Development process and transparency approach

The update presents Scars of Honor as an openly developed project that shares work in progress rather than waiting for fully polished reveals. This approach is repeatedly framed as a deliberate production and communication choice.

Monthly development updates

The team states that it intends to communicate progress on a monthly basis. These updates are used to show systems in development, explain ongoing overhauls, and gather feedback before features are finalized.

The presentation repeatedly emphasizes that many of the shown assets and interfaces are placeholders, prototypes, or intermediate iterations. The stated goal is to let players see development "from the kitchen" rather than only after features are fully polished.

Iteration over secrecy

The update describes the current period as one of broad revision, with older systems being replaced or rebuilt when they no longer meet the project's standards. This is framed not as starting over, but as trading weaker implementations for stronger ones.

The team also stresses that community feedback is intended to influence direction while systems are still flexible. This applies to visual presentation, UI, combat feel, and other major features.

Production growth and staffing

The studio states that it is continuing to expand and hire across multiple disciplines. The need for additional talent is linked to the scale of the visual overhaul, cross-platform development, and the general demands of MMORPG production.

The update presents this growth as necessary for handling simultaneous work on art, gameplay, optimization, and platform support.

Internal workflow and specialist roles

Several parts of the update highlight the interaction between art, design, engineering, and technical optimization. The visual overhaul is described as involving not only an art director and artists, but also developers working on runtime mesh combination, texture handling, and performance.

A new VFX lead is also mentioned, with the update attributing recent progress in weather and effects work partly to that addition.

Roadmap signals

The update gives a near-term milestone of September for a larger test involving mobile optimization and the new continent technology. At the same time, it avoids committing to final details for systems that are still under active design.

Several subjects are explicitly deferred to future dedicated updates, including raids, housing details, and deeper crafting explanations. This reflects a roadmap style in which systems are introduced gradually as they become concrete enough to discuss.

Community-facing media and transparency context

The update also references a recently released machinima and notes that it was created using the now-scrapped older visual system. Future community videos are expected to benefit from the new graphics once the overhaul is further along.

This reinforces the broader message of the update: the project is in active transition, and public-facing material is expected to improve as the new production pipeline replaces older assets and systems.

Source

• Recording: Environment & Characters overhaul | Scars of Honor Development Update - June 2024
• YouTube: Watch on YouTube
• Published: Friday, June 7, 2024 at 11:47 AM UTC