Yes!

It's been a busy, eventful and productive month for the Identity team at Asylum! Only a few weeks ago we released our first video showing real in-game content, the player housing system, and Identity has gotten a good bit of much-needed exposure! If you haven't seen the video, visit Identity's YouTube channel. Our programmers, especially Henrik Sonesson, have upgraded our inventory mechanics and created two new important gameplay systems these last weeks. The library which you'll have access to in the Town Square module is now in place and functional. Players can both read public domain classic books in-game, or even write their own and submit them to the library for other players to read. In addition, the NPC shop systems are now in place. When you enter most shops you'll be able to find the items you need on racks or displays around the store. Grab what it is you're looking for and then make your way to the cash register to make the purchase. In some places you can preview the items you're holding even before buying; for example, in a clothing store you can go into a change room. This system even allows for shoplifting some items, although player-crafted or very expensive items cannot be shoplifted on official servers. On the art front, we've brought on new artists and are continuing to build the world you'll be exploring. We've also been focusing on the interiors of buildings and characters. We've gotten our first facial hair assets and are approaching a complete character customization system. An overhaul of character skin and hair has Identity's characters looking incredibly life-like in comparison to other MMORPGs. Next on that list for a re-work is the eyes.

On official servers, it'll be set that you can see the name of a player who your crosshair or cursor is currently over. There will also be an option for community servers which hides all names of players until they "wave" at you, to introduce themselves.

There are minor delivery jobs created dynamically which a driver can pick up. Some, like a pizza, can be delivered even using a bicycle.

Yep, there is. Following what I mentioned before, police can only charge you for a crime you're "flagged" for committing. You don't receive the charge immediately, and the flag wears off quickly. Fingerprints work the same way other crimes do, and the player is charged upon their discovery but not before.

That's not quite what he meant by that description. In Identity, committing a crime flags you in such a manner that a police officer can charge you with a crime. If you run a red light, you're not immediately charged with the crime; however, if an officer sees you run the red light he can pull you over and will have the ability to charge you with that crime. This mechanic keeps police from being abusive and charging for crimes which you did not commit. That said some major crimes may charge you automatically, but that can be controlled by the server operator/community. This is how it'll be done on the official servers to prevent griefing. There are times where gameplay in a multiplayer environment can't be exactly realistic to maintain it's fun for both parties. More "hardcore" communities may wish to adjust these rules, and they can.

As it stands already, we do have advertising systems for politicians running for office but it's restricted to billboards. I like the idea of advertising on public televisions or cinema, and implementation would be easy, but we'll have to think it over and consider all the angles. So, maybe!

Yesterday afternoon, for another Identity Insider, we've released a video detailing the workings of player housing in Identity and what it has to offer at our present point in development. This gives you a good idea of the level of fidelity we're going for in all of our key systems, and more videos will follow as we continue. Housing was chosen for our first video as our initial focus in development is for features present in the upcoming Town Square module. If you haven't already seen the video, check it out above. Housing as you've seen in the video is an excellent place to hang out with friends, but it has a lot of good practical uses, too! First, housing is the primary storage location for items you've collected. Whether it's a bookshelf full of books, a gun-rack with wall-mounted guns, or a crate full of junk, it's sort of like a bank for tangible stuff. Housing is also valuable for moderate crafting, too. Some advanced recipes might require a factory, but a lot of stuff can be created at your home using special crafting tables. A hydroponics table can even be used to grow small-scale plants, legal or otherwise!

At this time you cannot build custom structures on land. There is land for farming, as well as pre-existing homes and buildings which can be owned and operated, but we don't allow building permanent structures for performance reasons. When you want a lag-free experience with a lot of players, that's something that survival games suffer for. That said, if you want to put on a concert you can rent a concert hall. You'll get the option of choosing the theme for the event which will configure the art of the interior. The concert halls even have a stage which amplifies volume of instruments, as well as microphones for singing or speaking. You can use these for all sorts of things.

The existing real world books would be limited to those in the public domain, for legal reasons. Other than that I'm sure there will be a lot of player-submitted content right in Identity. The administration team has to choose to approve library submissions to keep it clean.

To answer a few of the questions here, there is a large variety of standard food items you'll find in cafes and restaurants, as well as player-made food. Different sorts of food and drink will "fill" you up more than others and faster. Some may even have side-effects. Generally, good player-created food will be the most efficient for consumption. You'll also be able to create your own bars, cafes and restaurants. I'm not sure how lucrative they'll be to own, but a player food-place could turn into a good social point. There will be three places in the Town square module that you can sample food and alcohol: there's a bar/lounge in the hotel, a cafe as well as the cinema. As for the questions concerning a hunger mechanic, there is such a system although you can't die from starvation. There will be some penalties, though. Food consumption won't be forced upon you enough to be an annoyance, but you'll want to grab a bite here and there.

