Hello all,

Since our previous update, most of our development work has targeted small, incremental improvements.

Some have made their way into the game: like better cursor targeting and tidying up the counsel "shop" interface (we mentioned this was a pain point for players last year).

Others, like being able to attack or cast while moving, are still being finalised. They'll be fun additions when they're ready!

Decorating the Lobby

In December, we added a small showcase of micro-modding to the game. This is our term for players being able to make small additions to the game which can significantly alter gameplay, usually done from the lobby settings.

This feature needs a lot of work, but initial reactions were promising. We definitely got some discussion going!

We value this addition because it helps our iteration process too. When we're examining a topic like "how does laning feel?", it's great to be able to explore variations without deploying a new patch.

Thinking Fundamentals

The rules of "Causeway" haven't changed much over the last year. Yes, we've added content and features — these were safe changes to a base game which was already working and fun.

This approach served us well. It allowed us to focus on fixing bugs and achieving stability, while also being comfortable to introduce people to the game at any time. We knew they'd arrive to a good build.

Also, we know that in the mountain range of fun, we are not already atop the highest peak. The new mechanics we've introduced could be interacting more, the systems made more elegant... and we do love emergent surprises.

We don't want to let cool opportunities escape the net!

Changing Seasons

Since we now have infrastructure for micro-modding and tweaking game modes, we can support rich alternative modes that co-exist with the base game.

Taking advantage of this, we're adding a new game mode to the alpha called 'Weekly'.

Our plan is to spend 12 weeks testing assumptions about the game — trying risky, even wacky changes that would have previously been destabilising. Our purpose is exploration; we expect most ideas won't be for keeps. That's okay, because we're comfortable failing forward!

As well as our own collection of ideas, we're inviting suggestions from our alpha testers. At the end of the 12 weeks, we've hopefully had some fun, created a few stories, and learned a thing or two more about the game.

Until next time,
Softmints

Hey everyone,

We have been busy in many directions over the past two months, from fixing bugs in the alpha client to exploring new and potential partnerships that will shape the future of our studio.

I'm pleased to say that our internal footage of the game has come a long way and it has really felt like a milestone — something we as developers can look at and say: "hey – we have a game!"

Today, I'd like to share one specific thing we've been working on, which you might have already noticed somewhere...

Making a Mark

Over the past three months, we've been working with the talented graphic designer Lurinzu on a new logo for the game. Our previous logos were made by me, and while I enjoy typography — I don't have much talent for it!

We were keen to do this because we won't be ready to show game art for quite a while. In the meantime, a logo makes a great "anchor" for the visual identity of the project.

Here's our new logo as it now appears on our front page:

We set out to craft a logo that feels organic, bespoke, and "refined, yet accessible" — and I think the result does a great job at communicating these qualities of the game.

As with many creative processes, we used lots of reference material. Some was already hoarded for general game art direction, some was specific to typography, and some was added during our explorations.

Above, you can see some of the Victorian type that was referenced for parts of the 'C', with some softening applied to better suit our style.

It's worth saying that game logos are quite different to logos for print or even other digital products, and we learned a lot from reflecting on how other games brand themselves.

For example, games in the Fantasy/Strategy genres often use metallic colours and shapes, or gems to communicate progression through gathering of wealth. We first had to understand that rule, before deciding to deviate because it wouldn't be a fit for Causeway's lore and world-building.

You can now enjoy the new logo across our socials, and if you'd like to see more work from Lurinzu — go check out their instagram.

If you particularly like the new visuals, do feel free to share them with a friend!

We'll remain busy on our side working on the game, and look forward to updating you again in the new year.

Until next time,
Softmints

Hi all,

A few weeks ago, we welcomed a small group of players from the mailing list into the alpha.

Unfortunately we couldn't bring in everybody who applied, and we do appreciate it's been a long wait for many. There will be future opportunities, so stay tuned.

Having some new eyes on the game has been great, so lets share a little about that.

One of our recent matches stretched for over an hour! While it was fun throughout, this was far beyond our expected match time. Thankfully, it did shed some light on how we approach developing the game.

The Tool You Reach For...

Causeway is being developed starting with the things we know and feel confident about. From my previous work on Rise of Winterchill, that would lean towards PvP combat with interesting character progression, and not so much towards pacing and objectives. (We'll learn more about those as we go.)

Because of this, the game at present has some "incompleteness". There are tools we don't provide to players, such as stuns (which we've written about before). Another example is that there's no "boots" that would make some characters faster than others.

The result is that players end up with some "problems" like "chasing enemies down" where there may be limited or no tools available to solve that problem. A similar "missing tool" problem was the cause for that 1-hour match.

