A Valley Without Wind: Weather, Characters and Monsters
Arcen Games is pleased to share a large update for its procedurally-generated survival adventure title A Valley Without Wind. Several additions and improvements have been made to the game, including weather, monsters, a new female character, and many other new visuals.
Six new monsters have been introduced, looking to pursue and destroy characters who stray too far in their respective regions. Meet the Espers, Desert Burrowers, Sniper Skelebots, and Bats -- they come in standard, fire and ice flavors. Yes, bats. Scoff at one sure, but beware: they always bring friends. With them, Dawn (AVWW's first female character sprite) joins the survivor fray alongside the original male character Darrell and the Neutral Skelebot. A variety of flowers, dozens of cars, and other new buildings/objects have also been added.
AVWW now carries several different kinds of weather as well, rainfall and snowfall in several regions can range from light to raging, blowing dust and sandstorms in the desert region, firestorms in the lava region and more. Major visual improvements to the HUD and main menu, plus new name dictionaries for characters also come packed in the latest update.
Check out A Valley Without Wind's latest pre-alpha trailer showing off the aforementioned items (in HD): Youtube.com
Arcen head Chris Park discusses all of the above, plus some new items on the technical side such as character animations and region level gating in this developer journal: Christophermpark.blogspot.com
Chris also touches on other new aspects including the revamped HUD, ground graphics, melee models, and more in the latest developer journal for the title: Christophermpark.blogspot.com
16 new screenshots can be found on the AVWW feature page (as well as in the images section on the AVWW IndieDB page): Arcengames.com
A Valley Without Wind is currently targeted for official release on PC and Mac in October 2011, with a playable Beta build available to customers who pre-order coming this summer.
About Arcen Games
Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.
AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles.
