Time for another project update! Seventy-seven days have passed by and even though it was summer - supposedly calmer times - it felt pretty frantic. In the good sense.

A huge Thank You! and wishing all the best to Marci

As your might remember, our previous post started with the news of Marci joining the team to complete his summer internship with us for his degree in software development. Marci has been instrumental to the progress we made on the Codex & Journal functionality and UI, as well as to catching up on our design documents. Now that he has returned to his studies, we wish him all the very best for his goal of finishing his Bachelor's degree. We're pleased to see that he is on the right track to become a great game developer!

It's spring 1990 and I'm in elementary school. My best friend brings a book to school that he reads aloud to a small group of us during our big walks at lunch break. The book has a weird old wizard on the cover conjuring smoke from a crystal ball. More interesting are the illustrations on the inside: intricate black and white drawings of strange fantasy creatures and dungeon locations. The little book is Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson's Warlock of Firetop Mountain, translated to our native language. Most of you probably know that it's a gamebook that you do not read from start to end but in branching numbered chapters that make the story personal and add replayability. Yet they are much more than simple choose-your-own-adventure books because they include a stat and combat system you have to manage throughout the adventure - albeit a really simple one.

Great news! The newest addition to the team, Marci has arrived earlier this month, starting his two months internship at Lost Pilgrims. 

Marci studies software engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and being a life long gamer planning on working in the game development once he finishes his curriculum. 

Hey Everyone,

as you probably know, a great step to fame is marked by fans starting to create their own version of your game's art. And guess what: we have just crossed that line when we received our very first fan art in the form of a lego replica!

The model was build by Gabor's nephew, Daniel on the day of his 10th birthday. Since then he has posed and we have discussed interesting questions, like 'what is the purpose of dragons?' and 'why do the Jhakras' have so small and well-hidden eyes?'.

We are happy to report that last month we made a lot of progress on the combat of Vagrus. Thus, we thought to give you a sneak peek.

In the short video, where Crifta and her goons take on the player characters, you can see a new combat background and several characters that are now fully operational in combat. Projectile mechanics also work now in combat, for the most part (as you can see when Crifta fires her deadly bow). The UI has been improved a lot as well, including the addition of the UI segment of the vagrus itself (top left corner). Here, players will be able to boost their characters in a number of ways spending Resourcefulness. Often, spending it is the only way to prevail in tough situations.

Some time ago we promised to invite you all to a virtual tour of our office, so without further ado, here goes:

First stop - Budapest, 13th district

Our office is located in an edifice built in the socialist era but kept in fairly good condition compared to how others fared. Back in the day when programming meant punched cards, the whole building housed a prominent company developing 'software' on those.

Called the Desert of Black Sands, or the Black Desert (Arenas Negrasin the Imperial language), this vast, empty desert that has fine, black sand instead of any other color is probably one of the most ill-reputed places of the post-Calamity era. Nothing lives here, not even insects. The silence is deafening. People who enter the desert and stay for a while usually inexplicably disappear. In the center of the area is a terrible place, supposedly the source of all evil in the region: The City of the Dead, Arx Mortis.

Formerly the capital of the Sanvorati province and previously known as the Shining City, Calderum was made into its own horrible caricature by the Calamity. These days, Arx Mortis is a dead place filled with eerie moaning and groans, cast in perpetual twilight, beset by bone-chilling cold and a pale, frigid light emanating from the faded rocks that are almost all that remain from the once beautiful buildings and walls. Now these stand vacant and hollow, often reminding visitors of broken teeth peeking out of black gums.

Hey guys, we've got another location artwork here for you, and a little backstory to match it:

Before the Calamity, Dvendar Tharr was the homeland of all Dwarves on the continent, a kingdom unmatched in technological advancements, inventions, and inventive ambition. One of the most ancient of Dwarven royal lines, the kings of Dvendar Tharr were sympathetic to humans and aided them from as early as the Second Age. The Inventor Kings showed early Imperials the art of metalworking and stonemasonry, helped build their cities, and taught them the art of mining. Dvendar Tharr itself was abundant with metal and precious stones, so much so that in their arrogance, the Inventor Kings of the Third Age forgot the wise ways of their forefathers and started rebuilding their massive stone fortresses and arching bridges purely from iron.