We're getting close! You can now connect your Steam account to your Identity game account and obtain your Identity game Steam key. This key will add Identity to your library so that when Identity is released, you can download it and start playing immediately without having to do anything else. To get your key, login on the main site (NOT THESE FORUMS) at www.IdentityRPG.com. You can then go to the Account tab of your profile where you'll see an option to link your Steam account. You must have BETA ACCESS on your account to claim a key! ATTENTION! You can only attach one steam account to one game account, and it's permanent. Be sure you're logged into your game account which has the items you've purchased before attaching a Steam account! While you won't get Identity in your game library just yet, you will very soon. Handing out the keys like this allows us to reduce load on our servers. We currently have 20,000 keys in the system and we'll be adding more.

Here's a step by step guide to claiming your Steam key in preparation for Town Square! Step 1: Head over to https://www.identityrpg.com/account/view/profile to view your items. You'll need to have the "Beta Access" item in order to gain access to the Modules. Step 2: Click the "Account" tab on the side and navigate to the "Click To Link" button beside the Steam logo. You'll be given a warning that linking your Identity Account with your Steam Account is a one-time procedure. When you're ready to make the link, click the button to proceed. Step 3: You'll be brought to Steam's website. Log in with the Steam Account you wish to associate with your Identity Account here. Step 4: After logging in with your Steam, return back to your profile page on the Identity website. You should now see a Steam key beside the "Steam Product Key" heading. (Clicking the "Linked" button beside the Steam logo will now bring you to your Steam profile.) Step 5: Take your product key and register it using Steam's "Product Activation" feature. You can find this by launching the Steam client, clicking the "Games" dropdown menu button on the top left corner of your screen, and then by selecting the "Activate a Product on Steam..." option. Step 6: You should then be greeted to an "Activation Successful!" screen, stating that "Identity: Town Square" has been associated with your Steam Account. Please note that Town Square won't appear in your Steam Games Library until we finish making the final few adjustments required to release the Module. Once we complete the final task on our Task Tracker, we'll then be able to make the Module visible.

Ramping up It's been busy as usual here at the Asylum office! For the past few weeks, we've had our testers running through all of the systems in the Town Square and a whole lot of progress has been made toward release. They've done an awesome job in finding the remaining bugs, and our team's been doing an equally awesome job in squashing them. As you likely noticed when following the Dev Tracker on our website, we're down to the testing stages on one remaining task. We've been working on this one for a while as there were a couple significant bugs encountered. These bugs were deep in the engine and were show-stoppers. Fortunately, we've recently defeated them and put them behind us. We're now knocking out the remaining minor issues being found by our testers and things are looking great. With the new website online (more on this below) we're soon going to be handing out Steam keys for those with access to the Town Square. This doesn't mean you can play just yet, but we're getting close enough that we're going to be bringing you on board in preperation. If you're wondering how it's going to work, it's really pretty simple. Once we launch this feature shortly, you're going to be able to log into your game account on our website. You'll then see the option to link your existing Steam account. Once you've linked your account, you'll be given a key which, when entered into the Steam client, will add Identity's Town Square to your game library. You won't need to log in to play, as we know who you are based on your Steam account. I'd recommend following us on social media (Twitter and Facebook especially) to watch for this coming announcement. Gangs and Warfare We're changing the Identity Insider format! Instead of larger insiders once in a long while, we're going to be sending out more frequent updates. We're talking a few each month! These Insider updates will paint a detailed picture of Identity's full gameplay experiences. To kick this off, we posted the following update on our new website just yesterday: Identity Drug Cartel Concepts (click image for more) You've made stacks of cash pushing drugs and the odd robbery, but when push comes to shove, you'll find strength in numbers. A gang is a group of ruffians with the goal of obtaining power and infamy through the domination of those around them. Gangs are often at war with one another as they compete for limited resources, whether it's turf, drugs or blood. There's no shortage of criminal activity in the world outside of gangs, but true power belongs to the syndicates and cartels with the strength and fortitude to rule over their rivals. Comradery Identity is all about working together with your friends, and gangs are the social structure geared towards crime. You can belong to only one gang at any time, so choose where your loyalty lies. Your gang has a full rank structure and the leaders can control access levels for each member based on that rank. As your gang grows, it can also unlock additional perks for all members. The gang leadership can designate any home owned in the world as the HQ, giving access to all members of the gang. Hang out with your gangmates and stockpile weapons, drugs and anything else you can get your hands on. Your HQ, like your personal homes, can also be used for respawning on death. This makes it an important rally point when *#!% hits the fan! Cartels Cartels are conflict areas which are controlled by one gang at any time, providing the owners with control over trade and traffiking of their related substance throughout all the land. To the victor goes the spoils. The cartel zone is a functional HQ for the current owners. Turf Identity Turf Neighborhood Concept Take control of city neighborhoods with gang turf zones. While cartels control substances across the world of Identity, the gangs who dominate a neighborhood have direct influence over criminal organizations in that area, such as drug dealers. Lookouts in the area will spot rival gangs in the streets of your turf and text message members of your gang in the area. Controlling gangs get access to a safe house in the area, tightening their hold. Warfare Dominate gangs who cross your path and prove your strength. Declare war on your rivals and hunt them down. Gang members who are at war are completely vulnerable to one another through the stress system, and so you need to be on the lookout at all times. Prey on your enemies until they submit to your demands. When declaring war on another gang, the other gang must accept the spoils set by the agressor. The spoils can include cash, turf, real-estate and more. When one side has had enough and ends the war, they forfeit those spoils to the stronger gang. In Identity, most items people carry can be taken if they're killed. What's theirs, is yours. War is hell. New website is finally here! The Identity website has had an overhaul to prepare for the Town Square release and Steam integrations. The new website brings all kinds of cool new features, mostly for the game account systems and the Identity shop! We're also going to be filling up the About page with all sorts of new information from the Insider releases. Now that the website has a true and proper shop, you can now get your hands on cool new items without having to buy entire packages. The shop now has all kinds of exclusive items, including apartment pets! You'll be able to get your hands on friendly critters for your home in-game as well, although those featured on the shop are only available there. Some of these items are only available for a limited time. Some of the new items include: Custom T-Shirt Graphic - Upload an image which can be placed on T-Shirts you create in-game! Each image can be used on 10 shirts. Vanity License Plate - Show your style with a custom license plate, visible on your in-game vehicle. Vanity Phone Number - Want a number that's easy to remember? Get a vanity phone number for yourself or your business. More Apartment Floorplans - Floor plans which haven't been available since Kickstarter, including the enormous Penthouse. Huge Clothing Packages - Clothing packages including clothes with dozens of original brands. Pets! Cats, dogs and more - Pets currently available include sphynx and tabby cats as well as pugs, maltese and the shiba inu (doge?). Another important note: when the new payment options (aside from PayPal) go live, we'll shortly after be removing all of the old packages. We will at this time never again be selling cash, so there's not much time remaining to get starter cash before Identity goes live. This is not something we plan to sell again in the future, but all who have it in their account will be able to claim that cash once on each server. Visit the New Identity Site Now! The Twitch Clips If you've been following Identity's development closely, you probably already know that developers stream their work live on the Identity Twitch channel every Tuesday and Thursday. We also use that time to answer almost every question that gets asked about Identity's development and gameplay. Now that we've been doing this a while, we've answered a lot of questions. Our awesome community manager, BeachBall, has taken the time to compile a massive list of questions linked to clips where they're answered by a developer. Get comfy and head over to the Twitch Clips Directory forum thread. If you haven't found this already, be prepared to spend a good bit of time listening to all sorts of awesome information. This is the best place to get to know the fine details Identity! -- John VanderZwet

