will affect them in a host of different ways. 

And for every action, there is a reaction, right? We’re working on how completing certain Quests or defeating certain foes will affect your place in the world as well as what might become available (or locked) to you. In addition, the plan is for a changing landscape-- so one Season (remember a Season in Exiles is currently a month of real-time) might see the Siege Dwarves and the Manifested at each other’s throats. Another, they might enjoy an uneasy alliance. How we’ll ultimately roll this out is up to what we learn in testing and beyond-- we’re just digging in. 

Thus, don’t try to fully understand this infographic-- it’s a work-in-progress snapshot on Factions and how many allies/enemies they each have. Note that House Ronin... just doesn’t care. And The Purge wants to see everyone burn.  

(For a higher res version, click here)

THE LENARI ELK

The Zone of Lenari is a landform sandwiched between the rocky ruins of Siege and the frigid forests of Eremis. Many species of forest-dwelling animal, including this massive Elk, call the Zone home.

After the Collapse, “embers” issued forth from the Breaches that appeared across the continent. Those embers fell on flora, fauna, inorganics, everything. In some cases, nothing happened. In others, the embers brought pain or death. And in other cases still-- the embers created fantastic alterations to whatever they fell upon. Marks. These Marks created visual mutations, sometimes with power increase or change. 

The elk of Lenari are a species whose biology was changed-- they’re faster, smarter and imbued with a power you will have to experience in the game. 

The markings along their coats and the coloration of the antlers will be significant to understanding how to take one of these down (and whether you even should). 

NOW REMEMBER

We’ll keep sharing details as we soon head into testing (remember to PM TheWizard on the Exiles forums with your device type if you want in on closed testing & beta later), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

THERE’S CHAT CHATTER EVERYDAY AS WE READY TO BATTLE

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly lot with plenty of daily shenanigans (there’s even– still– a Shenaniganizer).

BONUS: IT JUST WOULDN’T BE THE SAME WITHOUT... TATTERS

You can’t very well start the game adorned in glittering armor and glorious whatnot. Thus, I present to you a bit of Common gear that does--um-- very little for you. Gotta love them... Tatters!

The Forge... FORGES! We just recently brought that system online, so crafting is afoot at Gunslinger HQ! Welcome back to the Dev Update, wherein we examine everything going on in the production of Exiles of Embermark.

Last Update, we encountered the Narrator and got a little of his background, met the Bandit NPC, showed how battle environments are setup and the progress on loot. This time around, you should strap in. Besides the Forge coming online, we’re covering progression in the game, the evolution of combat mechanics, UI design, animations from THREE different NPCs, the new avatar system and so much moar. 

As always, let’s dig into it together in live Discord chat or on the forums!

GAMEPLAY UPDATES 

We’ve been sharing updates on the gameplay evolution we’ve been experimenting with over time, including the additions of more varied Abilities and gameplay modes to increase the in-battle options that players have to adapt to certain situations. Here’s the story:

In the beginning, we designed a very simple Wego-style combat, where each combatant had 4 Abilities to choose from during battle (if you haven’t already, read the original rant for the game). We knew we wanted deep character development and tried to let the combination of lots of build choices for your character couple with super-simple gameplay to deliver on the game’s promise of 1-minute multiplayer. The problem with that was that there wasn’t enough strategic choice when you were stuck with 4 Abilities that may or may not suit the situation you found yourself in-- particularly in PvP.

So we tinkered with more Abilities, trading out Abilities during battle and a “Deck” mode where you drew in new Abilities as you used others. Each of these creeped toward deliciousness but didn’t quite get us there. And then this last milestone began.

We’ve developed what we hope is going to give you gaming goodness for generations. It’s a more malleable system of combat, summed up as follows:

Each player has 8 Abilities at their fingertips

Each Ability is assigned to a Stance: Martial, Magick* or Mystic

Using an Ability changes the player’s Stance to the Ability’s stance

Martial does increased DAM to Mystic, Mystic does increased DAM to Magick and Magick does increased DAM to Martial

Abilities have various cooldowns to avoid spam-o-rama

What we’ve learned from early testing on this system is that it creates depth without a ton of increased complexity, cat-and-mouse tactics via stance-dancing and most importantly, dramatic fun. We’ll now hold our enthusiasm for those of you who have signed up for closed testing and let you tell us what you think (if you’re interested in testing, PM TheWizard in the forums with your device type-- preferably phone)!

