Salutations Industrialists,
We're excited to share the progress we've made in June and update you on our Alpha Roadmap.
Closed Alpha Release
We're excited to announce that the Gilded Destiny Closed Alpha has been released! The Closed Alpha is now available to all of our supporters who backed us on Kickstarter!
How to Access the Closed Alpha
Everyone who backed us on Kickstarter should head over to the previous update we shared about accessing the Closed Alpha for further instructions. You will be able to access a link to agree to the non-disclosure agreement and then claim your key!
Incorporating Your Feedback
With the release of the Closed Alpha, our development team is actively incorporating feedback from players into the development process. That being said, incorporating feedback requires an active and devoted player base to continuously play, enjoy, and test Gilded Destiny. We are incredibly thankful to our backers who supported our vision early on and for the commitment to making Gilded Destiny as gilded as possible. Already, we have received a large amount of feedback, suggestions, comments, bug reports, and a bit of praise on the Closed Alpha.
Roadmap and Milestones
With the Alpha now released, our Alpha Roadmap posts have come to an end. It's been great sharing this journey with you, but not to fret, we'll now be providing development updates in our regular Dev Diaries! If you haven't seen them, check out our most recent one: People, Progessions, and Power.
Join the Community
You can also reach out to us on Discord for anything else. Join the Gilded Destiny Discord Server
A Note to Non-Backers
First and foremost, to the valued members of our community who are not backers, we want to thank you for your continued patience as we develop and refine Gilded Destiny to a level that will be playable and enjoyable at release.
Now with that excitement over, let's have a look at what we've accomplished in June and early July:
Accomplished in June
Economy & Trade
Continuing the work on balancing the economy
A major update to Trade has taken place and is being tested
As part of the work on the economy, the design for Trade has undergone some revisions and is now behaving in a more stable fashion. The new system has been implemented and is currently being tested. This also comes with a new UI that is currently in the refinement and polish stage.
Trade UI redesign has been completed.
A major update to resource distribution and the overall UX for interacting with resource deposits is currently being implemented. This has also required significant changes to the map, which are now largely complete.
Population & Society
Continued work on Pop distribution. We reviewed and corrected Culture and Religions across Europe. Refined some Professions data.
New Literacy Rate and education system have been implemented and are currently being tested
Started work on an official Glossary for terms and translation purposes.
Terrain & Map
Continued editing terrain: West, South, and Central Africa West Africa has been completed. South and Central Africa will be completed by the end of July.
Continued development of Map Mode Filter feature. Ongoing. It will be completed by the end of July.
Military & AI
Finished military initialization for major powers and medium European nations.
Military initialization is ongoing. While initial work on military initialization is making progress, implementation will require coordination across multiple systems.
Redesigned AI behavior for Army Recruitment. It will be completed by the end of July.
UI & Features
Roughly half of the new UI for political parties and voting is done.
The new (our first official) loading screen is ready.
Art & Assets
Adding the 3rd batch of historical leader heads to the game.
New historical portraits have been added into the game. However, implementation is still ongoing as outfits are being added and portraits still need to be attached to Leader profiles.
6 (out of 8) 3D buildings should be done. Artwork has been completed. However, as mentioned previously, implementation is currently on hold pending other development factors.
Cavalry 3D unit is complete.
Artwork for 7 new Leader backgrounds has been completed.
Targets for the End of July
Finish editing the terrain for South and Central Africa
Update to the new Trade UI
New balancing draft for the economy, which will be tested and refined in the coming months.
Merge Pop religion, culture, and profession refinements
Begin work on refining Pop distributions for North America
Continue working on the official Glossary
Complete Music Player UI
Complete Flag Editor UI
Complete Political Parties UI
Continue creating Leader Portraits—Historical Leaders and Generic Portraits
Complete artwork for about 28 Leader outfits
Update AI behaviors for Army Recruitment and Mobilization
Complete Map Mode Filter system
Looking Ahead to August
We will share our plan for August at the beginning of the month, and as our goals evolve and milestones are reached, we will continue to keep you informed.
Join the Gilded Destiny Discord Server and our subreddit, r/GildedDestiny
You can also follow us on the following socials: Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
As always, thank you for your support and for reading!
May your day be a gilded one!