I do understand your concern, and it's well placed, but it really doesn't have much affect on us at this point as we're working through the weekends a lot already. Hiring temporary developers is almost impossible, though, as with our complex systems it can take weeks or even months for the new developers to fully understand them well enough in order to fix or develop upon them.

Identity and the Town Square are now listed on the Steam store page! We have only a short time before Steam's approval process is complete. The Steam release date for Town Square is in only three weeks time! Head on over to our Steam store page ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/792990/Identity/ ) for all of the exciting information. Also, don't forget to stop by the Steam community section which you'll find on our store page. It's almost here! Thank you to all of our supporters who have allowed us to come so far. This is the first major milestone for a game which could spawn a genre.

It's a sad day when you're in one of the top brackets in these things!

The time has finally come! I'm going to start this dev blog update with the news you really want: the Identity Town Square module will be published to Steam before the end of this month (October)! This means that you'll be able to create your characters, meet other players and set up your homes very soon. Here's how it'll work: before the end of the month, the Identity Town Square store page will be published. At this point, we need to wait for Steam's approval of our application which takes a couple of weeks. Once approved and released, you'll be in the square! The great news here is that when the Town Square does show up on Steam, the date shown (which will be quite near) is the absolute date that you'll be playing. We're so very close to getting the foundation of Identity out there for you to get your hands on! Next to come, the SWAT module's development will take but a fraction of the time to create as the Town Square has the foundation in place for the entire MMORPG. The back-end we need to push forward is here and from the point of the Town Square release our development focus is switched over to gameplay features. As a developer, this feels great! Get your Identity Steam key! We're getting close! You can now connect your Steam account to your Identity game account and obtain your Identity game Steam key. This key will add Identity to your library so that when Identity is released, you can download it and start playing immediately without having to do anything else. To get your key, login on the main site at www.IdentityRPG.com. You can then go to the Account tab of your profile where you'll see an option to link your Steam account. You must have BETA ACCESS on your account to claim a key! ATTENTION! You can only attach one steam account to one game account, and it's permanent. Be sure you're logged into your game account which has the items you've purchased before attaching a Steam account! While you won't get Identity in your game library just yet, you will as soon as we're published and approved. Handing out the keys like this allows us to reduce load on our servers. We currently have 20,000 keys in the system and we'll be adding more. Once you've obtained your key from the Identity website you can enter it into your Steam client, but be sure that you're logged into the Steam account where you'd like to own Identity. Click the Games menu in Steam, and then Activate a Product on Steam. Identity Insider: Prison Life Another Identity Insider is here, giving you a detailed look into the prison mechanics of Identity. You can see more Insider updates on the about page of the Identity website. Identity prison concept art Eventually, your luck is going to run out. Crime does pay, and it pays well, but the long arm of the law will catch up with you. For minor crimes you might see a ticket or time in jail, but serious offences will land you in prison. In Identity, prison has a culture and lifestyle of its own. You might be there as punishment, but there’s a lot going on while you’re serving your sentence. Put in your time in your cellblock’s relative safety, or choose to step out and join a prison gang. Prison Gangs Prison gangs are the core of your activity behind bars. With three gangs vying for control around you, you’ll need to choose a side to stay safe on the inside. Those without gangs are even more vulnerable when they step outside the safety of their own cellblock. Each prison gang has access to a private contraband market, providing its members with unique looks, makeshift weapons and more. Don’t get caught with illegal goods, though, as some police officer players could be serving as prison guards in their down-time. Infamy You’ll need to pull your weight if you want the protection that a gang can offer. Your gang is going to ask a lot of you; prison life is incredibly dangerous. Each gang member will be offered tasks to carry out for cigarettes, the prison currency of choice, allowing access to equipment and items from the contraband markets within the walls. You may be asked to shank a rival inmate or to destroy a treasured artifact deep in hostile turf, for example. Special achievements available within prison, often related to nefarious activity, will unlock customizations such as tattoos or haircuts so that you can send