Skyward Collapse Wallpaper

Skyward Collapse is heading to 1.0 in just about a month, and beta within about two weeks.  We'll have more details on the game as we get closer and closer to that time, plus a few other surprises that I think you'll find very fun.

In the meantime, I'd like to share with you this awesome wallpaper that was created by our very own Daniette "Blue" Wood.  I haven't officially announced this before, and should have, but we have a new art director!  You can read a bit about her on our About Us page.  Folks in the forums for the game have been enjoying periodically getting to watch her livestream her work on this particular piece.

This wallpaper is also the background of the main menu for the game, and you'll be seeing it as the main "promo art" for the game in general.  Click on the above image to get the full-size 1920x1080 version for you to download.  Enjoy!

UPDATE: Apparently blogger sized down the image to 1600x900 without my realizing it.  I've uploaded the full-size version on the forum thread about this post.

Skyward Collapse Teaser 2: Unit Sketches and More Details

So, we recently announced Skyward Collapse.  If you missed it, it's something we're really excited about.

However, we only showed a single screenshot with some of the final-quality map tiles, tokens, and skies in them.  Needless to say, the rest of the art is still in various states of completion, ranging from sketches to coloring to getting final polish on it.  We have a great pipeline going with about 11 artists (10 at Heavy Cat, and then our new art director Blue on our side), so that's all proceeding well.

When it comes to the units themselves -- all the Greek and Norse people and gods that move around the map like boardgame pieces each turn -- we haven't shown anything with them until now.  We're still working on the final coloring style for them, so I don't want to show any of the colored ones yet. 

That said, we have a lot of wonderful sketches of them that will be directly translated into the final unit graphics shown in-game (in other words, these are more than concept sketches -- they are the actual graphics that will be used in the game, minus color and shading, at a larger scale than you'll see in the final game).

Norse Chapman -- The chapmen are the main civilian workers for each faction.  Their primary responsibility is carrying raw resources from the resource producers to the town centers.  The raw resources themselves are produced by different civilians (unseen in the buildings that they work in, though you have to staff those buildings), and the finished goods are created in a similar way in the town buildings related to each kind of finished good.

Norse Arsonist -- Since there's a limit to how many siege-type weapons the Norse actually historically used (that just wasn't their main fighting style), we had to get a bit creative.  While our game is historically-based in some ways, it's also set in a fantasy world that is merely inspired by those civilizations.  That gives us some creative license.  In this particular case, we didn't have to take that much.  The arsonists are considered a "siege unit," and their primary purpose is setting enemy buildings on fire.  The buildings then take damage over time, while the arsonist moves from building to building in the enemy town or territory.

Norse Berserk -- Give these guys some bacon and weapons, and they're ready to rock.  The Norse don't have any cavalry at all in this game, but they make up for it with several intimidating kinds of infantry.  The Greeks and the Norse have very different units all around!  Even their chapmen have different stats.

Pan (Greek) -- This is one of the Greek gods that you can choose to call to your aid as the game progresses.  The gods all stand taller than the regular units (fit into a 128x128 square instead of a 96x96 square), making them more obviously and imposing.

Zeus (Greek) -- Here's an obvious example of one of the four "greater gods" that you get to choose from at the start of the third round of each game.  The greater gods are a lot more powerful and have a big impact on the game... but each side has one!


About That Whole "Peacekeeping" Thing
We've had a lot of awesome coverage for the game already, for which we're extremely grateful!  That said, there is a bit of a misconception based on my first blog post about this (which is my own fault) about your actual role as The Creator.

Basically, the perception was that you're in a peacekeeping role where you're trying to keep the two factions from fighting.  This actually isn't remotely true: you want those dudes fighting as much as possible if you want a real score.  What you're trying to prevent is genocide, or one side thoroughly dominating the other. 

You want both sides to have some heavy warfare, in other words, in order to get the maximum sort of score.  But while you're doing that, you want to prevent the following:

- One side obliterating the other (you lose if this happens).

- One side getting far ahead of the other (your final score is likely to be quite bad if this happens).