This can be healthy for us! — as part of our iterative process. Where players are motivated to solve something, that's a hook for us to ask: "can it be interesting to solve this as a team?"

One of the Counsels, Rat Race, seems to have landed nicely into this category. It's a tool, arguably the only tool for chasing enemies, and it works wonders with team coordination.

We're continuing to explore in this space, and figure out what tools we can present to let players solve some of these "problems" in more collaborative ways.

Less is More

We've also seen that some character abilities were more complicated than they needed to be.

This ran against expectations for me. I estimated a certain level of complexity that  was needed in the kits to keep them interesting, and it turns out I was placing the bar about "one mechanic" too high. That was pretty close to the right level, but I'm happy to learn that we can work with less.

Here's two abilities we've shared previously, which have had some parts removed:

Gristly Fate

The target allied unit gains a damage shield, which ignores damage from any unit below 33% of its maximum life.

The shield will last for 4 seconds on yourself, or 4 seconds on an ally, after which it transfers back to you for 8 seconds if it's still alive.

Rush of Faith

Pause for 1.5 seconds, before healing yourself or rushing to an target allied unit at increased speed to heal them at melee range.

You may reactivate up to three two times at the cost of influence, to add:

• +60% healing
• a cleanse
• an area cleanse

We really want players to figure out their characters within 2-3 games, so they can start thinking about how to succeed with the character.

The Scavenger and Rasputin character pages have been updated with these (minor) changes. A short tooltip is a happy tooltip!

Until next time,
Softmints

Warmest greetings, everyone!

It's been a fine year for Causeway so far. We are still a small team running an alpha, and over the last two months a lot of pieces have found their places.

Players are finding the experience fresh, something that learns here and there from other games but isn't trying to be them.

Much as I enjoy the tests, we're far from a polished game. I could spend three weeks on nothing but user experience (UX) and it would be a great use of time — yet we have to keep moving and creating and growing as well!

Speaking of growth, lets talk a little about that...

Our Code of Conduct

Before scaling up a community, it's important that we lay out a vision for what we want to become.

When we consider potential problems, the saying 'Prevention is Better than Cure' applies — and the same goes for creating opportunities! If we want the best for our community: Planning is better than pivoting!

One early investment we've made is putting together a Code of Conduct. You can read about our full process for that in our latest Design Article, or you can take a look through the pdf.

We've also added rules to our community discord server, which go into effect immediately.

Strike While the Iron is Hot!

Have you got a favourite, snappy piece of advice? Our in-game Advisors might like to dispense it!

Rather than ever-fancier swords and shields: our characters rely on 'Counsels' for new ideas that will help them progress, work together, and get the edge over their opponents.

Here are two in-game examples:

A Bird in Hand is worth Two in the Bush

When an ally within 10 radius of you chooses some Companions, one Companion of that type will appear immediately.

It will follow the nearest ally with A Bird in Hand, and lasts for 10 seconds.

One Bad Plan is better than Two Good Plans

When every player on your team has taken One Bad Plan, you deal +100% damage to enemy Cores.

Until then, you deal +20% damage to enemy Cores.

Okay, so that last one is a bit silly — but it shows that a fun saying can actually make it into the game! We'd love to gather some more ideas for Counsels: and sourcing from the community is a great way to do it.

Feel free to drop into the new #counsel-suggestions channel on our discord to read the guidelines and share your favourites!

Thanks for reading,
Softmints

Happy New Year!

...and a warm welcome to PlayCauseway.com! We have switched over the website address — to match with our recent re-brand to Causeway.

We've also had to recreate some of our social accounts, as they usually don't allow switching handles.

Take a moment to add us (if you want us!) over at:

• twitter.com/playcauseway
• twitch.tv/playcauseway
• /r/playcauseway

Modular Parts

Today I want to share my excitement for one of our upcoming changes in the alpha, which will affect Custom Lobby Options.

Usually, the options in the custom lobby for a match might allow adjusting some numbers: the rate of resource gain, death timers, and maybe even the victory condition.

We're interested in pushing further. Causeway is modular in its design: the game is built to allow swapping pieces in and out at a fundamental level.

There's two different ways we categorise modular content:

1. Primary content is a substantial, stand-alone piece which forms a permanent addition to the game.
   This might be a character or a map. Game lobbys usually have official tools for interacting with them, such as selecting a map, or banning characters.
2. Secondary content is content which 'slots in' to primary content.
   For example, a map might have a "boss pit" where players fight a monster. The particular monster or boss that you fight could be considered secondary content.

In Causeway, we are setting things up so secondary content gets a similar level of custom lobby support as primary content. We're also making sure that it's easy for modders to create secondary content.

