NOTE: Guys at the time of writing this developer update I have made the decision not to rebrand the project. To anyone who has worked with me on development in the past, Aakrana has been around for over a decade. It's been a vehicle on a journey of learning, discovery and many great adventures. I had planned to relaunch production as Saryn: Kingdom of Thrones but really it was just a name. Just wanted to be completely transparent with what is going on. Aakrana and the gaming systems that were designed for it are back in play. Long live Aakrana.

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog. The good news (and there is lots of it) is that the progress we’ve made on the servers in the last month and a half has been staggering. We went from basic account setups and some basic network code across multiple instances to integrating some of the most foundational systems to kick off alpha.

In the last 4 weeks we have:

-          Implemented our advanced questing engine

-          Implemented tiers 1 through 5 of the resource harvesting system

-          Itemized Resource harvesting for Lumbering, Herbalism, Farming and Mining

-          Implemented phase 1 of crafting (Currently Blacksmithing)

-          Implemented our first pass at day and night cycles

-          Upgraded the starting area assets (more on this later)

-          Improved the chat system

-          Added personal banking and storage

-          A bunch of gui improvements/functionality (In game compass bar, login screen updates, character selection updates)

-          UMA character models are in game

-          A lot more…

All of the above has been fully integrated and is testing well on our headless servers. We are slightly ahead of our planning roadmap for pre-alpha completion by the end of November. I’ll attach a couple of screenshots to this blog for your enjoyment but I have a couple of messages I want to pass on at this point.

1)      If you are skilled in UMA character management, 3D modelling and or building/integrating 3D animations and want to talk about how you can be a part of what we are building I would really be interested in talking. Please head to our website and hit the opportunities link in the navigation bar to see more details

2)      If you are a 3D modelling professional and have fantasy RPG asset bundles for sale that are Unity and UMA compatible and are willing to offer us a an amazing “special offer” please get in touch.

3)      Are you a 2D fantasy artist and interested in showcasing your talents through our website and in game screens? We are currently so focused on delivering an awesome player experience with our in game systems that we could really use a talented 2D fantasy artist to help us spruce up our web presence. Things like loading screen artwork and GUI upgrades are all on our roadmap but if this is something that interests you we’d love to have a conversation.

I would like to be clear (and the website has all of the details on this) this project is un-funded. Every cent that gets spent is money I am taking away from supporting my family. I am doing this project because I have a passion for game development and over 15 years working in the indie game dev world. We are looking for individuals with a similar passion and commitment who can work in a professional manner for the love of what they do. If this sounds like you please get in touch.

Thank you for reading this latest blog.  Looking forward to the next one.