Sunday: May 18th

Current News

We had a busy week! From updates, to new community managers, to having our first iteration of the Code of Conduct on our forums - it's been a lively week!

We had an update from our Art Department on the Kickstarter wallpapers, which also included a sneak peek video. Check out the update here: http://cityoftitans.com/forum/kickstarter-desktop-background-news

This week we welcomed two new Community Managers - Shadow Elusive and HiroA. You can read their greetings to the City of Titans community here: http://cityoftitans.com/forum/meet-our-new-community-managers

Egads! Our Report Post button has apparently done gone ran away with the last forum software update, so in the interim you can private message to Shadow Elusive, HiroA, Minotaur, or myself (VDG) if you feel a post needs to be reported for violating any of the forum rules. Read that post here: http://cityoftitans.com/forum/reporting-posts

Speaking of forum rules, please read our Code of Conduct guidelines here: http://cityoftitans.com/forum/code-conduct

Forum Topics

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/collab-central
Have I not shared this before? What's wrong with me? Check out ChristopherRobin's collaborative art thread - some truly awesome work in there.

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/meet-your-heroes-day
A fun role-playing thread by Xselcier

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/power-origins-meaning
Thread by Robertt Steel about a possibility advantage/disadvantage system tied to origins

Ask-A-Dev

Did I tell you we love questions? We love questions. Ask one here: http://tinyurl.com/askadev

From: Radiac
For: Business & Marketing
When should I expect the receive the T-shirt I bought with my Kickstarter money? Also, will the non-physical stuff (e.g. Iconic, Mogul, etc) be dealt with before the game is released or after? Thanks.

Terwyn, Marketing Manager: Given the sheer size of donations we received during the Kickstarter, it should be no surprise that it has taken us a long time to track down our benefactors to confirm specific details. Since some people have surprisingly contributed well over a thousand dollars, and haven't read their e-mails instructing them where to sign up for their goodies, we've had to extend the deadline and reach out to these individuals personally. So, eventually, we started collating the results, and found that some people had left shipping addresses in Titan City. A nice thought, but unfortunately unhelpful for items existing outside of the game world. As well, more than one person had left the default size of t-shirt in the system, and we're quite sure that half of our base do not wear a women's Extra Small. Needless to say, that started off an entirely new sequence of back and forth communications, forcing us to have to collate the list again.

Good news, however, despite all of that, the orders are going out more or less as we speak, and they'll start shipping as soon as they can. Everyone should be getting the shirts more or less at once, presuming that local postal systems are equally efficient. As for the digital goods, they will be plotted out and dealt with accordingly well before the final build of Titan City.

I hope this answers your question adequately.

From Around the Web

Sunday: May 4th

Current News

This week's update was from our Composition team and it was all about the writing process for City of Titans.

You can check out the announcement here: http://cityoftitans.com/forum/writing-city-titans-process
Discussion thread: http://cityoftitans.com/forum/discuss-writing-city-titans-process

We are also currently working on (manually) going through the Kickstarter Backer list and correctly flagging their forum handles as such. We had looked at a module that could do this for us but it apparently had a Zod complex and was banished to the Phantom Zone - so we are doing it by hand.

Like the Florida ballot counting.

So, if you supported us on our Kickstarter Campaign and pledged enough to receive the Kickstarter forum title/badge and you used a different email address to register for the forums - first off; damn you. Secondly, send me an email at vdg@missingworldsmedia.com with your name,  your City of Titans forum handle, and the email address you used for our Kickstarter campaign.

Follow the thread here: http://cityoftitans.com/forum/kickstarter-symbol-forums

Forum Posts
http://cityoftitans.com/forum/new-forms-limbs
Would you like an arm or a leg made of fire, gas, or water? Discuss that idea on Silent Sillo's thread.

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/enhancementsboosts-vs-upgrades
Desviper's thread on the difference between enhancements & boosts vs upgrades

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/face-it-we-need-think-about-adopt-newbie
RottenLuck's very poignant reminder of why we need to embrace new players and help them along.

From Around the Web

An artificial leaf that produces energy by splitting hydrogen in oxygen while inside a glass of water? What the what?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/28/tech/innovation/the-artificial-leaf-power-solar-electricity/index.html

Sunday: March 2nd

Current News

http://cityoftitans.com/content/you-spoke-we-listened
Our update of the week, which contains links to previous posts & updates as well.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/763139
Y'all need to get your perks selected. You can also reach out to ksperks@missingworldsmedia.com if you're having any issues with your selecting your perks.

