Beginning of a new era Wow, what a month; busy and exciting and full of promise! While the developers have been hard at work getting the Town Square module ready to go, I've been preparing our new office space and interviewing potential Asylum developers. We've raised almost $800,000, allowing us to expand in a big way and bring on loads of new talent. Asylum Entertainment's new home If you read my last dev blog you'll remember that we had just scouted out office space and had narrowed our search to one. Now we have the keys and I've been working hard to get it operational. I never want to see another hex key again! It's almost hard to imagine that we've been working on Identity with a team spread out around the world. The talent of our small team has astonished me. It's exciting to consider how finally working in a formal setting is going to boost productivity. Not only is working in an office such as this going to make it easier to work together, but we've been on a hiring craze. Having sifted through hundreds of applications over the past few weeks and interviewing dozens of skilled individuals, we've selected most new developers to join our team. Our programming manpower is now three times stronger. Finally, after all this time we're now able to afford a full-time community manager. Joining our team at the new office location next week is Identity's community manager, Brandon! You'll be hearing from him very regulary. We're committing to keeping you in constant contact with the development team. Keep an eye on our website as well as social media! Town Square on the horizon! With our new studio starting up next week and the new programming talent coming on-board, our goal of the Town Square release is getting nearer. It's big news: the official Town Square release date will be announced in the month of October. With all of the changes affecting our productivity in such a positive way, we need to see how everyone works together over the next few weeks. This will allow us to give our fans a date with which we can be confident. We've got the Twitch We wanted to give you a glimpse of the game development process and have been streaming on Twitch to show you how it's done. Four hour (or more) long streams have gone live since my last dev blog; keep an eye on Identity's Twitter for future stream announcements. We try to have at least one development stream per week. As a fan of Identity, one of the things you're going to enjoy most is the flurry of videos which will be coming soon showing off the social features of the Town Square. For a simple social module, there's a good bit of fun things to do! New in the Town Square Our lead programmer, Henrik, has been hard at work these last couple of weeks refactoring our housing system to make it more stable and better performing for the Town Square module release. Everything's looking great at this point and he's very excited to get a bunch of new help over the next couple of weeks. With more great talent joining our art team, we're producing assets and new environments at an astonishing pace. Interiors we only hoped to have in Town Square by its release have gone from concept to reality very quickly. Last dev blog I showed you the concept art pieces produced for the police station. The police station was something we didn't expect to be available in the initial Town Square release, but with our art team hard at work we're getting a lot done. Below you'll find the lobby as it is in-game. The police station in Town Square will be a place for you to learn about the policing career, but it will also eventually feature a shooting range for you to test the weapon systems in Identity. Police station lobby in Town Square Our character and clothing team has also been adding a large variety of things to wear in the Town Square. Both clothing and accessories are being added all the time. Note the attention to detail and excellent quality of the clothing pieces in Identity. New sweater clothing What's to come In summary, we've been moving along with Identity's development at a great pace considering the size of our team; however, our team is growing in a big way right now. New developers are selected and some are starting at the new office as early as this coming week. Once the new guys have been oriented and we get an understanding of their work, we're going to be able to analyze the tasks remaining and give you a release date for Town Square. This is a big deal; Town Square isn't all that far off now and we're already preparing and planning for the next module: SWAT. I hoped to release a video showing combat systems already, but most the remaining work for that falls on myself as the other developers are busy with the real systems for Town Square. I've not had much time over these weeks from preparing the office, so that's on hold a bit; my priority is getting the Town Square module into your hands as soon as possible. Because we're getting further along now, and with the added manpower, we're going to soon start releasing small gameplay videos showing off the different aspects of Town Square. Finally, Brandon is joining Asylum as a dedicated full-time community manager! Brandon will be keeping you up to date constantly. Our silent days are soon to be over! -- John VanderZwet Deja Vu! (I've just been in the place before...) Salutations again! This time it's Brandon talking. John's been too busy to update the site, so I'm here to finally add the 10th Developer Blog to the corresponding section of the forums! You've most likely seen this update if you've been active in "The Town Square" section of the site, so I apologize for not having anything new to share in terms of screenshots or stuff like that. D: No need to get the pitchforks out though! I might have a few things to tide you guys over! (Please don't poke me aaa.) Charles (the game developer sitting beside me in the office) is currently in a skype call with another programmer on the team getting the 411 on the current build of Identity. They're walking through some stuff in regards to the Unreal Engine and talking about all sorts of things that are t o t a l l y beyond me. I took some java and C programming courses as electives when I was in University and MAN, I've had a newfound appreciation for coders ever since. I'll see if I can get some tangible information about the specifics of what Charles is working on after the call, because all I see is a mixture of math and player models! In other news, I've been hanging around in the discord, answering questions where I can and seeking advice from the higher-ups when I'm stumped. It's been going quite well actually! There seem to be a lot of fans enthusiastic about seeing more of the office, so I'm going to try and get a picture or two up on the @Identityrpg twitter. Charles has a 3 monitor setup that looks pretty sick, the lucky dog... Oh! Have I mentioned that there's a channel dedicated to posting small WIP models and other treats in the discord? It's #new_media! Check it out when you get a chance! The fiber internet for the office has also finally been installed! Like, completely! No more router issues or anything, I'm typing this up from a wired connection right now! With this, I should be able to join the stream later today so I can finally speak with the other developers. I'm very excited, and I hope to see some of you there! I don't think I'll actually be playing a game (I'm absolutely trash at most shooters but I swear I'm gunna train up for module two), but I'm very interested in getting my voice out there and meeting some of the developers that I haven't had a chance to speak with yet! Thanks for sticking around everyone! I'll get more information to you ASAP! Have a good one! -B

