Howdy folks,

Today I wanted to talk about a feature that has become a staple in many story-driven RPGs. It is something we get asked about during every convention we attend and has been, by far, our most requested addition to the game. I am, of course, referring to having romanceable companions throughout the story campaign.

We have mentioned in the last few posts the great amount of time spent restructuring the opening sequences of the campaign to reflect some of the darker tone that was initially seen in the “mindscape” sections while Mark is dreaming.

Caption: Surreal environments like this show off the escalated nature of Mark's journey.

Caption: Floating platforms welcome Mark into another realm entirely.

Well, I am pleased to announce that Mark’s adventures are not only taking a darker turn, they are taking a romantic turn as well. This is something that has been a long time in the works, and we are finally ready to reveal what we’ve been cooking so far.

As you may know, Mark’s journey throughout the campaign is inextricably tied to his traveling companions. They drive most of the story elements and provide a greater insight into Mark’s past and the world around him. Freeborn has always had a strong social component, and this is reflected in the game’s quests and dialogue system.

We’ve had approximately 1000 individual people asking us to add a romance component to the game. This came from in-person interactions, surveys, forum feedback and direct messages. This is something we’ve also wanted to add for a long time - unfortunately, medical issues both within the team and with some of our family members disrupted the cadence of our workflow and required us to prioritize other focuses.

Caption: Recent work has included an overhaul to the Ekosi UI. We love it.

So with that said, we’d like to introduce 2 new characters that will be potential romances during your journey. This won’t represent everyone you can romance, but we’ll be keeping the rest a secret for now.

The first character is someone Mark will meet early in the story near his first Ekosi tournament. She will not necessarily be part of your normal traveling party like Jacob and Krista, but you will continue to encounter her as you progress through the tournament and travel the country.

Caption: The first of Mark's potential companions is dark in dress, and extremely confident.

There will also be other characters that are participating in the tournament who will be regularly encountered throughout the story. The other romance option is one such character who is also trying to progress through the tournament.

Caption: The second of Mark's potential companions is quieter, but more than a handful in Ekosi.

We can’t wait to show these characters to you in-game. We’ll have more to say about them and other companions in an upcoming post.

Until then, stay safe out there!

Hey folks,

Hope everyone is having a fantastic start to their New Year. As with most of you, the holiday season has been extremely busy for us. In the spirit of sharing, we have a preview of the new UI and visual effects we have created for the Ekosi battle board.

As part of our complete overhaul of the game during our engine update, most of the focus initially was on fixing core systems that got broken (or completely replacing them) and working on the overworld environments. However, it’s been a while since we’ve done a full upgrade of the Ekosi board. We’ve recently completed rework on every element of the board and updated the visual effects that occur at the conclusion of rounds.

The rough paint-stroke aesthetic is combined with electric particle effects in the new set outcome messages.

In this screenshot, the set is tied. Wins, losses, and ties have unique brush stroke and particle effects.

As you can see, we’ve completely changed the main dividers separating the different elements of the board. We felt that the white boards offered a much cleaner separation between sections. Besides making the board look more visually attractive, we looked at ways to make each part of it easier to distinguish. A wavy effect was added to the bottom of the board to make the player hand area more visually distinct from the main battle field.

If you are a veteran player of Ekosi, you may notice that we’ve also replaced the font we were using for all our text, created in-house by our very own Tyler!

We’ve also added completely new particle effects for when the player wins, ties, or loses a round.

In this screenshot, the set is won via a Stacked Field. A unique brush and particle effect is rendered.

In this GIF, the set is tied. Tying never felt so good!

This update to the UI was a long time coming because our previous UI did not support 4k resolution or ultra wide screens. With our update almost complete, Ekosi will be ready to shine on all modern setups!

In this screenshot, Mark runs across blood-red waters. To where?

In this screenshot, Mark stands amongst strangely colored trees and floating crystals.

Our next demo release should have these new UI features implemented, though there are a couple additional reworks that need to be completed first. We will preview those changes in the next update. We also have a completely new gameplay component that will change the nature of the player’s journey. We can’t wait to show you it, but we can’t spoil it yet. For now, let’s just say it will drastically spice up the social dynamic of the game.