I think its approaching truth time Asylum, April 20th 2018 - No release but only a 'Quite Minor' and 'short lived' delay. - Fair enough, more bugs can be found when fixing/diagnosing initial bugs etc. But with the amount of fixes that was needed before TS module was released, there is no way this could have ever been viewed as a 'short lived' process... A flipping tracker was made to keep track of the list! Not to mention breaking this to the eagerly awaiting community just 4 days shy of the release. You must have know over a month before that this was not going to make that deadline. June 6th 2018 - No release, but we are 'approaching release of the town square' - Most people have realised the initial bugs diagnosed on April 20th were bigger than the devs initially thought, but hey! It's almost here! Thats great! July 10th 2018 - No release, but gameplay is 'nearing release'! - Really? Havn't we heard that one before? August 30th 2018 - No release, but 'We're moving forward quite quickly right now'. - Of course... The main point I am coming to here is that we have been bullshitted for long enough. It's time to shit or get off the pot. Asylum, please be realistic with your community, everyone is completely fed up of hearing 'its almost here!' to the point that these words are entirely meaningless! Every time that phrase or similar is dropped, it is becoming less and less believable. If its going to take another 3 months, just tell us! Be honest! It won't be as bad as you think! If you are confident it is nearing release... think of your date, add 2 weeks to it, 3 to be safer, then announce it! If it arrives early, great!

A lot of people crabbing about "Lost hope in the games development." "is it even real?", "is it a scam?" "We've been waiting years!" Etc. I'm sure there are older folks here crabbing as well, but IMO, a lot of the crabbing comes from a youthful perspective that we demand everything now because we're entitled to everything life has to offer, as fast as possible. I've invested into many kick starters and early access projects. Very few were flops, (ahem DayZ), but the ones that take the time, tend to be the shiners at the finish line. Besides, my old a** could fall asleep for a nap and wake up next year, soooo yeah.