Forum Posts

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/comic-recommndation-thread
Ever wonder what comics your fellow Titans are reading? Check it out and share here! Thread by Skaargoroth

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/biography-challenge-anthem
If you could give Anthem a new backstory, what would it be? Thread by Gladatoria

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/npc-sidekics
Got thoughts and ideas on NPC sidekicks? Thread by Thanatos

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/what-will-make-subscription-worth-buying
Still got a healthy discussion going on about what would make a subscription to City of Titans worth buying. Thread by Consultant

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/nbcs-heroes-returns
Yes, it's true - Heroes is coming back. Kinda. Sorta. Differently. Thread by Winter

From Around the Web

You'll shed a tear. I promise. It's a touching story. Bring tissues, a napkin, or a towel. Whichever.

Sunday: February 9th

Current News

The Shorty Awards Logo

Hey! Guess what - we have 10 days left in the nomination period for the Shorty Awards! What that means is that you can still show your support by going to http://tinyurl.com/cityshorty and using the forum to tweet your support!

Thank you everyone who has supported us so far!

Forum Posts

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/kickstarter-update-reference-list
Need a quick go-to-guide for all the KS updates? Look no further than here! Thank you, Winter!

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/question-players-what-do-you-really-want
What do you really want from the Devs? Thread by Comicsluvr

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/anthem-community-survey
We'd absolutely love to hear your feedback on Anthem. (Believe me, we do!) Thread by GhostHack

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/alternative-form-mentorship
A very interesting thread on mentorship between NPC's and PC's, also by GhostHack

From Around the Web

From ThisisColossal - it's easy to get entranced and let the six plus minutes slip by.

Sunday: February 2nd

Current News

As some of you may have noticed the relentless tweeting/Facebooking/G+'ing - we've been nominated for a Shorty Award! The Shorty Awards are to recognize the best in social media and this year we've kindly been nominated by @manvsstairs for Kickstarter of the Year!

If any of you have a Twitter account and would like to support City of Titans for Kickstarter Of The Year, then held over to the link below and tweet your nomination/support!


http://shortyawards.com/video/lMK

or

http://tinyurl.com/cityshorty

Forum Posts

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/male-and-female-hair
Thread by ZigZag, about hair options for male and female characters.

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/diverse-and-creative-use-single-superpower
A good discussion about the ability to use powers for more than just one role in combat, thread by Pyromancer.

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/dont-let-sg-bases-look-ghost-towns
Blue Ox, we'd never let that happen!

http://cityoftitans.com/forum/new-powers-suggestion-thread
Got an idea for a new power? Suggest it here! Thread by John-Andre

From Around The Web

You be assimilated... and then sold in a supermarket. The Internet of Vegetables is upon us.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-01/31/internet-plants

And if only this happened every time I gave money to a street musician.

The Big Game

The Big Game
An Article by Sports Reporter Joe “Monster Hands” Manassas




The Big Game is here! No, you aren’t going to see the familiar Blue, White and Gold of the Captains’ jerseys on the field. You aren’t going to see the gold toothed grin of Captain Corsair, our venerable and beloved mascot as he pumps up the crowd for the team, dueling the coach with his foam sword and doing his inimitable victory dance. You aren’t going to see the lovely Wenchettes flipping their pom poms and performing acrobatics the likes of which you have never seen, between super-expensive, weird tv commercials.




Why not? Well, as always, if you want to know, talk to the Hands...

No one new to Titan City can miss the fact that our team is beloved. Tricorn hats, old school lunchboxes shaped like treasure chests, fancy boots; the team is not hurting on the money front, the merchandise sells like, well, Captain Cakes (just a hint of orange flavor to fight off the scurvy. Yarr). Those same newcomers always do a double take when they see the numbers. How do we pack Titan Colosseum (newly refurbished with a retractable dome, ready for us to host the Big Game here) every week when we have a losing record?




Because it’s our team, that’s why! And we love our team. How can we not love the plucky underdogs who work so hard training in the offseason, give so much to the community, and then go out and give it their all? They’re like family, especially Alan Capulet, the beloved coach. They’re all Titan City fixtures, and they’re all good, clean kids. Even if they never win, we’re happy to have people like this in our fair city.

Which is just as well, because - and this is the deal, sports fans - Titan City isn’t allowed to win. If the Captains win, then “obviously” it’s because someone on the team is a super, or they’re doping with some new superscience drug (conveniently impossible to detect or disprove), or someone’s using mind control on the referees or whatever. We’ve heard it all before. We hear it every time the Captains make the playoffs. Mike Thorkulson rushed 18,400 yards in 2007, and it was chased off the team because breaking a record meant he was ‘obviously’ superhuman. Then New York’s Shane Smith ran 18,427 the next year, but that was a crowning jewel of human achievement. It never ends, folks.




