Hello everyone!

My name is Alexey Sityanov, I'm the project leader of Sketch Tales, and I’ve got two news for you.

1. We decided to freeze the Sketch Tales, and it seems there is no turning back.
2. We decided to restart the Sketch Tales, develop F2P version as an online world with the same history and possibilities.

Many times I postponed this letter and it didn’t come easily. Sketch Tales is an essential project for me, and I do not want to call it quits. However, in the current form, the Sketch Tales is impossible without serious funding. Also, the project has many difficulties with the technologies we have chosen. After a couple of years of searching and trying to negotiate with publishers we have to admit that there is no funding for the current version of the game.

Sketch Tales is an experimental and very innovative project. In it, we tried to do a lot of things, which no one else has done before us. A live RPG world that you can not only draw but also play in with friends. When we started, we could not imagine with what we will face. When we reached a certain point, our money just ran out. And as I wrote earlier, we did not find the new one. Also, we found ourself mired in a quagmire of technologies and we also missed all deadlines. What happened, happened. That’s why the project has to be frozen till better days.

But there is some good news - after all experiments and attempts to make everything work we’ve got an understanding of how to create a better version of Sketch Tales. One of the good variant is to make it more accessible by releasing the game in the form of an online F2P world. With the same history and possibilities.

Our future plan:
1. Frozen the first version of Sketch Tales, as it’s further development in the existing form is impossible
2. Find the funding and make the team for the F2P version of the game
3. Develop and release new Sketch Tales
4. For everyone who bought the game, we want to give cool individual awards and bonuses in the new version of a game. Also to provide access to the closed Beta of the new F2P Sketch Tales
5. Keep developing Sketch Tales

And now, it’s very important to us hear your opinion about this changes. Please write in comments your opinion about restarting Sketch Tales? What are your expectations from the new version of Sketch Tales?

I wanted to thank all who was with us all this time! To people who bought and played our game, left reviews and wrote comments. Even criticism! All this inspires us not to leave behind the project and to move on. Maybe in a new way. We want to make Sketch Tales better and more interesting than ever before.

Thanks to all of you!

Alexey Sityanov
8D studio, project lead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioeZUBOTDFQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOjsQV3ZfPI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw0-0hzvOgY

Hello everyone!

My name is Alexey Sityanov, I'm the project leader of Sketch Tales, and I’ve got two news for you.

1. We decided to freeze the Sketch Tales, and it seems there is no turning back.
2. We decided to restart the Sketch Tales, develop F2P version as an online world with the same history and possibilities.

Many times I postponed this letter and it didn’t come easily. Sketch Tales is an essential project for me, and I do not want to call it quits. However, in the current form, the Sketch Tales is impossible without serious funding. Also, the project has many difficulties with the technologies we have chosen. After a couple of years of searching and trying to negotiate with publishers we have to admit that there is no funding for the current version of the game.

Sketch Tales is an experimental and very innovative project. In it, we tried to do a lot of things, which no one else has done before us. A live RPG world that you can not only draw but also play in with friends. When we started, we could not imagine with what we will face. When we reached a certain point, our money just ran out. And as I wrote earlier, we did not find the new one. Also, we found ourself mired in a quagmire of technologies and we also missed all deadlines. What happened, happened. That’s why the project has to be frozen till better days.

But there is some good news - after all experiments and attempts to make everything work we’ve got an understanding of how to create a better version of Sketch Tales. One of the good variant is to make it more accessible by releasing the game in the form of an online F2P world. With the same history and possibilities.

Our future plan:
1. Frozen the first version of Sketch Tales, as it’s further development in the existing form is impossible
2. Find the funding and make the team for the F2P version of the game
3. Develop and release new Sketch Tales
4. For everyone who bought the game, we want to give cool individual awards and bonuses in the new version of a game. Also to provide access to the closed Beta of the new F2P Sketch Tales
5. Keep developing Sketch Tales

And now, it’s very important to us hear your opinion about this changes. Please write in comments your opinion about restarting Sketch Tales? What are your expectations from the new version of Sketch Tales?

I wanted to thank all who was with us all this time! To people who bought and played our game, left reviews and wrote comments. Even criticism! All this inspires us not to leave behind the project and to move on. Maybe in a new way. We want to make Sketch Tales better and more interesting than ever before.

Thanks to all of you!

Alexey Sityanov
8D studio, project lead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioeZUBOTDFQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOjsQV3ZfPI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw0-0hzvOgY

During last week's 'Play with the Devs' session some users were experiencing a frozen loading screen when trying to join an ongoing match. This ended up being a bit of a tricky bug....

...but we were able to knock it out. Hooray! There shouldn't be any more frozen loading screens.

To update:: open the game properties in the Steam library and click on 'Check the Cache Integrity' in the Local Files tab.

This Friday- November 18th - join the Sketch Tales dev team at 1800 UTC (2000 EET, 1000 PST) for an hour of battling it out online and playing Capture the Scrolls. If you haven't yet checked out the update yet, now is your chance to do so while playing along with the game's creators!