This is very much the case. When it comes to the SWAT module, the mechanics are actually quite simple to create in comparison to the back-end that is the Town Square. The Town Square is just a social module but there's a LOT going on behind the scenes. It is our foundation. Even with my own position, I understand the discontent completely. People are looking for some depth and words only go so far. The reason we haven't shown off a lot is two-fold: first, the majority of the work going into the Town Square is back-end and foundation work. It's grueling work which unfortunately isn't fun to look at. It's the first bit we need to take care of, but it's not something we can show in a visual sense. Furthermore, giving detailed information on the inner-workings of our foundation code can actually do harm when that information falls into the laps of the wrong people. The second issue is one of psychology. Anyone who's been following games for much time can attest to the fact that first impressions are the only ones which matter for most people. This doesn't apply to everyone, but it does for the VAST majority of people; even if people understand something is a work-in-progress when they get their hands on it, the impression they get from that experience will persist. Fortunately, we're coming to the end of the worst wait in this. I know you've heard something like this before, so it's likely taken lightly, but it's looking quite up right now. In fact, we're not far from handing out the Steam keys to prepare for a Steam launch. Our earlier estimates were well off the mark because we ran into some pretty significant issues with the engine. Keep in mind we have a HEAVILY modified version of Unreal Engine 4. We've done some pretty large changes to accommodate a real MMORPG. I wish it hasn't taken this long, but we're committed to doing this right. We're not going to take shortcuts and release a product which isn't up to our standards. The wait is almost over and you're going to be getting some fun updates quite soon.

Salutations Plumis, While I'm not the Project Lead, I can certainly help answer some of your questions. I'll work from the bottom up, and begin by answering your question regarding the office's location. We're currently stationed in Kanata North, an area filled with a number of businesses that focus on both software and hardware development. You'll see companies such as QNX Software Systems, BMT Fleet Technology, and more stationed around the same area. There's an image of the building Asylum is located at in Dev Blog #009 if you'd like to take a look: https://www.identityrpg.com/community/topic/9127-dev-blog-009-moving-on-up/ I encourage you to search up the Kanata North location on your map service of choice, as it's a fairly condensed area filled with tech companies. The link you posted appears to be where the company was initially registered, but we've since been working in the office on Legget Drive. The final UI task that's in the testing phase denotes the integration between our UI and the player Housing System. The underlying code behind the Housing System is rather complex, and the current task is to make sure that the UI we've hooked up to it functions as intended. Making sure furniture can be correctly selected and placed, wall trims altered, wallpapers set, etc. for each available apartment has been a time consuming process. Any bugs we encounter in this area generally requires us to run through a vast majority of the system again once a fix has been implemented, as changes will sometimes spawn other oddities that need to be addressed. It's also important to arrive at solutions that won't come back to hamper development in the future, as Town Square involves a lot of foundation laying for many of the core game's mechanics. In the most recent Dev Blog, it was also discussed that the team also encountered some significant hurdles while tackling this final task. The "show-stoppers" referred to in https://www.identityrpg.com/community/topic/13488-dev-blog-20-ramping-up/ dealt with deeper level code that went beyond the UI + Housing System. The constant placing and storing of player items during the testing phase actually lead us to discover, as Motown put it, "a crash related to the database". This kind of bug needed to be addressed immediately, and is an example of one of the heavier issues we've encountered during our recent testing. The good news is that the significant problems we've found have since been addressed, and as John mentioned in the Dev Blog, "We're now knocking out the remaining minor issues being found by our testers". To address your point about Town Square's release date, one of the reasons we've transitioned to the Task Tracker is due to situations similar to the one just listed above. It's been difficult for us to narrow down a date in the past due to the fact that there's always a chance of encountering unexpected hurdles during development. The tracker allows us to better show the progress of where the team is at for Town Square's development, and our programmers are currently finishing up the final task integral to Town Square's launch. We're a small team actively in the pursuit of acquiring more developers, which will certainly help us provide more content much faster in the future. To answer your claim about the developer updates, we don't currently have the time to provide updates from each of the different members within Asylum. The future video Dev Blogs will help alleviate this ("Look forward to meeting the team face-to-face in short but frequent videos", being one of the statements made in Dev Blog #018). Right now, you might occasionally catch a developer speaking in the twitch chat, posting on the forums (John has done this a lot recently, check out his post history for some additional info on the recent Insider), and on discord. The programmers are dedicated to finishing up the remaining task however, and can typically only find the time to chat while compiling code. The Dev Blogs are still the main source of information about current progress, and are shared on all our social media platforms. I hope this help addresses some of your concerns Plumis. As an aside, please note that Rule 15 specifically prohibits posting threads with topics such as @usernamehere, as the entire context of your post seems better suited for a personal message. The thread will be locked, but I'll keep it visible so that others can view the response.

Hello best Community of the World Everytime when i hear about things working actually then i hear frustated voice that say: "they are kidding us" and "the team is not working properly" In other Forums they say "Identity is scam". Guys? really? do you follow the path of the developing to talk like that about the project? do you think you can do it better? I think you should remember that this is the first project of Asylum Entertainment! I think you should remember that this is not a 1000-Man team, that this game develops as if it would be the fifth part of the game! You should be grateful that the team is putting so much love into this project and developing it - every day and every night! So my Message to the Team: Thank you for all the strength and love you have invested in the project and will continue to invest! You are doing a good Job! The community stands behind you and supports you in every situation! Thank you! Please note: If I have made mistakes while writing I am sorry but I am from Germany and English I have learned only in school best regards John Allington

The issues which are taking time are not directly UI related. The task which lead to these issues was one with the UI, but each task can lead to problems which need to be solved and dealt with. I did mention this (in parts) with the last developer blog I sent out. The main issues with the task have been solved. There are a couple medium level tasks remaining and they're just being finished up this week. We're moving forward quite quickly right now.

