Hello again – another developer post – this time on Audio

So – Audio for me matters a lot, basically it matters as much as graphical quality..for me, anyway. It helps immersion and the sense you get that the place you’re in right now is .. well .. real.

So for Twin Worlds: Apocalypse, I’m actually spending quite a bit on the audio, getting as much done as I can – for example – when you’re running you can hear the difference between cloth/leather/chain/plate, when you attack something, you’ll hear that you attacked it with..a spear or a sword. Ambiance won’t  be a backing track for the sake of having one – it will help set the mood for the area you’re in. If you’re in a cave, you’ll hear the slow dripping of water leaking from the ceiling, or if you’re in a castle, you’ll probably hear a lot of creaks and groans coming from all around you, which then is helped by the actual area’s musical score to bring you one step closer to actually being in the castle yourself.

Now, you’ll end up killing some seriously epic bosses, so the music for that should be similarly epic – that means no light hearted crap – I’m going for a musical score that will create an emotional connection (hopefully!) between yourself, your character and the world. Besides, even the title music will be amazing (hopefully)  - all the music will be (hopefully), whether it is in a Cave, Castle, Shop, Field or .. anywhere!

Next Dev. post -> Artwork – stay tuned

Picture is not what the game looks like at all – just some picture off Google which helps illustrate my point, I hope.

So this’ll be a .. quick post about some things that I’m considering when designing each zone/level/environment/cave/etc.

Immersion

Yeah. See, each big zone will take me at least 240 hours to full design and place stuff; each prop/asset in the scene will be placed where it makes sense. You won’t see a shield on a shelf next to food items in a .. food shop.. or food items next to swords in a blacksmith – just doesn’t make sense! Though these are poor examples. Let’s try another one:

Say you’re infiltrating an enemy castle, you won’t randomly see fluffy teddy bears hanging around, instead you’d probably see a few heads just rolling about (like tumbleweed..) since..well..they’re evil! So why can’t they have a dark sense of humor?

Visual Beauty

Kind of a weird sub-title but let’s just go with it. I’m not spending time thinking about witty sub-titles -.-

There will be places where, hopefully, you will go -OMG! THTS SO AM4Z1NG!!1!!one!- (Yes, I purposely wrote like that) and if you actually are .. surprised, then that’s a job well done in my eyes.
You’ll most likely find balconies in castles where you get an great view of the land near you /further away from you, and hopefully if I can get the LOD settings worked out for distance, you can see fires/other animations/particle effects from afar. There will be places that will make your mind trip and other places where it’s just simply beautiful – no special tricks required

Puzzles

Yes, puzzles – though not randomly strewn all over the place (Oh look, we have to decipher this puzzle so we can proceed and can talk to this shopkeeper to buy an apple – Seriously? >.>) – They will most likely be placed in strategic places, such as to access ancient treasure, or to break into an enemy fort unseen

That’s all I’ve got for now; stay tuned!

Knight

The Knight is a stalwart defender of those who require their assistance. Commonly thought of as gallant saviours, in reality they’re battle hardened warriors who opt for a little more defense in sacrifice of some damage, but they’re still a very tough opponent to go up against.

Primarily they wield a sword/axe/spear along with a shield; Knights often look like moving barricades of destruction. Their main handed weapon isn’t just for decoration, however – they can unleash furious attacks that penetrate weak points in their foes armour, allowing them to still deal competitive damage while holding a shield.

Their shield isn’t just for blocking and decoration either; they use it for smashing in foes with brute force, often stunning them in place for a few seconds and dealing great damage.  Their shields are often kitted with spikes and blades or other damaging tools to increase damage.

Knights can combo their main handed weapon and shield attacks to stun and decimate their opponents.

Abilities (Names might change, but for the most part they’ll stick):

Main-hand Weapon abilities

Sunder
Riposte
Strike

Shield abilities

Shield Slam
Blockade
Spell Reflect

Main-hand + Shield abilities

Sun and Moon – Hard hitting main-hand strike followed by a shove with the shield; knocks target back a few feet
Shockwave – Slams the shield into the ground, emitting a shockwave in front, then a spin attack from the Knight; deals AoE damage
Stampede – Knight holds the shield up in front, with main-hand weapon on the side; charges straight forward, dealing damage to all in front

Buff
Gallantry – Reduces damage taken for a short while

Pyrelmentalist

Pyrelmentalists are infused with both fire and Mind magic, and capable of merging them together, allowing them to be a deadly and precise wielder of doom.