"Choker" Necklaces by Umut:

Salutations everyone! As we continue to shift focus toward programming, we’ll be removing the Tuesday art stream from our weekly schedule. Our Thursday Asylum Development Hour will remain unchanged, so you can still swing by Thursdays from 4PM – 5PM ET to catch our artists live. Our artists have started hopping into the engine to help fix furniture and apartment related issues that have arisen during the testing phase of Town Square’s final task. For those unaware, the final task necessary for Town Square’s launch involves the integration between the Housing System and our UI. This involves things such as being able to accurately decorate and customize apartment interiors while having our User Interface accurately reflect the proper changes made by the player. The Housing System is one of Identity’s more complex systems, and the artists have been helping where possible. While they lack a background in coding, they’ve become familiar enough with the Unreal Engine that they’re capable of assisting in a few different areas. With this, they’ll be more focused on implementing fixes and making quality of life changes for Town Square rather than working on new assignments. We’re all giving it 110%, and we can’t wait until Town Square releases!

Here's a step by step guide to claiming your Steam key in preparation for Town Square! Step 1: Head over to https://www.identityrpg.com/account/view/profile to view your items. You'll need to have the "Beta Access" item in order to gain access to the Modules. Step 2: Click the "Account" tab on the side and navigate to the "Click To Link" button beside the Steam logo. You'll be given a warning that linking your Identity Account with your Steam Account is a one-time procedure. When you're ready to make the link, click the button to proceed. Step 3: You'll be brought to Steam's website. Log in with the Steam Account you wish to associate with your Identity Account here. Step 4: After logging in with your Steam, return back to your profile page on the Identity website. You should now see a Steam key beside the "Steam Product Key" heading. (Clicking the "Linked" button beside the Steam logo will now bring you to your Steam profile.) Step 5: Take your product key and register it using Steam's "Product Activation" feature. You can find this by launching the Steam client, clicking the "Games" dropdown menu button on the top left corner of your screen, and then by selecting the "Activate a Product on Steam..." option. Step 6: You should then be greeted to an "Activation Successful!" screen, stating that "Identity: Town Square" has been associated with your Steam Account. Please note that Town Square won't appear in your Steam Games Library until we finish making the final few adjustments required to release the Module. Once we complete the final task on our Task Tracker, we'll then be able to make the Module visible.

Spike Wristband Accessory (2nd variant) by Umut: Boxing Shorts by Umut:

Players will keep cosmetic and convenience items upon death. By cosmetic, I am referring to items that are used simply to improve or customize the look of your character (so a lot of clothing and accessories). When referring to a convenience item, this would be something like your character's cell phone (as it helps users interact with the world and plays an important role in gameplay). Items such as cash, weapons, etc. will, however, be dropped upon death. Here's a segment from an old stream where the CEO discusses what players can lose once they die: Mechanics (Player Death And How It Matters) https://clips.twitch.tv/ToughDiligentCatOSsloth And lastly, here's are two excerpts from a stream discussing cell phones and why they can't be stolen: Mechanics (Can a phone be stolen, lose reception, or run out of battery?) https://clips.twitch.tv/PleasantEphemeralDotterelAMPEnergyCherry Mechanics (Can a phone be stolen, lose reception, or run out of battery? 2) https://clips.twitch.tv/CrispyAgreeableShrewSwiftRage

