Kickstarter Update Mega Thread

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XombieMike
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Fifty Storms

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Kickstarter Update Mega Thread Dec 16, 2019 20:08:34 GMT -6

Post by XombieMike on Dec 16, 2019 20:08:34 GMT -6

Kickstarter kind of sucks when you want to search though old updates. For example, if you go to updates, you must hit the "load more" button multiple times just to get to the earlier updates. The update list only shows a preview, and if you click on an update it opens in the same window. When you go back, you have to "load more" all over again. To make searching the updates easier (why didn't I do this years ago?) I am going to post a link to every update with a title and post it's copy and paste text here. The idea is that you can use your browser search to find what you are looking for and use the update links to research further.

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Last Edit: Dec 23, 2019 18:56:42 GMT -6 by XombieMike

XombieMike
Administrator
Fifty Storms

Posts: 4,009

Kickstarter Update Mega Thread Dec 16, 2019 20:09:16 GMT -6

Post by XombieMike on Dec 16, 2019 20:09:16 GMT -6

UPDATE #1

FUNDED! THANK YOU! New tiers, new stretch goals, #AskIGA, and new backer achievements!

May 12, 2015

So: It only took you one day to blow through a Kickstarter's worth of stretch goals! Luckily, we had more waiting in the wings. And now that you’ve unlocked the second Backer Inventory item, the Crystal Lens, you’ll be able to see them. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First off, if you missed it, we had an eight-hour livestream featuring IGA playing many indie Igavania-inspired games. Check it out here:

STRETCH GOALS

Once IGA has had a chance to settle back in a little later this week, we’ll be providing some more details about the stretch goals you’ve already achieved.

$1 MILLION UNLOCKED: Cheat Codes! Make weird things happen and change the course of the game with cheat codes, no codebook necessary. (Our Credit Clan partners already have some strange cosmetic changes in mind...)

$1.25 MILLION UNLOCKED: Local Co-op! Now you'll be able to assault this particular lonely, demon-filled castle with a friend.

$1.5 MILLION UNLOCKED: New Boss! You unlocked this one while we were writing this update! Now IGA and Inti Creates will be able to add another boss to the castle. We'll profile the extra bosses, enemies, and weapons you earn this way in a future update.

$1.75 MILLION: Speedrun Mode! At $1.75 million, IGA will be able to add a mode that helps speedrunners perfect their uncanny routes through the castle halls!

$2 MILLION: Boss Rush Mode! Fight every boss in the castle until you—or they—are begging for mercy!

Which brings me to Backer Inventory! You guys earned 11 achievements on day one, which means you unlocked both Wall Armor and the Crystal Lens. We’ll be posting your desktop and mobile wallpaper soon, but now that you’ve got the lens you’ll be able to see two stretch goals ahead, instead of just one.

Your next item is just four achievements away: The Diamond Lens, which allows you to see all the stretch goals in the castle. Here’s how your achievements look so far:

Keep it coming! We'll be challenging you to earn your first Comics achievement on Wednesday.

ART, COMICS, AND VINES

Your Bloodstained fanart and comics can and should be submitted to us on Tumblr. If you’ve already got an account, feel free to simply post with the tag #igavania — and if you don’t, we’ll be taking submissions at iga-bloodstained.tumblr.com

We’re going to be unveiling more information about the Vine-related backer achievements later this week.

NEW TIER

By popular demand, we've added a new tier: A digital copy of the Special Backer Edition. For $60 you can get a digital copy of the game that features the Kickstarter-exclusive Swordwhip and ultra-hard hidden boss, along with a digital download of the soundtrack and a PDF copy of the strategy booklet.

Any backers who purchased a digital copy of the game at $60 or above—at the $125, $175, and $250+ tiers—will also get the Kickstarter-exclusive content digitally.

#AskIGA

Now's your chance to ask IGA questions! Tweet with the hashtag #AskIGA and we'll pick the best questions to send his way. Every Friday we'll post his answers.

Sword or Whip

By the way, if you haven't had the chance to, check out swordorwhip.com. We've now gotten over two million votes, with Whip having a slight advantage. Voting hasn't ended yet, so who knows what the winning side will get?

UPDATE #2

Update 2: Comics Achievement #1

May 13, 2015

It happened! Again! The Army of the Night has unlocked Speed Run Mode, a catch-all for the features IGA had been hoping to add to Bloodstained to help speedrunners plan the perfect route. We’ll be detailing specific features as they’re planned for development, but IGA also wants to hear from you, whether you’re a speedrunner who’s been playing his game for years or somebody who’d like to get started:

What changes, enhancements, and features do you want to see in speedrun mode? Post your suggestions in the comments!

Now that you have the Crystal Lens, you can see that coming up at $2.25 million is… a Retro Level! Here’s an explanation from the developers:

One section of the castle will feature an area that Miriam can traverse in beautiful retro graphics. We've been referring to this section as the “8-bit Level” internally, although it may be closer to 16+ bit depending on how we mix it with the full game. While a full-blown 8-bit game doesn't fit into the game's budget, backer support will allow us to have fun with the development and create a little retro magic in our game.

IGA has been overwhelmed by the support his game has gotten so far, and now that he’s back in Japan he’s ready to get back to work. When you back now you aren’t just putting a down payment on the next stretch goal—you’re adding dollars to the development budget that wouldn’t be there otherwise. All your support will show in a final game that’s bigger, better, and more polished than it could have been without your help.

You’ve gained another achievement since yesterday, which means there are only 3 left until the Diamond Lens reveals the remaining Castle goals. Of course, having said that—well, start reaching for that Dungeon Key. There are some... interesting stretch goals waiting for you there.

One major aspect of any Igavania game is, of course, weaponry. Here are a few examples of what the crew over at Inti has drawn up. Given the Sword v Whip battle which is still raging, we thought we'd add a wrinkle by throwing in a third option: Hammer!

We'll be providing some more peeks at some of the team's concept art in future updates!

We’d love to see your comics for Bloodstained! Each Wednesday during the campaign we’ll be issuing a backer achievement for creating comics centered around a particular theme. This weeks theme is: Characters!

Create 25 comics featuring Miriam, Gebel, and/or Johannes by May 18th!

Post your submissions on Tumblr and include these two hashtags: #IGAVANIA #IGACOMICS

For this first update, we're happy to feature this awesome Miriam sketch by dollwoman!

We may feature a few of our favorite submissions on next Wednesday’s update, so start drawing some comics!

Based on the incredible demand, the team has committed to a handful of additional Runic Forging and Ancestral Bloodline tiers. If you were hoping to get your face / weapon in the game, now you’ve got a second chance!

Also, in case you didn't notice, we're accepting Paypal for the $28-500 tiers!

From time to time we’ll be giving the last word to one of our many supporters. This update’s last word goes to... ex-Konami producer Tak Fujii!

UPDATE #3

Update 3: $2mm, 25k backers, Diamond Loupe

May 15, 2015

Another day, another stretch goal obliterated like so many medusa heads! Your efforts have earned you yet another goal: Boss Rush Mode, a one-way trip through every boss in Bloodstained.

What’s great about Boss Rush mode is its versatility: You can use it as a means of torturing yourself or a way of learning how to defeat bosses faster and more efficiently without having to make your way up and down every last castle stairwell.

Visible next in your Crystal Lens is one of our personal favorites: Classic Mode. This is a cool one, especially if you've been playing action platformers since controllers had two buttons: In Classic Mode, existing assets and screens from the game will be rearranged linearly, to reward timing and survival instead of backtracking and exploration.

IGA and company are still too early in the planning process to promise anything, but right now he's envisioning six punishing stages. In grand classic platformer fashion, you'll be weaker and the enemies will be stronger, and forget about saving yourself by grinding—no RPG elements here.

If you've always preferred your castles punishingly difficult, straightforward, and scrolling from left to right, this is the stretch goal for you.

A Reward For Crushing Our Expectations

We probably shouldn't have doubted you. Once upon a time, back before you shattered our Kickstarter goal in one day, we thought you'd be getting the Diamond Lens right about now, with plenty of castle stretch goals still to unlock.

Instead, because you are amazing, you've ALREADY hit the bottom of the castle. Once you unlock the Retro Level and Classic Mode it'll just be you and the locked door to the castle dungeon, where some very big stretch goals—ones we only dreamed of including—lie in wait.

That means your Diamond Lens, which you are about to unlock, is worthless: you've already seen the Castle goals.

If you had to destroy our carefully planned backer achievement system, we're glad you did it like this.

As a reward, then, you've earned five bonus achievements, effective immediately. That brings you within two of the Malevolent Medal, and 12 away from unlocking the Basement Key that will let you collect all the stretch goals you're about to start earning.

Since you didn't really get a chance to use it, we've also asked pixel-IGA's personal jeweler to transmute your Diamond Lens into a Diamond Loupe, which will magnify your view of the castle room in which you find yourself. It should only take a few days, so we'll explain its new powers as soon as it's ready...

25,000 Backers!

On Thursday we hit a very exciting round number: 25,000 backers so far! Just as amazing as that number has been the way in which you've been showing your enthusiasm for IGA and the game.

There's far too much for us to mention in this update—for more, check out iga-bloodstained.tumblr.com —but here's some of the cool stuff we saw on our travel through the #igavania and #bloodstained tags yesterday:

Some intricate Gebel crystal makeup:
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An 8-bit cover of Yamane-san's theme song: soundcloud.com/skitchstudio/rise-of-the-night-remix

And one of our personal favorites, Miriam as a member of Team Whip (we presume) from Zack Turner:

To have 25,000 backers and so much cool stuff appear out of thin air in just four days... well, it's exciting, to say the least. And we can't wait to see what the next 25,000 will come up with.

For more Bloodstained art, and to submit your own comics for the weekly comics challenge, head to our Tumblr: iga-bloodstained.tumblr.com or tag art on your own Tumblr as #IGAvania. Believe us, the developers and artists appreciate it: Nothing keeps designers and developers going like great art and music inspired by their work.

What's the coolest fanmade Bloodstained stuff you've seen so far? We want to see it!

A/V Update Coming Soon!

This update is just because you hit 25,000 and $2 million so fast. Your regularly scheduled Friday backer update, celebrating our first Audio-Video Day, is coming up soon!

In addition to your first Vine Challenge, we've got the first #AskIGA video ready for you. We'll see you there!

UPDATE #4

Update 4: AV Friday!

May 16, 2015

The theme of our first Ask IGA segment was left wide-open, and you delivered some great questions. Here's our first subtitled video, the first part of which is a heartfelt thank-you directly from IGA to the fans who have supported him:

Andy Hanson: "What influenced the choice of a lead female character for Bloodstained?"

IGA: "I decided on a female lead character for reasons that stem from my previous games..."

Steven Siddall: "How did you come up with the concept of Miriam's stained glass skin?"

IGA: "The stained glass came about from my interest in the idea of engineered humans..."

Beren: "Secrets and Easter Eggs are always the icing on a game. Can we expect many of them in Bloodstained?"

IGA: "When it comes to easter eggs, here's how I see it. In game design, it’s easy to get hung up on rules that allow a game to run smoothly..."

ModelOmega: "How did you get involved with Inti Creates? What was the motive behind the choice of them as the developer?"

IGA: "I've always wanted to work with Inti Creates. They've got an excellent reputation for side-scrollers..."

GamingBits: "What are you most looking forward to starting to work on in Bloodstained?"

IGA: "It’s been years since my last game, so what I look forward to most is just being able to create one again..."

Next week's Ask IGA theme is: Level Design! Tweet your question with the hashtag #AskIGA and we'll pass the best questions along to be answered in next Friday's video!

It's time to circle around and throw some light on two incredible remixes of Yamane-san's "Theme of Bloodstained" that popped up in the #igavania tag on Tumblr.

The first is an excellent Metal cover by Cristián "Kris" Escobar, perhaps better known by his birth name PSYCHO CRUSHER:

And the second is this 8-bit remix by Mike "Skitch" Schiciano, who completed it mere hours after the Kickstarter went live! (seriously dude wtf)

And although this doesn't technically count as fan art, the crew at Destructoid was quick to heed our call when we pinged them about news of Iga's new game concept. They brought along a camera in hopes of getting an exclusive demonstration, which Iga gladly provided...

"Playwhosm?" you might ask? Perhaps some introductions are in order. Playism is a digital distribution platform which brings indie games to/from both sides of the pond, and they're helpfully providing localization support for this project!

Their location (Osaka, Japan) makes it a bit easier for them to communicate with key personalities connected to this game, and this week they've brought on Iga's agent Ben Judd, who you may recognize as one of the driving forces behind the project. He's been here since the very beginning and has accompanied and guided Iga through interviews, the livestream, and even the comments section!

With that in mind, here's episode 1 of the Playism Podcast: 'Embrace Your Mortality'

Time to tackle your first Vine achievement! This week's prompt: recreate a moment from your favorite Igavania! if you can collectively produce 15 Vines by May 20th and post them on Vine with the hashtag #IGAVANIA then you'll unlock a limited-time backer achievement.

Need some inspiration? We even started you off with a freebie!

A few weeks ago we started turning the gears of the rumor mill by launching swordorwhip.com -- which has since amassed more than 2.5 million votes. Of course our intention was to provoke some debate, and while we’re not yet ready to announce exactly where it’s heading, we want to make one thing clear: voting ends soon.

In case the ongoing Comics Achievement and the new Vine Achievement aren't enough, we're throwing in one more for you to tackle: 5 Animated YouTube Cartoons. Post them on YouTube with the hashtags #IGAVANIA and #IGABONUS -- if they make the grade we'll count them towards the total!

The last word in this update goes to Yuji Natsume, the Inti Creates artist responsible for much of the incredible art you've seen so far!

Yuji has been working at an incredible pace to capture Iga's vision for Bloodstained, and we think it goes without saying that he's succeeded. Now that the project has been unveiled, he's been thrilled with the fan response; there's nothing as inspiring to an artist as watching their creations go on to inspire others!

Natsume-san wanted to thank everyone who made this possible, so today's 'Last Word' is what big boss Aizu-san charmingly referred to as a 'dot painting'. It's short on words but big on heart:

UPDATE #5

Update 5: Fanart, Beta Access, and 20 Backer Achievements

May 18, 2015

I am not revealing any trade secrets when I say that a lot of us on the team were even more excited to get to work on this project once IGA and the designers showed us their vision for the characters and the world.

So I'm more excited *still* to learn that it's inspired backers to make such gorgeous fanart. Here's three of our favorites, because if we don't stop there this update will require a circa-2001 56k warning:

As always, there's much more on the Bloodstained Tumblr. Follow it for the latest, and tag your art #IGAVANIA so we can count it toward backer achievements and potentially feature it in a future update!

This week's update theme is levels! Today we've got four pieces of concept art from the developers that give an early look at the interiors you'll be exploring when the game is released.

On Wednesday morning's update we'll have even more art for you, so stay tuned.

Monday also means it's time for a new backer achievement! This time your mission is 25 pieces of fanart on the topic of levels—perhaps a setting you'd like to see, a castle of your own design, or an image of Miriam making her way through some dark corridors.

Remember to post it on Tumblr, tagged #IGAVANIA, by May 23.

While we're talking about achievements: You've completed the Weekly Comics Challenge #1 and Weekly Vine Challenge #1! Those two points leave you at 20, which means you just unlocked the Malevolent Medal—all backers $100 and above will receive a 1" button that won't be available anywhere else.

Keep working on those achievements! Here's the updated list:

Plus five from the Diamond Loupe!

Plus five from the Diamond Loupe!

We're happy to announce that all backers at $60 or above who choose PC copies of Bloodstained will be granted beta access via Steam. What does this mean for you?

Get a chance to play early builds of the game.

Help the development team squash bugs and make the best Igavania possible.

See the game's development from a different perspective.

Provide valuable feedback.

All $60+ digital and physical PC copies will be eligible for the beta, but the beta version will only run on Windows. It's definitely going to be the biggest group of beta testers IGA has ever worked with, but he and the team are looking forward to your help.

Sword or Whip voting ends tonight at 11:59pm PST. The battle between Sword or Whip has become a lot closer than we had expected. Get your final votes in now, as the result may be... interesting.

Social Media

Looking for more updates? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and YouTube.

UPDATE #6

Update 6: Comics, Achievements, and A Really Cool Image of A Castle

May 20, 2015

You blew by our first Weekly Comics Challenge, so the suspense is over for now—you should still go for that 50-comic overall achievement, of course—but we still get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Here are three comics we really loved:

"michiru i would love to remix but i suck at it ;___;" - hime-nam

As always, check our Tumblr for even more great comics, fanart, music, and more. Remember to use the #IGAVANIA tag!

Today's concept art theme is "The World." OK, let me narrow that down a little—it's about the world of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, as it's envisioned right now. At the dawn of the scientific age the Alchemist Guild, fearing pressure from this new era, spread rumors that a plague of demons will threaten the world if the alchemists are forgotten.

Of course, the rumors are only the beginning. Their attempts to manipulate the public grow more sinister until they vanish entirely and a hellish castle, filled with demons, appears atop the place they once called home.

(For what it's worth: That final image is known, around the campaign, as "That castle picture, you know, the really awesome one.")

Your new Weekly Comics Challenge is a little more ambitious than the last one, now that you're warmed up: We're asking for 25 comics about exploration!

Remember to post it on Tumblr tagged #IGAVANIA & #IGACOMICS by May 25th. During the Comics Challenge, you're getting double credit: Your work will also count toward the overall comic achievement!

The backer achievements keep coming! Yesterday you put the finishing touches on the 25 Selfies at Castles achievement, which makes 21. Nicely done! (IGA is impressed with your creative interpretations of the rules.)

Here's your updated achievement progress chart:

You'll note that we've added three new categories:

YouTube Views of the Kickstarter video. What can we say? We want the world to see IGA's bat transformation.

Tumblr Notes (likes and reblogs): (Here's your target post.)

Instagram Stained Glass: Find some cool stained glass in your town, take a picture with Instagram, and tag it #IGAVANIA. (Tell us where you're checking in from, while you're at it!)

And if you're looking for some other achievements to run down for the good of the Army of the Night, I'd recommend the following:

Tumblr followers (This Morning: 4500. Next achievement: 6000.)

Facebook likes (This Morning: 16000. Next achievement: 20000.)

Twitter retweets (This Morning: ~4200. Next achievement: 5000.)

Clay Art (Three more to go!)

Now that Sword or Whip voting has ended, a compromise candidate emerges:

UPDATE #7

Update 7: $2.5mm, 8-bit tracks + Virt, and a peek into the basement...

May 20, 2015

Here, on the cusp of the next stretch goal, we've got a little surprise for you. IGA's personal accountant just sent a bat-fax with the latest PayPal total, and it's good news: So far our PayPal backers have added $41000 to the total.

Adding in the Paypal total is like taking off the ankle weights. HYAAAA! That means we've raised over $2.5 million! And that means...

We're just getting into Day 9 and the campaign has surpassed the final castle stretch goal: Classic Mode, in which the game's assets will be re-arranged into six punishing, linear stages.

However... remember the lens we sent to the jeweler? Because you hit the castle floor too quickly? The Diamond Loupe has returned to us, and with it you can now see 6 tiny stretch goals for 8-bit music tracks! These songs will be new compositions -- not remixes -- which should complement each of the six Classic Mode stages quite nicely.

In addition to unique songs by Yamane and Yamada, we're thrilled to add a new artist to the lineup: Jake Kaufman, aka virt! You may know him as the prolific composer of dozens of songs/soundtracks for games including Shovel Knight, Ducktales: Remastered, Bloodrayne: Betrayal, Shantae, and Double Dragon Neon.

Way back on Day 1, when we were busy blowing through stretch goals, backer achievements, and indie Igavania games at a record pace, you guys unlocked the Wall Armor.

Here it is, fresh from the designers: Desktop, Mobile, and, as an added bonus, the awesome castle art from earlier today. Enjoy!

The Dungeon is quite dark and remains locked, but we lit the candle at the top of the stairs to get you started. Let your eyes adjust to the darkness.

Through the keyhole, you can make out a $2.75 million stretch goal that IGA's been excited to reveal for some time. More than all the other stretch goals this is something the Kickstarter has made possible: He's going to make this his biggest game ever. His original plans for the castle were conservative, but in keeping with the kind of work he's been able to do before. But that was all the way back at $500,000.

His ambition has grown along with the campaign, and at $2.75 million he's finally ready to commit to making this the biggest castle he's ever designed. (He estimates that the world will be 25 percent larger than it would have been if the Kickstarter had only just reached its goal.)

Now it's time to build. And in the eye of the storm you can almost hear the scrape of brick on brick...

UPDATE #8

Update 8: Ask IGA, Vines, A Podcast, And 11 Messages from David Hayter

May 22, 2015

We've hit the second Friday of the campaign, which means it's time for another A/V Friday featuring Ask IGA, a new podcast, your videos, and our first new tier. Also a moment of calm reflection: We're over $2.5 million with three Fridays to go!

Sorry, you're right, I said calm reflection: We're over $2.5 million with three Fridays to go.

Here are the questions IGA answered in this week's edition about Level Design:

From @amysterygamer: "What kind of mythologies can we expect to see from Bloodstained?"

From @harveystorm: "Are there any ideas you have pursued and then dropped in previous games?"

From @cresc3n7: "Will Bloodstained take place in a historical setting, or a completely fictional one?"

From @riskman2982: "What was your biggest inspiration for creating Gothic-style games?"

From beingthehero : "Will Bloodstained have any areas outside Gebel's castle?"

From @dr_C_LOS: "What, if any, new additions to level design can we expect compared to previous games?"

(And in case these 6 questions weren't enough for you, we recently gave Jim Sterling a crack at 13 more! Check out the Jim Sterling interview here.)

Next week's #AskIGA is about Monsters and Boss Battles! Ask your questions on Twitter using that hashtag, and IGA will answer some of them next Friday.

Our friend and noted Day 1 stretch goal David Hayter has been a big supporter of the game from the moment he signed on, but he's outdone himself here: He's become a tier. 10 people at the "Play A Hayter" tier (we're sorry) will get to compose a short message for the man himself to read, subject to his approval.

After the game's release, your message will also be hidden in the game's sound test—making it appear there will be a good way to impress your friends at Bloodstained-themed parties, among other things.

He's also got a thank-you message for all of you, which is the aforementioned 11th message:

I love Vine, because it's proof that nearly everyone can act for a few seconds at a time. (I say nearly because there's a reason I didn't make one myself.)

If you have 18 or 24 seconds to spare, watch one of these! (Each one is six seconds long, but if you're on a really tight schedule you should build in the time you're going to use letting it loop a few times.) You can find more by checking out the #IGAVANIA tag on Vine.

Haven't made one yet? Feeling inspired enough for six seconds of video? You're just in luck: I'm one header image away from announcing the next Vine challenge.

This week we're looking for 25 Vines, and here's the prompt: Exploring your levels.

Post on Vine.co and remember to use the #IGAVANIA hashtag-- they're due by May 27. That may sound like a tough deadline, but hey: That's only 150 seconds of video!

Lots of you have been taking Yamane's request to remix her music to heart—here's the latest, from YouTuber Ferdk:

Speaking of Yamane, Playism is back with their second podcast of the campaign. This week Nayan, Dan, and Ben interview Yamane-san about her music, preceded by discussion about the Bloodstained campaign: launch/livestream, fan response, expenses, and more. Check it out here:

Are you still hungering for more achievements? This time, we're looking for 50 animated Bloodstained sprites. We'll be counting them up on Tumblr, so be sure to tag them #IGAVANIA and #IGABONUS!

Getting such unbelievable support from backers has really meant a lot to IGA, and he'd like to pay it forward a little—every Friday he'll be using this space to spotlight another gaming Kickstarter that's caught his eye.

This week he'd like to mention Winterflame: The Other Side, a striking-looking puzzle-platformer from Indonesian developers Artoncode. They're coming up on their goal with less than a week to go, so take a look!

Whether you're a Kickstarter veteran or this is your first project, thanks for backing Bloodstained, and for helping developers of all shapes and sizes. The world needs more great games, not less.

UPDATE #9

Update 9: Enemies, Fanart, and a very cool Artist Cameo

May 25, 2015

Today’s big news is a surprise so late-breaking we’re still pleasantly shocked ourselves. (It all came together last week.) The Alchemist’s Treasure sleeve ($100+ tiers) will feature special cover art by Ayami Kojima.

Even IGA was surprised! Here's what he told us: "Honestly, I really didn’t think we could convince her to join the production, so I’m overjoyed by her participation. And really, the level of involvement isn’t really important for me. The most important thing is just being able to work closely with my old friends again. We created something amazing before and to get one more golden opportunity to do this again makes me so happy. Thank you Ayami. Thank you for making time where you really had none to create this art and add your style to the project.

And here's Kojima herself: "Unfortunately I can only offer a small amount of time to show my appreciation and excitement for IGA's new project, so I'm happy to know that the art team working on it is so talented—and, more than that, that they really seem to have passion for the material they're working on. It gives me confidence that this will be a game that fans will really love, and I know I personally am looking forward to seeing how great it will be."

While she’s still too busy to commit to anything more than this art, things just feel a little more right around here now that the character designer behind so many great Igavania games has a place in the campaign. We can’t wait to see what she comes up with.

The sleeve illustrated by Kojima will be included in all Alchemist's Treasure tiers at $100+. It's an outer case that will hold the physical release (in its existing case, with backer-exclusive slipcase), the soundtrack CD, and the retro strategy booklet. It will fit snugly into the Collector's Box ($250+ tiers) which we'll talk more about later.

29 achievements! So close, and yet—well, OK, you're just really close. Since Sunday's Tumblr update you've picked up the Clay Model (check out this achievement-clinching IGA bust) and 200 Overall Fanart achievements, along with the Weekly Comics Challenge. Here's the updated list:

Right now Tumblr likes/reblogs (for this post) and Twitter retweets are looking pretty vulnerable, if you ask me. And if you guys get either of those... well, that's 30, which is a nice, round number.

(Just to help you guys out, since I can't draw, sing, paint, act, or dress myself: Today I'm planning to drive around town in search of a gargoyle to Instagram. I guess I'll also need to sign up for an Instagram account.)

Oh, and here's a PayPal Update: Today we're at $51,445 from 648 backers, pledged via our external Paypal site.

You're almost to the door of the dungeon—time to get that key! Once you've reached the first dungeon stretch goal and earned the Basement Key, you'll be able to see just what's been lurking at $3 million. (You might even catch a glimpse of what's next.)

For today's concept art we've got three enemies and, as a special bonus, some words from IGA about each one! (Everything listed here is still conceptual, and could change before the final game.)

Astarot: The 29th demon in the Lesser Key of Solomon. Covered in a gigantic dragon, he holds a poisonous snake in his right hand. Of all the wandering demons in the castle, Astarot is particularly strong. His powerful fire attack is said to have developed from his study of dragons.

Mafeius: The 39th demon, said to appear with the body of a crow. This particular demon does not possess a lot of power, but his "death from above" attacks will force you to remember his name.

Buer: The 10th demon, a lion-head that rolls forward on the legs of a lamb.

These demons show their power through the crystals embedded in their body—watching the crystals could tell you just how dangerous each enemy in the castle is.

You did it! You submitted 30 (out of the 25 required) fanart submissions for last week's theme of "Levels". There was a lot of great stuff which you can browse on the Bloodstained Tumblr, but here's one of our favorites:

COLORLABORATORY provided this explanation for the piece:

“Amid the graveyard within the vast castle, a time-controlling demon awaits. Behind him, enormous gates with an hourglass on each side. The demon manipulates time, rewinding and fast-forwarding at will. Bodies emerge from the graves to attack, but by the demon’s time-bending, their attacks vary as their forms switch between zombies and skeletons. (An idea I had) Modern platformers don’t just have flat surfaces, but also have stages with slopes and shaped surfaces, so I hope Bloodstained has the same kind of dynamic surface to make it really fresh and interesting.”

Our second Backer Fanart Achievement is 25 pieces of fanart due May 30th! This week's topic is simple: "Monsters." Remember to post them on Tumblr using the hashtag #IGAVANIA so we can count them!

Just to get you inspired, we pulled a few more great pieces of art from the hundreds(!) we've seen so far.

You can find all this and much, much more on our Tumblr.

Colin Moriarty of Kinda Funny Games was kind enough to host the livestream during which we launched this Kickstarter. He also gave us burritos. So we thought we'd (preemptively) return the favor by recording a podcast with him. You should check it out:

Chris Kohler of WIRED sat down with IGA for an interview while he was in the states to film the Kickstarter video. In addition to featuring a wonderfully foreboding portrait of IGA sitting at a throne, the article is filled with industry insight. Also, well, the end is about you guys, so it only seems fair to bring it to your attention:

UPDATE #10

Update 10: What U Just Found in the Dungeon

May 26, 2015

It took a long weekend full of comics, Tumblr notes, clay models, fanart, and sheer sticktoitivness, but you guys unlocked 30 achievements just in time to hit the first Dungeon stretch goal and commit IGA to the biggest castle he's ever designed. Well done!

During the development process we'll be sure to highlight some of the things he and the team couldn't have made without you.

Here's the updated achievement chart—at 35 and 40 you've got an 8-bit remix track and weird cheat codes coming your way, but the real prize is the Embarrassing Boots, which, when equipped, force IGA to cosplay for your amusement. (That one's 45.)

We've appreciated all your sleuthing, but now that you have the key and the $2.75 million stretch goal behind you—I noticed you broke down the Dungeon door, while you were at it—it's finally time to reveal your next milestone:

That's right: You've blown our expectations so far out of the water that we're ready and able to get started on a Wii U version.

During the campaign all of us who’ve been working to make Bloodstained a reality have been really touched by how many of you thanked IGA and the team for keeping stretch goals and tiers realistic. Kickstarters aren’t just a way to sell merchandise and games, after all: They’re a way to fund the development of the game we all want to play.

With that in mind, a lot of you have asked about ports—not just because you want them, but because you want to make sure that making them won't affect IGA's vision for the game. We have good news, and really good news.

The good news is, it won't: IGA and Inti Creates are going to continue developing the game as before, without compromise.

The really good news is how they're going to ensure it won't: At our next stretch goal Armature Studio will join the fray to handle the Wii U version.

If you haven't heard of Armature yet—and don't worry, you will soon enough—you've definitely heard of the work they've done: Armature was formed in Austin, Texas by a team of key developers from the Metroid Prime franchise, and since then they've worked with companies like EA, Konami, WB Games, Gearbox, and Sony to produce original games and HD remasters.

But we'll let them speak for themselves:

"When we were approached with the opportunity to assist with Bloodstained on Wii U, we were ecstatic. This style of game is one we are intimately familiar with from our Metroid Prime days, and it's exciting to once again put our familiarity with Nintendo hardware to good use. We have extensive remastering experience - our remastering projects include the Metal Gear Solid Collection for PS Vita, Injustice for PS Vita, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel for PS4/XB1. We look forward to the challenge of making sure that the Wii U edition of Bloodstained stands proudly with its brethren on Unreal Engine 4."

Jack Mathews: Technical Director. Jack started out by working on QuakeSpy (later renamed GameSpy 3D) and helped to maintain id's QuakeWorld. He also worked at 3D graphics pioneer 3dfx and on all three Metroid Prime games at Retro Studios before starting Armature.

Mark Pacini: Game Director. After working in Industrial Design, Mark started out in the game industry as an artist before moving to design. He was the Lead Designer and then Game Director at Retro Studios for 8 years before starting Armature.

Todd Keller: Art Director. Todd has been in the game industry for almost 20 years, working for Atari, Boss Games, and Retro Studios before starting Armature.

It's still early in the process, but we'll have much more to say about the port if—OK, when—you guys reach that stretch goal. And don't worry: There are secrets lurking even deeper inside the dungeon. You haven't hit bottom yet.

UPDATE #11

Update 11: A Boss Reveal, a Comics Challenge, and an AMA

May 27, 2015

In case you missed it, yesterday we announced something Nintendophiles just might like—a Wii U port handled by the Metroid Prime veterans at Armature Studio. We also confirmed that the Army of the Night had opened the door to the dungeon and ransacked the first dungeon goal, IGA's biggest castle ever.

It's time to reveal one of the bosses IGA and the team is working on! Here's the concept art, along with a description from IGA himself:

Gremori

The 56th demon in Solomon’s grimoire. A demon with the status of a duke, also known as the goddess of the moon. Summoned by Gebel, this demon oversees one portion of the castle. She is capable of creating portals into different dimensions; once there, she can harness the power of the moon and use it to attack her enemies, firing endless crescent moon knives at her opponents. She also has a devastating gravity attack that's generated by power of the lacquer-black moon.

The above sentences are merely conceptual and could change for the final game.

It's time for an Ask IGA lightning round! Igarashi will be talking about his career so far on Reddit's IAmA channel on May 29 at 4 PM Pacific. Now's your chance to ask him all those burning questions about Tokimeki Memorial that have been on your mind for 20 years.

I suppose you could also ask him about other games he's made.

It's time for another round of comics: This time we're looking for 25 comics themed around monsters attacking by June 1. Post them on Tumblr, hashtagged #IGAVANIA, so that we can count them toward the achievements.

We've heard from a few people wondering how they can contribute if they aren't able to draw or make comics. Here's our answer: Draw and make comics anyway! Nobody is born knowing how to make art—we all have to start somewhere. Except Mozart, I guess.

But forget Mozart—he never submitted any comics to the Bloodstained Kickstarter and these people did, which is why they're getting spotlighted!

As always, you can find the latest Bloodstained fanworks—along with updates on achievements and stretch goals—at our official Tumblr.

UPDATE #12

Update 12: Languages, Localizations and A Voice From The Past

May 29, 2015

Bloodstained has been a global project from the beginning, but now that we're into the meat of the campaign we're making some additions that we hope will make it even easier to take IGA's fanbase international.

First, thanks to Playism and their localization powers, we're opening up Kickstarter mirrors:

Japanese

German

French

Click those links to check them out, and if you speak any of those languages, use them to spread the word! Playism is still working on translating the backer updates (and the images, for the FR/DE versions), but please let us know about any other improvements we can make—these are works in progress.

Second, we're announcing that the final version of Bloodstained will be playable in six languages:

English

Japanese

German

French

Spanish

Italian

Third, all Bloodstained players will have access to both Japanese and English voice acting tracks. Each one will be selectable from the beginning.

Now, you may be asking yourself: "All this is great, but I came here looking for surprising and unexpected appearances from the past and future of the Igavania genre. What does this update have for me?"

Today's last word comes from—what!?—it's been a long time...

That's right: Robbie Belgrade, the voice of Alucard in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, will be making his triumphant return to voice acting in a special role in Bloodstained.

We'd tell you where in the castle you can find him, but that would be revealing too much...

Want to know exactly where he is? Here's one option: He's graciously offered to record 10 fan messages to help the Kickstarter. Here's the tier information, in case you've been searching high and low for a really sonorous voicemail message:

Check in this afternoon for the third Playism podcast, this week's Ask IGA video, your chance to avenge the last Vine Challenge, and yet another surprising and unexpected cameo. Thanks for backing!

UPDATE #13

Update 13: Ask IGA, New Challenges, Playism Podcast, and Shovel Armor

May 29, 2015

May is almost over—as is your quest for $3 million and the second Dungeon Goal, a Wii U port from Armature Studio!

It's also Friday, which means it's time for the third episode of Ask IGA. This one's all about bosses and monsters—thanks as always to everybody who sent in their questions.

Here are the questions IGA tackled for this round:

Adrien Pothier: What are some of your favorite or most memorable boss fights from your previous games?

Octrocket: Besides loot... will we be able to get anything extra from enemies, like souls or glyphs in the past?

animaggus: Are any cryptozoological monsters hidden in the game? Finding them is always fun!

Frank Bautista: Will we see any grotesque and nightmarish bosses in this game?

almozayaf: Why do game designers love to add all those small annoying monsters, like bats and Medusa heads?

Alton Barak: What type of boss fight is best: A boss your size, a giant boss, or a puzzle boss?

Next week's Ask IGA is all about Special Attacks. Tweet your questions with the hashtag #AskIGA and he'll choose some to answer next Friday.

Last week's Vine challenge stumped you, but that's no reason to give up now: This week we're asking for 25 Vines about summoning monsters by June 3.

A hint: You can perform Bewitched-level special effects by letting go of the record button, putting the thing you're summoning in front of the camera, and then beginning to record again. In Vine, the worse your special effects, the funnier the final product, so give it a shot, and be sure to tag it #igavania so we can count it toward your achievement.

Watch Tumblr tonight for an update on your achievement progress so far. And while you're at it, give our next Bonus Achievement a shot:

Bonus Achievement No. 3 is one you guys have already done some good work on: We're looking for 10 remixes and covers of Bloodstained music. (You guys are already halfway there!) Post them to Tumblr hashtagged #IGAVANIA and #IGABONUS to make sure we count yours.

Yamane and Yamada are excited to hear what you come up with.

It's time for episode 3 of the Playism podcast! This one has a very special guest, so give it a listen:

soundcloud.com/koji-igarashi-2/episode-3-the-ess-gee-bee

We wanted to take a moment to spotlight a very special piece of "fan" art. One of the coolest parts of our launch stream was getting to introduce IGA and Takuya Aizu to some of the great retro-inspired games coming out in the West.

One of the games they played was Shovel Knight, an incredible tribute to classic 8-bit action-adventures. It inspired Yuji Natsume, Inti Creates' tireless artist and designer, to make this double-barreled fanart tribute. He calls it: "Shovel Armor."

Let him know what you think in the comments!

Congratulations to Winterflame on reaching their Kickstarter goal! IGA pointed them out in a previous update, and we appreciate their returning the favor in an update of their own.

Here's their message to IGA and all of you: “Artoncode wants to thank Koji Igarashi for his support and the fantastic Bloodstained backer community! It’s great to see developers help other developers and we sincerely appreciate it.”

IGA will be doing a Reddit AMA this afternoon at 4 PM Pacific! He and Ben Judd (his interpreter, agent, and comment-section envoy) will only have an hour to answer questions, so get in there and ask some good ones!

UPDATE #14

Update 14: $3 million! Wii U achieved + 2 New Stretch Goals

May 30, 2015

With the latest Paypal total -- roughly $62,000 from 800 backers -- we've surpassed $3mm. You did it, and we're proud to have been standing nearby with a look of stunned disbelief on our faces.

With the Wii U stretch goal achieved, it's time to provide some further details:

We're offering physical Wii U discs in addition to the digital copies!

If you're a new backer, select any $28+ tier -- you'll be able to choose 'Wii U' during the post-Kickstarter survey.

If you've already backed and you want a Wii U copy, you don't have to do anything -- just wait for the post-Kickstarter survey.

You will be able to mix and match. For example, if you've backed at the $125 Physical + Digital tier, you may select Wii U for either/both copy.

With that out of the way, we'll hand the mic over to the crew at Armature, who can explain their vision for the port:

We are super excited to have reached the funding goal for the Wii U version of Bloodstained! We’re starting to plan out our feature set for the Wii U platform - some of the features we hope to pursue include:

Pro Controller Support

The map on GamePad while playing on the TV

The ability to draw on/annotate the map

Play exclusively on the GamePad (off-screen play)

Miiverse social integration

Featuring your Mii in-game

Of course, we want to know what you, the backers, are excited to see! So please let us know in the comments and give us your ideas. As we work with the game team to finalize the feature set, your feedback will be invaluable in our planning.