Until next time!

Jonathan

Howdy folks,

In our last update, we briefly mentioned the massive update we made to convert the game into Unity 2022. Freeborn has spent the last several years in Unity 5. As you can imagine, suddenly switching to a new version of an engine after 6 years of updates can cause many existing parts of the game to break. There were also many systems that we ultimately decided needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. Fortunately, most of that process has already been completed. All of the environments that people saw in prior conventions and screenshots are already playable in the new engine.

We wanted to show you some previews of this monstrous undertaking and the visual results of converting to the new engine. This process required the updating of over 100,000 lines of code. The reason so many lines needed to be updated is because the original project was written in Javascript. When updating to Unity 2022, every single line of code had to be converted into C#. The results are better lightmapping and better performance across all previously constructed environments.

The new realm Mark visits is alive with floating crystals, migrating orbs, and waving grasses.

Wisps of energy glide between platforms, drawing player attention towards new pick-ups and dialogues.

We’ve also completed brand new environments for the revised opening sequence of the story campaign. The original iteration of the mind lounge area has always been one of the most intriguing aspects of Freeborn, both for the players and the team. We wanted to expand on this environment and make it a larger component of the story. Mark’s adventures are taking a darker turn, and the expanded “mindscape” area will showcase some truly supernatural environments. The improved lighting features come into big play with the new mindscape areas which sometimes feature otherworldly lighting sources.

Mark moves between portals separating the new realm from his familiar world.

The update from Unity 5 to Unity 2022 allows for significant improvements to lighting, as shown in the reflections and light rays here.

The visual improvements aren’t restricted to the in-game environments. Significant updates were also made to the UI in the card battle screen. New visual effects have been added to the base UI and the particle effects that occur at the conclusion of a round.

The Ekosi UI update comes with some slick, colorful, round-finishing animations.

We’ve also been hard at work adding new character portraits. To complement Mark’s adventures taking a darker turn, some dark and mysterious characters will be encountered during his repeated escapades into the mindscape. We don’t want to spoil the nature and motivations of these characters just yet, but rest assured you will be encountering them a lot more in the near future.

The Psychologist and the Gentle Madwoman inhabit the new realm Mark visits, and both offer Mark guidance in exchange for a piece of him.

That’s all for now. Stay safe out there!

Jonathan

Howdy everyone! Sorry that it’s been a while since the last update. Before we get into the latest Freeborn updates, we wanted to go over why we’ve been gone for so long.

Narrative updates are bringing Mark to some surprising new places.

Ekosi, the heart of our game, has gotten a UI refresh.

To be frank, 2023 has been a pretty terrible year for us health-wise. From multiple hospitalizations for family members, many urgent care visits, and significant eye issues, work on the game has been sporadic ever since Ohayocon. The convention itself was a highlight this year though, and definitely one of the best conventions we’ve attended. Thank you to everyone who voted and helped us secure 3rd place in the People’s Choice Award (for Digital Games!)

Ohayocon 2023 gave us a chance to show off new art. 2024 excites us even more.

The most significant issue was an injury that occurred to Jesse’s eyes which almost caused him to go blind. Thankfully, Jesse is doing better now, but it has been a long road to recovery. His eye is improving every week, and we are hopeful it will be at 100% in the near future. We’re still dealing with some medical issues among other family members, but we feel the worst for all of us is over.

Now with the sad stuff out of the way, how about we dig into something a bit more positive. Despite the reduced pace we had to undergo this year, we were still able to make an immense update to the structure of the game. Let’s talk about game engines.

Today’s game engines evolve rapidly, and the difference in visual capability, performance, and basic quality of life can improve drastically between different versions of the same engine. For the last several years, Freeborn has been using Unity 5.6 which was released in 2016. Although Unity frequently updates the engine, there were a number of reasons why we didn’t update past 5.6.