To better clarify, do note the numbers in the corner of each image. These as they're seen are the first step in the art development. They're created quickly by a talented digital artist ( check past live streams.. this work had been shown live in the past ) as a sort of draft. When it later comes time to create the asset, we'd choose the most appropriate of the three and it would be done in high detail with any changes requested by the game designers. These three you see were based on the jungle mood boards, which is why they all look somewhat similar. The final product you see in the game won't look just like any of these, but likely close to one of them. The method used here is called compositing, and it's a great way to get a nice looking result quickly, before polishing.

Developer Blog Update Ramping up It's been busy as usual here at the Asylum office! For the past few weeks, we've had our testers running through all of the systems in the Town Square and a whole lot of progress has been made toward release. They've done an awesome job in finding the remaining bugs, and our team's been doing an equally awesome job in squashing them. As you likely noticed when following the Dev Tracker on our website, we're down to the testing stages on one remaining task. We've been working on this one for a while as there were a couple significant bugs encountered. These bugs were deep in the engine and were show-stoppers. Fortunately, we've recently defeated them and put them behind us. We're now knocking out the remaining minor issues being found by our testers and things are looking great. With the new website online (more on this below) we're soon going to be handing out Steam keys for those with access to the Town Square. This doesn't mean you can play just yet, but we're getting close enough that we're going to be bringing you on board in preperation. If you're wondering how it's going to work, it's really pretty simple. Once we launch this feature shortly, you're going to be able to log into your game account on our website. You'll then see the option to link your existing Steam account. Once you've linked your account, you'll be given a key which, when entered into the Steam client, will add Identity's Town Square to your game library. You won't need to log in to play, as we know who you are based on your Steam account. I'd recommend following us on social media (Twitter and Facebook especially) to watch for this coming announcement. Gangs and Warfare We're changing the Identity Insider format! Instead of larger insiders once in a long while, we're going to be sending out more frequent updates. We're talking a few each month! These Insider updates will paint a detailed picture of Identity's full gameplay experiences. To kick this off, we posted the following update on our new website just yesterday: Identity Drug Cartel Concepts (click image for more) You've made stacks of cash pushing drugs and the odd robbery, but when push comes to shove, you'll find strength in numbers. A gang is a group of ruffians with the goal of obtaining power and infamy through the domination of those around them. Gangs are often at war with one another as they compete for limited resources, whether it's turf, drugs or blood. There's no shortage of criminal activity in the world outside of gangs, but true power belongs to the syndicates and cartels with the strength and fortitude to rule over their rivals. Comradery Identity is all about working together with your friends, and gangs are the social structure geared towards crime. You can belong to only one gang at any time, so choose where your loyalty lies. Your gang has a full rank structure and the leaders can control access levels for each member based on that rank. As your gang grows, it can also unlock additional perks for all members. The gang leadership can designate any home owned in the world as the HQ, giving access to all members of the gang. Hang out with your gangmates and stockpile weapons, drugs and anything else you can get your hands on. Your HQ, like your personal homes, can also be used for respawning on death. This makes it an important rally point when *#!% hits the fan! Cartels Cartels are conflict areas which are controlled by one gang at any time, providing the owners with control over trade and traffiking of their related substance throughout all the land. To the victor goes the spoils. The cartel zone is a functional HQ for the current owners. Turf Identity Turf Neighborhood Concept Take control of city neighborhoods with gang turf zones. While cartels control substances across the world of Identity, the gangs who dominate a neighborhood have direct influence over criminal organizations in that area, such as drug dealers. Lookouts in the area will spot rival gangs in the streets of your turf and text message members of your gang in the area. Controlling gangs get access to a safe house in the area, tightening their hold. Warfare Dominate gangs who cross your path and prove your strength. Declare war on your rivals and hunt them down. Gang members who are at war are completely vulnerable to one another through the stress system, and so you need to be on the lookout at all times. Prey on your enemies until they submit to your demands. When declaring war on another gang, the other gang must accept the spoils set by the agressor. The spoils can include cash, turf, real-estate and more. When one side has had enough and ends the war, they forfeit those spoils to the stronger gang. In Identity, most items people carry can be taken if they're killed. What's theirs, is yours. War is hell. New website is finally here! The Identity website has had an overhaul to prepare for the Town Square release and Steam integrations. The new website brings all kinds of cool new features, mostly for the game account systems and the Identity shop! We're also going to be filling up the About page with all sorts of new information from the Insider releases. Now that the website has a true and proper shop, you can now get your hands on cool new items without having to buy entire packages. The shop now has all kinds of exclusive items, including apartment pets! You'll be able to get your hands on friendly critters for your home in-game as well, although those featured on the shop are only available there. Some of these items are only available for a limited time. Some of the new items include: Custom T-Shirt Graphic - Upload an image which can be placed on T-Shirts you create in-game! Each image can be used on 10 shirts. Vanity License Plate - Show your style with a custom license plate, visible on your in-game vehicle. Vanity Phone Number - Want a number that's easy to remember? Get a vanity phone number for yourself or your business. More Apartment Floorplans - Floor plans which haven't been available since Kickstarter, including the enormous Penthouse. Huge Clothing Packages - Clothing packages including clothes with dozens of original brands. Pets! Cats, dogs and more - Pets currently available include sphynx and tabby cats as well as pugs, maltese and the shiba inu (doge?). Another important note: when the new payment options (aside from PayPal) go live, we'll shortly after be removing all of the old packages. We will at this time never again be selling cash, so there's not much time remaining to get starter cash before Identity goes live. This is not something we plan to sell again in the future, but all who have it in their account will be able to claim that cash once on each server. Visit the New Identity Site Now! The Twitch Clips If you've been following Identity's development closely, you probably already know that developers stream their work live on the Identity Twitch channelevery Tuesday and Thursday. We also use that time to answer almost every question that gets asked about Identity's development and gameplay. Now that we've been doing this a while, we've answered a lot of questions. Our awesome community manager, BeachBall, has taken the time to compile a massive list of questions linked to clips where they're answered by a developer. Get comfy and head over to the Twitch Clips Directory forum thread. If you haven't found this already, be prepared to spend a good bit of time listening to all sorts of awesome information. This is the best place to get to know the fine details Identity! -- John VanderZwet Let's Make Identity Great! Identity's development is going great thanks to the support of people like you, but systems like these take a lot of manpower and resources to create. Identity has an awesome community behind it, but when more people know about what we're creating and our budget grows from pledges, we can not only work faster but we can do more, too. If you're as excited to play Identity as we are making it, help spread the word. The gaming industry has needed a game like Identity for too long; let's make it great together!