Using Fire magic alone, the Pyrelmentalist can destroy foes with deadly fireballs, using incredibly hard hitting meteors to prevent tough enemies from encroaching on their territory, and even shaping fire into a phoenix for extra damage, and a visual treat.

Using Mind magic alone, the Pyrelmentalist can infiltrate their enemies’ minds and inflict great (imaginary) pain, even causing the weak willed foes to go insane and fight for you.

By using a combination of both Fire and Mind magic, the Pyrelmentalist is an extremely deadly and precise magic user, allowing them to set foes alight from the inside, and then exploding to create a chain effect. Remember; fire spreads.

Abilities:

Fire Abilities

Fireball – Regular Fireball
Phoenix – Flaming phoenix that explodes upon impact
Meteor – Dangerous meteor from the sky that knocks the enemy down

Mind Abilities

Confusion – Disorientates the target
Insanity – Forces target to fight for you for a short time
Mind wrack – Inflicts heavy damage, temporarily stunning the target

Mind + Fire Abilities (Pyrelmentalist combination skills)

Internal Ember – Ignites internals, with a 25% chance to cause the enemy to explode and fire to spread
Fire wave – Giant wave of Fire that knocks back all enemies and disorientates them, along with minor incineration (fire condition)
Dragon’s Fury – Translucent dragon appears in front of caster, emitting a dangerous flamethrower that deals very heavy damage

Buff

Fire Shield – Reflects 10% damage back at whomever struck the Pyrelmentalist as fire damage

Stronomancer

Stronomancers are masters of Ice and Lightning, and capable of merging them together, allowing them to be a living storm when they’ve reached their full potential.

Using lightning magic alone, the Stronomancer can incapacitate enemies with bolts of lightning, capable of penetrating the strongest man-made armour, and is still powerful against armour that is not man-made.

Using ice magic alone, the Stronomancer can freeze enemies with Flash Freeze, causing frostbite on the toughest hides and spreading a hailstorm through an area

By using a combination of both ice and lightning magic, the Stronomancer is an incredibly powerful tempest, capable of tearing apart legions of foes with debilitating conditions.

Abilities (Names might change, but for the most part they’ll stick):

Ice abilities

Flash Freeze – Traps enemies in a certain area in ice for a few seconds
Hailstorm – Rains hail on a targeted area
Ripple – Sends out a wave of ice to slow enemies

Lightning abilities

Lightning Bolt – Regular bolt of lightning
Thunderclap – Disorientates and knocks down target
Chain Lightning – Lightning Bolt that jumps up to 3 targets

Ice + Lightning abilities (Stronomancer combination skills)

Strono bolt – Lightning and Ice bolt
Frostbite – Reduces Max HP by 10% for X seconds
Hurricane – Typhoon + Vortex together, forming a deadly frozen swirl of lightning (that make sense? )

Buff

Frost Barrier – Slows all who attack

So yeah, this is the more or less finished class list. Each class will get it’s own post later.

Warrior Archetype

• Knight
• Barbarian

Rogue Archetype

• Assassin
• Saboteur

Ranger Archetype

• Hunter
• Gunslinger

Mage Archetype

• Stronomancer
• Pyrelmentalist

Might post a description of one of the classes later on, otherwise tomorrow.

Yeah, sorry about the long delay between updates. Right, so if you go back a bit you’ll see my early demon RPG concepts; I’m taking some of that, merging it with more fun, cool, exciting and awesome concepts (yes, I did that on purpose), along with the elements from an adventure game and voilà! You’ve got my new game.

So get ready for a dark and epic adventure through a fictional world. Concept ideas incoming over the next while. Stay tuned!

Alright. So – since I’m learning C# (did..a little progress today. First time in roughly a week I wasn’t sleepy so I took advantage of it and played Aion..) I figured that to practice,  so I’m going to make either a 2D, 2.5D game to..practice in? It’ll still be a serious game, just I’ll be coding it Maybe I’ll do a 3D one instead..expect to see at least one new game idea revealed in the following week. This’ll be fun..(really).

Bought a C# book – time to sit down this weekend and .. learn to code? Should hopefully be done the book in a week~. (The book is the picture btw.)

Wonder how hard this is going to be? Or if I’ll remember it.

Here goes..