Our boys are clean. Super clean. Squeaky clean. Heck, I even got investigated when I was on the team because of the size of my hands! Ladies, the Hands are here to tell you. I’m no mutant, just a freak. Ever since the Incident, the Captains have watched their food and their training regimen, but that cloud of suspicion always rises every time we get close to the playoffs, and I have been on that field folks; it does affect how you play.

Yes, I mentioned the Incident. We all remember 2005, although none of us want to talk about it. The season’s over for us, so what’s the harm? One guy ever gets his hands on the super-drug Chaser, thinking it will give him an edge. Then a hard tackle makes him belch fire all over a linebacker. Sure, it was shameful. I’m not going to say it was right. But it was one guy, one time, and now that cloud is going to haunt us forever? I say bull.

Titan City may have more super types per capita by far than any other city in the world because of our lax laws on supers. We may have a lot of super science and magic. But if there is one thing Titan City knows, it is that you can’t have the mask and cape crew do everything for you. Some things are best handled by good old regular guy know-how and guts. And one of those things is Football!

Mark my words. Supers are getting to be more and more populous worldwide. One of these days, one of the big teams is going to have their Incident. Maybe that will make everyone start letting a little bit of the super onto their pro teams. Maybe that will make everyone work as hard as our Captains do to be spotless. But either way, some day, as they say, the playing field will be even.

Never give up hope, Captains Fans! We are going to have our day in the sun! We are going to see Captain Corsair dance under the goalposts! We are going to host the Big Game some day, and we are going to win! And we all know why!

Say it with me, as you read this on your phones and on your laptops! Say it with me as you read the paper on the bus stops and in the barber shops! Let this city ring with the chorus! Anyone can make it in Titan City!

That’s all from me this year on the Big Game, folks. As always, if anyone asks, the Hands went that-a-way.

Would you like to take a survey?

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen.

This very Friday, we're sending our first Kickstarter Survey out. We made it ourselves. Well, with some help from a commercial shopping cart.

Now, if you didn't have a Perk level that contained an add-on, like the ones that contained the Phoenix Pet, or if you didn't put in extra money for an add-on, before the Kickstarter ended, you're not going to get this survey. That's All Your Base or above.

We want to make this very clear. We're only picking out the digital add-ons and purchasing the physical ones, in this survey. We're not asking you for the information we need to make the digital add-ons or perks work. That'll be for a second survey, once we're much closer to completion.

And there is a limited time to complete this survey. It'll be in the letter. End of February. Why? Because we have to order the T-Shirts and so on, and we're doing it in bulk, and we have to put the order in at some point.

I know, so many of you want to buy more, and we love you for it. But there's two things. First, of course, we need to have a functioning web store. We don't, yet, mostly because our coders have been focusing on our engine. Secondly, we kind of want to be sure we're going to have some product for you before we start going back to pitching for more money. Much as we want to roll around in it, swim in it, toss it up and let it hit us on the head... sorry, went a little Carl Barks there.

Keep an eye on your spam filters, okay? If you don't get the email by Monday, and you think you should, again, message us, we'll check the list. We know exactly how much money we got from each and every one of you.

This update is going to be mostly the same as the letter for the survey, except that'll have your user name and password in it. It can't have your amount of credit, that'll be in a second email. If you have a problem with the survey, we're listening. Just message us here, or send an email to ksperks@missingworldsmedia.com

Okay, instructions starting below. Ready?

Welcome to the City of Titans Perks Survey!

This is our first survey, but it's not going to be our last.

Today, we're just taking care of figuring out exactly what you bought, including the T-Shirt sizes.

We're going to order the physical perks, but taking care of the digital perks will wait till we're ready to put them in the game.

(But remember, we do want to get all these hats and shirts ordered, so spend your credit before Feb 28th, 2013!)

Your login ID is the e-mail address where you got this email.

Your new password is: ******

Just click on http://perks.cityoftitans.com/ and you'll see this screen:


Log in, and you'll see this screen


You'll notice there's a reminder in the middle, about how some pledge levels got perks thrown in. If you were one of those people, we've added the credit value to your cart as well. To remind you, it's the following:

People who pledged All Your Base and above get a T-Shirt, Lanyard, and Mousepad as well as the Phoenix Pet. ($80 total). People who pledged I Know A Guy and above get that, plus an Instant Sidekick ($110, total).

People who pledged Fashionista and above get Iconic, Everything is Better in Plaid, It Must Be A Sign, as well ($610 total).

You're not limited to those choices, though. You've got credit, spend it however you wish.

Go and click on the link on the right (The arrow in the picture's pointing at it), and go shopping.

Selected everything you want? (Don't forget, if you choose a shirt, you can choose your size)

You've filled up your cart?


Follow the arrow and go to Checkout.

