Greeting my wizard-hat-donning brethren (and sistren). Today I, Team-Grimoire’s-still-somehow-not-yet-discharged-resident-artist-person, have escaped from the snow storm that has trapped the rest of the team. Before I fetch hot dogs and gram crackers to aid the team’s survival, I have decided to drop an update- before they have a chance to hide all the computers from me again.

As was let slip not that long ago I have been looking at the UI, and after a long staring contest (that I would have totally won by the way) I began work on a new one. The goal is to have it out with the next major update which is creeping ever closer. As always these are actively being worked on, so they may change between now and when you see them in game; but this should give you a solid idea (or at least a slightly better idea) of where its headed... hmm whats this? Looks like Grimoire now comes in a volume of four?!- letting you show off your hip pointy hats in class?! Wizard class that is: Now you can take all your friends to school and teach them all about Wizzard etiquette (or buy the pack and play with your friends, that could work too).

First up lets start with something familiar: Class selection screen.
http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/classselect_small.jpg
What is that shadowy looking thi- oh wait its just Nethers place holder, whew- thought I accidentally hinted at the Shadow Mag... oops.

In game HUD should look a little different now as well. You even get a glimpse of what may be the new tab score screen.
http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/tabscore_small.jpg
And finally we could actually have victory and defeat screens in for matches.
http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/victreat_small.jpg
(Editor’s note: To the victor go the victeats...)
Additionally we will be updating spell icons so I have started on those as well.
http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/icons.png
There are many other aspects to the UI overhaul though, post match screens, profile page, options (but I don’t want to bore you)- and oh yeah Bots are happening. They keep clogging up the hallways here making it hard to get my morning coffee- hopefully we can kick them out of the building and into your game soon so I don’t have to keep fighting them for parking spaces.

-Justin

Greetings all,
I want to start off this week by letting you know how much fun it’s been playing with you all. Seeing new spell strategies, hearing feedback, and watching the letsplays that have come out has been great and very encouraging for the whole team. Thank you all so much for the overwhelmingly positive support and patience in these early days on Steam.

You may have noticed that the patch notes were a bit light this week and I’d like to give some inside info on why. Chan has been hard at working getting bots ready and has already made great progress. Bots are something that we are hoping will help with the games learning curve and player population issues. Bots are just one part of our overall efforts to try and strengthen these areas of the game and are what we see as the highest priority to fix. In addition to bots he also added Killstreak announcements voiced by @KyleJohnsonVA .

One of the other areas that is in most need of improvement is the games UI which is entirely placeholder. In addition to a change in our Steam branding images Justin (Asher) has also been working on the concepts and art for the new UI which Kyle (Rekuul) will then implement. Below is a preview of the new class select screen.
http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ClassSelect_small.png
One of our other main concerns at the moment is the games active player population and how to gather community feedback. For months now we have hosted a weekly Dev playtest which we have now expanded to three different days and times throughout the week. We are hoping that this will give everyone a chance to play the game at least once a week and also gives us the ability to do our own playtesting, gather community input, and answer any questions you might have for us.

Wednesday: 9 PM EST (6 PM PST, 3 AM CET)
Friday: 1 PM EST (10 AM PST, 7 PM CET)
Saturday: 3 PM EST (12 PM PST, 9 PM CET)

Another way we are compensating for the small size of our community is by adding more features to the FFA (Deathmatch) game mode. FFA servers can be found by looking for “FFA” in the server name or by the servers max players (8). The first step to completing FFA is by adding a victory condition. The first player to 30 frags or player with most frags after 15 minutes wins and the map will then change. This is also the first game mode that bots will be added to and will hopefully at least serve as a way for players to practice before facing more experienced players.
http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Update14screenshot.png

Thanks again to everyone for the amazing feedback and a special thanks to Howbadisbad for the detailed balance threads and discussion.
For more information about the game: http://store.steampowered.com/app/335430

http://store.steampowered.com/app/335430
Hi All,
Grimoire: Manastorm has released on Steam Early Access! We spent most of the last week preparing for our early access launch so there is not much to report on the new content front. So instead of what’s new in the game- this update is going to focus on what is coming next. There are two major areas we will be focusing on over the next couple weeks, and they both revolve around one idea: getting more people playing Grimoire. First, we are going to be focused on improving performance. Second, we are going to be adding bots to the game. And last but not least we will be cooperating with various press partners to give out free copies of Grimoire: Manastorm.

Performance is our top goal because we are FPS players and we know how easy it is to get frustrated at a choppy gameplay experience. Up until this point we’ve been focused on getting new art into the game but we did so at the cost of performance. The next couple weeks will be spent paying off some of the performance debt we’ve accrued and getting Grimoire back to the smooth experience everyone wants.

Adding bots to Grimoire: Manastorm has always been a plan for us. As players buy the game and try to find games on Steam in these first few days of Early Access we know how hard it will be to get a game going, especially at non-peak times. To combat this we want to get bots in the game as quickly as possible. This will allow players to learn the mechanics against bots and while they are sitting in servers brushing up their Wizardry- other players will likely see them and join in. It’s the obvious answer to the population problem.

In addition to the above we will be adding official “Early Access play times” to the message in main menu. We believe these efforts will allow far more people to meet up and play Grimoire together and the best part is - we think we can make this stuff happen within the next couple weeks.

We are extremely happy to announce that after a successful open alpha we are now released and available for sale on Steam Early Access! For the first 7 days the game will be 50% off so if you had fun in alpha please help us continue developing by picking up the game!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/335430

This week’s update is all about Grimoire’s sixth class: “Nether”. Justin has just finished the spell effects and we are now ready to show them off and get into some of the details of Nether. At it’s core Nether is all about control. Control over space, ley-lines, and paths. And of course control over players. Three of Nether’s four base activatable spells are designed around this control and when used together with other classes can easily turn a fight in favor of the Nether mage. If you want to check out this newest class we will have one more Dev playtest this Saturday the 31st at 3 PM EST (9 PM CET) before Early access release next week. A huge thanks to all of our awesome alpha testers for the feedback and support!

http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/NetherChakram.gif
Chakram (Left click) sends out a chakram of Nether energy that returns to you. Can damage enemies twice and travels through solid objects.

http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/NetherRift.gif
Rift (Right click) summons a pool of Nether energy that deals damage to mana and health over time.

http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/VoidTether.gif
Void Tether (Q) launches tendrils of Nether energy that when it hits will pull your target to your location and deals damage.

http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/NetherVortex2.gif
Vortex (E) creates a powerful gravity well at the target location that sucks in nearby enemies and prevents them from moving or casting spells.

Nether’s addition will increase danger during that first sighting of an enemy mage. Void Tether’ extreme range and potential lethality will force players to be even more on guard for long range attacks.

The best part about Nether is it is our first class to have ‘final art’ for its spell effects. So if you’re jealous of Nether’s cool looking magic- don’t worry- our other five classes will be getting similar treatment in the very near future! Finally, here is a look into the concept art and designs behind Nether’s spells and effects:
http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/nether_concept-1024x882.png