Updating a game to a new engine version can be time consuming due to the capacity for it to break some of the systems you have set up. There were core parts of our dialogue, questing, and inventory systems that would have required significant time to transition. As long time followers are surely aware, we had initially thought we would be able to finish the game much earlier, but feature creep, level reworks, and longer-than-anticipated development times have pushed the release date (the troublesome drawback to having just one dev).

Waving grasses and mysterious ruins surround Mark.

Old areas like Krista's home have become new with graphic updates.
Today, we are pleased to announce that we have completed a full transition from Unity 5.6 to Unity 2022. There are many reasons we decided to bite the bullet and go through with the update. One of the primary reasons is simply that we think we can vastly improve the quality of the opening of the game in both graphics and performance. The new engine allows us to make significant visual and performance upgrades and allows us to add content easier and faster. Attending conventions, we’ve had plenty of time to watch attendees play through Day 1 of the story campaign and ideas on how to improve the starting experience.

At conventions, you have a lot of people just quickly browsing through the different games being showcased and they will often spend only 3-5 minutes looking at any particular one. For this most recent Ohayocon, we actually saw the highest engagement with the demo we’ve ever seen. Many people played between 20-40 minutes, and we had far fewer people get stuck and need to ask questions to progress the game.

While this is very good news, seeing the early parts of the game remind us of how much the quality has improved over the years. Even with the reworks we have done to the beginning levels, we still think that Day 1 is in need of a full rework to match the quality of the other days as well as the quality we expect for the overall game.

The Emerald Casino also benefited from graphic enhancements.

Maria and Krista face off in the updated Ekosi UI.

The engine update was the first big step towards this direction, and we are already seeing huge improvements in visual fidelity and performance. We will share more on what we have planned for Day 1 in the future, but I can say we have never been more excited about how the story campaign is looking. As always, keep an eye on our socials to get the first look at everything we have cooking.

Stay safe out there,

Jonathan

Hey, friends! The Deckpoint Studio team checking in with another update on Freeborn. As you can tell by the title, this update will be focused on our ongoing UI updates.

As with so many things, inspiration for our UI update struck when we stepped outside of Unity. The rebrand to Freeborn, and the rough, painted logo design has inspired and played into a long desired goal to make the UI more cohesive and minimal.

The UI has historically had a very metallic, sci-fi look which came from our roots as we expanded upon Knights of the Old Republic’s minigame Pazaak. Of course, Freeborn came to be much more than a card game, which meant so many new systems – for the minimap, dialogues, and inventory – and menus to organize them all!

Caption: A look at the classic Ekosi interface: metallic, sci-fi, physical.

We’ve long known we wanted to bring these systems under one cohesive theme, and one that matched the broader feelings of the game and story. And now it’s time! But, to no one’s surprise, we’ve started with the Ekosi card match UI.

Yes, enough of the context! Here’s a look at what we’ve been working on.

Caption: Our first foray towards the minimal, rough, white paint stroke aesthetic. Early WIP.

Caption: Further progress away from scanlines, and towards the white paint look. Early WIP.

In the above pictures, you can see some of the progress we’ve made over the last few weeks. We’ve been wrestling with masks and transparency, but things are starting to look the way we want!

In classic gamedev fashion, we’re picking up skills we never thought we’d need. If the UI is going to be updated, that should include fonts – at least in some contexts. Tyler has been learning how to build fonts in the style of the Freeborn logo, and we’ve now got a functioning numeral set.

Caption: Our custom white paint font for the scoreboard. Shaped after the original, digital font.

Next on our list is an alphabet, but that’ll take a bit of time (26 letters vs. 10 numerals!) and discussion to figure out where a more stylized font could be appropriate.

Unfortunately, as sometimes happens in this life, things take longer than expected. We hoped to be able to participate in October’s Steam Next Fest, but this UI update needs a little more time in the oven if we’re going to put our best foot forward.

We still hope to deliver a new demo version during the winter, and we’ll re-enroll for the next Next Fest in the spring!

Until then, stay tuned to our newsletter[www.deckpointstudio.com], our Twitter, or join us on our Discord[discordapp.com] to track the development journey.


Cheers,
The Deckpoint Studio team

Caption: the devlog we've all been waiting for: number 69.

Hello, dear reader! It’s finally here.