You'll see your address.


You can also put in any special comments you want at the bottom about shipping. Only shipping related comments there, please.

Check to make sure it's right, that's where we're shipping everything!

Then go to the next screen. This is where you actually spend the money. You can also put in any special comments you want at the bottom. Remember, we're just finding out what digital perks you bought. We'll send a second survey later for more information about the details.


Notice your total is listed, and your total balance is listed. Click on 'Continue Checkout' to spend that money!

Step Three of Three! Time to make sure your address is right, what you ordered is the right size and right quantity, and any special shipping instructions are in. Everything gets free shipping, we baked that into the cost of the products.


See that 'Confirm The Order' button? Click it when you're ready.

Okay, final screen. This one shows you everything went through, your order number, and if you have any credit remaining. If you share this computer, be sure to log off when you're done.


For help with any of our online services, please email our special Perks address. KSPerks@missingworldsmedia.com . We're waiting and watching!

Sincerely,

Warcabbit, Shard, and the City of Titans Family.

And a Cabbie New Year

Heeeeey, fancy meetin' you here! How're ya-- whoa! Careful there, pal. Here, lemme help ya in. Boy, am I glad you called me. An' you'll be glad too - I got bottles of water in the mid compartment there, an that switch right there is for the seat warmer. Yer welcome.

Yeah, it gets pretty cold in the winter here in Titan City. Doesn't really stop most people. Heck, in Downtown you can go walking from building to building without ever goin' outside, thanks to the skywalks an' such, so why would anyone slow down? Never stops people from tryin' new things, though.

I remember one year, durrin' a pretty bad blizzard, a bunch of mad science guys got together an' did a contest to see who could do the best job a keepin' the city streets clear a' snow. So all night there were giant robots an' laser-plows an' puddles of gray goop an' all sortsa werid stuff, runnin' around, cleanin' the roads an' sometimes fightin' each other over choice pilups. It was insane! But then, what do you expect from mad science guys?

The streets were clear, tho. An' I swear they were cleaner than they'd been before. I was workin' that night an' didn't even have my tires slip the whole time.

Oh, sure, we've had some funny happenings. I mean, hey, it's New Years, any city's gonna have some crazy stuff happens. Ours just tends to be bigger'n louder.

One year, we had a monster came out of the water, hadda be thirty stories tall, headed for the fireworks display an' then started torchin' things. There was a big fight of course, but in the end it turns out it was just tryin' to communicate. Get this - the poor thing fell in love with City Hall! Thought the fireworks was the buildin' comin' onta him. They fixed his vision somehow, an the guy was so disappointed. Blubbered for hours, loud enough everyone could hear 'im.

What? Oh, yeah, big monsters happen sometimes around here. Don't worry, all homeowner's insurance for the area is good for monster attacks by law, and they usually don't cause as much commotion as you'd expect.

Anyway, one a' my favorite stories of the season is when Hexbane was goin' around the town stealin' presents kids'd gotten on Christmas. See, Hexbane, he's this guy that collects cursed stuff. Nobody knows why, but he just can't get enough of it. Well, that year some jerk'd been passing out toys an' games with bad mojo on 'em for the holidays, an' they were startin' to take effect on the kids. Hexbane can't just do nothin' straight, tho, oh no. He's charmin' enough he could probably just tell them what's up and get it done, but instead he goes an' breaks into people's houses to collect the toys, leavin' stylishly cut-open windows in his wake.

So Anthem gets wind of this, an' even tho she's supposed to be takin' th' day off she goes after 'im, because that's what she does. She an' Hexbane have history, see. They fight, an' it's always pretty spectacular to see those two fight, lemme tell ya, they just go tearin' across the city. Hexbane keeps causin' problems to distract her, or I dunno, maybe he just does it to watch her fix 'em, but this goes on a while and then he finally jukes when he should've swerved or somethin' and she grabs holda him. Delivers one helluva lecture, an' let me tell you, when Anthem shouts everybody hears it. She thought he was just doin' his usual stealin', didn't know he was doin' those kids a solid by takin' away the toys. But she does him one better.

See, Hexbane's rich. Like, serious old money rich. So she grabs the guy an' they go buy some new toys - on his dime, natch- an’ she drags ‘im around th’ town collectin' the rest of the toys, and visitin' the people he'd taken the ones he already had from. An' they give the kids all new toys to replace what they'd lost. Clean a’ bad juju, a’course. She even got him to pay for the window repairs, too. All outta pocket.

After that she gave the guy another browbeatin' an' then let 'im go with a warning. He took it in stride. What's his hangup? I dunno man, he just likes to be stylish.

I got a million a' these, tho. Like, this one time there was... ah... uh... ... no.

