This week we’re getting down to brass tacks: our first upcoming DLC this year and the Companions therein. Development is coming along smoothly, and we thought we’d share the highlights by delving into some details – without giving much away this early.

You heard it right: it’s back and it’s no surprise we’re involved. Lost Pilgrims Studios is delighted to work alongside some of the best indie developers in the industry to bring the Fest back. This time we’re in partnership with a slew of talented devs, including Terra Randoma, Trese Brothers (Star Traders: Frontiers & Cyber Knights: Flashpoint), Unleash the Giraffe (Seer’s Gambit & Obsidian Prince), and Curious Dynamics (Folk Emerging), who have been heartily involved with organization this time round.

On the tip of the Molten Tongue lies the Imperial city of Avernum behind its ash- and soot-covered walls of bone and dark stone. The many forges and furnaces here toil relentlessly, belching foul smoke day and night under the watchful gaze of the Prefectus, who commands his black-hearted Avernus Legion from the imposing Slagfort. Many comitati, merchants, and grifters flock to Avernum in the hopes of finding trade, rest or work; often, only cruelty and dark deals await them in this corrupt city under burning skies.

This week we’re continuing in the same vein, bringing you another project update that this time relates to our latest hire, polymath and computer science major Zoli, who joined us in September 2023 in the role of Quality Assurance Tester. Zoli is a systematic thinker, problem-solver, and gamer with a well of knowledge regarding all manner of things game dev (such as code or design). When asked, he was adamant about describing himself as “a novice wizard surrounded by talented sorcerers”, and as someone who’s worked alongside him, I can testify that he is all this and more. Under the “more” category we pencil in things like “90’s gamer”, “child chess prodigy”, “math enthusiast” (yes, apparently that’s a thing), and perhaps in stark contrast, a man who loves the outdoors: he’s run more than 500km this year already, which includes a marathon in Athens! Below is a snap of the man himself in his element.

Great news, everyone: today we at Lost Pilgrims are excited to announce that we are releasing a new Praetor Edition of the game on the 14th of March to coincide with Steam’s Spring Sale. Similar to the Centurion Edition, the Praetor Edition features the updated soundtrack, which we wrote about at length here, the Patronage Pack, and here’s the kicker: the Season Pass, too. The Season Pass is a package that includes our major expansion, Sunfire and Moonshadow, and two upcoming DLCs we plan to release: a Companion DLC and a Region DLC. Picking up this is a great way to support the ongoing development of Vagrus and nab some of our upcoming content at a slight discount to boot.

Happy International Women's Day from the team at Lost Pilgrims. Today, we at the studio are celebrating all the amazing women who enrich our lives and make Vagrus possible. Thank you for your strength, creativity, and passion!

For the first time in a long time, we have a project update for you, and it’s a doozy. Although he already began working with us as early as June 2023, we’d now like to welcome one of our newest and most talented 2D and 3D artists: Bence Monori. Bence has a talent for many things, though he is currently focused primarily on a wide range of environmental art, some of which came to the fore during the expansion Sunfire and Moonshadow.

Following on from last week’s post about music, this week we’d like to take a look at a place that is often no stranger to both ambiance and music: a tavern. We commissioned the new tavern art last year to diversify the many inns and watering holes of the game world. A combination of complementary hues, subtle lights, and peculiar ornaments make up this painting by Péter Kovács, which is used in a variety of locations in Vagrus’s major expansion, Sunfire and Moonshadow.

Today we’re going to focus on something essential to most people’s lives, and indeed, to the entire gaming industry: music. When we set about creating Vagrus many years ago, we knew that we wanted to place immersion first, and one surefire way to create and maintain immersion is with ambiance and music, of course. And so it was that we came to know the Humming Composer: the very talented individual responsible for Vagrus’s original soundtrack or at least for the core game. It is an hour long and includes eighteen tracks ranging from eerie to determined to ominous to downright sinister.

The Noxious Lakes are sizable bodies of green, phosphorescent fluid near Kadaath that emit poisonous gasses. When one allows their gaze to scan the landscape, large objects are visible farther away, jutting out of the surface of the lakes. What could they be? Piles of scrap metal? Remnants of ancient buildings? Perhaps a wreckage of sorts? And more importantly; what treasures could they hold? Is it worth risking one's hide to find out? Definitely hard to tell at first glance. Either way, venturing into the suffocating fumes and acidic ponds without adequate means to survive would be ill-advised and foolhardy at the very least, suicidal even.