Major Development Update

Hello Patreons, with our open test being only a few weeks in the past, we are looking towards the future by taking in the feedback and improving upon the game you all enjoyed. The feedback from you all was phenomenal; it was very clear you all liked the direction the game is headed, and  your positive reception ensured us that we are on the correct path with development, since we feel the same way about the game as many of you did. With this in mind, we plan on having more frequent tests moving forward, as we truly believe that the more exposure we can get, the better it will be long term for the game. You have made a loud and clear statement that the game is fun and you want to be able to play it more often, so we will do our best to make sure this can happen while also guaranteeing that we can provide meaningful content and quality updates within the time between tests. As we look to expand our playability schedule, we implore all of you to spread the word about the game as much as possible. As you know, we are a community driven and community funded game, so the larger we can grow the community, the better it will be for the health of the game and the faster we can look to releasing a finished product publicly.

With all that in mind, I am pleased to announce that Ethereal: Clash of Souls will be fully developed in Unreal Engine 5 from here on out. This is a move we have talked about internally for some time, and we felt that we have a solid foundation and that the transition was not going to push development back by a large scale. As such, the next playtest (Date Pending), will be on the updated engine. While we do intend to utilize many of our new engine's tools and resources, it will take time to make sure all of the pieces fit together, while simultaneously implementing all of the quality and content updates we discussed previously. Our main priority at the moment is getting the current version of the game up to par or better with the way you last played it; however, there are still many other features we look to implement on the new Engine as soon as possible before the next test. 

Some of these other features include:

• Improved Fog of War system
• Post Match screen
• New Scoreboard User Interface
• New Ability Screen User Interfaces
• Camera System adjustments
• Bug fixes, Balance, and additional Quality of Life

While we have many more things we have planned for the next test and beyond, we also do not want to overcommit, and will announce additional improvements and updates as they become more realized through the game's development. In our next post, we will go more into detail about statistics from the previous open test, as well as our general thoughts and ideas to address this information along with the relevant feedback!

We appreciate and thank all of you and the support you give us,

Undying Games ~~