Nossir, you ain't seein' a forty foot tall guy standin' naked as a jaybird in the middle of the road. An' he ain't shoutin' nothin' 'bout not puttin' his pants on 'till he gets some respect.

I, uh, I think we got someone else needs a ride home, tho. Oh, an’ the seatback in frontaya has barf bags. Y’know. Just in case.

What? Oh, sure. Yeah, it’s possible to drive places without runnin’ inta supers in this town. ...I mean, normally. On New Year’s Eve? Nnnnnot so much.

Stretch Goal #3

Stretch Goal #3: MacOS at Launch

One word: elated

That's how we feel finally hitting this milestone: MacOs support. $450k. Floored. All of us. Floored.

$450,000

DONE. You wanted it, you got it, you're getting it.

Again, thank you all so much, immensely.

Thank You! (#4)

David 'Forever Jester' Schopp, 2D Concept and UI Graphics

You know, the months leading u to the kickstarter there were butterflies in my stomach, I had so many I was burping butterflies! Then it launched, I saw it hit 30,000 dollars, still had butterflies, I laid down to go to sleep, fifteen minutes later it dawned upon me, on how awesome the quick and sudden response was!

I saw upright and lit with a brand new confidence and passion! Butterflies replaced with Burning, Flaming Pandas of conviction and duty! This is going to happen! All thanks to you!

It is such and honor and privilege to work on this all for you. All for the greatest community in gaming history, time to give you back a familiar stomping ground. But I cant forget about the new members to our wonderous community, I can guarantee, first handedly, you are in the best hands.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Heroes and Villians, lets get soaring.

----------

Robin Strickland, Composition Lead

I'm amazed and astonished by all of this. I've always been cautiously optimistic about the project succeeding, but I never imagined it would succeed to such a mind-blowing extent. Really and truly, you guys are the best.

We're making a game for the best fans. We'll try to live up to the responsibility.

----------

Dave "Pep Rally" Atkins 3d Artist

Wow. You guys rock so hard, you'd send Metallica to the easy listening station by comparison, and I'm talkin' the mid-80s version, not today's watered down one.

I almost couldn't believe how fast, and HARD you guys rallied to our cause, and I do mean OUR cause, but in truth, I'm not that surprised, I already knew the CoH Community was awesome, and this is just another example. I mean, if I'm in it, it has to be, right? Hey, stop snickering over in the corner!

I'm not sure if any of you remember me, but I mainly called Champion my home, although I had altitis like pretty much everyone who played CoH, and had toons on every server. This came in pretty handy when we started up the Tanker Tuesday Tour to spread the joys of all tanker teams to the masses. 8 years this event went on without stop on Champion, the Tour lasted 3 years reaching every server multiple times . 1000s of tanks, 100s of TFs completed.

I bring this up only because one of the proudest moments I had in game was when we completed the Statesman TF with an all tanker team(before Incarnates). Many scoffed at us saying it couldn't be done, they would say you're mad to make the attempt, why bother, you just don't have the damage, or buffs, Ghost Widow will PWN U!!!. That just makes me try harder. Yes, we did fail the first attempt, and then the second, but we learned, developed strategies, grew stronger, and then on that 3rd attempt... VICTORY! It was so sweet. That is the attitude we all must bring, what we all WILL bring to this endeavor.

There are only 2 ways we can fail, never trying, and quitting. We've already crossed off the first, and you guys just buffed us to the gills with AM, MA, FS, SB, and bubbles to take on the second. Although, SB makes me a little jittery.

2 - 4 - 6 - 8 - Who do we appreciate?!! You guys! You Guys! YAAAAAAAY!!

Thanks
-Pep

p.s. Sorry it's so long. They don't let us out of the art cave very often. heeeeeeelp uuuuuuuus. j/k

----------

Chris "Clave Dark 5" Larason - Composition writer

I can't begin to describe how it feels seeing the ol' community returning to coalesce around us here at CoT. Top that with your response to the Kickstarter, which far surpassed any guess I had about our success. Cover generously with the fact that I'm allowed to actually participate in the structuring of the game (!!!). Let simmer for about a year. Makes five servings of me being speechless.

Thank you all from the bottom of my 5.

Now stand back, we're just getting started!

----------

You.

You did this.

You, with your dreams, beliefs, and ultimately, your faith in us - you did this.

For that I am so grateful.

There aren't words I have immediate access to that can adequately describe this experience. Our greatest fear was that you wouldn't be there, breathing life into this project. We were absolutely afraid of hitting the "Submit" button and not knowing if you'd be there - but you were.

It's been almost a year since we've last been together as a community. Yet somehow despite all the obstacles, the improbabilities, the passing of time - here we are again - and with new kindred souls to join us in this experience - and for that, I am thankful.

