First September Update! news - Malevolence: The Sword of Ahkranox

Hello hello! So, since you guys are all over the internet like white on rice in a glass of milk on a paper plate in a snowstorm, the secret is out already :-P We've put Malevolence up on Steam Greenlight!

So, before you continue reading, please head on over there and give us a thumbs up rating, because this will seriously help our cause in getting onto Steam. We've already gotten distribution agreements set up with Desura, GamersGate and Amazon Games Portal, and are in talks with GoG, too, but Steam would be the icing on the cake. We have an inside guy there now, with our lead sound engineer, Roland, starting work at Valve this month (very exciting for him), so if we're lucky he might slip in a positive word for us.

Now, the funny thing is, many people are surprised to learn that Malevolence is a roguelike RPG. We thought it was fairly obvious! Grid based, turn-based, dungeon delving, looting, upgrading... All classic roguelike stuff. One person got quite rude with us saying that we shouldn't DARE use the word roguelike because to be a roguelike you need to have randomly generated dungeons. This is very true. But Malevolence DOES have randomly generated dungeons... Kind of... The nature of having a game with random dungeons is so that you always have a new dungeon to go into each time you play. Well... Malevolence has that, too... We have an infinite number of dungeons for you to explore, and you can always get a new one! That's just as good, if not better!

But no, Malevolence isn't a traditional RPG in the sense of games like Skyrim. There is no main storyline that you follow and then finish the game with. Malevolence is a game you can play forever and the story keeps building with you, as you are the one making the story. It plays a LOT like an RPG in almost every aspect, but it is - at its heart - a very, VERY advanced roguelike (maybe even the most advanced... But I'm not qualified to make that claim)

But enough of the talkie talkies. Time for some pretties!

Mihaela is back to blow your minds a little bit more. You may remember from the original trailer for the game, the shot showing The Sword of Ahkranox, encased in ice, floating in its tower temple:

That scene was rendered from within the game engine, but we wanted a painting of it, showing more of the chamber, and giving a bit more of a sense of scale to The Sword (it's about 30ft long) and so we gave Mihaela the task. As could be expected, she excelled:

It's a really magical, pensive piece and we love it! We want to get her to do one more, but we're not 100% sure what just yet. If you have any ideas, let us know in the comments!

Another one of our artists who you might remember from a while back is Beth Sparks. She's an abstract artist and she's been doing the incredible poster art for the game, depicting some of the past chosen ones that came before you as a player are born into the world. Here are some snippets of what she's been working on (including the last one you saw, just to jog your memory)

Looking really sharp, we think! And aside from her, Ian has finished the 3D model for the aviary, the sort of "bus stop" for Gryphon transport in the game:

It came out very nicely! We can't wait to implement it!

So that's all for now. We'll be doing a test submission very soon once a couple of final things are wrapped up.

But anyway, I raise my can of Dr Pepper in a toast to your enthusiasm! We'll see you very soon with another update.