Stuff and Things! news - Malevolence: The Sword of Ahkranox

Yes, I know, the updates have been lacking lately, but that doesn't mean that the work has slowed down!

We've decided on a bit of a new direction for the game in this last stretch before release. Up until now, our development direction had been to perfect each of the three segments of the game (dungeons, countrysides then towns) and then spend the final sprint developing assets and adding polish.

Now, however, our direction has changed. We now plan to get all three areas of the game working in a rough state (basic functionality) and have it all link together as an entire (though basic) game. Once that is done, we will then go through and develop the game features, then develop assets and add polish.

Because of this new system, however, we've got to do a LARGE amount of work to link all three sections of the game together and get them working in a basic form. Once that's done, however, we'll be able to pass on this rough version to the alpha test team as we slowly add features and fix bugs. Once it's all running smoothly, it'll be simply a mad dash to create 3D models, textures, sounds, music, voices, etc to put into the game. So that's what we've been doing.

Dungeons are working beautifully (as you've seen), countrysides are looking nice and are at around 90% of their basic functionality (though about 10% of their total functionality) and towns are what we're currently focusing on. They're sitting at around 50% of their basic functionality (10% of total functionality). Once countryside and towns are sitting at 100% of their BASIC functionlity, the REAL work will begin, and you'll start seeing some VERY interesting blog entries and also start seeing the game REALLY take shape.

As a VERY early preview, here's a look at how towns are coming along. We've come a little further since recording this vid, but basically, buildings are being created and placed along with basic landmarks. Eventually, we'll start adding more assets so the buildings look different and have more variety, and there will be much more kitch around the place like wagons and barrels, etc. And then NPCs will go in, and you'll also be able to enter buildings and take a look around. So the next few blog entries should be quite interesting.

We haven't had time to make the graphics pretty yet, so you'll just have to trust us on that one. Remember the jump in quality from the old dungeons to the new ones? You can expect that with towns as well. But first we need to get them working properly.

In other news, our concept art lead, Natalie, has been churning out art for us and has been kind enough to throw together a time-lapse video of her working on a new items sheet. Take a look!

It's really cool watching it come together like that!

A big thanks, by the way to everyone who has sent us nice messages on IndieDB, Blogspot, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube lately. It's all of your positive feedback that really gives us the drive to keep plodding along at this! We really hope you'll enjoy the game once it's done! We're enjoying it already and it's still only very rough! So hopefully that means good things!

Somewhere amidst this very busy year, we'll also be putting together a new trailer for you all to see, which should give you all a buzz! So keep an eye out! In the meantime, check out our original trailer for the game! It uses all in-game footage from our early tests with advanced lighting!

More updates soon! In the meantime, please join us on the social networks!