This is the part where we say, "I dare to dream." This is the part where we say, "Yes, we're going to make our dreams a reality." This is the part where we say "Yes, we can do this."

This is the part where we begin that journey.

I'm looking forward to the journey ahead and I am so glad and thankful to have all of you here, again.

Are we home yet? Soon™

Thank you,

-=VDG=-

Thank You! (#1)

Warcabbit, Project Manager

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I love you guys.

We've been working so hard to keep ahead of you and you keep pushing faster than I can believe. I've got something really great coming up for you, but you pushed us over before we could even get it done.

We're going to start rolling out the things we put aside so the gameplay video could get done, shortly. Lore and art and... well, you'll see.

Here's a hint.

I want to believe

Beyond that, though, we've got to keep working on the game, we've got to earn the trust you've put in us.

And we're going to do that.

Torches high, everyone.

----------

Timothy "Kitsune9tails" Ross

You are the best people in the entire world. Thank you for fulfilling my dream of being able to spread my particular flavor of madness on to you. Seriously, I have loved comic books and supers all my life and this is a goal of decades for me. You have made an old man proud and happy. I will do my best to live up to the faith you have shown.

Time to put on my butt kickin' boots...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkeLAqIjp-E

----------

Jennifer "Petalstorm" Bolack - Art Director

I am completely overwhelmed and excited and extremely happy to have such wonderful fans backing us. This project means a lot to me personally and you guys have had me balling my eyes out all week with how supportive and how much faith you have put into us and this project. I will never be able to express how thankful I am to y'all for being here and backing us. Thank you.

----------

Lauren "Rae" O'Neill - PR Lead and generally-gushing-on-Facebook-chick

It's crazy to think that it was less than a week ago that I was dragged out of my bed so I could stand shoulder to shoulder with my TPP colleagues and our community for the launch of our Kickstarter. I'll never, even forget listening to VDG counting down the minutes, my stomach twisting and turning and my hands shaking.

And then a split second of silence as the 'launch' button was pressed.

It was a matter of /seconds/ before the pledges started rolling in. As late night became early morning for my colleages, sleep-deprived, I sat with the Kickstarter in one window and Facebook in the other, uploading 'milestone' graphics as quickly as our art team could create them, as we smashed through one barrier, after another, after another.

Every time we hit a milestone, I said I had no words.

I still don't have any words. Seriously. I'm talking in vowel sounds right now. I think I might even have made up a few of the vowels.

I never dared to hope we'd actually reach our target, because I knew it would break my heart if we didn't. To reach it so quickly is beyond anything I'd ever imagined.

Being a part of this has been an absolute honour. Sleeping with my phone under my pillow so I can check the updates, waking in the night to watch the figure rising, my phone exploding with emails, tweets and text messages whenever we hit something amazing.

THAT made me feel super. Gawd only knows what I'll actually feel like when I actually get to strap on some virtual spandex once again.

Thank you so much for letting us play such a huge part in your adventure. It means more than you can ever know.

I keep saying thank you, but it doesn't seem enough, somehow. That's just words, and there aren't enough words for how much thanking of you I want to do to you. I really, really, really mean it.

Thank you, three hundred and twenty-thousand times. Thank you.

Love you guys,
Lauren

----------

Brian "Terlin" McVey, Contract Writer

Wow, we made it!

Thank you so much for your incredible support. All of us here at MWM are grateful for your contributions and well wishes.

I have always been impressed with the community spirit that drives us forward. Many in the kickstarter have commented on the community they are seeing reawakened during this funding effort. We are planning a robust game with features I'm sure you will like, but most important to me, we are creating the place where the community that was can be again.

That is the element that drives me the most: creating the place where friends and family can dream together, where we can meet great people, and where we can be more than just a superhero-MMO.

Thanks again, everyone!

It's Official: Soon is Now

A little over a year ago, a community came together in a show of support for a studio and a game that had brought them together.  They gathered by the thousands in an online plaza to show that, even with the game distributor’s lack of responsiveness to various pleas and attempts to bargain, they were not beaten, and they were not broken.

That community had many plans to ensure that they would not remain homeless indefinitely.  If all else failed, there was Plan Z: make a new game to continue the spirit of the game that was lost.  That plan produced a group known as the Phoenix Project.

Now, it is time to come together once again in the name of heroism and adventure.  Plan Z spawned the Phoenix Project, and we've come along well. We are now a budding game studio called Missing Worlds Media.  We have our plans and much of the groundwork laid out, and now we need you.  But first, some information about why we feel we are worthy of your support.