Since there was a little confusion about the wording of the Basement Key -- and since you've been blasting through these goals like an invading army -- we thought we'd upgrade your candle to a torch, which should make it a little easier to see what's coming up.

Asynchronous Online Multiplayer

You've been guessing at this one for a while, so it's time to reveal a few things IGA's hoping to implement!

"Borrow" a friend's character stats for a certain amount of time (your friend will get a bonus)

Ghost Data (See friend's saved character movements while fighting a boss)

Friend's playthroughs affect your game in some way (e.g. a gravestone and an offering might mark the spot where your friend died)

Plus another surprise that we'll unveil soon...

Of course we're still in the planning phase, so who knows what we'll end up with. As always, though, IGA and the team would love to hear your ideas—how would you build a great asynchronous multiplayer experience?

PS Vita Port

We're going to let the experts handle this explanation. Armature, you guys still around?

We at Armature thank you so much for funding the Wii U version of Bloodstained. Now we have one more surprise for you… if Bloodstained makes it to $3.5mm, we will also be providing a Playstation Vita version of the game.

That’s right, the ultimate -vania game is going to make it back to a handheld platform. And don’t worry, this won’t mean a diminished experience on the Wii U – in fact, with both platforms having touch screens, it’ll probably mean more for both. We’ll also be working with the development team on the PS4 version to see what we can do to make both platforms complement each other.

We are especially grateful to be able to help out on this, as most of Armature’s games have been released on the PS Vita—that would be Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, Injustice, and The Unfinished Swan, in case you’re counting. Our team knows the PS Vita platform inside and out, and we’ll do it justice as we bring you Bloodstained, running on UE4, to the PS Vita. Help us bring Bloodstained where -vania games belong – your hands!

Since our last update you've amassed a total of 34 achievements, which brings you within reach of the Pixel Pants - an ancient relic rumored to bestow chiptune goodness to backers high and low!

You might notice that we've opened up the last Instagram challenge: Vampire Doggies! We're going to leave that open to interpretation, but you'll need each picture to count ("Fifty Doggies! Ah! Ah! Ah!") so don't forget to add #igavania to your photo's description.

IGA would like to humbly request that you, his Army of the Night, take a moment from your basement-pillaging to consider supporting an indie Kickstarter game that could use our support: Combat Core!

Combat Core: High-Powered 4-Player Arena Fighter!

Combat Core is a 3D arena fighting game that borrows elements from classic games like Power Stone, Custom Robo, and other fighters. The fighting mechanics focus on fast-paced combat, strategic use of your environment, and weapons in the arena.

UPDATE #15

Update 15: Special Attacks, plus Something Familiar

June 1, 2015

This past weekend has seen more new backers than at any time since the first week of the Kickstarter, which is really exciting and humbling for us. So: Welcome, and thanks!

A clarification for anybody who came on and is wondering how to get the Wii U version of the game: Just back at any tier you see PS4 and XB1 options. In the post-Kickstarter survey you'll be able to choose the platforms for your digital and/or physical copies, depending on what level you pledged at. (We'd include the Wii U in the tier descriptions, but we're unable to edit them now that the Kickstarter has launched.)

Before we move on, a quick PayPal update: PayPal backers have added $71,104 to our campaign to date.

Now then—IGA and Inti Creates have sent over some great concept art this week. It's time to take a look at special attacks.

It wouldn't be an IGA game without some special moves, right? Here's a few hints at what's to come, along with quick names and descriptions from IGA. (All of this, of course, is subject to change during development.)

Gluttony Summon: Attacks enemy by summoning an angry spirit that devours anything and everything in its path.

Magical Throne: Materializes a chair that speeds up MP replenishment. Looks very relaxing.

Voltic Chain: Summons electrified chains to attack all enemies with electric volts. This is a special “seventh" ability—not a demonic one.

Winestained: Throws a wineglass in anger, increasing the effectiveness of certain abilities.

Whoa! You guys blew Fanart Achievement #2 out of the water—we ended up with more than double the required number of submissions for monster fanart.

I hope you're equally over-prepared for your next task: We're looking for 25 pieces of fanart of Miriam using special attacks by June 6. As always, tag them #IGAVANIA on Tumblr so that we can count them toward your next achievement!

If this is the fanart you guys are able to make before the Kickstarter even ends, I can't wait to see what you do when the game comes out.

For more fanart—including a ton of really interesting monster art—check out our Tumblr, which accepts submissions (if you don't have a Tumblr account) and is always checking the #IGAVANIA tag (if you do.)

Familiars! Created magically, purified from enemy crystals, ready to help Miriam on her journey through the castle. Several types will exist in the final game, each of which will have a different ability—attacking, stealing or blocking an enemy's ability, healing, and more.

Inti Creates gave us four designs, and we'd like to give you a chance to vote on them. During the stream on the last day of the campaign IGA will talk about your two favorites and then select one to appear in the final game.

Four familiars enter, two familiars leave, and one familiar gets the IGA seal of approval! To vote, go to this Google Form and pick your favorite. It's that simple! (We hope to offer more chances to make your voice heard during the development process, too, so keep those voting muscles in shape.)

By our count, you now have 38 backer achievements! Here's the updated graphic:

That means you have the Pixel Pants (8-bit remix track) and you're coming right up against the Glove of Jesting. We've got a list of some achievements you should target on Tumblr.

UPDATE #16

Update 16: DRM-Free option with GOG, Miriam's Curse, and Asynchronous Multiplayer Reached!

June 3, 2015

Over the course of the campaign we've gotten a steady flow of requests from people who were interested in a DRM-free version of Bloodstained. Today we have good news: We're teaming up with GOG.com, some of the best people in the DRM-free business, to make it happen.

If you haven't used their site before, GOG is an independent online store that sells fully DRM-free games, with a catalog of more than 1000 titles dating back to 1981.

But for us the really exciting part is that, thanks to their new optional gaming platform, GOG Galaxy, we'll be able to offer the beta version to GOG backers at $60 or above. GOG Galaxy offers time tracking, automatic updates, friends lists, and multiplayer features—but only if you want to use them.

Selecting the GOG version of the game will be simple: If your tier includes a copy of the game, whether it's digital or physical, you'll be able to choose between these platforms (so far!) when the survey comes:

GOG

Steam

PS4

XB1

Wii U

Like the Steam version, GOG downloads will be available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, and a beta version will be available for backers at $60 or above.

We'll cede the floor to GOG for a minute:

“We’re huge fans of the Castlevania series, so when we heard that Koji Igarashi was returning to the genre we knew that we wanted to work with him and the team.

"We're excited to announce that we’ll be partnering with IGA and Inti Creates to bring Bloodstained DRM-free, complete with our signature customer love, to backers and the wider gaming community.”

Thanks again to them for helping to make this possible!

This week we wanted to give you a bit of insight into Miriam’s stained glass infection, courtesy of Natsume-san. IGA kindly stepped in to offer some explanation, which—as always—is subject to change...

IGA: This is Miriam shortly after waking up from the coma that had left her frozen in time. Now that time is ticking once more, the crystal in her chest begins to glow red, signaling the reactivation of the curse that threatens to overtake her body.

Enochian glyphs suppress the spread of the curse.

When the crystals overtake Miriam, she glows red and her magic powers spike to dangerously high levels. The crystallization on her back grows to maximum size and radiates a cross, at which point the curse becomes unstoppable. Could Miriam end up suffering the same fate as Gebel?

As usual, the flood of fan art continues unabated. Here are some of our favorite pieces:

Last week you opened up your hearts and minds (and sketchbooks), exceeding your goal of 25 comics. This week we're holding your feet to the fire by requesting 25 more -- this time about the backstory of Miriam and her curse by June 8th. (Hopefully Natsume's concept art from this update will help!) Tag them #IGAVANIA on Tumblr so that we can count them toward your next achievement!

As always, you can find the latest Bloodstained fanworks—along with updates on achievements and stretch goals—at our official Tumblr.

With the latest Paypal total - roughly $80k from 1,000 backers - you've unlocked Asynchronous Multiplayer (which we spoke about in Update 14), and the Vita is not far behind. Your torch now throws light on a new Stretch Goal: Orchestrated Music at $3.75mm.

Yamane and Yamada are thrilled to see this goal on the horizon, as it will enable them to have some of their compositions performed and recorded by a live, professional orchestra! These tracks will, of course, end up in the game, not to mention on the soundtrack.

We'll have more details when you cross that threshold! Speaking of which: We noticed you just unlocked the Glove of Jesting! We'll be talking a little more about that in Friday's updated.

UPDATE #17

Update 17: Last Week! Ask IGA, Add-ons, Vampire Murderer

June 5, 2015

The final week is here! To celebrate the end of one long journey—and the beginning of the next one—Inti Creates sent along this image of Johannes, Gebel, and Miriam in happier times. It could be a while before we see them this content again…

It's Ask IGA time! Thanks to everyone who sent in their questions on Special Attacks.

Here are the questions IGA answered in this week's edition.

@mtlshdwoverlord: "Will we see weapons like the Shield Rod from SOTN that have special attacks depending on what you have equipped?"

Metafaniel : "will it feature an spell system that's activated with a combination of buttons similar to fighting games?"

gunbladeknight "Is there any plan for a transformation special attack? Like taking a demon form for more speed or power?"

@ripdeep "It's always fun to see all the specials you get in every game, how do you come up with everything? Don't you ever run out of ideas?"

@grep_is_rly_gud "i would like to know if you ever made a special move that wasn't good enough and had to trash it?"

@chatyeah "Did any real life people, places or items inspire attacks or spells in past games?"

Next week's Ask IGA is, conveniently enough, about Endings!! Tweet your questions with the #AskIGA hashtag, and he'll answer some for the next episode. It's going to go live on Wednesday, so be sure to get your questions in before Sunday.

On this week's episode of the Playism Podcast J-PLAY, the crew welcomes me—wait, I mean, Dan Moore of Fangamer—to talk about the campaign's final week, merchandise, Iga Rings, and Bitsummit 2015.

We’ve gotten a lot of questions about whether it’s possible to add extra tiers to your pledge. We’ve done some work on our end, and now tier add-ons are confirmed! Here’s how it works:

Pledge at the highest tier you want. (If you’re picking up a $250 Collector’s Box and a $60 physical copy, back at the $250 tier.)

Add the price of additional tiers to your pledge. (If you backed at the $125 level, and you want an additional $60 physical copy tier, pledge $185 total. Want to add on a $28 digital copy, too? That makes your total pledge $213.)

During the survey, you’ll be able to specify which additional tiers you were pledging for.

We're not offering add-ons for individual pieces of merchandise, only entire tiers. You can add additional copies of the game or additional collectors boxes, but you can't add art books or shirts individually.

You guys came storming back this week to capture the third Vine challenge achievement! There were a lot of great ones, but here are some to get you inspired for the next challenge.

While you're here, definitely check out these excerpts from Leo Vader's 10-part Vine epic. That's 60 seconds of footage!

Our fourth Vine achievement is due very soon—June 8—so we're looking for 15 Vines. The subject this week? Your special attacks.

Remember to tag them #IGAVANIA!

Mega64, who helped us out at the launch stream in San Francisco, was working on a little something special for you guys at the same time.

It involves IGA. And a vampire. I'm going to just embed it and let you discover this one for yourself.

If you don’t know about comedic video game filmmakers Mega64 yet, you should open their website, subscribe to their YouTube channel, and watch everything they’ve ever made. Right now. Starting with this, of course.

It’s Friday, so we’ll end this first update with IGA’s latest Kickstarter recommendation. This week’s pick is We Happy Few, an unsettling first-person roguelike set in an England where ‘60s mod has curdled over. Everyone in town is perfectly happy on Joy, a drug that “obviously has no side effects whatsoever” — everyone except for you.

Your mission? To escape. The complication? The Wellies can tell you aren’t on Joy. Be careful.

UPDATE #18

Update 18: $3.5mm PS Vita Success, and a Flamethrower Lights up the Dungeon

June 5, 2015

Adding in the $98k from our 1,175 Paypal backers, the campaign is well past the $3.5mm mark!

The Playstation Vita is a great way to kick off the final week of the campaign, especially because we'll be producing physical Vita copies. Our friends at Armature are back to give a little guidance:

Once again, the Bloodstained backers have not failed us. We have hit the PS Vita stretch goal! Here are our thoughts on inclusions into the PS Vita version:

Music Export – We thought it would be awesome to be able to export the game’s music to the Vita’s music library. So we’re going to do that.

PS4 Cross Save Support – Obviously, we’ll need to work with the PS4 dev team on this, but we’ve done cross save before and we’d love to do it again.

Touch Screen Support – Remember how we mentioned drawing on the map on the WiiU version? Why not do that for Vita too? And scrub around the map with your finger as well.

PlayStation TV - We’ll also make sure that the game is fully playable on the PS TV.

We are truly honored to be part of this project, and to work with the other development teams to help bring another one of Igarashi-san’s masterpieces to a handheld.

To ensure maximum warp for this last week, we thought we'd give you a clearer look at the remaining stretch goals by upgrading your torch to something a little stronger. A lot stronger, actually: you now wield a flamethrower, which illuminates most of the basement.

ONLINE CHALLENGE MODE: Compete and cooperate with a friend to earn points in specially designed stages by clearing challenges, killing enemies, collecting items, and more. Rumor has it there there may even be incredibly powerful bosses which drop rare crafting materials...

3RD PLAYABLE CHARACTER: IGA and Inti Creates will include a third playable character in Bloodstained! They don't want to give away too much—it might even be a character you haven't met yet.

PREQUEL MINI-GAME FOR CONSOLES: Inti Creates is so excited about Bloodstained that they're hoping to create a 2D, pixel-based, retro-styled mini-game that sheds some light on the world of Bloodstained before Miriam awoke from her coma. This is a complete game which will be sold separately, but every $28+ backer copy of Bloodstained will come with a FREE download of this game on PS4, XB1, Wii U, or PC! (Backers at Physical+Digital tiers will be eligible for 2 copies of the mini-game.)

PREQUEL MINI-GAME FOR PORTABLES: At $4.75 million Inti will port their side story game to the PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS. Backers $28 and up will be able to choose any platform for their free copy (or copies)!

---------

The last goal seems stubbornly stuck in shadow, but the shallow echo of your footsteps gives it away -- the bottom of the basement is just ahead.

You're now, amazingly, at 45 backer achievements, which puts the next (and final) unlock a tantalizing 5 achievements away...

Lets get some information on the items you've just earned:

GLOVE OF JESTING: IGA and the team don't want to tell you too much about the strange cheat codes they hope to put in the final version of the game (what's the fun in cheat codes if you're not discovering them yourself?) but they'd love to hear your suggestions for what you want to see.

In addition to the silly stuff, each Credits Clan will be given a cheat code to enable fun modifications -- custom masks, weapons, and other kinds of accessories.

EMBARRASSING BOOTS: Now that you've equipped the Embarrassing Boots, you won't just get IGA putting in some vampire teeth and hiding behind a cape: He's going all out. Check back in with the campaign this Halloween to see what he decided on.

Here’s one more service IGA can provide during the Kickstarter: Recommending games for you to play while Bloodstained is in development.

If you’re looking for a classic side-scrolling adventure, check out Axiom Verge—the AV team introduced him to it during our Twitch launch stream, and IGA was really impressed by the unsettling atmosphere and the tight controls.

UPDATE #19

Update 19: A Development Update, A Stretch Goal, Amano

June 8, 2015

The final week begins! We've got a pile of bombshells to tell you about before the end, so we'll be updating more frequently down the home stretch.

It's fun watching merchandise come together. That's most of what we do at Fangamer—when we're not helping IGA launch a Kickstarter, I mean—but it never gets old. So I'm pretty happy to announce that we've found an artist we think will be perfect for the poster that comes inside the Collector's Box.

You just might recognize the name: Yoshitaka Amano is an artist, illustrator, and character designer famous among fans of classic videogames for his work on the Final Fantasy series.

IGA and Amano have been talking since the launch of the Kickstarter, but now we're finally ready to announce his involvement. Here's Amano:

“Sumi-e (Charcoal Brush) is one of my favorite styles! Being able to mix the gothic aesthetic with a Sumi-e touch will make for a beautiful piece of art. It’s a style that I hope backers from all over the world can enjoy. Welcome to my Sumie-stained world!"

Amano has also offered to hand-sign a limited number of prints, so we're introducing them at a new $800 tier:

We're also offering one more set of castle portraits—this is your last chance to get your illustrious ancestors (who look suspiciously like you) into the game! IGA and the team have allowed us to make five more available:

Next up we've got a real treat: video of a recent session where Natsume-san (the game's character designer and artist) got a chance to show IGA the progress that he and his cohorts at Inti Creates have made in the past few weeks:

What you see on screen is an incredibly early animation sample, so this is only the beginning—the team will be keeping their noses to the grindstone all throughout the development process. (They'll be removing their noses from the grindstone just long enough to keep you up to date throughout as they work on character design, animation, gameplay, mechanics, and shaders, so stay tuned!)

With our Paypal backers included -- $118k from more than 1400 backers, as of this morning -- you've hit the Orchestrated Tracks stretch goal with momentum to burn! It'll be a while before Yamane and Yamada have all the tracks composed for Bloodstained, but now that you've reached this stretch goal they did want to allay one fear a few backers have had: There's still going to be a ton of variety on this soundtrack.

Hitting the orchestra stretch goal allows them to use live instrumentation where it makes sense, but some tracks just make more sense with electronic arrangements. Songs like Yamada's "Cursed Orphan", which already includes violin and electric guitar parts, will be performed by a smaller, rock-oriented ensemble.

In short: You've added more options, not taken any away. (And that's without even going into those 8-bit tracks you unlocked from Yamane, Yamada, and Virt...)

You're just inches from the Pyrite Coin! We counted 49 achievements, which means you could pick this one up as early as tomorrow. (I'm told you're very close on Overall Fanart and Miriam Cosplay, among others.) Get ready to spend it all in one place...

bosimba

bosimba

marcotte

marcotte

Outering

Outering

You brought more than enough fanart for the last achievement, which brings us to #4: we're looking for 15 pieces of art before the campaign ends on June 11th. This week's theme: THE END. Show us what you've got by submitting to the Bloodstained Tumblr or tagging your own tumblr post with #igavania

We're giving this week's last word to the illustrious Kari Fry, whom you've come to know by way of caricature. Kari is a longtime friend and partner of Fangamer who has worked herself (and her tablet) overtime to prepare a variety of illustrations for this campaign, including the now-recognizable-enough-to-have-become-a-Splatoon-meme caricature of IGA.

UPDATE #20

Update 20: Sword or Whip Results, Boss Reveal, and the Pyrite Coin

June 9, 2015

As the campaign begins its final week, a crisis grimmer than any we've seen before finally concludes: Pixel IGA has returned to make his final judgment. Sword or Whip voters have chosen their weapon, and the winner—after a ferocious series of clan battles—is Sword. Specifically, Clan Katana. Which means we can finally reveal just what it was you were voting for, if the hint in the first sentence didn't already give it away:

That Katana, which will be available in every version of Bloodstained, will be one of the most dangerous weapons in the game—if you can earn it. And don't worry: IGA and Inti Creates will make you earn it.

If your clan didn't win, fear not: There will be swords and whips enough to go around in the final version of Bloodstained. And you'll need every one of them if you're going to unlock the Swordwhip in your backer-edition game, because your hidden boss is...

He won't look like that—not even a little like that—but we had Kari Fry create this remarkable artist's depiction for a reason. That backer-exclusive boss? It will be IGA.

He was reluctant to include himself in the game like this—even as an eldritch easter egg—but he relented when he saw fans talking about the possibility. Look, take my word for it: You've never been beaten into the ground and eviscerated by a nicer guy.

We… were not expecting that! We put 10 autographed Amano posters on offer, and we ran through them in 10 minutes. We went back, posters in hand, and Amano agreed to sign some more. Here’s the tier info:

While we’re talking about Amano prints, a reassuring word for collectors and perfectionists: Whether yours is autographed or not, it will be well-protected (and unfolded) when it ships.

We're also happy to announce that Inti has agreed to tackle a few more Hounds of Hell tiers!

Bloodstained Kickstarter

The final hours approach

Excitement building

Bonus achievement:

Fans counting syllables in

the final hours

One hundred haiku

About the world of Bloodstained

Due June 11

A classical haiku, of course, is about nature and movement and landscape, and not (just) counting syllables. Here’s a freebie (1/100) to get you started:

The castle descends

on the place her old life died

Miriam follows

Tweet your haiku out with the hashtag #IGAhaiku to be counted!

Paypal update: more than 1,500 backers for $126k. Online Challenges will be yours in no time.

You guys somehow managed to cross 4 off the list. You deserve a Backer Achievement for achieving Backer Achievements.

That brings you to 53 achievements. You're in uncharted territory, but for now all you can think about is the coin you finally hold in your hands.

The Pyrite Coin was clearly not made by professionals—but then, professionals wouldn't try to make a coin out of fool's gold. It's lumpy and a little off-center, and the etching of Miriam on the front would not qualify for most of our fanart achievements.

The strange man behind the desk told you it would unlock a bonus stretch goal. So you hand it to him, and he looks at it with a loupe that doesn't seem to have any glass in it. He cackles. "Thank you!"

"You'll be able to use this in the arcade," he says, pointing you toward a long hall you hadn't seen before. The sign, written in the man's spidery hand, says:

"NEW GAME PLUS. - >"

UPDATE #21

Update 21: $4mm, Armaturity, Ending Stream, New Game Plus

June 10, 2015

The crew at Armature continues to prove that they're the right studio for the job. We'll let them do the talking:

“Hi Bloodstained backers - Armature here with another update. It turns out that a people have shown a ton of interest in our plan to port UE4 to the WiiU and PS Vita. Since they're not officially supported platforms, it's going to be a lot of work to get Bloodstained and UE4 on these platforms, but we are up to the challenge.

“Since the community got these platforms off the ground, we figure that it's best to let the community have them back when we're done. As a result, after the release of Bloodstained we will share, for free, the UE4 WiiU and Vita code with any developer authorized to develop on those platforms! Thank you all very much for this opportunity!”

If you missed the launch stream—graciously hosted by Twitch and Kinda Funny Games—you missed a long day of great indie adventure games, stories from IGA, and speedruns. Luckily, you’ve got another chance: the ending stream will be broadcast live from Inti Creates studio in the four hours leading up to the campaign's end, and Fraser and Becky of Video Games AWESOME! will be hosting.

IGA, Ben Judd, Nayan (Playism), the entire Inti Creates crew, and a host of special guests will be there playing games, speaking about the game/campaign, and thanking you for all the incredible support you've lent us so far. Here's the stream's start time in a variety of time zones:

In case last night's cliffhanger update wasn't clear enough: New Game Plus is achieved. You worked through our Backer Achievement system with fearsome efficiency, and the team agreed to make NG+ your reward. But enough talk -- lets have at the details:

Carry over key items/equipment to your next game

Harder enemies, better stats, and new attack patterns

The team hopes to implement some special enemies which may drop rare items

Combined with our latest Paypal total of $133k from 1600 backers, our campaign has more than passed the $4 million mark. Your flamethrower already illuminated some details of the Online Challenge Mode stretch goal, but lets reiterate:

Team up with a friend online in both co-op and versus modes

Power through specially designed stages by clearing challenges, killing enemies, collecting items, and more

Battle extra-powerful bosses which drop rare items

If things keep up at their current pace, you may reach $4.25 -- the third playable character -- before the end of the night.

Now: A word about the $5 million stretch goal. Well, two words. Well, OK, two bullet points.

It is absolutely incredible that we're even talking about a $5 million stretch goal. Your support has changed this game for the better in too many ways to count, though we'll try to during that ending stream...

Anyway, about that $5 million goal. It's a mode. It's going to make this game even bigger than it was before. And we'll be revealing it tonight. (When we heard Inti and IGA were willing to tackle it, our eyes went pretty wide.)

UPDATE #22

Update 22: $5mm Goal, Swordwhip Unveiled, and the Final 'Ask IGA'

June 10, 2015

With $4 million, you've made Bloodstained the second biggest Kickstarter of any videogame ever. It's an honor to be a part of something like this, and with two days to go it's very possible you'll have made this the biggest game Kickstarter ever by the end of the campaign.

From the bottom of our dungeons: Thank you.

We teased it in this morning’s update, so let’s get right to the stretch goal castle which has now bottomed out at $5 million:

That’s right: Procedurally generated dungeons. In this mode you’ll face a new castle every time, braving its treacherous (and massive) halls for loot, glory, and the simple, satisfying feeling of going where no Miriam has gone before.

Once you’ve explored its passages and defeated its boss, you’ll get a code that will enable you to share your randomly generated dungeon with a friend. (If you find a particularly hard one, you can even share it with an enemy! IGA isn’t picky.)

It’s dangerous to venture into uncharted territory without a weapon, which means this is as good a time as any to demonstrate the bonus weapon that will be included in backer-edition ($60+) copies of the game. Behold, fresh from Inti Creates, the Swordwhip:

Since we couldn’t have done this without Team Sword or Team Whip, Inti Creates has forged a weapon that combines the benefits of both. We hope you’ll like it as much as bosses will hate it.

We have to stop meeting like this—for the second day in a row Amano’s signed poster tier has sold out and we’ve come back to beg one more favor of his signing hand. Again, he’s delivered:

But that’s not all the signatures we’re bringing to this update—we came prepared. This time we’re happy to announce that Amano will be signing the Collector’s Box print for all backers at $1000 or above.

If you’re already at one of those tiers, thank you! If you aren’t, now would be a pretty good time to, say, have David Hayter or Robert Belgrade tell people whose phone calls you screen how great you are.

For our final Ask IGA, we thought we'd get a little meta by soliciting questions about Endings:

BalancedHydra : What are the core elements needed to make a proper ending

@danjosephsg : Will there be an attempt at having multiple endings like previous games you've worked on?

@cdtraderguy : In game endings, do you prefer anime or CG animation cut-scenes? Which do you think will be the best for Bloodstained?

@nicholosbelmont : Do you plan to set up sequels to Bloodstained in the ending? Or will is be more final, standalone, not a story you want to continue?

@alexkey_3rd : What made you decide to show the events of AoS first, instead of Dracula's death? It was a clever move, but I would like to know why

@dremark : What was the plan for the storyline of the Battle of 1999? What was the basic plot and how would it have ended?

UPDATE #23

Update 23: $4.5mm, Shovel Knight, Podcast

June 11, 2015

Remember Natsume's Shovel Knight fanart from earlier in the campaign? It's been about a decade, in Kickstarter years, so I'll refresh your memory:

We've got good news: Inti Creates and Yacht Club Games have agreed that Natsume's reimagining of their hero feels right at home in the demon castle!

They won't tell us any more than that, but when the game comes out remember that you might bump into this guy in a crowded corridor somewhere. Who knows what might happen after that?

Our latest Paypal total -- $150k from nearly 1800 backers -- indicates that we've achieved TWO stretch goals since our last update.

There's not a lot to say about the 3rd Playable Character, partly because we're so early in the development process. It's a twist which may require some creative storytelling, but that's exactly the kind of challenge that IGA seems to savor.

The Prequel Mini-Game, which you casually grabbed as you were sprinting to the bottom of the basement, is the kind of thing Inti has done before -- see Mighty Gunvolt -- but rather than a crossover, this game will be set entirely within the Bloodstained universe, casting some light on the events that transpired prior to Miriam's awakening.

This game will later be sold separately, but every $28+ backer copy of Bloodstained will come with a FREE download of this game on PS4, XB1, Wii U, or PC! (So backers at Physical+Digital tiers will be eligible for 2 copies of the mini-game.) At the current pace of funding, it's just a matter of hours until Inti is committed to develop the minigame for Vita/3DS as well.

Speaking of stretch goals, some clarification is in order: the $5mm stretch goal is for a Roguelike Dungeon Mode. The game itself -- everything you've come to expect from an Igavania -- will be unchanged, but we'll be adding a new mode to the game.

The final campaign podcast is live! The Playism crew welcomes Ben Judd once more to discuss Mega64, the artwork of Yoshitaka Amano, E3, and the unique satisfaction of being at the top of your game:

We've shown off a lot of amazing fanart during the Kickstarter, but we'd hate for anyone to think the musicians among you are slacking off. Here are two of the many cool remixes, performances, and original compositions we've seen so far:

And of course you can see more—and submit your own—on our Tumblr.

'They have faith in our ability, but they need to see the support of the community before their funding'… It was a theme so vital to any future chance I had at doing another Igavania-type game, that I actually said it twice in Japanese in the announcement video… And that’s how this Kickstarter journey began.

When we launched the Kickstarter not only did we prove the market for a game like this, we became the Number 1 video game Kickstarter of all time. I wish I could rewind the clock to the beginning of the campaign and kick myself for thinking we would probably only raise 800,000 if we got lucky.

None of this would have been possible without the incredible support from an incredible community. So with that, Army of the Night, I will turn myself to the task of making a game truly worthy of all your kindness. I will not let you down.

-IGA

UPDATE #24

Update 24: $5mm Achieved, $5.5 Unveiled, Ending Stream, 'Pure' Costume

June 12, 2015

With our latest Paypal funds totaling $180k from 2200 backers...

You've raised $5,000,000.

Against every expectation, the Army of the Night has unlocked the $5mm Roguelike Dungeon Mode. And of course that means you also blew past the $4.75mm goal, so when you claim your free Prequel Mini-Game you'll now have the option of getting it on PS Vita or Nintendo 3DS, in addition to all of the platforms we had already planned!

We fully expected that $5mm goal would remain as a dangling carrot throughout the end of the campaign, so during last night's stream rehearsal in Japan the team put their heads together for one final brainstorming session...

Everything is charred in the basement—you may have been a little too enthusiastic with the flamethrower. Hot embers crackle beneath your boots where the wooden floor still glows. Waving your Glove of Jesting around to clear the air, it becomes clear that the rest of the floor is stone. You're standing on a trap door.

At least, you were. Now you're falling through it.

You have been so overzealous in your pursuit of stretch goals that you're now poised to take revenge... on our dauntless heroes. At $5.5 million you have the opportunity to unlock Boss Revenge Mode:

Control several different bosses

Utilize their special attacks to wreak havok

Explore a new BOSS REVENGE area

Turn the tables and defeat “Hero” Bosses in your pursuit of humanity's destruction

Can you do it? It may depend on how quickly you can recruit new members into your army.

Even though the top tier was 50, you’ve managed to get 59 achievements, so Inti Creates has an incentive to offer you for 60:

The Pure Costume will be a new outfit for Miriam which provides a glimpse into her life before the magi-crystal curse consumed her.

Why is her hair blonde, you might ask? The magi-crystal disease/curse/etc ends up changing the hair color of its host. That explains Gebel’s hair in that “when they were young” photo...

Over here in the states, while the Japanese side of the campaign is counting down live on Twitch, we’ll be keeping track of your last-minute achievement progress. You only need one. Which will you focus your efforts on? Here are a few handy links:

Twitter Follows:

Twitter Retweets:

YouTube Views:

This is the way the Kickstarter ends: Not with a whimper, but with another Twitch stream, this time live from Inti Creates’ offices just outside Tokyo! Going live in just under 5 hours, Fraser and Becky from Video Games Awesome will be live with IGA, Ben Judd, the Inti Creates crew, and a host of special guests.

During the stream we'll be introducing one last challenge for you: IGA-chievements! As you collect mini-achievements, IGA will personally perform feats of strength and skill for your amazement. What will these mini-achievements and rewards be? You'll have to check in during the stream to find out.

Tune in later today at ... to watch as the crew plays through classic indie Igavanias like La Mulana, Cave Story, and Shantae, showcases the amazing things you’ve made, and counts down to the end of your record-shattering Kickstarter.

One last note from Armature:

We announced that we would be releasing the code for our UE4 WiiU/Vita modifications. We didn’t provide very many details, and there’s been some confusion, so we just wanted to clear a few things up.

What we are planning to do is share the WiiU and Vita modifications to UE4 for Bloodstained after the game ships with authorized developers for the respective platforms (and we’re not sure how we’ll deliver the code, it’s a bit complicated because of all the parties involved).

Neither us nor Epic will be providing any support for this code. What developers will get will be a snapshot of the platform-specific code that ships with Bloodstained on the version of UE4 that Bloodstained ships with. Nobody will be keeping the code up-to-date with newer versions of UE4.

We are not planning to take external contributions from individuals, do any co-development, or release the code prior to Bloodstained’s release. Our intent is to give people a great jumping-off point on those platforms.

We hope this clears things up, and we’re excited to provide more specifics as we have them!

"I just wanted to thank everyone here for all of their amazing support. We are focused on not only making this the best game we can, but also on making this a game with true 'soul' in it. Please look forward to the day when we can get a playable out there and show you how great the game will be.

"And one more thing…

"WOO-HOO!!!!! WE ARE THE NUMBER ONE KICKSTARTED VIDEO GAME! (Sorry, that just makes me really, really happy!)"

UPDATE #25

Update 25: Ending Stream, $5.5mm ACHIEVED

June 12, 2015

Click here to watch the Ending Stream, which is currently live! Here's the remaining (rough) stream schedule:

Happening now: Art time with Natsume!

5:30 - Gunvolt

6:00 - Special Game Announcement

6:30 - IGA plays Shantae: Half Genie Hero

7:00 - Music Discussion with surprise guests: Yamada-san and Yamane-san!

7:30 - Fan Art Reel

7:45 - Familiar Reveal

7:45 - THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

Never count out the Army of the Night, clearly: You guys already have 61 achievements! That means you've unlocked the Miriam Pure Costume.

That's great, but are you ready for IGAchievments? Follow along on the Twitch stream and you can make IGA do anything from chug a glass of wine to arm-wrestle the president of Inti Creates in a duel to the death.

With our current Paypal total of $213k from nearly 2400 backers, we've hit $5.5 million! That means you've already unlocked our trap-door stretch goal!

We'll have more to tell you about Boss Revenge mode soon, but IGA's a little busy drawing monsters and arm-wrestling Aizu live on stream at the moment...

Here's the final Stretch Castle. For posterity.

UPDATE #26

Thank You.

June 13, 2015

This project was a collaboration between dozens of people across a variety of companies, all of whom we'll be thanking soon. However, right now we (and Miriam) would like to thank you.

We'll send surveys out later, but in the meantime don't worry. We at Fangamer have Kickstarter campaigns down to a science, and we'll take care of every detail: upgrades, regions, add-ons, shirt sizes, addresses, etc. You'll have many opportunities and plenty of time to fill out your survey and make changes -- we'll even send you a heads up before your merchandise ships in case your address changes between now and March 2017, when we hope to ship everything.

In the meantime we'll be answering every support request. Before you send us a message, however, consider posting in the comments to ask for help; the Army of the Night is filled with friendly, knowledgeable folks who are happy to help.

In case you missed it, you can catch the ending stream on Twitch. There were many highlights, but here are a few worth catching:

0:57:00 — IGA draws an enemy which he later dubs Bismarck Kappa III

1:30:00 — Aizu v IGA arm wrestling match

2:58:00 — IGA displays some serious candle-whipping prowess, followed by an interview with the game's musicians Michiru Yamane and Ippo Yamada

3:22:30 — IGA dons vampire teeth and shouts "DIE MONSTER"

3:30:00 — Familiar contest results, and IGA crowns the winner

We'll leave you with the video compilation we created for the end of the stream, which highlights just a fraction of the creativity, generosity, and support you've been showering us with for the past month. Enjoy — you did it!

UPDATE #27

July's update is on the way, plus a dash of intrigue from Comcept

July 2, 2015

Army of the Night! Since the end of the Kickstarter we've been working to lock down the next steps in the campaign, and the fruits of that behind-the-scenes labor should be ready soon—we're very close to launching the Bloodstained website and sending out your backer surveys. (We'll tell you more in our next update, scheduled for early next week.)

But while we're here to tell you about things to look forward to, our friends at Comcept posted a very unusual update to the Mighty No. 9 campaign today. If you happen to be a fan of games and styles that conventional publishers have long ignored—and I'm hazarding a guess that you might be—this video should be relevant to your interests.

2015 is looking like a pretty good year to be a fan of cult-classic Japanese games from the 32-bit era, even if we still haven't gotten the sequel to "No One Can Stop Mr. Domino!" I've been begging for.

As always: Thanks, and stay tuned!

UPDATE #28

July 2015 Update: Surveys, Websites, Interviews, and a Letter from IGA

July 10, 2015

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...

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. 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.

UPDATE #29

August Update: PAX, Surveys, and Samurai

August 19, 2015

The strange thing about Kickstarter campaigns is that they usually end right as things get interesting—when the game goes into development and the fans start building elaborate theories based on what they know about the story.

There's a reason for that, of course; the end of the Kickstarter campaign is the signal for IGA and the developers to well and truly bury themselves in work, and for those of us on the campaign side it means it's time to get the merchandise designed and produced—not to mention to mentally prepare ourselves for shipping thousands of packages.

But it's still weird. So it's been great to see all the continued activity on the Bloodstained Forums. The devs are excited about making Bloodstained, and we're excited about playing it, and we're glad you are, too.

Here's a little of what we've got planned to keep things moving on our end:

If you just happened to be making plans to be in Seattle later this month, I have some good news: We'll be running a PAX Prime panel Saturday, August 29 at the Hydra Theater. Koji Igarashi, Takuya Aizu of Inti Creates, Ben Judd, and Dan Moore of Fangamer (wait, that's me) will sit down to talk about Bloodstained, Kickstarter, the fans (wait, that's you), and more.

We'll also be turning the tables on Ben and making him and IGA unlock a series of achievements to earn a bonus for you—but I've already said too much.

If you're not going to be at PAX, you'll be able to watch the panel live online. (Address to follow.) You'll also be able to ask questions in this forum topic—we'll pick some for IGA to answer during the panel.

We've been working overtime to get the survey—and with it the slacker backer campaign—ready to go, and it's getting close. Look for your surveys to begin arriving on September 15.

Fangamer has been running surveys for a while, now, but for Bloodstained we've rebuilt our system from the ground up to make it more useful for existing backers who'd like to upgrade or add on while also making it more attractive for people who still haven't enlisted in the Army of the Night. (The Kickstarter campaign may be over, but we want to keep building the Bloodstained fanbase all the way to launch day.)

斬月 — Zangetsu — 42 — Male

Coming from a small country far away in the East, Zangetsu specializes in fighting demons. He makes his way to England when the demons first show up 10 years before the main story of Bloodstained begins.

He uses a dual katana fighting style along with Japanese “ofuda” paper incantations to destroy his demonic foes.

During his long battle to keep the demons at bay he loses his left eye and right arm. Using a special Ofuda spell he is able to animate a wooden prosthetic arm to nearly the same level of mobility as his original arm. The Ofuda that covers his missing left eye grants him the ability to see both auras of both the living and dead.

He lost a great deal of friends during his 10 years of fighting, creating an absolute hatred for not only the creatures themselves but also the Alchemists that brought them to the Earth.

More from IGA:

Zangetsu is a character I came up with when trying to answer this question: What happened in the lost time between the appearance of the demons on earth and Miriam's awakening 10 years later?

In all my games I’ve never had a Samurai character appear, much less a character from Japan, so I’m using the opportunity of working in this new universe to try something new.

The character is an interesting blend—he wears a Western coat, reminiscent of the era, but has it half open, which is a very Japanese style. I wanted to show off a bit of his wild nature with the design. We are still working out the Ofuda concept, so please bear with us.