The developers that appear on the Asylum Development Streams are exclusively tailored to work on the visual aspects of Identity. It would be great to have them help out with the programming! But it's unfortunately not something they're specialized in. The programmers are working throughout for the duration of the streams, and they'll sometimes listen in or comment in the twitch chat while their work is compiling. Regarding showing things off in Town Square, we've had 2 streams in the past where we got to see John run around the Module's environment. The stream on May 29th showed off the character creator and general environment of Town Square, where the stream on June 28th demonstrated a few of the interactions players can partake in. The CEO mentioned at the end of a recent development stream that the next piece of gameplay media we want to present will be a feature video of sorts. As John put it, "we need to have a video that represents the Town Square" for when our Steam page goes public. Here's the excerpt if you'd like to hear it: Misc (Any word on the next gameplay video? Media for Steam page?) https://clips.twitch.tv/StormyAcceptableHerdDBstyle (I'm unsure if we'll see another gameplay stream before the launch of the Module, but I have been pitching the idea to the devs so they definitely know there's interest.) We're going to try to include everything you've seen in the streams into the Day 1 build of Town Square where possible. Should the final UI task on the tracker become completed while we're still importing furniture/clothing/hairstyles etc. then we'll include the rest later. The art assets integral to Town Square's launch have been completed and we won't hold up its launch to import a recently modeled/designed item or graphic. The task tracker has indeed looked the same for quite a while. While the final "In Testing" task denotes the integration between the UI and the Housing System, the team discovered some serious bugs at a deeper level of the game during its testing phase. This was mentioned briefly in Dev Blog 20, where the CEO states that the significant bugs the team encountered "were deep in the engine and were show-stoppers". They needed to be addressed immediately, which explains the slow progress time for the final testing task. The major issues the devs ran into have since been rectified, and we're now focused on eliminating the minor problems still present with the UI + Housing System integration. Regarding PR, we do have plans to reach out to the community more frequently in the future through the release of more Identity Insiders and a change to the Dev Blog format. In Dev Blog 19, John mentions users will be able to look forward to "more frequent developer video blogs", with the idea that the transition to a video format will be both more entertaining and engaging for the community. In Dev Blog 20, he also states that we'll be sending out more frequent Identity Insiders soon ("We're talking a few each month!"). For the present moment, however, we do realize news has been slow. The entire team has been heavily invested in finishing this final task (apart from the artists as mentioned above of course), making it difficult to get out consistent updates. It would be great to compile a list of weekly updates from each specific developer, or sit down with the guys in the office at the end of each week on stream to discuss current progress! But this would come at the cost of making Town Square release later, and getting the Module out right now is our #1 priority. This is why the recent Dev Blog released later than usual, as John needed to focus more on Town Square's programming (as well as help the web dev out with some website tweaks). Even I've been tasked with helping test Town Square, so I apologize for not being as active on the forums (I'm definitely making an effort to appear here when I can though). In the future we'll definitely discuss updates more frequently with the Insiders and video Dev Blogs, but right now we need to devote as much time as we can into getting the Module completed. I hope this post helps address some of your concerns FuzzyDoesMedia (and I apologize for the wall of text).

To clarify, anyone playing Town Square will be able to customize the apartments they own, and can also preview the apartments they don't have. Every user will be given access to the Studio Apartment for the duration of the Module so they can test and play with the apartment customization features (in case you don't own one). The preview feature was requested by the community and implemented so that users will be able to see the floorspace of each apartment first-hand. I'll definitely toss the suggestion in to the devs to include screenshots and apartment interior footage in upcoming media where possible. The interiors have been finished by Jade, he streamed work on them quite considerably a few months back.

The user I was replying to in the screenshots thread was asking if there was any way to see pictures of the current apartments to get a better idea of what they look like. We don't have a full photo set of each interior just yet, but I linked what I had on hand and talked about the ability to preview apartments. You'll still be able to customize apartments Day 1 of Town Square, the preview feature is just an additional thing that will allow players to see how big they are first-hand (so they'll have a better idea of whether or not they'd want the one they're previewing). Sorry for the confusion.