 MWM is registered as a business in Washington State, but the people working here are paying with their time, effort, and every spare dollar they have to get the project this far. Game designers, writers, coders, artists, support staff, skilled workers of all kinds have put in thousands of hours of work in service to the community they love, and to the hope that the new world we are creating will serve not just as well but even better, as improvement was always the example set by the game that initially set us in motion.

Our group includes a wide range of skilled personnel, in fields related to both actual game production and making sure we earn enough with that game to keep the lights on indefinitely. We have published novelists, coders with decades of experience, so many experienced pen-and-paper designers that almost every department has at least one or two, artists in a variety of specialties, copyeditors, historians, process specialists, marketers… all spending their otherwise free time working on this project, with so much dedication that I had to make a rule requiring everyone to take some downtime periodically so that people wouldn’t burn themselves out by working every waking moment.

The community that served as our base deserves a game that continues to grow and improve, and it deserves not to be treated as a niche- we are not just making this game for the people who played before, we are building it for all the people who dream about being heroes and villains.

There is a greater audience now, thanks to the movies, than there has ever been before, and we will reach them.   We want our game to continue the tradition of being welcoming to “non-standard” MMO players, people who do not consider themselves gamers, who don’t have time to dedicate hours of scheduled time to a game, but who nonetheless feel the pull of adventure and the urge to don a cape and either save or menace a richly deserving metropolis.

We have the drive and the skills, now we need to be able to fully focus our efforts on creating that game.  We have used volunteer contributions to cover our costs thus far, but that will not carry us to launch, and we are not willing to make deals with traditional venture capitalists for funding; making the game only for it to be in peril of ending the same way our predecessor did would show a distinct lack of respect for history.

Thus, we are relying heavily on this Kickstarter for two things- the basic funds to do what we need to do in the short term, and the credibility to be of interest to non-traditional sources of funding, investors who will support us in being a community-focused studio, rather than being all about the dollar signs.

If we can demonstrate that our community really does support us with more than just moral support, if we can show that this really is a viable market that the previous distributor disregarded, if we can show that a fan initiative can truly become a competitive MMO, we have won much more than we lost.

We will prove that a well-developed community is a force to be reckoned with, something that can outlast even the loss of the game that fostered it, and that there is value there beyond what the companies can control.  That the community itself is a living entity that it does not pay to ignore.

We’re not looking for money to buy luxuries. Unless we have an insanely successful Kickstarter, we’re not even looking to start having payroll yet.  We are looking for money to make sure our developers have the hardware and software to do their work as efficiently as possible, to pay for licenses so that we can legally release what we’re making, to pay for legal advice so that we avoid making a great game but losing it all to an avoidable legal pothole a year later, to cover server costs for our growing forums and eventual live testing; in general to pay for the things that people working for free simply cannot provide.

So, now you know what we intend to do with your support, monetary and otherwise.  Even if you do nothing whatsoever with regard to this Kickstarter, thank you for your support so far. We could not have gotten anywhere near here without you.  If you want to do something, remember- every contribution to the Kickstarter, no matter how small, proves the numbers in our community.

If you have the money for a larger contribution, we have done our best to come up with worthwhile and valuable rewards at every level. If you cannot contribute money, help us get out the word. Our PR ninja is working hard to reach everyone, but I know that the community extends further than we could ever hope to reach directly.  Let people know who we are, what we are trying to do, and what we are asking.  That alone is invaluable.

We will be having a Livestream event with one of our 2D artists, RocketCat, at 8pm Eastern on Friday night (October 4th) and many of our volunteers will be present for at least part of that event. Myself, I will be doing my best to be present for all of it.  I hope to see many of you there.

We have done what was promised - there has been no giving up.  All efforts to save our home were for naught.  We are undaunted - we will build a new home, and better.  Join us now, in striking a blow against insensitive corporate mentality, and for community.  Help us build a new gameverse worthy of the loyalty and spirit of this community and all those who will come forth in the future and become part of it.  Help us bring stories of heroism and villainy straight out of the four-color pages to the internet once more.  Help us prove that a sufficiently determined community can truly save a world.

We’re heroes. It’s what we do.

Sara 'Firefairy' Quinn

President, Missing Worlds Media

http://tinyurl.com/cityoftitans

Pre-Update "Under The Hood" Blog Entry

MISSING WORLDS MEDIA
Pre-Update Blog: Thursday September 19, 2013

Contributing writers: DeathSheepfromBelow, Petalstorm, Robin, and VDG

Hey everyone, I know you’re all waiting on the edges of your seats for some KS info - and that’s coming Soon™. What I want to show you guys is a quick and dirty “under the hood” look at what we’re working on, using very specific example.