a message to those around you on the outside. Sentencing You could be serving up to 45 minutes behind bars. That is, unless you take matters into your own hands! As a good and obedient inmate, you have the options of working for the prison with small jobs such as pressing plates or cleaning up trash in the yard. This work will reduce your sentence time. Time is money, though. Sometimes you just can’t wait. If you’re willing to take the risk, you can force your way out. When conditions are right and the inmates are ready, you might be able to get into a guard room and get your hands on a weapon. This can kickoff an entire player-versus-player scenario between a group of inmates and the guard forces. Fight your way out through an increasingly difficult situation and you’re home free; you’re going to have an even bigger bounty on your head, though. Prison breaks can also happen from the outside. If the prison isn’t on lockdown, outside gangs can gear up and bring the fight to the police. These conflicts are much more intense, though, and there is a lot of risk involved as the police are well equipped and the attackers can lose everything if killed or arrested. Trial by Jury If you hate the idea of getting your hands dirty with work but you’re not up for risking a longer sentence trying to escape, you might want to try your luck in front of a jury of your peers. Those with a heavy term can request a trial. Several random citizens around the land will be summoned to jury duty, being paid if they answer the call. Your fate will be in their hands, and also on the shoulders of your attorney. You might represent yourself or hire a smooth-talking legal corporation to help get you off the hook. You or your lawyer will have a short opportunity to explain how the law must have wronged you (you’re innocent, right?) and then it’s all up to the jury. If most of the jury declares you not-guilty, you’re free to go; however, if only a few don’t buy your story it’s back to your small cell. Serving Your Time When you’re not in the mood for the gritty and competitive life in gang warfare, find your way to the common areas in the prison. Common areas are safe zones with all sorts of ways to pass the time with other inmates around you. The common area gives you safe access to weightlifting, TVs which play from a variety of streaming services, billiards and more. You might be locked up, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have fun! DasMEHDI plays Town Square live! Earlier this month, DasMEHDI, a popular Twitch streamer, had the chance to hop into our development build and explore the Town Square with his friends. Check out the hilarious footage below! Note that this is an early development build, which was already outdated at the time of play, and is not representive of the Town Square's current state. Still, it's a lot of fun! DasMEHDI Early TS Development Build Play New website is here The Identity website has had an overhaul to prepare for the Town Square release and Steam integrations. The new website brings all kinds of cool new features, mostly for the game account systems and the Identity shop! We're also going to be filling up the About page with all sorts of new information from the Insider releases. Now that the website has a true and proper shop, you can now get your hands on cool new items without having to buy entire packages. The shop now has all kinds of exclusive items, including apartment pets! You'll be able to get your hands on friendly critters for your home in-game as well, although those featured on the shop are only available there. Some of these items are only available for a limited time. Some of the new items include: Custom T-Shirt Graphic - Upload an image which can be placed on T-Shirts you create in-game! Each image can be used on 10 shirts. Vanity License Plate - Show your style with a custom license plate, visible on your in-game vehicle. Vanity Phone Number - Want a number that's easy to remember? Get a vanity phone number for yourself or your business. More Apartment Floorplans - Floor plans which haven't been available since Kickstarter, including the enormous Penthouse. Huge Clothing Packages - Clothing packages including clothes with dozens of original brands. Pets! Cats, dogs and more - Pets currently available include sphynx and tabby cats as well as pugs, maltese and the shiba inu (doge?). Another important note: when the new payment options (aside from PayPal) go live, we'll shortly after be removing all of the old packages. We will at this time never again be selling cash, so there's not much time remaining to get starter cash before Identity goes live. This is not something we plan to sell again in the future, but all who have it in their account will be able to claim that cash once on each server. Visit the New Identity Site Now! 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 learn of Identity's fine details! -- John VanderZwet

We're very open to additional competition. In fact, I don't even see them as direct competition as any growth in the "life RPG" genre is a great thing. Identity and Nine to Five are incredibly different and will not play the same at all. That said, Identity's promotional trailer and overview video took about two weeks to produce. I wish them the best of luck. It's not an easy road to travel but it's very rewarding.

