We hope that all of you have had a most joyous and festive holiday season thus far! As 2016 draws to a close, we wish to share our most heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for your generous support, and even more so, for the profound sense of belongingness that this remarkable community fosters in us all. There is no greater value than being able to share this extraordinary journey with you.
The entire Shroud of the Avatar Development team wish you the Happiest of New Years!
[The following excerpt is from a RizeUp Gaming Twitch Channel Subscriber Letter]
We are excitedly preparing for our June charity: the Fourth Annual Multiple Sclerosis Society Charity Drive hosted live on the channel the 17th through 19th. Look forward to seeing our everyday streamers in addition to a few of our newest members recruited to the stream team. Long-time supporter, Indie, will be casting from the channel Saturday, June 18th, at 10am PDT. RizeUp Owner, Firecrow, will be casting the same day at 8pm PDT.
All streams during the marathon will have special donation incentives to make donating to the MS Society Charity a little more interesting as we attempt to reach our $1000 goal. Prizes for this marathon include two Steelseries headsets, one 60-day Minecraft server hosted by WTGHosting, artwork by artists in our community, and Steam game code packs. We will be giving out Steam game codes when we reach certain follower, subscriber, and donation increments to viewers in chat and through the RizeUp Twitter.
Make sure to come by the channel and show off your sub emotes while we raise money for MS.
https://www.twitch.tv/rizeupgaming
Donate to RizeUp Gaming’s National MS Society Charity Drive here!
#StrongerThanMS
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
Play Release 30 Now!
A heartfelt thank you, from the entire Dev Team, to all of you, our backers, that have contributed to the development funding of Shroud of the Avatar! Today’s Telethon was yet another example of your amazing support and contributions! We sign off for the night and will update this page tomorrow with the final numbers as of Midnight, May 2nd!
Again, thank you, and good night…
** $67,500 **
Current Telethon Funds Raised
(Dev Team shots/songs/dance every $2500 increment)
As a special bonus, we are offering Telethon Funding Stretch Goal Rewards to any backer that pledges a minimum of $5 from the start of the telethon, until Midnight May 2 (Spending Store Credit to make $5 minimum purchase does not apply). The Spring Festival Telethon Funding Stretch Goal Rewards are:
We have decided to hold a 10 hour Spring Festival of the Avatar Telethon from 12:00 PM to 10:00 PM Central Time (5:00 PM UTC to 03:00 AM UTC) on May 2nd, and to extend our Spring 2016 Bonus and Pledge Expirations from 10:30 AM until the end of the telethon at 10:00 PM CT. As we march toward the Final Wipe and Lot Selection milestone in July, we are permanently expiring almost half of all 
pledges during the Spring 2016 Pledge Expiration Event, at 10:30 AM 10:00 PM Central Time (5:00 PM UTC to 03:00 AM UTC), May 2, 2016.
If you were thinking of purchasing (or upgrading) a pledge before they expire, or purchasing an add-on item, player owned town, service voucher, or Make A Difference item, then now’s a great time to do it! Thru 10:30 AM 10:00 PM CT, May 2, 2016 we’ll add an additional 15% bonus to your Store Credit! (Read more…)
The Spring Festival of the Avatar Telethon will include deep dives, lots of prize giveaways* (like coins, t-shirts, store credits, even pledges!), and even some surprises, so you don’t want to miss a moment of it!
Warning: Telethon is Rated PG-13 for Alcoholic Content
(might get upgraded to Rated-R depending on rate of pledges)
Drinking / Dancing / Singing Rules:
And as always we will be answering your questions during the telethon. You can pre-post your questions right here in the comments section or post them live in IRC during the Telethon
Here is the current schedule of events (times and content subject to change):
* There will be some really awesome prizes awarded during the telethon, but you have to be present in the IRC chatroom to qualify for each drawing.
** This post will be opened for questions as soon as it is updated to include the segment schedules. Please keep in mind that questions and feedback related to each segment will be given priority and really verbose questions may be skipped, as they can be a challenge to shorten and summarize live on the air. In brief… please keep your questions… brief.
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
Sneak Peek: Brittany, Capital of Novia
[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar]
Hey guys, SorcerousSteve here to give you a teaser shot of the upcoming city of Brittany!
Captured below is the South Port side Gate. A hub of commerce and trade, its streets are littered with cargo from afar, muddy sludge from the wagons covers the cobblestone, and the stench of fish penetrates the air. Not the classiest part of town but home to some quite rugged folks. From here we can catch a glimpse of Brittany Castle in the far left, home to Lady Arabella, wife of the King of New Britannia, Lord British! If you look to your right, you can also catch a glimpse of a lighthouse, that section is currently under construction and will lead to the North Port side Gate. To put things into perspective, in this frame is one of the five city gates that will feed into Brittany Central, 4 of which will come from surrounding neighborhoods/suburbs and 1 which will lead in from the Brittany Graveyard.
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
0 Day Countdown to Spring 2016 Pledge Expirations!
As we march toward the Final Wipe and Lot Selection milestone this summer, we are expiring seven of the seventeen remaining pledges during the Spring 2016 Pledge Expiration Event, which will occur at 10:30 AM CST, May 2, 2016 (following the next wipe for Release 29). The remaining ten pledges, as well as new Player Owned Towns, will be expired during the Summer 2016 Expiration Event.