Why do this?

• Primary content is difficult to create. Even without audio and visual effects, right now an average Causeway character needs 700 lines of scripting.
• Primary content is difficult to assess. Players need to try a map or character many times to understand how and why it's different. This also leads to difficulties with tuning and balance.
• Primary content overlaps with our business model. We're motivated to have characters whose lore matches our world, and whose cosmetics we can sell. Modder contributions may not always align with this.

In my experience, modders of lane-pushing games are very drawn to making primary content. I totally get why... and also it tends to be too ambitious to overcome the frictions mentioned above.

By putting our support behind secondary content, we lower the barrier for modders to get started — as secondary content involves so much less scripting! It is easier to share, easier for other players to understand, and thus can gather traction.

That's the positive feedback loop that can eventually lead to bigger things!

For players, they can experience variations on the game which don't demand a lot of learning, and they can choose their own mix of fresh and familiar. A new selection of buffs in the jungle might adjust the pacing of the match, or open entirely new strategies for teams to explore.

As developers, we can get a read from players about whether picking and banning certain types of secondary content is something that interests them for official matches. We also position Causeway to keep up with current genre trends (to an extent!), as new pieces are swapped in so easily.

We are building Causeway to last for 10 years!

On Primary Content

I am pleased to have just finished another pass on Causeway's alpha character kits, nudging them a little closer to where they should be.

Why, we'll even share one with you! Take a first peek at the kit for Tempest, who is now listed on the Characters page.

Finally, if you've been enjoying these posts, do consider telling a friend about us and pointing them to PlayCauseway.com. Maybe they will find something here that they can get excited about too!

Until next time,
Softmints

Earlier this week I was writing a new design article.

While we don't do Design Articles often, I feel they provide the closest insight into the game we're making. Having them in a separate category helps keep key information from getting lost in all this blogging that we do.

Then I realised the article I was writing was unpublishable.

Not because it was poorly written, or because it gave too much away. Not because the website had broken (actually I did have to fight it a bit).

It was because writing this article about a game called 'Rise of Winterchill' (which has been the name of the project up to this point) felt wrong. Like, a complete undo to everything we just said. You couldn't pay me to publish it like that.

We reflected on what that meant, and so today we're announcing the actual name of the game we're making. Which is Causeway.

The word 'causeway' means "a raised road, usually on a mound of earth", as opposed to a bridge which crosses a specific obstacle. One of the many reasons we like it is that it's a synonym for a way, path, or lane.

Descent of Winterchill

We've been settled on Causeway for a while, and the plan had always been to announce the name with the new website and memorable branding.

Of course, plans meet reality. Branding needs to fit the product, and we had plenty of other details to figure out: Story, Setting, and Art Direction being essentials.

All of those have made progress, and are still in progress. (Quite actively so! But that's for another post...). A new website would be unlikely this side of the new year, and committing time to it would disrupt the alpha.

Then, writing this week's article showed me that 'Rise of Winterchill' is limiting the conversation around our game and vision. That's such a bad thing to have happening, and is definitely not okay to let continue.

We've long known that 'Rise of Winterchill' had flaws. Among others: it's easily misspelled, people need to hear it twice, and it's similar to a location in Game of Thrones. I transitioned to using 'Causeway' when talking about the game in-person and internally years ago.

The old name's flaws were no longer affecting me, so I didn't give much thought to how its ongoing use might impact on public perception of the project. That was a blind spot for me — hopefully I can be more mindful going forward.

So, this announcement falls less on the fanfare and polished PR side, and towards "actual things people encounter when developing games".

Changes 'Round Here

Now of course, this is being shared on the lustrous riseofwinterchill.com, and that will continue until the end of the year. It'll take time to shuffle things around, update the socials, and make sure everybody knows it's us when logos start changing.

You blog readers (wonderful people, all of you) get to enjoy a slight premonition of that future. Feel free to call the game Causeway from now on when chatting with us and others.

We will of course still refer to the old game as Rise of Winterchill. That's historically accurate — and it's still a name I have much fondness for. It has served us well over the years.

One happy change will be moving the RoW Design Articles over to Lane-Pushing Games, where they will continue as the ongoing series Crafting Causeway.

They will live their best lives on a site dedicated to game design, where design-minded people can find them. It's also a relief to have their presentation stay independent of any changes to this website.

...Wait, What's the Fuss?

Right — all this about an article? It wouldn't read well with the old name?

Go read the article. It will teach you some new things about the game.

And perhaps you will see, as I finally did, that a domineering, fantasy-riddled name like Rise of Winterchill isn't the right fit for our vision. May it enjoy a good retirement!

Softmints