Camelot Unchained's Mark Jacobs Talks Delays, Refunds and Rival Game AoC During Q&A Stream

Camelot Unchained saw a little bit of a slow down in communication in the past couple of months, and in the latest Twitch Livestream, Lead Designer Mark Jacobs explains what prompted the delay, and when the team will return to form.

The hour-long stream touched on a number of features, and answered several questions posed by commenters watching the stream. Jacobs began by explaining why he hasn’t been quite as active recently, and when the team will be getting back into the office. A mix of exhaustion from the COVID Vaccine and a personal tragedy prevented direct communication as Jacobs has been known for, but development continued despite missing his usual streaming schedule in April and May. Jacobs states that the CSE team will return to the office in June, which will have plenty of benefits, one of which will be the ability to process refunds faster.

“I, of course, will be in. The impact of that? Well, I hope it’s going to speed up stuff like more weekly dev streams, I’ll be able to process refunds faster, which I know will go over well with a certain unhappy segment. I’ve always apologized for that, but now that I can go in, and not have to worry about not staying there quite as long, and go in multiple days, and go in during the week, it’ll be better.”

-Mark Jacobs, Lead developer, Camelot Unchained, City State Games

Jacobs explains that, while the office will be open so that the CSE team can get back into the studio, he isn’t forcing anyone to come back in if they don’t feel comfortable. With that being said, CSE plans to bring 2 new members to the team in the next several weeks as the team expands and continues their development. In addition to the hour-long stream that covers a lot of information from NPC AI, changes to the UI in general, and his thoughts on Ashes of Creation, a game that has been under the microscope lately due to their creative director's inflammatory comments about another in-development MMORPG, New World.

“Look, I never talk down another developer, I only praise when I can... I’ve said this, I’m so freaking consistent on this point, like most points, I want all developers, in general, to succeed. Every so often there is a company that I think is, just absolute scum, or a person that I think is absolute scum, and I won’t root for them. I won’t necessarily wish them ill, but I won’t root for them. AoC has a lot of very ambitious goals. Steven has said he’s raised a bunch of money. He’s said he’s put in a bunch of money. They’re using a great engine – they’re using Unreal.  So, you know, I hope they succeed. I have nothing personal against him, or Ashes of Creation.”

– Mark Jacobs, Lead developer, Camelot Unchained, City State Games

If you’re interested in hearing more from Jacobs on where development is in Camelot Unchained you will certainly want to check out the stream, or the recent newsletter that dropped on the same day. As with previous newsletters, Kara Stover shows off a lot of the art that has gone into Camelot Unchained, with concept art of some of the characters and biomes. New to the latest newsletter is a hefty dose of crafting information related to the Vox Magus and Vox Rota. A deep explanation of these crafting tools is detailed at length in the newsletter. The abundance of information should tide over Camelot Unchained  until the next stream, which Jacobs believes could come as early as next week.