Spring 2016 Pledge Expirations
The following pledges will no longer be available for purchase or upgrade after May 2, 2016:
The Spring 2016 expirations DO NOT affect any backers that are already entitled to these rewards as listed in the pledge description at the time you pledged or upgraded. These expirations only affect new backers, or existing backers that have not upgraded to the specified pledge tiers before the expiration date.
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
Shooter Jennings’ Countach Breast Cancer Make a Difference Charity
We’re excited to announce that we are partnering with outlaw country musician Shooter Jennings, son of country music icons Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, and his label, Black Country Rock, to raise money through Shroud of the Avatar’s Make a Difference Store, using Shooter’s newest album: Countach! Fifty percent of the net purchase price* of the Countach Make a Difference items will be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The Countach Breast Cancer Make a Difference items include:
[A SotA Public Forum post by Starr Long]
Greetings Avatars,
Please read this entire message, as well as the linked instructions and known issues.
Thank you for being a loyal backer and follower of Shroud of the Avatar. Release 27 access for all backers at First Responder level and above begins this Thursday, February 25, at 10:30 AM US Central Time (16:30 UTC).
Release 27 is the first release where our pivot to focus on Final Wipe is becoming very visible. It can be seen in the rapid expansion of scenes, filling out entire regions, albeit with scene clones (that we will later make unique). It is also the beginning of major polish passes and rework of the starting scenes to make them more playable and more directed. It is also visible in the new creature behaviors of play, resource guarding, Oracle scanning, Escort Quests, and NPCs talking to each other.
Even though this was a short release at only four weeks (which means just three weeks of development) and we had a LOT of R26 patches, we still managed to add a bunch of new content to the game. Additionally, behind the scenes, we continue to optimize performance and improve our data tracking/reporting (heatmaps are the latest addition). We have also begun a complete overhaul of our avatars, including mesh, texture, skin, hair, clothing, and animations. We hope to reveal those changes next release when we plan to have the new male avatar in the game.
Yet again, I want to express a huge amount of gratitude to our Dev+ backers who tested all of the items below on the QA server and uncovered lots of bugs. They also provided editorial feedback on this post, so they are a big reason that this post actually matches what is in the game, and that it is easy to read.
While we are getting closer to launch, we are still in a constant state of change, and we do not yet have in-game systems to inform players of these changes, or to share ways to help them to explore new content and systems. This means we rely entirely on this message, and the linked instructions and known issues to convey the current game state. We regularly have to answer questions or filter bug reports because some players elect not to read this valuable information. By taking a few moments to read through this information, a great deal of our time and efforts can be redirected to focus on new “unanswered” questions, and addressing critical issues impacting each release. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to review this post, and for all the truly valuable feedback you continue to provide.
Also, remember that while we are providing new content with each release, our community is working overtime to make new events for you to enjoy. So, be sure to check out a couple of the Community Events Calendars run by our community members (via in-game book or the player run websites Avatars Circle Community Events and Events of the Avatars calendar).
Without further ado, here are the R27 deliverables.
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:
The Making of Shores of Malice – Part 2
[From a Dev+ Forum Post by Esteben “SorcerousSteve” Zaldivar]
Hey guys, SorcerousSteve chiming in with an update on Malice, now focusing on the interior Dungeon and its surrounding chambers, including the Well of Sorrows!
Malice is populated by the vengeful dead, an army being raised to sweep down over the lands of the living and avenge Anapa and the injustices done to him and the dead of the Drachvald.
SHOOTER JENNINGS, with Marilyn Manson, Brandi Carlile, Steve Young, and Lord British, in his newest album, Countach!
Groups from around New Britannia are joining forces to bring you the party you will never forget!
Join us in-game for events: quests, parties, and a world premier first time listen of the entire album
Party goers will assemble at 7 pm CT (GMT -06:00) at the Bear Tavern in the player town of Beran’s Reach on the western coast of Spindrift Bay (or /zone Balec deCani).
Attendees have the chance to win prizes, including:
Pink Vinyl physical copies of Countach
In-Game Wax Cylinders of Shooter Jennings Tracks!
The event will be broadcast live on Avatars Radio (http://avatarsradio.info/)
With live video streaming by RizeUp Gaming (http://www.twitch.tv/rizeupgaming)
Thanks To:
Shooter Jennings – For the opportunity to bring you this party!
Amber Raine – For co-sponsoring and broadcasting the event on Avatars Radio
Gabriel Nightshadow, Elgarion De Kahli, Asclepius & NBTT – For the performances and quests
Minerva, Aimend, Athanil et Team – For decorating the multiple event locations
Kazyn Phoenixfyre, Eclipse Maiden, RizeUp Gaming – for live video streaming on Twitch.tv
Duke Violation & OoV – For coordinating event security
The Bear Tavern – For hosting the kickoff party
Wake Up New Britannia – The Pre-show on Avatars Radio!
Speck – For nurturing the idea to fruition!
(…and many, many others)
IF you only plan to attend one party in Shroud of the Avatar this month,
THIS is the party you do not want to miss!
In Shooter’s Own Words…
When news recently got out that outlaw country musician Shooter Jennings, son of the country music icons Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, planned to hold the World Premier of his new album, Countach, inside of the fantasy role-playing game Shroud of the Avatar, one news outlet dubbed it “…arguably the weirdest gaming event of all time.”
When asked why he chose such a unique venue to unveil his latest album, this is what he had to say: