Food and Drink in Braided Shore
over 3 years ago – Thu, Jun 17, 2021 at 01:42:47 AM

Dear Travellers,

Today we sample some of the culinary delights available to the visitors and denizens of Braided Shore. Among them are the rudiments of sustenance found, foraged and bartered for, as well as more gastronomical delights to be enjoyed at moments of leisure...

When it comes to food, our design is comfortably conventional, with nutrition and nourishment coming by way of breads and vegetables. And when it comes to variety and distribution, Travellers will find much that is familiar… a socio-economic pattern has been applied, with pastoral regions such as Crossroads consuming much grain and bread and coastal areas like Myr enjoying abundant fish suppers (even game designers should pay attention in Geography class).

Urban Eating

Of course the larger the settlement, the more likely you’ll be to find a variety of imported or cultivated foods, and in Kasa in particular a wide range of regional treats are yours to barter for in local and occasional markets. Among the fanciest of pleasures are Honey Marinated Boar Ribs and sublime dessert, Wanderers’ Joy, as well as a very expensive wine cheese (an exceptional item) which has been marinated in wine for reasons revealed two paragraphs below.

Foraging in the Forest

Having packed a bag full of food for fun and fuel, you’ll be ready to strike out into the wild yonder of the city’s hinterlands. Along the way there will be opportunities to purchase local and more limited food items, but you may find it more fun to forage for your supper. There are lots of edible treats growing in the nooks and crannies and even the wind strung peaks of this land, and most can be eaten raw and cooked.

Drinks and ‘drinking’

Drinks are sweet or savoury and of course a nice cup of tea is the staple of Asken life and can mean much more than a simple cuppa in both flavour and function. But ‘drinkers’ should know that wine is forbidden, being deemed too chaotic and perturbing on the spirit. Cider, on the other hand, is much enjoyed among some and perfectly permitted. But since wine is banned, grapes are also hard to come by. That doesn’t mean that the odd illegal vine can’t be found curling out of a crevice here and there, and there’s a small hatch in a wall in Kasa through which, for a price, one can be served a very fine and suspiciously grapey tasting ‘cider’.

The role playing dimension

When it comes to the importance of food in roleplay joy, there are many games to look to for inspiration, but foremost comes Zelda, Breath of the Wild (and we’ve heard from many of you in this last year about your love of Zelda!). And YES you will be able to cook in Braided Shore! That’s a feature we’ll be working on while you are playing through Chapter Zero, aka Early Access. But have no doubt that there will be plenty of cute, quirky, vile and strange foods to choose from to furnish your character with, and veggie and vegan lifestyles will of course be catered for.

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What food experiences have you enjoyed in your gaming or real life experiences? What kind of food and drink do you think you'll be on the hunt for in Braided Shore? We'd love to know! 

Best Wishes,

Helen & the Dev Team xx

SPECIAL UPDATE: A release date for Book of Travels + Watch the trailer!
over 3 years ago – Sun, Jun 13, 2021 at 01:44:23 AM

Dear Travellers,

We’ve been journeying together for a little while now, but today the time has finally come to reveal our date for Early Access along with some more glimpses of the world we are getting so close to embarking on. We hope you love it! We know that some of you are as excited as we are about setting foot on Braided Shore, and now we have a date... So circle the calendar and prepare your hearts, adventures of wilderness and wonder lie before you! 

Thank you for your patience and your company – we look forward to travelling with you!

Best Wishes,

Helen & the Dev Team xxx

Sprites and Small Spirits - A look at some of the tiny beings of Braided Shore
over 3 years ago – Tue, Jun 01, 2021 at 10:30:37 PM

Dearest Travellers,

In Braided Shore a whole range of encounters is possible; an enraged Sefra might knock you from your path or a happy hearted one surprise you with a boon, or perhaps a meeting with a Malku Su might leave you feeling a little small. But look down and think tiny, because little lurkers are also on the move! Some will come in single spies, and others in battalions, but in most cases these little creatures will cause you no sorrow and are in fact as harmless as rabbits...

Folklore from all around the world tells us that spirits aren’t always spooky - they can manifest as many moods and keep all kinds of habits, and so it is with the ones you see here. You might recognise the predecessors of these little creatures in the worlds of Studio Ghibli or the Moomins - they also echo the sprites of Swedish folklore where their collective name is ‘Oknytt’. in Braided Shore, the collective name for this range of sprites and small spirits is Omin, and today we’re taking a look at production sketches outlining many kinds of Omin. 

The early sketches of Omin you see here are just some of the many that may come into being. Some will debut in Early Access, but most will have to wait until Chapter One commences, and some may in fact never make their escape from paper to game world... We’d love to hear which ones you like the most so that we can take your wishes into our design considerations, so please leave your comments!

Best Wishes,

Helen & the Dev Team xx

All about Regeants! Explore, Discover and Make Magic...
over 3 years ago – Mon, May 24, 2021 at 02:32:43 PM

Dear Backers and Travellers,

What word best describes those items used in spell casting? In Braided Shore these ‘ingredients’ are known as Reagents, and as your travels unfold you’ll come to know a great deal about them...