The latest Identity Insider is now live on the website's about page! You'll find more detailed explanations of what's going on inside the walls of the prison. Do your best to avoid getting arrested, but those on the wrong side of the law are bound to end up in there eventually. Learn more about how Identity makes your time served fun and interesting. We expect that some people might just choose to stay in prison even when their sentence is up -- it's a whole new world in there. Check out the new Insider release, Prison Life, right here. There's still more cool information to come on prisons in the future, too! A new developer blog is also scheduled to go out this week with some exciting news!

The reasoning for this policy is out of our control, for the most part. It's very difficult for us to manage the process when the Steam key is activated outside of our own systems. We don't have control over your Steam installation, and so the policy must exist this way.

The biggest difficulty in the technical end here was synchronizing the music with the singer's voice, based on their ping to the server. We need to do more testing but right now there is only one microphone on the stage. We do have at least one duet song to see how it plays out though.

We're getting close! You can now connect your Steam account to your Identity game account and obtain your Identity game Steam key. This key will add Identity to your library so that when Identity is released, you can download it and start playing immediately without having to do anything else. To get your key, login on the main site (NOT THESE FORUMS) at www.IdentityRPG.com. You can then go to the Account tab of your profile where you'll see an option to link your Steam account. You must have BETA ACCESS on your account to claim a key! ATTENTION! You can only attach one steam account to one game account, and it's permanent. Be sure you're logged into your game account which has the items you've purchased before attaching a Steam account! While you won't get Identity in your game library just yet, you will very soon. Handing out the keys like this allows us to reduce load on our servers. We currently have 20,000 keys in the system and we'll be adding more.

Keep in mind that you can still see your speed on your HUD in your chosen units. The speedometers also do show kilometers, but the primary unit (larger number) is MPH.

The latest Identity Insider, Gangs and Warfare, is here! We're changing up the Insider format to bring you more information at a much quicker pace. In fact, you'll be getting multiple Insiders every month until we've covered most the core features of Identity. Today's Insider is about gangs and the systems which surround them. Find the Insider details on the "About" page of our website or, if you're lazy, click this here link.

Yep, I did tweet that. I plan on using my personal Twitter for less official stuff of note. It's something that the more devoted fans will see and I don't necessarily have the burdens of an official announcement. I don't post directly on the official Twitter account as that's handled by Beach; I posted on the weekend while working from home.

That's right. Signs and car spedometers are in American format as the game takes place in America. Your HUD and other UI can display your chosen units.

This is very much the case. When it comes to the SWAT module, the mechanics are actually quite simple to create in comparison to the back-end that is the Town Square. The Town Square is just a social module but there's a LOT going on behind the scenes. It is our foundation. Even with my own position, I understand the discontent completely. People are looking for some depth and words only go so far. The reason we haven't shown off a lot is two-fold: first, the majority of the work going into the Town Square is back-end and foundation work. It's grueling work which unfortunately isn't fun to look at. It's the first bit we need to take care of, but it's not something we can show in a visual sense. Furthermore, giving detailed information on the inner-workings of our foundation code can actually do harm when that information falls into the laps of the wrong people. The second issue is one of psychology. Anyone who's been following games for much time can attest to the fact that first impressions are the only ones which matter for most people. This doesn't apply to everyone, but it does for the VAST majority of people; even if people understand something is a work-in-progress when they get their hands on it, the impression they get from that experience will persist. Fortunately, we're coming to the end of the worst wait in this. I know you've heard something like this before, so it's likely taken lightly, but it's looking quite up right now. In fact, we're not far from handing out the Steam keys to prepare for a Steam launch. Our earlier estimates were well off the mark because we ran into some pretty significant issues with the engine. Keep in mind we have a HEAVILY modified version of Unreal Engine 4. We've done some pretty large changes to accommodate a real MMORPG. I wish it hasn't taken this long, but we're committed to doing this right. We're not going to take shortcuts and release a product which isn't up to our standards. The wait is almost over and you're going to be getting some fun updates quite soon.

