Island and Pin-Pebble-Pouch Unlocked + Four Knotspells: your magic is cast!
over 6 years ago – Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 12:44:34 AM

Island + Pin-Pouch-Pebble unlocked

Not only did 4,500 backers get us the minigame Pin-Pouch_Pebble but we now have 100 islands – thank you! And we're so looking forward to task of choosing one even though it's going to be really really HARD. We haven’t planned when we'll get to do that just yet, but we’ll keep you posted. And don’t worry, if you still want to submit an island you have until midnight EST 18th November (but oh I am not the hardest on deadlines so try me!) Thank you for your beautiful work and for helping us with our world building! Check out all the entries so far by searching #BookofTravels on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  

Your magic in four new knots

Today we want to let you know how your ideas are going to implemented into knotspells... you may remember that this was our first stretch goal over two weeks ago, and you had tons of amazing ideas. 

Since there is a lot to be considered in any magical addition into a complex game, we weren’t sure we’d be able to do this so early on, but then we decided to do it anyway! So here are the knotspells you added and designed... Just to be clear, this is super early stages, so the details and names may change somewhat. And we’re sorry if we didn't get to mention everyone by name – there were a lot of great ideas that fell into similar categories as the ones you read below and we just couldn’t quite keep on top of them all.

Firework knotspell: a celebratory knot that sends up a little firework display when untied or maybe spouts confetti (Thank you Ashley Corkill)

Deception knotspell: this will make you able to disguise yourself as anybody else – though it requires you to tie a second knot to whoever you want to imitate (NPCs as well as players). This could be great to use to ambush others, or just confuse them! (Thank you Joseph J. Gericke)

Rapid bloom knotspell: a spell that creates new growth or helps plants grow. It can be used by Travellers to help revitalize land that’s been ravaged by fire damage or left to decay, and will help buds to flower and plants to bear fruit. Travellers may use it to grow a tree or plant to commemorate a journey together (Thank you Annie Chartier and MegaMalboro)

Familiar-summoning knotspell: a knotspell to summon a spirit familiar to you, the spirit familiar might depend on the kind of knot you tie. (Thank you Dennis, Savinien and Kaz Floyd) 

 That’s it for now, but since we're not done yet! This is the last week of the campaign, we've got some more exciting news to send soon, so stay tuned and keep sending the love and sharing - we're crashing through those stretch goals, let's keep it going! And to see what you might have missed, use our update index just here.

Update #5: All about knotspells
Update #8: Go’Bad, draisine travel and healing tea
Update #9: Design an island for the game
Update #10: Sefra lore
Update #11:Gameplay lowdown
Update #12: Mementos and artwork revealed
Update #13: 5 new stretch goals: dreams, a minigame, memories, accessories and pets
Update #14: The Braided Shore Book of Maps (free to all Settlers and above)
Update #15: Play music together + dreams

Best Wishes,

Helen and the team at Might & Delight

A Little Taste of Combat
over 6 years ago – Sat, Nov 16, 2019 at 02:07:55 AM

Hello Everyone, 

Happy Friday! Today, we're pleased to finally give you some info on something many of you have been asking about... is there combat in the game? What is it like? Here's Lead programmer Jens Berglind to explain. 

Combat in Book of Travels

Combat is not the protagonist of the Book of Travels, but it can be a larger or smaller part of the experience depending on a player's choices. When you're traversing more urbanised and populated areas, you'll be fairly safe from combat situations. But if you go further out into the wilderness to explore the wilder and less wandered corners of the world, threats start to become more common.

When in combat, you can choose to do weapon attacks, use certain abilities, or unleash certain knotspells. There are some combat-specific knotspells that do damage, but also plenty which you can use to aid your allies. 

The combat actions happen in real time, and every action has a countdown for the time it takes to execute. But be wary if you are in the heat of the battle - every hit you take will set back your current action counter as you attempt to block them or take the hit.

