In a nice twist, we've been given a very powerful nudge forward in progress :) Steve Finney from Arteria3d has offered us a lifetime membership to his site, allowing us to progress our development work much faster. His work is really quite good and if you make games, I recommend checking it out!
The first of his assets that we've settled on to use is the tavern, which is totally awesome. Check it out!
So that's helped us out quite a bit. We've been working closely with our test team to try and perfect the countryside code and make it as efficient as possible. So far with good results, too!
We've also added witch's huts to the wilderness! The witches in Ahkranox have all the very best poisons, and will help you to mix your own potions and learn alchemy, but be very wary, as they're more dangerous than they seem...
Also, watch this space, as Hyfrydle32 has told us that there's another Let's Play video in the works (so we'd better stop being lazy and get him a new alpha build!)
That's really all for now, but expect a bigger post soon.
One thing I'd like to point out before I go, though, is the comments we've been getting regarding Legend of Grimrock. People keep commenting saying that it's the same as Malevolence, and I'd like to set a few things straight.
Firstly, I'd like to say that I and the rest of the team are BIG fans of that game. It's epic. We've spoken to the guys, too, and they're an awesome bunch. The game is totally fun, its graphics and design are GORGEOUS and we highly recommend that you buy it and play it to death. But please, please, please keep in mind that Malevolence and Grimrock are two very, very different games. The only things that they have in common are the movement style and the fact that they are both medieval fantasy games.
Here are the main differing points:
Legend of Grimrock Malevolence
----------------------------------------------------------
Real-Time Turn-Based
All Indoors Can go outside
Party-based You play as one character
Fixed level design Procedural world generation
Puzzle-based Quest and character progression based
So, as you can see, very different games. Please don't look at the grid-based movement and assume that it's the same game.
All that being said though... GO AND BUY IT! We've been playing it, and it's HEAPS of fun, and looks incredible as well. Almost Human Games have done an incredible job of it, and it's been well worth the wait.
Anyway, more soon. Stay tuned!
I've seen Legend of Grimrock I think it is a great game but I didn't think it has much in common with Malevolence even before you guys went ahead and said it
Very good to know :) but we get sooooooo many emails and messages on FB saying "oh no, Grimrock beat you to it" that we just needed to say it!
Same, silly noobs who can't tell the difference ^.^
lol it's refreshing to read these posts
Malevolence and Minecraft both have swords and procedurally generated worlds , Malevolence is just another Minecraft clone! ;D
O NOES!!! How could we not have seen it >_< hahahaha
I saw Legend of Grimrock on GOG.com
Looks really good... But I'm sure Malevolence is going way beyond the scope of Grimrock!
But I doubt we'll get it looking as good! Grimrock is BEAUTIFUL! Unfortunately, having an infinite world means making some concessions in terms of graphics :( but oh well, thank you anyway :)
There are plenty of games I love that don't have "Crysis" graphics...
So I'm fine with it! I hope there will be opportunities for the modding community to improve textures, normals, etc.
so , does that mean that malebolence is a copy of dung...dongeon,djfj... whatever master ? it's so awful!!!!
Luckily, Malevolence is a copy of nothing, as no other game has an persistent infinite world :D but its gameplay is a homage to early 90s FPRPGs such as Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, Anvil of Dawn, Might & Magic, Stonekeep, etc.
of course ; and as an hommage , it has to keep at least a good part of what make those rpg awesome :3
And, unfortunately, make one or two concessions for modern players who didn't have the awesome upbringing that we did ;)
do i look like i care about concession ? as long as the game is done, it can still be patched with new stuff ^_^
too many game ended in the limb of the red game over..... let's hope this one won't fall too ...
ps: if you need help for translating, i'll be pleased to help ; i do know how good a game can be but still; learning a new language for it isn't really appealing ^_^'
ps2 : will there be book ? :3
Just wondering... What's the "red game over"? Nothing's going to stop this game getting made! :D
The game will only be offered in English, unfortunately, but it won't be very word-based. You won't have to do much reading at all to play it!
We'd like there to be a book... This game is so vast that if it's popular we'd love for people to write fan-fiction about it :D who knows, we may even start it off ourselves!
the red game over? this place is where the lost games go where they cannot be released.. like half-life 3, anachronx 2 , or any good sonic game XD
ps: fanfiction ? indeed, as an open-ended game, having fanfiction could be good (i still have to recover from all those kingdom hearts... fanfiction; hope you understand ^_^')
lol understood
Ah yes, I actually wanted to ask you guys what you thought of LoG now that it was released, but then I figured other people probably already asked that and I waited for your next newspost as I expected some kind of reply.. and here it is ;) It sure looks interesting, but I still prefer MSOA. I guess you could say I'm some kind of fanboy? >.<
hahaha ahh, but that's what we love about you, Metalspy! LoG really is a cool game, and well worth getting. But it's definitely nothing like MSoA!
Playing Legend of Grimrock now and I am LOVING IT!!!
I am NOT playing Malevolence now for an accurate comparison. *hint hint*
Ah, well, guess I will compare when it comes out.
Ahahahahaha very subtle! We can't wait to get you the demo! We hope you enjoy it as much when it comes out!
(We're playing Grimrock as well. What an awesome game!)
Great post, and thanks for putting us onto Arteria3d, it was not a service that we had heard of before but it looks like it could come in very handy in the future.
They're good guys, and they like to offer indie developers a helping hand!
If I bought all the games I wanted, I'd not have any money for anything else this year. :P
I really want to get Legend of Grimrock but have decided against it for the time being. I'm not even sure I have the money for Diablo 3 for a while. (My wedding is in June and it's pretty expensive at this point. :D )
Luckily Malevolence is coming in December so it'd be strange if I couldn't buy that at release!