I'd suggest you wait for the release of the Town Square if you're more comfortable with seeing the floorplans yourself than going off of the blueprint. As Beach mentioned, you can access a preview of each available floor plan whether you own it or not. Thus, if you have the founder package you will be able to create your character and check them all out before making a commitment. In the live game, apartment value will come from it's size in that a larger apartment has more storage capacity as well as more bedrooms for co-habitation.

The issues which are taking time are not directly UI related. The task which lead to these issues was one with the UI, but each task can lead to problems which need to be solved and dealt with. I did mention this (in parts) with the last developer blog I sent out. The main issues with the task have been solved. There are a couple medium level tasks remaining and they're just being finished up this week. We're moving forward quite quickly right now.

We use a combination of project management software called Wrike and a time tracker called Hubstaff for all of our remote people. They get paid only for time "clocked in", and it tracks it right down to the second. While they're in work mode we're able to see their screen, and we have a screenshot history from every few minutes of their working going back for months. We're quite on top of things, but we've found the vast majority of our remote guys to be quite reliable and honest. A lot of the remote people do work dedicated to Identity, but some work on a per-task basis.

While you can rent out the houses you buy in the world, apartments cannot be rented. This is because we don't want someone's real-money purchases to give an advantage. For example, renting out that apartment would then translate to in-game currency indirectly. Some may be concerned about people doing this without using game mechanics, but that would require a transfer of ownership (which you cannot do with micro-transaction apartments) or, if the apartment was large enough, setting someone as a co-owner/roommate for in-game money. The latter could be done, but it would be at a great risk to the person doing it as the primary owner could walk in at any moment and take their things. When a house is rented through game mechanics, the renting player has ownership of that property as long as they continue to pay; thus, it's as secure as if they were to own it themselves. As for vehicle ownership, they exist for good reason. The vehicles which we sell are in no way high (or even mid) end vehicles. Similar vehicles will be obtainable quite early on. We've done it this way specifically to stimulate a new economy. The primary benefit of the micro-transaction vehicles is the ability to claim them once on each server. Thus, when a new server is started up, they'll help get resources on the market quickly. These resources will then be used by all players. Without this, the economy would take a few days to get moving and it would not be such an enjoyable experience.

To better clarify, do note the numbers in the corner of each image. These as they're seen are the first step in the art development. They're created quickly by a talented digital artist ( check past live streams.. this work had been shown live in the past ) as a sort of draft. When it later comes time to create the asset, we'd choose the most appropriate of the three and it would be done in high detail with any changes requested by the game designers. These three you see were based on the jungle mood boards, which is why they all look somewhat similar. The final product you see in the game won't look just like any of these, but likely close to one of them. The method used here is called compositing, and it's a great way to get a nice looking result quickly, before polishing.

Well, because it's concept art. Artists use the concept pieces there to develop the environment later. The three together are part of what's called a mood board. This is pretty standard.

I was unaware of this until I read your post. That's a major issue. We'll get it fixed up ASAP. It will work on a desktop browser. Thanks for the heads up. PS: For those wondering about the statistics, the number seems higher because the new site shows number of game accounts while the old site showed number of pledgers.