People come to game development from every imaginable direction, and with all kinds of genres, platforms, and stories as their vision. But what unites us all is the dream that one day, we’ll be able to publish a silly blog based on a 69 joke. After all these years, after a facelift for our protagonist, after changes to the dialogue system and several in-person events, the special day has come for us too!

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/433370/Freeborn/

Caption: Our hero Mark, head lovingly photoshopped onto a tuxedo model.

It's a special occasion! Mark has even swapped out his trademark Protagonist jacket for a more appropriate tux!

For the most part, we’ve been working to welcome others onboard the Freeborn train. You may have noticed our Twitter being more active in the last couple months than it has been for a while. I know it’s been a big focus on my side.

Caption: In a recent, internal demo update, the boat buoyancy settings came out... a bit overtuned.

What’s going on behind the scenes is Jesse delivering a purpose-built demo version that allows me to toggle the UI on and off, and my dedicating time to recording gameplay, and clipping things out for sharing on social media.

Between the technical details and delegating roles within the team, we’ve gotten pretty efficient recently. We can now bang out clips of dialogue, Ekosi, and Arithian exploration easily. Which is freeing up time for us to be more social, and active. It will also allow us to move into more advanced content creation, showing off the world we – and hopefully you – have come to love.

If you don’t believe us, have a look at this handsome GIF!
We talked in a previous post about a pending UI update. We’ve been a bit bottlenecked with some of the marketing/content engine work. But the UI overhaul IS coming. And to prove it, we’ve constructed the numeral of 69 by cobbling together some work-in-progress UI elements.

Can you guess which UI system is first?

Caption: WIP UI elements come together to form the numeral 69. (Nice.)

We’re excited to share more of the UI progress as it comes. And we’re hoping to push out some of those changes ahead of Steam’s “Next Fest,” coming in October. We’re excited about the opportunity to put Freeborn in front of more players, and let them dive into the Mind Lounge, and Patrida, and Neropolis.

And we want your help in growing the Freeborn following!

Caption: Mark approaches a bikini-clad Neropolis NPC with a certain energy.[knowyourmeme.com]

We want to celebrate the spirit of 69 with you.

We want to deliver you daily views of the game in progress, interaction with the team, and even just a friendly place to say howdy! So, whether you’ve been with us for a while or we’re new friends:

• Say hello over in the Discord![discordapp.com]
  
• Follow us on Twitter and Instagram[www.instagram.com]!
  
• Join the mailing list[www.freeborngame.com] for updates right to your inbox.

It’s all of us together, us against the algorithm, with tons to gain (“I was into Freeborn before it was cool”) and everything to lose.Give us some love, and we'll give you some back!

Caption: Mark stands outside the Ekosi card shop in Neropolis at dusk. I love this town.

Thanks, and see you at the 169th devlog! 😉
Tyler

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/433370/Freeborn/

Some of our newest art is created by Emma @MizukoArt! This will be used in promotional contexts and as a loading screen between Ekosi matches and the game's isometric overworld.

Hey friends,

It’s been an unbelievably busy couple of months for the team. Who knew that updating your game’s name and assets on all platforms would be so much work?

Okay, so we knew it was going to be a pain, but still. Updating all our information reminded us of the sheer number of platforms developers need to be on these days. Sheesh. Thankfully, most of the admin is done and we can get back to more updates on development.

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/433370/Freeborn/

Today, we’re proud to announce that all the environments have been completed for Freeborn. We are now in the process of populating the later environments and implementing the quest structures and associated battles/dialogue scenes. Plus there are still some touch-ups that need to be done for some of our older environments. But we are all done with creating new levels! 🎉

Here’s a quick run-through of the most recent, and final, levels Jesse has created. We’re excited to fill them up and finish the story!

Caption: Mark admires a statue.

Caption: Mark finds himself back in a medical setting.

Caption: Mark on a cruise ship deck.

Caption: Mark returns to the beach.