*please note that I am, sadly, the only Gunslinger dev who wants to spell magic “magick.” I believe it is way more fun to write (and read) “magick.” Thus, these Updates are my only outpost of protest. Thank you for your patronage.

PROGRESSION UNLOCKS

The ambition of the world for the game (and the continent of Embermark specifically) is for it to be a living, breathing world. But it’s not a 3D world-- it functions more like a Google Map. To populate that world with Quests, NPCs and events, we’ve been working on our Progression Unlock system during this milestone, and I’m excited to report that it’s coming along as planned-- any trackable piece of data in the game, from your Character’s level, Quests complete, wins, losses, # of dwarves slain, etc can be used as a trigger in the game. 

What this unlocks for us as game masters is the ability to give players agency over the world itself. Naturally, you’ll have several Quest lines that open for everyone, or for your Class, or for your House. But other, more secretive or hidden things will emerge as the game progresses and you (or your House) accomplish things within the game world. One day, the massive port of Sezunan may welcome great half-men from across the sea. The next day, it may be laid waste, with refugees pouring north to escape the devastation brought on by the uprising of the Queviel elves who are simply done with the nonstop raids from-- who else-- the players of House Revenge! 

That’s one example of the power of this system-- we’ll be diving more into detail on this as we get into testing and start seeing what works, is fun and balances out the happenings on Embermark. 

BATTLE UI REDESIGN

While Exiles hasn’t gotten to outside testing just yet, we’ve been doing plenty live, either at the studio, on a show floor or on the fly. And we’ve identified some of the early indicators for redesign needs. As you know, one of the aims of the game is to provide one-hand, one-thumb control for easy access (whether or not you’re a leftie), and we noticed some thumb-placement issues with the old interface (you can see the old one here) as well as some feedback clarity needed for things like Effects Over Time (EOT) and HP and Ability descriptions. 

This led us to the exercise we’re in the middle of, and we’re excited to get feedback on the increase in clarity and control, but also the aesthetic (work-in-progress):

Coupled with the gameplay development mentioned above (which is not represented here), and the avatar system you’ll read about below, there will be much to discuss! 

TONS OF NEW LOOT

The loot train continues to roll down the tracks and shows no signs of stopping. In fact, it’s speeding up. So without belaboring that fact, check out a bit of the mass quantity of tasty items (at varying levels of finish) coming your way:

Axes, warhammers, staves, light & heavy armor, blunts, boots, wizardy whatnots & everything that fits in the 13 slots for your gear is underway. Moar soon!

BANDITS... WITH GUNS

We’re learning quite a bit about how we’ll deal with the Rogue Class design from this cretin, but don’t get excited about what’s in his left hand just yet. All work-in-progress... (but check this out!):

AUDIO FROM THE EXILES BOUND DEBUT

I asked our friends at Bound, the app for episodic fiction, audio and visuals for all sorts of interesting properties, if we could debut a snippet of Episode 1 from Tales of Embermark, the series we’re doing together to reveal a little bit of history before players start directing it themselves. They graciously agreed. 

Thus, here’s an audio snippet from our Narrator (who you met in the last Update), a haggard soul who was there back when the Collapse unfolded. He’s just encountering a farmer on his way to investigate what’s going on with House Resolute. So, without further ado, the debut! EPISODE 1 END.

(and download Bound from the iOS App Store here) 

ASKALA

There’s so much continent to concept, sometimes it gives us pause.

THAT’S A LIE.

We’re rolling through each Zone of Embermark with evil delight, adding towns, ruins and caves to fight things in all over the place. The next one for us to share is Askala-- and here are the notes from our design doc about it:

“Temperate and slightly southern, Askala is one of the richest Zones in terms of natural resources. Farmland is abundant (though it’s not flat), and the fishing trade is huge, given Askala’s largest coastline of any Zone. In the middle of the Zone is a mountain range of steep peaks. There’s a long archipelago along the southern end, with sporadic civilization and ruins along them. House Revenge HQ located along the Eastern part of the Zone.”

Like most of the continent, even the civilized portions are tucked away for protection and under constant threat of decimation, both from Others From Over There (beyond the Breaches) and from neighbors. Here’s a rough of Pactu, a farming village nestled among the conifers below the nearby range:

As you read from the design doc, House Revenge is here, an amalgam of architecture from the once-proud elves and the men and half-men who have come to reside there:

We’re also working on Dokkul, a fishing capital right at the start of the Askalan Archipelago. Its seemingly haphazard and spread-out makeup has allowed it to regroup and restart after countless raids and invasions on its rich resources:

AND NOW, THE FORGE ONLINE

yes, Yes, YES, YES! The Forge works, people! I can’t tell you how happy this makes me (I am, admittedly, an easily delighted wizard, but indulge me)... 