Yep, I did tweet that. I plan on using my personal Twitter for less official stuff of note. It's something that the more devoted fans will see and I don't necessarily have the burdens of an official announcement. I don't post directly on the official Twitter account as that's handled by Beach; I posted on the weekend while working from home.

We use a combination of project management software called Wrike and a time tracker called Hubstaff for all of our remote people. They get paid only for time "clocked in", and it tracks it right down to the second. While they're in work mode we're able to see their screen, and we have a screenshot history from every few minutes of their working going back for months. We're quite on top of things, but we've found the vast majority of our remote guys to be quite reliable and honest. A lot of the remote people do work dedicated to Identity, but some work on a per-task basis.

Well, because it's concept art. Artists use the concept pieces there to develop the environment later. The three together are part of what's called a mood board. This is pretty standard.

While you can rent out the houses you buy in the world, apartments cannot be rented. This is because we don't want someone's real-money purchases to give an advantage. For example, renting out that apartment would then translate to in-game currency indirectly. Some may be concerned about people doing this without using game mechanics, but that would require a transfer of ownership (which you cannot do with micro-transaction apartments) or, if the apartment was large enough, setting someone as a co-owner/roommate for in-game money. The latter could be done, but it would be at a great risk to the person doing it as the primary owner could walk in at any moment and take their things. When a house is rented through game mechanics, the renting player has ownership of that property as long as they continue to pay; thus, it's as secure as if they were to own it themselves. As for vehicle ownership, they exist for good reason. The vehicles which we sell are in no way high (or even mid) end vehicles. Similar vehicles will be obtainable quite early on. We've done it this way specifically to stimulate a new economy. The primary benefit of the micro-transaction vehicles is the ability to claim them once on each server. Thus, when a new server is started up, they'll help get resources on the market quickly. These resources will then be used by all players. Without this, the economy would take a few days to get moving and it would not be such an enjoyable experience.

This is correct. A game really only gets one first impression, so we have to make sure that it's (for the most part) a positive experience. Even if a game is marked as beta or early access, if the first impression fails people will almost never return. Thus, we're making sure everything is running smoothly. There were a couple pretty significant bugs with this last task which were the result of problems with the engine, quite deep down. We've worked around them now and things are looking good. Your friendly moderators are testing up a storm for us. There are bugs, but nothing major, and they're being squashed.

Salutations everyone! As we continue to shift focus toward programming, we’ll be removing the Tuesday art stream from our weekly schedule. Our Thursday Asylum Development Hour will remain unchanged, so you can still swing by Thursdays from 4PM – 5PM ET to catch our artists live. Our artists have started hopping into the engine to help fix furniture and apartment related issues that have arisen during the testing phase of Town Square’s final task. For those unaware, the final task necessary for Town Square’s launch involves the integration between the Housing System and our UI. This involves things such as being able to accurately decorate and customize apartment interiors while having our User Interface accurately reflect the proper changes made by the player. The Housing System is one of Identity’s more complex systems, and the artists have been helping where possible. While they lack a background in coding, they’ve become familiar enough with the Unreal Engine that they’re capable of assisting in a few different areas. With this, they’ll be more focused on implementing fixes and making quality of life changes for Town Square rather than working on new assignments. We’re all giving it 110%, and we can’t wait until Town Square releases!