A week ago some of you may have seen an image teased on Facebook of a potential - and let me stress that - potential - City Hall model. Until we have final tools for asset creation, everything has gone, and will continue to go through, multiple iterations until a final look is settled on. This blog is about one of the City Hall concepts that was generated by our team of artists (2D and 3D) and tested in the Unreal engine.

Front view in Sketchup

Why go through the effort of making a mock-up of a concept and then importing it into the engine? Many reasons - one of the most important ones is to give an idea of scale and how it might look inside the engine from the perspective of the player. It can also influence some necessary changes that wouldn’t be apparent on just pen and paper or in a 3D modelling application.

After the initial concept sketch was done on pen and paper, the sketch was brought to life in Sketchup, a very popular architectural and 3D modelling tool.

Currently we are using Blender and Sketchup as our tools. Sketchup is an awesome tool for beginners and it great for architectural modeling - the video game Uncharted even made use of it (http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2011/02/art-and-design-of-uncharted-2.html.)

One of the concept models, as viewed in
Sketchup

Blender is a power open source 3D modelling tool that is capable of beautiful renders (I’m obsessed with their Cycles renderer,) cloth and fluid simulations, animation, video editing, sculpting, and so much more. However, it is has an extremely steep learning curve, unlike Sketchup.

So here comes the fun part: how to get this model from Sketchup to Unreal. As it so happens, much like image files, there’s no one universal file “type” for 3D models - there’s a considerable variety. Some save just the basics - the shape of the model and how everything is connected. Some file types save everything - from materials, to morphs, to animations, to particle effects. Sketchup happens to only export the most basic file type - simply known as OBJ. The Unreal Engine, however, only accepts model types with the FBX extension, which is currently a proprietary format for the Autodesk suite of tools (like Maya.)

So, how do we get from Sketchup to Unreal? Well, we have to use a program that sort of acts like a “converter” - that’s where Blender comes in. Blender can fortunately export to the FBX file format, although it is not perfect and can be a bit buggy. So we import the OBJ file into Blender, do some quick checks to make sure everything is still connected, and then export to the FBX format with the correct options selected.

And this is what imports into the Unreal engine:

The model imported into the Unreal Editor.
Not what we modeled. Not at all.

Doesn't look better on this angle either.

To summarize, this took some time to fix, and it took some good people. There are some very complicated parts as to what occurred here and why this building could function as Grade A Architectural Nightmare Fuel, but I’ll cover the most basic thing that went wrong in the process.

3D models are comprised of vertices, edges, and faces. The vertices are essentially points plotted on X, Y, Z coordinates. Edges define how vertices are connected to each other. Faces define the “area” that fill an area between vertices and edges and will ultimately display the texture applied to the model. Every face has what is called a “normal” which defines the direction the face is pointing.

A view of the model from the outside and inside

In Blender and Sketchup you can see a face from both sides since both of those programs consider a face to have two sides. However, this can actually become a memory hog for your computer. In almost every single video game engine, a face is only considered to have one direction.  If you look at the side of the face that is in the opposite direction of the normal, what will happen is you’ll simply see right through the face as if it wasn’t there.

Why did this make our model look like a bonafide freak show in Unreal? Since normals don’t matter in Sketchup the program doesn’t bother to set them correctly. When we imported it into Blender it couldn’t tell where the inside or outside of the model was based on the data stored and imported from the OBJ file, and that carried through into the FBX file.

Before and after of fixing the direction of
the normals on a face.

What we had to do was manually correct each and every single aberrant face on the model in order to get it display correctly in Unreal.  This means making sure the normals are pointing outwards from the model, rather than inwards. This was an incredibly time-consuming task because this model has over fourteen thousand faces (that’s actually low for a 3D model.)

Periodically, we had to test-import the model as we fixed these normals. This helped us to find areas we may have missed due to some of the faces being incredibly small ( and due to the fact that, after staring at the same thing for hours on end, you tend to start missing things ).

And this, below, is our final result in Unreal.

View from the front

Yes, this is what we had modeled.

This isn’t to knock Sketchup and Blender - they’re both incredible tools (and free!) but they have some serious limitations when it comes to using them with other programs (especially Unreal.)

As I mentioned earlier, FBX is a proprietary format, but it is also the preferred format for importing into Unreal. Right now Blender only speaks an outdated version of it, but more importantly, it simply doesn’t do nearly as well with game assets as the proprietary tools do. Thirteen hours using free tools, against roughly three hours using a trial version of the alternative. For a relatively simple, low-poly mesh building. Multiply that by somewhere between “several dozen” and “a few hundred”, for just the building exteriors. That doesn’t count the time spent on the learning curve.

Well that’s it for this blog. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, then join the discussion on our forums (http://www.cityoftitans.com)!