Post by Thomas on Jul 10, 2015 14:31:05 GMT -6
Update 28!!! <--- Link
July 2015 Update: Surveys, Websites, Interviews, and a Letter from IGA
If you're a backer, this probably looks like the calm before the storm. If you're a developer, this probably looks like the storm before the calm. If you're helping to run the campaign, this looks like an opportunity to keep backers and developers alike from being crushed by flying pieces of barn debris. So here we are!
Expect updates from us every month from here out, with additional updates coming whenever we have something important or exciting to share.
Surveys
All the console and digital options available for Bloodstained make this perhaps the most complex survey we've ever set up, so we're working to make sure it's all in place before we go live. Right now the current plan is to have it ready to go, along with an expanded slacker backer page, by the end of the month. (If that changes, we'll let you know in another update.)
The survey will allow you to select your version of Bloodstained as well as apply any add-ons you made. We'll send your link to the survey to the address you have on file with Kickstarter, so make sure that's accurate.
Website
The official Bloodstained fan forums are coming soon! And we have good news: We're teaming up with the biggest unofficial Bloodstained fan forums to put them together.
We'd like to thank Mike McDaniel, Raymond Guest, and Hector Ayala Inoriza for bringing this community together, and we look forward to interacting with you guys over there. (Our friends at Playism will be helping to moderate, and I'll hang out on there to provide updates from Fangamer's end.)
We're working with Mike and Playism on a fresh coat of paint and some other updates to the system—we'll update you again when it's ready to go!
IGA and Ben Judd are at Bitsummit in Kyoto this weekend, and you can watch it live on Twitch over the weekend! If you don't know what Bitsummit is, here's Ben with more info:
"It’s the premier Japan indies event held annually in Kyoto. Some of the most talented Japanese developers will be speaking at the show, but Bloodstained backers might be especially interested to know about a a cross-talk panel featuring Keiji Inafune, Takuya Aizu, and Koji Igarashi. They won't be the only familiar faces—I'll be speaking and MCing for most of the two-day event.
Because of the complexity of translating among four people, the keynote will only be viewable on the Japanese stream."
You can check out the full list of speakers on Bitsummit's website.
Hello Army of the Night! IGA here.
Thank you for waiting so patiently for this first update. Thanks again for the massive support which led this Kickstarter to become a major success. You are a great group of backers. Now that the funding has come in, I’m looking at how we can best distribute it.
Oh… Don’t worry! I always keep my promises, so you’ll get everything I committed to. But I look at the fact that this will be my biggest game, with over 1600 rooms, and I start thinking… we may need MORE enemies to really fill them up.
Of course I’m focused on the game scenario myself, and while I know we’ve gone over the three main characters, I'm beginning to think about adding three more to deepen the story. (Still only three playable, of course.)
A grizzled, middle-aged hunter, perhaps? Or a pure unscathed youth? So many directions to go in as I continue to think and write, which is part of the fun of building an idea from scratch. But it's probably more fun for me than it is Inti Creates. (Sorry, Inti! I'll try to keep moving faster!)
Make no mistake: We've already begun laying down the foundation of a great game. And I appreciate your patience as we push toward the kind of progress we can show off in backer updates. In the meantime, please keep your nice comments and great ideas coming in. It really means a lot to me and Inti Creates…
To whom I must once again apologize… Sorry Inti!
With that, I go back to my lair. There is much work to be done.
IGA
The end of the Kickstarter campaign did not mean the end of the unnervingly good art you guys have been producing from Day 1. Here's a few post-campaign pieces that have caught our eye...
by Kariya
by Setiya Budi
Bismarck Kappa The Third! by matiassotolopez
Keep making cool stuff, and keep posting it on Twitter and Tumblr using the #IGAVANIA and #BLOODSTAINED tags. As IGA said, seeing this kind of amazing work is what keeps the developers going. That and coffee, probably.
IGA at E3!