I'm sure there's no shortage of posts like this, but this is just getting silly. I wouldn't have preordered the game in April if I know I was going to be waiting this long. And I'm a little offended your making things to sell in game without even having released the game yet. Why in god's bane would I spend that much on a dog? I don't care how you spin it, that's a waste of everyones time, and things are starting to feel greedy around here. And that tracker. How long does it take to finish one GUI element? I call bologna on the whole tracker, and I'm about to call bologna on this game.

They just released the Steam keys to everyone who has purchased this game. This goes to show how the majority of people who complain about this game never actually stay updated or check what's going on before posting these unnecessary topics.

We all get it, some people are getting fed up because it's been months after the first official release date. We're all upset about it, and so are the developers. I admit a single module shouldn't be taking that long, but I'm still being very patient. I've also stopped caring about when they say "soon" or any similar key words. I just tell myself it'll come when it'll come. I'll compile a bunch of comments from the team below (I wish there was a spoiler but whatever), but I know some people might TLDR:

YAWN. Have some faith in the game. It will be ready soon. If you don't have faith in the game/Devs. Go and play something else.

I have no issue with waiting. The issue I have is the interaction with the community. Ironically, they are developing a game all about interactions, yet they can't imagine the proper way to go about it. People keep making the excuse that development is not easy even though it's not the issue. I didn't pledge for a finished game. I pledged to be part of a community of people with a front row seat to the development. The last podcast was when? I watch the stream whenever I can (the one today was actually interesting). I know this game will happen and the devs are trying, I just want them to be more consistent with posts. I also want the community to stop white knighting the devs. THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE GREASE

Crowdfunding, Kick Starter, Early Access, Backer, Founder, Etc. Have a certain expectation level that comes with them if you so chose to engage in the process. Many negative Nancy's here seem to ignore that fact, or simply make up their own expectation level when they themselves feel that progression is slow or communication is lax from the developers and studio. If you so chose to engage in said process, you should really follow the the studio and developer announcements early on, as I did and many of you did. Once you feel comfortable with the proposed product and feel reasonably satisfied with what the vision of the end result is, then and only then should you be reaching in your pocket. For some that's the first day for others that is three years down the road. I followed the prospect of Identity for almost three years before I reached into my pocket or even made forum account for that matter. Either way, if you don't go into this with the attitude and mindset that you just threw your money on red number 7 on the roulette table, then you have set yourself up for disappointment. The fact is, these projects are a gamble and if you chose to partake, You own it, it's all on you.

This is normal sir, the game is not out yet, but will be "very soon"!

It doesn't mean that. That's what you think it means. This could take god knows how long, stop being a brown noser. They could have handed these keys out 5 months ago, it doesn't make a difference.

We're getting closer, which is why steam keys were released. So you can have it activated on your account ready to go

U should read the tweet on first place before acting like they already released the TS. "...You won't be able to install it just yet..." "...Town Square will show up in your Steam library the second we publish it..." Be prepared for at least another 2-3 weeks of waiting

I CAN NOT WAIT...for them to give us keys and make us check back non stop for 5 more weeks!!!! YASS!!!

Those who have spent a lot of money here, and those who have been waiting for years have a right to ask questions about updates / more information. You shouldn't expect them to shut up and wait when they have invested something (potentially substantial) into identity.

Totally agree Town Sqaure is the foundation of the game. Dont want them releasing it with bugs in the housing system.

This is John's former house, where he lived when he first registered the company, before moving to Kanata with his wife to build the company here where we are located now. This was before our Kickstarter campaign. During that period, John, and I (the only 2 on the project at the time) were both working together remotely. He from his house; me from Detroit, Michigan. This is nolonger our registered corporate address. I wouldn't have had my work permit approved if it had been, considering Canada's immigration services require that foreign workers have an office location to work from.

Thanks for the updates and yes, I think we'll benefit from meatier, more concise and frequent updates.

I have backed multiple "pipe dream" games in the last 2 years. This one about 6 months ago, Star Citizen what, 4 years ago? No Man's Sky when it first went to crowd funding, Elite Dangerous, also when first in crowd funding. Kingdom Come: Deliverance also while on Kickstarter. The only one I didn't consider at the time a risk was Elite Dangerous, because they weren't trying to do anything different. It was pitched as just another space flying game. It has of course grown since then to be more than what it originally set out to do. My point is, I find a game I think I want to play, a game that sees the border lines of what games currently do, and decide to cross over them, and if I like the idea of it, I back them. Some games I have backed were complete disappointments, never getting released, never being finished. Some released way too early, only to be made better after release, but many feel too late. No Man Sky, Gold Rush being 2 examples of that. But even those games who never released, they still pushed those boundaries, and other companies realized how much customers wanted them to push those boundaries too. Why is Elite Dangerous becoming the game it is? I do think it is because of NMS, and Star Citizen. I will continue to support innovation in gaming, sometimes supporting a losing battle. This game has the potential to be something great. But, even if it flops, or delivers only 25% of it's promises, other game makers will see that there are players that want to see this feature, or that feature in games, and they will work harder to get it. I don't support a game based on how it is, I support a game based on how it could be, or what it can bring to the table. Some in this thread sound like they have forgotten why they supported this game. Some, have been waiting a lot longer than I was even made aware of the game last year, and I get the frustration. However, put aside your anger. Some, are saying that there is no way this game will ever be good. Seriously, what would make you think that? A toxic community will ruin this game faster than any dev ever could.