As I mentioned before, we’ve been updating our game pages on sites like itch.io and GameJolt, but we are also on some new social platforms like our Instagram. If you use the ‘gram, go ahead and give us a follow! We’ll be posting smaller, more frequent updates there.[www.instagram.com]

The relationship between promoting Freeborn and developing Freeborn has been deeply entwined for years. Once upon a time, an editing decision when working on a trailer led to a full overhaul of the dialogue system!

Recently, our promotion has largely been about organic engagement on Reddit, Twitter, and other platforms. We’ve been sharing videos and images of our game, and getting a combination of incredibly kind wishes and very savvy feedback on areas for improvement.

One area that we’ve had in mind for a while is the user interface. In the coming weeks/months, we’re going to do an update of the various UI elements in the game. And there are a lot! From the start menu, to the in-game pause menu, to the mini-map and observation icons, to the Ekosi card match/inventory interfaces, to the dialogue system… Yeah, a lot.

Caption: Overworld/exploration UI.

Caption: Dialogue UI.

Caption: Ekosi match UI.

Caption: Ekosi post-match UI (+ an amusing bug where TylerBot's full-frame/head portraits are accidentally swapped).

Our main goal is to bring these separate systems into a unified design logic, with a consistent aesthetic no matter where you are in the gameplay loop. We’re aiming for a minimal UI since we love our art and overworld and want to let them take center stage!

We’re excited to show you that work as it comes along. Until then, thanks for reading! The next devlog is going to be #69, which is of course a special occasion. We’ll do you proud.

With love,
Deckpoint Studio


https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/433370/Freeborn/

The Amethyst Casino has grown up a lot over the years.

Howdy, long-time pals and new friends alike! We hope springtime is treating you well!

Spring is a time of renewal. We just reintroduced the game as Freeborn. Tulips are popping up in our gardens. Things are heating up!

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/433370/Freeborn/

While there’s a lot of excitement about what the warm months will bring us, April’s relaunch put us in a reflective mood. The support of longtime followers was a cause to look back at how far we’ve come in the nearly 10 years of development. And there’s no better example than the Amethyst Casino.

You'll first reach the Amethyst Casino on Day 2 of the Freeborn journey.

This is the first big competitive Ekosi venue players arrive at in the game, and it was one of the first, largest levels we built. (We’ve done most of our writing and story development in chronological order, since that just felt natural. That’s normal, right?)

The origins of the Amethyst Casino stretch all the way back to 2015! We introduced it in a dev log titled “Casino Royale,” back in October 2015. At the time, we simply referred to it as “the casino,” or “Casino 1” internally. Along the way, we’ve learned a lot, and completely overhauled this level and many others.

Amethyst Casino seven years ago, before it got its name!

What was wrong with the original?

• It was just too large. We kept pouring NPCs, optional dialogue, and optional Ekosi battles in, and it still felt empty.
  
• It didn’t feel like there were discrete, obvious, interesting areas. It was just the casino, and it was quite easy to miss the card shop.
  
• It didn’t have a name, identity, or visual theme – which was even more important on the interior.
  
• And last, but not least, there weren’t nearly enough gemstones.

The original Ekosi card shop next to an obviously struggling grocery store!

So, over several months, we changed all that. We downsized to increase the density of characters/battles. We separated the card shop and got rid of the non-interactive building space. We gave it a name to distinguish it from the casinos later in the game, and started covering the place in purple gems. We do have a soft spot for purple on the Deckpoint team.

In the background of this dialogue scene, you can see the large purple rock formations, and tables/benches filled with NPCs to meet/battle.

And along the way, we switched the camera from a true isometric style to a perspective style that adds a lot more movement to the screen when walking behind waving trees and various architecture. We love how it looks today, and we hope you do too!

Here, in front of the Amethyst Casino, emotions run high between Bertrand and Jamie. (Mark seems pretty unfazed, fortunately.)

But worry not! We aren’t just patting ourselves on the back for past accomplishments. Jesse has stayed busy as ever in our game engine Unity. Here’s what the legend himself has been up to:

• Swapping out old Mark portraits
  
• Fixing various bugs discovered when refreshing our suite of promo screenshots
  
• Putting finishing touches on the very last levels in the game

Our handsome new Mark portrait shown off here in the Ekosi interface.