It’s kind of ironic—I was able to come up with Miriam, Johannes, and Gebel’s name rather easily, but landing on a good Japanese name ended up taking a long time.

- IGA

UPDATE #30

Watch the Bloodstained PAX Panel live tonight!

August 29, 2015

The Bloodstained PAX Prime 2015 panel will begin at 6pm Seattle time, which is roughly an hour from now. You can watch it on Twitch here:

UPDATE #31

September Update: PAX Recap, Ask IGA, and Surveys!

September 16, 2015

This month's update is so dense I could just barely fit this tiny introductory paragraph above it. Here's the big news:

We're sending surveys out even as we speak! They're going out in waves over the next couple of days, so don't fret if you haven't gotten yours already—just wait for it to arrive in the e-mail address associated with your Kickstarter account.

(If it's Monday and you still don't have your survey, send us an e-mail: orders@fangamer.com.)

Thanks to everybody, in Seattle and online, who watched our PAX Prime panel! We talked about the path the game took from Ben and IGA meeting at a party to this very Kickstarter; we offered some crowdfunding advice; and we unlocked a bunch of achievements without Ben, IGA, and Aizu knowing we were doing it.

Click on the screencap to go to Twitch's archive of the panel, which begins about 10 minutes in:

Check out the Twitch panel!

IGA and Aizu also took the time to unveil some new art that illustrates the ways you'll be able to customize Miriam. Here's that image again, for your viewing pleasure:

IGA and Aizu talked more about their customization plans in the panel, but this slide illustrates some of the ways you'll be able to adjust your characters' clothing, hair, and skin colors. (While also including a nice nod to Inti Creates' own Gunvolt series.)

By unlocking all the PAX Panel achievements, the audience at the panel also earned another episode of Ask IGA—which is good, because time constraints meant we barely got to the questions we solicited from the Bloodstained forums.

So as soon as IGA got back from PAX we had him answer some more. Here's the video:

UPDATE #32

October Update: Podcasts, Planners, and Prognosticating

October 30, 2015

October: The most tonally appropriate month for any Igavania. Are any of you prepping Bloodstained Halloween costumes? Tag them #igavania on Tumblr (post them on the Bloodstained forums, while you're at it) and I'll grab some cool ones for our November update.

As for our October update, we've got a podcast with Ben Judd, a design update from IGA and a new (old) team member, and a shoutout to another crowdfunding campaign trying to keep classic gameplay around and vital. So without further ado:

If you haven't filled out your survey yet, consider this your monthly reminder: Fill out your survey! You can always go back to your survey link to change your answers later. (If you never got your survey, or don't think you did, e-mail us at orders@fangamer.com.)

But what happens, you ask, if you or someone you know hasn't even backed yet? Our slacker backer campaign is now available at this easy-to-remember, easy-to-share link: Igavania.com/back. Use it just like you would the Kickstarter page!

Good news for the long-named among us: We've just gotten word from Inti Creates that you'll now have 26 characters all to yourself on the credits screen. We've also had a few questions about the Credits Clan, so I bugged my coworker Steve, Fangamer's official Customer Servant, and he offered some clarification.

If you’ve backed at a $100+ tier, you’ll be eligible to put your name in the credits. Choosing a Credits Clan is an optional part of that reward that will only affect which header your name is listed under during the credits. For example, if you pick Clan Katana, you'll be listed under the “Clan Katana” header, along with everyone else who picked Clan Katana. If you don’t select a Credits Clan, your name will be listed under a general header with everybody else who didn't.

Each of our YouTuber Partner Clans and the two Community Clans will also have a secret in-game cheat code that you can use to re-skin a specific starting item in the game. Each of these codes will be given to their respective community leader, who will be able to reveal them to their audiences however they’d like. These codes will not be restricted to any particular version of the game—anyone who finds a code can use it. (Collect all 18!)

XombieMike of the Bloodstained Forums has taken up the podcasting mantle, and for episode two of the Bloodstained Community Broadcast he brought Ben Judd on to talk about production, crowdfunding, the future of gaming in Japan... all his favorite topics. A nice summary from forum member Goobsausage: "I also find it highly appropriate that the reality bombs are being dropped on the Halloween episode."

That's just good luck, of course—having worked with him for a while, now, I can assure you that Ben would just as happily drop reality bombs on a Valentine's Day podcast. Or an Arbor Day podcast, or a Boxing Day podcast, or a—

I'd be perfectly happy continuing to name holidays, but you'd probably rather read IGA's latest update. Don't worry; I'm not offended.

Good evening, Army of the Night! It's time for another production update. The good news is that I’ve “run into” another longtime colleague—one of the most talented Igavania planners out there. With his help we're locking down a lot of key pieces of the design.

We haven't had a lot of new assets to show so far, but the good news is that next month we hope to be able to show you a few of the shaders we're trying out, so that you can tell us how we're doing. There are a lot of moving pieces, but we're hoping to get them locked down soon so we can move on to other pieces of the game. Using special shaders means we'll need to build out backgrounds first before we can move on to characters and enemies. So we've been generating a lot of background art. (It's still in the early concept phase, so we aren't ready to show it in detail yet.)

You may wonder why we've taken this approach rather than building out the game stage by stage. Because shaders will affect the tone of the entire stage, we think it's better to see the look of the entire screen before moving forward. That means rather than characters or enemies, backgrounds serve the best purpose here.

IGA sifts through some background concepts

IGA sifts through some background concepts

So now that we’ve generated a lot of background concept art, the artists are carefully examining it to decide on the appropriate visual design. After all, this is an Igavania game—atmosphere is key, and the background and foreground have to work together. After the backgrounds are polished, we throw enemies on top to see how gameplay and atmosphere will interact. Since all of this is so important, we want to make sure backers have the chance to be heard when we choose our shaders. As always, thank you for your patience.

With that, it's time I get back to finishing the story! The deadline I set for myself is right around the corner, so I'd best get back to work. I don't have all the character stories locked down yet, but the ones I do have are really cool. Really! I can't wait to tell you more in our next updates.

But before I go, I wanted to allow our super-talented new planner to introduce himself. You can decide for yourself whether we have the right man for the job or not!

Curry the Kid, by Kari Fry

Curry the Kid, by Kari Fry

Hello everyone! My name is Shutaro Iida. I’m a longtime 2D Igavania planner you may also know as "Curry the Kid"! Getting the chance to work with IGA again on another Igavania game is incredibly exciting! In previous games I did a lot of the programming, but I also put together an enemy character here and there in my spare time.

I'm going to make sure the team works to maintain that classic Igavania feel while still introducing enough new bosses, secrets, and scenes to keep all of you guessing. I'm really excited to be here, and thanks again for making Bloodstained happen!

[Fangamer Note: We're told Iida-san is at least partially responsible for the "Delicious Curry" attack, in particular.]

IGA has been keeping an eye on crowdfunded games ever since you guys gave him such a pleasant introduction to it. Recently he checked out the prototype for Indivisible, the 2D RPG from Lab Zero. Here's his report:

Since I played the English version and basically don’t read English well, I was kind of flying blind. So my gameplay was certainly not impressive, but please be flexible about my linguistic shortcomings!

Right from the title screen you jump straight into the game. I really like seamless title screen transitions, and Indivisible does this well. While playing the game it was clear that this team really knows action: The controls are very responsive, and even the jump timing feels totally natural. It’s hard to put into words, but there's something great about the feel of tight, intuitive jump timing. As a creator, you can tell right away that they get it.

Now let’s talk about the art style. I'll admit that, at first glance, you could find it looks dated… but then the animation kicks in, and everything moves so smoothly that the art is suddenly alive and none of that matters. There are lots of ways to make art do what you want, from shaders to animation to simply working at a higher resolution… but in this case they just nailed the animation. The effects are great as well, so the game just looks cool.

It’s a really polished prototype, and I hope people take a serious look at it. A lot of action games have been adding in RPG elements recently, for a variety of reasons, but it’s nice to find a game that has polish on the action side as well as the RPG side. I enjoyed it—and it’s a free prototype, so I hope more people give it a chance. The prototype is available for Windows, Mac and Linux right now, and console owners... maybe wait just a little bit longer, OK?

You can back Indivisible here. And here, for good measure, is 20 seconds of IGA testing those jump mechanics:

UPDATE #33

November Update: The First Set of Shaders!

December 4, 2015

When we launched the Bloodstained campaign back in May, we promised backers would have the chance to follow the development process in real time. Inti Creates has been nose-to-monitor since the end of the campaign, but now is the team's first chance to show off some of the progress they've been making—and get you involved in the next steps they take.

This month, the developers will be showing off four shaders they've been developing as they work to finalize Bloodstained's visual style. Today's update has the first two; in your regularly scheduled December update, at the end of the month, we'll unveil two more. Your feedback will be used to help determine the final look for the game.

IGA sent us two sets of early screenshots and some brief comments about each one. Let us know what you like, and what you'd like Inti to experiment with in the next update. (Click through for larger screenshots.)

Shader #1

Here's IGA's comments about the first set of shaders:

This shader contains lighting, fog, and character brightness effects designed to give it a 2D look. I feel bad about how much I demanded from the development team!

Shader #2

Here's what IGA has to say about Shader #2

For this shader we desaturated the colors, enhanced the shadows, and used hatched lines to fade between light and shadow. I think this one looks especially unique.

IGA and Inti were excited to finally get the chance to show you some of their work and hear from you before they lock this part of the game down—we hope you like it, and we're looking forward to showing you more later this month.

We've set up a Google Form you can use to submit your feedback. Thanks for being a part of the return of Igavania! Your excitement is what's driving IGA and the developers.

XombieMike of the official Bloodstained forums—which, again, you should join if you haven't already—is back with the latest episode of the Bloodstained Community Broadcast. This time his guest is Matt Papa, Inti Creates' PR manager and associate producer.

Listen in for a lively conversation about Bloodstained, life in Japan, and how a guy named Matt Papa came to work at Inti Creates in the first place.

As always, tag your fanart with #IGAVANIA on Tumblr and we'll post our favorites in a future update!

UPDATE #34

Update Teaser: A Look at What the Team's Been Up To

January 6, 2016

We expected feedback, and we knew it would be useful. (We know you, after all.) But we didn't expect the sheer volume of useful feedback you guys submitted about the first round of shaders. We collated the thousands of comments and suggestions as best we could, passed them along to Inti Creates—what you liked, what else you wanted to see, what you thought they should work on—and they've been reading through them and working on the next set of screenshots ever since.

The work kept them from hitting their end-of-December goal. So here, by way of an apology, is a teaser image IGA passed along to us: Miriam demonstrating a shader Inti Creates has been refining.

IGA's comments:

Since we heard that the backers wanted a more illustration-like feel, we had Inti Creates work on several methods of making that possible. Out of the options they showed us, we really liked this "toon" shader right away. The background is not ready yet, but I've had them put together a preview of just Miriam. I hope you can understand why we like it so much.

The team hopes to have some more screenshots to show you in our next full update, which we plan to have ready in the next week—along with a special shader-feedback edition of Ask IGA.

UPDATE #35

January Update: IGA's Got A Brand New Background

January 20, 2016

Happy New Year! (I'd have wished you Happy New Year earlier, but I like to keep the teaser updates strictly business.) 2016 is a big year in the Bloodstained development cycle, and I'm looking forward to keeping you updated as each piece falls into place.

The first piece of the year, of course, is the shader we teased earlier this month. All the feedback you gave changed IGA's plans for the shaders—originally he was planning to show four, but your comments helped him narrow it down to two shaders: A refined version of Shader 1, and Shader 3, which you saw applied to Miriam in the teaser.

But they've come up with four variations anyway—a veritable shader Punnett square. What follows are Background 1/Character 1; Background 1/Character 3; Background 3/Character 1; and Background 3/Character 3.

Speaking of backgrounds—they also put together a new background for you. I think you'll like it.

Background 1 / Character 1

Background 1 / Character 3

Background 3 / Character 1

Background 3 / Character 3

Here's IGA's comments:

Greetings!

Last time, we turned to the backers for input on which shaders to use in the game. Based on that, we've gone back and put tons of time into making improvements. In particular, the background we revealed in the previous update was just arranged for our own experimentation; for this update we've put much more detail into it. This may make it easier for you to see which direction we're aiming for.

Of course, as we add more detail to the background the characters become more prone to blending into the background. Some of you have noticed the characters' proportions changing in the art and early screenshots—we're making adjustments as we build the game to maximize the contrast between character and background. We've made more changes for this update, and adjustments will likely continue as we get farther into development.

One you may notice is that Miriam has two long ribbons attached to her shoulders now. When we tested her original graphic, it was hard to pick her out against the background, because there wasn't much on her costume that moved or swayed. (The design of her left shoulder has changed, too, as some of you pointed out; this is the reason why.)

For this third shader, we've increased the contrast of the background and edited the lighting to polish the overall effect. The first shader also looks different against a more detailed background, so I think there's a different effect to that one, too. Which one do you guys like? To be honest, opinions are divided within our team!

We spent an enormous amount of time and effort on this third character shader to create an illustration effect. We tried to get closer to the requests of backers who hoped she would look more like the original design illustrations, and when I first saw this shader, I have to admit I was so impressed I actually gasped.

So we've compiled a few options of these background and character shaders put together and would like to see what you think. And, as I've pointed out in the latest Ask IGA, this will be our final request for art-direction feedback. I'd like to ask for any final thoughts you have now, so we can move forward and start putting things in motion. - IGA

Once I saw these I understood why they hadn't gotten us the new shaders on schedule: They decided to make new screenshots from scratch, instead.

Too-high-res-for-Kickstarter versions of each image are available—just click on the one you want to see. And if you'd like to let the team know which of these configurations is your favorite, click through to our new survey.

This is a packed update, and anyway I don't want to skew the results by telling you which of these screenshots is my favorite—so we'll move on. Next up: Ask IGA!

Is that enough Bloodstained content for you? Too bad, because I've got way more.

XombieMike, your host at the Bloodstained forums, got through two episodes of the Community Broadcast while IGA and Inti had their heads down. His guest for the December 13 edition of the podcast was cecil-kain of Operation Akumajo, a huge Facebook community about all things Castlevania.

For January 14's podcast, he talked to Mana Ikeda, IGA's new community manager, translator, and all-around factotum. Oh, hey—I guess that's another thing I have to tell you guys. Pardon me for a moment while I bug Tony about creating a new banner.

Hello, nice to meet all of you! My name is Mana Ikeda and I will be engaging with everyone as a community manager. It's an incredible honor to communicate with fans and work with such an immensely talented group of people. I'm a newcomer, but I will do my best to contribute to the community.

Mana will be helping us put together these updates, but she's also prowling the forums and passing your feedback along to the development team. Listen to the podcast to hear more about how she ended up at ArtPlay, her career as an illustrator, meeting IGA, playing Castlevania, and moving to Japan. If you hang out in the community, I'm sure you'll see her around—make her feel welcome!

As long as you guys keep making amazing fanart, Steve will keep digging it up. He's very thorough. (If you want to make it really easy for us to find it, tag your art #bloodstained or #igavania on Tumblr!)

Last up on the docket for this month's update: Some cosplay. Some really good cosplay.

Bloodstained, by members of the P! cosplay group.

The cosplayers you see are from P! cosband. Here's their bio:

P! is an award-winning cosband famous in the gaming cosplay world. They focus their work mostly on cosplay skits but group members' achievements stretch as far as running their own cosplay convention and leaders winning the 2014 World Cosplay Contest in Nagoya, Japan. Members of the group decided to make a Bloodstained cosplay project the moment they heard about IGA’s new game.

When we showed them to IGA, here's what he had to say:

I was shocked at how good these look, considering the game isn't even out yet. The cosplay itself is incredible, but the lighting in the pictures make them look like breathtaking illustrations. It's so far ahead of where we're at in development that I can't imagine where you could go from here, but I know there's nothing to worry about—some of the characters in the game haven't been announced yet, so I hope you look forward to them. I truly appreciate all the support from everyone!

UPDATE #36

February Update: Miriam Turnaround and Donut Aftermath

March 1, 2016

You may think it's no longer February—it's 85 degrees at Fangamer headquarters, so we're also skeptical—but it's unwise to rule anything out about February during a leap year.

In any case, this update slipped to March 1 for a reason—last week we met with IGA, Mana, and Ben Judd to discuss the content for the next three updates, and it all sounds exciting. (Ben has seen all three and we haven't, which means that for now I am exactly as impatient for these updates as you are.)

The first of the three updates they told us about comes today: A 360-degree turnaround of the latest Miriam character model. But I can't really show it to you until we go over last month's shader poll results.

The big winner, with more than half the votes—and twice as many as the next-most-popular option—was Background 3/Character 3, which you can get another look at in last month's update.

Here's IGA himself on the feedback:

Like the shader poll results, we've decided on Character Shader 3 / Background Shader 3. Since the new character shader was so well received, we've also made a video of Miriam's 3D model, reflecting some of the most recent changes we've made.

We thought cosplayers would especially like to see the back view of her design. The camera is the only thing that moves in the first half of the video; in the second, we've demonstrated the shader effect by moving the light source, as well. Please enjoy.

- IGA

And here's the video!

Thanks to IGA and the team for putting this together, and thanks to you guys for offering so much useful feedback as the development process continues. It's a pleasure to watch this game take shape with all of you.

If you are not on the official Bloodstained Fan Forums, you're missing lots of things: A chance to talk about the latest Bloodstained news and speculate about the game with other fans, a direct line to ArtPlay via Mana, the community manager, and—as of last month—the rare opportunity to secretly ply IGA and the team at ArtPlay with donuts.

If you missed it back in January, you can read the crowdfunded donuts saga thread on the forums. But Mana sent along a bonus photo for this month's update. (Also this message from IGA: "Make sure you tell everyone that we ate all the donuts. All. Of. Them.")

That's two successful crowdfunding campaigns in a row for IGA! He couldn't have commenced development on his new game, or eaten all those donuts, without you.

As ever, we're always on the look out for great art, music, and more from the Bloodstained community. If you've made something cool, make sure to tag it #Bloodstained or #Igavania so we see it!

This month's last word is especially meaningful to Steve, Fangamer's intrepid Ask IGA editor and reward organizer. Why? Because before every update since the end of the Kickstarter campaign he has reminded me to post the high-res version of Yuji Natsume's art for the Destructoid magazine cover. And every update since the end of the Kickstarter campaign I have forgotten about it.

It ends here, Army of the Night. Today, right here in the Last Word, I am going to post a high-res version of Yuji Natsume's art for the Destructoid magazine cover. And Steve: I'm sorry for everything.

UPDATE #37

March Update: Miriam—and IGA—in Motion

April 1, 2016

Hi everyone! Before we go any further, you have my word: None of the updates I'm about to pass along are a prank. (Posting a March Update on April 1 carries certain risks.)

This month's development update is one we've been looking forward to since Mana and IGA told us they were planning on showing it off: IGA has sent us a video of Miriam moving around on a "grid map," used by the team to playtest the game before the stages are ready. It features, among other things, Miriam's new kick. (I point this out only because I have never heard Ben Judd, IGA's agent and our partner on this project, more excited about anything than he was when he told us about this kick. It was all he could do to explain the rest of the video to us.)

I'll let IGA take it from here:

Hi, everyone! This month we'd like to show you something that few people outside the development team ever get to see: A work-in-progress "grid" map that we're using to test stage size, scrolling mechanics, enemy placement, and more. I've provided some narration to make it easier to see where we're making progress.

We're also revealing the katana animation. To provide our animators a reference for the motion, the team filmed me swinging an umbrella. Days after the video shoot I still had some muscle pain, but let's please keep that between us...

Before I go: A friend of mine has started his own Kickstarter project! His promotional video seems to have been inspired by the video we did for Bloodstained, so it's definitely worth watching—even though it brings back some embarrassing memories of my own filming day... - IGA

Thanks to IGA and the development team for sending the progress report along, and thanks—as always—to all the backers for making this possible.

The Bloodstained fanart momentum continues! As always, if you make something cool, please tag it #bloodstained or #igavania on social media—we're keeping an eye out for it.

In lieu of a traditional last word, this month, I'd like all of you to take an extra-close look at IGA's umbrella/katana work in the beginning of this month's development update. If the spirit moves you, put together some Vines of your own Igavania-inspired umbrella swordwork and I'll include them in a future update. Tag it #igavania.

And even if the spirit doesn't move you—well, just watch IGA again. Such grace.

UPDATE #38

April Update: Meet Some Lesser Demons

April 29, 2016

Could it be? Is a Bloodstained update actually going to come out in the month it's named for, and not the day after? Development continues apace on the game, and for this month's update IGA has passed along an early look at some of the minor enemies you'll face.

Hello everyone! IGA here. I've been moving from one office to the next, which has left me unusually busy with non-game-related work. But I have three minor enemy designs I'm excited to show you.

Seama

The demon parasite of the sea! Water monsters are always essential, but we wanted to do something unusual this time around—that's why our sea monster influence was the humble jellyfish.

It worked out well. But it's so jiggly... it looks kind of delicious.

Dullahammer

A headless knight that attacks by swinging its own head like a flail. I love the idea of really large minor enemies—the sheer size makes you feel like you've met a challenging opponent.

The uni, or sea-urchin-like substance inside Dullahammer's armor is an accent. He looks kind of delicious, too...

Morte

A lesser demon that lacks a corporeal form, this mud-like creature can't hold its shape. If it could talk, it would probably yell something like, "Give me a physical form!" By the way, it doesn't drop any skills. It's a lesser demon, after all...

For this update, we put together a brief video of a Morte attempting to engulf Miriam. Here it is:

Please remember that this is still a work-in-progress—everything you see here is likely to change and improve as time goes on.

@swordorwhip: Two very special guests came to visit our office today - Ayami Kojima & Michiru Yamane! 今日は特別なお客様が遊びに来てくれました✨

@swordorwhip: Since IGA looked good swinging a feather duster...

UPDATE #39

May Update: A Video, A Playable Demo, And A Galleon Named Minerva

June 7, 2016

Development has come very far since the last time you saw the game in motion. How far? Far enough that I'm going to cut directly to IGA so he can show you:

For this month's update, the team has put together a video and some screenshots of an actual stage in Bloodstained. This is the game's first stage, where we find Miriam on a ship, the Galleon Minerva, headed toward the castle. It's a setting filled with anticipation.

And I have some exciting news: We’ll be showcasing a playable demo at E3. In addition to that, we'll be giving the demo to all backers at $60+ tiers.

This E3 preview is a simple playable demo and tutorial of this Minerva stage. The lesser demons we've introduced in the last update (Morte, Seama, and Dullahammer) will appear, and the magi-crystals players will obtain from enemies, also known as "Shards," will also be included.

Oh—I see I've already forgotten to mention something important: Morte isn't a full-fledged demon, and so doesn't have a shard. This is important so I’ll say it again: Morte has no shard.

Demo Information

The preview demo that you'll be getting is the same build IGA and the team will be showing at the Xbox booth at this year's E3. We plan to start distributing it during the show or shortly afterward. Some FAQs (figuratively asked questions):

Who gets the demo? We'll be sending it to everybody who pledged at a $60 tier or higher and filled out their backer survey by June 13.

What platform is it on? Windows only; we'll be distributing it digitally, through Steam, so make sure the e-mail address on your survey is current!

Is this the Beta? Nope! The Beta comes later, and will still only be available to backers who pledged $60 or more and ordered a Steam or DRM-free PC version of the game.

Wait, now I want the demo! How can I— Your survey links are still active! If you upgrade your tier through your survey before June 13, we'll be sure to include you on the list.

I’ve got a $60+ tier, but what if I haven’t filled out my survey yet? Your survey must be filled out by June 13 to receive the demo. Send us a message through Kickstarter or email orders@fangamer.com if you can’t find your survey link! (Remember: We aren't using Kickstarter's built-in survey, so look for an e-mail from Fangamer containing your personal [and reusable] survey link.)

What... what if I haven’t backed the Bloodstained project at all? You can still receive the demo if you back the project through igavania.com/back and pick a $60+ tier by June 13!

We'll release another backer update once the demo is available. But hey, enough of that for the moment—we owe you the aforementioned video and screenshots. (And, if you listen closely, a new track from Yamane-san...)

As always: Tag your fanart so we can look at it! (#Igavania or #Bloodstained.) In addition to looking at it, we'll put some of our favorites in these updates.

IGA and Ben Judd will be on Twitch.tv/twitch Wednesday, June 15 at 3:30 PM PDT! They'll be joined by Igavania expert and launch stream MVP romscout as well as MAN (as in MANvsGAME).

What will they be doing? Probably demonstrating Miriam's kick over and over, if I know Ben.

UPDATE #40

The Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Demo Is Here!

June 22, 2016

Now that IGA and company are back from E3, it's time for the moment you've all been waiting for: We're sending out demo keys! In a minute I'll cut to IGA so that he can say more, but before I do here's what you need to know about the demo:

Do I get it? We're sending the demo to anyone who pledged at a $60 tier or higher on any platform and filled out their Fangamer survey by June 13. (But the demo itself is only playable on Windows.) You'll be receiving your key at the e-mail you used to back the Kickstarter.

Have you sent it yet? We'll begin distributing demo keys shortly after we post this update, and we expect most of them to go out pretty soon after. But if you haven't received your key by June 27, send an e-mail to orders@fangamer.com. (If you're eligible to receive the demo, and you filled out your survey, you'll also find it on the backer management page you can reach from your survey link.)

Is this the beta? No! This is the demo build IGA and the team premiered at the Xbox booth during E3. The beta will be coming later in the process, and will be available to anyone who backed at one of the beta-eligible tiers we described during the campaign.

How can I give feedback? The dev team is always grateful for feedback, but read IGA's message before you submit it, since he offers some information about where the dev team is already planning to make improvements. After that, hop into the demo feedback thread on the Official Bloodstained forums! (We also have a Google Form for certain very important feedback.)

With that out of the way, here's IGA:

Thanks to Microsoft's kindness, we were able to display the E3 demo of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night at the Xbox booth. We had no idea the lines were going to be as long as they were, so we'd like to take this time to apologize for anyone out there who didn't get a chance to play the build on the show floor.

It was a great experience for us—watching such a wide variety of gamers play the build helped us uncover a lot of usability issues in the game. But the smiles on so many faces and the enjoyment everyone seemed to get out of the demo told us a lot of our initial ideas are good, which is exciting.

Now: We are finally able to send the demo to backers who pledged $60 or more. It will remain playable for approximately three months, but if we run into a big problem with the demo or its distribution, we may need to make some further adjustments as things arise.

Here are the system requirements for the demo:

OS: Windows 7 64-bit

CPU: Intel Core i5 @ 3.3 GHz or AMD Phenom II X6

Memory: 8 GB RAM

GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7790 or Nvidia GeForce GTX650TI (DirectX 11 required)

Storage: 5GB available space

If you're using Windows 7, we strongly suggest using Aero mode in order to play in windowed mode. (If you don't use Aero Mode, it will lag and slow the process speed.) The demo only works with XInput-compatible controllers.

The demo stage begins on the stormy night when Miriam makes her way to the castle, battling demons through a listing galleon. Players will experience a simple tutorial on their way to a boss battle.

We've implemented the Kick (Bash) and Sword (Slash) attacks. In addition, players are able to acquire three different types of Shards from lesser demons. (Shards are crystals that are formed by demon power; Miriam uses their power to cast special attacks. Except for Morte. Morte—as I mentioned in the last update—does not have a Shard.)

Trigger Shard: Press Y to cast Trigger Shard.

Directional Shard: Use the right analog stick to adjust the direction and RT to activate.

Effective Shard: Equipping this shard will automatically activate background skills.

If there's a vacant spot in the Shard Equipment, the next one you acquire will be equipped automatically. After acquiring another one, you can switch between them by pressing X in the equipment menu.

More instructions:

Since this is a work-in-progress preview of the game, I want to let you know about some features we're working to improve for the final version.

Include story cutscenes

Change tutorial to cutscene format

Adjust and change enemy/item placements

Map screen (minimap on screen, with an option to show or hide.)

Those are only a few of the things we're working on, but I wanted to mention them.

We've already found a few bugs. (Please keep in mind that the demo is still a work in progress.)

Fatal Error crash

On some PCs, some screen resolutions will show an incorrect aspect ratio.

Sound cutting out suddenly.

The demo is only available for Steam on Windows, though we'll be sending it to $60+ backers on all platforms. Once you receive the key, you'll need to activate it on Steam. (Go to the Games>Activate a Product on Steam menu command.)

Regarding the screen resolution bug: When the screen resolution is set to 1600x900 or 1280x720, the screen will be "squished" vertically, or show up as a small window in the middle of the display. If this bug occurs, select 1920x1080 in full screen mode, and then select the desired screen resolution to fix it. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

And that's all. Enjoy this first demo version, and we look forward to your feedback!

Romscout, who was a big part of IGA's E3 Twitch stream, will be playing and talking about the demo this Saturday, at 6PM PDT on his own Twitch channel. He's one of the best Igavania streamers out there, so in addition to doing some preliminary runs he'll be talking about the key game mechanics and how they compare to previous IGA titles.

Speaking of runs: IGA and Artplay really want to support the speedrunning community, and here's their first challenge to the Army of the Night: Can you beat Romscout's time? Any backer who does it will receive a call-out right here in a future update, and the fastest runner will receive a Bloodstained art book as their prize.

(Post your runs to Twitch VOD or YouTube with "Bloodstained Demo Speedrun" in the title, so we can find them!)

UPDATE #41

E3, Anime Expo, Bitsummit, and One More Chance at the Demo

June 30, 2016

So, play anything fun last month? Everybody on the Bloodstained team has been delighted with the response to the E3 demo so far. (And some of us on the American side have just been delighted with playing the E3 demo so far.)

We've got lots of news to pass along from IGA, so I'll pass the mic to him right away. But in case you're impatient, here's the news about getting the demo: If you have already backed at the $60+ tier but filled out the survey after the June 13 deadline, we'll be sending you a demo key today. (If you don't see it in your inbox, look for the key on your survey page—everyone who is eligible for the key will see it listed there.)

If you want the demo, but you haven't backed or upgraded to a $60+ tier yet, you've got one more chance! We'll be sending another wave of demo keys out to anyone who backs/upgrades and fills out their survey by 12 PM PDT July 8. (If you back, upgrade, or fill out your survey between now and the deadline, we'll send your key after July 8.)

So fill out those surveys! And make sure you keep your survey link handy after you do—you can use that link to edit or upgrade your backer information at any time.

And one more message for the Army of the Night from IGA's aide-de-camp, Ben Judd: Tell your friends about the demo! After the first wave of keys came out, we were surprised to learn that many people—both backers and non-backers—hadn't heard about the demo until it was too late.

In spite of that, a few hundred people backed the project for the first time on the strength of your streams, tweets, and word of mouth. Over the next week, we'd like to make sure everybody who wants to play Bloodstained gets to hear about it while they have the chance. If you or someone you know wants to enlist, visit Igavania.com/back.

A Very Brief Demo FAQ

I'm not sure I got my survey. How can I find it? Search your e-mail for a message from "orders@fangamer.com." It might have gone to spam!

How do I activate my Steam Demo code? In the "Games" dropdown menu, select "Activate a Product on Steam." Click Next and then I Agree, enter your code, and click Next.

I just backed or upgraded after I saw this. When will I get my key? After the July 8 deadline, we'll send out codes for everyone who backed or upgraded (or filled out their survey) after this backer update.

Anyway: Here's IGA!

Is everyone having fun with the E3 demo? We're very thankful to everyone who's given us feedback on the Bloodstained forums. In addition to feedback, there's a Bug/Glitch Report thread open, which has also been very helpful. Although we tested it exhaustively on our end, your reports have helped us find bugs we'd never seen before, and we greatly appreciate it.

Since we've never let people play a game at such an early stage before, we feel lucky to have gotten so much support. (Please don't try to hack into the demo ROM, or upload the entire demo online. [Editor's note: IGA means literally uploading the demo itself—Twitch streaming is encouraged!])

We've heard that some backers at the $60+ tiers were unable to receive a demo key due to incomplete surveys. Because of that, and because the demo was released on such short notice, we've decided to give backers another week to get the demo!

Don't forget to fill out the survey this time! Today's slogan is... Let's survey!

Now for the main topic. You may already know, but we've been to E3! When I boarded our redeye flight it was with two other members of ArtPlay: Mana and Curry. (Curry? Who's that, you say? Some of you may already know him from my past games.) This was actually my first redeye flight, but it was very comfortable. We departed at midnight on June 13 and arrived at LAX on 6 PM the evening of June 12! It was strange to go back a whole day...

Behold!

Well, we definitely look tired...

Well, we definitely look tired...

Day 1 was earmarked for setting up the demo at the Microsoft booth, but we were... well, significantly late. We'd already missed the set-up hours. Lucky for us, Ben had already arrived, and before we knew it he'd gotten everything set up. Thanks Ben!

So we ended up heading to our hotel in North Hollywood without getting a single thing done.

Day 2

I couldn't fix the jet lag.

After going to Microsoft's conference, we went to the convention center to set up the demo. We actually brought two gaming laptops with us from Japan, just in case anything happened! Thankfully, though, the demo ran smoothly.

And then we were all set! All I could think about was wondering whether there were going to be a lot of people there for the first day of E3.

Day 3

My first day of E3 was spent in meeting after meeting, so I wasn't able to spend much time at the station. I was worried at first, but look at how well things went!

Now that's a relief.

Inti Creates worked hard until the very end to put this together, so it was so good to see how much everyone enjoyed it! We're glad we could showcase it.

That fateful night, something happened: The most liked picture on the Bloodstained Twitter!

IGA never had mac n cheese. Apparently it's way different from what he imagined.

I admit that I didn't quite know what macaroni and cheese was when I ordered it—I imagined what it could be based on the description of the ingredients, but I was shocked by how delicious the real thing was! it was delicious!

Day 4

I had lots of meetings on Day 2 of E3 as well, but I was able to spend all my free time at the Bloodstained station. We had an even longer line than on the first day! Watching everyone play helped me understand that the tutorial didn't explain enough about the game.

Thank you for coming everyone! And thank you again for patiently waiting!

This was also the day of the Twitch show. When I heard about romscout's times, I was appalled by how fast he was! I need to be more devoted.

Day 5

Day 3 of E3, Day 5 of our trip. And we're on our flight back...?

!!

To everyone on the team: We're very sorry! I foolishly booked a flight a day early! And of course we also left one of the heavy gaming laptops behind—thankfully, the all-seeing Ben saved us again. Since we kept our E3 participation so quiet, we definitely didn't expect to receive a runner-up award from GamesRadar for best indie game of E3. Thank you very much! That wraps up ArtPlay's E3 craziness.

But we have more coming! I will be at Anime Expo in Los Angeles and BitSummit in Tokyo this summer! I hope to see you there!

Going to be in LA for Anime Expo or Tokyo for Bitsummit? Come see IGA on what is rapidly turning into a summer tour, without the commemorative t-shirts:

Anime Expo: IGA has three autograph sessions at Kentia Hall: July 1 at 2 PM, July 2 at 3 PM, and July 3 at 2:30 PM. He's also got a panel discussion planned for July 3 at 12:15 PM.

Bitsummit: IGA will be speaking in the 10:20-10:50 AM slot and doing a live playthrough on July 10.

UPDATE #42

July Update: Weapons and animations!

August 8, 2016

We're back! This month IGA has some animations to show you—and with them, a look into the kinds of weapons and attacks you'll encounter in Bloodstained. Without further ado, here's IGA:

Weapon Animations

Right now we're planning to add a number of basic weapon animations, which will vary depending on the weapon you have equipped.

We've put together a video displaying each of the basic animations, but here's more information about each one:

The kick motion will be be triggered any time you've equipped shoes, although Miriam will be able to kick by default. Kicking attacks trade attack speed for diminished range.

Swords and maces are wielded with the single-handed horizontal slash motion, which is the baseline attack motion as far as speed, range, and power are concerned. Attacking with a mace also causes thrust-type damage.

Short swords and rapiers both utilize a single-handed pierce style, but each type has different range and speed. (Short swords have less range than rapiers, but players can wield them in a continuous attack with the help of some judicious button-mashing.)

Katanas alone receive the single-handed vertical slash motion. This is the animation we based on that umbrella-swinging video!

To wield larger weapons like great swords, axes, and rods, your character will use the two-handed vertical slash motion. Use it correctly and you can deal huge damage to your opponent. Axes are even slower than great swords but deal more damage, while rods are somewhat faster.

Spears receive their own two-handed pierce motion. Their long range can make the difference when engaging an enemy, but their length and slow attack speed could leave you defenseless if you miss.

And of course whips have their own motion. But... it's different! I won't say what it's different from, but it's not from THAT series. Like you might expect, it takes a while to swing a whip, but your reward is increased range.

Finally, guns use the shooting motion, giving you a projectile attack. But you'll use up a bullet each time you fire.

Backers at our RUNIC FORGING tier will choose from one of these 12 weapon types to design their own unique weapon. If you're a backer at that tier, please design your weapon based on the weapon type and its motion.

We traveled a lot in July, visiting shows like Anime Expo and BitSummit4th. I probably met some of you while we were out!

That's all we have for this update, but the summer isn't over. Remember to drink a lot of water and stay healthy! - IGA

The fanart continues! It's incredible that, more than a year after the launch of the Kickstarter, we still see such good work coming from the fanbase. If this is what you guys do during development, I can't wait to see what comes out after release.

If you'd like to see your work in a future update, make sure to post it to Twitter or Tumblr and tag it #IGAVANIA. Thanks!

IGA and Ben at BitSummit

UPDATE #43

Development Update: New release timeline

September 8, 2016

We've got an important development update from IGA this week, and we wanted to make sure the backers were the first to hear it. In short: To ensure the game meets his quality standards, IGA is bringing on additional developers and has moved his estimate for the game's release back to the first half of 2018. Here's more information, directly from IGA:

The last thing I want to do is keep our backers waiting, but after receiving such incredible support, I feel responsible for delivering the best product I possibly can. Again, I offer my sincerest apologies.

All of us on the campaign and development sides of the team are looking forward to playing the finished game as soon as we can, but as IGA says, we also want this game to be "done right the first time."

We'll continue to keep you updated on the development process every step of the way. (In fact, the next regularly scheduled update, featuring some songs and commentary from Michiru Yamane, is just about ready to go. And as IGA mentioned, you can expect more news about the development process as soon as it's available.)

Thanks again for all you've done to make such an exciting project possible.

UPDATE #44

September Update: Music with Michiru-san

September 24, 2016

We've got a nice change of pace for this month's update: I get to throw it to IGA, and then IGA gets to throw it to somebody else. This week Michiru Yamane is here to show off some new music and tell us a little about the process behind each new track.

But first, IGA:

For today's update, we are sharing four songs from the game, composed by none other than Michiru Yamane. These tracks include the Kickstarter campaign soundtrack, the music from the E3 demo, and two new songs. None of them is much longer than a minute-and-a-half, but each one will immediately make you think: "Ah... this is definitely Michiru-san's work."

Please note that we have a tentative plan for when each track will be played, but they may shift around after the stage tracks are all completed.

THEME OF BLOODSTAINED

I composed this track last May to provide a soundtrack for the Kickstarter campaign. The promotional video of Igarashi-san saying, "But I know they are wrong!" and throwing the wine glass left a strong impression on me.

VOYAGE OF PROMISEThis is the music for the stage aboard the Galleon. For this track I wanted to evoke the feeling of an adventure's beginning.