There is strength in numbers, which goes both for you and your allies, and the dangers you might face. Preparation, team work, and knowing your limits can be the key to your survival and success when wandering in the more dangerous parts of Braided Shore.

We're designing the game so that it won't be necessary that your character needs to seek out combat situations to progress in the game. But when it does happen, it should be dramatic, interesting, and have an impact.

Thanks for all your support! /Jens

Nine days left and so much more to come...

We cannot believe we only have one full week left! We have pets,  memories and accessories to attain in our stretch goals, and did you know we also announced a free Map Book if you pledge Settler or higher? We’ve had tons of great island ideas and I’ll be doing an official island count over the weekend, so please don't be shy - add yours to the mix! And if you missed any lore or news, check out our update index just below. (Oh and to help us get to more stretch goals use the buttons below to share.)

Have a great weekend!

Update #5: All about knotspells
Update #8: Go’Bad, draisine travel and healing tea
Update #9: Design an island for the game
Update #10: Sefra lore
Update #11: Gameplay lowdown
Update #12: Mementos and artwork revealed
Update #13: 5 new stretch goals: dreams, a minigame, memories, accessories and pets
Update #14: The Braided Shore Book of Maps (free to all Settlers and above)
Update #15: Play music together + dreams

Best Wishes,

From Helen and the team at Might and Delight 

Unlocked: play music together + dreams!
over 6 years ago – Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 11:20:22 PM

Dearest Musical Travellers,

Today we reached our $150,00 target and can now commit to making the feature that allows you to play music together, thank you! We can't wait to get together with you in Braided Shore and play beautiful music... Ah! And let's not forget that now we are 4,000 we are also going to make dreaming a part of your journey too! 

Since we can’t get jamming for a little while yet, we’ll have to let words do the magic for us. Here’s what the Illustrated Lore Compendium of Braided Shore tells us about music. 

Thank you again for getting us this far, we're SO excited about the energy gathering around this campaign! If you’re new to us and/or the campaign, check out our other updates and be sure to say hello in the comments section or on Discord. 

We’ll be in touch again with more on gameplay and if you missed our update yesterday and you'd like to know more about the surprise new Map Book (with 60 pages of illustrations!) Check the link just below. As for our island challenge, we still have less than thirty spots left to fill before we hit 100... so send us your ideas! Here's the index to all you need to know...

Update #5: All about knotspells
Update #8: Go’Bad, draisine travel and healing tea
Update #9: Design an island for the game
Update #10: Sefra lore
Update #11: Gameplay lowdown
Update #12: Mementos and artwork revealed
Update #13: 5 new stretch goals: dreams, a minigame, memories, accessories and pets

And, as usual, every share and retweet gets us closer to those stretch goals (Pets, everyone! PETS!) so if you haven't already, or you're feeling share-happy, use the buttons below to spread the word. Thank you - you're time and attention is very valuable to us, we appreciate it hugely.

Best Wishes, 

Helen and the team at Might & Delight 

A Surprise Celebratory Gift - The Braided Shore Book of Maps
over 6 years ago – Wed, Nov 13, 2019 at 11:51:06 PM

Dear Backers,

Today we want to celebrate that we now have over 500 Settlers, so we're adding a new book, The Maps of Braided Shore, to the rewards bundle for all backers who have pledged the Settler tier and above. 

The Maps of Braided Shore is a digital side product and will be a future DLC to the game. It's comprised of 60 pages of illustrated maps of the world's individual areas, the region and the larger world beyond Braided Shore, and can be enjoyed as an art book or as a tool for players who prefer a little less lostness in their wandering. Owning this book will also unlock additional in-game content (to be announced). 

This huge book of maps will now replace all maps in the Settler reward bundle! And along with the illustrated lore compendium, the soundtrack and the sketchbook, it'll also unlock in-game rewards which we'll be able to reveal later on in the development process.

We hope you like it! 

