Silk: Wilderness Adventures

The Silk Retro USB Cassette

As we wait for Nintendo to certify the Switch build, we're beavering away at various other things, including Steam integration issues like Cloud Saves and Achievements, optimisation for the Mac version (although Unity is not our friend in this regard...), and of course - the remaining Backer rewards. The Retro USB Cassette and the Limited Edition Retro USB Cassette are both in production... they will share the same inlay card, but the Limited Edition version has leagues of extra features inside and out... more on that in a future week.

The cover design features the Personal Advisor Portraits of the development team. From left to right, Becky (Portrait Artist) as a Nomad Shamaness; Patrick (Producer) as a Parthian Rider; Jamie (Artist) as a Han Rider; Nathan (Programmer) as a Kushan Merchant; and myself, Chris (Design) as a Kushan Warrior.

The Limited Edition version is exclusively available to Backers and a few selected supporters of the project, whereas the Retro USB Cassette will retail for £19.99 and comes with a DRM-free copy of v1.5 of the game.

Is Everybody In...?

Last week, we shared the last of our Personal Advisor Portraits for Silk on the devblog. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank every one of the Backers who helped these come about. It is literally the case that there would be no game if you hadn't chosen to support the Kickstarter. And I absolutely adore the results - Becky, our portrait artist, created some wonderful characters from your reference photographs, and I'm hard-pressed to pick favourites from the results.

I hope you'll have as much fun hiring these Advisors as I am!

Nomad Shaman

Guess Who's Coming to Switch...?

It's been a hell of a month for the ihobo games team getting Silk where we wanted it to be, but I'm proud to announce that on Monday this week we submitted our Master Candidate to Nintendo. Yes, Silk is coming to Switch later this year. It's a perfect for the Switch's handheld mode, and it's great to play on a big screen too.

This officially marks the end of the Beta period, and although we still have some tweaks and fixes to implement before we're done, the game is now substantially complete.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us getting to this momentous moment!

Kushan Scout

Introducing... the Silk Manual and Almanac

It gives me great pleasure to announce that, following the victory of 'verbose and detailed' over 'clear and compact' in a recent Twitter poll, I have completed work on the Silk Manual and Almanac. 

You can find it in the usual place for the Silk manual (it's always available via a link from our Steam page).

If you wanted a clear and compact manual, the old concise reference manual is still at the beginning in just two pages (plus two pages of hints). But if you wanted detail, you'll find the Almanac just what you wanted. Written in the style of the first century BC text Parthian Stations by Isidore of Charax, The Stations of the Silk Road is a traveller's guide to the "Overland Trade Route between the Levant and the Orient."

Check it out!

Kushan Ritegiver

Silk v1.4 Out Now and Other News

It gives me great pleasure to announce that v1.4 of Silk has just shipped on Steam! This is the first non-Beta build... we're not quite releasing the game (controller support for PC is still missing for instance), but this version is the foundation of the Switch release and is very close to Master.

Our grateful thanks to everyone who has contribute to the Beta testing of the game! Truly appreciated.

And in other news:

• I've been running a series of Designer's Notes for the game on my original blog, Only a Game.
  • Part One of the Designer's Notes is called Silk is about... 200AD
  • Part Two is called Silk is about... 1984, and is about the debt I feel as a game designer to Mike Singleton.
• There is a slightly updated manual for the game in the usual place...
• ...and there is also now the The Unofficial 1986 Retro Manual, by DarkBlueMonkey, one of our stalwart Beta Testers. This is a huge document that reimagines the game manual in the style of the 1980s - you have to see it to believe it!

We are on the home straight for the game now - thank you all for your support!

Nomad Guide