Overview
Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues was announced on 8th March 2013 and was successfully funded through Kickstarter on 7th April 2013. Episode 1: Forsaken Virtues is intended as the first release of five separate episodes with each subsequent episode expanding on its story and gameplay features. Richard Garriott (Creative Director) and Starr Long (Executive Producer) of Ultima Online fame are the two most notable figures leading the development process for Shroud of the Avatar. Other notable members of the staff include Tracy Hickman (Lead Story Designer), known for his work on the Dragonlance novels and role-playing products.
The game is being built with the Unity engine and Portalarium are accepting assets and creative content directly from the backers to assist them in building out the game world. Content creators that have their work accepted by Portalarium are rewarded either with a monetary payment or double its equivalent real-world value as in-game currency.
Shroud of the Avatar is set in the world of New Britannia and contains a lot of influences from Garriott's Ultima franchise. The game is designed as a "Selective Multiplayer Game", giving players the choice to play in either a fully persistent multiplayer online game, a singleplayer / co-operative game with persistent online features, or exclusively offline with no online synchronisation at all. It is intended that the first two options will allow persistent online items and events to populate the player's world so they feel connected with the world's events and story. Singleplayer Online will allow players to restrict the presence of online characters to only close friends and NPCs. The offline mode will not allow any connection with the persistent world and offline characters cannot be transferred into the Multiplayer Online game.
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