As with all things that nourish our lives, the occurrence of these magical ingredients is sometimes logical but at other times seems to have no obvious cause. When it comes to logic, Reagents manifest as a complex expression of many things: the natural landscape, the relationship between the land and its various inhabitants, and the history of both of those things. Like mycelium beneath mushrooms and the roots under trees, there are deep systems at work, and they’re largely the labour of Game Designer Beto who took inspiration from picking flowers for a midsommar garland: “I knew vaguely where I could find each flower I wanted, so I went kind of where I remembered them to be, but I still had to do some searching, and as I did, I found pleasant surprises - it felt so much like the experience I wanted for Travellers in Braided Shore”.

What are Reagents?

While we’ve talked a little about some of Braided Shore’s more supernatural aspects and some of the effects and skills that can be conjured by way of teas and knots, we’ve shared little about the items required and how you might encounter them. With the correct combination of Reagents, players will be able to use skills and make knots spells and magic teas (such as the Brew of Hidden Cries). Reagents can manifest as many things - beautiful, ordinary, natural or manufactured, and their properties are studied by scholars and Mystics across the land. As a newcomer to Braided Shore you too will become a student of Reagents as you get to know the many aspects of Reagent lore and usage.

Tune in to the presence of Reagents

The most obvious way to detect the whereabouts of Reagents is by paying attention to the world around you. Just as with items, you’ll find them in hidden places, and thoughtful exploration will pay off - light, colour or movement might signal that something potent is close by. But as you familiarise yourself with the world you’ll also learn its logic and figure out where you’ll have the most chance of searching out more common Reagents such as Dandelion or Garden Balsam. Folk you meet and conversations you overhear may also reveal tips and pointers to an all-important, spell-completing Reagent.

Find signs of Reagents in the wild

When it comes to wildlife, there’s more to the surrounding flora and fauna than decoration. For example Yellow flowers indicate that Garden Balsam or Char Mustard are somewhere close by, and noticing where wolves like to hunt will help you seek out a rare tuft of animal hair.

Look for logic in towns and villages  

Just as with items, towns and villages are the site of a greater abundance of Reagents, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll need to be any less discerning. Some Reagents will be found in places they’d naturally occur, such as the Pure Soot in dockyards and railways, and Woots Powder which is also commonly found by train tracks and sites of rudimentary industry.  But Reagents may be moved, dropped or hidden and as a result, turn up in some unlikely locations...

Rare Reagents may mean high stakes

Rare Reagents are much sought after owing to their special properties or simply to their scarcity value. The rarest are as elusive as they are powerful and players will most likely need to invest some energy to locate them. One may be cause for a special expedition, another may require the kind of commitment that involves risking one’s life… A Silk Flower, for example, grows far from any road or settlement, where landscapes are desolate and sublime, and should you seek a Tuft of Animal Hair while wolves are hunting, you might run the risk or a wolf attack. But not all rare Reagents are as pretty to behold as flowers and fluff - Coagulated Engine Oil is as sticky and stinky as you might imagine (its rarity owes to the sparsity of oil in this inherited railway infrastructure). 

Once you’ve packed your latest Reagent safely in your pack, it’s yours to use as you wish. There’s a plethora of Reagents already in Braided Shore, but nothing is fixed - some Reagents may disappear while new ones may emerge or be discovered. 

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We’re really looking forward to hearing about your discoveries come Early Access! No matter what the findings, there will be an endless abundance to seek out as the world opens out before you and countless tales are told...

Are you a believer in the power of spells and magic? Or do you only harvest magical ingredients in your gaming life? If so, where? 

As always, our best wishes and seasonal blessings,

Helen & the Dev Team xx

New schedules + hello Oliver, our new CM!
over 3 years ago – Sun, May 16, 2021 at 10:02:56 PM

Dear Travellers,

Today instead of our regular post, we have some scheduling news plus an exciting addition to our team, so let’s dive right in...

Tuesdays are the new Fridays

If only they were, but maybe they’ll be a little more now that they’re our new content day... From now on, our usual Friday dev update as posted here on Steam and Kickstarter will now come on a Tuesday. Our next post is this coming Tuesday the 18th - it’s all about Regeants this week and I cannot wait to share it with you...

Along with our monthly Fireside Chat on Youtube this means that we’ll have something to share with you for three Tuesdays of every month - we’re still wondering what to do with that fourth Tuesday, but for now we’ll try and deliver something fun on our Twitter account, so if you’re a Twitter user be sure to follow us! And maybe you have an idea about what monthly occurrence you’d like from us… a competition? An art day? We’d love to hear it in the comments!

Our new CM Oliver

MORE TO THE POINT Oliver would love to hear about it! Please welcome him - he’s our brand new and dedicated Community Manager and won’t be split between roles as I have been these last years. Oliver loves games and has worked as a games journalist and with various communities and games in the last few years. You can find him on Discord or just say hello in the comments right here… He’s great, we love him, you will too. 

Shifted release window

Now to our almost-news concerning release - we realise you’ve been waiting for a Q2 release and we’re very aware that this frame is close to its June end... Well, we’ve shifted the window - but not by too much! 

We can tell you Book of Travels really is coming soon, we can tell you it’s all going very well, and we can tell you it will be released this summer. As you might expect, fixing a solid date for release involves coordinating a fair few aspects and schedules. Right now we’re working on doing just that so that we can nail that date once and for all. When we do, we’ll let you know right here - expect something in the coming weeks!

That's all for now - we look forward to sharing Braided Shore magic with you on Tuesday!

Helen, Oliver & the Dev Team xx