Season’s Greetings one and all!
Flashiest stuff first: I’ve spend endless hours writing coding and polishing the game and we’ve put together a little teaser for you all to show of a little sliver of it:
Secondly, we’ve officially set a launch-date for spring 2024. We originally had our sights set on late 2023 but the Elder Gods simply laughed. For me this is good news however as it will mean more time to make the game a great experience for all!
Thirdly, we’ve updated the demo on Steam and GOG (huzza)! This will be a lot shorter than the old demo but also a bit more representative in terms of features and gameplay. At the same time, development is still moving so rapidly that there is A LOT of stuff that we didn’t have time to get into the demo.
In Other News
We’ve spent a lot of time doing quality assurance stuff lately. A game like Skald is a strange beast: There is a balance between making the game as accessible as possible whilst also remembering that this is a niche game.
Thankfully, a good solution to issues of accessibility and player on-boarding exists: Allow players to customize their play experience as much as possible!
Having good and readable fonts are super important to people! What constitutes a good font means different things to different people so we’re leaning hard into letting people customize the visual style of the game (within the constraints of the game’s core graphical style).
I’ve also spent a lot of time setting up systems for players to tweak the gameplay experience – including fully customizable difficulty settings.
The game also has a ton of mechanical complexity. In fact, I suspect there is a lot more going on “under the hood” than most people realize. The great part about it is that once you learn the rules, you can really start strategizing and enjoying the tactical aspect of the game. The downside is you have to learn rules. But fret not: We’re adding tutorials to the game!
I guess what I’m saying is that we’re trying to make sure we cater to a wide range of play-styles and experiences.
In Closing…
I sincerely hope you all are having a good an peaceful December. It seems a lot like my December will be quite busy with making the Skald but rest assured: I’m loving every moment of it. I mean, just look at some of the art assets I get to be working with:
In all seriousness, I also take care to have a good work-life balance. The game industry can be grueling and a lot of people underestimate the toll it can take on you mentally, physically and in terms of relationships.
I don’t! I believe it’s one of my stronger skills and one of the biggest benefits coming into the industry as an “adult”.
Now I’m off to make (and eat) gingerbread cookies with the fam.
Have an amazing holiday one and all!
To stay posted, be sure to follow the Skald Twitter and Discord and wishlist on Steam if you haven’t already!
Much love,
AL
Post Script
We had a little bit of a stumble this week with our media. In essence out plan was to announce the trailer etc. on the Steam forums and Twitter on Monday and then do a devlog-post later in the week. This was due to my call that it would allow us to get more exposure but the result was instead that a lot of our most enfranchised (and important) community members received the news later than others.
This will not do. I apologize and promise to do better next time. Just to be clear: If you’re having a hard time following our news, the primary source for now, is this devlog. At some point in the future, Skald’s publisher may lean more into using the Steam forums but if that happens we’ll be sure to let you know.