Overcoming Obstacles

Breaking in to the New year there had been some serious excitement around the artistic talent that Blizzardchill brought to the project. Her style and talent really added some life to our concepts. Unfortunately, not all good things work out the way we would like them to.

Whether the complications that we are confronted with are due to the distinct language barrier, the artists changed priorities or our intent to secure legal rights to the work we paid for we cannot be sure. They have refused to complete an Intellectual Property Release Form. This step is fundamental in selling artwork to an upcoming business. It releases the artist from having any legal claim to the work.

Not only is this a common practice when selling artwork it is a legal requisite that must be covered to prevent lawsuits, as well as a must to secure investors. Luckily, we have only paid for one piece of artwork from her and so our loss is minimal. It is a shame that we will not be able to use her talent in the future.

However, adversity is the parent of virtue. Or so my fortune cookie once told me. So we will begin looking for another artist. Unfortunately, we will not be discussing any more people that we are working with on the off chance that there is a saboteur in our audience. Sounds silly I know, but people are funny.

The World Keeps Turning

Moving forward with our updates. We have been pushing onward with the development of the pilot game. Given that the pilot will be a unique management-style strategy game the parceling of each nation into smaller subsets to provide a 'Risk' type of progression has been our attack method. This can be observed in the pictures accompanying this post.

We're not really sure what sort of bonuses will be appropriate for regions, kingdoms, nations or races, but it will have to be something that truly sets Epimetheus apart from the competition. They must be balanced enough so that no one race is favored above others but fun enough to prompt imaginations to rear and buck at their bridles. We are focused on challenging the status quo in the gaming industry, so expect weirdness to permeate from our labs.

As the quarter comes to a close we are also reflecting on the cultural development of the Centaur. According to Greek Mythology they are subject to their carnal desires with little to no restraint. unfortunately they seem to be all bark and no bite as they seemed to suffer greatly at a wedding battle. Yes, you read that right, a wedding battle. While it is not as underhanded as the Red Wedding of Riverrun it is far more bestial.

So in crafting their culture we stuck to the strong carnal nature but directed it toward a love of warfare. In addition they are a fascist people with a religious conviction for their people, their nation and their leader. However, we gave them an attribute bonus or two that allows them to compete against the other nations. As a race the centaur also possess a couple of features that will likely help them be a desirable race to play in the MMORPGRTS (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game with Real-Time Strategy) Sandbox version. 

Charging Forward

 Economically our nation is heading into a crisis. Inflation is climbing, greed runs rampant, corporations have more influence in government than constituents, the largest providers of oil and natural gas are forming a coalition that will trade oil in yuan rather than greenbacks. This means hard times ahead for us all.

As these new challenges approach, so too must our methods of handling finances and budgeting. Therefore, our base of operations has been moved to an area where rent is more reasonable. This has put a bit of a hold on progress but has not halted it. Moving can be both expensive and time consuming. The upside is that it means new opportunities and fresh communities.

We had planned on creating a lot of great competitions and events this year in tandem with a handful of merch. To accomplish this we must first establish our workspace and that requires a space to be utilized. The move was costly and some sources of income proved unreliable, leaving us in a touchy spot financially. Rest assured we will get back into the swing of things soon.

Stay tuned and we will keep you fine folks posted as developments are made.

Developer Producer
Nathan