Some of the competitors you'll find in the environment around Amethyst Casino.

As announced in our last devlog, we’re starting to invest more energy in the marketing side, and we were excited to introduce the new name, Freeborn. As part of that launch, we asked in various subreddits and other channels “What’s in a name?” Along the way, we got really great, thoughtful feedback from players on game discovery, tips on genre marketing, and more. If you’re one of those people, you rock. Thank you!

We’re going to stay on our marketing grind, fill out the game’s final areas with NPCs, main questlines, and more. And we’re so glad to have you along for the ride on the Freeborn development journey.

Give us a follow on our brand new Instagram account[www.instagram.com] (!), our Facebook page[www.facebook.com], or our Twitter to stay in the loop.

Our new Instagram account! @deckpointstudio[www.instagram.com]

Thanks for reading!
Tyler

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/433370/Freeborn/

Hey, friends! Happy spring (to our northern hemisphere followers) from the Deckpoint Studio team.


Today, we’re bringing you the last-ever update on Luckless Seven. (Record scratch.)


Because Luckless Seven is now Freeborn.

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/433370/Freeborn/


We’ve been on this journey for a long time. (Historians debate the actual origins of the game, but a Google doc titled “Card game 2012” indicates the game has been in progress for a whole decade.) And as we approach the final stages of development, marketing is becoming a top priority. Few things are as important as the name.

But in the decade since we started conceiving of Luckless Seven, things have changed in how indie games are distributed, promoted, and found. Our attention spans are shorter than ever, and indie gaming is more crowded – both in general, and in our immediate namespace. Check Steam and you’ll find names as similar as “Unlucky Seven” – not to mention a number of sixth sequels!

As we looked to ramp up our marketing efforts, we knew we wanted to stake out a new space with our name:

• Something with two or three syllables max, and preferably one word.
  
• Something that captured a key theme of Mark’s journey and the story broadly.
  
• Something with a less crowded namespace.

After a lot of exploration, we found a name that checked every box: Freeborn. And we’re so excited to continue development, share updates more frequently, and finally release the game under the new name.

So, that’s the big news. But what’s actually going on in development?

This sketch became the finished piece shown above, of Mark in his bedroom.

Progress continues on the last few environments of the game which encompass different areas of a massive cruise ship. The cruise ship exterior is mostly complete, and Jesse has done a great job completing almost all of its interiors! As you may know already, the cruise ship is owned by some less than reputable people, so don’t let your guard down as you make your way through the luxurious scenery.

A spacious, luxurious cruise ship lobby and room entrances.

Luxury settings for high-rolling VIPs.

The inner lair: where bad dudes retire to eat and play.

Besides the in-game environments, we’re continuing to expand and round out some art assets to showcase the game world. Below is the latest game art we’ve completed. We are overjoyed at the gag of Mark’s dresser being filled with identical shirts/jackets. #justprotagonistthings

Mark Vesco, our hero and protagonist, at the start of his journey.

We’ve also decided to do some additional revamps of older NPC portraits. Over the years, we’ve received feedback on how Mark and his parents look very different. As we were working on the redesigns to Mark’s appearance, we thought it was only fair to update his parents as well. Below is some work in progress development of their new look.

A preview of the new portraits for Mark's parents.

And we even decided to give the Ekosi trainer, TylerBot, a reboot to match the current appearance of his IRL inspiration: our writer, Tyler! (Editor’s note: Tyler insists this portrait is a “too chadly” rendition of him, but we think it’s perfect.) Great work as always by our artist, Emma Salamanca.

TylerBot's glow-up. So handsome!

And on a final note, here's some nightmare fuel:

PhotoShop's content-aware fill offers new body horror. Wishlist or this guy will come visit you!

We hope to give you a chance to judge for yourself, in person, this year. COVID is seemingly receding in the US, and we’re hoping against hope it stays down so we can attend the expos/events we’ve missed these last couple years. We’ll keep you posted as specific events get closer.

Thanks for reading and following the Luckless Seven Freeborn development journey. More to come!

Tyler

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/433370/Freeborn/