Castle of Blackwater Post-Summer Update

Greetings villagers! 

As the days start getting shorter, we look back to reminisce upon the glorious summer season that has once again come and gone. We hope that many of you were able to enjoy some time away from your busy schedules and that your foreign adventures were fruitful and fulfilling. 

Our work at Castle of Blackwater has not stopped for some relaxation. On the contrary, we look back at our progress this summer and consider it to be amongst our most productive seasons yet! 

In today’s Post-Summer Update, we’re eager to showcase the fruits of our labour, to provide insights into our recent achievements, and to give perspective into our upcoming milestones. So sit tight, hold on to your ale, and enjoy the read.

Game Development

Over the past few months, a lot of progress has been made in getting Castle of Blackwater ready for public release. Some of our biggest achievements are: 

Networking Architecture Revamp

A major achievement for us this year has been the complete rebuilding of our networking architecture, thereby eliminating some major issues that were getting in the way of smooth playtime; input lag (latency) and host disconnect issues. We’re now happy to report that player input is smoother than ever, and a host leaving the game no longer destroys the lobby. 

Cosmetics & Emotes

Another fantastic milestone has been the introduction of Castle of Blackwater cosmetics and emotes. As of right now, players can change the look and feel of their in-game characters, freely expressing themselves in different styles and dances. As we continue to build out our account features, all players will have access to all cosmetics for a limited time.

New Minigames

This summer we introduced 3 brand new minigames into the Castle; Lumberjack, Musical Flames, and Maze Runner. Each of these minigames offers a refreshing challenge to the Protector’s endless grind for XP, and each requires a different set of skills to complete. Are you brave enough to face these new challenges?

Fresh User Interface Upgrades

We’re constantly looking for new ways to improve the user interface and game experience. After receiving a very positive reaction to our bubble chat, we recently revamped our voting and dead chat systems to better integrate with this newly improved communication style. We’re still working on improving the UI in the waiting lobby and home screen, but we’re excited with the direction we’re taking. 

Cosmetics Shop

We’re currently developing the Castle of Blackwater Cosmetics shop, where players will be able to browse and purchase a range of cosmetics, emotes, promotions and bundles! 

Project Development
Other than building Castle of Blackwater the game, we are of course also constantly developing and growing our team and community. 

Cross-community Game Nights

Over the summer we’ve continued our trend of hosting weekly game nights with other communities. Most notably, we’ve played with BeamCat, NeoTokyo, The Wardens, Kokodi, Rumble Arcade, NeoLaunch, and many, many more! We absolutely love introducing new communities to our game, and have a huge appreciation for our own community members who show up to play each week! 

Social Media Marketing
A large part of our marketing efforts this summer have been spent on posting on TikTok, YouTube, Twitch and Reddit, as well as experimenting with some ads on these platforms. The results from this have translated to us having just over 10,000 wishlists on Steam, which has us very excited for the launch! 

WISHLIST CASTLE OF BLACKWATER ON STEAM NOW:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2265920/Castle_of_Blackwater/ 

New Logo! 

We recently decided to revamp our logo, to better match the style and art direction that the game ended up taking. Hand drawn by our very own in-house artist, we’re proud to present the new logo that will become our brand image for the foreseeable future! 

New Music
Although our sound director is always adding and tweaking sounds to the Castle of Blackwater game, occasionally he will release a whole new piece of music. His latest hit piece, titled “The Brave and The Bold”, takes inspiration from each of the three factions to create a stunning work of audible sensations. Give it a listen here: https://youtu.be/UCraFtb1KkI

What’s next?!
Over the next few months, we’ll continue to do what we’ve been doing all summer. On the game development side, we’re currently working on a lot of complex back-end systems that will evolve the Castle of Blackwater gameplay into a fully-fledged, ready-for-launch, game title. This means account features, social features, progression systems, security, and much more. 

Castle of Blackwater is registered to participate in the Steam Next Fest for the upcoming February edition and will be planning the public launch of the game shortly after. 

Also, we’re continuously planning a big marketing campaign around the game’s launch, including social media ads, streamer collaborations, and strategic game community partnerships. 

We’re incredibly excited for the next chapter in our story, the post-launch phase, and look forward to welcoming a flood of new players and fans. Until then, we keep building and growing and playing the latest beta version with our community during our weekly game nights. 

See you soon in the Castle of Blackwater!

Team Blackwater.