“Craft items of enormous power” is said in many game descriptions, so I will outline:

Forge Recipes - You will find, earn and win Recipes throughout your journeys in Embermark, and these will allow you to forge items needed and some not available in Chests or Quests. A few crafting materials (also available in drops) plus a Unique Material (which can literally be anything) and BOOM - you’ve got a unique item or a banana or what-have-you.

Forge Random - Pick one of the 13 slots available on your character, and as long as you have the crafting materials, you can forge a random piece of loot for that slot. The higher the Forge level, the better the loot!

Salvage - 1-800-GOT-JUNK has nothing on Exiles. Not only does the game take away your junk, it gives you crafting materials (and sometimes, even Ember Essence) in return!

Upgrade - Got a Legendary, except it’s Level 3 and you’ve gotten way beyond that? Throw in your mats and bring that item with you on your journey to Paragon!

(oh and you can of course Level Up your Forge, unlocking treasures untold)

DWARVES FIGHTING

In this Update’s Dwarf section, we have some animations to share, not the least of which is this Shield Slam, which will likely cause you to lose your feet (or some other awful effect-over-time) during battle:

And who says dwarves aren’t spry? Try making this type of leap at home:

WINNERS OF THE PCGC

All hail the mighty SecretOwl, winner of the 1st Player-Created Gear Contest! It was a heated competition, with entries as varied as weapons, to offhands to armor pieces, but a shield won the day!

Jakallen’s Aegis, a singular shield combining epic-level resistances for the bearer with an impressive side effect, won “The Paragon” and will be created, given Lore and made available in the game after launch. In addition, prizes were given for the “Loose Cannon” (craziest) and The Fisherman’s Boot (funniest). Check The Scroll of Exaltation for the winners and details on upcoming contests.

If your entries didn’t make the finals this time, fear not-- there will be many more PCGCs in the future, and your creativity just may see its way into the game along with the Aegis.

RINGS & BELTS!

There are 13 slots on your Character’s person in Exiles, and 8 of those slots for gear are visible. Given that the creation of visible items (like helms and chest pieces and boots) are more work, we did those first. Thus, rings and belts have languished in the dark for a long time, waiting to be introduced into the game.

This milestone, those items made their way in, and the Bard is hard at work on the Ring of Whateversinhishead.

ETHEREALS IN EMBERMARK

Ethereals aren’t supposed to be here. 

Another race from Otherworld, these beings are intelligent and highly sophisticated but non-humanoid. Their physical forms are up to them, both in shape and in solidity. They communicate with each other entirely mind-to-mind, with no sound or vibration emitting from them. To anyone on the outside, they must communicate by the assuming of form. Assuming form and substance makes them vulnerable, but this is also how they must attack a physical foe or charm them or lull them into a stupor. Thus, a battle with an Ethereal is a dance of prepare-and-attack as they tend to buff themselves in prep and then unload on an enemy.

They move in life cycle from Wisp to Shine to Ascended to Superior, and their forms and powers and even limitations progress as well. 

Here we take a look at an Ascended, chosen to form of human and fire:

Despite their ever-increasing power, they can be defeated-- and as you can see, they don’t take their possessions into the next life...

Plan on seeing more on this enemy, as we introduce their multiple forms (and multiple power structures alongside).

THE AVATAR SYSTEM

For a while-- in fact, a great loooong while, you’ve been looking at this guy as a placeholder player avatar in every screenshot ever:

Thus, thank you for your patience and huzzah! You don’t have to look the same as everyone else anymore. In fact, Exiles will only sometimes use faces. Instead, we’re developing an avatar system that gives players some agency over their representation to the world while playing the game. It’s a combination of options, whereby you have default choices for the various parts of your avatar as well as earn or find parts as you go through the game experience. 

First, you’ll choose your avatar frame, beginning with lowly, shameful materials and progressing into fantastic borders that make your opponent go “whoa, that Character won the Hoozitwhatsit Tourney-- I’d better just quit right now...”

Then you’ll combine with a number of backgrounds for the avatar, same story:

And finally, you will add an icon as well the icon’s color for full badassery:

Banana icons, anyone?

