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- Releasing on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and via Xbox Game Pass<\/li>\n
- 700-year-old manuscripts as concept art<\/li>\n
- Inkulinati and Pentiment team up with characters available in both games<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Hello Xbox community!<\/p>\n
Today marks a monumental milestone \u2013 our medieval turn-based strategy game, Inkulinati<\/a>,<\/em> is leaving the Xbox Game Preview Program and you can now enjoy the full 1.0 release! To mark the occasion, we\u2019ve got a brand-new shiny release trailer, voiced by famous bardcore musician Hildegard von Blingin\u2019. Check it out above!<\/p>\n
So. what is Inkulinati<\/em>, you might ask? Well, it is a turn-based strategy game, where a rabbit\u2019s bottom can be deadlier than a dog\u2019s sword (trust me, this is not a mistake!). It is inspired by real medieval art and is entirely played on the pages of medieval manuscripts. If you\u2019ve ever seen old medieval books with funny drawings on the sides of the pages, or even medieval memes on the internet, these hilarious doodles (called \u201cmarginalia\u201d) were used as the basis for, well, everything in our game.<\/p>\n
![\"Inkulinati](\"https:\/\/xxboxnews.blob.core.windows.net\/prod\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Bez-tytulu-f6a50199df239349d631.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nAll of our characters, maps (which we call Battlefields), beasts and objects are based on these drawings made by medieval monks and scribes, sometimes called Illuminators. That\u2019s why we say Inkulinati<\/em> has been over 700 years in the making.<\/p>\n
So, while you may come across some ridiculous shenanigans like donkeys playing trumpets with their bottoms, fish wielding knives and devils with faces instead of butts, trust me, it\u2019s not us who came up with it \u2013 it\u2019s actually people from the Middle Ages and Inkulinati<\/em> is a tribute to their work.<\/p>\n
In fact, to be as authentic as possible, we even consulted with a real medievalist to make sure we were using these inspirations correctly and staying true to the source material. So, as you sit back and watch your army of manuscript monkeys throw poop at enemy beasts, you can relax in the knowledge that you\u2019re actually learning history (feel free to flex that fact in front of your history teacher!).<\/p>\n
![\"Inkulinati](\"https:\/\/xxboxnews.blob.core.windows.net\/prod\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Bez-tytulu2-eaf9847184410f6d62a9.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nAs I mentioned earlier, we\u2019ve been part of the Xbox Game Preview program for just over a year now. And in that year, we\u2019ve made a lot of changes. We added a lot of content, worked tirelessly on balancing and tweaking, squashed those pesky bugs \u2013 we\u2019ve listened a lot to you \u2013 our community \u2013 to make Inkulinati<\/em> the best it can be. And at this point, I must give a huge shout out to the wonderful Xbox community who have helped us improve along the way.<\/p>\n
Thanks to you, we\u2019ve added a lot of new features and ironed out the kinks you thought needed ironing out. For example, our tutorial (called the Academy) is now very different from what it was a year ago \u2013 it consists of learning the game through numerous puzzles and challenges that require you to understand the mechanics of Inkulinati<\/em> in order to solve them and progress. We have added some accessibility features and reduced the shaking of the screen during certain actions to give you a better experience. Without you, Inkulinati<\/em> would not be the game it is today \u2013 so thank you!<\/p>\n
But hey, let\u2019s talk about one of the coolest things that has ever happened to our studio \u2013 it happened during our time in the Game Preview program. We had the chance to work with the fine folks at Obsidian Entertainment and their fantastic game Pentiment<\/em>!<\/p>\n
![\"Inkulinati](\"https:\/\/xxboxnews.blob.core.windows.net\/prod\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Bez-tytulu3-6e2170833c6a472df852.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nHow did this happen, you might ask? Well, during Gamescom 2022, where Inkulinati<\/em> and Pentiment<\/em> were both showcased on the Xbox stand as future Game Pass releases (in fact, we were literally neighbors \u2013 our gaming stations were next to each other), and we had the opportunity to discuss a collaboration for the ages \u2013 cameo appearances of our characters in both of our games. We both thought it would be a good fit, as historical accuracy and the manuscripts themselves are an important part of both titles.<\/p>\n
One conversation led to another, and eventually we welcomed Pentiment\u2019s<\/em> main protagonist \u2013 Andreas \u2013 as a playable character in our game! (You can play as Andreas in the Journey \u2013 a single-player campaign with rogue-like elements) In return, some of our in-game characters were added to the margins of the Pentiment<\/em> books! What\u2019s cool is that it was a real collaboration \u2013 Obsidian artists recreated our art in the Pentiment<\/em> style, and our art director drew Andreas himself. It was right thing to do \u2013 that way all the characters, originals and their versions from another game, are concise and fit the game they\u2019re now part of.<\/p>\n
For us indie game developers making our first game, it was an incredible experience. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would have a character from a game by Obsidian Entertainment \u2013 a studio we were fans of before we started our game development journey \u2013 in our game, and our characters in theirs.<\/p>\n
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So, if you decide to play Pentiment<\/em> (and you should \u2013 it\u2019s a real labour of love and one of the most extraordinary gaming experiences out there), you might also come across some Inkulinati characters in Pentiment\u2019s<\/em> in-game books. If someone had told us that our characters would be in an Obsidian game, we would have thought it ridiculous. So, our story just proves that crazy things do happen!<\/p>\n
Thank you so much for taking the time to read our story and I really, really hope that you will have a blast-of-a-time in our turn-based strategy. Inkulinati<\/em> <\/a>1.0 is now available to play on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows and via Game Pass. Thank you so much for reading and good luck out there illuminating the Battlefields! Oh, and we are still planning to do some post-release updates, so feel free to join our Discord and share your feedback with us!<\/a><\/p>\n
All the best,<\/p>\n
Ryszard Kie\u0142tyka<\/p>\n
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