Best Wishes,

Helen and the Team at Might & Delight

5 x New Stretch Goals!
over 6 years ago – Tue, Nov 12, 2019 at 01:45:18 AM

Hello Dear Backers!

Today we are well over 3,500 backers and on our way to unlocking the music feature – what a great way to start the week. Check out Travellers’ Meadow too... those Night Flowers are so vivid and alive in the dark. 

Your ideas turned to stretch goals...

This weekend we've been cooking up some exciting ideas for stretch goals – we can’t wait to share them, because the ingredients are all yours! In the first half of this campaign you've contributed so many great ideas... so many just jumped out as being a really great fit for Book of Travels, so we decided to us them as stretch goals! Here’s what we've decided to add if we hit target:

We hope you like them as much as we do! Let's take a look at them in more detail...

Dreams that affect your character (4,000 backers)
With the current plan, your character sleeps when you log off. Sparked by a thoughtful idea submitted by Benjamin, we decided to create a set of dreams that will affect your character when you log in! Some might give visions, others may boost or disturb you for a short while. Who knows what dreams we can come up with. Suggestions are, as always, very much welcome!

Pin-Pouch-Pebble minigame (4,500 backers)
This is a really neat idea from Erik Russell who suggested a Braided Shore version of Rock, Paper, Scissors. We loved the idea so much that we want to make it a permanent skill instead of a rare knotspell. With this stretch goal reached, we’ll create a permanent minigame based on the eternal classic Rock Paper Scissors!

String of memories (5,000 backers)
An absolutely delightful idea presented by backers Liv and Aolu. They both suggest a way to give an item or a memory to players you’ve met and shared memories with. It’s so in sync with our line of thinking that it would be a crime not to try to realise it! Since the game doesn’t feature a friends list or other guild-like features, this would be such a lovely way to enhance the beauty (and the sorrow) of past meetings.

PLUS two more stretch goals to make a bigger and better game...

We’ve also listened to your feedback to make two large, feature heavy stretch goals that will have a substantial impact on the game. We think you’re going to like these! And if you’re an animal lover, don't go away!

175,000 USD – Accessories for characters
The equipment that your character can use is gathered in a separate inventory screen that we haven’t yet shown. The different types of equipment you can carry are: Head, Cloak, Backpack, Body, Arm, Feet, Main-hand, Off-hand, Necklace, Belt, Ring. If we reach this stretch goal, we can implement a new equipment slot, Accessory, along with creating lots of matching items to go in the game. Our thought is that the slot should mainly be used for roleplaying purposes such as pipes, glasses, etc. But there’s no rule saying it can’t hold items used or worn differently. We want your ideas for items and will handpick as many as we can to put in the game!

200,000 USD – Pets Pets Pets
The companion animals that we’ve planned for the game (the ones seen in the game play footage are examples) are currently tied to each playable Form. This means the Sleeper always has a dog, the Gladdener a cat and so on. At present, the amount of available pets is low – a choice we took based on the substantial production time it would involve to add more. With this stretch goal reached, we’ll completely redo this design, opening up the possibility to find and collect many different companion animals on your travels. We’ll add a plethora of pets – both real and fictional – and implement them. Each animal companion will be tied to an item that you equip, for example a falconer’s glove brings you the falcon, a sparkly coin, the magpie. This design means that having a companion will take space you could use for other things, so many players might choose not to keep pets – this is a balance we’re keen on keeping, both to avoid pets taking over and also to keep them rare and special. As always, let loose in the comments, tell us what you think and what type of companion-and-item pairings you’d like to see!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read all about our plans – we can't wait to hear what you have to say about them! More on this and other campaign news soon! 

And if you want to share the campaign or check out other game news in our updates, just scroll down!

Best Wishes, 

Helen and the team at Might and Delight

Update #5 All about knotspells
Update #8 Go’Bad, draisine travel and healing tea
Update #9 Design an island for Book of Travels
Update #10 Sefra lore
Update #11 Game play lowdown