NOW REMEMBER

We’ll keep sharing details as we head into testing (remember to PM TheWizard on the Exiles forums with your device type if you want in on closed testing & beta later), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with the Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

THERE’S CHAT CHATTER EVERYDAY AS WE READY TO BATTLE

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly lot with plenty of daily shenanigans (there’s even-- still-- a Shenaniganizer).

BONUS: VFX ARE COMING!

We’re just starting to dive into our VFX plan (you may have noticed a lack of them in previous GIFs or screenshots), but rest assured, Exiles shall have them, and our bonus image this month is a WIP concept for the Ability “Armor Up,” which would appear on you or your opponent upon Ability use:

BONUS X2: THE DWARF... SHIMMY

Who is that? What’s he so sad about? What’s that on his head? Read on...

Welcome back to the Exiles Game Dev Update, wherein we cover all things happening in the world of the game and its development. 

Last time, we covered a bunch of content, gameplay experiments and visual evolutions on the Exiles UI. This Update goes across the board with a look at the way we’re setting up battle environments, a new NPC, lootz (as always) and an introduction to the fellow that will guide you through your early experiences in Embermark. 

ENVIRONMENT BREAKDOWN: VANISIR

We’ve mostly shown our classic foresty Wildewoods battle environment in the past (or the Arena), but we’ve been quietly working on many different Battle setups for different Zones and situations all the while. This time, let’s take a look at Vanisir, the southwest Zone known for arid land and DANGER (ok, fine, every Zone in Embermark is dangerous-- it’s a fantasy-post-apocalyptic landscape after all). You can see from this setup that we’re taking several 2D paintings and arranging them in UE4 to achieve our 3D-but-hand-painted look:

AMA TRANSCRIPT

We had a rousing discussion in our 2nd-of-many Ask Me Anything a few weeks ago on the Exiles Discord Channel, with subjects ranging from Abilities to Stats to World Events & Houses tackled. Besides lively banter, several Exiles won coveted items when the game launches via “rolls” in chat. 

In case you missed it and want to get all the info & shenanigans, you can find the entirety of it here for posterity (our gratitude goes out to community stalwart Drakythe for capturing the AMA and posting the transcript).

BANDITS!

A Faction exists in Embermark that doesn’t really acknowledge (or respect) any leadership other than its own-- the Raiders. If called to fight as a unit or untied Faction, they probably wouldn’t fare well, but when encountered in Quests or random encounters in Exiles, they can be deadly.

Of medium build and questionable (read: awful) morals, the bandit can be found in Wildewoods and Askala among other Zones. 

Don’t like the red bandanna? FINE...

Now, a significant constituency of the Exiles community are Rogue-friendly (yes, that is a term), and I’m not saying this Bandit here is reminiscent of what you might expect your player-Rogue to be like... OR AM I.

What I can say is that because we’re using the player models for creation of NPCs, we have the ability to appropriate their equipment for YOU. So a shout-out to you Rogue-friendlies out there-- consider this gear a bit of a preview to what kind of gear you might outfit yourself when gameday comes... 

ABILITIES UI REDESIGN

UI 2.0 is on its way as we watch people play the game and discover optimizations ourselves. One we attacked this month is the switching of Ability Sets (remember, Ability Sets in Exiles can be 4 Abilities in the basic combat we’re testing and 8 in the “Deck” version we’re also testing). Using a list view to toggle between what becomes quite a few saved Ability Sets for an advanced player becomes cumbersome, so we added in some additional options for ease of use:

Ability Set title at the top

Arrows (and swipe, of course) for switching between your saved Ability Sets

Pips below the current Ability Set to show both which one is active and how many you have

This underscores some things that we’re experiencing in play sessions 

THE ELF IN ACTION

We’ve shown the evolution of Exiles’ wood elf characters since the beginning of this project (here, here & here), so having him in the game now is really exciting for us. We’re doing a little extra fudge factor to get his arrow to do different things (stay tuned for additional VFX we’re working on), but you can see his Sharpshot Ability here:

With a sideview of same here:

And Gunslinger’s animator-extraordinaire Andrew even used the arrow as a comedy device in the elf’s death:

Found all over, but concentrated in Wildewoods, Feral Moon and Askala, these wood elves are no fans of their brethren in the southern island Zone of Queviel. Those elves made an exodus during the Collapse to get away from the destruction, leaving their wood elf cousins to fend, adapt and evolve into the wilder, more martial elves that you will encounter often. 

