You wouldn’t know it from how little we’ve posted lately, but we’ve been very busy working on our game the past few months.

Conclave

Same game, new name

The most obvious change, if not the most significant, is that it has a new name: Conclave. For the first year and a half of development its working name was Bastion, but you might have heard about the recent launch of another game by that name. Although we were using the name first, we didn’t think a legal battle would be in anyone’s interest, and it gave us a chance to come up with something better. The word “conclave” refers to an assembly or gathering, and we think that’s fitting for a game designed to bring friends together online. It also has an important in-game meaning, which you’ll hear more about in the future.

Besides the name change, our summer can be summed up in three words: development, development, development. We received a hugely positive response when we demoed the game at the “Made in MA” event on the eve of this year’s PAX East, and since then we’ve been working to complete everything that wasn’t ready then. To make sure we’re staying on the right track, we’ve also invited small groups to playtest our changes. If you haven’t received an invite, don’t worry; we expect to begin an open beta of the game soon.

The improvements we’ve made include:

  • dozens of new character and foe abilities
  • interactive terrain for our combat challenges
  • forks in the story where party members can vote on a course of action based on their skills
  • thoroughly revamped quests and challenges
  • a more responsive and graphical interface

Each of those could be its own post, but right now it’s time to get back to work. It won’t be long before you’ll all be able to see the results.