Portalarium and Travian Games have sent word that development of the "next round of episodic content" has started. Episode 2 will feature expanded stories, new lands and feature sets. While development on Episode 2 is underway, a crew will be working on polishing current content. The PR also reveals that "staff rightsizing" is underway which will lead to some developers being laid off. No further explanation was given about how many employees have been let go.
Now that we are almost complete fulfilling our Kickstarter promises (brewing coming online in R55, physical rewards shipping very soon, progress being made on castle defense, etc.), we are adjusting our team size to better match our current monthly revenue. This will give us the balance we need to begin work on Episode 2 while ensuring we can support the online service. To do that means having, at least for now, a smaller team.
A last brief nugget of information from the press announcement is that "Portalarium and its main licensing partner, Travian Games GmbH, have started discussions involving a possible expansion of their business relations which the companies hope to conclude in the fourth quarter of this year". What that means exactly remains unknown.
“We are excited to start on the next chapter of the story, as well as expand the features of Shroud,” said Starr ‘Darkstarr’ Long, executive producer on Shroud of the Avatar. “The best part is that players will get to help decide which features we work on for Episode 2 via our Stretch Goal Store!”
Read more on the Shroud of the Avatar site.
