Book of Travels in the Words of Others
over 4 years ago – Sun, Jul 18, 2021 at 03:29:28 AM

Dear Travellers,

As our teams head out for summer vacations, we’ve decided to give them a break from preparing and sharing artworks from Book of Travels. Instead, we’re sharing some of our favourite articles about the game.

It’s quite incredible to me to think that not so long ago, when the name for the game wasn’t even set in stone, we’d search up ‘Book of Travels’ to find only references to an ancient Ottoman literary tradition. Today a quick internet search throws up a wealth of images and articles: some are ours, but many are the work of others, and today we want to say thanks to anyone and everyone who has ever written about or shared any news about our Online RPG.

The articles and features shared here express so well what Book of Travels is about and the ambitions we have for your Braided Shore experience. We very much value words like these – they are our sounding board, our mirror, our friend along the way, letting us know who we are, where we are, and that we’re heading in a direction that’s right and true. 

Words about the date reveal trailer

Here’s what Screenrant's Coleman Gailloreto had to say about our Date Reveal Trailer…

A close look at first gameplay

Rachel Watts at PC Gamer put excellent words to how Book of Travels differs from classic MMOs and shared our first ever gameplay video in her feature last November...

An appreciation of detailed character creation

Loren Morten at Rock Paper Shotgun took a look at the same video and enjoyed the game’s detailed character creation process...

An interview with our Creative Director

In ‘old’ media form only (we do love analogue press here at M&D) Creative Director Jakob Tuchten talked with Chris Kerr at Edge about the studio’s ”punk” ethos. 

Regular and expert angles on these Steam posts

For anyone who hasn't come across Massively Overpowered yet, we'd like to shine a light their way – Bree and Justin's synthesise of our sometimes vague and often slippery reveals have been a great read and always reassure me that we're saying what we mean to! Each fortnight they comment on our Steam post with the insight of true RPG aficionados – so get the kettle on, get cosy and catch up on our their backlog of short reads right here...

We hope you enjoy reading this selection – as always, we'd love to read your words right here… Share anything you like about the game, about these articles, or about your own experience on sharing a project with the world… We’d love to hear them!

Best Wishes,

Helen & the Dev Team x

P.S It's been a long time since we posted anything on Reddit, but we finally made it happen and you can now connect with MMORPG fans and take a look at our developer spotlight post right here, and if you're a Reddit user, we look forward to seeing you there more often in the future!

Every Traveller a Different Tale - all about stories in Book of Travels
over 4 years ago – Wed, Jun 30, 2021 at 12:34:04 PM

Dear Travellers, 

How does an RPG look when there is no linear questing? We’ve often talked about how the narrative experience of Book of Travels is different from traditional and classic RPGs, and today I’m going to paint a clearer picture of how the game is designed so that you, the player, will go on a story journey that’s unlike any other.

Rare encounters

Book of Travels takes much inspiration from tabletop roleplay games and live action roleplay, each of which evolve story experiences from the beats of randomly generated scenarios. Readers who have ever LARPed, who like to roleplay or who’ve ever taken part in immersive theatre will know the feeling of being captivated by a stumbled-upon dramatic event. This can be even more special when encountered with only a friend or compadre, and perhaps better still as a singular and solitary audience. Scenarios in Book of Travels are threaded throughout the game world in such a way that players will not share a common set of experiences, and there’s a chance that you’ll experience a scenario which is so rare that you could just be its only witness.

The personal pattern of your journey

Scenarios which are less rare may still be encountered by only a few Travellers who, having taken their own path and honed their own world view, will interpret them in that light. Other experiences will be more common, but [b]whatever kinds of encounters you have, their course and pattern will emerge from the choices you make on the road[/b]. Since there is no linear plot through which to advance, Travellers will instead come across many story strands to weave together along the way, but not every player will hold the same threads. Essentially[b] your exploration of Braided Shore will be entirely different from that of any other Traveller[/b] and your adventure will take a shape that's all its own. 

Shifting events in a living world

Should you tell another Traveller about an exciting moment, they should know that they won’t be able to recreate that experience - events in the game are not static and cannot be depended upon in terms of gameworld time-and-space. In many ways they comprise a vast and eternally shifting collection of encounters that together form the body and soul of Braided Shore. 

Shaping chapters

One of the advantages of making a PC game based on Steam is that it allows us to listen to players’ opinions, so over the course of Chapter Zero we’ll be reading and absorbing your responses as well as using game data to observe how Travellers are experiencing and responding to the world and its stories. This insight is something we are really excited to explore, since we’ll be able to respond to the marks that you leave and the tracks you make to craft Chapter One, which we think will help us make it a much richer experience. 

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Thank you so much for being with us - we’re unbelievably only six weeks away from our launch date of August 9th! We’d love to hear what you think about our narrative design in the comments section below where our Narrative and Game Designers Dennis, Andreas and Beta will drop in and answer your questions. What gaming story experiences have made great memories for you? We'd love to know!

Best Wishes,

Helen & the Dev Team xx

Food and Drink in Braided Shore
almost 5 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!
almost 5 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
almost 5 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