HELMS & TELLS & TUNICS

Each month, we increase the Exiles library of loot and show a few choice pieces to illustrate both our stylistic choices as well as our experiments in gameplay. As we turned the dwarf I showed last month into a formidable foe (and sometimes ally), his gear was adapted into player-wearable items, and we gave it the color-tell treatment (go here for explanation). We’re in the process of figuring out how far we need to go to get the effects telegraph across to players, cuz where this helmet definitely says “green” to the opponent...

...this one has a certain style...

You’ll see where we landed when closed testing begins, and I will likely address this whole system in a later update.

It also occurred to me that we’ve never shown (or even mentioned) TUNICS before, and what’s a fantasy RPG without that word (or item)? Well, it’s not going to deflect much in the way of damage, but here are three tiers of a mage tunic for your wearing pleasure:

And of course, the latest in power-fashion magery:

All of the items that I’ve shown in the last few updates are now in the game, and we’ve been upgrading and improving our backend system that pushes content into the game in real-time. I’ll be starting to post video of more extended gameplay and battles once we get more finish on the feedback systems,  but for now, take a look at another GIF of equipping, featuring the Spear, Axe, Shield and armor set show in the past 2 or 3 updates. Please note the now-working rarity icons!:

(click here for a much longer and better GIF unbound by Tumblr’s file size limits)

THE NARRATOR (& HIS MANY HIDDENS)

The backstory and Lore of Exiles has been a fun and evolving part of the project, and as the preview stories started coming together with Bound, we realized the need for creating a character who acts as the voice (check out the Pocket Gamer article on Bound’s announcement of award-winning writer Andrew Saxsma as the talespinner on Exiles). We needed bit of a narrator. So we went through a process of coming up with who/what we wanted him to be and do. We went through many iterations of look and feel and reference to get something that nailed the tone of someone who would engage in telling you these stories...

(With great respect to GRRM, who sees Jorah Mormont in the above? Which one?)

Then we started playing with the type of fellow he might be, what he would be equipped to do, to survive and to know...

Until we arrived at a backstory and personality that we’re pretty excited about, but...

...then we SHROUDED HIM IN MYSTERY.

Har. So I’ll say little else other than there are no less than 2 major signals about who and what our Narrator is in this illustration. We shall reveal those items in due time. For now, I give you:

NARRATIVE - A GLIMPSE

There are quite a few episodes of the Exiles storyline in the can now. If you’re just joining us, we’re telling some of the backstory of the game before it’s available, and once the game launches, we’ll be telling the story of YOU. By that, I mean we’ll be reporting on the storyline as players play out their adventures, using the data from the game and the choices you make to direct the ongoing narrative. 

Very soon, our friends at Bound will release early episodes of the backstory (told by our haunted friend above), so now-- have a read through of the very first mid-episode snippet from our coming Tales...

A farmhand and his wife, who had been pulling behind them the few belongings left of their home, mentioned in passing that there had been an attack against House Resolute that morning, before the sun had risen. 

They described a horror of the loudest thunder and the hottest fires that rained down from the skies over the gulley of central Siege, barraging the fortress at its heart. Mages, it was rumored, of a rival House had rallied against the hoarding House Resolute. These Mages, I learned, wanted retribution for the deprived territories and as I neared the mountain’s peak, I witnessed fires devouring the countryside and ash falling as snow from bloated dark clouds.  

Though Hurinyl withstood its aggressors, neighboring encampments were leveled and homes and farmland for miles vanished.  

More troubling was that a message of blood and destruction was delivered that morning, one which would resound for ages to follow. That message, my friend, was quite clear: Man had lost his abundance, his satisfaction. His eyes, and all they desired, had turned upon his neighbor. 

The rise of the Houses was signaled. War was coming.

What?! What was Resolute hoarding? What mages? Who’s the “bad guy?” Who had the power to engulf the whole countryside? Stay tuned, Exiles...

REMEMBER

We’ll keep sharing details as we head into testing (remember to PM TheWizard on the Exiles forums with your device type if you want in on closed testing & beta later), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with the Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

THERE’S CHAT CHATTER EVERYDAY AS WE READY TO BATTLE

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly lot with plenty of daily shenanigans (there’s even a Shenaniganizer).

THE BONUS: A TURNAROUND

Lots of “Fs” in this one...