If you've been holding your breath, waiting for this announcement, you can finally inhale (we can only hope you've survived the long wait with minimal damage): The worldwide release date for Driftmoon is now officially set for the 26th of February, 2013!
[Roaring applause, the crowd rises to its feet, and whistling fills the air.] Wow, thanks! Glad to hear you're almost as excited as we are! 
Other good news: Starting from release, Driftmoon will be available through an awesome gaming site called GOG.com! In accordance to the GOG.com principles, a copy of Driftmoon that you buy there will be completely DRM-free: You won't have to license the game, and you won't even have to enable our amazing mod-list unless you want to (but obviously we do recommend enabling the mod list, to get access to all our cool mods, and all the hundreds more to come). 
As an additional bonus, our composer Gareth Meek has agreed to provide 6 of his original compositions for all Driftmoon -buyers from GOG.com.
As before, it will always be possible to buy Driftmoon
directly from us as well as Desura and Gamersgate... And we should also have another distributor to tell you about soon.
Ps. Any amazing trailer ideas? A new trailer is next on our to-do list, so we're all ears...
We've just released Driftmoon beta version 0.996! This is the first version featuring our new, tilted viewing angle that we mentioned earlier. It's available right here. If you haven't had a chance to try Driftmoon yet, or have patiently been waiting for us to add the angled camera feature, then now is the best time to start playing! And before you ask, yes, the full adventure is all there now, from start to finish.
I have to say that we've both been surprised by how noticeably our recent work has upgraded the graphics of Driftmoon. More importantly, it has brought the characters of the world more alive, so it has clearly been working toward our goals as developers.
An important notice to all who wish to continue from their existing saved games, and try the new angled camera. We have had to considerably upgrade some of the areas in the game to make them work better in the angled view, but those upgrades don't reach any areas that have already been opened in your saved game. That is, if you've been to an area already, you will see some small graphical errors, but they should not affect gameplay. As usual, we recommend starting from the beginning, but the game should be playable if you continue with your save.
As always, we'd be very happy to hear what you think of the new version! You can comment here, or at our forum - but the easiest way is probably still through our in-game feedback-function (press the letter "F" while playing). We're especially interested in any graphical bugs and glitches that our new visuals may have produced, but all other feedback is welcome as well.
As mentioned in an earlier post, it is possible to adjust the viewing angle while playing, by using Page Up and Page Down, so anyone wishing to stick to the traditional top-down perspective, will be able to do so very easily.
Ps. Our never-expiring Driftmoon discount codes will be available through the demo up until the end of February 2013. Be sure to grab yours before that.
Game Changelog
- The camera is now slightly tilted by default. You can control the tilt with the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys.
- The Moon Rocket skill now works with the Mystic Staff.
- Fixed a bug with some feathers being permanently stuck to objects like chairs and bookshelves.
- It is now easier to target objects (especially doors) with the mouse.
- Fixed game hanging when a Rollo manages to stop somehow (which was unlikely, I admit, but possible if it got in a tight corner).
- The staves now work against Oozes and Spider Webs.
Modding Changelog
- The mod camera tilt settings are controlled by the mod settings.ini, see the main game for reference.
- The editor can be tilted with the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys.
- Some bot models have been updated to function better in the tilted environment. If your mod contains humans that use the model from the main mod, your bots may require additional sprites to look better in the tilted view.
- The races.ini variable useInheritedGraphicsIfNotFound controls how the bot's graphics behave if there is no race-specific graphic available. We use it to inherit graphics from the default player.
- It is now possible to use .obj 3D model files for all objects.
- Wielded items can use .obj models by setting the wieldModel property.
- New script action: turnBotToStatue is used to create the statues in the main game. This also means that Pete can update his mod to include tails for the statues!
- Due to the new layers in the characters, some character sprites have been changed. This may break existing statues in mods - if it does, it might be a good idea to use the turnBotToStatue script.
- Topped wall edges can now have a repeating texture, fixing the stretched look of some walls.
- Animations now support cubic interpolation. Selectable via a checkbox in the animation editor.
- It's now possible to use exported objects as props, such as the new trees and rocks.
- The game will no longer crash if there are more than 32768 objects on the map.
- The game will reuse object id numbers from deleted objects, but only if there are no longer any references to the deleted object from scripts or dialogues.