Ramping up It's been busy as usual here at the Asylum office! For the past few weeks, we've had our testers running through all of the systems in the Town Square and a whole lot of progress has been made toward release. They've done an awesome job in finding the remaining bugs, and our team's been doing an equally awesome job in squashing them. As you likely noticed when following the Dev Tracker on our website, we're down to the testing stages on one remaining task. We've been working on this one for a while as there were a couple significant bugs encountered. These bugs were deep in the engine and were show-stoppers. Fortunately, we've recently defeated them and put them behind us. We're now knocking out the remaining minor issues being found by our testers and things are looking great. With the new website online (more on this below) we're soon going to be handing out Steam keys for those with access to the Town Square. This doesn't mean you can play just yet, but we're getting close enough that we're going to be bringing you on board in preperation. If you're wondering how it's going to work, it's really pretty simple. Once we launch this feature shortly, you're going to be able to log into your game account on our website. You'll then see the option to link your existing Steam account. Once you've linked your account, you'll be given a key which, when entered into the Steam client, will add Identity's Town Square to your game library. You won't need to log in to play, as we know who you are based on your Steam account. I'd recommend following us on social media (Twitter and Facebook especially) to watch for this coming announcement. Gangs and Warfare We're changing the Identity Insider format! Instead of larger insiders once in a long while, we're going to be sending out more frequent updates. We're talking a few each month! These Insider updates will paint a detailed picture of Identity's full gameplay experiences. To kick this off, we posted the following update on our new website just yesterday: Identity Drug Cartel Concepts (click image for more) You've made stacks of cash pushing drugs and the odd robbery, but when push comes to shove, you'll find strength in numbers. A gang is a group of ruffians with the goal of obtaining power and infamy through the domination of those around them. Gangs are often at war with one another as they compete for limited resources, whether it's turf, drugs or blood. There's no shortage of criminal activity in the world outside of gangs, but true power belongs to the syndicates and cartels with the strength and fortitude to rule over their rivals. Comradery Identity is all about working together with your friends, and gangs are the social structure geared towards crime. You can belong to only one gang at any time, so choose where your loyalty lies. Your gang has a full rank structure and the leaders can control access levels for each member based on that rank. As your gang grows, it can also unlock additional perks for all members. The gang leadership can designate any home owned in the world as the HQ, giving access to all members of the gang. Hang out with your gangmates and stockpile weapons, drugs and anything else you can get your hands on. Your HQ, like your personal homes, can also be used for respawning on death. This makes it an important rally point when *#!% hits the fan! Cartels Cartels are conflict areas which are controlled by one gang at any time, providing the owners with control over trade and traffiking of their related substance throughout all the land. To the victor goes the spoils. The cartel zone is a functional HQ for the current owners. Turf Identity Turf Neighborhood Concept Take control of city neighborhoods with gang turf zones. While cartels control substances across the world of Identity, the gangs who dominate a neighborhood have direct influence over criminal organizations in that area, such as drug dealers. Lookouts in the area will spot rival gangs in the streets of your turf and text message members of your gang in the area. Controlling gangs get access to a safe house in the area, tightening their hold. Warfare Dominate gangs who cross your path and prove your strength. Declare war on your rivals and hunt them down. Gang members who are at war are completely vulnerable to one another through the stress system, and so you need to be on the lookout at all times. Prey on your enemies until they submit to your demands. When declaring war on another gang, the other gang must accept the spoils set by the agressor. The spoils can include cash, turf, real-estate and more. When one side has had enough and ends the war, they forfeit those spoils to the stronger gang. In Identity, most items people carry can be taken if they're killed. What's theirs, is yours. War is hell. New website is finally here! The Identity website has had an overhaul to prepare for the Town Square release and Steam integrations. The new website brings all kinds of cool new features, mostly for the game account systems and the Identity shop! We're also going to be filling up the About page with all sorts of new information from the Insider releases. Now that the website has a true and proper shop, you can now get your hands on cool new items without having to buy entire packages. The shop now has all kinds of exclusive items, including apartment pets! You'll be able to get your hands on friendly critters for your home in-game as well, although those featured on the shop are only available there. Some of these items are only available for a limited time. Some of the new items include: Custom T-Shirt Graphic - Upload an image which can be placed on T-Shirts you create in-game! Each image can be used on 10 shirts. Vanity License Plate - Show your style with a custom license plate, visible on your in-game vehicle. Vanity Phone Number - Want a number that's easy to remember? Get a vanity phone number for yourself or your business. More Apartment Floorplans - Floor plans which haven't been available since Kickstarter, including the enormous Penthouse. Huge Clothing Packages - Clothing packages including clothes with dozens of original brands. Pets! Cats, dogs and more - Pets currently available include sphynx and tabby cats as well as pugs, maltese and the shiba inu (doge?). Another important note: when the new payment options (aside from PayPal) go live, we'll shortly after be removing all of the old packages. We will at this time never again be selling cash, so there's not much time remaining to get starter cash before Identity goes live. This is not something we plan to sell again in the future, but all who have it in their account will be able to claim that cash once on each server. Visit the New Identity Site Now! 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! -- John VanderZwet

This is correct. A game really only gets one first impression, so we have to make sure that it's (for the most part) a positive experience. Even if a game is marked as beta or early access, if the first impression fails people will almost never return. Thus, we're making sure everything is running smoothly. There were a couple pretty significant bugs with this last task which were the result of problems with the engine, quite deep down. We've worked around them now and things are looking good. Your friendly moderators are testing up a storm for us. There are bugs, but nothing major, and they're being squashed.