The developers that appear on the Asylum Development Streams are exclusively tailored to work on the visual aspects of Identity. It would be great to have them help out with the programming! But it's unfortunately not something they're specialized in. The programmers are working throughout for the duration of the streams, and they'll sometimes listen in or comment in the twitch chat while their work is compiling. Regarding showing things off in Town Square, we've had 2 streams in the past where we got to see John run around the Module's environment. The stream on May 29th showed off the character creator and general environment of Town Square, where the stream on June 28th demonstrated a few of the interactions players can partake in. The CEO mentioned at the end of a recent development stream that the next piece of gameplay media we want to present will be a feature video of sorts. As John put it, "we need to have a video that represents the Town Square" for when our Steam page goes public. Here's the excerpt if you'd like to hear it: Misc (Any word on the next gameplay video? Media for Steam page?) https://clips.twitch.tv/StormyAcceptableHerdDBstyle (I'm unsure if we'll see another gameplay stream before the launch of the Module, but I have been pitching the idea to the devs so they definitely know there's interest.) We're going to try to include everything you've seen in the streams into the Day 1 build of Town Square where possible. Should the final UI task on the tracker become completed while we're still importing furniture/clothing/hairstyles etc. then we'll include the rest later. The art assets integral to Town Square's launch have been completed and we won't hold up its launch to import a recently modeled/designed item or graphic. The task tracker has indeed looked the same for quite a while. While the final "In Testing" task denotes the integration between the UI and the Housing System, the team discovered some serious bugs at a deeper level of the game during its testing phase. This was mentioned briefly in Dev Blog 20, where the CEO states that the significant bugs the team encountered "were deep in the engine and were show-stoppers". They needed to be addressed immediately, which explains the slow progress time for the final testing task. The major issues the devs ran into have since been rectified, and we're now focused on eliminating the minor problems still present with the UI + Housing System integration. Regarding PR, we do have plans to reach out to the community more frequently in the future through the release of more Identity Insiders and a change to the Dev Blog format. In Dev Blog 19, John mentions users will be able to look forward to "more frequent developer video blogs", with the idea that the transition to a video format will be both more entertaining and engaging for the community. In Dev Blog 20, he also states that we'll be sending out more frequent Identity Insiders soon ("We're talking a few each month!"). For the present moment, however, we do realize news has been slow. The entire team has been heavily invested in finishing this final task (apart from the artists as mentioned above of course), making it difficult to get out consistent updates. It would be great to compile a list of weekly updates from each specific developer, or sit down with the guys in the office at the end of each week on stream to discuss current progress! But this would come at the cost of making Town Square release later, and getting the Module out right now is our #1 priority. This is why the recent Dev Blog released later than usual, as John needed to focus more on Town Square's programming (as well as help the web dev out with some website tweaks). Even I've been tasked with helping test Town Square, so I apologize for not being as active on the forums (I'm definitely making an effort to appear here when I can though). In the future we'll definitely discuss updates more frequently with the Insiders and video Dev Blogs, but right now we need to devote as much time as we can into getting the Module completed. I hope this post helps address some of your concerns FuzzyDoesMedia (and I apologize for the wall of text).

Nowadays, we have almost everything, at the push of a button. You want food? Click here.You wan't a car? Click here. With all this instant gratification readily available, it eliminates the need to develop patience. Of course, this is consequence for it. You have a whole lot of people who can't wait for anything because they're use to having everything now and if they don't have it now, they throw a temper tantrum. Just my take on the issue. I'll finish drinking my coffee now.

Car insurance is a thing. If you get a flat tire you can fix that with a spare. If you damage your car badly, for example, the engine becomes damaged you will need to be towed to a mechanic shop.

You pledged money into a game which is in development. The game won't be rushed for anyone. The Task Tracker may get/ show it is updated but there won't be a visual change all the time. The time you see the visual change is when a task is done. The tracker may be idle but they are making progress and the tracker getting updated is showing that it is up to date but the progress is not enough for that visual change.

50% and dwindling. That last bit of deception there really put a dent in my enthusiasm for the game.

Keep in mind that you technically didnt pre-ordered identity but pledged for it. The game is still in development and delays can happen for these games. In the future, actually read up on what you are spending your money on, because if you are this impatient then maybe pledging for games isnt for you and you should wait untill these games actually release before giving them money... giving them your money now and asking for a refund later will only cause more problems because you are giving the devs money they cant even spend on development.

