Hey everyone! Shards Online Project lead Derek ‘Supreem’ Brinkmann wrote a letter to the community out lining what has been happening since the festive period and what will be happening going forward.

In the letter, Supreem tells us that the team has been “heads down” since the kickstarter ended and have enjoyed putting their development heads back on (instead of marketing). He also explains that they have been working on the first map and shares an image of one area of Celador called “The Black Forrest”. Then he shows us TEN awesome house blueprints that will be available to build in the game in time for Alpha, some of which really remind me of the good old classic UO Houses but with a Shards Online twist!.

As if those teasers were not enough.. Supreem tells us that they have planned a series of community roundtables to keep us all up to date, the first of which is planned for February 7th for one hour between 1 and 2 pm EST (6-7pm GMT) and regular pre-alpha playtests for those who have pledged at the correct tier which you can still do!

You can read the full letter here and I seriously suggest you do! because the houses look fantastic!

 

On the same day I also had the chance to chat with World Artist Austin Fain who is the one that has been designing the wonderful looking Black Forrest. We chat about how he ended up on the team, the techniques behind building a world from scratch, what his proudest moment has been since being on the team and most importantly of all Why doesn’t he have a nick name! So if you have an idea for a nick name please leave it in the comment section of the video! With plans to chat with Supreem very soon what should I ask him or anyone else from the team you would like to see interviewed? Let me know!!