Kamui (pronounced CAW-moy) is one of Osmund Steele’s oldest allies. Not many know of his time before he joined the Soldat Solari, but he was recruited by Osmund after the two had battled one another. Kamui thought that was the end for him, but Osmund chose to befriend him instead of slaying him. This changed the way that Kamui thought about his life and the decisions he had made, leading him to become a loyal member of the Soldat Solari. Kamui worked hard to become a trainer and recruiter for the Solat so that he might be able to repay the kindness that was shown to him. Kamui and Osmund have grown apart in recent years, but their mutual respect for each other will always be there. What part will Kamui play in Externus: Path of the Solari? You’ll have to play to find out!
Kamui Concept with MaskKamui without the mask, with Soldat tattooFull Armor Kamui Concept Art
Hey everyone, our latest update today is going to be a short and sweet update. We have an interview with our head and programmer Kent Gambill on Externus: Path of the Solari and about his experience making games. (Apologies for some blurriness, the camera had some issues.)
So, thanks to everyone helping us out on social media we are ready to reveal another character! This time, it’s Kyle Tethwood!
Kyle Tethwood Up Close
Is Kyle a friend or foe? Well… that answer is a little more complicated than you would think. Kyle is both, but we wouldn’t want to spoil that for you. Know this, Kyle is a very capable mercenary and he is not short on work throughout the world of Externus. You wouldn’t realize this talking to him, however, as he is usually cracking jokes or trying to show off his skills. Kyle loves attention and will do anything to be the center of attention in any room. That can sometimes create conflict and doesn’t always rub other characters the right way. Weigh that against his combat prowess with his short claws (similar to brass knuckles) and he definitely has a lot of value to any group. Will that be enough to keep the party happy? Either way, Kyle Tethwood was always a favorite at the table when he showed up during our tabletop days and the video game version should be no different!
The different styles of Kyle TethwoodKyle Full Body Concept ArtKyle Tethwood Fighting Stance Concept Art
Around the Web
We wanted to leave you with a few things that we’ve done in the past week. That includes a few interviews answered by Kent and Trevor talking about Externus: Path of the Solari. Be sure to check them out.
We wanted to make sure that we highlighted our team when doing our Kickstarter updates and today we wanted to start with our artist Moudy. He’s always full of energy and extremely talented! The whole team has sat down a few times for interviews and we’ll be releasing more throughout the campaign. In this video, we spend five minutes with Moudy as he talks a bit about where his art journey began, his time in Sudan and what it means to him, and the art style choice for Externus. Have a watch!
For those that don’t know, May 24th is Brothers’ Day, which is a day specifically to celebrate the bond between brothers. So, we thought that was a perfect say to highlight the brothers in Externus: Path of Solari. Alrik and Amante Steele, the sons of Osmund, are both headstrong individuals that often get on each others’ nerves. However, their bond is one that can’t be broken, and their adventures and hardships will be a huge test for that bond.
Amante doesn’t always follow the ways of the Soldat Solari and, being the first son, can be a bit rebellious as he tries to forge his own path. He has taken up the role of a Swordsman who uses his agility and dual blades to deal quick damage. Alrik is more like his father and wants to show Osmund that he is up to the task of lighting the path of the Solari. He wants to be a Guardian and protector, but might not always realize that he could use a little more experience before leaping into dangerous situations. That’s where the bond between brothers matters. They may not always see eye-to-eye, but they’ll always be there to help each other when needed.
The Original Concept for Amante (left) and Alrik (right)The Current Look For AmanteAn Original Concept for Osmund and Alrik
We went through a lot of concepts before making Sir Pendleton a knight, but this may have been one of our most fun and weird ideas in turning a corgi into a dragon. The original idea behind the character was to find a way to pay homage to Kent’s real-life dogs (he has two great corgis named Dova and Zapp and yes, they do have an Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dova_and_zapp/) so we came up with several ideas before settling on the concept of a corgi knight who can only use polearms. Would you like to see more corgi dragons down the line?
The different concepts of Sir Pendleton
We don’t want to reveal too much of Sir Pendleton’s story as we don’t want to spoil it in the game. We can tell you that he become a humanoid when one of the team members mentioned a classic RPG enemy, the Gnoll. It’s an idea that clearly sparked a lot of artwork on Moudy’s end.
We’re Diving Deeper On Our Podcast
For those that don’t know, we started a podcast a while ago so that we could talk about the process of forming our studio. With that, we came up with the very original name of How To Build A Game Studio (It’s easy to remember!) We have talked to other developers about their game studios in past episodes and will in the future as well, but for the next few weeks we will be deep diving into Externus. This week we started with an overview of things and our excitement and nervousness of launching this Kickstarter.
We want to wrap up by reminding you that we do have a Pre-Alpha Demo for the game available to play right now. We encourage you to check it out and let us know what you think. We also challenge you to keep Trevor alive, as it’s not as easy as you would think. Keep in mind that it can be a little rough around the edges since we are showing the game before most developers would. We are proud of what we’ve done with it and hope you enjoy our prequel to the main game!
What more can we say except for thank you? You’ve helped us in a major way by backing the project and sharing it with people. We encourage you to continue to do that as it will help us meet our goal but we couldn’t have asked for a better start. If you’re not following us on Facebook and Twitter, we shared a piece of art Moudy is still working on featuring the character Alrik Steele.
Some additional background on Alrik, he is the character Jack on our team played in the tabletop version of our game. Jack literally grew up playing this character at the table and we are excited to be able to tell you his story.
Kickstarter Update
New Character Reveals
Yasumori
Yasumori Head ShotYasumori Armor Concept
Yasumori was a large part of the original campaign and we wouldn’t be happier with how Moudy interpreted our spiritual Samurai. In the tabletop version of the game, he was played by our friend Ted and played the role of best friend and companion to Alrik Steele. Yasumori and Alrik have had a bond for a young age as their families were close and Alrik was often left in the care of Yasumori family when Osmund was off on his travels. We can’t wait to share more on him as soon as we can, but we have one more character to show you.
Jill
Full-Color Concept For JillVarious Outfit Concepts for Jill
Jill Callaghan is a pirate captain that the party will run into during their adventures. She is incredibly tough and headstrong and may not be so eager to join up with the Soldat Solari. She will, however, be eager to start a fight like any good pirate would. There is a lot more to Jill than her tough demeanor and pirate antics, but we wouldn’t want to spoil that for you!
Again, Thank You!
Thank you all for backing us and we hope to bring you many more and frequent updates as our journey continues while making this game. Our world is rich with characters, history, and locales that we can’t wait to share it all! We also encourage you all to comment on the things that you like about the campaign and the kind of updates you would like to see in the future. We want you to help us on this journey and we want to bring you more of the things you want to see!
Check our more Kickstarter Updates
We’ve posted all our Kickstarter Updates to our website, but you can see them all in their original form on our Kickstarter Page.