IGA's next stop after our crazy ending stream was E3, giving him the chance to talk about the end of the campaign and the future of Bloodstained with the American press. In case you missed them:
He talked with Jeremy Parish on USgamer about his career so far and what's to come.
He and Ben Judd sat down with Gamasutra to talk about avoiding scope creep and being responsible to fans and backers.
Bloodstained in Print!
Destructoid and GameFan are collaborating to put out two magazines in one! More exciting still, for people who have fond memories of sneaking gaming magazines to school and reading them instead of getting your work done, it's available *in print*.
The most exciting part, since you're reading this update: Bloodstained made the cover of the inaugural issue of Destructoid magazine! On the outside, exclusive art from Natsume-san himself; on the inside, Jonathan Holmes has a brand new interview with Koji Igarashi.
You can buy the print version here—keep it in the space you've reserved for your giant Bloodstained merchandise collection!—but if you can't wait to read it they were kind enough to offer a free digital look at the whole magazine(s). Just go to Magzter and enter the promo code "DTOID0215."
Our friend romscout wasn't just crucial to setting up the Bloodstained launch stream on Twitch—he's also one of the most inventive Igavania speedrunners out there. (He showed IGA some of his work before the stream, and it became clear to all of us that he would be the most intimidating bug tester in the history of gaming.)
He sent word along that, since the launch stream—and thanks in part to the enthusiasm IGA showed for the speedrunning demonstrations he worked to set up—he's returned to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night speedrunning with a vengeance. recapturing the any% world record with a frankly disturbing time of 16 minutes and 59 seconds. You can check out the video of his performance here.
When he's not helping us out and blowing holes in videogame castles, romscout is a huge part of the Games Done Quick charity marathons—this year's Summer Games Done Quick starts on July 26. Getting a look at the speedrunning scene in America definitely opened IGA's eyes—and not just because he now realizes how far people will go to uncover new bugs. If you haven't spent a lot of time around it before, watching SGDQ is a great way to get started. [/s][/s]
July 2015 Update: Surveys, Websites, Interviews, and a Letter from IGA
If you're a backer, this probably looks like the calm before the storm. If you're a developer, this probably looks like the storm before the calm. If you're helping to run the campaign, this looks like an opportunity to keep backers and developers alike from being crushed by flying pieces of barn debris. So here we are!
Expect updates from us every month from here out, with additional updates coming whenever we have something important or exciting to share.
Surveys
All the console and digital options available for Bloodstained make this perhaps the most complex survey we've ever set up, so we're working to make sure it's all in place before we go live. Right now the current plan is to have it ready to go, along with an expanded slacker backer page, by the end of the month. (If that changes, we'll let you know in another update.)
The survey will allow you to select your version of Bloodstained as well as apply any add-ons you made. We'll send your link to the survey to the address you have on file with Kickstarter, so make sure that's accurate.
Website
The official Bloodstained fan forums are coming soon! And we have good news: We're teaming up with the biggest unofficial Bloodstained fan forums to put them together.
We'd like to thank Mike McDaniel, Raymond Guest, and Hector Ayala Inoriza for bringing this community together, and we look forward to interacting with you guys over there. (Our friends at Playism will be helping to moderate, and I'll hang out on there to provide updates from Fangamer's end.)
We're working with Mike and Playism on a fresh coat of paint and some other updates to the system—we'll update you again when it's ready to go!
IGA and Ben Judd are at Bitsummit in Kyoto this weekend, and you can watch it live on Twitch over the weekend! If you don't know what Bitsummit is, here's Ben with more info:
"It’s the premier Japan indies event held annually in Kyoto. Some of the most talented Japanese developers will be speaking at the show, but Bloodstained backers might be especially interested to know about a a cross-talk panel featuring Keiji Inafune, Takuya Aizu, and Koji Igarashi. They won't be the only familiar faces—I'll be speaking and MCing for most of the two-day event.
Because of the complexity of translating among four people, the keynote will only be viewable on the Japanese stream."
