Hello everybody! I'm very excited to finally put this project on ModDB. I've put a few pictures on my profile in the past, but now it's official. Up until this point my primary site for content and news has been Crymod.com. I wanted to wait until the project was approaching completion to put it here.
To get new viewers up to speed, here is a little bit of background information. I started developing this last April. Originally it was simply an environmental map titled "Exoplanet." My goal was to design and build a planet from scratch. No story, characters, or real purpose. The player was essentially an "inert observer." I had done 2 major re-designs that changed the layout of the level, but I still didn't have a way to make it work from beginning to end. Along the way the name changed to "Arthias." I started considering writing a story for it, and finally decided it needed one. So I did one more major re-design which gave the level a story driven purpose.
The story itself is quite expansive. I've spent the past 4 months developing an in depth sci-fi universe for this to take place in. It's too big for one level. So it was renamed to "Arthias: Prologue," and here we are now.
The story in the prologue is loosely connected to the larger main storyline. It's an intro to the planet as a setting for the main storyline, while also being a character study of the first human to land on the planet.
Now, before I go on, I want to just give a little bit of extra info so you fully understand what I'm trying to achieve here. There is essentially no gameplay. The gameplay will come in the main storyline. This is an exercise in visual storytelling. I am attempting to tell a story with no dialogue. The player is alone with nobody to talk to. As you can tell by the last screenshot I posted, it's not just going to consist of walking around on a planet. It is going to get very abstract, and take you places that may or may not even exist. In the end, what happens will be open to your interpretation.
What I'm doing now is working to finish this within the next month. I'd like to release it shortly before the release of Crysis 2 on March 22. Posting on ModDB now has saved you new viewers the almost year long wait that the guys over at Crymod have had.
Finally I want to mention the people helping out with this project. I have a small team of two people. They go by the names RayFan9876 (composer) and Mr.Sin (modeler.) You can see Mr.Sin's work in the cave screenshot. He provided the bioluminescent cave plants. More of his work will be featured further in, but that content is going to remain under wraps until release.
You won't get to hear the soundtrack until release, but RayFan is definitely capturing the right feeling. The final product will be amazing.
In addition to those two, I'm also using community assets from Crymod.com. Xzero made the planet models, and Silent made the high-res vegetation textures.
I am doing all the level design. I've also done a few custom textures, and some minor model work (the stalagmites in the caves.)
I've also had various friends, including the team throw in various environment concepts, story ideas, etc. All in all it has become a very group oriented project
Even if I tend to make it sound like I'm the only one working on this, you should know there's a great group of people behind this project.
That's about it. Hopefully there won't be much of a need for news articles if we can get this thing released by mid March. Feel free to comment, send me a message, or whatever you like. It's always great to get feedback!
Thanks for stopping by!
-Chrome
