Hello wonderful people from the internet!
Welcome to the sixth installment of our progression blog series! Through these posts, we continue to keep you in the loop on our development journey. In this update, we’re highlighting our recent progress and what’s on the agenda for this week.
With the September milestone guiding our efforts, we’re currently in the process of restructuring the project and also start new things, so the perfect time to join in.
What is the current state of play?
Despite having a lot of external responsibilities at the moment and with our studies starting to demand more of our time again we’re still making solid progress. We’ve begun defining the four realms that shape our gameplay. Two of them are already described in detail and will continue to be refined in the coming weeks and months, while the remaining two are set to follow this week.
The concepts for the Enemy are now finalized and can be seen in the image below. We also continued our code clean-up and systems build, which has been incredibly rewarding. It feels great to know we’ve laid a solid foundation that will allow us to move forward smoothly in the near future.
Enemy Concept of the flying Enemy
Game Design
As mentioned, we will roughly finalise the two remaining realms this week. The process of equipping a world (or four worlds in our case) in a detailed, exciting way and with exciting lore and narrative takes a long time. It’s important for us to create a rough framework so that our art team can finalise the concepts for the realms this week and next. The realms are four very different worlds, with different rituals, gods and beings.
The Northern Reach
Far in the utmost reaches of the world, where the sky itself leans upon the jagged crowns of mountains vast and terrible, there lies a land forgotten by all but legend: the Northern Reach. There, winter reigns unbroken and unyielding, and no thaw has ever softened the frozen breath of its winds. The snows lie heavy and eternal, and the air cuts deep, as if forged by ancient wrath. Only the most enduring of creatures draw breath in that forsaken realm, and among them dwell the Giants, a race wrought of stone and storm, their hearts tempered by strife, and their ways old as the mountains themselves.
These Giants are a proud and solemn folk. Their voices roll like thunder across the crags, yet in battle they are silent, for their honor is not measured in boast or song, but in the clash of arms and in a death met with unflinching will. They fashion weapons not of mortal ore, but of Glasfrost, a substance colder than the void and harder than any forged by man. Found deep beneath the frozen bones of the earth, Glasfrost may only be shaped by a fire not of this world.
That fire is Runefire, a flame of azure hue, summoned by means of ancient runes carved into the elder-stone of their forges. These runes draw upon the Aetherveil, the hidden thread of power that binds all things. Through this sacred communion, the Giants awaken their craft, and from their hands are born the mightiest of weapons, blades and hammers that bear not only the weight of steel, but the spirit of the warrior who wields them.
Beyond the mountain-fangs the world lies vast and wild. All things there are made great, for in that age and place, giantism marked the work of creation. The beasts that roam the wastes are titanic in form and fearsome in spirit: Kraken stir beneath the black ice of the northern seas; Icehorns, with crystal helms of Glasfrost, thunder across the white plains; and Stormcallers, pale-winged and watchful, summon gales with the mere beat of their wings. Most ancient of all are the Ice Golems, wrought when the world was young, vast hulks of frost and stone, their thoughts slow as the passing of stars.
Yet over all these powers, one stands above. A god, they name him. A Giant of such stature and sorcery that the runes themselves bend to his will. In ages long past, he was counted among the wise and just, but now he weaves his dark designs in silence, shaping fate as a weaver does thread. By whispered magic and hidden flame, he ensnares the mightiest among the Giants, gifting them arcane power, yet binding them to his dominion.
Thus are born the Elders. Once noble champions, now thralls cloaked in grandeur. Their strength is undying, their wisdom deep, but their freedom is forfeit. And so it is that strife has taken root, as the Elders wage endless war upon their own kin. For uncounted ages the conflict has endured: Elder against Warrior, sorcery against steel, honor against ruin.
Still the mountains quake with their strife. Still the snows are stained with the blood of brothers. And beneath a sky that has never known the breath of spring, the war goes ever on, a tale without end, echoing through the frozen halls of the Northern Reach.
The Western Lands of Vaelanûr
In western realm of the world, beyond the veils of mortal ken, there lay the realm of Vaelanûr, the Land of Passing, where the breathless departed wandered, and where once a goddess, gentle and grave, ruled with sorrowful grace. She was the Soul-Shepherd, and her voice, soft as wind through barrows, called the dead to their rightful final resting place. For in Vaelanûr, a thousand thousand gates stood upon the mire, the gates of Vaelgorin. Each a shining threshold to an afterlife shaped by the dreams of a soul’s living days.
But the goddess is gone.
How or where, none may say. Perhaps she faded with the waning of belief, or turned her gaze to realms beyond even Vaelanûr. In her absence, the burden of her divine charge fell upon her people, the Velgorin, pale and weary folk who once served at her side in reverent silence. They were never meant to bear the mantle alone, and now their songs falter, their eyes darken, and the task grows too great.
The swamplands of Vaelanûr rot beneath forgotten moons, a stench of old death rising from the waters. Mists coil like sleeping beasts around the gates, tall and solemn archways wrought of bone and starlight, and the dead come in endless tides, bewildered and mute. Without the goddess to guide them, many wander in despair, drifting like leaves upon black waters. In desperation, some enter the wrong gates and are lost forever, unmoored from fate. These are the Grimhaldûn, cursed to roam the decaying fields, whispering in tongues no longer spoken.
And still, the Gates of Vaelgorin stand, unmoving and silent, sentinels to fates forgotten. The Velgorin weep, their cloaks heavy with sorrow, their prayers unanswered. Vaelanûr grows colder with each passing age, and though no living feet tread its soil, all must one day find their way there.
Or be lost.
These are the realms that have been worked out so far, they will be more detailed but the basic concept will look like this. The two other relams that will be started this week are:
- The Eastern Mirrors of the Future (WIP)
- The Southern Spirit Temples (WIP)
Check the blog next week to find out more or join the Discord to create these realms together with us.
Art & Audio
Here we will start to conceptualise the two already advanced worlds. These are The Northern Reach and the The Western Gates to Posterity. We have also decided that our style will change slightly. We will change from a perspective camera to an orthographic camera. This will give us the advantage that we can do the background and most of our environment asstes in 2D lineart, which is our strength, get more assets produced in higher quality and we don’t have to worry about the depth of field. Why didn’t we do that directly you might ask, that was a problem of rotation, only since we agreed to do a complete realm-switch was this option open again.
We had our first meeting with our composer, who will be creating the soundtrack for Enu. The goal over the coming months is to develop four distinct tracks, each tailored to one of the four realms. Our composer already has some exciting ideas on how to connect the music dynamically to both the realm rotation and the unique atmosphere of each realm.
Programming
We’re already seeing the first positive results of our rework. One major improvement is the adaptation of our Enemy scripts: we can now assign different attacks to each Enemy independently of other systems. Want an Enemy to have a dash ability? No problem, just drop the script into the state machine, and it’s ready to go.
This modular approach allows us to build enemies with unique behaviors in a much more flexible way. It also lays the groundwork for future editor tools, where this component-based design will be extremely valuable.
This week, our focus is on decoupling movement and movement mechanics, making them fully independent and universally applicable to all objects in the game.
That wraps up this week’s update! There’s still a lot ahead of us, but we’re moving forward steadily, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see the pieces starting to fall into place. Each step, no matter how small, brings us closer to the game we’ve imagined from the start.
Thanks so much for following along, whether you’re giving feedback, cheering us on, or just quietly keeping up, your support truly means the world to us. We’re excited to keep sharing our progress with you in the coming weeks!