You can check out the full list of speakers on Bitsummit's website.
Hello Army of the Night! IGA here.
Thank you for waiting so patiently for this first update. Thanks again for the massive support which led this Kickstarter to become a major success. You are a great group of backers. Now that the funding has come in, I’m looking at how we can best distribute it.
Oh… Don’t worry! I always keep my promises, so you’ll get everything I committed to. But I look at the fact that this will be my biggest game, with over 1600 rooms, and I start thinking… we may need MORE enemies to really fill them up.
Of course I’m focused on the game scenario myself, and while I know we’ve gone over the three main characters, I'm beginning to think about adding three more to deepen the story. (Still only three playable, of course.)
A grizzled, middle-aged hunter, perhaps? Or a pure unscathed youth? So many directions to go in as I continue to think and write, which is part of the fun of building an idea from scratch. But it's probably more fun for me than it is Inti Creates. (Sorry, Inti! I'll try to keep moving faster!)
Make no mistake: We've already begun laying down the foundation of a great game. And I appreciate your patience as we push toward the kind of progress we can show off in backer updates. In the meantime, please keep your nice comments and great ideas coming in. It really means a lot to me and Inti Creates…
To whom I must once again apologize… Sorry Inti!
With that, I go back to my lair. There is much work to be done.
IGA
The end of the Kickstarter campaign did not mean the end of the unnervingly good art you guys have been producing from Day 1. Here's a few post-campaign pieces that have caught our eye...
by Kariya
by Setiya Budi
Bismarck Kappa The Third! by matiassotolopez
Keep making cool stuff, and keep posting it on Twitter and Tumblr using the #IGAVANIA and #BLOODSTAINED tags. As IGA said, seeing this kind of amazing work is what keeps the developers going. That and coffee, probably.
IGA at E3!
IGA's next stop after our crazy ending stream was E3, giving him the chance to talk about the end of the campaign and the future of Bloodstained with the American press. In case you missed them:
He talked with Jeremy Parish on USgamer about his career so far and what's to come.
He and Ben Judd sat down with Gamasutra to talk about avoiding scope creep and being responsible to fans and backers.
Bloodstained in Print!
Destructoid and GameFan are collaborating to put out two magazines in one! More exciting still, for people who have fond memories of sneaking gaming magazines to school and reading them instead of getting your work done, it's available *in print*.
The most exciting part, since you're reading this update: Bloodstained made the cover of the inaugural issue of Destructoid magazine! On the outside, exclusive art from Natsume-san himself; on the inside, Jonathan Holmes has a brand new interview with Koji Igarashi.
You can buy the print version here—keep it in the space you've reserved for your giant Bloodstained merchandise collection!—but if you can't wait to read it they were kind enough to offer a free digital look at the whole magazine(s). Just go to Magzter and enter the promo code "DTOID0215."
Our friend romscout wasn't just crucial to setting up the Bloodstained launch stream on Twitch—he's also one of the most inventive Igavania speedrunners out there. (He showed IGA some of his work before the stream, and it became clear to all of us that he would be the most intimidating bug tester in the history of gaming.)
He sent word along that, since the launch stream—and thanks in part to the enthusiasm IGA showed for the speedrunning demonstrations he worked to set up—he's returned to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night speedrunning with a vengeance. recapturing the any% world record with a frankly disturbing time of 16 minutes and 59 seconds. You can check out the video of his performance here.
When he's not helping us out and blowing holes in videogame castles, romscout is a huge part of the Games Done Quick charity marathons—this year's Summer Games Done Quick starts on July 26. Getting a look at the speedrunning scene in America definitely opened IGA's eyes—and not just because he now realizes how far people will go to uncover new bugs. If you haven't spent a lot of time around it before, watching SGDQ is a great way to get started. [/s][/s]
god damn, i am in a need to see it, they can even put a large water mark below saying "super-mega alpha version, the final quality will definitely change" 
