25/02/2022
It's been a fat minute huh?
The pandemmy took quite a toll on our small team - both personally and in business, as we were in the middle of trying to get funding for our game in a time when people couldn't afford to support not only their own families - let alone our passion project.
We understood and instead ventured out in different directions for funding because the show must go on and we really want everything we've been working on for months to come to fruition. We stand by making projects that the staff themselves want to play, and sorry to say we can't let Euphoria: The Hidden Isles go!
That's why we're here to announce two super exciting pieces of information!
1. WE'VE BEEN FUNDED!
Thanks to the amazing people at Vast Bank , we've gotten the funding we need to release our Alpha, which should release THIS FALL if everything goes according to plan! We couldn't be more thankful for Vast to give us this opportunity, and we hope to do them proud! Their staff are fantastic people who just want to see people succeed, so we couldn't recommend them enough if you're looking for financial services big or small.
2. WE'VE PARTNERED WITH MIND2MATTER
In order to release in a timely manner, we partnered with Mind2Matter (https://bit.ly/3HgmoOb) to help us out with development. We're a small team of 13 people after all - and most of us have full-time careers outside of the studio, throwing all of our free time and love into this project to make it to replace our current careers. Don't worry, this won't water down the quality or anything of our game, since 1000% of all of our love is being driven for this project's success - we just ask for a little bit of patience when commenting and asking questions!
WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT IN THIS ALPHA?
We'll be releasing only one of our biomes - the Grasslands, for the alpha of Euphoria: The Hidden Isles. Don't be discouraged by this though! The alpha will have the full gameplay and mechanics, other than temperature differentials. Depending on the success of the initial launch, you'll see new biomes being added over time, with a new biome being added every three months until all biomes are within the game, and then our DLC releases!
We don't want to give you all of the spoilers of what will be in the alpha, but here are some of the juicy highlights:
1. All 6 Character Professions
2. Character Archetypes (You can choose between 3 different personality types, Confident, Rough, and Intelligent, which affect the way your character moves, and speak within the world and other players.)
3. Character Creation for everyone in mind. This includes hair and textures meant for all ethnicities - and yes, you'll get more options than one afro and/or one dreadlock. (The Sims 4 could never.)
4. 20 Unique Grassland Mobs.
5. A map that's around 3.6 sq miles - with the final map reaching 24 sq miles. (For reference, Skyrim is 15 sq miles!)
6. Super interesting NPCs that if you talk to enough, may give you some juicy lore info, or even something super special....
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
That's a good question! From here on out, We'll be giving weekly updates on our projects here on our website, so you can keep up with everything that we're doing! In addition, you can always check the status page to see how much we have done percentage-wise!
If you were a supporter from our Kickstarter days, your merch will be sent to you as well as steam keys for early access to the alpha for testing a month before steam release. We're sorry about the merch delays - our supplier is having issues due to the recent political issues unfolding. We're hoping that [REDACTED] chills out so that we can go back to getting our merchandise and living in slight chaotic harmony.
We're so happy to finally be off our hiatus, and we can't wait to see you on The Isle!
- Aetherian Studios Team
We’re a Gaming Studio with one thing in mind; to make gaming an experience.