HOLY WISDOM

The reference material I received showed a very beautiful place, and this melody came to me immediately. The heavenly pipe organ and soprano vocal make this one of my favorite tracks.

LUXURIOUS OVERTURE

The Entrance was a very beautiful place as well, but I was inspired by the fountain, the chandelier, and all the sparkly decoration to compose a track that sympathizes with Miriam's sad and cruel fate.

Thanks to Yamane-san for sharing some of her work with us! We're looking forward to hearing more.

Earlier this month, Michiru Yamane performed these Bloodstained songs live at Pixelatl Festival in Mexico

Earlier this month, Michiru Yamane performed these Bloodstained songs live at Pixelatl Festival in Mexico

The fanart spotlight rolls on! If you'd like to see your art in a future update, tag it #IGAVANIA or #BLOODSTAINED on your social media platform of choice.

1. I realized as I was putting this update together that we've managed, by being a few days late at a time, to skip an update entirely—looking back at our archives I realized this was originally the August update. My apologies; we'll find a way to make it up later on.

2. IGA was also at Pixelatl, but he might have been harder to spot. Mana passes along this photo of his disguise.

UPDATE #45

October Update: IGA finds a publisher

October 5, 2016

We've got news! And we wanted to get this to you as soon as possible, so we're breaking into our usual update schedule to report that:

A publisher has signed onto the Bloodstained project: We'll be working with 505 Games. They put together a video with IGA to make the announcement (and also show off some new footage of the game). Take a look:

As you can see, one of the first things a publisher can help out with is action-packed video production.

Like IGA said from the beginning, none of this would be possible without the campaign all of you helped to build. We're excited to bring it to a wider audience, too, but everybody on the team is here to help IGA build the game you (and he) wanted from the start.

Even a breaking-news update can't catch us short of fanart. If you'd like us to see yours, tag it #IGAVANIA and #bloodstained when you post it to Twitter or Tumblr.

UPDATE #46

November Update: Get To Know The Developers

November 23, 2016

We've got some more news from IGA to report! This time he's here to tell you a bit about the new developers on the project, before they introduce themselves in their own words.

Hello everyone! This is IGA.

For this month's update, I'd like to introduce you to our new development team.

First up is DICO, a studio with a long history of localization and global development work. Many of the people here are fans of my work, and they're looking forward to working on the project.

We've gathered a lot of reliable core team members for the project—in fact, one of them is a talented programmer I've worked with in the past. I have high expectations for this team—since they know my previous work inside and out, it will be easy to convey exactly what I envision for the game. DICO will be on the frontline for this stage of the main development.

Next up is Monobit, a group of exceptional programmers who have experience working on game engines. They'll be providing support on all technical aspects of the project. Already they've proven capable of evaluating the challenges of this project from their own point of view and providing solutions that were easy to understand and implement. We're especially impressed by their facility in creating new tools.

Since we're reorganizing the development structure, our development updates may be a little bit less frequent for the moment. But with the help of these two development studios, I believe we'll be able to deliver the quality output that the team and the backers are both anticipating.

And here's a video DICO and Monobit passed along for you. (That's IGA holding the camera.)

Every time I put together an update I think, "Will this be the month that Steve doesn't immediately find three really cool pieces of fanart to use in the fanart spotlight?" So far, that has never once been the case.

If you'd like to keep the fanart streak alive, be sure to tag your art #bloodstained or #igavania so we can see it!

UPDATE #47

Development Update - How Bloodstained Uses Procedural Generation

December 13, 2016

After reading some of the responses to last month's development update, IGA thought it might help address some of the concerns you expressed if he explained the ways in which he plans to use procedural generation to create a bigger, more interesting game.

Then he caught a bad cold and lost his voice. But—not to be dissuaded—he sent us a long text update on the process to go with this video footage of the game running with and without procedurally generated environmental features. So here's IGA:

Hello everyone! This is IGA.

It's chilly here in Japan and I've caught the cold. My throat is sore and I've lost my voice.

But I'd like to give you an update regarding the environment of Bloodstained. First, we are going to change the way the environment is visually represented. Watching people play the E3 demo, I could see that players often didn't know where a platform was, or whether the thing they were looking at was a wall or something they could pass through.

We've improved visibility by making the "front" side of platforms brighter, and more distant parts of the environments darker.

This is actually not the first time I've talked about the change in visual representation. During the time we've announced the delay, I talked about how we needed to change our environment-building method in order to work more efficiently. (You can find more about this in the IGN interview.)

After that article mentioned procedural generation, lots of backers in the forum expressed their concerns. To address those concerns, I'd like to explain our reasons for changing the development process and explain the way procedural generation will be used in the final product.

Before, we worked on environments on a texture-by-texture basis, which meant that each area required the individual time and attention of skilled artists and designers. To use our team more wisely, our new process is based more on physics, and makes use of procedural generation.

Naturally, you might be asking, what kind of procedural generation? How will it be used, and for what? To put it simply, we're using it to auto-generate environmental grime and destruction effects.

We put together some comparison screenshots and video for this update to demonstrate the effect. On each image, the top is before procedural generation, and the bottom is after. Until now, roughness and shadows were drawn on the texture map to add surface texture (shadows, dirt marks, etc. on the albedo map).

As a result of that process, the same pattern appears to loop in various places. Trying to increase the variation on a hand-drawn process like that would require a disproportionately large amount of resources.

The "after" image is using our procedural generation process. In this case, we're merging procedurally generated dirt marks and surface textures. As a result, we can produce an asymmetrical visual output easily and efficiently.

By automatically generating destruction, we can even create variation among the same assets. (Take a look at the red circle in the comparison image.) The green circle shows the procedurally generated dirt marks that help us avoid a continuous, looping look.

Since we're releasing this game on high-spec machines, I felt it was necessary for the graphics to offer a high level of detail.

Next month, or I should say, near Christmas, I hope to show you a new environment made using this process...

Hopefully that sheds a little light on the Bloodstained development process! We're looking forward to showing you the environment IGA hinted at in the close of this message.

And we'll cap this update off with another round of fanart and cosplay. (It's cool to see one from this set utilizing the demo!) If you'd like to show up in a future fanart spotlight, tag your work with #IGAVANIA on your social media platform of choice.

UPDATE #48

Development Update - The Village By The Castle

January 5, 2017

Happy holidays! How did you spend yours? At Fangamer we're ringing in 2017 by recovering from an office-wide chest cold. (Smart money is placing the blame on shipping packages six days a week during the Christmas rush, but since IGA got sick last update and we got sick this update, I'm going to be mighty suspicious if Mana or Ben Judd comes down with something later this month.)

As IGA mentioned in the last update, we have some video of a new environment to show off—so let's get right to it!

Merry Christmas! This is IGA.

Last update we shared how we build the environment, so for this update, we would like to introduce you to a new stage based on that method. Previously, we shared the ship and the castle entrance. I would like to introduce you to the village this time.

As we mentioned at the beginning of our Kickstarter campaign, Bloodstained takes place in a castle! So now you're probably thinking, "What's this, a village?"

I thought so, too, but yes: We have a village. In the narrative, we're still headed to the island where the castle emerged. There's a village nearby that we'll have to pass through on our way to the castle entrance.

As you can tell from the video, the village is red, which has nothing to do with Christmas! During the eruption of the Laki volcanic fissure in 1783 and 1784, "the afternoon sky was dark as night and red as blood," according to a contemporary saying from Hampshire, England. So we tried to express that in the afternoon scene you see here.

Building your visuals from a piece of historical data makes the world more realistic. (The internet is so useful!) The village is also under the demons' attack, so of course there will be enemies here. We are also planning to put a shop here to support the player, and you'll find Johannes, who we introduced previously, here too.

In addition to Johannes...Oh, we can't quite tell you yet, but you'll hear more about them in our later updates. Please look forward to it.

Finally, I would like to answer a few more of your questions for next month's update. After that, we've invited Michiru-san to answer questions for a future update.

Ask IGA

For next month's Ask IGA, he'll will be answering his favorite questions from multiple categories:

Gameplay

Storyline

Development

IGA / Wild Card

If you'd like to ask one, tweet @swordorwhip using the #AskIGA hashtag.

Even with the shortened update cycle Steve was able to find three more fanart pieces. Since IGA just showed off a new environment, I want to offer a prompt to any fanartists out there who'd like to appear in next update's spotlight: Let's see your best art involving the village environment and/or Johannes!

As always, tag your art #IGAVANIA so we can find it, and thanks again for keeping the Bloodstained fandom moving.

UPDATE #49

New Enemies and IGA Asks Michiru-san

February 10, 2017

Welcome to 2017! Now that 1/12th of the year is over it's probably too late for me to wish you happy new year, so let me be the first to wish you a very good 2018.

For this month we've got some new enemies as well as an interview IGA conducted with Michiru Yamane. (The Ask IGA is still coming—we've put the questions together, and hope to have it edited and translated for next month's update.)

Hello everyone, this is IGA.

It's finally 2017. I hope everyone has a good year—as for us, this will be a year filled with hard work on the Bloodstained project. (Oh, and not just the development—we'll have to move forward on the rewards and other ancillary parts of the project, as well.)

For this month's update, we have two new enemies to show you, as well as an interview I did with Michiru-san.

Our first new enemy is Aello. This flying harpy keeps its distance from the player. Our original plan was to put her in the ship stage, where she would use physical and wind attacks.

This second enemy is Gieremund, a fast-moving, beast-type demon that attacks on all fours. Guarding against this enemy's attacks will require quick reflexes.

We have the concept art, screenshot, and a video to showcase each enemy. This is how we will be creating future enemies. Please look forward to it! I also did a one-on-one interview with the game's composer, Michiru Yamane. It's a very deep look at her personal life and process (not really).

Oh, and before I forget! Michiru-san has a solo performance in Japan on February 11. Unfortunately, the tickets were already sold out by the time we did the interview... however, she hopes to perform worldwide, so stay alert for your next opportunity!

That's it for this month's update. Stay tuned for next month!

More fanart, fresh from your social media accounts! Remember, if you'd like to see your art in a future backer update, tag it #igavania on your social medium of choice!

UPDATE #50

Development Update - Bloodstained for Nintendo Switch

March 21, 2017

We interrupt your regularly scheduled update for some unscheduled breaking news: Bloodstained is coming to the Nintendo Switch.

The team was hoping to announce the release to backers once the Switch version was further underway, but because word got out early IGA wanted to talk about it here first. Here’s IGA:

こんにちはIGAです。

いつも支援をいただきありがとうございます。

Wii U版のBloodstainedを希望されている方に、ご連絡申し上げます。

Kickstarter当初はWii Uが全盛でしたが、Nintendo Switchが発売されたことにより、当時と状況が大きく変わってまいりました。

制作をするにあたりハードメーカーからのサポートもなかなか難しくなることもあり、Wii Uでの開発を断念し、Nintendo Switchの開発に変更することといたしました。

支援していただいて大変申し訳ないのですが、ご了承いただきたく存じます。

また、ここからなのですが、別の機種を選択する、払い戻しをする、等のオプションを用意して対応したいと思います。

今後とも支援のほど、よろしくお願いいたします

Hello, this is IGA.

Thank you for always supporting us. I would like to give a message to the backers who pledged for the Wii U version of Bloodstained.

During our Kickstarter campaign, the Wii U was at the height of its popularity, but the situation has drastically changed after the release of Nintendo Switch.

This change made it difficult to receive the necessary support from the hardware maker, which has led us to drop the Wii U development and shift the development to Nintendo Switch.

We are very sorry that it has come to this after all your support, but we hope you will understand. We would like to respond by preparing options for our backers, such as moving your pledge to another version or requesting a refund if you don’t want any other version.

We hope you will continue to support us.

How this will work for Kickstarter and slacker backers: The Switch version is now available as an option in the backer survey for anyone who has a physical or digital version of Bloodstained coming, replacing the Wii U version. (Just use the same link you were sent to fill out your survey initially; if you have any problems with your survey, or don’t have your link any more, we can help: e-mail orders@fangamer.com.)

If you selected the Wii U version in your backer survey and you want the Switch version, you’re all set! The Switch version has replaced the Wii U version in the survey, so no further action is necessary on your part.

If you selected the Wii U version and you want to move to a PC, PS4, Xbox One, or Vita version, you can go to your backer survey and make the change now. (Click the "Change Your Survey Answers" link.)

If you selected the Wii U version and don't want any of the Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One, or Vita versions, you're eligible for a cancellation and refund if you meet all the following criteria:

You filled out your backer survey and selected the Wii U version prior to this update.

You backed at an unlimited tier ($28 to $500)

You are able to receive a refund via PayPal

You submit your refund request before the April 20, 2017 deadline.

If you're eligible for a refund and backed at a tier that included two copies of the game, including the Wii U version, we can also help you adjust your tier to its single-copy equivalent. Refund requests will be processed via PayPal at a later date.

All requests should be e-mailed to orders@fangamer.com with the subject “Bloodstained Wii U refund.” (Please include the e-mail address associated with your PayPal account.)

Your regularly scheduled update is coming very soon! IGA has prepared introductions for three of the characters Miriam will meet as Bloodstained gets underway…

Not a backer yet?

You can back for the Switch version here.

Last Edit: Dec 16, 2019 21:00:50 GMT -6 by XombieMike

XombieMike
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Kickstarter Update Mega Thread Dec 16, 2019 21:03:19 GMT -6

Post by XombieMike on Dec 16, 2019 21:03:19 GMT -6

UPDATE #51

Development Update - Ask IGA, Three New Characters

March 28, 2017

Lots to show off today, so let's get right to it! IGA sent us character bios and concept art for three new characters who will appear during Miriam's adventure.

(But first—in case some of you would rather be surprised by the characters—here's that new Ask IGA you helped us put together in a previous update.)

Now for your development update:

Hi everyone, this is IGA.

We will be introducing new characters for this month's update - a woman who supports Miriam, a man related to the incident from 10 years ago, and a young villager. Maybe I can finally write up our story? That's about as much as we've gathered so far.

Rather than talking about it, right now I'm actively building the story. I wonder if I'll make it to the voice recording on time... Stay tuned!

But before that, I need to decide on voice actors!

By the way, we're currently working on parts of the game that were available as backer rewards, such as enemy and weapon designs. Some of the backers who backed at the pet and weapon design tiers have never responded to our e-mails, but it's possible those e-mails never got through. If you backed at one of those tiers but never received an e-mail, or never responded to our e-mail, please contact us as soon as possible. You can reach us at bloodstainedritualofthenight@gmail.com. Thank you.

Next month, I hope to be able to show off an updated stage...

Dominique Baldwin (ドミニク・ボールドウィン）

Age: 25

An exorcist dispatched by the church, she supports Miriam as the shopkeeper. She speaks in a posh way, but she treats everyone kindly. While the church believes Miriam and Gebel to be demons, Dominique trusts them as human beings. In order to foil Gebel's ambitions, she asks her old friend Johannes to summon Miriam.

Alfred (アルフレッド）

Age: 57

Alfred is one of the alchemists responsible for the demon-summoning uproar ten years ago. He was Johannes's mentor, and a father figure to both Johannes and Miriam, but he's lost his former self as he heads to the castle seeking the Book of Logaeth in Gebel's possession. Quite and intelligent, Alfred's alchemic ability was unmatched even among his fellow alchemists.

Anne Knolles (アン・ノールズ）

Age: 12

A village girl whose parents were murdered. Anne was saved by Dominique and Miriam when demons attacked her village. When Dominique is out of town, Anne looks after the shop. She is a bright and cheerful girl.

Speedrun Challenge Results

Many thanks to XombieMike (of the Bloodstained Forums), who put together the demo speedrun challenge results for us! (While we're at it, thanks again to romscout, who set the pace.) Congratulations to AANXAAN, who will receive the Bloodstained art book with a final time of 2:36.

Here are the top runs we received:

AANXAAN (2:36)

jumpman (2:38)

SethCharleon (2:41)

kipz (2:42)

mecharichter (2:43)

romscout (2:45)

After the final game comes out and all of you have some time to dissect it, I'm sure this will seem impossibly slow. But for now: Great work!

Speaking of great demo work, we noticed this on the forums and have been meaning to point out: LeoLeWolferoux somehow got all the way to Level 99 in the demo! Here's a really interesting topic on the subject.

The update scrolls on with our monthly fanart spotlight! If you'd like to be a part of a future update, tag your art with #IGAVANIA.

UPDATE #52

Development Update - DICO, Zangetsu, and a look around the office

June 8, 2017

Thank you for waiting patiently! (Or impatiently but politely, if that's more your style.) We've got a lot to show you in today's update, and with E3 coming up we should have more where this came from.

But first: Here's this week's comment from IGA, along with the latest development update video.

Hello everyone! This is IGA. For this update, we interviewed DICO's technical director at their workplace. (He’s too shy to show his face, so we cropped it out, but there are a few moments where you might catch him sneaking into the frame anyway...)

The interview might not be perfect, since I was the one asking the questions, but I hope you're still able to get a peek into the development process.

We also took some footage of the staff hard at work, so you can see exactly where it is that Bloodstained is being made. We're all working very hard every day, and we look forward to your continued support.

A 5th of BitSummit

IGA and crew were in Kyoto the third week of May for this year's BitSummit, an indie gaming convention that brings indie developers the world over together with Japanese fans and devs.

While he was there, IGA showed off the 3D turnaround of Zangetsu that we included in this month's development update video. (He also wielded a very sharp sword.)

Still More Development News

IGA's been doing the press rounds. In case you missed them, here are two recent interviews in which he says a little about the game's story, the new development process, and more:

"Bloodstained is a gothic horror game, but there is a reason to have a samurai in this setting! There are three main characters already, including Miriam and Johannes, but there aren't enough to tell the whole story. The alchemist Alfred is the one who summoned a demon into the world, but we also needed someone who had a grudge against the demon." - USGamer: Bloodstained Goes Medieval on Players... Medieval Japan, That Is. (A few people had questions about the "20-30%" language in this one—Mana did a good job of explaining the process over in the forums.)

"If you think about working at a larger company, then you kind of have the resources in-house to do what you want to do, but if you’re a smaller company then you have to collaborate – you don’t have all the strengths yourself, so you have to work with other companies that complement your strengths. So that’s probably a difference in feeling to the way work was before – the resources are a collaboration between companies." - IGN: What's the Latest on Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night?

Ask Curry the Kid

We have no plans to stop Asking IGA, but a few of you have suggested it might be cool to hear from some of the other members of the Bloodstained team.

We're going to start with an Ask Curry! You may remember Curry the Kid, alias Shutaro Iida, from an earlier update—he's a longtime Igavania planner who's worked on both the design and development sides of previous IGA titles.

If you'd like to ask Curry the Kid a question, tweet it with the hashtag #AskCurry! We'll pick several for him to answer in a future update.

Every time IGA reveals a little more about the game, its characters, and its setting, I get excited about the additional material all the fanartists will have as a result.

If you find yourself inspired by any of these development updates, tag your fanart with #IGAVANIA and #bloodstained on social media and my intrepid coworker Steve will do his best to find it for a future update.

UPDATE #53

Special Update - Bloodstained E3 Trailer Released!

June 9, 2017

Two updates in as many days? What can I say except that it's E3 season! Along with the trailer ArtPlay and 505 Games will be showing at E3, we got a brief comment from IGA especially for backers.

First, here's the trailer:

Hello again! This is IGA.

We will be bringing a new playable demo to this year's E3. What you see here is part of the church stage, where you will be able to play the bell tower area of the map—it's a very nostalgic theme. The boss that awaits the player is a vampiric mistress, Bloodless, whose appearance might be altered in the future.

After the long lines we experienced at last year's E3, we made the play-time shorter and the difficulty level higher this time around. This is our first chance to implement many of the improvements we made to the gameplay based on what confused those original players. We also prepared Familiar shards in this demo.

In the trailer, we've added areas from the stages we've shown previously to demonstrate new visual changes to improve the gameplay experience. We will be picking up our development pace from here, but this is what our current development looks like.

Thank you for your continued support!

UPDATE #54

Tonight at 5 PM Pacific: Your Questions Answered by 505 Games

August 17, 2017

The next backer update is on the way—I just heard from Mana that some update material from ArtPlay is nearly ready.

But if you're looking for some Bloodstained updates and discussion in the meantime, I've got good news: Tonight at 5 PM Pacific, XombieMike of the Bloodstained Forums will be asking forum members' questions to Bloodstained's 505 Games "brand owner"—alias Angel-Corlux on the forums—and streaming the interview on Twitch and Discord.

If you can't make it, don't worry; we'll be posting the stream archive to the YouTube channel a little later.

Enjoy! And you'll hear from us on Kickstarter again soon.

UPDATE #55

Development Update - Get to Know the Japanese Voice Actors

September 14, 2017

It's been a while, hasn't it? With IGA and company deeper into the development process than ever there had been less time to devote to carving out new pieces of the game for backer updates, but the drought is over—there's still tons of Bloodstained to discover before it comes out. (And then even more to not discover until after it comes out, and you lock yourself in a spoiler-free room for a couple of days to finish it.)

For that matter, your between-updates options have never been better: If you haven't been visiting the Bloodstained Forums and the Bloodstained Discord, you're missing direct access to 505 Games' own Angel-Corlux. (A couple of us from the Kickstarter team at Fangamer finally got to meet him [and Mana] at PAX West this year, and I can confirm that he is somehow even more enthusiastic about Bloodstained in person.)

Now, with the preface out of the way, here's the latest from IGA: It's time to talk about voice acting!

Hello everyone, this is IGA. Our development progress has entered its peak. In the midst of it all, we've finished recording the Japanese voices for the characters. We'd like to introduce you to the actors:

Macross Δ - Mikumo Guynemer

Sailor Moon Crystal - Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter

Alice & Zouroku - Shizuku Ichijo

Kill la Kill - Ryuko Matoi

Glitter Force Doki Doki - Juujou

Izetta: The Last Witch - Lawrence

Majin Bone - Leo Bone

Lego Marvel Super Heroes (Japanese dub) - Deadpool, Cyclops, etc.

ID-0 - Ido

Arpeggio of Blue Steel - Gunzo Chihaya

JoJo's Bizzare Adventure - Jonathan Joestar

Your Lie in April - Saito

Touken Ranbu - Hachisuka Kotetsu

Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Mami Tomoe

Monogatari series - Ougi Oshino

ViVid Strike! - Vivio Takamachi

Hell Teacher Nube - Meisaku Nueno

Slam Dunk - Hisashi Mitsui

The Prince of Tennis - Kunimitsu Tezuka

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Japanese dub) - Darth Vadar

The Fast and the Furious series (Japanese dub) - Dominic Toretto

Drifters - Black King

ClassicaLoid - Bach

Tiger & Bunny - Antonio Lopez/Rock Bison

The Prince of Tennis - Genichiro Sanada

Empire (Japanese dub) - Lucious Lyon

Bleach - Yasutora Sado

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE - Derek Jackrow

Fairy Tail - Elfman Strauss

Black Butler - Agni

Hozuki's Coolheadedness - Hozuki

Yowamushi Pedal - Shingo Kinjou

Street Fighter V - Guile

Dragon Quest Heroes II - Hassan

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei - Ai Kaga

Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live - Otoha Takanashi

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma - Nao Sadatsuka

Record of Grancrest War - Siluca Meletes

Time Bokan 24 - Calen

Blend S - Kaho Hinata

Were you able to predict any of the voice actors? One of them is for a character you haven't quite met yet... we'll be telling you more about him soon, so stay tuned. - IGA

If you were hoping there just happened to be a new character named Mysterious Man, and IGA had settled on this very oblique way of introducing him—well, me, too. But we'll have to settle for having a new character with an actual identity and design instead!

One more housekeeping note to mention before I turn today's update over to the fan artists and fan musicians—we're going to be updating the Kickstarter page a little to reflect DICO's new role on the project. Mana explained it on the forums a few months ago, but we didn't want anyone to think we were editing the page in secret.

Is it... is it too much to ask of you guys to make some Mysterious Man fanart? Just a thought. If you're making fanart of any Bloodstained characters, even the ones who exist, tag it #IGAVANIA or #bloodstained and we'll do our best to find it for a future update. Like this!

This month's Last Word goes to the aforementioned Angel-Corlux, who's hoping to call out, in his words, "the two community members who contributed to making my awesome forum avatar... Kenshiro549 made the image for my forum avatar, and mad_le_zisell modeled it."

I can confirm that it is an awesome forum avatar. But why don't you see for yourself?

UPDATE #56

Development Update - New Music, New Video, And Coming Attractions

October 31, 2017

After a month packed with conventions, travel, and—of course—development, we managed to get ArtPlay and 505 to stand still long enough to provide your October Bloodstained update and progress report. (On the perfect day, no less! The Halloween ambience will really help this new content pop.) Let's go right to IGA:

Just like I have a talented team helping me create Bloodstained, there's a talented team helping Michiru Yamane to complete the soundtrack. We asked the veteran game music team at Noisycroak to help us compose several tracks. I've worked with them in the past, and they've always done a fantastic job of delivering the tracks I have in mind.

For that reason, I'm proud to share some of what they've worked on.

The Executioners

This is the track that played during the Bloodless battle in the 2017 E3 demo.

Theme of Johannes

Though there's a dark, alchemic feeling to this song, it carries a hint of playfulness that portrays Johannes very well.

Gears of Fortune

The place you'll hear this song in Bloodstained hasn't yet been announced, but we really liked it, so we wanted to share it now.

IGA also passed along this video update:

Courtyards are just as important to an IGAvania as castles, right? Maybe not? Well, this time the courtyard is a very important part of the game, and that's why we're sharing a look at this area.

Zangetsu is a samurai character we've previously announced. He resents anyone and anything tainted by demonic power. As a result, he's hostile toward Miriam, whose existence is directly connected to the demon ritual. This is also a new stage we're introducing for the first time. - IGA

Lastly, we've seen the comments, forum posts, Discord messages, skywriting, and smoke signals: We know how eagerly you've been awaiting another demo. (Not everybody, after all, can make it out to one of IGA's convention appearances, even though the lines can sometimes make it seem that way.)

The team hears you loud and clear. So they asked me to pass along that... they don't have anything to announce.

Yet.

There are lots of big surprises coming soon, and we can't wait to... well, surprise you with them. Stay tuned.

Event Watch

The team's globetrotting continued in late September, when they were in Japan for Tokyo Game Show. (IGA and Bloodstained made the opening of the Associated Press's article covering the event—"Our old fans used to play Japanese games," he told the AP. "Those people are excited those games are coming back and they recognize them as Japanese-style games." Agreed!)

A couple of weeks later the team made its way to New York Comic Con for another successful con. (Angel-Corlux reveals in his post-con report that almost 10,000 people played the demo that weekend!) It was also, as Mana revealed in her own trip report, IGA's first time on the East Coast!

Click the image for more NYCC photos

In addition to the demo station, fans at NYCC could pick up a free signed print from none other than ArtPlay communications manager and jack-of-all-trades Mana Ikeda! Feast your eyes on this:

If you've followed the team for a while, you'll know that they're never done traveling. This past weekend IGA was a featured speaker at Shanghai's WePlay Game Expo, where he demonstrated the game, signed more prints, and—I haven't confirmed this, but I feel pretty sure of it at this point—wore a very cool hat.

For our latest spotlight, Steve dug up our most diverse set of fan art in months!

If the steady feed of new Bloodstained info is inspiring you to draw some of the new characters—or Miriam, we're not picky—tag your work #Bloodstained or #igavania and we'll track it down to feature in a future update.

Something we forgot to mention in our Japanese voice acting update from last month: Saori Goto will be providing a voice for Gremory, as you saw in the graphic. But she'll always be voicing a character you've already met: Bloodless.

UPDATE #57

Development Update - In-Game Fashion

November 30, 2017

Greetings, Army of the Night! Before we get started with this November development update, everybody on the Bloodstained team would like to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to our American backers. (Not to mention a Black Friday that was no more hectic than you wanted it to be.)

As you might have guessed, we're thankful for all the support you've shown us during the development process. We're also thankful for more new video content from ArtPlay! Here's IGA to introduce it:

Hello everyone, this is IGA. For this update I'd like to share what we've been referring to as the "Miriam Fashion Show." In Bloodstained, weapons, accessories, and scarves all change the player character's appearance. Today we'd like to show you a few of those items.

All the weapons you see here are new additions. There's a fire sword, a two-handed axe, and a few other kinds of weapons. There's even a maid headband that's similar to the kind you might see in Akihabara.

We haven't shown this before today—we can actually change hairstyles and scarves, too. Miriam looks so different when her hairstyle changes. This new one looks very fierce!

In addition, we included a look at three Bunny items—a headband, a scarf, and some boots. I think it's a very stylish look, personally...

This system is another way to personalize the game, and I hope you have fun with it.

We also have a new enemy to share: the Giant Rat. When I imagine medieval Europe, I can't help but think of rats. That might be a stereotype, but we definitely had to have a rat enemy.

Currently, the development is in its crunch period—right now we're working on some important bosses. There is no holiday for us, but we will do our best! See you all soon!

Event Watch

After all the conventions and appearances chronicled in our last update, ArtPlay and 505 are planning to hit a slew of events over the next year. If you haven't had a chance to see the team yet, you can help them plan the next phase of their itinerary by offering feedback at the Bloodstained Forums.

For this month's Fanart Spotlight we're back with three new pieces from across the internet. Now that you've seen this month's fashion update you've got plenty of inspiration, so make some fanart and then tag it #IGAVANIA or #bloodstained so we can find it and include it in a future update!

For this month's last word we got 505's own Angel-Corlux on the line to say a little about what's coming up over the next month! Here he is:

“Most enthusiastic salutations everyone! Angel-Corlux is how most of you know me from our social platforms, my name is Roberto Piraino and I’m the Global Brand Manager at 505 Games responsible for publishing Bloodstained. Now for a full introduction, feel free to check out the Bloodstained Community Podcast here where XombieMike interviews me.

Almost all of November has been a relatively quiet month, but that’s all going to change in December! In this next month expect tons of announcements, reveals, teases and more than one enormous surprise that I think will have a good chance at blowing you away. So if you don’t already, be sure to follow and interact with us on Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and the Official Forums, so you don’t miss out on all the amazing stuff coming!

And what's more, by interacting with the above platforms you get direct access to me, where especially on Discord I’m often chatting with everyone and answering what questions I can. Remember to bring your passion, feedback (good or bad) and get ready to make lots of friends! Thanksgiving has passed, but I’m really so, so excited for the upcoming winter holiday season. I really wish I could just spoil everything right now (keeping secrets is hard) but I really like my job haha. So for now all I’ll say is keep your eyes and ears peeled. Thanks!”

UPDATE #58

Development Update - A New Environment? When Pigs Fly!

December 21, 2017

Happy holidays! We've got a lot to show you before 2017 draws to a close, including a brand new environment. Here's IGA to tell you all about it:

Merry Christmas! IGA here. This month we’ve been busy adding interactive assets to make the environment more lively, so you can see things moving and spinning as you navigate the stages.

In today's update, we're sharing a new stage! It's inspired by a traditional Japanese motif. Please enjoy the scenery and the colorful autumn leaves in this video preview. (This is also the first time we are sharing this stage's soundtrack.)

ArtPlay also passed along a sneak peek at an enemy you haven't seen yet.

Introducing... Plume Parma:

If you aren't following along on social media, you're missing out on even more reveals. This month the Bloodstained Twitter account showed off two cool new weapons and one seasonally appropriate costume change. Take a look:

After you've followed us on Twitter or Facebook, get involved in the conversation by checking out the official fan forums and Discord.

The fanart spotlight returns with three more images from the Bloodstained fan-archives. We'd love to see some new fanart for 2018! If it helps, here's a prompt: Show us your best winter-themed Bloodstained fanart. Tag it #bloodstained and #igavania and we'll show off our favorites in a future update.

For this month's Last Word we invited Roberto Piraino from 505 back to tell us a little more about what's coming for Bloodstained in January.

Hey everybody! I hope everyone has enjoyed the little reveals that we’ve shown this month, (recapped above) December has been a surprisingly busy month for us all, both at ArtPlay and here at 505 Games. ArtPlay has been hammering away in the dwarven furnaces to craft the game, and here at 505 we’ve been planning and plotting so Bloodstained takes over the world—er, is a great success. Between how hard we’ve been working and how the holidays have crept up on us, I’ve run out of time to make all the reveals and announcements I teased during the last update...

But fret not! This just means that the fun will spill over into January. Those reveals and announcements are still coming your way!

In the meantime, I’m sure I speak for everyone here at 505 Games when I wish everyone a wonderful, safe, warm holiday period, surrounded by loved ones, good food and lots of friends.

Oh, and don’t forget to come talk with us on the official Discord, Twitter, Facebook, or Forums! Bring a warm coat and gloves if you come to the forums though… XombieMike seems to have cast Hydro Storm when the temps were low…

UPDATE #59

Development Update - Building up Crafting

January 31, 2018

Welcome to 2018! We've timed our January backer update to coincide with the most IGAvanian natural phenomenon we've ever heard of: The super blue blood moon eclipse. If you were in range of the SBBME, and you saw something that appeared to be a Bloodstained viral marketing campaign, do not be alarmed—that was just the moon.

For today's update IGA and company have put together a video demonstrating the basics of the crafting system! I'll let him introduce it:

Hello everyone, this is IGA. For this backer update, we would like to share a part of the crafting system we introduced during the initial campaign. I don't know whether we should call it crafting or alchemy, but the mechanics are the same either way—you can combine items to make yourself new items and equipment. In the video, you can watch us concoct a more powerful potion and add some bite to Miriam's basic whip.

You might ask, "Would you really call gluing spiky things onto a whip alchemy?" Well, maybe, maybe not. But that's a simple introduction to crafting. Players can visit Johannes, an alchemist friendly to Miriam, to craft items.

Weapons and items aren't the only things that can be created using the crafting system—but we'll introduce that another time!

Right now we're busy with porting. The porting process always creates its own set of development challenges, but it's nothing we weren't expecting. So that's what we're working on right now.

ArtPlay also sent along a look at another enemy you'll encounter in the game. I expect this one to be incredibly frustrating, in the grand tradition of all of IGA's flying enemies.

Upcoming Event: SXSW

IGA's going to SXSW! Be there on March 17 to catch his feature panel. You can expect new info, features, and news about Bloodstained, along with an audience Q&A and meet-and-greet. If you can't make it out to Austin, don't worry—you can still look forward to Roberto's post-action report on the forums. Visit the panel page for more information. And if you're interested in attending, the easiest and cheapest way to do that is to buy an SXSW gaming wristband.

(Just between you and us, that's not the only reason March 17 is a special day for Bloodstained—it's also IGA's birthday!)

Last month the official Bloodstained Twitter and Facebook accounts had two more reveals to show off: The last Miriam fashion update (for now), and then... well, a strange package from the ArtPlay office. Take a look:

"The first Bloodstained reveal of the year is here, with Miriam wearing a cute fox mask! This is the last fashion reveal...for now...but much more is coming your way soon!"

"The first Bloodstained reveal of the year is here, with Miriam wearing a cute fox mask! This is the last fashion reveal...for now...but much more is coming your way soon!"

Click to see the video!

The fanart spotlight rolls on with three more pieces from fans across the internet! If you'd like to be included in a future update, tag your piece with "Bloodstained" and "Igavania" on your social/artistic medium of choice and we'll track it down.

Roberto from 505 is back for this month's last word. Roberto, take it away!

Hey everyone! January has been an insanely busy month, with a lot happening behind the scenes that we'll be revealing soon. I did have one or two pretty big things I wanted to show since December, but unfortunately, between the holidays and not quite being ready for the light of day, they'll have to wait for another time. Sorry about that, but I hope you've enjoyed all our other reveals, teases, and updates the past two months!

As for two other big things I know everyone is waiting for, a firm release date and a demo, I know waiting is hard, but we'll be talking about those things very soon, hang in there. Speaking of talking, be sure to come hang out with us on the official Bloodstained Discord and Forums, where you can chat with me and tons of other wonderful community members!

UPDATE #60

Development Update - Backstage with the Music Team

February 28, 2018

Good afternoon! For this month's update we're taking you behind the scenes for the recording of the Bloodstained soundtrack. Take a look (and, perhaps more importantly, a listen.) But first, a quick word introducing this music feature from Roberto Piraino, Bloodstained's brand manager at 505 Games.

Hey everyone! Wow, it’s been an incredibly fun, challenging and extremely busy month, so much so that when I see the occasional troll online with their golden nuggets of commentary I’m not even mad or even annoyed, I just think about all the work being done and I’m like “lol k” haha.

This month the team has been working super hard on quite a few things, and something in particular we can’t talk about publicly yet…so instead I’m here to tell you that the orchestra soundtrack for Bloodstained has been completed!

To celebrate, it’s my pleasure to present to you a behind the scenes video showing everyone some of the studio recording and interviews with Michiru Yamane and other composers who supported this effort. I’ve seen the feedback from many of you wanting more lengthy updates and “meat” to sink your teeth into, and this is the first step in establishing a trend to satisfy that desire.

While not every future update will have such lengthy content, it’s a goal we’re ever striving towards in order to increase our transparency, communication and honesty with all of you who make this amazing journey possible. As always, feel free to let us know of any feedback you have, good or bad, on any of our social platforms or right here in the comments section of Kickstarter!

We've also got another asset from ArtPlay to show off! You may have seen this enemy in previous videos, but today is Tord's time to shine—it's the subject of this month's turnaround GIF.

The Bloodstained team continues to travel the world, building up an audience for Miriam and company one fan at a time. Earlier this month we were in Madrid for Japan Weekend, giving Igavania fans in Spain a chance to hang out and play the E3 2017 demo.

Japan Weekend

If you're a little closer to Texas than Madrid, next month is your chance to catch IGA's panel at the SXSW Gaming Expo.

SXSW Conference & Festivals - Press Photo by Samantha Burkardt

The panel takes place on March 17—head over to the Discovery Stage in Exhibit Hall 2 at 2 PM to hear all about Bloodstained from the best possible source. If you're going to be in Texas for the event, the easiest and cheapest way to get into both panels it to pick up an SXSW Gaming Wristband.

If you're not following Bloodstained's official Twitter and Facebook accounts, you missed another busy month of teases and reveals—plus a podcast appearance. Here's the digest version:

Happy Valentine's Day! Miriam will be keeping any unwanted suitors at bay with her Macuahuitl...

Just one day later, we got this update from Rocket Sound's studio:

1st day of recording the script for Bloodstained over at @rocketsoundus! It's pretty amazing to see the crazy high caliber of talent going into the story...and how long the script is! So much longer than another certain famous Igavania game...

Take a peek at which voice actor we're working with today! You could say..."he's pretty good"... Hopefully this means no more fans worrying about whether David Hayter is still in the game lol...

Last but definitely not least, Roberto appeared on the Nintendo Duel Screens podcast to discuss all things Bloodstained. The interview starts about 32 minutes in, but the whole thing is worth listening to.

Your monthly delivery of fanart has arrived! If you'd like to be part of a future fanart spotlight, just follow these two steps:

1. Draw, paint, or otherwise create a cool piece of Bloodstained art.

2. Tag it #Bloodstained or #Igavania (or mention @swordorwhip on Twitter) so that we can find it!

Roberto at 505 has so many words to deliver this month that we're giving him the first one and the last one—with a cameo appearance from an Igavania legend. Take it away:

Consider this the official announcement that we are indeed working on another demo. (You may have known already if you hang out with us on Discord). This demo will be only for backers, everyone will receive a STEAM code regardless of what platform you’ve backed for, because it will only be on PC. I can also tell you that the demo is going to be a traditional “game slice”, including and building upon the galleon level and then allowing the player to progress further into the game. More details will be released moving forward, including things like how we’ll be collecting feedback and more, and I look forward to bringing you an exact release date…soon™.

Last but not least, the always lovely Ayami Kojima visited the ArtPlay office recently and doodled a little something on the white board…it’s her first Miriam drawing!

Apparently they had lamb skewer for lunch that day… >.>

Look forward to a really great March update! It’s going to be “packed to the gills” with content!

UPDATE #61

Bonus Update - IGA on music, voice acting, and more

March 9, 2018

Please do not adjust your calendars—it isn't the end of the month. But we wanted to cap off our look at the creation of the Bloodstained soundtrack, and provide a glimpse of what's coming next, with a word from IGA.

Hello, IGA here.

For the last update, we gave a behind the scenes look at the recording of the promised orchestra tracks. Just to get straight to the point, hearing the live sound was really powerful! Up to now I'd always thought, "Synth on its own sounds awesome!" but then I was astonished.

But...producing live music is really expensive, isn't it...?

We've put together some samples, so please try comparing the two yourself.

I was moved by the professionalism and commitment of these musicians. This was especially true for the violinists, who played chords that they weren't even sure were possible to play at first. It's amazing! Now I understand why people like to do concerts.

We also just finished recording the English voiceovers. Although this was our first time working with this recording studio, we felt that—with the help of a lot of prior preparation—the recording sessions went very successfully. It was definitely a good idea to have the English voices recorded overseas.

I participated remotely from Japan. Communicating through Skype during the recording sessions, and staying up through the time zone difference, was really tough. It's rare for me to go to the office on the last train, but it's not something I would like to do that often. With the help of 505 Games, and by sending our communication manager over to the actual studio, we were able to achieve the direction we were going for and provide accurate nuances.

Just a while ago, the flu was spreading here in Tokyo, and there was a period when it was affecting our productivity. Fortunately, that has calmed down now, and we're back on track. We've been progressing little by little on the story cutscenes. Even though I wrote the story, sometimes I wonder to myself…“why did I write that this way?” When I look at the finished cutscenes, then it makes sense. Well, that's what usually happens during development, so I can't help it, I guess.

In order to share our progress... don't you think it's time for an Alpha Backer demo?

As Roberto mentioned, we are planning to allow backers to experience a slice of the game, from the beginning to a certain point. At the same time, we would also like you to experience a quite cruel and ungodly boss. More details will come soon, it’s very exciting!

Well, that was a lot of information. We still have a lot of work to do so we will keep working hard. Thank you for always supporting us. - IGA

If you're thinking about heading to Austin for SXSW, there's still time to see IGA's panel! The panel takes place on March 17 at 2 PM on the Discovery Stage at Exhibit Hall 2. If you're going to be there, the easiest way to see the panel is to pick up an SXSW Gaming Wristband.

Since we heard from the publisher twice in February's update, we thought you might want a double dose of ArtPlay this time! Here's an update from Mana on what she's been up to:

Hello everyone! I'd like to tell you that I've been working more closely with the production side - working with 505 Games on communication and ArtPlay on the art side. I'm hoping to improve the visual quality of the game by giving suggestions and making adjustments directly into the game.

We're aware of the community's feedback and some of the concerns raised with the appearance of the game in certain areas. I too, share those feelings as a fan. Who could better implement the community's feedback other than the Communication Manager?

UPDATE #62

Development Update - Meet The English Voice Acting Team

March 28, 2018

You can tell it's spring—the updates are in bloom! This month we've got a lot to talk about—SXSW in the recent past, the English voice acting team in the present, and the next chance to play Bloodstained in the near future. So let's get right to it!

Hello everyone, IGA here. This month we participated in SXSW, in Austin, Texas. I had never heard of it, but it’s a long-running event in the film and music communities, and while we were there I felt the energy from the entire city. It felt like a Japanese matsuri (festival).

Without thinking of it, I decided to wear my usual cowboy hat on my first trip to Texas. Wait a minute—Texas has real cowboys! I was worried that the people there would judge me, but everyone I met was really kind.

Of course, I didn’t really see any cowboys there…

We shared lots of new content during our SXSW panel discussion. First was a newly redesigned version of Vepar. After weighing a lot of community feedback, we decided to implement some of the changes you recommended and drastically improve the overall quality; now she looks more like a scary boss. My favorite detail is the seaweed.

We also showed a new feature—the crafting system with Johannes, which allows you to craft items and food. You still have to enter the alchemy room to craft foods, but it’s really just Miriam cooking. Food has always been used as a healing item, but we’ve added a new feature for Bloodstained. Now eating a new food item for the first time produces a permanent stat boost. Like weapons and armor, good food can make the player stronger.

While I was there I also met some members of the Official Bloodstained Discord server. For my birthday, I received a copy of the Ars Goetia book from several of you. It makes for really great reference material—there are symbols for each demon. Thank you very much! I promise to make good use of it. I met many new people, and it really made my SXSW visit worthwhile. I hope to go again someday.

This month we’ve been implementing the English voices into the game. Although there’s a language barrier, I know the actors did a great job and they sound very cool. I want to let everyone hear them soon.

Thank you for your continued support, and I’ll see you next time. - IGA

It's time to introduce the English voice actors! First, let's introduce the whole cast:

Miriam - Erica Lindbeck

League of Legends - Taliyah, Zoe

Persona 5 - Futaba Sakura

Nier: Automata - Anemone

Street Fighter V - Menat

Zangetsu - David Hayter

Metal Gear Solid - Solid Snake

The Castle of Cagliostro - Lupin III

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Lieutenant Renn

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket - Bernard Wiseman

Gebel - Ray Chase

Final Fantasy XV - Noctis Lucis Caelum

Nier: Automata - Eve

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders - Rubber Soul

Tales of Berseria - Artorius Collbrande

Johannes - Ben Diskin

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Joseph Joestar

Naruto Shippuden - Sai

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin - Char Aznable

Halo 4 - Jared Miller

The Coachman - Fred Tatasciore

Overwatch - Soldier: 76

Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm - Zeratul, Rory Swann

God of War III - Ares, Barbarian King, Typhon

Mass Effect - Saren Arterius

Dominique - Fryda Wolff

Mass Effect: Andromeda - Sara Ryder

Fallout 4 - Vault Security

Octodad: Dadliest Catch - Stacy

Killer Instinct - Mira

Gremory - Kari Wahlgren

FLCL - Haruko Haruhara

Samurai Champloo - Fuu Kasumi

No More Heroes - Jeane

Eureka Seven - Anemone

Fate/Zero - Saber

Anne - Rena Strober

Fire Emblem: Fates - Azura

Persona 4: Dancing All Night - Kanami Mashita

Sailor Moon Crystal - Esmeraude

Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - Akane Kurashiki

Alfred - Christopher Swindle

Transformers: Robots in Disguise - Ragebyte

Lego Dimensions - Brain Gremlin / Betelgeuse

Disney Infinity - The Hoarder

Mysterious Man - Robbie Belgrade

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Alucard

Tekken - Announcer

Mega Man X7 - Signas

Shenmue - Pedro Warren

English Voice Acting Directed by Jamie Mortellaro

Halo 4

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

EverQuest II

Knack

Now you know the principal characters each actor will voice, but there are many more voiced characters in Bloodstained—each actor had the range to do multiple characters.

But still images can hardly do voice actors justice, right? That's why we're also including the first of three videos in which the team observed (and interviewed) the actors in the studio, their natural habitat. Take a look:

Last, but not least, ArtPlay also sent along another piece of art to unveil in this update! Here's another enemy you'll be swarmed by before too long, the Gargoyle:

Didn't get a chance to see IGA at SXSW? Here's the next best thing—you can watch his panel right here. In addition to discussing (among other things) how the team has integrated feedback from the fans, and how cooking interacts with gameplay and leveling up, he also reveals a new familiar and discusses the transition from the old Vepar design to the new one. You're going to want to see it:

And here are some photos to document IGA's first trip to Texas and his birthday gift from a delegation of the Army of the Night. You can see the rest of the photos and join in the discussion on the new reveals in the SXSW 2018 post-action report on the forums.

IGA and Mana, ready for their closeups

A look at the changes the team has made to Vepar

Members of the official Bloodstained Discord who came out to see the panel got the chance to join IGA and company for an exclusive cocktail hour afterward, where they presented him with the Ars Goetia he mentioned in the development update.

(If that sounds like the kind of thing you'd like, click this link and become a member of the Bloodstained Discord yourself! It's the easiest way to stay on top of cool fan opportunities whenever they crop up.)

In addition to your usual ration of amazing fanart from all over the community we've got a special multimedia tribute from Jeffrey Montoya and Junki Sakuraba. Jeffrey's music and Junki's art combine to dramatize Miriam's experience of falling into a coma only to awake to face the events of Bloodstained. Enjoy:

As always, if you're creating Bloodstained art and you'd like to be highlighted in a future update, make sure to tag it #IGAVANIA or #bloodstained so we see it next time we make our rounds! (While you're at it, show your work off on the Official Bloodstained Forums or Discord.)

This month's last word comes to you courtesy of Roberto Piraino, Bloodstained's brand manager at 505 Games! Without further ado:

Welcome to the update for March everyone! Wow. Just, wow. This is one of our biggest updates yet; a ton of work went on behind the scenes to bring it to you, during a very busy month no less…we hope you enjoy it! Please remember though, not every update will be as packed as this one, and that’s normal!

First off, David Hayter is Zangetsu! The team originally planned for him to be Gebel, but Iga made an executive decision and I’m very confident everyone will be happy with it. Both Zangetsu and Gebel now sound as if they existed in real life and came in to record their lines haha. (Well, that was a common sensation with our fantastic actors…but you know what I mean)

Secondly, we’ve seen some confusion out there regarding Bloodstained’s release date, based on speculation after Iga’s video about how the scope and timeline of the game have changed. We want to clarify that we have not yet announced any official release date for the game, but before apocalyptic panic and speculation ensues, we’re also happy to let you know that we will be announcing the release window very soon.

In the meantime, we’d like to officially announce that the “Beta Backer Demo” will be available June 2018. Every backer at the $60 level or above, regardless of chosen platform, will receive a STEAM code via email that will enable them to download the demo and play it on PC. In the time leading up to this beta, expect to hear more about what will be in the demo, how we’ll collect feedback, and of course, the exact details regarding what day and time it will be available for everyone.

Last but not least, in our ongoing quest to be open, honest and available to the fans, we will launch a “Communication Feedback Survey” shortly on all of our online platforms. It will be everyone’s chance to not only let us know how we’re doing with our communication to the fans, but also tell us what you’d like to see more of, done differently, improved or otherwise changed when it comes to communication. All constructive criticism is welcome, but feel free to give us a pat on the head too! :3

Look forward to the rest of the cast interview videos, and talk to you soon!

Fred? ... Fred! That's not how any of this works, Fred...

Fred? ... Fred! That's not how any of this works, Fred...

UPDATE #63

Announcing a Brand-New Bloodstained Feature

April 1, 2018

We just received word from Roberto Piraino, Bloodstained brand manager at 505 Games, that he had an exciting new feature to announce—one that couldn't wait another day! Here he is to tell you everything you need to know:

Hello everyone, today we are proud to announce something truly unique and groundbreaking that no other videogame out there has done…

Players will have the option to mine cryptocurrency while playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night!

At launch, supported currencies will include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Zcash, with additional currencies possibly being added at a later date. Players will also have the freedom of linking the currency wallet of their choice to the game’s mining function.

The team has been working on this feature for quite some time, and as you can imagine, the challenges have been numerous and daunting, but thanks to a lot of dedication and technical skill it’s become a reality.

At the moment, due to the resources required by modern GPUs for cyptocurrency mining, this feature will only be enabled for copies of Bloodstained on PC that meet certain system requirements, (system requirements TBD as we are still optimizing) but we are also working hard to make this feature a reality for our fans on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch* and Xbox One.

In the meantime, we’re happy to show a sneak peek at how currency mining in Bloodstained will work with a screencap of the menu screen where you’ll be able to select your options for mining currencies:

We look forward to revealing and talking more about this feature and the possibilities it brings in the near future. For example, the team is currently evaluating launching “Igacoin” which will seek to decentralize the experience of dark gothic fantasy monster slaying and empower future fans with direct investment opportunities in the future of Koji Igarashi’s games and his partnership with 505 Games.

As always, we want to thank every single one of our fans for their support and interest, this amazing journey is made possible by all of you!

Roberto Piraino, a.k.a. Angel-Corlux

Bloodstained’s Brand Manager at 505 Games

*Currency mining feature not available for Nintendo Labo.

UPDATE #64

The Bloodstained Feedback Survey Is Now Live!

April 19, 2018

To every member of the Army of the Night who has not been buried under several unseasonable feet of snow in the last week or two: happy spring!

We're passing along a quick between-updates note from 505 about a new way to leave your mark on Bloodstained—the feedback survey. Here's Roberto with more information:

Hello everyone, the Bloodstained Feedback Survey is up and running! We really want to do everything we can to give our fans a voice and listen to you as much as possible, so don’t miss your chance to tell us what you think and shape our future decisions on everything from release dates, how we’re doing with the community and how we can improve, to DLC, what (if anything) we should do about the exclusive in-game content, pricing for the game and more! And just in case you’re thinking “man what a lame Kickstarter update this month”, fret not, this is a separate effort from our usual updates, and the main April Kickstarter update is still on its way. Thank you to everyone for your time and passion, can’t wait to read your answers.

Roberto Piraino (a.k.a. Angel-Corlux)

Bloodstained Brand Manager, 505 Games

UPDATE #65

Development Update - Quests and a Mini-Game Update (Plus Important Platform Deadline Information)

April 27, 2018

Greetings, Army of the Night! For April's development update the team has put together a look at the quest system that Miriam will be able to use to help the villagers who've survived the emergence of the demon castle.

Here's IGA to introduce it! (Also, scroll down for important information about deadlines to choose your platform for the main game and the mini-game.)

(Programming note: Mana will be translating future updates into Japanese—you'll see her handiwork below each section.)

Greetings, Army of the Night! 4月の開発アップデートはクエストシステムのご紹介です。クエストシステムでは、城の悪魔に襲われた村を生き延びた人たちをミリアムが手伝うことができます。

早速、IGAに紹介して頂きましょう！

Hello everyone, this is IGA.

For this month's update we would like to explain the quest feature. We've already shown you the village where Dominique and Johannes have opened their shop and alchemy room, respectively. The village was destroyed by the demons from the castle, but the remaining villagers have gathered in a safe haven nearby. These people have their own troubles—let's help them out!

「こんにちはIGAです。今回のバッカーアップデートは、クエストについての説明です。

以前、村のステージを紹介しましたが、この村にはドミニクが経営するショップと、ヨハネスの錬成室があります。この村は、城からあふれ出した悪魔たちによって滅ぼされています。その生き残った村人たちはドミニクたちがいる場所に集まってきます。実は、その人たちですが色々と困りごとを持っています。というわけで、困った村人達を助けましょう！

The Bloodstained quest system (with mocked-up English text overlay)

The Bloodstained quest system (with mocked-up English text overlay)

Let's take a look at Lindsay, and the troubles she's facing. She holds a grudge against the demons that killed her close friends. In order to avenge their deaths, she asks Miriam to kill certain types of demons. She might even ask her to kill a rare demon... She has a habit of saying, "Kill that murderer dead!" There are other villagers like her that need our help. Let's help these villagers and obtain rewards.

I'd also like to update you on the retro mini-game. There have been some changes from the time we started the Kickstarter campaign; originally, the mini-game was supposed to be a story that took place 10 years prior to the main game, but we've decided to have it take place in a different part of the lore.

The story for the mini-game was developed based on the world of Bloodstained, but it should be enjoyed separately as a spin-off rather than a prequel story. We will have more details very soon, so please look forward to it. [Fangamer note: Mini-game platforms are now unlocked in eligible reward surveys! Please choose your platform as soon as possible.]

I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you about another project. My friend and fellow game developer Swery is currently gathering funds for his own Kickstarter project, the Good Life. I don't need to tell you about this guy's incredible talent—please take a look at his project!

今回は、村人の一人リンジーさんの困りごとを紹介します。彼女は、自分の親しい人たちが悪魔に殺されたことを恨んでいます。その復讐を果たすため、ミリアムに特定の悪魔を倒してくるよう依頼してきます。もしかしたら、レアな悪魔の討伐も依頼されるかも…。そんな彼女の口癖は「ぶっ殺しておくれ！」です。こんな感じで、困っている村人たちが他にもいます。みんなの困りごとを解決して、報酬をゲットしましょう。

8bit版につきまして、ちょっとKickstarterで話したストーリーから変更しようかなと思いまして、それにつきましてご報告です。元々、本編の10年前の話を描こうかと思っていたのですが、別のエピソードにしようかと思います。本編との関連性は考えて制作されていますが、スピンオフ的に単独でも楽しめるものになる予定です。詳細はもう少し待ってね。

この場を借りて、ちょっと紹介したいものがあります。私の友人のクリエーター、スエリーがKickstarterで今まさに資金を集めております。
KickstarterYour Kickstarter embed will appear here after you post...

彼の異才っぷりはここで説明するまでもないかと思います。ちと見に行ってやってください！」

Some villagers: Lindsay, Benjamin, Harry, Abigail, and Suzy

Some villagers: Lindsay, Benjamin, Harry, Abigail, and Suzy

ArtPlay also passed along another look at an enemy you'll cross paths with: Decarabia.

Making some Bloodstained art that you'd like to share with the backers? Tag it #igavania and we'll track it down for a future fanart spotlight!

Last but not least—check out this amazing mod someone made to put Miriam (and a couple of familiar enemies) into Resident Evil 4! I don't think this is canon, but it's pretty neat...

Thanks to the RE4 mod team—lezisell, jorel221, Marcos RC, david flores, and GabrielGantz—for making such a cool video!

For this month's last word, here's a status report from 505 Games's Roberto Piraino! Take it away:

Hey everybody, I’m absolutely blasted away at the overwhelming response we got from the Bloodstained Feedback Survey; it’s barely been a week and we’ve already received tens of thousands of submissions, with every question coming in at a 95% completion rate or above! Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to fill it out! The survey will be open until the end of the month so if you haven’t had a chance to fill it out don’t miss your opportunity to be heard on lots of different subjects.

I’ve already seen plenty of discussion surrounding the survey questions, and I’m sure everyone is anxious to know what the survey revealed and what we’ll do with the results. We plan on releasing much more of the gathered data in the near future, but for now I’d like to share with you an important announcement:

We will officially be closing all Kickstarter / Fangamer related fundraising after May 14th at 1pm Pacific Time US. This means that after Monday, May 14th, 2018, backing Bloodstained on the Fangamer portal will no longer be possible.

After Friday, May 18th, 2018 existing backers will also no longer be able to change the platform for which you have ordered/pledged your copy of Bloodstained or the side-story mini-game, so please finalize your platform selection soon! (The reward survey previously didn't contain a platform-selection option for the side-story mini-game, so even if you're all set with your reward survey you haven't filled one out yet!)

You will still be able to update basic information like your shipping address. If you need to edit your reward survey for any reason, click on the link in your original order confirmation e-mail; if you don’t have your reward survey link handy, click here to get it sent to you again or ask any other questions you might have.

Everyone at ArtPlay and 505 Games wants to thank each and every one of you who have backed Bloodstained and helped make this game a reality. All your support has truly been astounding!

(Last but not least, you’ll also notice an edit on the Fangamer slacker backer page [since we’re unable to edit the original Kickstarter]. We’ve updated the description of Inti Creates’ “retro” game to reflect its evolution into a spin-off game.)

今月は最後に、505 Games のロベルト・ピライノさんからのご報告です。

皆さん、こんにちは。アンケート調査「Bloodstained Feedback Survey」から頂いたレスポンスに圧倒されました。まだ一週間立っておりませんが、何千件の回答を頂き、95%以上の回答率でした！お時間を頂戴しありがとうございました。

アンケートは今月末まで受け付けております。様々なテーマから幅広くありますので、チャンスがあれば、ご協力お願いします。

私も議題に上がっている会話やフィードバックをチェックしていますが、多分皆さんはこの情報とアンケート結果で何をするか気になりますよね。近々このデータを元に色々と発表をしていきたいと思います。

まず大事なお知らせがあります。

この度、KickstarterとFangamerのサイトから受け付けていた支援を2018年5月14日 13時 PST に閉じさせていただきます。

2018年5月14日 13時 PST からKickstarterやFangamerを通しての支援募集を終了とさせていただきます。支援を既にされている方は、2018年5月18日以降プラットフォームの選択・変更ができなくなります。なるべく早めにご回答ください。 (これまでのアンケートではミニゲームのプラットフォーム選択はありませんでした。今回のアンケートでご選択頂きます。ミニゲームのプラットフォーム選択・変更も5月18日以降にできなくなります。)

住所等の基本情報は変更することはできます。何かしらの理由で情報を変更したい場合、支援して頂いた時の確認メールからリンクを踏んでください。サーベイリンクを失くした場合、こちら＜＜リンク＞＞をクリックしてください。

ArtPlayと505 Gamesは「Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night」に支援して頂いたバッカーの皆様に心から感謝します。今までのサポートが心強く、ゲームを現実化できたのも皆様のおかげです！

最後に、Fangamerのサーベイページに変更されている箇所があります。（元のKickstarterのページは編集できません） Inti Createsの「レトロ」ゲームの説明文をスピンオフ作品として変更されました。

UPDATE #66

Kickstarter Update: Survey Deadline To Change Platforms Is Tonight!

May 18, 2018

Good afternoon! We have a full update for Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon on the way, but we're breaking in a little early to remind anyone who hasn't locked in their choice of platform—for the main game as well as Curse of the Moon—that your last chance to do so is tonight (May 18) at 11:59PM PDT!

After the deadline passes, we'll be locking those questions down so that ArtPlay and Inti Creates are able to get accurate numbers for each platform and region.

Since the first announcement we've sent out a few reminder e-mails to all backers who don't have platforms chosen yet—if you haven't gotten one, your account might be tied to a different e-mail address. If you need to find your survey link, or you have any other questions about your backer survey, visit our survey resender and we'll help you sort them out.

You'll still be able to change other survey information, like your address, after this date.

UPDATE #67

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - Backer Distribution and Details

May 23, 2018

Curse of the Moon is on its way! The retro side-story game set in the Bloodstained universe comes out May 24, and since the announcement we've been working with Inti and ArtPlay to prepare it for distribution to Kickstarter backers. First, here's a message from IGA:

The spin-off game of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, is here! This is the 8-bit mini-game stretch goal that we promised during our Kickstarter campaign. The demo of this game was actually playable at BitSummit in Kyoto, where I had a chance to watch people play. They really enjoyed it!

This title is infused with nostalgic feeling. Download codes will be given to backers who backed over $28.

In regards to the distribution timing, Steam keys will be distributed on the same day as the release date, but other platforms will, unfortunately, be distributed at a later timing. We physically cannot resolve this issue and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

Please have fun with this retro side-story as you look forward to the main game! - IGA

Backer Distribution Schedule

Steam keys are available now! All Curse of the Moon codes will be distributed through your backer survey, so if you chose Steam for your side-story platform you can go to your survey now to find your code. (If you don't have your survey link, no need to worry! Go to our survey resender and we'll send it to you again.)

Unfortunately, as IGA mentioned above, we still haven't received the codes we need to distribute the game to backers who chose a console platform for their game—we'll be distributing them as soon as we receive them, but they aren't available yet.

We're sorry for the delay. But we've been working overtime with Inti Creates and ArtPlay to find a solution that allows backers to play the game when it comes out, since we couldn't have made it without your original support.

It took us a while to hammer out the details, but here's what we were able to do: We've given backers who do not already have a Steam key for Curse of the Moon in their order a temporary Steam key that allows them to play the game on PC until their console key(s) arrive. These temporary keys are available now on your backer survey and will expire on June 8, by which time Inti Creates expects to have received the download codes we requested for every platform. (And just to be clear, we'll be making the codes for each different platform available as soon as they arrive.)

We know this isn't the same as playing the game on the platform you chose, but we hope it gives you a chance to discover Curse of the Moon alongside everyone else.

Other Distribution Notes

Inti Creates announced early this morning that logistical issues mean the game will launch on May 31 for the Nintendo 3DS in Europe and June 6 for the Xbox One in all regions. While the game won't be playable on those platforms/regions until then, this should not affect when we receive or distribute download codes for backers who chose those platforms. (EU 3DS backers and Xbox One backers without a permanent Steam key in their order, like other console backers, will still receive a temporary Steam key.)

In Short: When and how do I get my game?

Steam keys are available now for all $28+ backers who chose Steam as a platform for Curse of the Moon. (These codes can be activated on Steam now, but might not be playable until the game's official release date of 5/24.)

Console codes are not yet available—we'll be distributing them to backers as soon as they arrive.

We're giving backers who only chose console versions a temporary Steam key that will allow them to play Curse of the Moon on PC from now until June 8.

All download codes—including the temporary Steam keys—can be found on your survey page! If you don't have your survey link, use our survey support page to have it e-mailed to you automatically. Click Download Codes on your survey page.

As soon as console download codes are available, you'll be able to find them on your survey page, too.

(If you did not choose a platform, you'll receive a Steam key soon.)

Thanks for making Curse of the Moon possible! We hope you enjoy it.

UPDATE #68

Development Update: Beta News and Backer Feedback Results

June 1, 2018

Good afternoon! This month we've got updates from the Ritual of the Night team as we close in on the release of the beta backer demo, as well as a look at the results of 505's backer feedback survey. So let's get right to it!

Hello—IGA here. Before we move forward with this month’s update for Blodostained: Ritual of the Night, we would like to apologize for the trouble to backers who have selected the Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon console version.

We made many adjustments to Curse of the Moon just before its release. The very short timeframe between the announcement of Curse of the Moon at BitSummit and its release date caused a delay in our generating and receiving console download codes for backers. The process of receiving them from console manufacturers is not very fast, so we are sending them out to Fangamer as soon as they become available from the manufacturers, and they are immediately assigning them to backers.

Codes are sent to us in batches by region, so if your region is not available yet, you will receive it soon. [Fangamer note: Currently we have received and distributed Steam, Sony (EU and JP), and Nintendo (NA and JP) codes.] I apologize again for the delay.

Please keep in mind that Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is both developed and published by Inti Creates, while Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is published by 505 Games. If you have any questions about either title, you can contact the appropriate publisher. [Fangamer again—If you have any question about your Kickstarter rewards, or are unable to access your survey, please get in touch with us.]

Now for your Ritual of the Night update. First up, an update from the development team:

Recently, we've been making the final decisions and touches about the E3 Beta Backer Demo. We've had discussions about all kinds of things, like what to place in the demo and whether to include items with special effects—sometimes they've gotten a little heated. We also worked on the ship stage that you've seen already, and added environmental effects like dripping water to create a greater sense of movement in the environment.

We've been doing a lot of work like that lately, adding interactive detail to areas that makes them more interesting to explore on your way to the boss. Some of that added detail won't be included in the beta, but we hope to share it with everyone as soon as possible.

Regarding the difficulty, the E3 Beta Backer Demo will include a save feature and will be slightly more difficult than previous demos. We're working hard to make sure it's both a proper demo and an efficient way for us to receive useful feedback from backers. - Dev Team

And here's an update from IGA:

Hello—IGA here. We're sorry to have kept you waiting, but this month we'll be sharing information about the E3 Beta Backer Demo. This beta will be given to backers at $60 tiers and higher through Steam keys.

It will allow you to play the first part of the game's story mode, as it exists now, starting from the ship stage from our past E3 demo and proceeding through the village and into the castle entrance. This time, we've included cutscene events—you'll finally be able to meet Johannes, Zangetsu, Gebel, Dominique, and Anne.

Oh, let's not forget about Gremory as well...

At this moment we're still making final decisions about what you'll see in the beta. Many enemies and shards will be shown for the first time, along with some enemies you've seen before. You'll be able to visit the shop that Dominique runs, and experience a bit of alchemy with Johannes. You'll also be able to undertake a quest.

We hope you'll enjoy and experience the world of Bloodstained when the E3 Beta Backer Demo is available on June 21. Please look forward to it!

This month we also have two new shards to show you. The first is called "Detective Eye" — it will help you find breakable walls.

As you can see from the video, we're working on an interesting visual effect for it. Oh, how I love it when technology evolves...

The next shard is Fald Taiab, a dark elemental magic used by aiming and casting with the Directional Shard feature.

We feel this really brings out the benefit of the directional feature—well, it's too bad that neither shard is available in the backer beta...

Every month we—and by we I mean Steve—scour the internet for Bloodstained fanart. If you'd like to be featured in a future update, tag your work #IGAVANIA or #bloodstained and we'll track it down!

This month's Last Word comes from 505 and—well, you. Roberto Piraino is back with the results of the feedback survey they conducted in a recent backer update.

Hello everyone! We’re gearing up toward our E3 appearance with a new build of the game, which will be shown behind-closed-doors only to press, so keep an eye out for previews on your favorite gaming sites in June! As Iga just mentioned, the same E3 Beta Backer Demo we’ll have at the show will be available on June 21, 2018 to all $60 and above backers, via a Steam code delivered to your backer survey.

We look forward to your valuable feedback; we’ll have specific details on how to submit it in the next update. In general, our official Discord server will be dedicated to fluid fan conversations and questions while the official forums will be set up to collect your more in-depth feedback.

We also have some pretty interesting information to share with you right now: As you might remember, we recently published a survey to gather lots of great feedback from all the fans on everything from basic demographics to detailed questions about the future of the game.

Today it’s our pleasure to publish the results of that survey.

Almost 27,000 fans took the survey and pretty much every question had a 95% answer rate or more! Thank you to everyone for taking the time to answer our questions, it really helps.

Below are a few highlights; you can find the full reveal of all the survey answers here on our forums.

That’s everything for now, we have a very exciting time ahead of us with the demo coming soon and some juicy announcements in the near future…including some things that most, if not all of you won’t be expecting… (not so quietly muahahas)

UPDATE #69

Backer Beta Demo Update from IGA

June 21, 2018

In regards to the Backer Beta Demo for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, our launch date has changed from June 21st to June 28th. We sincerely apologize for this delay.

We showcased the demo at E3, but after watching many people play the demo, we found a couple of bugs that we want to fix and several adjustments we wanted to make in order to deliver a better beta experience.

We were very busy supporting the demo for E3, and we have been working all the way up to today’s release date to try to avoid pushing it back, but we were not quite able to complete the work that needs to be done to make the beta experience a great one for backers. As a result, we are forced to delay from the promised date, and we are very sorry. Please continue to look forward to the beta a little longer, and thank you for your patience. – IGA

「お待たせしている、Bloodstained: Ritual of the nightのベータバッカーデモですが、大変申し訳ないのですが、日程を6月21日から6月28日に延期させてください。 E3で出展したのですが、そこでのプレイを見て、バグを見つけ、もう少し手を入れたくなりまして、もっと良い形で配布したいと考えました。

今日までできる限り間に合わせるために頑張りましたが、より良いベータの体験をバッカーにお届けしたいと思いました。

その結果、約束から遅れてしまい、申し訳ないです。

もう少し、お待ちいただければと存じます。」

Hello everyone, Roberto (Angel-Corlux) here from 505 Games. As Iga just described, unfortunately we’re going to need to delay the Beta Backer Demo until June 28th, 2018 due to the above mentioned reasons. ArtPlay and 505 are a team and as such, we’d also like to apologize to you for this unexpected delay.

We know it sucks to not have your hands on the demo yet, but we hope you’ll lend us your understanding as we work to make sure the demo is the best experience for you all.

One advantage that will come of this is that the feedback you all will provide will not focus on some of the common issues we ran into with the E3 2018 build.

Again, we really regret not being able to deliver the Beta Backer Demo on time to you, and we are immensely appreciative of your patience and understanding.

A special ‘extra’ apology goes out to those among you who may have taken a day off to really dig into the demo. Please come talk to us in the usual places, Twitter, Discord, Forums, etc., and feel free to ask any questions you may have. As always, we want to be honest and straightforward with you, thanks again everyone for your patience.

UPDATE #70

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Backer Beta Demo Release

June 28, 2018

Note: We've assigned download codes for the backer beta demo to everyone who backed at a $60 tier or higher. To get yours, click through to your survey—if you don't have your survey link handy, visit our survey support page and we'll resend it. - Fangamer

Hi everyone, IGA here.

Every time I go to E3, I'm reminded that this is the biggest game show in the world. I had a valuable opportunity to meet other developers who I usually don't get to see.

This year, Bloodstained was exhibited in a closed space at 505 Games. The demo we showcased is actually the Beta Backer Demo that will be available today to all backers at the $60 tier and higher.

I explained the contents briefly in a previous update, but this morning I’ll provide an overview plus a bit more detail. In this demo we are heading to the castle by ship, passing through the ruined village and then through the castle entrance.

Miriam: A girl who has the ability to link demon shards through her crystal-embedded body.

Johannes: An alchemist who grew up with Miriam and supports her.

Gebel: A Shardbinder with the same ability as Miriam, who caused the chaos.

Dominique: An exorcist dispatched from the church to quell the demons.

Zangetsu: A samurai who despises all things demonic who has made his way to the scene along with Dominique.

Alfred: an alchemist who was part of the demon ritual 10 years ago.

You will be able to experience a part of the storyline through these characters.

Regarding the gameplay—we’ve prepared a demo that I can proudly call an action game. Well, I guess that should be obvious... but hey! We also added special commands that were eagerly requested! It’s only a small portion of what's in the game, but try to find them and see what you think. There are also new enemies and shards introduced in this demo.

In addition to the combat, there is a shop to buy and sell items, and an alchemy room to craft new items, where you can also make food and upgrade shards.

Johannes the alchemist performs item transmutation, but Miriam cooks her own food. Food heals health, but it can also permanently increase stat parameters. In other words, you can become stronger by cooking and eating food, in addition to collecting experience points. It's time to collect lots of materials and eat a lot of food!

There are also two ways to strengthen shards: You can collect duplicates of the same shard to increase its overall strength, and you can evolve shards by combining materials in crafting. You will need certain materials in order to do this. Both methods are included in the Backer Beta Demo.

In the previously announced update, there are also quests. This time we have a villager named Lindsay, who has survived the attack.

She will ask Miriam to avenge those who have been killed by the demons. The first quest is to avenge her husband by hunting eight Mortes. Morte is an enemy that couldn’t become a full-fledged demon, so it takes on a form of other things. It doesn’t drop a shard, but you will get a reward for killing few of them in the area.

That's all I have to tell you about the demo! Please let us hear your thoughts and experience when you play it.

The Backer Beta Demo (BBD) has arrived! We can’t wait to hear your feedback, to that end, we’ve set up a few ways for you to talk to us directly:

First of all, everyone will have access to an exclusive Steam Forum via the app’s community hub, which you can post in only if you have installed the BBD.

Secondly, we of course have our official forums with specific sections dedicated to feedback and bug reporting. Last but not least, you can visit our official 505 Games customer support portal to request urgent help with any technical support issues, submit bug reports, and give feedback as well.

In addition to the above, come join us on our official Discord server where we’ll be talking about the BBD in a more casual way. Phew, I think that’s it—hopefully with all these ways to talk to us you all know that we are *definitely* listening and eager to hear what you have to say, good or bad!

Thank you so much everyone, and have fun slaying some demons!

Roberto Piraino “Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager – 505 Games

こんにちは、IGAです。

今月はE3に行ってまいりました。最近は毎年参加していますが、いつ来ても世界最大規模のゲームショーだというのを実感します。普段会えないようなクリエーターとも会える貴重な機会でもあります。

今回、Bloodstainedは、505 Gamesでクローズドではありますが、展示させていただきました。そこで展示したものを、権利を持っている方にはなりますが、ベータバッカーデモとして公開いたします。別）そこで展示したものを、権利を持っている方にはなりますが、ベータバッカーデモとして２１日に公開いたしました。

前回のバッカーアップデートで簡単に内容を説明しましたので、おさらいプラスもう少し詳細をお知らせします。まずは船で今回の舞台の地へ向かい、悪魔に滅ぼされた村、そして悪魔の巣食う城のエントランスへと進んでいきます。

錬金術によって悪魔の結晶シャードとリンクする能力を植え付けられた少女「ミリアム」幼少からミリアムと育ち彼女をサポートする錬金術師「ヨハネス」今回の事件の原因になったミリアムと同じ力を持つシャードリンカー「ジーベル」悪魔鎮めるために教会から派遣されたエクソシスト「ドミニク」ドミニクと共にこの地に派遣された、悪魔につながる全てを憎む侍「斬月」１０年前の悪魔の大召喚を行った老獪な錬金術師「アルフレッド」今回の作品を彩る登場人物たちのドラマの一端を感じ取ってもらえるかと思います。

ゲーム的な部分に関しては、アクションゲームとして自信をもって遊べるものを用意しています。まぁ、当たり前のことではあるのですが…。特に、皆さんから要望の多かった必殺技！ちゃんと用意してますよ！ほんの一部にはなりますが、色々試して探してもらえればよいかと思います。そして新しい敵と新しいシャードも登場します。

今回はアクション以外の部分として、ショップでの買い物、錬成によるアイテムの創造も可能です。錬成に関しては、ただアイテムを作るだけでなく、シャードの能力を上げたり、料理を作ることもできます。錬成自体はヨハネスが行うのですが、料理に関してだけはミリアムによる手作り料理となります。実はこの料理、食べることで体力の回復ができますが、初めて食べるものは永続的にパラメータがアップする仕組みを用意しています。つまり、今回のBloodstainedは経験値集めてレベルを上げること以外に、料理を作って食べることでもパラメータを上げることができるわけです。これは積極的に素材を集めて料理をしまくるしかないですね！それと、シャードの錬成の話になりますが、今回はシャードの能力を上げる方法が２種類あります。一つはシャードの数を集めること。それによってシャードの力、つまり威力だったり、数値的な強さが上がっていきます。二つ目は先ほどから書いているシャードの錬成です。これはシャードに特定の素材を組み合わせてシャードの質自体を編成させるものです。簡単に言うと、大きさが大きくなったり、数が増えたりするのです。この２種類の方法でシャードの能力を鍛え上げていきます。それもこのベータバッカーデモで体験ができます。

そして、クエストも用意しているとアナウンスしてました。今回は、滅ぼされた村の生き残り「リンジー」のクエストです。彼女は村人の仇を取ってもらうべく、ミリアムに依頼をしてきます。まず最初は彼女の旦那さんの仇、モート８匹の討伐です。ここでモートの説明を…。この敵は、悪魔になり切れていない悪魔の元みたいな存在です、そのため、いろんなものを取り込んで悪魔として成り立ちます。そんな敵モートを８匹。そのあたりにぼちぼちと徘徊してますので、かるーくクリアして報酬をゲットしましょう。ちなみに、悪魔になりきれていない存在のため、シャード化しないキャラクターでもあります。

こんな感じのベータバッカーデモですが、ぜひプレイしていただいて、ご意見を聞かせていただければと存じます。

ようやく Backer Beta Demo (BBD) が配信されました！皆様のフィードバックを頂くために、いくつかのやり方を紹介します。

まず、皆様にはSteamの掲示板「Community Hub」にアクセス権限が渡されています。

BBDをインストールした人だけが投稿できます。

次に、公式掲示板にフィードバックとバグ報告専用のスレッドが作られます。

最後に、急ぎの案件は、我々505 Games のカスタマーサービスのポータルで対応します。

テクニカルサポート、バグ報告、フィードバック等、お送りください。

上記を含め、オフィシャルDiscordサーバーも参加してBBDを遊びながらカジュアルな会話をするのも良し。

これだけ連絡方法があると大丈夫かと思います。

忌憚のない、ご意見をお待ちしております！

-ロベルト・ピライノ "Angel-Corlux"

UPDATE #71

Development Update - Talking Beta Feedback and more

July 31, 2018

Your first month with the beta backer demo is in the books, and the team is already poring over the feedback all of you have provided. For this month's update IGA takes a look at some of the comments they've already begun to process and gives us a look at another new shard.

Hi everyone, IGA here.

Your feedback has begun to reach us, and it makes me very glad that the Beta Backer Demo has been delivered to the backers. While there were many positive comments, there were obviously many critical comments and suggestions about the current build as well. Being able to get all of that feedback is what's so great about a Kickstarter project.

Although we will be working on a lot of different areas, we wanted to acknowledge some of the more common feedback we received. For example, we have received many comments regarding the environment lighting and the lip-sync animation. Lighting is being progressively adjusted and we are making sure to proceed carefully since it affects things like processing speed and storage significantly.

In regards to the lip-sync, the shape of the mouth and timing is most likely the problem, we will be polishing this. We have also noticed that the sounds were called out, such as the audio balance and repetitive shouts. We will take some time and do our best to improve that. And of course, since the Beta Backer Demo is at the work-in-progress stage, there are still a lot of bugs that we will be fixing along the way for the full game.

Although we won't be able to work on every piece of feedback, we are going to pick up as many as we can and continue forward. Especially that wicked crate boss! We definitely need to nerf it.

Finally, regarding some of the comparisons of current and past graphical quality, while much of that is due to shaders and lighting work not being fully implemented into the demo, we are aware of your feedback and will be keeping a special focus on making sure the graphical quality is as high as possible. We are anxious to report on fixes and improvements we make, so please look forward to it.

We would also like to share a new shard with you, called "Heretical Grinder." This is a directional shard that summons a spinning blade from Miriam's hand, which you can move around with the right analog stick. Using it can be kind of addicting...

Thank you for your continued support and feedback. All of us will continue to work hard!

Now that you've seen some of the sights of the world of Bloodstained in the new demo we can't wait to see the new fanart! Remember to tag everything you make with #igavania or #bloodstained to help us find it!

Speaking of the demo, ArtPlay's own Mana Ikeda took some time out of her busy schedule to imagine the scene at the "Crate Boss" some of you found yourselves matched up with while playing earlier this month.

Please keep your cool, Miriam—there are still so many other bosses for you to face off against...

The 505 team has been combing the forums, the Discord, and all the other channels to make sure IGA and the team are fully connected to your feedback. Here's Bloodstained's brand manager to fill you in on what they've been up to:

Hello everyone and thank you so much for the amazing avalanche of feedback for the Beta Backer Demo! As we’ve said in the past, we’re really listening closely and going over every single bug report and general request. 505 and ArtPlay have gone over the outpouring of info, images and more, and we’re going to be hard at work to make sure that we don’t ignore all the valuable insights gleaned from the community.

While this update is a bit lighter on the “new and sexy” stuff to reveal, we wanted to take a moment to absolutely let everyone know that the feedback you give us is not just for lip service. Also, look forward to next month’s Kickstarter update where we’ll be addressing several very important topics, including the release date for the game.

Roberto Piraino “Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager

505 Games

UPDATE #72

Development Update - An important message from IGA

August 20, 2018

Hi everyone, IGA here.

There are two important announcements we would like to make in this month’s update.

Our first announcement is that the game will now launch in 2019. The most important reason for this is to raise the quality level, especially after all the very valuable feedback from the Beta Backer Demo.

The second announcement is that the game will no longer launch on PlayStation Vita. This decision is largely due to Sony’s plans to discontinue the Vita console, ending production of physical copies and stopping certain online store support features.

It is extremely unfortunate, but as a result, we won’t be releasing the game on Vita. For the backers who have ordered the PS Vita version of the game, you will be able to choose another platform or request a refund.

This process should be expected through an email that will be sent by Fangamer. It may be troublesome, but please be sure to respond and make the changes. [Note: Vita backers will be receiving an e-mail with additional instructions soon. Vita backers who would like to change platforms can do so now on their survey pages. Vita backers who backed at an unlimited tier and can receive a refund over PayPal can submit a request before 9/20/18 to initiate a manual refund of the affected games.]

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment, but rest assured we are working harder than ever to deliver the game we all made happen together, please bear with us for a little longer and I thank you for your continued support.

Hey everyone, we’re sorry to make you wait a little longer for Bloodstained, but you can trust that this really is in the best interest of the game – and our players. We assure you we’re using the extra time to make Bloodstained even better, based on your input.

Being a huge PlayStation & Sony fan myself, I also know cancelling the Vita version of the game may be disappointing to some of you, but with Sony’s plans to discontinue the console and physical production of games, removing Vita titles from PS+ lineups etc., it was an unfortunate but necessary decision to make. We really hope you’ll continue to support us on one of the other platforms available.

If you have any concerns about these updates, please come talk to me and our great Sr. Community Manager, Jason Ryan, on Discord, Facebook, Twitter or our forums: We’re always happy to discuss and answer your questions.

Thank you again to everyone who continues to support us with your feedack and passion for Bloodstained. Stay tuned for more announcements as development progresses!

Roberto Piraino, a.k.a. “Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager – 505 Games

UPDATE #73

Development Update - Lighting Optimization, GOG Demo, and More

September 27, 2018

As we creep into autumn we've got a new development update for you from IGA, filled with news about what the team's been working on. Let's get right to it:

Hi everyone, IGA here.

We would like to give a report of our current development progress.

Lately, the team has been working on the lighting of the environment and the lip-sync of the characters.

We’re aiming for a 2D-style look and feel in this game, and we have special techniques in place to achieve it, but they also create additional developmental challenges for us. However, after a number of adjustments, as well as finding the right lighting angle and contrast, we finally feel that we’ve found the aesthetic we were searching for.

Recently we’ve also found a new method for the fog that is less computationally expensive for the environment. My slogan - always pursue more beautifully, and more lightly.

As for the lip-syncing, we’ve made adjustments to the height of the mouths, which were too large before. Right now we've only adjusted Miriam and Dominique, but it's looking good so far! We will continue to work on the rest of the characters the same way.

We’re also happy to announce the launch of the Beta Backer Demo for our GOG backers! We didn’t want to delay the launch of the demo while we completed preparations for its launch on GOG, but now we are able to distribute GOG versions of the demo to the people who chose it as their platform. We will continue to support the main game for GOG from here on, so please do not worry.

In addition to the adjustments I’ve told you about, we’re actually also working on the final boss right now. There were many issues and challenges that we are facing using the original design, but I guess that's pretty common for us. We have been developing new solutions each day and now we’re coming close to creating the final boss that everyone is hoping for. This will be the last time we talk about the final boss until the game's release—please look forward to it!

[Fangamer note: If you chose GOG for your Bloodstained final game platform, we'll be assigning GOG demo keys to your backer management page tonight. If you don't have that link handy, you can get it back on our survey resender page.]

Lots of great new stuff in the fanart feeds this month! If you'd like to be part of a future fanart spotlight, tag your work with #IGAVANIA or #bloodstained on your social media platform of choice and we'll find it.

Hello, everyone!

You may not have seen me around, so I’ll introduce myself. My name is Jason Ryan and I have the privilege to be a part of the Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night team as a Senior Community Manager from 505 games.

I’d like to thank everyone for their feedback on the recent Beta Backer Demo. We are excited to see the enthusiasm and excitement everyone has for the game and your willingness to let us know what we can do to make the game the best it can be before launch.

In the weeks following the new demo’s release we received hundreds of suggestions, feedback threads and bug reports on Reddit, the Forums and on Steam. All of these player-made posts were compiled and sent to both the 505 and Artplay production teams. From there the lists are prioritized and production needs and schedules established. Our goal is to make sure that when RotN ships, it’s worth the wait.

We appreciate all of the Backers and fans who have joined us along this journey with Bloodstained. If you’d like to keep up to date on everything that is going on, be sure to join the ever-excellent Bloodstained community on Discord, Facebook, Twitter, or the forums.

Thank you.

Jason Ryan, a.k.a. “Question”

Sr Community Manager – 505 Games

UPDATE #74

Development Update - The Killer Barber and More Progress

October 25, 2018

We've got some development updates for you—along with an extremely mood-lit look at IGA's Halloween costume—so let's get right to it!

Happy Halloween! IGA here. I am delivering this message to you exactly as you see me here in the photo.

By the way, I got all this in Akihabara.

This time we would like to introduce a new enemy. This is Killer Barber, the murderous hairdresser. Well... the name really speaks for itself. He uses his scissor arms to climb across the ceiling and swiftly attack towards the player. This character can also—well, I should leave it at that for now.

Our staff has been working on placing enemies based on difficulty level.

When I see the Nightmare Mode enemy placements, I always wonder if it's okay to make a game this difficult. I’ve worked on enemy placement in games before, so I understand that the person making those decisions becomes more and more immune to difficulty level over time. I think that’s what’s happening to the team now—they’re getting a little vicious with it…

We've also been working on the models—we've been meticulously adjusting each character. In particular, we're focused on facial features. Gebel is looking more and more handsome these days...

Before and After

Before and After

Every day we fight through the challenges of development, but we know we're working to create a game worthy of reaching everyone's hands. Thank you for your continued support.

Been working diligently through Inktober? Hoping to find yourself in a future fanart spotlight? Tag your art #bloodstained or #igavania on your platform of choice and we'll find it! (If you need a prompt... check out that updated Gebel.)

Happy Halloween, Army of the Night!

We hope all of you have some fun Halloween plans for the coming weekend (because it’s weird to celebrate Halloween on the first weekend of November). As you can imagine, Halloween is one of our favorite times of year. I am getting out my own favorite costume for this year’s company Halloween party.

"You've got red on you."

"You've got red on you."

We hope that today’s updates are as exciting for you as they are for us! The Killer Barber is a particularly nasty enemy. He doesn’t politely walk towards you, he quickly climbs around the walls and ceiling to attack from various angles. Weapon and shard choices really begin to matter when facing these more complex foes. I haven’t had the pleasure of fighting him in the game yet, but he’s going to be a fun one.

The before and after of Gebel is a small taste of the visual updates that have been happening behind the scenes.

We know everyone is waiting to see a more comprehensive view of the game’s visual improvements. A lot of that work is still in progress and not ready to be revealed. We are going to wait until the look of the game is mostly locked before we share.

The same applies for our release date. The number one question right now is “When?” and the second most popular is “approximately when?”. Until we hit certain internal development milestones we are not going to discuss the release date because there are still variables; we do not want to give out a date and then change it. Even saying Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter or 1st/2nd/3rd/4th quarter would result in confusion if we had to release slightly later or earlier than announced, or at the start or end of one of those cycles. We do have a target date internally that we feel confident about, but until we can nail it down, we will wait to reveal it.

I want to thank all of our backers and fans for your patience as work progresses on the game. The final game is going to be worth it.

Jason Ryan, a.k.a. “Question”

Sr Community Manager – 505 Games

UPDATE #75

Development Update – A Hunter Joins The Fray

November 29, 2018

If you're a fan of side-scrolling action games—and I have an inkling that many of you are—we've got some excellent news for you in this month's update. I'll let IGA tell you about it.

It's me, IGA.

For this month's update, we have an incredible support who will be joining the Bloodstained team. Can you guess who? It's WayForward!

That's right, WayForward, the makers of Shantae! As you may already know, they are top-tier when it comes to side-scrolling action games. There is even a staff member who previously worked on one of my projects, which is incredibly encouraging.

In consideration of their past achievements, WayForward will be helping the development team realize my vision for this game. Maybe I am even more excited than everyone else - with their help Bloodstained will become an even better game.

We also have some new enemy concept art to show you. This is Cyhyreath.

Cyhyreath first appears to be crouching on the floor. Once the player approaches her, she will fly around and make a death shriek to attack the player.

It's a traditional gothic horror design, and I think it's lovely.

I was talking with the team just before writing this comment and, with WayForward's help, they have been busy helping to improve the game and fix any bugs that pop up.

Speaking of which, there's a really tough one that’s making the game crash that needs to be fixed before the game reaches everyone, so we are scything through them all.

Thank you, everyone, for your continued support!

As always we've got collected some of your fanart to show off. If you'd like to join the parade, make sure to tag your art #IGAVANIA or #bloodstained to help us find it. (Maybe we can get some Bloodstained/Shantae crossover art after today's announcement?)

We cannot be happier to have WayForward on the project. Best known for the Shantae series, they bring decades of development experience to help us bring Bloodstained to the finish line.

As for Cyhyreath, she’s just one of many amazing enemies that are in various levels of completion behind the scenes. We want to make sure that there are plenty of surprises on launch day, so while we will show off some of the villains IGA has waiting, we certainly won’t show them all.

To address the ‘when’ questions that pop up each time we don’t announce a release date, I’ll point to my comment in our previous Kickstarter Update. As soon as we have a concrete release date, we will let everyone know. With WayForward on the project, we get closer to that announcement.

Thanks for being with us as we continue to work on Bloodstained!

Jason Ryan, a.k.a. “Question”

Sr Community Manager – 505 Games

UPDATE #76

December Update - Development News and the Team at Work

December 27, 2018

Merry Christmas. IGA here.

This year is coming closer to an end...

In this update, we have a very important announcement to make. Bloodstained will no longer be supported on Mac and Linux. We have made this tough decision due to challenges of supporting middleware and online feature support and making sure we deliver on the rest of the scope for the game. We will be offering backers who planned to play the game on Mac and Linux the option to change the platform of their order. If you would like to change your platform, please send an email with your new platform request from the email address associated with your Kickstarter pledge. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and we hope for your understanding.

Development has reached its peak — we are currently checking the performance of Bloodstained on each platform. Overall, we are done with enemy placement and entering the adjustment phase. But there are still many progression-blocking bugs that must be taken care of.

I’d like to pass along some photos of the development team.

IGA at work

It doesn't look like we are in a crunch period, does it? But we actually work quietly like this most of the time.

WayForward have already helped us improve the game in a number of ways, including creating incredible assets and lighting placements that we’re looking forward to.

Today we’d like to share a new enemy concept art. This is Forneus, a demon fish. I would hate to come face to face with him at an aquarium… Well, Forneus will be useful for cooking, and will surely be delicious.

Our whole team is working very hard. We look forward to your continued support.

メリークリスマスIGAです。

今年ももうすぐ終わりですね…。

今回のバッカーアップデートは、まず一つお知らせがあります。

BloodstainedはMacとLinuxをサポートすることを中止いたしました。

ミドルウェア周りの対応とオンライン周りが難しく、ゲームをお届けするためにも断念することとしました。

なにとぞご了承いただければと存じます。

MacとLinux版を希望のバッカーには機種変更のオプションを入れます。

詳細はファンゲーマーのコメントをご参照ください。

現在、開発は本当に佳境で、現在では各プラットフォームでも動作確認が行われています。

敵セットは大体終わり、調整段階に入っています。

ただ、まだ大きなストップバグが残っているので、それを何とか取り切りたいと思っています。

現状の開発現場の写真を掲載します。

修羅場に見えないかもしれないですが、粛々と作業しているさまが見て取れるかと思います。

ウェイフォワードさんに手伝ってもらっているブラッシュアップ部分ですが、背景の一部に関してとても素敵なアセットとライティングで初期段階ではありますが、期待できるものも見えてきました。

まだ公開できるものはないですが、これらも期待してもらえればと存じます。

今回はフォルネウスという魚の悪魔のコンセプトアートを用意しました。

海水浴に行ってこんな魚に出会ったら、本当に嫌ですね…。

ただ今回は料理にも使われるので、きっと美味なんでしょうね…。

というわけで、制作スタッフ頑張っておりますので、ますますの応援お願いします。

As always we've collected some of our favorite fanart from the Bloodstained community for your perusal. If you'd like to be a part of this gallery in a future update, tag your art #igavania or #bloodstained to help us find it!

Happy Holidays, Army of the Night.

As IGA mentioned, the team is working on fine-tuning enemy placement throughout the game. This polishing effort is a very important and delicate step. Moving the spawn point for a creature five steps in either direction or adding an additional creature can have a big impact on the flow of a level. It takes a lot of trial and error to get it ‘just right’ and we want it to be ‘just right’.

In order to get to this point a huge amount of work had to be completed. Level layouts, enemies, animations, assets, combat systems, etc. Due to WayForward’s help on crushing bugs, asset creation and lighting, each level is being made to play better and to look better at the same time.

There’s still a lot to do, but this is an exciting stage of development as we work towards our 2019 launch.

Thanks for your patience!

We hope everyone has a great holiday and a Happy New Year.

Jason Ryan, a.k.a. “Question”

Sr Community Manager – 505 Games

Discuss this update on the Bloodstained forums or in the Bloodstained Discord.

UPDATE #77

Development Update - Crafting Shards and Squashing Bugs

January 31, 2019

January has almost come to a close, so it's time for an updated look at the team's progress! Here's the latest from IGA:

Hello everyone! IGA here.

We would like to talk about the shard-crafting system. We’ve discussed the crafting element of Bloodstained in the past, and I’m sure everyone knows about item crafting and the shard rank-up system from the Beta Backer Demo.

However, in addition to all those… you can actually create new shards from crafting!

Let's begin with an example. Riga Storaema is a Conjure Shard — these were formerly known as Trigger Shards — that conjures fire columns.

Rigo Storaema

If you upgrade this shard, you’ll be able to create a new Directional Shard called Riga Dohin.

Using an existing shard and materials to create a new shard. (You can keep your old one, too!)

Using an existing shard and materials to create a new shard. (You can keep your old one, too!)

(As a side note, the Riga Storaema shard you used as a base will not disappear after you’ve created a new shard; instead, the item used with the shard will disappear. In other words, the item acts as a catalyst to create a newly enhanced ability from the existing ability. So you get to use your favorite shard to create new ones without losing it. I think it's a pretty good deal!)

Voila! Riga Dohin.

Our current phase of development has been fixing bugs, bugs, and bugs... There was a particular bug that caused lighting to weigh heavily on system resources which is now gone. With that solved, we can now be more flexible with lighting, which we’re improving on a daily basis. We’re all working hard to deliver a solid game to everyone.

We're still going strong. Thank you for your support!

こんにちは！

IGAです。

今回のバッカーアップデートでは、シャードの錬成についての情報です。

以前から錬成の話はでていて、アイテムを作ったりすることができるのは知っているかと思います。

また、シャードのランクをアップさせる手段としても錬成を使用するのも、ベータバッカーデモで体験できたかと思います。

実は…ここだけの話ですが…

シャードの錬成で、新しいシャードを作ることができるんです！

具体的な例として、火柱を発生させる「リィガ・ストライマ」というトリガーシャードがあります。

これを、さらに錬成することで、「リィガ・ドイン」というディレクショナルシャードを作り出すことができます。

ここで一つ補足として、元となるシャード、今回の場合は「リィガ・ストライマ」ですが、それは無くならないのです。

ちなみに、一緒に合成するアイテムはなくなります。

つまり、触媒のアイテムを消費して、元のシャードから新しい能力をもつシャードを生み出すイメージだと思ってもらえれば良いかと思います。

無くならないという事は、気に入ったシャードの能力を失わずに、新しい力を手に入れられるという事ですので、これはお得ですね！

現在、開発では、バグ、バグ、バグ…。

バグを取りまくりなのです。

中にはバグが原因でライティングの処理負荷が大きかった部分がありまして、バグを取ることで解消。

それによって、ライティングの向上につながるなんてのもあり、ブラッシュアップも日々磨かれています。

皆さんに安心して手に取ってもらえるように頑張ります。

まだまだ、応援お願いします！

Have some fanart you'd like to see featured in a future Bloodstained backer update? Tag it #IGAVANIA or #bloodstained on your platform of choice and we'll do our best to find it!

Hey, all!

We hope you are excited for this reveal of shard crafting. Being able to gather the materials and develop additional shards (without losing your existing ones) will add greatly to your arsenal.

Between item crafting, upgrading shards and now being able to craft new shards (and upgrading those too), you’ll be able to choose the loadout that is just right for you and the enemies you’ll be facing. Managing your weapons, items and shards will be important as you get deeper into the game.

The screenshots above are from the current build of the game. This is just a small taste of some of the visual work that has been happening behind the scenes over the last few months. We will delve into the visual changes in a future development update.

We appreciate your patience as the teams from Artplay, WayForward and DICO are continuing their work on the game and we march towards our 2019 launch.

Jason Ryan, a.k.a. “Question”

Sr Community Manager – 505 Games

皆さん、こんにちは！

シャード錬成の公開について楽しみして頂けたでしょうか。

既存のシャードを失わず、新しい素材を集めて進化できると戦いに大いに役立ちますね。

アイテム錬成、シャード強化、そして新しいシャードの錬成（もちろん強化可能）により、

自分に適した戦い方で敵に挑めます。

ゲームを先に進めるためにも武器、アイテム、シャードを管理することが重要な要素になります。

上記にあるスクリーンショットは現状のビルドからのものです。

この月々の間、裏で少しだけビジュアルが一部変わっている様子が見受けられると思います。

ビジュアルの変更点は今後のアップデートで詳しく説明します。

ArtPlay、WayForward、およびDICOのチームが2019年のローンチに向けて前進している中、

長々とお待ちしている皆様に感謝しています。

ジェイソン・ライアン（Question)

505 Games Sr コミュニティマネージャー

UPDATE #78

Surprise! Announcing Bloodstained's release window

February 13, 2019

The release window for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has been announced! Enjoy some brand-new footage and prepare for Summer 2019 in the Release Window Announce Trailer below:

UPDATE #79

Development Update - New Shards and Graphical Updates

February 28, 2019

It's been an eventful month for Bloodstained, and for this month's update IGA Is here to provide some background on the trailers you saw during the release window announcement. IGA, take it away:

Hi everyone, IGA here.

How was the trailer? We were glad to see that it was generally well received. The Nintendo Direct trailer was different depending on the region, so there was a lot of new content shown this time around. While everything we show you are still work-in-progress, for this month's update we are going to recap and give some additional details about what you saw.

This time we were able to show the 3D stage map that goes through the outer wall of the tower. This is a boss that Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon was based on and a new boss for this game. There was also a sneak peek of the character customization system.

We would like to tell you a little more about the "Reflector Ray" shard and "Invert" shard you saw at work during the trailer. These two shards will be the core elements for maneuvering through the castle, and we've wanted to share them with you for a long time.

Reflector Ray is a Directional Shard that is a key feature specific to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. By using the right analog stick, the player will be able to adjust the angle and move through areas as a light ray, enabling them to move through small spaces with ease.

While Miriam is moving as a light ray she becomes invincible, so there may also come a time where you need to use it while fighting enemies.

Next up is the Invert shard. This is a Skill Shard. The concept is to play the inverted castle wherever and whenever! Feels like being a ninja. Only Miriam is able to invert gravity. I hope everyone will enjoy the feeling of falling upwards.

We also worked very hard to provide a feature to the game that many of you asked for. You can see it in action in these videos. Many of you have asked for this feature and something seems to be moving that wasn't moving before...

After seeing everyone's feedback on the Beta Backer Demo, we have been adjusting the graphics, as we mentioned in the previous update. As you have probably seen in the trailer, a lot has changed since the demo. Our main changes came from adding fixes to the current assets as well as revisiting our lighting methods to further improve the game's overall appearance.

Did we do a good job?

We will continue to work hard until the completion of the game with our growing team. Thank you for your continued support and we will do all we can do to have the game reach and satisfy everyone.

こんにちは、IGAです。

皆さん、任天堂ダイレクトのムービーはご覧いただきましたでしょうか？

ユーザーの皆様からの評価が良いようでほっと一安心です。

実は、配信地域によってちょっと内容が違うのですが、新規でお見せする内容が多かったかと思います。

まだまだ制作途中ではありますが、今回のバッカーアップデートでは、この映像で発表した内容に関して、少しだけ補足説明しようかと思います。

今回、塔の外壁部分を進む３Dのステージマップ。

CotMの元になったボスではありますが、このタイトルでは新規のボス。

ミリアムの着せ替え等々、見ることができたかと思います。

そして、何か余計に揺れてます。

バッカーの皆様から要望の大きかった揺れものがゆらゆらと揺れまくりです。

その中で、今回発表した新シャード「リフレクション」と「インバート」について補足です。

これらは両方共に、今回の中核になる移動用のシャードになります。

ここまで公開したい気持ちを押さえてようやくお披露目です。リフレクションはBloodstained: Ritual of the Nightの特徴の一つでもあるディレクショナルシャードになります。

右のアナログスティックで角度を調整して、反射する光線となって移動します。

これで入れない狭い隙間も自在に入ることができます。

光線になっている間は無敵になりますので、戦闘でも使える場面も出てくるかもしれないですね。

次に、インバートですが、これはスキルシャードになります。

コンセプトは、どこでも逆さ城です！

ミリアムだけの重力を反転させる能力になります。

まさに気分は忍者って感じです。

上に落ちる感覚を楽しんでもらいたいです。

ベーターバッカーデモで皆様からのフィードバックを受けまして、ビジュアルの修正をしているのは以前からご報告してります。

映像からも分かったかと思いますが、大幅に修正が入りました。

主な変更点は、アセットの修正追加、ライティング手法の全面見直しになります。

かなりクォリティが上がったのではないでしょうか？

ここから完成に向けて、人員の増強もはかり、皆さんの手元に届くまで頑張っていきますので、引き続き応援お願いします。

While the devs were overhauling the game's visuals, fans were continuing to create their own!

If you'd like your work to be included in a future Fanart Spotlight, tag it #bloodstained or #igavania so we can find it!

Happy February, all!

The big news this month was the Release Window Trailer. It’s been fun to see the analysis of the various shots and speculation on the various shards, weapons and enemies.

The trailer also revealed more of the visual updates that have been happening since the backer beta. Not every shot had been overhauled in time for the trailer (or had all the textures in place as the eagle-eyed noticed), so expect more tweaking between now and launch.

Here are some notes from the trailer:

00:22 – Chandeliers did not move when Miriam walked on them, now they swing and react to her weight and movement, after a fan asked for that on Twitter.

00:25 – Tweaking and experimenting with lava lighting, glow and effects

00:45 – Level background is missing. “Chic grey” is not our new color scheme…

00:46 – We want to make foliage in the back and foreground move / react to the boss battle / wind etc. (no promises!)

00:48 – We want to make general improvements to the demonic kitty. (again, no promises!)

00:53 – Bloodless boss and level have already been completely redone and revisited, as mentioned in the KS update.

In case you didn’t discover the secret from Iga’s comment, Miriam’s hair now moves! Every hair option she can equip will now react with physics to her movement. We received a lot of feedback from fans pointing out that the “helmet hair” was jarring compared to how beautiful Miriam was, so after a lot of hard work from everyone on the team, it’s now a feature! We hope you enjoy this small but important detail.

While there’s still visual work to be done, we think you can get a pretty good idea of the look of the game.

Summer 2019. We had initially planned to wait until we had a specific date before making any launch announcements. Given the community desire to have at least a launch window and the opportunity to get the game featured on Nintendo Direct, we opted to change course a bit.

Being able to get Bloodstained in front of millions of Nintendo fans was a great opportunity for the game. While this is a Kickstarter project, it is also a retail product and we need to take advantage of any opportunity we can to ensure its success. If the game does well enough, the goal is to make Bloodstained into an ongoing series of games.

As we march towards launch, there will be a lot of new info coming out. We will continue to share development progress and updates and make reveals here for the KS community, but you’ll also see info in other places such as twitter or news articles. We will work to do one-off updates when big announcements are made like with the Nintendo Direct, and the regular updates (last Thursday of the month) will serve as a monthly recap and update on dev progress & info so if you prefer to use only Kickstarter you don’t have to follow multiple sources to get all the most important news.

Thanks for your patience! It’s going to be an exciting year.

Jason Ryan

Sr Community Manager - 505 Games

皆さん、ハッピーフェビュラリー！

今回のリリーストレーラーはビッグニュースでしたね。

皆さんがシャード、武器、敵等の分析している所を見るのがとても楽しかったです。

このトレーラーはベータバッカーデモ以来に調整されたビジュアルが大きく公開されました。

目ざとい人たちは気づいているのかもしれませんが、全てを回収しているわけではありませんので、

今後リリースまで色々調整が行われる見込みです。

トレーラーのメモ：

00:22 - 以前はシャンデリアが動いていませんでした、ツイッターに要望もあり現在ミリアムの重さと合わせて動きがあります。

00:25 - 溶岩のライティング、輝きやエフェクト等の調整

00:45 - 背景が消えていますね。「シックなグレー」はテーマカラーに入っていませんね…

00:46 - お約束はできませんが、背景や手前にある植物を風で揺らしたいですね。

00:48 - こちらも約束はできませんが、可能であれば猫も調整もしたいですね。

00:53 - アップデート内容の通り、ブラッドレスは完全に調整をされて更新されています。

00:00~最後 - IGAのコメントから気づいていない人もいるかもしれませんので、実はミリアムの髪が動くようになりました！

髪型を変更するとそれぞれの髪型にフィジックスを使用しているため、動くようになりました。

皆さんのフィードバックでよく見かけた「ヘルメット髪」がミリアムの良さを台無しにしているとつぶやかれていましたが、

ちゃんとした機能として実装されました。細かい実装ですが、喜んで頂けると幸いです。

まだこれからビジュアルの部分で調整がありますが、ゲームがどのような感じかご確認できると思います。

2019年夏。リリースの発表する時にちゃんとした日付が決まった時に発表する予定でした。

しかしコミュニティにせめてリリース期間を教えるのとニンテンドーダイレクトに出ることを考え、

少しコースが変わりました。

Bloodstainedを何万人の任天堂ファンに公開することはタイトルにとってとても貴重な機会でした。

キックスターターのプロジェクトでありながら、店頭に並ぶ商品として成功させることが大事です。

ゲームの成功はBloodstainedをシリーズとして続編を作ることが目的です。

ローンチに向け、今後新しい情報が公開されます。

開発の状況や更新をKSのコミュニティで公開されますが、

ツイッターや他のメディアからも公開されます。

ニンテンドーダイレクトみたいな大きいなアナウンスがある時にこのような単独KSアップデートを作ります。

これらと毎月最後の木曜日に通常のアップデートも行われますが、これはおさらいや開発の進捗用に今後更新されます。

長くお待ち頂きましてありがとうございます！今年がとても楽しみです。

ジェイソン・ライアン

Jason Ryan

Sr. Community Manager - 505 Games

UPDATE #80

Development Update: A long look at shortcuts

March 28, 2019

Spring has sprung—birds are chirping, bees are buzzing, but bugs are still getting squashed. For today's update IGA has chosen to introduce a function that dedicated Bloodstained players will especially enjoy.

Hello everyone, this is IGA.

For this month's update, we would like to introduce "Shortcuts."

You might ask, what kind of feature is this?

With shortcuts, you'll be able to create multiple sets of equipment and quickly interchange between them. Not only can you set weapons and armors, but shards can be manipulated with shortcuts as well. For example, you can create a movement set, attack set, or fire resistance set depending on the circumstances you're in. It's really convenient!

This is a feature that many people will not notice when they play the game, but we felt this update was a good opportunity to introduce it.

We've been gradually reducing the lingering bugs, and we're now so close to completion. So close! We've been adding talented staff; it's been a while since I've stayed overnight at the office.

Thank you for your continued support!

こんにちは、IGAです。

今月のバッカーアップデートは、ショートカットです。

どんな機能か？

それは、何種類かの装備を事前に作成することで、瞬時に装備を入れ替えることができるものです。

武器や防具はもちろんですが、シャードもセットできるので、例えば移動用セット、攻撃用セット、はたまた対炎セットといった具合に、状況によって使い分けすることができます。

なんて便利なんだ！

が、しかし、気が付かないとなかなか使わない機能でもありますので、今回紹介することにしました！

さて、今の開発状況ですが、バグも徐々に減って、完成に向けてまっしぐらです。

最後の仕上げとして、さらに優秀なスタッフも追加して、さらに私も久しぶりに数日の泊まり込みをしながら、頑張っております。

もう少しです。

さらなる応援をお願いします。

Here's our latest roundup of Bloodstained fanart! If you'd like to join artists like this in a future backer update, tag your art #IGAVANIA or #bloodstained to help us find it!

RAGECNDY

RAGECNDY

Pau Ulises

Pau Ulises

Shortcuts

Throughout development, players have consistently asked for the ability to quickly change weapons to adapt to the current situation. It’s been in the plans for quite a while, so we’re excited to finally reveal it to you all!

Having to pause and open the main menu, select the equipment slot, and then choose your new weapon... too much work, not enough fighting! When you’re facing an enemy and really need your claymore and fire-resistant armor, you want to be able to quickly swap out your gear for a more appropriate set.

Hold LEFT TRIGGER on a controller or press and hold TAB on the keyboard to open the shortcut menu. From there you can choose the slot that you have previously unlocked and edited. Press CONFIRM and you’re back in the action with your new set of gear.

You can edit a set directly, or copy a previously existing set into a new slot and adjust it from there.

If that were not enough, you can also set up Shortcuts with just consumables, for example a potion.

After the potion is consumed, you can go back to your original equipment set and get back into the game. Much faster than digging through your inventory.

Forums and Discord

I’d like to remind everyone about the Bloodstained forums. Since Kickstarter lacks comment threading or topics, the forums are an excellent place to discuss the game and the backer updates. We post a new thread for each of our monthly Kickstarter updates, and you can make your own topics as well.

Come to the forums and visit our Discord server! We will see you there.

Jason “Question” Ryan

Sr Community Manager, 505 Games

ショートカット

製作期間中、みなさんから常に武器や技を瞬時に変える方法があるのかと質問されていました。

実は当初から計画されていたのですが、やっと公開することができます。

ポーズをして、メニュー開いて、新しい装備選んで…めんどくさくて…もっとすぐに戦いたい！

敵に応じて、例えばクレイモアと炎耐性の防具が必要な場合、直ぐに装備を入れ替えられます。

コントローラーでは【Lトリガー】、キーボードでは【TAB】キーをホールドするとショートカットメニューが開きます。

そこから解除済されたスロットを編集することで使用できます。

セットを直接編集したり、既に装備しているものをそのままスロットにコピーしてから編集することも可能です。

アイテム枠にポーションをセットをすると、スロットにポーションの所持数も表示されます。

ショートカットでスロットを変えた瞬間、アイテム枠にポーションがセットされていると自動で使用されます。

使用した後は別スロットで元の装備に切り替えることもできます。

メニューでイベントリーに戻るよりとても早いです。

「ショートカット」に関しまして以上です。

-----

フォーラム

キックスターターのコメント欄はスレッドやトピックで会話することができないと考えると、Bloodstainedのフォーラムでゲームの最新情報や議論するのに最適な場所です。

毎月、新しいキックスターターアップデートが更新されるときに専用のスレッドを立てるので、こちらのリンク先でご意見やトピックを作成することができます。

bloodstained.forums.net/

お待ちしております。

ジェイソン・ライアンJason Ryan

Sr. Community Manager - 505 Games

UPDATE #81

Introducing the Bloodstained: Bloodstained Edition

April 1, 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

505 Games and ArtPlay are proud to announce the 'Bloodstained: Bloodstained Edition’!

For only $999 (or $666 for Kickstarter backers) true Igavaniacs will receive the game on the platform of their choice, encased in 0.5 liters of blood drawn from famed game creator Koji Igarashi.

Each pouch will be one in an exclusive, limited-number collector’s series, featuring handcrafted, laser-printed details like collection date, blood type designation, and a barcode of authenticity that definitely can’t be scanned for any hidden messages.

Quantity will be limited to 10 and will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Although we are excited to offer this ultimate edition to fans everywhere, we do need to provide some disclaimers:

505 Games and ArtPlay accept no liability for any damages, injuries or loss of profit due to misuse of the Bloodstained: Bloodstained edition—including but not limited to transfusions, ingestion and attempting to use the game disc.

Ships internationally with the following exceptions: North Korea, Transylvania, international waters, Antarctica, Pangea

Our legal team commented on cloning: “What? No that won’t give them rights to the game. What are you even talking about? Who do you report to?”

Blood processing services provided by Dr. David Chang.

Blood type may or may not be accurate. The brand manager forgot to ask IGA what his blood type is.

Bloodstained: Bloodstained Edition will be available Summer 2019.

UPDATE #82

April Development Mini-Update: PAX East and Switch Stats

April 25, 2019

Greetings, Army of the Night!

This is not your monthly KS update! We have to delay our regularly scheduled monthly Kickstarter Update to Wednesday, May 1! We appreciate your patience.

In the meantime, here is a report from the recent PAX East convention in Boston and details on the Switch version of the game.

Bloodstained at PAX East 2019

This month we brought Bloodstained to PAX East in Boston. We were fortunate to meet many backers and current fans, and show off the game to new players as well.

The PC demo area at PAX West

The PC demo area at PAX West

Overall the show went very well, despite some challenges with the setup for Switch. It was exciting to get an updated build of the game in front of players for the first time.

The demo contained the Galleon level you have seen in the 2018 Backer demo, but the visuals and gameplay were updated. We wanted players to get the best experience possible from the game and have a good shot at battling the boss, even if it was just for a quick death, so we let the demos play a little longer on PC.

Backer Sunraiser stopped by with her Alchemists' Curse Shirt and Miriam shard homage.

Backer Sunraiser stopped by with her Alchemists' Curse Shirt and Miriam shard homage.

I asked a number of players what they thought of the demo and the reaction was quite positive. Almost everyone said that the game ‘felt’ right and reminded them other games from the genre that they have loved in the past. That’s a big endorsement.

Bloodstained at Nintendo's PAX East booth

We did have an issue at the show with the Switch version that drew a lot of backer discussion. Due to the way the consoles were kept inside closed containers for the demo, there ended up being a significant overheating issue. This caused the game to drop frames and not run as smoothly as we would have liked. That same build (as well as subsequent ones) is much more stable when the console isn't overheated. There have also been optimizations since the show to prepare for console submission (an ongoing process).

With that said, here are the launch stats for the game on Switch.

Undocked: 720p (fixed) / 30 fps

Docked: 720p (dynamic) / 30 fps with additional effects / visuals, etc.

That’s it for today’s interim KS update. We will see you next week, when we’ll have some stuff that you might like. Probably. Maybe.

- Jason “Question” Ryan

Sr Community Manager - 505 Games

Hey everyone, Roberto (Angel-Corlux) here, as Question mentioned, the “real” update has been delayed until May 1, there’s just…a lot going into this one, and we needed some more time…

We were also at EGX Rezzed this month in London, UK! Check out this little recap video we threw together for everyone who couldn’t come in person:

I know everyone was looking forward to this update, this is just an appetizer to hold you over. To avert your gaze, distract, confuse and avoid questions I will now use my Blue Eyes White Dragon card!

See you next week, in the meantime come talk to us on the official Bloodstained Discord Server! We implemented this feature there where you can talk to us directly in real time, it’s pretty revolutionary cutting edge technology.

Roberto Piraino (Angel-Corlux)

Global Brand Manager

505 Games

UPDATE #83

Development Update: The Release Date Is Here!

