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Hey guys! We are back once again for our latest developer update. October has been a fantastic month for RIVALS OF AETHER so far and we’re excited to make a big announcement:

A new member joins the RIVALS OF AETHER team!

Johan Vinet, a talented pixel artist and animator, will be lending us some of his fantastic pixel skills! Johan is a great addition to our team and he will be starting out by doing the art and animation for the stages in RIVALS OF AETHER. He’ll likely be helping out in other areas as well and players will be sure to notice a significant visual upgrade across all sections of Aether.

He has already been working behind the scenes, and we are very excited to give you a sneak peek of his contributions! Here is the first stage he’s worked on – an aerial fleet known as the Air Armada:

Hmm… but what character would call this stage home? Surely not the fiery Zetterburn or the water-based Orcane? Perhaps in the next trailer, you’ll get a glimpse of the fighter who excels on this high-flying locale.

I wonder if this spring could affect the battle in some way.

The rest of the team has been equally hard at work on more RIVALS OF AETHER content! Dan Fornace has been designing and animating a fourth character who’s going to rock your world. Flashygoodness is composing more high-octane battle music to compliment the eye-popping visuals in the upcoming stages. Finally, Ryan Sicat is working on some mind-blowing artwork for the two new characters who will be revealed in the upcoming trailer. If you enjoyed the last trailer, you’ll soon be in for a treat with this one!

Hi Guys! We are back for another official RIVALS OF AETHER developer update! Sorry for missing August – but we’ve had a busy month and got some big news to share, so let’s get right to it!

Firstly we can now announce the platforms for our title. In 2015, RIVALS OF AETHER will be releasing on Xbox One and PC! It will be coming to Xbox One through the ID@Xbox Program and you can definitely expect online multiplayer through Xbox Live! This is huge news for us and we are very happy that RIVALS OF AETHER will be made available both to home console owners and PC gamers.

Secondly, we would like to share with you some of our exciting stories from August. At Gamescom, RIVALS OF AETHER was shown on-stage during the ID@Xbox Montage along with other fantastic indie games such as Speedrunners and Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. Then, just before PAX Prime, we were invited to bring RIVALS OF AETHER to ID@Xbox Open House at Microsoft Campus. We demoed a three-character build at the event, so players in Seattle got a sneak peak at an in-development character!

Finally, we’ve also released a playtester build to select players who applied through our Smashboards Thread. We have gotten great feedback from the playtesters, squashing numerous bugs and making further balance adjustments. We’ve been spending all of September making improvements based on player input.

Some development updates since July:

• We created new menus allowing players to select their characters and change options including two control schemes, flick up to jump, and right stick options for Strong Attacks.
• We added Wall Jumping as an additional tool for getting back on stage when a Rival is knocked out of the ring. RIVALS OF AETHER does not have traditional ledges, but if you can make it to a wall, you can walljump against it to use your Special Recovery again.
• We have adjusted the balance of the three characters in the build, aiming to accentuate the strengths and weaknesses of each character.
• Having developed and begun polishing the third character, we are now hard at work on the fourth character. Both characters will be revealed together in the future with a new trailer featuring their gameplay, so stay tuned!

We have also updated our website with the new Characters section, where you can learn more in-depth information about the Rivals. You can read up on their backstories, observe their special moves, and catch a glimpse of their gameplay in action. As of this post, Zetterburn and Orcane have been revealed.

Thanks for tuning in and check back next month for more exciting RIVALS OF AETHER developments!

Hi everyone! This is the first Developer Update for RIVALS OF AETHER. After announcing the game earlier this month, we would like to update you all on our current progress. We hope to continue doing regular Developer Updates here at this blog with what we have changed and what you can expect next!

The first big change to the game is based on feedback that we received on YouTube and forums after posting our announcement trailer. In a multiplayer Zetterburn match, people noticed that the fire was very difficult to track because all Zetterburns had the same fire colors. We initially designed this to keep the fire intact and make it consistent across all his color options. However, one of the main reasons for our current art style is that we favor readability in gameplay. After realizing that the fire was a major point where we had poor readability, we decided to change it on all of Zetterburn’s colors.

This change affects everything with Zetterburn’s fire – the grounded fire, the projectile, the burn effect that Zetterburn inflicts on opponents and even the burn consume effect when he lands a strong attack. We think this change makes two Zetterburns and their attacks easier to spot in a multiplayer match!

Along with the updated fire, you might notice a bit of a glow on the bottom of the stage; we will continue to work on sprucing up the background visuals throughout the development process. And while these images don’t show it, flashygoodness has also been hard at work making improvements to the sound effects. We are both working on the menu experience, and although we aren’t ready to reveal it just yet, you can be sure that it’s designed to be fast and easy to jump right into.

Finally, I am currently fleshing out the third character, and we are very excited to see how this rival will fare against the likes of Zetterburn and Orcane. I won’t give any spoilers but I think this character will be fighting with a bit more than a wing and prayer ;).

Check back in August for more updates!