Town Square will feature the ability to preview apartments in their standalone form. This means you'll be able to walk around each apartment to see what they look like without any user-placed furniture. We'll probably be able to get screenshots of them out at some point prior to Town Square's launch too. In the meantime, Jade did stream a number of apartments a few months back that showcased their floorplans, and we also got to see a section of the Penthouse in Dev Blog 19. Jade has posted some WIP renders of apartments before if you'd like to take a look below. Please note that he did end up placing some of his previously created items in the following apartments to help get a sense of how users would be able to make use of the room provided. The previews you can view in-game will be more empty. Penthouse WIP: Studio Apartment WIP:

The questions pertaining to the compositing process for Pav's concept art pieces have been answered by the Project Lead, so I'll go ahead and lock the thread before discussion gets too off topic. It will remain visible in case others want to view Paratus' responses in the future though!

Laced Pants and accompanying shirt by Umut:

Salutations Plumis, While I'm not the Project Lead, I can certainly help answer some of your questions. I'll work from the bottom up, and begin by answering your question regarding the office's location. We're currently stationed in Kanata North, an area filled with a number of businesses that focus on both software and hardware development. You'll see companies such as QNX Software Systems, BMT Fleet Technology, and more stationed around the same area. There's an image of the building Asylum is located at in Dev Blog #009 if you'd like to take a look: https://www.identityrpg.com/community/topic/9127-dev-blog-009-moving-on-up/ I encourage you to search up the Kanata North location on your map service of choice, as it's a fairly condensed area filled with tech companies. The link you posted appears to be where the company was initially registered, but we've since been working in the office on Legget Drive. The final UI task that's in the testing phase denotes the integration between our UI and the player Housing System. The underlying code behind the Housing System is rather complex, and the current task is to make sure that the UI we've hooked up to it functions as intended. Making sure furniture can be correctly selected and placed, wall trims altered, wallpapers set, etc. for each available apartment has been a time consuming process. Any bugs we encounter in this area generally requires us to run through a vast majority of the system again once a fix has been implemented, as changes will sometimes spawn other oddities that need to be addressed. It's also important to arrive at solutions that won't come back to hamper development in the future, as Town Square involves a lot of foundation laying for many of the core game's mechanics. In the most recent Dev Blog, it was also discussed that the team also encountered some significant hurdles while tackling this final task. The "show-stoppers" referred to in https://www.identityrpg.com/community/topic/13488-dev-blog-20-ramping-up/ dealt with deeper level code that went beyond the UI + Housing System. The constant placing and storing of player items during the testing phase actually lead us to discover, as Motown put it, "a crash related to the database". This kind of bug needed to be addressed immediately, and is an example of one of the heavier issues we've encountered during our recent testing. The good news is that the significant problems we've found have since been addressed, and as John mentioned in the Dev Blog, "We're now knocking out the remaining minor issues being found by our testers". To address your point about Town Square's release date, one of the reasons we've transitioned to the Task Tracker is due to situations similar to the one just listed above. It's been difficult for us to narrow down a date in the past due to the fact that there's always a chance of encountering unexpected hurdles during development. The tracker allows us to better show the progress of where the team is at for Town Square's development, and our programmers are currently finishing up the final task integral to Town Square's launch. We're a small team actively in the pursuit of acquiring more developers, which will certainly help us provide more content much faster in the future. To answer your claim about the developer updates, we don't currently have the time to provide updates from each of the different members within Asylum. The future video Dev Blogs will help alleviate this ("Look forward to meeting the team face-to-face in short but frequent videos", being one of the statements made in Dev Blog #018). Right now, you might occasionally catch a developer speaking in the twitch chat, posting on the forums (John has done this a lot recently, check out his post history for some additional info on the recent Insider), and on discord. The programmers are dedicated to finishing up the remaining task however, and can typically only find the time to chat while compiling code. The Dev Blogs are still the main source of information about current progress, and are shared on all our social media platforms. I hope this help addresses some of your concerns Plumis. As an aside, please note that Rule 15 specifically prohibits posting threads with topics such as @usernamehere, as the entire context of your post seems better suited for a personal message. The thread will be locked, but I'll keep it visible so that others can view the response.

V-Neck T-Shirt by Umut: Beach Shorts by Umut:

Another furniture set by Jade:

Hello Preston_bodhi_343, Some users have been experiencing an issue where the shop page doesn't recognize their previously owned package, specifically the Up-Sized and The VIP. The items from within those packages should still be appended to your account, however. You should be able to see an "Items" tab on http://www.identityrpg.com/account/view/profile to verify what you own. The issue lies in the fact that items were added to both those packages, so you might have seen the shop try to sell you The VIP for a discounted price. If this is the case, then what's happening is that the system is just trying to sell you the new items that were added to The VIP when in reality they should've been appended to your profile already. Our web developer has been notified of the issue and has been working to rectify such an oddity. If you're still encountering problems with The VIP, feel free to send me a printscreen or explanation of what's occurring and I'll be sure to forward it to the web developer so he can view your case specifically.