May 2, 2019

Hey there everyone, Roberto from 505 Games here today with something one or two of you have been waiting for, I’ll let the trailer do the talking for me:

BLOODSTAINED’S RELEASE DATE IS LIVE!!!11!1!

Bloodstained will be launching June 18, 2019 on Steam, GoG, PS4 and XB1, and on June 25, 2019 for Switch. (Gotta get that polish!)

We’re looking forward to announcing more very soon, including details about full game features, stretch goal content, how the game will be offered for sale and where, preorder info etc.

Thank you everyone for your tremendous support and as always, come talk to us on Discord, we actually reply and stuff!

Roberto Piraino (Angel-Corlux)

Global Brand Manager

505 Games

UPDATE #84

Preorder update and launch information

May 23, 2019

Hey everybody, Roberto (Angel-Corlux) from 505 here. Preorders for Bloodstained are live! (Different platforms at different times.) The base price for the game is $39.99, and we have a lot more to announce…

First, the official Bloodstained website is live here! You can visit the site to preorder, check out all the trailers and screenshots we’ve released, sign up for our newsletter, and more. Feel free to link people to this site if they ever ask “what’s Bloodstained?” or similar questions.

Important: All Kickstarter order addresses will be locked in and FINAL on Friday, May 31, 2019 @ 11:59pm US PT. If you need to change your delivery address, please do so now. Once the deadline passes we won’t be able to change any addresses, no exceptions! (If you no longer have your survey link, you can have it resent to you.) Soon you'll be receiving an email asking you to confirm or update your address: Please confirm it, even if your address is already correct, to ensure you receive your game as soon as possible.

We’re working very hard to make sure that everyone will receive their physical and digital game copies on launch day for their respective platform; we’ll of course be updating everyone as soon as we’re able to confirm this. All the backer rewards aside from the physical copies of the game will arrive later in a single shipment; we're doing it this way to reduce the chances of anything interfering with our goal of the backers getting their games at launch.

Also, there will be a delay for the Amano poster backer reward. It’s still happening and coming your way, Amano-san has just been exceedingly busy, and when faced with a choice between having someone else do the art so the reward would come on time or having Amano make it, even if it comes a little late, I chose the latter. Hopefully you all agree we made the right choice, but we apologize for the delay nonetheless.

Will communicate more about this as soon as we can.

Speaking of backer rewards…stretch goals! Stretch goals will be coming after the game launches and will be free content updates for everyone who owns the game, not just backers. We are currently on track to update the game on day one with Boss Rush and Speedrun mode, as well as the Pure Miriam outfit.

Here’s a list of all the extra content coming later. No content has been cut from the stretch goals, so if you think anything is missing call it out and I’ll confirm / clarify. (There’s a lot to keep track of! ; _ ; )

Two additional playable characters

Local and online multiplayer for certain co-op and vs. modes

Roguelike mode

Chaos mode

Classic mode

Boss Revenge mode

Stay tuned for trailers and announcements of when this content will be launching!

As many of you will remember, we also asked the community a while back if they were against us making the ‘backer exclusive’ content (Iga Boss and Swordwhip) available to all players in some fashion. Almost 30,000 of you replied and the overwhelming response was that in general you were ok with it, and the most popular option was to sell it at a price that would respect the purchase the backers originally made.

To that end we’re announcing the “Iga’s Back Pack” DLC for $9.99, launching on June 18, 2019 for PS4, XB1 and PC, June 25, 2019 for Switch. Players who purchase this DLC will be able to fight the game’s creator, Koji Igarashi himself, and earn the powerful Swordwhip weapon by defeating him.

To try and be as transparent as possible, making this content available to everyone wasn’t just about making money. I mean obviously that’s a part of it, but the chief things I was considering was making sure everyone had a safe and legitimate way to get the full game experience no matter when they find out about Bloodstained, whether that’s 5 months ago or 5 years from now, and that we were being respectful of the price backers originally paid (hence the DLC pricing).

As someone who’s pirated games because of bull**** anti-consumer practices, or as a demo to try and then buy (something largely made obsolete by modern refund systems), I wanted to eliminate as many reasons to pirate Bloodstained as possible. All of the above = the “Iga’s Back Pack” DLC. Hope that makes sense. I understand that not everyone will be 100% happy with this decision, but hopefully this helps in understanding the reasoning behind it. And of course all backers entitled to this content will receive the DLC for free.

And finally, it was recently revealed that certain retailers would be giving away a Bloodstained FuturePak steel case for preorders of the game while supplies lasted. I’m happy to announce that we will be selling 800 stand-alone FuturePak steel cases for $14.99 exclusively to backers.

These cases feature a glossy metal renditioning of Mana Ikeda’s fantastic box art for the game, and an internal hinge so when fully opened the case creates a flat surface to display the art. The cases hold game discs and Switch cartridges. We’ll be sure to announce exactly when these will go on sale, so stay tuned!

That’s it for today everyone, as always, thank you for all your incredible support, this community is one of the most amazing I’ve ever seen. Come talk to us on Discord, we actually reply! And listen! It’s crazy, I know!

Talk to you soon…

Roberto Piraino

“Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager

505 Games

IGA here. The preorder for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has finally begun.

Finally...Finally, we are here.

This project was a series of many challenges.

Even though we are doing things the usual way, I have come to realize that it's full of hardships when the environment changes. However, the countdown to the game's release has begun.

To all backers: Please recommend Bloodstained to your friends who have not heard of it yet!

Our journey is not over yet, so we will continue to work our best!

こんにちは、IGAです。

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Nightのプレオーダー始まりました。

やっと…。

やっと、ここまでたどり着きました。

今回のプロジェクトは苦難の連続でした。

今まで通りにやるというのも、環境が変わるとなかなか大変なのがわかりました。

しかしながら、ついに発売までカウントダウンが始まったのです。

バッカーの皆さんは、まだ遊んだことのない友人たちに、薦めてください！

さぁ、まだまだ、頑張るぞ！

UPDATE #85

Release Day approaches—along with a new playable character

May 30, 2019

Hey everyone, Roberto Piraino “Angel-Corlux” from 505 here, and today we have a special announcement to make! Below is the trailer for the 2nd playable character in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night:

Zangetsu is confirmed playable! <

Wield the Zangetsuto katana and slice through the demons of hell, or torment and obliterate them with primal elemental talisman magics. Playing as Zangetsu opens up a whole host of new ways to enjoy the game, explore the castle with his hook chain and discover what secrets await his blade!

Many of you probably guessed or assumed correctly that this was coming for some time now, but I guarantee not a single one of you will ever guess who our third playable character is going to be… >:] (*angelic muahahahaing*)

We’ll have more to reveal soon!

Moving on to publishing details, we have an important announcement for our fans and backers in Japan.

Due to some unexpected logistical difficulties, Bloodstained won’t be publicly available in Japan on June 18 & 25, 2019. However, the game will still be coming to Japan on all platforms both digital and physical, we’re still working to confirm exact dates, and we’ll share more as soon as we have confirmed information.

The current plan is for Japanese backers to receive temporary Steam keys on June 18, 2019 so they can start playing right away while we confirm the public release date on all platforms for Japan.

In addition to the above regarding Japan, we also want to remind all our international fans that while the global launch for Bloodstained is June 18 and June 25, certain regions of the world use slightly different release dates. You can check if your regional release date differs from the global one by checking with your regional online / physical retailer.

It was also pointed out to me that in the last update we didn’t mention a few of the stretch goals that are coming; I knew I’d forget something with all that content!

Additional content available day 1:

Nightmare Mode

New Game Plus

8-bit retro level

Cheat codes

As before, stay tuned for trailers, reveals, previews and more for this content. Some of the above like the 8-bit retro level and cheat codes are built into the game, and not technically a day 1 update, but it bears mentioning as I saw some fans questioning if this content was still confirmed.

Fangamer is still working on locking in all final shipping arrangements. If you haven’t updated your address yet, your last chance to do so expires TOMORROW, Friday, May 31, 2019! (Even if your mailing address hasn't changed, please confirm itin your backer survey or through the email reminders Fangamer has been sending out to ensure your game goes as soon as it's ready. If you haven't gotten those emails and don't have your survey link, click here.)

Fangamer's been working on the backer rewards, too, and while we don't want to give away too much of the surprise I did want to show off the art for the soundtrack from Nina Matsumoto, designer of the Alchemist's Curse shirt.

Whenever I look at this I can practically hear and feel the wind blowing through the roses and Miriam’s hair… We'll be revealing more backer rewards soon!

An update on “Miriam’s Gaze” PS4 dynamic theme preorder bonus: I’m happy to announce that we will be providing every PS4 backer, both digital and physical and regardless of tier, this dynamic theme for free! Will share more news on when to expect these codes as soon as we have all the details locked down. I’m biased but it’s really beautiful and features the song “Holy Wisdom” straight from the soundtrack. Big thanks to Truant Pixel for making the theme.

Update on the FuturePak steel cases: The previously mentioned 800 cases are on track to be made available exclusively to backers (1 per backer) shortly after the game launches. It’s our plan to use this initial sale to evaluate demand, and consider offering a larger amount of these steel cases for sale to the backers and possibly even the wider public.

For further context on the FuturePak steel cases, this effort was originally a retail-only exclusive item to incentivize preorders. Instead of peeling off content and locking it away behind a preorder bonus, we fought to make sure we were offering this steel case instead. The total number of cases available is actually quite low, and in the USA (one of our biggest markets) there’s only several thousand of these cases on offer. We also can’t offer these for free to all or even a majority of the backers since that would mean a cost of several hundred thousand dollars. It’s also not feasible to make the 800 free, as then you open a can of worms regarding who gets them, why, etc.

I mention the above to hopefully communicate that we made the FuturePak available as a preorder bonus to incentivize preorders and help the success of the game long term, while also trying to respect backers and the integrity of the game’s content. And the cost to make them free isn’t a problem just because “money” but because those kinds of numbers represent the cost of possible DLC content, which I hope everyone will agree is much more important and valuable than steel cases. Having said that, however, we’re trying our best to make these cases available to all backers who want them as outlined above.

We’ve also seen your feedback regarding the choice to make the Iga Boss and Swordwhip available to non-backers for $9.99 via the “Iga’s Back Pack”.

First, since I’ve seen some confusion online, I’d like to reiterate that any and all backers who were entitled to receive this content will be getting it for free. In practical terms, this means if you backed at $60 or above, you will receive the “Iga’s Back Pack” DLC at no additional cost.

Another concern we’ve seen is that offering the “Iga’s Back Pack” DLC for $9.99 instead of making it backer-exclusive, devalues the backer order and is a bad deal. I’d like to help clear this up:

As mentioned above, let’s exclude the relatively very small minority of public customers who get the steel book. That means that $60 backers compared to $60 public customers receives the following:

Hopefully the above makes it clear that the $60 backers still have at least an additional $10 value and access to exclusive rewards compared to non-backers.

Having said the above, we’ve seen various comments and misconceptions regarding this I’d like to try and clear up:

Kickstarter is not a traditional preorder system where it’s about getting the best deal, even though backers here have.

Curse of the Moon is definitely part of this equation, as whether one wants to consider having paid for it or not, backers get it as part of the $60 purchase, non-backers don’t.

The $28 vs. $60 pledge still has appropriate value considering the above mentioned rewards. $28 backers ‘only’ receive the base game and Curse of the Moon.

We understand if having clarified the above there is still negative feedback, however hopefully it’s clear now that we are intent on securing the immediate and long term success of Bloodstained so we can see more content and hopefully create a brand new Igavania franchise bigger and better than ever, while also being respectful of the backers, who everyone at ArtPlay and at 505 Games is grateful to for helping make all of this possible.

Whew, that was a wall of text if ever I’ve written one. As always, please come find us on Bloodstained’s official Discord server, you’ll often find me and my 505 colleagues on there, ready to chat!

Roberto Piraino

“Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager

505 Games

こんにちは、505のロベルト・ピライノ ≪Angel-Corlux≫ です。

斬月がプレイアブルキャラクターとして登場します！

殆どの人たちが予想していたと思いますが、三人目のプレイアブルが誰だか誰も予想できないと思います・・・

それではキックスターターのリワードに関する情報です。

パブリッシャーとして日本のバッカーやファンの皆様へ大事なお知らせがあります。

予期せぬ物流上の問題により、Bloodstainedは日本では６月18日と25日には残念ながら一般発売されません。

しかし、全プラットフォームのパッケージ版とデジタル版は日本国内で必ず発売します。

ちゃんとしたリリース日が分かり次第、即時に情報共有します。

大変ご迷惑をおかけいたしまして申し訳ございません。

日本のバッカーの皆様へ、我々のプランとしてはまだ各プラットフォームの確認が必要なため、一旦6月18日にSteamのコード（期間限定）を配布します。

海外にお住まいのバッカーやファンの皆様にもリージョンによってはグローバルリリース日から少しずれる可能性があります。

確認するためにはお住まいの通販や小売業者に確認ください。

前回のアップデートにストレッチゴールを含まれていないと指摘を受けました。

こんなにコンテンツがあると何か忘れていたと思いました・・！

デイ１の追加コンテンツ

・ナイトメアモード

・ニューゲームプラス

・8ビット

・チートコード

実は8ビットレベルとチートコードは既にベースのゲームに組み込まれております。

デイ1ではないですが、前回質問で問い合わせがありましたので入れました。

現在ファンゲーマーは最終的な配送準備を行っているため、

まだ住所を更新していない人たちは必ず今週の金曜日、5月31日までに変更お願いします。

PS4テーマの予約特典「Miriam’s Gaze」のお知らせ：

PS4バッカーの全員、デジタル版とパッケージ版、には予約特典のPS4テーマを無料で配布します！

詳細が確定次第、コードの配布タイミングをお知らせします。

サウンドトラックから使用している「Holy Wisdom」が流れてすごく綺麗だと思います。

製作したTruant Pixelに感謝です

。

FuturePak のスチールケースのお知らせ：

前回、バッカー限定にスチールケースを優先販売をしており（バッカー一人１個）、

ゲームがリリースした直後に800個製造されます。

まず最初にどれだけ需要があるかを計り、需要があればXX,000の追加発注します。

もしXX,000の中で売れ残りがある場合、限定販売を停止して一般販売も考えています。

先週IGAボスとソードウィップが含まれる「IGA’s Back Pack」 DLC を一般販売（$9.99）とスチールケース800個をバッカーのみに販売した決断により、ネガティブなフィードバックをいくつか拝見しました。

まず混乱を避けるために、「IGA’s Back Pack」は60ドル以上支援して頂いたバッカーには無料で配布されます。

次にFuturePakに関しましては、本来小売業者のインセンティブもあり、もともと小売り専用の予約特典でした。

こちらもバッカーが優遇されるように予約特典を外す努力をしました。

しかし、全体の個数が少ないため、一番大きい市場のアメリカでさえ数千単位でしか配布できません。

こちらもバッカーに無料配布するにもあまりにもコストが大きいため、断念するしかありません。

最初の800個を無料にするのも無理があり、誰がどのようにして手に入れ、無料でもらえる権利等、別の問題が発生します。

予約特典を本来の意味での予約特典として、上記に書かれている説明文が少しでもバッカーやゲコンテンツに対する敬意として、長期に渡る成功のためにも受け止めて頂ければ幸いです。

先ほどの「IGA’s Back Pack」を$9.99として一般販売することによりバッカーの価値が下がる誤解を解消したいと思います。

売れ残りのスチールケースを外すと、以下の比較になります。

少なくとも10ドル程の割引と限定コンテンツのアクセスがバッカーと一般の違いです。

よく見かけるコメントについてフォローさせてください：

・キックスターターは通常の予約システムではないため、一番安く買う目的ではありません。

・Curse of the Moon は約束の中に含まれているため、こちらは60ドル以上のバッカーには付く特典です。バッカーではない方は含まれません。

・28ドルと60ドルはその値段に応じた価格帯になっております。28ドルはベースのゲームとCurse of the Moon のみです。

上記の説明に対して批判は受けることを十分承知した上での決断をしました。

Bloodstainedの長期的な成功の為に、今後より大きい、より素晴らしいIgavaniaをフランチャイズ化すると同時にバッカーに配慮しようと思っております。

ArtPlayと505 Gamesはこれを全て可能にしたバッカーに日々感謝しています。

今まで書いた文章で一番長かったかもしれません。

いつものように、Bloodstainedの公式ディスコードのサーバーに505の同僚といることが多いので、気楽に呼んでください！

IGA here. I apologize for confusing a good portion of the backers regarding the pre-order announcement.

The backer exclusive content release was a topic that we also debated and discussed with 505 Games. While the survey played a huge role in the decision that was made, there will also be people who do not fully understand the Kickstarter platform.

We are sincerely grateful to the backers, but at the same time, there are fans who were left out of the campaign. In order to move on and look forward to the future of the game and its fans, we also believe that it's a problem if those fans cannot enjoy the game as well.

Therefore, we came to a decision to offer the IGA boss and Swordwhip as a purchasable form. We apologize to all our backers and we hope to have your understanding.

Next is the release dates. While we do have a global release, the timing will be slightly delayed due to the different regions as 505 Games describes. The exact dates will be shared separately when it becomes clear. I also want to apologize for that—we should have clearly reported it to all backers.

On the bright side, we're very close to release and having it in everyone's hands.

We will be able to rejoice together in the near future!

When the game is released, I hope we can share this happiness with everyone. I'm a little nervous, more so than usual...

Regarding our current development status, well, we are actually still working. We found a bad bug, and we're fixing it so that it can be patched in an update.

Even with the release so close, the developers are still working...

This is our first time working in a new environment, and there are so many challenges and new issues that pop up. It makes me realize how difficult it is to keep a certain and constant line of quality over the years. But I hope to connect this accomplishment to the next!

プレオーダーの発表で一部のバッカーの方々を混乱させてしまっているようで、大変申し訳ございません。

まず、バッカー専用のコンテンツを販売するに至った経緯ですが、非常にもめた案件ではありました。

アンケートが大きい要素であったことは間違いないのですが、まず、Kickstarterというプラットフォームを使う以上、どうしても認知できない人たちが出てきてしまいます。

もちろん、バッカーの皆様には感謝しなければならないのは理解したうえで、同時にそこから漏れたファンたち、これから未来に向けてなるであろうファンたちが、このコンテンツを楽しめないことは、それはそれで問題だという議論になりました。

そこで、IGAボスとソードウィップの販売という形で提供するという決定となりました。

バッカーの皆様には大変申し訳ございませんが、ご了承のほど、よろしくお願いいたします。

次に発売日の件です。

グロバルリリースとありますが、リリースを開始するタイミングをお知らせしたものとなります。

実際には、505Gamesからの報告通り、地域ごとにリリースされるタイミングが違います。

具体的な日時につきましては、別途すぐに報告いたしますので、もうしばらくお待ちください。

バッカーの皆様には、キチンとご報告する内容でしたが、至らず、本当に申し訳ございませんでした。

とは言うものの、ようやくもうすぐ皆さんの手に届くところまでこぎつけました。

皆さんと祝杯を挙げる日も近い！

発売されたときは、皆さんと喜びを分かち合いたいと思います。

今回はいつも以上にどきどきしてます…。

そこで現在の開発状況ですが、実はまだ、やってます。

ちょっとヤバいバグがみつかりそれを取ったり、それと、今後のアップデートに対しての制作も行っています。

もうすぐ、発売開始しますが、開発はまだまだ続きます…。

今回、新しい環境での制作となったわけですが、当然、新しいトラブルも増えまして、想像以上に大変な制作となりました。

いつでもコンスタントにクォリティを維持することの大変さを身に染みて感じた、ここ数年です。

この困難を次につなげられるよう、前に進んでいきます！

UPDATE #86

Reward Preview: A look at the slipcase and shirt

June 6, 2019

It’s release month! You are now dangerously close to holding in your hands (or on your hard drive, as the case may be) a copy of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, the game you helped make possible. Games have already begun arriving at the warehouse to be prepared for shipment.

With release month finally here, we thought now would be a good time to show you some of the rewards we’ve been working on. (Don’t worry, we won’t show you the giant castle map from the $500 tier—it’s a little early to spoil that.)

First up is the $60 backer-exclusive slipcase. We really like how the holo-foil finish turned out, and we hope you will too. (The Ayami Kojima art for the $100+ "Alchemist's Treasure" rewards has arrived, too, and we plan on showing it off in a future update—it is... extremely good.)

We also wanted to show you the backer-exclusive shirt. Designed by Nina Matsumoto, who did our earlier Alchemist’s Curse design, this one—which we’ll only be printing for the backer rewards—features Gremory.

Next week we'll be showing you more of the rewards and passing along your final game distribution/shipping details and instructions—you'll be playing Bloodstained before you know it. Until then, enjoy the home stretch.

UPDATE #87

More pre-launch updates and debuting Ayami Kojima's art

June 13, 2019

Greetings, Army of the Night! By the time you read this we’ll have already begun packing and shipping PS4 and Xbox One copies of the game to your doors (or mailboxes). Back in 2015, we didn’t label Bloodstained an “EU-friendly” Kickstarter; we expected to ship all copies of the game from the United States. As time has passed, though, more Kickstarters have moved in that direction, and we wanted to ensure we could get the game to as many backers as quickly and conveniently as possible.

For that reason, we’ve spent the last few months working with warehouses in the EU, Australia, and Japan. If you’re in one of those regions, and you selected the local region for your console game, you’ll receive it from our partners in… well, Europe, Australia, or Japan. This should make collecting your package, tearing it open, and playing Bloodstained for 24 consecutive hours a simpler process. (If you receive an email from one of our fulfillment partners, check it immediately! The sooner you do, the sooner you’ll get your game.)

Because the art book required us to have access to as many final and near-final assets as possible, it’s still in the printing process—that means we expect to be able to ship all other rewards to backers in August. We wish it could be sooner, and we apologize for the extra time it’s going to take. We’ll be showing you more of the rewards, and keeping you up-to-date on shipping, regularly until everything's in your hands.

We did want to do something extra for backers who won’t get their rewards right away. So all $100+ backers will now receive, alongside their other rewards, a 16x20 fold-out poster of the art Ayami Kojima made for the Alchemist's Treasure package. We especially wanted to do this after seeing her amazing art, which I’m excited to show you right now:

She's good

Here in our American warehouse we’ve been packing and shipping copies since they arrived over the weekend. It’s been surreal, after four years, to see cases and cases of Bloodstained sitting out in the real world. I hope you get the same feeling when your copy—physical or digital—finally arrives.

Hello everyone,

We have a slight delay to announce for the availability of the “Iga’s Back Pack” DLC on consoles. The DLC will be available:

June 18, 2019 on PC (Steam & GoG)

June 28, 2019 on Switch

July 3, 2019 on Playstation 4 and Xbox One

The team ran into some issues for the DLC on consoles, and obviously we didn’t want to delay the whole game because of it. We regret this delay but appreciate everyone’s understanding, quality has to come first!

We also have an update for our Japanese backers on the delay for their territory. Currently we’re still working to confirm exact dates but initial estimates indicate a delay of a few months to release the game publicly in Japan. Everyone on the Bloodstained team regrets and apologizes for this inconvenience, publishing the game in Japan as soon as possible is a top priority for all of us and we’re taking the following steps to address this for our backers in the short term:

All Japan backers will receive a Steam key for the game on June 18, 2019

As soon as digital keys are ready for PS4, NSW and XB1, they will be sent to all Japan territory digital backers. We anticipate this will be before the public launch of the game.

Physical game copies will also be sent as soon as they are ready.

We’re also evaluating other efforts to not only speed up delivery to backers, but to possibly provide something extra to Japan backers in the future due to this delay.

There's also an update regarding our physical PC backer copies that we think everyone will like. We are going to be providing all our PC backers with their digital keys at launch, and waiting until all future free stretch goals / content is released before sending physical PC copies of the game.

We've heard the feedback that fans would like the most complete version possible on disc. While we can't do the same with console orders due to first-party logistics, release timelines and costs, by offering this to PC physical backers we hope to provide them with a crystallized encapsulation of the Kickstarter content that you all helped make possible and fulfill the "collector's desire" that I'm sure many like myself hoped for when backing for a PC physical copy. We'll be sharing more about when to expect physical PC copies as we obviously reveal more about the free dlc / stretch goals in the future.

An enormous thank you to everyone for your continued support and understanding, we're almost there...see you in a few days...

Roberto Piraino

“Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager

505 Games

P.S. - Do NOT miss the launch trailer...

UPDATE #88

PS4/Xbox/PC launch day is finally here!

June 18, 2019

It's finally here! Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has launched for Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It wouldn't have been possible without all of you who believed in the project when Koji Igarashi came to Kickstarter and asked for Igavania fans' support.

On a big day like this—well, we should hear from IGA himself. IGA?

Hello everyone, IGA here.

The day has finally arrived. The release is here!

I do want to first apologize to those whose delivery is delayed due to their region. We wanted to deliver it to everyone as quickly as possible, but due to various conditions of selling the game, the delay was unavoidable.

Steam keys have been given out to backers in the affected regions (Japan and Asia PS4). We hope you enjoy it until your chosen platform arrives.

Today is the true beginning of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Thanks to everyone who supported us on our way, we were able to get here. Thank you so much.

From here we are going to do our best to make the Bloodstained series even more exciting.

With that said, we still have a lot more work to do. There's still much more content to come, so we can't let this excitement from the release get to us just yet. Please stay with us until all the content has been released. - IGA

こんにちは、IGAです。

ついにこの日がやってまいりました。

リリース開始でございます。

ただ、一部地域の方々に関しましては、お届けが遅くなってしまい、本当に申し訳ございません。

我々としましても、いち早く全員にお届けしたいのですが、販売に関する諸事情もあり、どうしても遅れざるを得ない状況になってしまいました。

まずは、STEAM版のキーが全員に配布されるはずですので、希望の商品が届くまで、それで楽しんでいただければと存じます。

兎にも角にも、ここからBloodstained: Ritual of the Nightの本当の始まりとなります。

皆様のおかげでここまで到達することができました。

本当に感謝いたします。

さらにBloodstainedシリーズとして盛り上がっていけるよう、頑張っていきたいと思います。

とは言うものの、まだ作業は残っており、全てのコンテンツがリリースされるまで気の抜けない日々が続きます。

最終コンテンツがリリースされるまで、もうしばらくお付き合いください。

Backer Code Distribution Update: At press time, digital codes are available for all Steam, GOG, and Xbox One games, as well as PS4 codes in the EU region. We have not yet received PS4 codes for the US region, but we expect them from Sony today. PS4 and Switch Japan and Asia codes are subject to the Japan delay announced in the last update, while Switch codes in other regions will be distributed on the game's Switch release date, June 25.

If you have a code that's currently available, you can find it right now on your backer management/survey page. If you don't have that link handy, you can get it resent to you here.

Just as Bloodstained finally becomes real we've noticed some of you bringing pieces of the game into the real world! Check out these two examples:

Congratulations army of the night! Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is now available on PC, PS4 and XB1! Switch will launch next Tuesday on June 25th.

Today marks the launch of the game, but it's only the beginning: Coming very soon you'll see the “Speed Demon Update,” which includes the first 3 of 13 FREE DLCs! Boss Rush Mode, Speed Run Mode and the Pure Miriam Outfit will all await you in-game on PC today; the teams are working in turbo mode to get this update on PS4 and Xbox One asap, and we’ll be updating everyone as we learn more.

It’s been a long road to get here and everyone at 505 Games wants to thank all of the dedicated and passionate backers, volunteers and fans who helped make this day become a reality.

There’ll be more updates from us and Fangamer as we continue delivery of backer goods, game copies for Switch next week, and resolve shipping and logistics issues as they may arise, and especially as we continue to work on the delay in Asia/Japan as a top priority.

We’ve got an incredibly bright future planned for Bloodstained, with so many surprises and awesome stuff you wouldn’t believe it if I told you about all of it right now. I know I speak for everyone at 505 when I say it’s been an honor and a privilege to work to the benefit of all backers and Bloodstained in general, and our dedication and passion is only going to increase from here!

Congratulations again to everyone, Bloodstained is here…IGAVANIA IS BACK - AND IT’S HERE TO STAY!

Roberto Piraino

“Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager-505 Games

P.S. – Everyone is absolutely prohibited from using the following words as names for their save files. Using the following words may result in crystallization of the skin, an uncontrollable desire to battle evil, and an urge to strike bizarre poses:

BIGHEAD

NIGHTMARE (!warning-spoilers!)

I’ve also been informed that prominent YouTubers from the Credit Clans may be in possession of other prohibited words…

夜の軍団の皆様、大変長らくお待たせいたしました！Bloodstained：Ritual of the Nightが、PC、PS4およびXB1でプレイ可能になりました！Switchは6月25日の火曜日に発売されます。

本日、ゲームの発売だけでなく、13の無料DLCのうちから３つ含まれる「Speed Demon Update」も登場します。ボスラッシュモード、スピードランモード、そしてピュアミリアムコスチュームが含まれます。

長い道のりでしたが、505 Gamesは全てのバッカー、ボランティア、そしてファンに感謝しております。

お礼を兼ねて、支援者の方々に送られる物から変更点等の最新情報を下記の通りになります。

250ドル以上のバッカーには小島文美先生のポスターを筒状ケースに入れてお送りいたします。天野喜孝先生のポスターも完成次第、同じようにお送りいたします。

100ドル～ 175ドルのバッカーには小島文美先生折りたたみ式ポスターをお送りいたします。

次回Fangamer様から別途ポスターをご注文の際には、オプションでさらに小島文美先生のポスターがおまけで追加されますのでご利用ください。この小島先生のポスターは筒状ケースに入れて無料で配送いたします。

60ドル以上支援して頂いたバッカー、デジタル版とパッケージ版含み、上記と合わせて下記の品も配られます：

デジタルサウンドトラック

デジタルレトロストラテジーブック

デジタルアートブックのファイル

スリップーケースのデジタルファイル（劣化・破損用、再度印刷可能です）

デジタル特典はごく最近まで詳細を詰めた内容であり、なるべく早くお客様にお届けするよう努めています。

我々とファンゲーマー様からグッズとゲームの配送状況、来週のSwitchの発売、トラブルが起きた時の対応、そして日本での遅れの対応を最優先に頑張ります。

Bloodstainedには今後期待出来る計画を立てています。私が今この場を借りて報じても信じられないようなサプライズがあります。

505 Gamesを代表して言えることはBloodstainedやバッカーの皆様と関われることを誇りに思います。ご期待に添えるよう精一杯努力してまいります。

最後にもう一度皆様に感謝の気持ちをお伝えします。Bloodstainedがやってきた…IGAVANIA IS BACK - AND IT’S HERE TO STAY!

Roberto Piraino

ロベルト・ピライノ

“Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager, 505 Games

P.S. 下記の名前はネームエントリーは絶対使わないでください。絶対ですよ？

BIGHEAD

NIGHTMARE (ネタバレ注意）

噂によるとユーチューバーも特別キーワード所持しているかもしれません・・・

UPDATE #89

Switch Release Day Notes!

June 25, 2019

It's Switch release day in most territories! Bloodstained is now 50-100% more portable than it was last week, depending on how small your gaming laptop is. Switch digital download codes in the North American, European, and Australian regions are now available on your survey page—if you don't have your survey/backer management page handy, you can have the link resent to you from our survey support page.

Physical Switch games in the US and UK were expected for delivery yesterday and today. Switch games in the rest of Europe were delayed due to shipping issues between the facility that produced the games and the warehouse that's shipping them out to backers, but they've arrived and have been processed—shipping confirmations will go out soon if you haven't received one already.

If your game is coming from those European or Australian warehouses, you'll be receiving your slipcase in a separate shipment—either with your other rewards if you're at a $100+ tier, or by itself in a separate shipment if you backed at $60.)

Hello everyone, Bloodstained is now live on Switch! Today’s launch marks the completion of a long journey that we’ve all been on together, and now we see Igavania making its triumphant return! However, the journey hasn’t been without its share of challenges along the way, and as Iga said, we still have a lot of work to do.

Regarding the Soundtrack specifically, we’re pleased to announce that as of today, the soundtrack on PC (Steam & GoG) as well as any future sales portals that support it, will include high quality FLAC files for all tracks. We heard your feedback on this (no pun intended) and appreciate your patience while we got this implemented.

Below are some patch and general notes for everyone to be aware of in light of recent bugs that in some cases caused progression to be lost:

With the Switch launch, to avoid issues with treasure chests we recommend everyone with a physical copy update their game with the 1.1 build (which has been live since Friday) before playing.

1.02 Chest Bug - Some players on PS4 who began a new game before downloading the 1.02 update have run into an issue where crates appear in the wrong open/closed state resulting in blocked progress. A new save is not affected. We are currently looking into solutions that will allow affected players to keep their progress. Since this bug would have affected Xbox One users when the update went live, we are holding off the Xbox One update. (FYI, a small localization update, 1.004, is coming for Xbox. This is not connected to the current issue).

Current build status:

Steam/GOG: 1.03 (1.03 is a localization fix)

PS4: 1.02

Xbox One: 1.003 (Upcoming 1.004 is a small localization fix)

Switch: 1.1 - This update was published on Friday June 21st. All players should download it before playing to avoid the Chest Bug.

That’s it for today’s update, thank you to everyone for your support and patience and we can’t wait to announce more cool stuff soon!

Roberto Piraino “Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager

505 Games

UPDATE #90

Switch Release Update

June 25, 2019

We have been listening to the feedback regarding Switch performance. Our goal is for everyone, regardless of platform, to be able to enjoy the game and have it run smoothly. We want to live up to your, and our, expectations.

Throughout the QA process we have been addressing performance issues in the game. Update 1.01 was published to Switch prior to launch to add content and improve performance. It did not accomplish as much as we had hoped and we need to do more.

To address the concerns brought up by the community we are immediately shifting resources to improve performance and stability for the Switch. You can expect a number of small updates that will improve different areas of the game rather than waiting longer for one big update. We will have more details as we dive into the work.

We thank you for your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.

Jason “Question” Ryan

Sr Community Manager – 505 Games

UPDATE #91

Switch Update: Immediate update plans and localization news

June 26, 2019

Hello everyone, today we have an update on our progress regarding the Switch version of the game and an update on localization.

Regarding localization, we’ve been alerted that several of the languages available for Bloodstained have not been translated to the high quality bar we set for ourselves. However, I’m happy to report that our Production teams are on top of this situation and are in the process of doing a full localization pass on all languages. You can also help in this process by visiting this forum thread and providing specific examples of problem areas encountered with any languages you play the game in.

Regarding the Switch version of the game; the amazing teams at WayForward and ArtPlay are already hard at work on improvements. Below is a list of what we’re working to fix ASAP via multiple updates over the next few weeks:

HD Rumble fix (completed!)

Crash stability

Optimizing Miriam's jump

The teams are also at work on a variety of updates to the game and engine, including:

Optimizing animation for certain enemies (WayForward is testing some techniques to accomplish big things here, but it may be risky and require lots of testing, may need to be pushed to a later update)

Addressing input delay wherever it occurs

Switch-specific loading optimizations (this requires a bit more work, and will probably be in the last "ASAP" patches)

Obviously the above plan will adapt as we identify priorities and new tasks and as we add development resources, but we’ll keep you updated as we go.

We’ll also have more to announce soon as we do more to improve the Switch version of Bloodstained. We are committed long-term to making sure the Switch version is just as great and enjoyable as the other platforms, and this is just a window into our immediate action plans.

We apologize again for the inconvenience of the Switch launch not going according to plan, but we really appreciate your understanding and support as we work to make things right.

Roberto Piraino “Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager

505 Games

UPDATE #92

Backer Update: Japan news, the Kojima slipcase, and digital rewards

July 3, 2019

While it's been exciting to watch Bloodstained land on the rest of the world with all the force of (to use a common expression) a gigantic demon castle, there's still plenty on the way for backers who've been with us from the start. Today we have some shipping updates, news on your digital backer rewards, and more, so let's get started.

First, we've got a look at the slipcase that will house your Alchemist's Treasure rewards (along with your physical copy of the game). We figured the most important part of this reward would be designing around Ayami Kojima's incredible art, which is front and center:

(The slipcase is open on one side to hold your game, soundtrack, and the other Alchemist's Treasure rewards—you're looking at the spine in both of these images.)

We've also got an update on your digital rewards—they'll be arriving later today! As soon as they're ready to go you'll find them on your survey page. (Remember—if you don't have that link handy, you can get it back on our survey support page. If you're in a tier that includes your name in the credits, you can also get your Backer ID there; go to "Change or Upgrade Tiers" and look for the number following KICKBLOODSTAINED, and make sure to include the pound sign.)

Digital copies for Asia-region PS4 backers are being loaded onto survey pages now! Physical PS4 copies for the Asia region have just arrived in our Asia warehouse and are being packed and processed. Backers will receive an email as soon as their game is shipped.

We apologize for the delay; the territory-specific difficulties were much larger than we anticipated. Thank you for your patience while we get this resolved.

Hey everyone, Igavania is now officially back, but the journey hasn’t been without its share of challenges along the way, and as Iga recently said, we still have work to do. As a way of saying thank you, all digital and physical backers $60 and above will receive the digital soundtrack.

Backers at the $60 digital tier, as well as all backers at $100+ tiers, will now also be receiving a PDF version of the art book.

We're also pleased to announce that the backer-edition soundtrack is available in FLAC as well as MP3, created from the CD soundtrack masters. We heard your feedback on this. (No pun intended.)

Speaking of goodies, we'll also be distributing keys for the Bloodstained dynamic theme “Miriam’s Gaze” to all PS4 digital and physical backers today for free. North America and Europe PS4 backers should see them on their survey page in the next couple of hours.

We've got a couple more bonuses just for backers that we'll announce when your physical rewards are ready to ship.

Recent development update: ArtPlay and WayForward are still working very diligently and making great progress for resolving the chest bug and releasing the ‘Iga’s Back Pack’ DLC on consoles as well as improving the Switch version of the game.

Although we wanted to announce more updates this week, the team has been completely dedicated to the actual dev work, so now that the work is proceeding at a strong pace, we’re taking some time to confirm a concrete plan for the short and long-term future while they’re hard at work. We anticipate being able to share more updates on these three topics next week, we all appreciate your patience while we make sure we’re tackling these issues correctly.

Last but certainly not least, we have an update on the delay in Japan (JP) that will hopefully alleviate the inconvenience for JP backers.

The public launch of Bloodstained is now targeted for September 2019 with publishing partner “Game Source Entertainment."

To make sure our Japan backers can play as soon as possible, Fangamer will be sending a survey to all Japan digital and physical backers, allowing them to choose a North American (NA) digital copy of the game instead of waiting for their JP version in September.

This is a breakdown of the options that will be offered.

$28 digital JP can be changed to $28 digital NA (base game)

$60+ digital JP can be changed to $60+ digital NA (game plus digital extras)

$60+ physical JP can be changed to $60+ digital NA (game plus digital extras)

Once we have a final tally of how many JP backers would like to take advantage of this offer, we'll move forward to produce and send out their NA-region codes. We have a very limited time to accept survey answers, so watch your mailboxes—Fangamer will be sending you more information later today.

Finally we've seen some confusion regarding the use and implementation of Backer IDs in the game, so here's a quick explanation.

1. On a new or existing save, open the "Option" menu.

2. From the list of available options, select "Backer ID"

3. Input the Backer ID provided in your survey page, making sure to include the # at the start.

4. If you were in a tier with the "Credit Clan" option, this will load your Backer Name and Clan.

That's it for today's update—thank you to everyone for your support and patience, and we're looking to announce more soon.