- Hidden objects will no longer have physics. If you need to make an invisible object that has physics, change its alpha to 0.
- It's now possible to define a damageType in items.ini, and a corresponding immunity in races.ini.
It's review time again!
We just got word of a brand new review of Driftmoon, and thought we'd share it with you. Reading the review made the two of us very happy, because the reviewer had had such an awesome time with Driftmoon. By his request we also let him try out our upcoming version with the tilting camera angle (which, by the way, is currently undergoing beta testing!
The review at kelevandos.blogspot.com is originally in Polish, but the reviewer kindly sent us an English translation of the summary and the final table of his review. Here it is:
"While the release of Driftmoon is still almost a month away, I am already sure that it will be a great, unique game. For me there is no element of this little beauty that I would not like and it is really hard to find a flaw. Some time ago I could have written that the camera angle could not appeal to everybody, but Instant Kingdom changed even this, asked by the players. So I honestly recommend Driftmoon to every RPG fan and every player in general. The game is solid, full of interesting content and provides a huge amount of fun. I promise you will not be disappointed!"
Pros
- Really solid RPG
- Interesting story
- Interesting characters
- The physics engine provides a lot of fun
- Lots of great ideas!
- Quite a unique camera angle
- A real gem!
Cons
- None. Really, nothing here to criticize!
By the way, there is a little Driftmoon-related contest running at the kelevandos facebook page at least up until today (the 6th), so it might be worth checking out (you may have a chance to win yourself a copy of Driftmoon).
Ps. If someone with a lot of time on their hands for the next few days is extra-interested in joining our magnificent beta group, please send us an email!
The biggest secret of Driftmoon is that it's actually 3D! I bet you thought that it was purely a top-down game, right? Maybe you thought that it would be impossible to turn the camera, even a tiny fraction? Actually that was completely true a week ago, when we suddenly started wondering how the game would look from a more angled viewpoint, and in a mad coding frenzy got to work.
The top-down camera angle is something that often comes up when people see Driftmoon for the first time. I've never seen a feature that divides people more, some people love it, and some people don't even want to try the game because they fear the perspective. I believe it's largely an issue of what you have become accustomed to. I started my gaming life playing games with a top-down perpective like Ultima VII, and grew up with isometric games like Planescape: Torment.
The fully top-down camera of Driftmoon has never been an issue to me, but that may just be because I've been playing too many ancient games. And here's the important philosophical point, I'm not here to make games for me, I'm here to make games for other people to play. That's why we're adding controls to change the camera angle!
The tricky part is that we've originally designed the graphics with a pure top-down viewpoint in mind, and changing the camera even slightly would have resulted in everything looking very strange. That's what we've been doing for the last week, making sure things look good from an angled point of view. Having said that, it won't be possible to change the camera all that much, but I think that even this small change does makes a difference in how the game looks - for the better, of course. 
But the best thing is that in the future, all of our players will have the possibility to choose the viewpoint they themselves prefer.
So, which screenshot do you prefer? The fully top-down, or the slightly tilted one?
Modders: The tilt feature won't be enabled in mods by default, but from the next version onwards, it will be possible for modders to enable it through settings.ini.
Oh, and I was just kidding you, this isn't the biggest secret of Driftmoon. You'll have to play the game to find it out.
Driftmoon beta 0.993 brings you the Moon Rocket!
How is it that when you want to add just one archery skill, you get two? Playing a nearly purely archer character, I wanted to snipe my enemies before they could get a chance to get to me. Guess what? That wasn't possible, because the range of my archer just wasn't good enough. No problem, make a new skill for it! It's simply called Archery, and will increase your range, as well as your accuracy.
Secondly, I felt that while archery was cool by itself, it really lacked in the territory where the Whirlwind skill is good with melee weapons - crowd control. No problem, make a new skill for it: The Moon Rocket! It fires an explosive arrow that gives a very satisfying boom, and your problems are gone! Naturally you have to be a bit careful with it, you can easily hit yourself if your target gets too close, or if you accidentally hit a wall. Which is to say, playing an archer is now a lot more fun.
Other updates:
- I've fixed the character movement speed on slow computers to be equal to that of faster computers. It should be noticeable if you've been getting less than 30 frames per second.
- It's now possible to run away from the wolves in the Vault area, even if you've provoked them into attacking you.
- For modders, the floor height painting tool now shows the heights in numbers.
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