If you haven't yet joined the beta but would like to, we'd love to have you! Please complete this very brief form[docs.google.com].

And if you haven't updated the beta yet, open the game properties in the Steam library and click on 'Check the Cache Integrity' in the Local Files tab. Once complete, you're ready to rock!

We have some juicy updates for Closed Beta Test that just went live!

Features:
- Easily join an existing match. You are now able to easily download the map for an existing multiplayer match and join that game
- Two new official maps. Oh yeah!
- Magic staffs shooting fireballs and lighting bolts have been added;
- Scroll Chests have been added. This is a big one! This is the foundation for a player being able to "level up" and upgrade the types of characters, weapons, items, fireballs, etc that they will be able to chose for a multiplayer match. Once you find a scroll, you will need to hold on to it until the end of the match and if you do that successfully, that scroll will then be permanently added to your Magic Book
- Hints added by hotkeys and by the game rules in the mode menu;
- Record and share your own audio for your characters and creations
- Changes to make the UI and certain language more intuitive
- Story Maker has been updated – voxel performance and user-friendly options for compiling the map for multiplayer, map settings, so as the list of hotkeys added to the menu;

Bugs:
- Exit ≠ Crash. This is a bug in Unity but we found a work-around that allows you to close the game without it potentially crashing
- Freezing on loading fixed;

To kick off the update right away, open the game properties in the Steam library and click on 'Check the Cashe Integrity' in the Local Files tab. Once complete, the game will update and you can start enjoying the updates!

P.S.: feel free to write us your feedback on what you like and dislike about the new update. This will help us understand how to make Sketch Tales even better. In the meantime we will keep developing our project and currently we are mainly focused on improving the game’s performance and gameplay.

Have fun and enjoy the game!
8D Team

The first improvements are now available on Steam.

What's been fixed:
- the bug which delayed the editor in story maker. Now, when you are using the voxel editor, your creations will show up very quickly
- hitting yourself when running backwards. You cannot hit yourself now :)
- the volume of the sound of sea has been reduced
- the sound of splashing water when opening/closing any interface window has been removed
- the sound effects of splashing into water have been fixed

Additionally, the overall game performance has been improved.

To kick off the update right away, open the game properties in the Steam library and click on 'Check the Cashe Integrity' in the Local Files tab. Once complete, the game will update and you can start enjoying the updates!

8D Team

Alright alright alright!

For those that signed up for beta access, please check your email for the beta password to check out Sketch Tales in all its new multiplayer glory! Instructions on how to enable the beta are below (and also in the email).

For those that didn't sign up but would like to be added to the next wave, please complete the three brief fields here https://docs.google.com/a/whippering.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd5o0Cv_-KnC6DJo9yovmEZbDwclh1xSDW6CnR9lhYtn0swOw/viewform and we'll get you added.

We're looking forward to seeing you and your imaginative creations out on the battlefield. Also, be sure to use the voxel editor and upload shots of your worlds and maps to the Community Hub on Steam!

We'll be adding quite a bit to the game while in closed beta. In particular, over the next weeks expect to see major performance improvements and additional multiplayer maps added.

For those with the password, here are the steps on how to enable the multiplayer beta:

1. Locate Sketch Tales in your Steam library
   
2. Right click on Sketch Tales
   
3. Choose "properties"
   
4. Navigate to the betas tab
   
5. Enter the password (check your email)
   
6. you will see some text that the password worked. That triggered a new option in the menu directly above the password box. Click that menu and select "multiplayerbeta" (If you do not see “multiplayerbeta” as an option, restart Steam, navigate back to this window and it will be present)
   
7. Navigate to the “Local Files” Tab

   
8. Click Delete Local Game Content. This will uninstall Sketch Tales

   
9. Once uninstallation is complete, re-install Sketch Tales (you can do this a number of ways. Double clicking on it in your library is an easy one)
   
10. Once installation is complete, you’re good to go. Start the game and enjoy!

------------------
Troubleshooting

In some rare cases, Steam will not recognize the beta. If you try to start the game and you receive a message that states you’re missing an executable file, please:


1. Right click on Sketch Tales
   
2. Choose "properties"

   
3. Navigate to the Local Files tab

   
4. Click “Verify Integrity of Game Cache”

   
5. Once complete, start Sketch Tales again



If you still receive a message stating you’re missing an executable file, please:

1. Right click on Sketch Tales
   
2. Choose "properties"

   
3. Navigate to the Local Files tab

   
4. Click “Delete Local Game Content.” This will uninstall Sketch Tales

   
5. Once complete, reinstall Sketch Tales
   
6. Once complete, right click on Sketch Tales
   
7. Choose "properties"

   
8. Navigate to the Local Files tab

   
9. Click “Verify Integrity of Game Cache”

   
10. Once complete, start Sketch Tales again