I do agree there's a lot more information on the gang system to be had, so I'll address your concerns. Comradery The perks that can be unlocked for your gang are more convenience bits and cosmetics. Identity is being consciously designed in a way that should minimize the need to "grind". You won't feel the need to unlock these perks and many aren't things that you could grind if you wanted to. The gang HQ is designated when a gang is formed and must be a location in the world. Apartments are not valid HQs. We're still fine-tuning the time between HQ changes, but it's going to be quite long -- days, at least. The storage in the HQs is controlled by the rank hierarchy. Some people can have access to store items, but not remove them, and so on. There seems to be confusion on the mechanic, here. Gangs are cartels; cartels are not collections of gangs. Thus, one gang functions as a cartel when it has control of a cartel zone. I can see why you'd think of it as an alliance, given what a cartel is in reality, although for gameplay purposes the one gang "controls" the cartel. Any house can be used as a gang HQ, and the turf area it's in (if any) is unrelated. Turf doesn't lock anyone out from the region, but instead adds convenience, some additional income for the gang, and can be used to track rival gangs easier. All land is also not turf controlled; it's only within the cities. The turf safehouse is not a home that can be owned by other players outside of controlling that turf. As for the police interaction with turf, the police aren't there to eliminate the turf regions. Instead, they can negate the benefits of owning turf if they control the region with effective law enforcement. The income produced by the turf zone is based on illegal activity, so the police can directly influence it's effectiveness. The cartel owners will have direct influence over the production, transportation and sale of the substances that they control. They don't trigger "missions", but instead affect the related gameplay outside in more fluid and natural ways. There is a short cooldown on war declarations, but they can't be used as a griefing mechanic because they're consensual. The other gang must accept the war, and either gang can end the war at any time. If a gang is being overwhelmed, it's up to them to either hide from their rivals or to end the war. Wars are won when one side is tired of being being attacked and ends the war, as described above. There is no need for an artificial mechanic to determine who's won. We fully expect that some gangs (likely larger ones) will keep the war active for a long time. In our experience with similar mechanics (we've implemented similar systems in several other production games, and learned a lot about the psychology and use of the mechanic) it usually doesn't take long for one side to give in. If that's not the case, and they're enjoying the competition, it's there for the fun. As for the police, killing someone in a rival gang is not considered legal in any sense. The penalty is a little less harsh than killing another player who's not involved, but there is most definitely a crime involved in either case. The largest difference is the stress mechanic here; rival gangs are always treated as though their members are fully stressed to your own gang. Everything about the war mechanic is quantifiable" We've learned through years of experience with similar systems, and we've implemented similar mechanics in games in the way you describe, as well as even having only one side need to start the war. Simply put, when you're at war with another gang you can quickly get overwhelmed and that's not fun for the gang on the receiving end. Gangs are social structures at their core, and nobody should be forced to play in a mechanic they don't want to; in reality, war isn't for everyone. Many players won't have a desire to participate in such worldwide PvP. Wars will most often happen in one of two cases: either some sort of rivalry will form between the groups, and war will be declared as a way to punish the other side, or wars will be declared for the ongoing fun of conflict. Remember, you don't need a war declared for rivalries to form. Identity is all about emergent gameplay. As for the looting of your victims, there are some items which cannot be looted. Items like weapons, on the other hand, can indeed be taken. Keep in mind here that Identity is built with competition in mind, and a cheap and plentiful weapon can be deadly as fast as a rare and powerful weapon. For example, if you've died recently and lost your assault rifle, that'll set you back. However, having a 9mm pistol you had in storage can still be incredibly deadly if used well. Our goal is to make sure that a skilled new player will be competitive.

The next dev blog goes out Thursday (tomorrow).