Crowfall

Bradford was finally able to get some Crowfall behind him, and first impressions aren't all that rosy. While the game itself looks good with an interesting art style, the combat is feeling somewhat lacking for Bradford, and he thinks he has a good idea why.

Crowfall is now in beta, so Red Thomas calls the ArtCraft team to talk about their plans and takes a little time to give the game a try for himself. Red gives his impressions and thoughts as he explores the state of Crowfall and some of the ups and downs players might expect while trying the game during the beta.

Crowfall approaches a new phase in development and Red Thomas takes a trip to Austin to learn more about what the team is doing leading up to the end of another year in development. Cool things are on the horizon for backers as Crowfall slips towards the final form. Red also coins a new term that will soon be used industry-wide.

Embargoes and crafting herald a new era in the Crowfall development cycle. Red Thomas makes a trip to Austin to learn more and shares what he finds with readers. How has the game been impacted by the “fortunes of war” and what can backers expect moving forward?

ACE kicks the in-game industry up a gear as Crowfall takes on speed towards launch. Red Thomas dives into the game again to explore recent updates to crafting and what backers might expect in the way of future support for the player-based economy. Red also invents the new term “tactical economy.”

Red Thomas makes another of his frequent trips to Austin, TX. This time, he stops in at the ArtCraft Entertainment offices to talk about the state of Crowfall and what’s on the near horizon for the team. Massive steps forward in December herald a surge in content that should excite fans over the next several months.

Crowfall development pace continues to increase as the game pushes boldly into 2018. Red Thomas makes a trip to the team’s studio to find out what fans can expect on the immediate horizon, and is granted an unexpected treat.

If you listen to the Crowfall developer streams, they reference Shadowbane regularly. That’s where Crowfall’s inception began. Looking at what Shadowbane was and what Crowfall plans to be, there are striking similarities between the two.

Crowfall’s latest big patch released last week so I’ve had the chance to test the newly revamped harvesting mechanic that the devs so refer to as action harvesting. Vamped it is. Action harvesting adds two new, very unique additions to typical MMO harvest. By typical, I mostly refer to WoW, SWToR, and even MMO-lite games such as Ark: Survival Evolved.

Crowfall tantalizes us this week with their next major patch a day after they drop the most recent one. Pre-Alpha patch 5.3 went live Tuesday and Wednesday’s Q&A was about patch 5.4. In a move that surprised exactly no one, Crowfall has adopted the industry’s rotten golden goose: microtransaction. Yea, I said it and yea it tasted as bad as it sounds.

I believe ArtCraft may have cracked how to bring a crowdfunded game to market. The Crowfall team’s knowledge of the business side of the development has led to an additional $6 million investment, which according to their funding tracker was roughly an additional 60% in funds. And while expanding the Crowfall team is great news, their announcement to use those funds for marketing is equally excellent.

Last week’s Crowfall Q&A had Gordon Walton on and he talked about transitioning Crowfall from its crowdfunding stage to the next: marketing it for its release. Today, a week after that Q&A, ArtCraft released a founder’s update. This update lays down the details about the upcoming transition from crowdfunding the game to selling its preorders.

This week’s live Q&A had special guest Gordon Walton, co-founder of ArtCraft, on the stream to answer questions about the business side of Crowfall’s development. I’ll paraphrase the more interesting notes from the live stream since most questions aren’t all that interesting. But if you’re interested in jokes about EA loot boxes and a behind the scenes look at bug fixing, you can watch the video below.

It can’t be all good news all the time in the mire of MMO development. Crowfall is no different, especially given its crowdfunding roots. Yesterday, J. Todd Coleman and Gordon Walton announced to no one’s surprise that Crowfall would not release on their sort-of deadline at the end of this year. They instead moved that date back another year, hoping for a “soft launch” in 2018.

Crowfall’s biweekly updates are starting to show development towards it becoming a fulfilled, even if it is slow to those of us outside of development teams. Small details like UI visuals and character sheets are often overlooked quality of life improvements that make huge differences for players.