Roberto Piraino “Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager

505 Games

巨大な悪魔の力により多くの方々に広まっていくBloodstainedを見るのは楽しいですが、

まだまだバッカーの方々に送られる物がたくさんあります。

本日、郵送状況からデジタルリワードについて、たくさんの報告があります。

最初に、Alchemist’s Treasure リワード用に小島文美先生のイラストを飾るスリップケースをご覧ください（通常のパッケージ版も含まれます）。

（スリップケースは片面から開くようになります。モックでは両面見えるようになっています。）

デジタルリワードもすぐにお送りいたします！確認方法はサーベイページに表示されます（サーベイページのリンクが分からない場合、サーベイサポートページから確認できます）。

クレジットに名前が記載されているバッカーの方々もこのページからバッカーIDが確認できます。ページに表示されているKICKBLOODSTAINEDの後に書かれている番号がバッカーIDです。

入力する際には#込みで入れてください。

現在アジアリージョンに関してですが、PS4のデジタル版コード発行を待っている最中です。

PS4パッケージ版の方はすでに弊社の倉庫で待機しています。

バッカーには発送時にメールが届きます。

皆様、こんにちは。Igavaniaは正式に戻ってまいりましたが、まだまだ乗り越えないといけない問題点がいくつかあります。

以前IGAも話したように作業はまだ残っております。

感謝とお詫びをかねて、支援者の方々に送られる物から変更点等の最新情報を下記の通りになります。

※ 前回は英語と日本語の誤差があり、日本語のみプラン段階の情報が公開されました。以前と変更点がございますのでご確認の程よろしくお願いします。

まず60ドル以上のデジタル版とパッケージ版を選択したバッカーの方には下記のデジタルリワードが渡されます：

デジタルサウンドトラック（MP3・FLAC）

60ドル以上のデジタル版を選択したバッカーにはPDFで画集が届きます。

要望により、本日サウンドトラックの全ての曲にFLAC形式のファイルが追加されます。

もう一つ、PS4バッカーには無料で「Miriam’s Gaze」のPS4テーマを配布します。

上記に書かれてあるデジタルグッズは本日中に配布されますのでメールの受信トレイをご確認ください。

ArtPlayとWayForwardは現在、宝箱のバグの修正やDLCのコンーソルでの配信やニンテンドースイッチ版のゲームの改善に熱心に取り組んでおります。

最後に、日本のバッカーの皆様に報告があります。

Bloodstainedの一般販売は2019年9月を目標にします。

パブリッシングパートナーは「Game Source Entertainment」

日本のバッカー（デジタル版とパッケージ版含め）が一刻も早く遊べるように、まずファンゲーマー様からサーベイが送られます。

デジタル版とパッケージ版を選んだ人たち含め、9月まで待たずに米国版のデジタル版を選択することが可能です。

要望する方は米国のアカウントが必要となりますので、ご注意ください。

28ドルデジタル版（日）選んだ方には28ドルデジタル版（米）ゲームのみを選択することが可能です。

60ドル以上のデジタル版（日 )選んだ方には 60ドル以上のデジタル版（米）ゲームとデジタルリワードを選択することが可能です。

60ドル以上のパッケージ版（日）選んだ方は60ドル以上のデジタル版（米）ゲームとデジタルリワードを選択することが可能です

本日のアップデートは以上となります。皆様のサポートに感謝しております。

今後のアナウンスにご期待ください。

Roberto Piraino

ロベルト・ピライノ

“Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager, 505 Games

UPDATE #93

Development Bonus Update: Console DLC, bug fixes, and improvements

July 3, 2019

Hello again everyone! Not to be outdone, our amazing production and development teams came through with confirmed updates to share with you regarding progress on bug fixing, DLC and improvements to the Switch, and even bonus info on platform wide improvements! So let’s dive right in:

Chest Bug

Xbox One (Status: Fix Incoming)

Treasure chest issues have been fixed; after the patch, unique items will be obtainable even on existing playthroughs.

The patch for this should be submitted today (Wednesday), and we anticipate public release on Friday or Saturday.

The teams are also working on additional improvements and bug fixes.

Playstation 4 (Status—unchanged)

The problems causing the bug have been identified, teams are working to identify and implement solutions.

No new users affected by this bug, just like before all new games/playthroughs are safe to play.

Nintendo Switch (Status—fix being tested)

The fix is currently in test, the submission date we were working toward has been delayed due to a graphical bug that has reemerged.

We anticipate testing will be completed by next week, which would mean an ETA of public release during the week of July 15, 2019.

Improvements

Map Improvements

Map close button has been remapped to standard exit/close button

Marker button has been changed

Trail display button has been changed

Map scroll speed improved

Zoom in and zoom out improved

Zoom level retained when reopening the map

Auto-center when opening the map

Bug fix: No longer displaying enemies for completed quests

Fixed items getting stuck on walls/geometry

The functionality of waiting until the item is collected automatically has been left in, in case the issue persists.

Switch-specific Improvements

HD Rumble issues in certain areas of the game have been fixed

Enabled Traditional Chinese language option

Fixed instances where the game would crash while transitioning between rooms

Work has been done on the technical "non-visible" side of things to improve input delay, stability, and various optimizations. The teams are continuing to work on these items and we'll have future updates and plans to share soon.

"Iga's Back Pack" DLC

Xbox One (Status—DLC being tested)

Testing will happen next week, if completed successfully we will submit and have an updated ETA for release during the week of July 15, 2019.

Playstation 4 (Status—DLC submitted, pending approval and release)

We're currently working through some submissions with Sony, and plan to have an update, hopefully for release, next week.

Nintendo Switch (Status—DLC approved, release imminent)

The DLC has been approved by Nintendo, we're just taking the final steps to make it go live.

A quick clarification on Backer IDs: Please note that the Backer ID system will not work if you backed at the $28 or $60 tier, because those did not include the Credit Clan reward. The Backer ID/credits system only works if you backed at an eligible $100+ tier. If you do have your name in the credits and are having trouble finding your backer ID, you can find more information in the previous update.

That’s it for now, as always please keep your feedback coming, we’re all dedicated to Bloodstained for the (very) long term, and the teams at WayForward, ArtPlay and the production teams at 505 are making incredible progress. They’re literally working together like some sort of inspirational Star Trek crew, no joke, it’s pretty amazing.

For all our fans in the United States, we wish you all a happy July 4th holiday! ‘Murica!

Roberto Piraino “Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager

505 Games

UPDATE #94

Your chance to vote in a Bloodstained Cosmetic DLC Poll

July 15, 2019

505 Games is currently running a poll to gauge interest in outfit/accessory DLC packs and determine which ones you'd most like to see in the game!

If you'd like to make your voice heard, head over to their survey now and get your vote in.

UPDATE #95

Development Update - Switch Patch news and more

July 19, 2019

Hello everyone, I’m happy to report that this week we submitted a patch for Switch, once it’s approved we’ll update the game asap. The following changes are already locked in, and we’re working to confirm even more changes/improvements etc. for this patch, hopefully by next week:

Performance Updates

The teams continue to work on input delay, stability and optimization. We’re not ready to release these improvements just yet, but we’ll be sharing more information in the coming weeks.

Bug Fixes

Map quest markers no longer showing when target has been killed

HD Rumble issues in certain areas fixed

Familiar Changes

Familiar upgrade via Grade was nerfed

Increased strength based on level

Dullahammer Head has been nerfed

Shard Adjustments (Decreased Power)

Riga Storaema

Craftwork

Bunnymorphosis

Flame Cannon

Straight Arrow

Chase Arrow

Heretical Grinder

Circle Ripper

Shooting Dagger

Riga Dohin

Welcome Company (nerfed significantly - starting from 3 portraits instead of 5)

Weapon Adjustments (Decreased Power)

Flying Edge

Rhava Bural

Rhava Velar

Enemy HP Increases

Dullahammer Head

Malediction

Drop Adjustments

Increased the drop rate of "Monster Fur" from Simians

Credits

Text corrections

Map

Map close button has been remapped to standard exit/close button

Marker button has been changed

Trail display button has been changed

Map scroll speed improved

Zoom in and out improved

Zoom level retained when reopening the map

Auto-center when opening the map

Last but not least, we’ve seen lots of people bring up the bug on XB1 regarding the “Overlord” achievement not unlocking. The teams are aware of this and are going to be fixing it! The fix is currently scheduled to be done within the next two weeks. I know that may sound like a lot of time, it’s just a matter of prioritizing more important fixes and improvements for now. Thank you everyone for your patience while we continue to make improvements on Switch and the other platforms as well, we will be following up with more updates soon.

Roberto Piraino “Angel-Corlux”

Global Brand Manager

505 Games

UPDATE #96

Development Update: Upcoming patches and platform news

August 1, 2019

As we round into summer's home stretch, we've got some news from IGA and the development team about patches and DLC—we'll get right to it, but not before you get a look at IGA hard at work signing backer rewards. (Speaking of which: If you backed at a $100 tier or higher, and as a result still have rewards coming your way, we're still planning to ship them out in August—you'll receive an email from Fangamer with an optional chance to update your address and a shipping timeline as we get closer to sending them out. If you have additional questions in the meantime, or just need another link to your survey, visit our survey support page.)

Hi everyone, IGA here.

We apologize for the continued inconvenience for certain regions this far after launch. Especially on the Nintendo Switch, we are making progress on the optimization to make sure the gameplay improves. We will do our best to deliver this as soon as possible.

Aside from the improvements, we are also working on the DLC at this very moment.

There have been many changes in the upcoming patch so it might be worth visiting back to it, even if you may have already beaten the game.

By the way, we are working on the rewards, including preparing Igaventure. In addition to that, I've begun working on signing the slipcases. In total... there are 4,500 for me to sign.

!!!!

My arm is going to die!

:sighs: (* 'Д `)

It's okay, I will do it. I will do my best.

There are still so many things to do even after the release so please bear with us, and we thank you again for your patience.

こんにちは、IGAです。

一部の地域の方には大変ご迷惑をおかけしておりますが、グローバルリリースから1カ月以上たちました。

リリースはしたものの、色々な不具合がございまして、日々修正をしております。

また、特にSwitchのタイトルになりますが、最適化をすすめてもう少し快適に遊べるように改善しております

なるべく早く、皆様のお手元に届くように、さらに精進していきたいと思います。

そして、追加のコンテンツにつきましても、絶賛開発中です。

もう少々お待ちください。

ところで、ただいまリワード対応もしておりまして、大量のサインを書いております。

えっと全部で4,500枚…

！！！！

腕が死んでしまう！

はぁ…(*´Д｀)

いや、やりますよやります。

頑張らせていただきます。

その他、イガベンチャーの方もただいま準備中です。

リリースしても、まだまだやることはありますが、もうしばらくお付き合い願えればと存じます。

Hey, everyone.

We haven’t had many announcements after the flurry of updates and posts in the first couple weeks after launch. Due to our shift of resources to the Switch, schedules had to be re-written and some work put on hold. Now that we have things moving along in an orderly manner we are able to give everyone some info.

So, here’s a bunch of updates!

Japan Release Date

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is scheduled for release in Japan on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on October 24th, 2019.

We thank our Japanese fans and backers for their patience. We are planning some additional efforts for backers due to the delay.

PS4 News

IGA Back Pack DLC Release has been set for August 2. Update 1.04 is scheduled for release later this month. This update includes:

Balance

UPDATE #1: Details Here

Treasure Chest / Broken Save Fix

Localization improvements

Xbox One News

Unfortunately due to the rearrangement of resources, the upcoming Xbox One update is delayed. Our current ETA is for the end of August.

The update (1.006) will contain:

Balance

UPDATE #1: Details Here

Overlord achievement fix

HDR Fix

Localization improvements

XB1-specific bug fixes

As a result of these fixes, we will also be ready to release the IGA Back Pack DLC. We expect that to be ready at the same time as the 1.006 patch.

Steam & GOG News

The next update for Steam and GOG (1.04) is in the works and is currently going through the QA process. It should be ready to go out Friday, August 2nd.

It will include:

Balance

UPDATE #1: Details Here

Nintendo Switch News

As mentioned above, we have moved resources around to give priority to Switch performance improvements. This includes additional resources from WayForward as well as assistance from the Epic/Unreal team. It’s a slow process, and we apologize for the delay. When we do push out optimizations, we want it to be worth the wait.

This doesn’t mean every single person on the team is typing away on Switch code, but it is currently getting the bulk of dev time.

Initially we had planned to release a number of small updates to give incremental improvements. After looking at what needs to be accomplished, our goal is to bundle performance improvements into (likely) one patch. Doing so eases the submission process and will result in an overall faster completion. Since this is still in development, we don’t have a firm ETA. We will update everyone when we have a more concrete release window.

But there is a smaller Switch update happening today!

Update 1.02 is being pushed live right now and will be available for download any minute. This update includes:

Bug Fixes and Balance

UPDATE #1: Details Here

Localization Improvements

DLC Survey

“OMG! Why are they working on new DLC when they haven’t even fixed the Switch or the other stretch goals. FAIL!”

Excellent question. Planning comes before the actual work to build new content for the game. The outfit survey gives us an idea of what the community would want from cosmetic DLC...in the future. (Yes, we are aware that some people don’t want any DLC). No work has begun on this and isn’t even on our production calendar yet.

--

Whew, that’s a lot. We still have Zengetsu, our third playable character, and more modes coming, but that’s for another post. Once we complete the updates mentioned above, we will be able to focus all of our resources on those content updates and be able to give proper ETAs on their release.

As always, we appreciate your understanding and patience as we work to improve the game across all platforms.

More to come!

Thanks.

Jason “Question” Ryan

Sr Community Manager - 505 Games

UPDATE #97

Development Update: Reward Shipment Update and More Patch News

September 6, 2019

As the summer of Bloodstained draws to a close we have some updates on the game's continued development for IGA and 505, as well as a look at the art created for the $250 collector's box.

The Collector's Box will hold the slipcase with Kojima art (and everything that goes along with it), the hardcover art book, and your backer shirt. It's a sturdy two-piece box that features original art created just for the backer rewards, surrounded by gold foil accents.

The art we're showing here will wrap around the lid, with Miriam on the front and Gebel and Zangetsu on either side.

As you all know, we were hoping to have everyone's rewards shipped out by now, but a late, unexpected delay at the manufacturer of the Kojima slipcases has forced us to delay the shipment. We apologize for the issue; we now have an updated date for their arrival at our warehouse and expect to be shipping rewards out in late September.

If you'd like to change or update your shipping address and you don't have your survey link handy—or you have any other questions—you can visit our Survey Support page.

Hi everyone, IGA here.

Both Michiru and I have finally finished signing all the necessary reward items. What a long journey... There were over 4,500 copies. They've been shipped back to Fangamer to be packaged alongside the rest of your rewards.

On the development side, we have been working on Zangetsu. We’re going to test it and continue removing bugs. All the promised contents are still being made, so we thank you for your patience.

Speaking of which, it seems that the Japanese console version will be released on October 24th. The publisher in Japan iscalled Game Source Entertainment. For those who are still waiting, I deeply apologize for this delay. We're just a little more time away from a worldwide release.

We hope Japan will enjoy the game as well.

伊万里

0411

innovator123

Hey, everyone.

As mentioned in the last update, the bulk of our development resources are still being put into the major Switch update. We don’t have an ETA to share with you on the full revamp, but we are on track to deliver on our internal dates.

One of the things the team is doing now is going through the game and identifying visual effects that are slowing things down. Where possible, we have optimized or replaced effects with ones that aren't as impactful, but visually look the same.

Once the revamp is made public, you'll see effects that are more clear and won’t drag down the framerate. We have a lot more of these kind of improvements in progress, with tons of work being done on input delay, stability, and more, but we felt that it was important to give you an idea of what's being worked on.

Xbox 1 Update 1.006 is looking to arrive by last week of September and will include:

IGA’s Backpack DLC

Balance

UPDATE #1: Details Here

Overlord achievement fix

HDR Fix

Localization improvements

XB1-specific bug fixes

That’s the stuff coming in the near future. We are still working on updates for all platforms, bugs, additional content, etc. We will provide updates to you as each element is closer to release.

As always, thanks for your support and particularly your patience while we get through this initial period of post-launch improvements before diving head first into additional content!

Jason “Question” Ryan

Sr Community Manager - 505 Games

UPDATE #98

Development Update: News on Zangetsu, Switch Upgrade, and Backer Rewards

September 26, 2019

Lots to get to today, but with the $100+ tier backer rewards shipping out soon—if you need or want to change your address, now is the time—we thought we'd start by showing you some of the backer rewards up close and personal.

The Collector's Box (your shirt, art book, and "Alchemist's Treasure" rewards are shipping inside this.)

Collector's Box

Collector's Box

The Alchemist's Treasure slipcase contains your minted items and soundtrack CD, along with a space for your copy of the Bloodstained.

The Bloodstained soundtrack on two CDs

The Art of Bloodstained, the hardcover art book shipping to $150+ backers.

The keychain, button, and enamel pin included in the Alchemist's Treasure rewards.

We also wanted to show you the Castle Map, which was designed by Adam Rufino and printed on three feet of canvas, but... well, even now we're not quite comfortable spoiling the layout here in the backer updates! If you already know everything there is to know, though, you can see some photos here.

We'll be shipping the Alchemist's Treasure and Dark Grimoire tiers first, since all rewards will be packed in that order—they'll be going out to backers beginning next week, while Collector's Boxes are being packed out and prepared for shipment. Once we begin shipping rewards out we'll update you on which rewards and tiers are shipped and which are being processed on the survey support page.

While nearly every reward will be shipping in this batch, there are a few pieces that will be coming a little later. As we mentioned in an earlier update, the Amano poster going to all $250+ backers is still forthcoming—we'll give you a heads up before it ships out to all backers who are set to get it. The stained glass and IGA rings for high-tier backers are also still in production, and will be shipping out separately. Finally, PC physical copies will also be coming later, once all the stretch goal content has been launched and is ready to include on-disc.

Hi everyone! IGA here.

We are finally releasing the Japanese console version of Bloodstained next month. We’re sorry that the news is a little late, but we actually displayed the game at Happinet’s booth in Tokyo Game Show 2019. There’s an event report on it, so check it out! What’s important is that the release date is October 24th! Thank you to everyone in Japan for your patience, and we hope you enjoy the game when it is out.

Aside from the Japan release, we should discuss the upcoming DLC. Currently, we are making Zangetsu playable. Zangetsu is a really awesome character! It was around 4 years ago... when we were still in our Shibuya office... I was thinking of creating a temple knight who despised all demons.

I brought this idea to our game director, Curry the Kid, and it occurred to us that we'd never had a Japanese character in our game who could be fought as an enemy. It was silly and spontaneous, but we decided to go with a samurai. We are borrowing SkeletonCrews’ help to create Zangetsu, and they are working very hard on the production. Also, they have a really cute toy poodle.

Oh, and yes, all 4500 copies of the slipcases have been signed. Michiru Yamane’s portion is also complete. These will be sent out soon so please look forward to them!

こんにちは！

IGAです。

今月のアップデートですが、ようやく来月にコンソールの日本版が発売になります。

実は、TGS2019のハピネットさんのブースでPS4版が試遊できたのでした。

遅い情報ですみません…。

体験レポートもあるみたいなので、チェックしてみて下さい。

肝心の発売日ですが、10月24日です！

日本の皆様におきましては、本当にお待たせしました。

是非是非、楽しんでください。

とまぁ、ここまでは日本に向けてのお話ですが、そろそろDLCについてもお話をしないとですね～

というわけで、斬月モード作っております。

斬月さん、かっこいいですよね～

思い起こせば4年前、あれは渋谷のオフィス…。

なんか、悪魔につながる全部敵みたいなキャラで、テンプルナイトにしようかなっておもっているんだと、ディレクターのカレーザキッドに話したときに、そういえば今までの作品って敵で戦う日本人でてないよね、って話になりまして、じゃあ侍って軽いノリで決まったキャラでした。

今、SkeletonCrewsさんのお力を借りて、鋭意制作中です！

ちなみにSkeletonCrewsさんには、かわいいトイプードルがいます。

そんなこんなで、もうしばらくお待ちください！

あ、そうそう、サイン4500枚無事終了しました。

ミチルさんもコンプリートです。

リワード発送も順次行われますので、それも後しばらくお待ちください！

Hi, everyone.

Work on the Nintendo Switch graphical and performance update continues. We apologize for the long development cycle. Most of the changes are on a room-by-room, enemy-by-enemy basis so there are a significant number of assets being reworked and it’s taking more time than initially expected.

We are pleased with the progress that has been made so far and look forward to getting it into your hands. While the teams are working on an extensive list of myriad improvements, their focus is on four principal areas: Visual Fidelity, Loading Times, Particle Effects and Input Lag.

Visual Fidelity - The way that backgrounds and environments are rendered are being significantly updated. This will result in noticeably sharper environments in most areas throughout the game.

Loading Times - Load times between scenes are being greatly improved, but are still not where we would like them to be, so work remains.

Particle Effects - We have already replaced hundreds of particle effects with new assets and more yet remain. The new ones look the same to the user, but are much less impactful on the performance of the game. This has been one of the main culprits for framerate drops during fights.

Input Lag - Input lag times have been significantly reduced, once work on this is completed the game should feel much more reactive when playing.

The improvements are expected to be released in two separate updates. The first update will contain the vast majority of the improvements. The second update will improve performance with a couple of especially troublesome areas and enemies.

We expect these updates to be launched by the end of November. We will give more specific timeframes when we are closer to release.

After the Switch upgrade is live, there will be a handful of assets/enemies that we want to improve like the Doppleganger enemy for example. These improvements will be part of our regular development cycle and updated when ready.

Xbox 1.006 Update

This update is still planned to go live by the end of September. It will contain:

IGA’s Backpack DLC

Balance

UPDATE #1: Details Here

Overlord achievement fix

HDR Fix

Localization improvements

XB1-specific bug fixed

PS4 1.04 Update

We do not have a live date for the PS4 1.04 update. We will provide more info when we are closer to a release date. This update will contain any other bug fixes, improvements we’ve been working on since the last update.

Localization Improvements

We have taken another pass at improving localization. These updated loc files will be included in the next update for each platform.

As always, we thank everyone for your patience as we work to improve the game across all platforms.

Jason “Question” Ryan

Sr Community manager - 505 Games

皆さんこんにちは。

Nintendo Switchのグラフィックおよびパフォーマンスの最適化は継続されています。長らく待たせてしまい、ご迷惑をかけてしまいお詫び申し上げます。

殆どの修正が各部屋と敵ごとに行われ、多くのアセットに修正が必要となり、当初の予想よりも時間がかかっています。

これまでの作業に満足しており、皆さんの手に届くのを楽しみにしております。

現在、開発が色んな項目に応じた改善に尽くしていますが、四つのフォーカスがあります：ビジュアル、ロード時間、パーティクルエフェクト、そして入力遅延

ビジュアル - 背景や後ろにあるアセットのレンダリングを大幅に修正。背景が以前のより鮮明になっています。

ロード時間 - 画面の切り替えの読み込み時間を軽減されています。まだ求めている到達点まで行っていないため、作業はまだ残っています。

パーティクルエフェクト – 百数個のパーティクルエフェクトを置き換え、まだ更に置き換える予定です。見た目はユーザー視点から同じですが、パフォーマンスの不可を軽減します。

戦闘中のフレームレート低下の主な原因の1つです。

入力遅延-入力遅延は分かる範囲に改善されつつあり、操作は以前より反応が良くなっていると思います。

改善は、2つの個別の更新でリリースされる予定です。最初の更新には、大幅の改善が含まれます。 2番目の更新では、特に作業が困難なエリアと敵のパフォーマンスを改善する内容です。

10月末までには最初の大型アップデートを予定しています。 2番目の＝アップデートは、11月末までに行われます。リリースが近づいたら、より具体的なスケジュールを提供します。

更新が公開された後も、まだ作業が必要なアセットや敵が残っています（例：Doppelganger）。これらの改善は通常の開発サイクルに含まれていますので、準備ができ次第更新されます。

Xbox 1.006アップデート

この更新プログラムは、9月末までに公開される予定です。下記の更新が含まれます。

•IGAのバックパックDLC

•ゲームバランスのアップデート＃1：詳細はこちら

•オーバーロードアチーブメントの修正

•HDR修正

•ローカリゼーションの改善

•XB1固有のバグ修正

PS4 1.04アップデート

PS4 1.04アップデートの公開日はありません。リリース日が近づいたら、詳細情報を提供します。このアップデートには、その他のバグ修正や前回のアップデート以降に取り組んできた改善が含まれます。

ローカリゼーションの改善

ローカリゼーションの改善をするため、もう一度文章の見直しをしました。これらの更新されたローカリゼーションファイルは、各プラットフォームの次の更新に含まれます。

すべてのプラットフォームでゲームを改善するために努力を尽くしますので、皆さんのサポートに感謝しています。

Jason “Question” Ryan

ジェイソン “Question” ライアン

Sr. Community manager - 505 Games

UPDATE #99

An Update from Michiru Yamane: Special Bloodstained Event Next Month

October 29, 2019

Dear backers,

This is Michiru Yamane. Thank you very much for your support. I suspect all of you like game music, so I would like to tell you about an event I’ll be holding in Japan next month:

〜The evening of Bloodstained〜

Michikaho’rl with Yuma Ito String Quintet

Sunday, November 10

The theme is a fusion of healing music and game music. In addition to our original songs, you can relax and listen to Bloodstained arrangements for stringed instruments. After the show there will be a social gathering. We look forward to seeing you on this Autumn night.

Michikaho’rl is a duo featuring me and my sister, Kahori, who will be singing a song from Bloodstained.

Yuma Ito is a violinist who is active in music for games, anime, movies, and TV. He will be leading a string quintet performance. It will be a wonderful experience you can’t hear anywhere else.

Let’s have fun!

Ticket: 5,000 yen

Ticket including aftershow: 8,500 yen

Doors open: 5:00 PM

Event begins: 5:30 PM

Aftershow party: 8 PM - 10 PM

Venue: Future SEVEN

6-10-12 Minamiaoyama Minato-ku

Tel : 03-6861-7777

future7.jp/

Tickets can be purchased here.

ブラッドステインドのバッカーの皆様へ、

音楽を担当させていただきました、山根ミチルです。

プロジェクト達成のため、たくさんの方にご支援をいただきましたこと、誠にありがとうございました。

ゲームとともに　音楽も楽しんでくださっていることと存じます。

感謝を込めて、ライブコンサートのご案内をさせてください。

MichiKaho’rl with Yuma Ito String Quintet

〜ブラッドステインドの夕べ〜

2019/11/10/Sun.

open 17:00

start 17:30

Party start 20:00 〜

今回のライブのテーマは、ヒーリング音楽とゲーム音楽の融合です。オリジナル曲に加えて、『Blood Stained:Ritual of the Night』から数曲、ストリング・クインテット、ピアノ、パーカッション、歌の編成でお送りいたします。

あわせてスタンダートな楽曲もJazzyなアレンジにてにお届けする盛りだくさんの内容となっています。

シークレットゲストもいらっしゃいます。

サウンドヒーリングに特化して作られたハンドメイドの楽器、ソウルサウンドライアーをはじめ、音叉やチャイムバーなど、ヒーリングツールを取り入れた楽曲も演奏します。

ヴァイオリニストとして各方面で活躍中の伊藤友馬さん率いる、ストリング・クインテットの奏でるブラッドステインド-サウンド、ただいま編曲作業中です。他では聴けないスペシャルなブラッド楽曲の初演にどうぞ立ち会ってください。

終演後には懇親会も開催します。

ぜひ皆さまと秋の夜長をご一緒できれば嬉しいです。

　　　　　　2019.10.11 山根ミチル

チケットはこちらから

↓↓↓↓↓

michikahorl.stores.jp

お手数ですが、電子チケットのためスマートフォンからご購入お願いします。

☆ライブのみチケット 5,000円

☆終演後の懇親会付きチケット 8,500円（いずれも全席自由）

※懇親会は、ライブ会場と同じ場所で飲食付きです。

会場：Future SEVEN 港区南青山6-10-12 フェイス南青山1F Tel:03-6861-7777 future7.jp/ 表参道から ▶︎徒歩12分渋谷駅から ▶︎都営バス/都01系統「青山学院中等部前」下車徒歩１分

スマートフォンをお持ちでない方は下記までご連絡ください。michikahorl8@gmail.com

UPDATE #100

Development Update: Nintendo Switch Update is here!

October 31, 2019

Happy Halloween! If you've been looking forward to the Switch graphics and performance update, I have to warn you: This could be your least-spooky Halloween ever. Jason from 505 Games has more info later in the update.

First, a quick update on reward fulfillment. Alchemist's Treasure and hardcover art book rewards ($100-175 tiers) have all been shipped; if you haven't received a shipping notification from us and you backed at one of those tiers, send us an email. $250 and $300 Collector's Box rewards are being shipped now; US-bound shipments of those tiers will all be out as of today, and international shipments are currently in progress. We've also seen isolated reports of packages being damaged in transit—if your Alchemist's Treasure sleeve or Collector's Box was damaged, send us an email with more information and we'll get a replacement sent out.

Hello—IGA here.

The Japanese console version was finally released. However, we've received reports that backers were unable to receive their copy on release day...

There is no excuse, and I'm very sorry for not meeting your expectations. Thank you for your patience as we work to quickly resolve the issue.

In this case it was quite tough because there were issues that went far beyond our expectations; I would like to apply these lessons to the next time.

On the development side, playable Zangetsu is taking shape; we are currently checking for bugs. We are very close to delivering it to everyone, so please wait patiently until then.

At the same time, we're also hard at work on the other additional content. We'll do our best to get everything that was promised ready for you as soon as possible.

こんにちは、IGA です。

ようやく日本のコンソール版がリリースされました。

しかしながら、一部バッカーの皆様に届いていないと報告を受けました...

弁解の言葉もございません。

皆様の期待を裏切ってしまい、本当に申し訳ないです。

可及的速やかに対応いたしますので、お待ちください。

今回は本当に予想のはるか斜め上を行く事件が起きまくって、かなり厳しかったです。

この教訓は次に活かしていきたいと思います。

お約束していた、プレイヤー斬月ですが、だんだんとできてまいりました。

バグチェックを進めている段階でございます。

もう少しで、皆さんのお手元に届けられるとおもいますので、もうしばらくお待ちください。

尚、並行で別のコンテンツも鋭意制作中です。

約束のコンテンツを早く揃えられるように頑張ります。

今月はこれにて失礼します。

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Nintendo Switch Graphics and Performance Update

The Nintendo Switch Improvement update is live! We know it took a while to get this update to you and we are very appreciative of your patience.

There are four areas of improvement in version 1.03: Input Lag, Visual Quality, Crashes and Load Times.

First off, input lag has been eliminated throughout the game. You will find the controls more responsive, making the game easier to navigate and enemies easier to fight. There are still a few areas that need optimizing that will be included in update 1.04.

Visual quality has been improved so things look more clear and have more detail. Some examples below:

Overall stability has been improved throughout the game. We have addressed several specific situations that have been causing crashes, most notably when reading books from a bookcase.

Loading times have been reduced significantly, by up to 70% but there are still areas we'd like to improve. We will keep working to improve this on a room-by-room basis.

Even more improvements are coming in update 1.04, so keep an eye on the news for that announcement!

Zangetsu / Xbox 1.04

Unfortunately, we don’t have specific dates yet for Zangetsu or Xbox update 1.04 (including the IGA's Back Pack DLC) yet. As soon as we have that info we will share it with everyone.

We appreciate everyone’s patience as we continue to work on the game across all platforms and work to add more modes and backer goals.

Japan Update

Hello everyone, this is the publishing team for Bloodstained at 505 Games. We’d like to update you on the status of the game in Japan and issues we're working on resolving urgently. Unfortunately, due to some technical issues, Bloodstained was delayed from its originally planned release date on the digital Playstation 4 storefront, but should be live as of today, Oct. 31, 2019. The 1.03 patch for the Switch version of the game, which contains the vast majority of improvements for that version, is now live for all players.

Thank you everyone for your patience, and once again, apologies from everyone on the Bloodstained team for the inconvenience. Japanese Playstation 4 physical copies are arriving in our warehouse now, and distribution to backers should begin Friday. Digital copies are expected to arrive and be distributed to backers early next week.

We also apologize for the delays regarding the DLC for the game: “Iga’s Back Pack”. This is due to a combination of bugs and technical issues with submissions. Everyone on the Bloodstained team has been working on resolving this, and we anticipate being able to share an expected release date with you shortly.

Jason “Question” Ryan

Sr Community manager - 505 Games

505 Games 「Bloodstained: RoTN」運営チームでございます。

現在状況と解決に取り組んでいる問題についてお知らせいたします。

残念ながらいくつかの技術的な問題により、当初のPS4デジタルストア発売が遅れていましたが、2019年10月31日現在はご利用できる状態になりました。「Bloodstained: RoTN」を楽しみにお待ち頂いているみなさまにはお待たせしてしまい申し訳ございませんが、できる限り早くにリリースできるよう頑張っておりますので、引き続きご期待頂けたら幸いでございます。Switchのアップグレードがダウンロード可能になりました。

PS4の日本版が弊社の倉庫に到着しておりますので、金曜日からバッカーへ配送が始まります。

デジタル版のコードも来週明けに到着して配る予定です。

また、ゲームのDLC「IGA’s Back Pack」リリース遅延についても重ねてお詫び申し上げます。不具合と技術的な問題の組み合わせによる遅延で「Bloodstained: RoTN」チーム全員が解決に取り組んでおりまして、まもなくリリース予定日を皆さまに発表できると見ております。

また、最近バッカー皆様のリワードアイテムが破損しているという報告がいくつかありました。

こちらに関しましては

orders@fangamer.com

までご連絡していただき、破損した貨物の交換品をリクエストするか、バッカー専用オーダーに関する一般的なお問い合わせ内容についてお送りください。すべてのバッカーの皆様の商品受注から入金管理に至るまでの一連の作業を行うことを処理する担当窓口でございます。

知られているすべての問題を解決する為、非常に迅速かつ熱心に取り組んでおりますので何卒ご安心ください。引き続きご支援いただきますようお願い申し上げます。

引き続き505 Gamesと関連製品や「Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night」をどうぞ宜しくお願いいたします。

505 Games運営チーム

Update 101
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night finally landed in 2019, but that doesn't mean the development story is over. The team is still hard at work on additional content, and they'll have more to share in the new year.

Before we kick this one over to IGA, a quick shipping update: All rewards from $60 (the physical version of the game) to $500 (the Architect's Secret Map), including the collector's boxes with and without signatures, should be out to backers now.

If you're missing something in that range, double-check your survey to make sure you've confirmed your address. If you have, and you're still missing something, contact us using the email address on our Survey Support page and we'll get it shipped out to you. (The only exception is the Amano poster, which is still being created. We'll update you here as soon as it's ready to produce.) Next up to be distributed is the stained glass, which is going out soon; if you're waiting on another high-tier reward (physical or virtual) we'll be in touch if we haven't been already.

Hello—IGA here.

The year is almost over. 2019 turned into a very special year, because it marked the release of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, but as it comes to a close there is still a lot of content for us to deliver to you. We hoped to have it for you sooner, but it's been a lot of hard work.

This coming year, we'll move forward and complete everything that's still left for us to do.

Thank you for your support in 2019, and we will look forward to the year ahead.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

It’s December and the end of 2019 is upon us. The year has been an incredible journey of successes and challenges and there is so much more coming after the New Year.

The dev teams are hard at work behind the scenes on Zangetsu and two new modes, one of which is Boss Revenge. Beyond that, we have more modes and an additional playable character on the way. We plan to have a regular cadence of content once all the platforms are on the same level of content. We will have more news on this in the new year.

Before we get to that, here’s the current state of development for the consoles:

Xbox One

Update 1.006 for Xbox One is live, along with Iga’s Back Pack. Backer codes for the DLC are out, too; we emailed all affected backers, but if you're at the $60 tier or higher you can find yours on your survey page.

PS4

PS4 update 1.04 is now live! For Japan, while the version number is different, they are at the same state of code. We will sync up version numbers in January in a future update.

Patch Notes:

• Treasure chest bug fix

• Localization updates

• Bookcase crash fixed

• Repeating SFX during Bael encounter

• Familiar changes

• Balance updates

• Map features added

Switch

Update 1.04 is nearly complete and we expect it to go live worldwide in January. Regions currently on 1.02 (SE Asia and Korea for example) will get upgraded directly to 1.04, which will include all the improvements from 1.03.

As always, we appreciate everyone’s patience as we continue to update the game through the end of the year and throughout 2020!

Thanks for being fans of Bloodstained! We’ll see you in 2020.

Last Edit: Dec 23, 2019 18:55:53 GMT -6 by XombieMike

Shoutbox

Ciel: Been a long time since I last logged here, but it seems that until we get any news of a sequel, there won't be much to discuss. Oh well! Sept 25, 2023 14:32:30 GMT -6

purifyweirdshard: The discord is certainly where the activity is, but we'll keep this forum up and running as long as we can. Bloodstained's subreddit also still moves along pretty well Oct 3, 2023 15:31:05 GMT -6

gunlord500: _donuts

Jan 17, 2024 18:15:11 GMT -6

Redogan:

Jan 17, 2024 21:33:34 GMT -6

Mr. Welldone: _bookfred

Mar 18, 2024 10:35:36 GMT -6

Redogan:

Yay! Final update! Let's GO! May 3, 2024 6:10:10 GMT -6

gunlord500: _bookfred

May 20, 2024 20:14:53 GMT -6

Enkeria: Bloodstained 2 reveal soon?

May 29, 2024 6:58:47 GMT -6

LeoLeWolferoux: Man, Yeah I'm surprised IGA hasn't said *anything* about a B:ROTN 2. As far as I know he had full intentions of making one, but radio silence as far as I know. :/ Jun 5, 2024 13:25:51 GMT -6

Brainiac: So Mr. Welldone...thoughts on Dom getting a new mode and Alfred getting bupkis? Jun 11, 2024 9:37:55 GMT -6

Redogan: Classic II looks pretty good. I might add it to my Bloodstained collection. Jun 11, 2024 10:25:56 GMT -6

XombieMike: You should! It continues the story! Jun 17, 2024 18:57:57 GMT -6

dragonkd: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJuG5AZV9o0 Jul 22, 2024 20:21:50 GMT -6

Enkeria: So uhm.. Where's the book? Aug 30, 2024 18:33:25 GMT -6

DarkPrinceAlucard: New major Dawn of Sorrow fanhack overhaual release, check it out here! bloodstained.forums.net/thread/5340/castlevania-alucards-requiem-new-hack Sept 11, 2024 16:33:44 GMT -6

Enkeria: Do we know if Mana Ikeda will continue to make art for Bloodstained 2? I mean. She really should! Its pure awesomeness. Sept 24, 2024 10:08:30 GMT -6

XombieMike: Certainly more Mana! www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-jx63hIxeU Sept 24, 2024 14:09:14 GMT -6

XombieMike: Art Director Mana Ikeda! Sept 24, 2024 14:09:25 GMT -6

XombieMike: #STRforSHUTARO Oct 3, 2024 9:41:22 GMT -6

Enkeria: Melting in awesomeness.. Cool! Good!

yey Oct 9, 2024 4:21:04 GMT -6

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