More Portrait Art?!

Yes that's right. Here's more nice pieces from Craig that shows the up close and emotional side of our important support character, the Kilflame Soldier. As mentioned in previous posts, Kilflame Soldiers are a dynamic group, with varying allegiances and attitudes. These pieces are nice preview of the different tones that your conversations with the soldiers will carry. Some will be quite angry that you'd even have the nerve to speak with them, others will secretly and quietly try to help you, and some will aggressively come on to you. It's only natural.

These portrait pieces will be inserted into our dialogue windows, sliding in from the left/right of the screen when dialogue is active. If you are tired of their blabbering, you can hit a button to skip over it. :)

Portrait Art

As we work more on the dialogue system, Craig has been tasked with creating portraits that we can use in the dialogue windows. I thought these two paricular portraits were cool as a pair because they really show the diversity of races in Ophidian Wars.

First the Pon Spectral (little gold fella), who is generally mercantile and neutral. And second the Quan Spectral (purple-ish glowy fella) who well...plays a different role.

Meanwhile, Bryan is working through the complexities of dialogue tree system as well as the interaction of the "internal monologue" system. Put it all together, and we should have a nice clean, unique, and efficient method of relaying communication between the player and the characters. That makes it sounds way easier than it actually is. ;)

Box Art - Final

Well, there she is (click to enlarge). We're very happy with the result. We feel it coveys the sense of a fantasy adventure with a colorful cast of characters - while also showcasing Maya and some of her cool gear. We're hoping she can catch us some eyes on the XBLIG carousel of games!! Let us know if you like it.

Introducing: Inner Monologue

Ophidian Wars is designed to evoke the satisfaction we felt when playing the old school (classic) action/RPGs. But we're also aiming to advance the genre and offer players something innovative to chomp on. No point in simply trying to rehash what has already been done.

Inner Monologue (or "IM") is a new mechanic that revolves around the interaction between the player and your character's thought (in this case, Maya). Ever wonder what your character is thinking? Why can we usually see them talk, but not think?

For me, it seemed that the real portal to understanding and relating to a character is by understanding how they think. IM will allow players to view Maya's thoughts during her adventure - both while exploring the world AND while conversing with NPCs. The idea here is to offer greater depth to the player's adventure by enriching the exploration experience. By allowing the player to see how Maya thinks and reacts, you get a better sense of her, the world that she is traversing, and the other beings she encounters.

So while it's not entirely novel to clue players into a character's thoughts, the idea is to go a step further and build it out fully. It's one thing to add richness to the story/character progression by offering a window into the character's mind, but what about how it relates to actual gameplay?

Not only will players be able to observe Maya's thoughts, but an important gameplay element will be interacting with those thoughts. Paying attention to IM will help players learn and react to certain events, picking up clues as to how best handle situations. During conversation, Maya's thoughts may govern the dialogue and help you pick up on subtleties (i.e. "Why does he look so nervous?"). While exploring, IM may provide helpful clues, or warnings. It's up to the player how to react.

Functionally, the IM window will pop up directly above the dialogue window (as shown in pic). This allows players to quickly observe Maya's thoughts and if need be, react or take note as they choose.

Do you likey? Let us know what you think.

Why the "Legend of Kilflame?"

The idea of game being crafted "story first" is something that isn't widely smiled upon, but I've read good arguments on why it can make a crapload of sense.

What I find interesting is that it's often some of the best, most well-received games that deliver that extra element of a compelling story, yet from a developmental standpoint it's still considered an "oops" to start there.

Ophidian Wars has its origin in a story - or more accurately, a world. It wasn't a game mechanic, or prototype, or ragdoll physics that spurred development. It was the need to create - the need to show a world and tell a story to an audience.

So why "The Legend of Kilflame?" Well the short answer is because this first installment opens a window to a legend within a fictional world. Players will know very little of the legend until they play the game, and part of the fun is trying to put the pieces together. What if the legend is the end game? Often times games spoil their legend in the prologue, setting up a huge story of epic proportions and then sending the player on their merry legendary way - not Ophidian Wars. We're tasking you with figuring out the legend from the character's point if view.

Because if you think about it, a legend doesn't carry any weight until after it's happened. In this case, our subtitle "The Legend of Kilflame" refers to something that's currently happening in the game, not prior to the game. But the nagging question remains - what is the legend? Can't tell you, sorry. If I told you is was about three glowing triangles would you believe me? Get your own legend. I am taking mine and going home.

Animation Fine Tuning

When you sit down and watch a video like this one for Dust (recent XNA Dream-Build-Play winner), you realize that great animation can have a huge impact on the player's overall experience. Dust looks gorgeous and if you talk to people about it, the conversation almost always starts and ends with how beautiful the art and animation is. Smooth, stylish, crisp = nom nom nom players eat it up.

So yes, there's the obvious difference between Dust and Ophidian Wars. Dust is a 2D animated game, while Ophidian Wars uses 3D graphics/models and aims for more realistic feel. But that doesn't change the fact that watching the characters in Dust jump off the screen is truly inspirational.

As Bryan and I have started working with Maya in-game more, there's a good deal of effort around fine tuning the animations to make them feel more natural and satisfying. Rob's animation work is top-notch, but people often forget that it's not just about the animation sequence, but how fast it cycles, how many frames are used, how the controls manipulate each animation, where effects are applied, and so on.

Many of you may have played games where the controls almost feel delayed or sluggish? Maybe the attack moves felt slow, the running seemed 'slippery', or the jumping looked a bit more like floating? We're working hard to avoid all of those issues. We want Maya's attacks to really "SNAP" and feel responsive and quick. We want the player to hit the "block" button and feel like they timed it correctly. And when Maya transitions from a jog to a sprint, we want to show acceleration, not a sudden jarring speed boost.

And hey guess what -we did all of those things already! Heck yah we did! But it's one of those tasks that almost never really feels done, so we'll probably continue tweaking like crazy people.

Small spoiler above too - Maya has a slide attack. :) And that spear tip seems to be a at potentially hazardous and crippling height.

Box Art (take 3)

Ok I couldn't help myself. So this will be a four part series now. Here's an update on the box art. Maya is looking tough, and her cape provides a backdrop for a series of the prominent Spectral foes that she'll be battling.