Hey everyone! We’d like to start this newsletter off by going over some of our near-future plans with the Combat Arena Beta and upcoming Early Access.
We’re starting to wind down on Beta-specific work and content. The Beta for the most part has everything in it that was planned. While we do still have some new content planned for the Beta, the majority of our efforts will soon be going towards Early Access. In the coming weeks there are still some bug fixes we want to make which will affect both Early Access and Beta. In the long term, we plan to use the Beta as a testbed for certain Early Access features in the same way that the Alpha was used as a test bed for some Beta features. So this isn’t the end for Beta patches!
In short: within a few weeks to a month, Early Access development will become our top priority, and we’ll continue rolling out small Beta updates alongside that development when relevant.
So far, we’ve been taking inventory on what needs to be completed or fixed before new additions can be made for Early Access, and beginning to chip away at that list. More work is needed on this front before we can fully join the Early Access content with what we've developed for the Beta. Specifically, we need to debug and update mission logic for some of the early game missions. We also need to make sure none of the existing features are lost when going from Beta to Early Access, and that none of the multiplayer features are breaking things in the Early Access. Finally, there are several side missions that were previously half-completed that will also need to be finished.
Both of our full-time developers (Rob and Drew) have recently taken on some extra work outside the project. While that might sound like a setback at first, it’s actually been a crucial move for keeping Kindred Fates moving forward. Thanks to this added support, we’ll soon be able to start commissioning new art for the game — something we haven’t been able to do in quite a while. Fresh artwork is one of the biggest things Kindred Fates needs right now to keep building out its world and bringing it closer to the vision we’ve all been dreaming of, and we’re incredibly excited to be jumping back into this soon.
Because of this, progress on KF has been slower this month and we don’t have a ton to show off in this newsletter. To make it up to you, we’d like to share a snapshot of an important location in the Early Access build. We took a few different screenshot options for this, but we couldn’t decide which to use, so here are the two best ones!
Progress
Most of the progress from last month was included in a recent patch to the Beta, but here are a few highlights from the patch:
New Arena: Training Ground. This will be the default arena from now on when fighting the Guild Officer in camp. The arena is also visible from camp, but only accessible during combat.
New character model display when choosing a starter in the cutscene at the start of the game.
Melee abilities and dashes are now tied to the direction that the character's facing instead of the direction that the camera is facing (Only when lock on is not active. When lock on is active the ability is aimed at the lock on target.)
NPC AI is now much better at handling players at the edge of their leash, and extra precautions are in place to prevent players cheesing NPC AI by strafing an NPC’s leash.
Kinfolk levels are now shown in the Party UI on the left.
Dialogues, shouts, and soul lanterns in inventory should now show Kinfolk nicknames. Multiplayer matches will now show your Kinfolks' names to the opponent.
This one is still in progress and hasn’t been put in a patch yet, but while we were fixing a bug with Tadalon’s Tide Mark we ran into an issue of what to do when a marked Kinfolk swaps. From this, we implemented a new feature where marks will be transferred to the Kinfolk that swaps in! Here is that in action:
Community
We’ve been invited to GDEX again! Come to our booth to talk about the game or try your hand at winning an Awburn plushie. Anyone who comes will be able to try the current live build of the Combat Arena Beta. Hope to see you there on September 4-7!
We’d like you to put on your thinking caps again for a potential name for Hull_Piercer! This one has been stumping us for years. If you have a suggestion for what to name it, you can leave it in the comment section of this post (Squarespace, Bluesky, Steam or Kickstarter) or join our Discord server to discuss your ideas with a group. As a reminder, this is what Hull_Piercer looks like!
Here's what we've posted on Bluesky over the last month:
What's The Highest Round You've Reached?https://bsky.app/profile/skymillstudios.bsky.social/post/3luoo5s73bc2l
What Would You Call This Monstrosity?https://bsky.app/profile/skymillstudios.bsky.social/post/3lu5cplfxf22g
Thoughts On The Upcoming Arena?https://bsky.app/profile/skymillstudios.bsky.social/post/3ltkxgnplg22a
LEXICON
The full lexicon can be found here.
Build: A playable version of the game.
NPC: A non-player character.
Overworld: The playable area in the open world exploration part of the game.
Summoner: The people in Hinterlock who can summon Kinfolk.
UI: User Interface. The layout of information on the screen, including menus, health bars, etc.
Thanks for stopping by! Since we’ll be at GDEX when we would normally post our newsletter, we’re going to postpone it to the following Friday, September 12. We’ll see you then!