When a vehicle is parked in an illegal area, such as in front of a hydrant or without paying a parking meter, their vehicle becomes flagged for fining. What this means is that they won't automatically receive a ticket; however, if an officer notices their vehicle they'll have the ability to give the corresponding ticket.

Today we publish the first Identity Insider update, bringing you detailed information about key systems in Identity. Our website has expanded with a small page detailing corporations and their classes, also available below: Corporations in Identity You've made a lot of cash working odd jobs, or maybe even the odd less-than-legal task; now that you've had a taste of success, it's time to forge an empire. Corporations will allow the successful with a little extra cash to become driving forces in Identity's dynamic economy. Corporations are organizations similar to, but separate from, gangs and other social structures. They have the added ability of owning assets and issuing work orders to their real-player employees. Some assets, such as the largest cargo trucks, are available only to corporations. Once formed, the corporation is assigned a telephone number for public contact and the director (owner) can build a logo using an in-game design tool. It's then time to hire a staff and get to work. Classes of Corporations Delivery Delivery corporations can buy large vehicles for big hauls, vehicles not available to the general public. While any player can deliver goods in vehicles such as vans, to get the big-bucks you'll need to join a corporation. Legal Let's face it, crimes happen and criminals are going to be arrested. They'll need someone on the outside to convince the jury that they did nothing wrong. This is where legal corporations come into play, and their services aren't always cheap. Transportation People need to get from point A to point B and they don't always have the means to do that themselves. Transportation corporations own special vehicle assets including taxis and more, helping those in need get where they need to be. Manufacturing From the shoes on your feet to the sofa under your seat, almost everything in Identity is built and crafted by other players. Manufacturing corporations give their employees access to a wider variety of constructables and resources, for a cut of the profits. Always Expanding As with most things in Identity, we at Asylum will constantly be expanding this system adding new classes of corporations and building on those already available. Identity's release is only the beginning. If you have any ideas for a well-suited corporation class, let us know on the forums.

Should we release to console, it'll be digital distribution only and the pricing would be very similar to the PC version.

Chess is one you'll see pretty early, and there will be others in time.

It's not set in stone, but the plan is to allow you to choose which town the apartment will be in. Later we'll be selling specific locations, so the universal pledge right now is sort of a limited thing. Different towns will have different floorplans. Ash Hill apartments are large for the price while Roseport are more in line with those you'd have in a city like New York.

Hello citizens! It's been too long since our last developer blog entry, so I wanted to take the time today to update all of our backers on Identity's current state of development, as well as give a little more insight into the process behind the scenes. During the first year and a bit of development, most of the time was spent developing key backend systems. Networking modifications, weapon physics, character customization, voice communication and so on. That's all behind us now, and I'm happy to say it's gone as well as we could have hoped. Now and for the past couple of months we've moved on to gameplay development, making those backend features do the fun stuff. This Month in Development In this last month our lead character artist, Miroslav, has finished up everything we need for your characters going into the Town Square release. We're always going to be adding more character customizations over time, but to start you'll have the choice between 4 male and 5 female race options. After selecting your base race you can customize further with skin tones, blemishes, scars, eye color, hair styles, hair colors and tweaks to facial features. Identity is expanding on the usual character customization, though, as some of the options available can only be gotten through achievements. Prison tattoos are an example; if you see someone with such a tattoo you know they've done something to earn it. A lot of work this month has also gone into the player housing systems. In following our previous messages, our home customization system has been in place for some months although we've been expanding the floorplans in preperation for the Town Square module release. Sean, or Motown as you may know him, has prepared the various apartments you will have in the Town Square. If you have made a smaller pledge to Identity and do not have an apartment yet, we're going to be giving you access to a temporary (small) home in the Town Square so that you can play with the cusomization features. If you've pledged for a package containing an apartment, Town Square will show what you'll have in the full Identity game upon release. Just this morning our lead programmer, Henrik (AKA Mathalion), finished up the karaoke systems. It's a minor feature for Identity as a whole, but it's going to be loads of fun in the Town Square module! Just off the lobby of the hotel is a slick little bar, complete with a karaoke stage. You'll be able to queue up your favorite songs on the karaoke machine and see the lyrics on one of the monitors around the stage. The microphone on the stage really works, too, amplifying your voice out of the speakers so that your singing can be heard by everyone there! Most of us are terrible singers, so karaoke is going to have a lot of hilarious moments. If you're just there to watch, the restaurant by the stage is fully functional, too! It's Been Too Long I'll just come right out and say it: we at Asylum Entertainment have really had poor PR these last months, and you guys deserve better. You deserve much more frequent updates, and we're committing to give you that moving forward. We're a relatively small development team today. Currently a core staff of 5 incredibly talented full-time developers, I'm amazed every day with what this team can accomplish. Outside of our core we have a handful of part-time workers, mostly artists, who are also very skilled. Because we're a small team, many of us have to wear several hats. For example, Sean is our community manager but also a 3D artist. I myself am the project manager, a programmer and interface developer. This leads to few resources to dedicate towards PR as there's so much work to be done on the game itself. This is something we knew though, and we're going to set some time aside regularly to keep you in the loop. The Town Square module is coming soon. We're in the final months of 2016 now, and you'll finally be inside the first piece of the Identity world in the first quarter of 2017. It's a little later than we originally hoped since we're dedicated to making sure everything is smooth and stable from the first moments. Identity is an enormous undertaking, but the most difficult bits are behind us and we're drawing near! What to Expect The first stage of game development is always very boring to talk about, and also doesn't give us much to show you. Creating those backend systems that drive the game behind the scenes is one of the most important phases, but it's not very glamorous. It's for this reason that most games aren't announced until they're a couple years into development. Now that we're past that point, we're going to be able to start showing you real Identity gameplay. The first gameplay video you'll see is going to be in November and will show you just how detailed and in-depth Identity is becomming! You'll see a walkthrough of our housing system, showing just how far it can be customized and some of the cool fun features you'll find in there. Following that video we'll give you a glimpse of the Town Square features, leading up to its release. It's been a ton of work and a long time coming, but we're moving forward at a great pace and everything is about to get very exciting over here.

