At the beginning everyone was begging for a sign of development either the Town Square be released or a gameplay video and almost everybody wouldn't shut up about it. Now they released a video and everyone is trashing it. You need to be thankful that they listen you their community and quit complaining because they try as hard as they can on these things. This is what they were scared about taking about it being too early for a gameplay video or Town Square.

Recently, I was contacted by a very close associate of the Luprano family. They offered me a deal I couldn't refuse: i could be apart of one of the most active and newbie-friendly groups on the Identity forums, in exchange for loyalty. I thought on this, thinking, "Am I really worth it to them?" I considered the for a significant amount of time, until finally coming to a conclusion: I must accept! Here I am now, after trying to send post after post proclaiming loyalty to the Luprano family. I can't say it directly because of the spam filters that I've been struggling with, but I'll try my best. I am entirely loyal to the Luprano family and all of the members of the family.

I Vincenzo Alberto Berezino (Vinnie) , pledge my loyalty to the Luprano family.

I, Carmine Abramo, pledge my allegiance to the Luprano Family.

A Sneak PeEk Environment out-take from coming video; player-ownable farmstead I'll get right to the bits which I know you're all excited for and wondering about: the upcoming gameplay video. We'd really hoped to get it out in January, but I sit here at 10pm on the 31st finally getting time to write up this dev blog. It won't be tonight, but it's going to be really, really soon. We did run into some delays for animation content which set us back almost two weeks on the video content. The delayed art was external and out of our control, but it's all handled and now we're polishing it up to show you first-hand. It's days, not weeks, away. Around the Studio It was an incredibly busy month for everyone on the team. My last bit was consumed with ever-so-exciting annual tax preperations and hunting for new blood. Andrew's been hard at work getting the last bits of technical content for the video flushed out and Henrik has accomplished some really big things bringing the Town Square together. Prototype UI design for inventory and shop transaction As you can see above, Artur's new UI design overhall for Identity and the Town Square module is looking fantastic. After Scaleform (our old middleware for UI) was abandoned by Autodesk, we had to rebuild our UI from scratch. In hindsight I'm glad that happened as I really like our new systems much more! Also of note is a very heavy overhaul of foliage (trees, bushes, grass) and other environment bits using photogrammetry. This is a fairly new method used in creating incredibly realistic art assets. You're going to be blown away by the results our resident photogrammetry guy, Philipp, has achieved. We've begun working with another studio to hasten art development for Town Square and other parts of Identity. Some of these guys have worked with us in the past, and the art we're getting back is some of the best in the industry. Full Steam Ahead After years of effort, I have to admit it's pretty fun and exciting seeing the Town Square module coming together. In the last weeks we've both launched our development game servers on the Google Cloud as well as a working development client on Steam. Internally, we're now at a point where we can prepare for access to the game world just as you'll be experiencing it in the Town Square. With the release of Town Square, all Founder package holders are going to be issued a key to redeem Identity on Steam. Town Square will be played through Steam and your Steam friends will be able to join you in the same game instances. Committing to the Asylum Finally, after more than two years of trying, the Canadian government has granted a work visa to our Executive Producer, Sean (also known as Motown) and he's been here at the office for the last couple of weeks. We've already seen a boost in productivity having one of our key developers on site, and I'm excited to see where it leads! There's still some room in the office, though. We're looking for talented technical artists, Unreal Engine generalists and animators especially, but we always love to meet talented individuals no matter their field of expertise! If you, or someone you know, would be interested in working for Asylum, check out our careers page. The Twitch Clips If you've been following Identity's development closely, you probably already know that developers stream their work live on the Identity Twitch channel every Tuesday and Thursday. We also use that time to answer almost every question that gets asked about Identity's development and gameplay. Now that we've been doing this a while, we've answered a lot of questions. Our awesome community manager, BeachBall, has taken the time to compile a massive list of questions linked to clips where they're answered by a developer. Get comfy and head over to the Twitch Clips Directory forum thread. If you haven't found this already, be prepared to spend a good bit of time listening to all sorts of awesome information. This is the best place to get to know the fine details Identity!

So I know the whole zombie thing is a bit overused and it has probably been suggested numerous times. But you cant deny how interesting it would be if devs managed to incorporate a proper zombie virus into the game (perhaps a Halloween only event?). I mean if the player population is gonna reach 300-500 players, you'd see some pretty huge hordes. I'd think it would be fun to see it happen in a more serious RP server personally. Like the initial infection, police responding only to become infected and see the virus sweep the server. I dont know how many players can be allowed in the same area, but you cant deny how interesting it would be to see something like this happen in a game like this. It's only a suggestion so if this idea is unpopular and/or not possible, no love loss.

If you don't have anything nice to say don't say it at all

I, António Cavalera, pledge my allegiance to the Luprano Family. Looking forward to see you guys in game

People have been asking for a year since the apartment one.

My words! Its true

In the gameplay footage why did the show us placeholder stuff? I dont understand the town square module is coming in literally 1 month and they show us placeholder stuff that isn't even in the town square? If someone could explain that it would be cool cause I didn't really want to see someone cooking meth, that's not what everyone is playing this game for.

I dont get why they had placeholders though, like surely you would show the best of what you had after no trailer in a while

This has been suggest before. The devs I believe thought about it but not sure on their answer. (Was long long time ago)

yeah this sounds like something i would do also trying to steal someone else's ships would be fun

Do I care about Asylum's mistakes? Nope, I'm still hyped for what's coming in less than four weeks: video + module. Also At the time I'm writing this, I'm watching Jade77's stream.

They don't "just" do props and brainstorm. Even though there's only a very few videos showcasing the game, it still shows that they've done some back end stuff too. If you wait four weeks, you'll be able to see more videos (mostly community), if what we have isn't enough of a proof that the game does exists.

I've returned from my "short" break. Though I'm no longer Underboss, I will remain an active member of the family.

That's neat! I'm sure the devs are taking precautions to make sure players can't abuse that system. I could see it becoming a gameplay issue, like so many stories in Ark or Rust where folks find themselves trapped by other players and unable to enjoy the game.

Name: Carl Mendano. Appearance: Street casual and black hat, 6ft. Race/ethnicity/nationality: White, British. Personality: Cautious. Education: Street smart. Sexuality: Straight. Misc Facts: Reasonable, loyal. Background: Grew up and taught by gangs. Street life.