I don't think it matters what type of images they use for concept art or as a base nor where they are coming from. I imagine almost every game developer will use some kind of structures to build form..anyone remember Warhorse Studios showcasing how they build building models for Kingdom Come Deliverance? A lot of stuff was taken from the real places that were there historically and they would modify them. Amazing structures are inspirational it would be a sin not to use them.

No. Something tells me that is not alright..........if they're passing it off as their own conceptual art when it's only some minor Photoshop and filters.

I was unaware of this until I read your post. That's a major issue. We'll get it fixed up ASAP. It will work on a desktop browser. Thanks for the heads up. PS: For those wondering about the statistics, the number seems higher because the new site shows number of game accounts while the old site showed number of pledgers.

@Dazerbake @MarcoArts Steam linking is currently broken, will be fixed soon

I recently purchased the vanity license plate from the Identity store, expecting a feature that seems to be common: preregistration. I wanted to be able to register my vanity license plate as soon as I bought it, but I was told after asking on the Discord server that this would (probably) be a feature only implemented in the game's release. I know it may sound silly, but the only reason I bought the item was so that I could claim the plate that I wanted before someone else took it. It would really make my purchase seem justified if a system like this was put into place.

I do agree there's a lot more information on the gang system to be had, so I'll address your concerns. Comradery The perks that can be unlocked for your gang are more convenience bits and cosmetics. Identity is being consciously designed in a way that should minimize the need to "grind". You won't feel the need to unlock these perks and many aren't things that you could grind if you wanted to. The gang HQ is designated when a gang is formed and must be a location in the world. Apartments are not valid HQs. We're still fine-tuning the time between HQ changes, but it's going to be quite long -- days, at least. The storage in the HQs is controlled by the rank hierarchy. Some people can have access to store items, but not remove them, and so on. There seems to be confusion on the mechanic, here. Gangs are cartels; cartels are not collections of gangs. Thus, one gang functions as a cartel when it has control of a cartel zone. I can see why you'd think of it as an alliance, given what a cartel is in reality, although for gameplay purposes the one gang "controls" the cartel. Any house can be used as a gang HQ, and the turf area it's in (if any) is unrelated. Turf doesn't lock anyone out from the region, but instead adds convenience, some additional income for the gang, and can be used to track rival gangs easier. All land is also not turf controlled; it's only within the cities. The turf safehouse is not a home that can be owned by other players outside of controlling that turf. As for the police interaction with turf, the police aren't there to eliminate the turf regions. Instead, they can negate the benefits of owning turf if they control the region with effective law enforcement. The income produced by the turf zone is based on illegal activity, so the police can directly influence it's effectiveness. The cartel owners will have direct influence over the production, transportation and sale of the substances that they control. They don't trigger "missions", but instead affect the related gameplay outside in more fluid and natural ways. There is a short cooldown on war declarations, but they can't be used as a griefing mechanic because they're consensual. The other gang must accept the war, and either gang can end the war at any time. If a gang is being overwhelmed, it's up to them to either hide from their rivals or to end the war. Wars are won when one side is tired of being being attacked and ends the war, as described above. There is no need for an artificial mechanic to determine who's won. We fully expect that some gangs (likely larger ones) will keep the war active for a long time. In our experience with similar mechanics (we've implemented similar systems in several other production games, and learned a lot about the psychology and use of the mechanic) it usually doesn't take long for one side to give in. If that's not the case, and they're enjoying the competition, it's there for the fun. As for the police, killing someone in a rival gang is not considered legal in any sense. The penalty is a little less harsh than killing another player who's not involved, but there is most definitely a crime involved in either case. The largest difference is the stress mechanic here; rival gangs are always treated as though their members are fully stressed to your own gang. Everything about the war mechanic is quantifiable" We've learned through years of experience with similar systems, and we've implemented similar mechanics in games in the way you describe, as well as even having only one side need to start the war. Simply put, when you're at war with another gang you can quickly get overwhelmed and that's not fun for the gang on the receiving end. Gangs are social structures at their core, and nobody should be forced to play in a mechanic they don't want to; in reality, war isn't for everyone. Many players won't have a desire to participate in such worldwide PvP. Wars will most often happen in one of two cases: either some sort of rivalry will form between the groups, and war will be declared as a way to punish the other side, or wars will be declared for the ongoing fun of conflict. Remember, you don't need a war declared for rivalries to form. Identity is all about emergent gameplay. As for the looting of your victims, there are some items which cannot be looted. Items like weapons, on the other hand, can indeed be taken. Keep in mind here that Identity is built with competition in mind, and a cheap and plentiful weapon can be deadly as fast as a rare and powerful weapon. For example, if you've died recently and lost your assault rifle, that'll set you back. However, having a 9mm pistol you had in storage can still be incredibly deadly if used well. Our goal is to make sure that a skilled new player will be competitive.

V-Neck T-Shirt by Umut: Beach Shorts by Umut:

But I want 3500 different couches, lamps, and dresses plus shoes.