This is an example of when we decide to go for game-play over realism. Prison is a big part of Identity; we've created a whole sort of mini-game surrounding prison life and we expect that while most people will want to get back into the world as soon as possible, some people may wish to make a life for themselves in prison. You can't just enter the prison, you are sent there after being arrested for a significant crime. You will also not go to prison for small things like speeding and such, as there are small jails. We're referring only to the release from prison here.

While there are lawyers in-game for many purposes, being used this way would unfortunately open the door to exploitation. For example, people could sue someone when they've done nothing wrong and in turn take money from them. You can't trust a jury of players to take the right side, since many people are playing to have fun juries often side with the more entertaining story (in our experience). Because of this, the system would be used to scam money away from people who worked hard and legitimately.

You'll be able to do all those things with the exception of sniper rifles. There are rifles, but scopes are limited because we want to encourage interaction. There are some scopes, but not with crazy sniper magnification. When it come sot the weapon stash, you can place, on your house/apartrment wall, a display board which guns can be attached to to show off your sexy weapons.

It will. Our mechanic for controlling the volume level right now is actually tied into the window level. If you roll down your windows the volume is louder outside of the car. The speaker thing is definitely something for us to think about, but it's worry-some that some could be used to grief other players.

Our primary reason for not having air vehicles isn't so much the size of the world, it's that they allow people to skip over interaction which is the core of Identity's gameplay. Imagine there's a car collision below and a fight erupts, flying over it without any consideration won't bring so much emergent gameplay as if you had to pass through or alter your path. That's simply one example out of thousands of scenarios where flight deprives you of emergent gameplay. It's sort of like using fast-travel in a game like Skyrim; sure it's convenient, but some of the coolest events and discoveries happen en-route.

Motown, the community manager for Asylum, plays a good deal. You could probably team up with him sometime. I enjoy a game or two when I have time but unfortunately, between Asylum and my baby, that's not very often.

On official servers, some things will be lost on death (some, not all, things you're carrying) such as weapons. Private server owners will have the ability to configure their servers to take this further, essentially creating a "hardcore" game mode. We haven't decided if perma-death is something we'll allow yet, but it's possible. That said, if we do it'll not remove your pledge perks as they're primarily cosmetic @JamesLuck01 is fairly spot-on with most his points above. While official servers will have more of a casual fun atmosphere, one of our main goals with Identity is to give role-players an ideal game to live out their imagination. There are very, very few MMO games that offer real immersion these days and immersion is a huge priority for us.

This is subject to change, but as it stands right now there are a couple things to be considered here. First, some crimes are automatically charged against you. This is necessary to keep people in check and help avoid the game becoming a big killing ground. That said, there is a threshold for certain crimes (each crime has a severity rating) which will not be automatically charged. In this case, someone who witnesses it literally has to contact 911 and will have the option to report the crime. Once reported, that person becomes wanted. Now you mention that the police would be notified, but in this case even with a murder they would not be notified, you'd simply become wanted for a murder (which is a pretty serious matter). If a witness makes a report to 911 the police WOULD be notified. There are some cases where killing someone has less of a severity in which case it would need to be reported, such as if you've killed someone in a rival gang or if the game determines a kill was likely in self-defense.