Face Bandana by Umut: Head Bandana by Umut:

Salutations everyone, Our new website went live over the weekend! You’ll now see an updated FAQ section, revamped account system, an improved presentation, and more! We’ll continue to add more content to the site as time goes on, and you can expect to see the next Identity Insider very shortly! Last month’s Dev Blog mentioned we’ll be seeing one pertaining to “criminal activity and gameplay”, so stay tuned! Out of all the areas on our website, the shop page arguably received the biggest overhaul. It has an entirely new look, and you can now purchase items individually rather than in packages. Still, the packages that you saw on the old site remain available to purchase at the exact same prices they were before. You’ll also notice that some packages have even had items appended to their contents! (See: Up-Sized and The VIP) The original plan was to keep the packages found on the old website as they were for exactly one week after the new shop went live. We intended to take them down after seven days, leaving only the individual items remaining. However, since PayPal is currently the only payment option we offer, we will be extending the duration for how long these packages will remain available. It would be unfair to those who are ready to make a purchase but don’t have access to a PayPal account, so you can expect to see the packages stay up for a little while longer. Once we secure more payment options, we’ll be sure to let users know how long they have to purchase one of the older packages. Regarding tweaks to individual items, we’ll be changing around the “Custom Logo” item sometime this week. We weren’t very clear with what this item granted, so you’ll see “Custom T-Shirt Graphic” take its place. Those who purchased the “Custom Logo” item will be able to import a custom corporate logo in the full game. (Of course, if you aren’t satisfied with this change, feel free to contact me and I’ll get your account fixed up.) For reference, the “Custom T-Shirt Graphic” item will allow users to produce 10 T-Shirts with an imported image of their choosing. The “Custom Logo” item will allow your imported image to appear on items such as clothing, furniture, and even your corporation’s in-game website page. The “Custom T-Shirt Graphic” will display the image on the front of the T-Shirt, whereas the “Custom Logo” will appear in small designated areas on crafted items for branding purposes. If you happen to purchase the “Custom Logo” item before it gets replaced with the “Custom T-Shirt Graphic”, then lucky you! We may see it return someday, but for now, it’ll remain off the shop page once “Custom T-Shirt Graphic” takes its place. Once again, if you aren’t happy with this change, contact me and I’ll see what I can do for you! Another thing to mention is that our web developer has been hard at work fixing a few oddities that have popped up with the new site. If any of you suspect that something isn’t working quite as intended, feel free to message me and I’ll send your concerns to him! Lastly, you’ll see a new Dev Blog go up shortly after the next Identity Insider that will cover the new website as one of its discussion topics. You’ll likely get a more formal overview of the new website’s features there, so you should definitely check it out when it’s up! (For reference, Dev Blogs are found here.) That’s all for now! Feel free to keep us posted with any concerns you have regarding the new website’s design or its functionality. Have a great rest of your day, and I’ll see you around! August 14th Edit: The price of the Sphynx Cat has also been adjusted to better reflect the exotic nature of the animal. August 17th Edit: As of 3:45PM ET today, users who sent password recovery emails should receive a working key to log into their account. Changing passwords is still causing some problems for some users, so keep this key handy to get into your account. Gifting oddities are being addressed, and anyone who has had any items not reach their recipient should message me. Thanks to those who are providing feedback and screenshots of issues, I'll continue to convey such things to our web developer as its been helping tremendously!

Two new furniture sets by Jade:

Fingerless Gloves by Umut: Denim Skirt by Umut:

Ankle Pants by Umut: Wind Jacket by Umut:

Quilted Flannel Jacket by Umut: Back Split Capris by Umut: Regarding the above question, the models of coats, jackets, hoodies etc. are worn as displayed. As in, if a jacket is worn open in one of the above models, then you won't be able to wear it zipped up. You will, however, be able to obtain opened and closed variants of many clothing items.

Hooded Vest by Umut: Sailor Hat by Umut:

Winter Jacket by Umut: Cruiser Jacket by Umut:

Various Bed Models by Jade: Bucket Hat by Umut: