Shroud of the Avatar: Episode 2 Planning Underway; Portalarium Team Shrinks
GameBanshee are reporting on a recent press release issued by Portalarium, which announces that initial work is now being done on Episode 2 of the Shroud of the Avatar series:
AUSTIN, Texas, June 19, 2018 — Austin, Texas based game developer Portalarium announced today concurrently the completion of key final milestones of its Kickstarter campaign along with adjustments and a right-sizing of its Shroud of the Avatar development team. The actions are taking place as Portalarium begins work on Episode 2 of Shroud of the Avatar, the fantasy roleplaying game from Richard Garriott. Additionally, Portalarium and its main licensing partner Travian Games GmbH have started discussions involving a possible expansion of their business relations which the companies hope to conclude in the fourth quarter of this year.
One of the key final milestones nearing completion is the delivery of the physical goods to backers of the original Kickstarter campaign which successfully launched Shroud of the Avatar’s early development. The Kickstarter collector’s edition of the game which has numerous physical components including color manuals, a metal ankh, challenge coin and a cloth map, is currently in final assembly and is expected to ship in a few weeks. Richard ‘Lord British’ Garriott noted, “Even in this day of digital downloads, the ‘reality’ of our world is deepened by physical goods which also are cherished by collectors.”
While the team is focused on Episode 1 polish, planning has begun on Episode 2, which will bring expanded stories, new lands and of course additional feature sets. “We are excited to start on the next chapter of the story, as well as expand the features of Shroud,” said Starr ‘Darkstarr’ Long, executive producer on Shroud of the Avatar. “The best part is that players will get to help decide which features we work on for Episode 2 via our Stretch Goal Store!”
The press release also contains mention of a deepening partnership between Portalarium and Travian Games, who are responsible for publishing the game in much of Europe.
More or less simultaneous to the issue of this press release, however, comes news that the existing Shroud of the Avatar development team — now tasked with polishing and building upon the recently-released Episode 1, Forsaken Virtues — has suffered a round of downsizing:
Newsbrief: Texas-based game studio Portalarium has been hit with layoffs, the company has confirmed.
Although the developer — founded by veteran game designer Richard “Lord British” Garriott in 2010 — didn’t reveal how many people had been let go, it told Gamasutra via email that the number is “relatively small” and includes some contractors.
Following the “right-sizing” of its development team, the studio is now focused on delivering the next episode of its Ultima-inspired fantasy RPG, Shroud of the Avatar.
Some additional commentary from Starr Long can be found on the Shroud of the Avatar forums:
Now that we are almost complete fulfilling our Kickstarter promises (brewing coming online in R55, physical rewards shipping very soon, progress being made on castle defense, etc.), we are adjusting our team size to better match our current monthly revenue. This will give us the balance we need to begin work on Episode 2 while ensuring we can support the online service. To do that means having, at least for now, a smaller team.
Right now we will shift our focus from creating new content to polishing our existing systems. This means making a stronger new user experience, fixing bugs, reworking the quest system, performance improvements, user interface polish, and more. At the same time we will continue the Tier adjustments in progress which will rework our existing scenes to more appropriate difficulty levels based on our current player population.
You will be a big part of our preparations for Episode 2 as we relaunch the Stretch Goal Store! You will get to vote on some of the Episode 2 features by purchasing rare items related to Mounts, Flexible Lot Placement, the Elven Playable Race, and Pack Animals. Stay tuned for more information soon!
I haven’t seen exact details on who has been let go, apart from a few names, but from what I have heard, the Game Services, Art, Design, and Q&A roles and teams have been the hardest hit; the Community Manager has also been let go.
To be fair, it isn’t uncommon to see development teams shrink after a game is released, especially when the studio is an independent developer; it’s entirely within the realm of possibility that this was a planned downsizing of the team, and that we’ll see a new round of onboarding in the next year or so as Episode 2 moves from its planning phase into pre-production and then full development.
Still, not the happiest of news; here is hoping that the various men and women who have now exited the employ of Portalarium are able to find new work quickly.
I am not going to mention the many, many signs that Portalarium is facing economic trouble. They should be obvious to anyone with an impartial eye.
You can just stick to Long’s quote.
They “are adjusting (their) team size to better match (their) current monthly revenue. ”
The idea on the SOTA Discord and Forum (and this site) that this is normal for projects to hit with lay offs fail to take this into account. Portalarium is basically admitting they are letting people go because the game is not doing as well as planned. This is not a surprise to anyone.
We could also speculate about the opportunity of switching to bug fixing, redesigning UI, polishing existing content when possibly the biggest issue of the game is that content is severely lacking in Episode 1 already (and let’s not even mention the prospect of having to create all kind of new arts, quests for Episode 2).
This is a game that’s not doing well ; a thing Portalarium is never going to admit because, since they are relying on donations and virtual items to survive, they are dead the instant they admit trouble. One can only speculate, but the smart guess is to not indulge in RMT.
This is certainly possible. The shrinking of the Q&A team is particularly troubling; one would think that group would be especially needed as they continue to polish and improve the game.
But I do think that some layoffs were to be expected, especially in a small indie studio. If we were talking about a publisher-owned studio, or a large studio like Obsidian which can juggle multiple projects at once, it might be different. But a small, one-game shop necessarily has to be a very lean shop, and surprising fluctuations in team size aren’t unusual in that context.
It would be good to see some hard data on Portalarium’s financials, and indeed on how SotA is selling now that it has been officially released. It would be good to know how much money it’s bringing in…and we just don’t have that information. Until we do, we are both of us speculating.
Some layoffs were to be expected, yes. But these are incredibly deep cutting, including the head story designer (Lum) , the art director (Hutch), AND the lead animator (Gix). Very troubling indeed, especially for those who were still hoping for improvement in the single player/storyline side.
Here’s everyone who’s confirmed as gone, according to The Order of the Drunken Elders Guild; they’ve been scraping social media for farewell posts and the like.
And here’s who is likely still on staff:
Again, credit here to the Drunken Elders Guild.