- Either side getting their economy so crippled that it's hard for them to carry on with their warfare (again, your final score is likely to suffer quite a bit, and/or the risk of genocide goes up).

Think of this kind of like the hundred years war, not the cold war.  This isn't about creating an uneasy armistice with spots of minor conflict here and there; it's about creating all-out war (on a village-versus-village scale) with possible periods of calm (where the sides are rebuilding as needed).  As a supreme being, you're not exactly that... benevolent.

Why is this distinction important?  Well, the implications are pretty huge, really: your job is that much harder.  If you're trying to maintain an armistice, that only involves so many moving parts.  If you're trying to maintain heavy warfare while not absolutely crippling critical infrastructure or allowing either side to overtake the other too much... well, there are a lot more moving parts there.

Overall I think the press still has a pretty good bead on what this game is in general, but that was one point I thought worth clarifying!

Skyward Collapse Teaser 1

Purely by coincidence, it's been exactly two weeks since we did our first teaser for our upcoming game Exodus of the Machine.  But did you know we're actually working on two new titles at the moment?

Our second upcoming game is called Skyward Collapse, and it's just now reaching a point where we're ready to show our first screenshot of it.  Aside from overlaying the logo in the lower left corner, this is exactly how the current build of the game looks as of about  10 minutes ago:

So just what is Skyward Collapse?  It's a turn-based 4x simulation god-game.

Overall Gameplay
Set high in the sky atop a floating landmass that you are actively constructing as the game progresses, you oversee two warring factions (Greeks and Norse).  Via solo play or co-op, you play as "The Creator," helping both sides of the conflict -- granting each side buildings, resources, and even new citizens.

However, the multitude of villages you create all have minds of their own, and will actively try to stomp the nearest still-standing village of the other faction.  Given the resources and appropriate buildings, your villagers will gear up for war without your direct interaction, and will fight it out to the best of their abilities.

Unlike most strategy games, your goal isn't to have either of the sides win.  "You" aren't represented by either of the sides, after all.  Instead your goal is to balance this conflict as best you can so that neither side gets wiped out.  You win by having the most points generated (read: most carnage) without either side committing genocide.

But you can't just strip them of the ability to gear up for war: roaming bandits make defense essential.  Not to mention, crime in each village goes up and up the longer it's without a military presence, until it collapses into anarchy.  You can construct embassies and assign traveling diplomats to them in an effort to reach a state of enlightenment where crime is no longer a threat, but this is difficult and only affects the two villages that are undergoing peace talks; their neighbors will remain as warlike as ever!

UPDATE: While we hadn't originally planned this, because of reader comments in a variety of places we've decided that we'll be adding a way to lose a campaign.  Here is our current brainstorming on how to lose.

Game Structure And Objectives
Gameplay takes place over three rounds (with a brief setup round occurring prior to that), each with a fixed number of turns that you can choose when you start the game.  During the time before your game ends, the goal is to get the highest possible score: your overall score is based on the lowest score of the two factions, so again keeping them in balance is key.

As you play, you'll also be trying to complete various meta-missions to increase your personal rank.  Every 10 missions you complete, you unlock not only the next rank, but also a new building for your towns!

Units, Economy, and Mythology
Oh, did I mention mythology yet?  Looks like not.  During the first round of the game, it's mostly just you and your villagers.  You can also directly summon certain powerful mythological creatures like minotaurs or the midgard serpent and so on, but these cost a lot of specialized resources that it takes a while to build up.

In round 2, you get to choose a Lesser God for each of the two factions.  Hermes, Idunn, etc.  Which one you choose out of your four options (per faction) has a big impact on how the rest of the game plays out.  Then when round 3 starts, you get to choose a Greater God to go along with them.  Zeus, Thor, and so on.  There's four choices per side here, too.

All in all the economic and military options are what you'd expect for a simulation game, but it's also probably our most streamlined game ever.  Easy to pick up, but there are already some really tricky advanced strategies that we've been coming up with.

Advanced Strategy Example
As one example of an advanced strategy: normally you can't control what units are being produced at, say, a barracks.  There are four units that get created in rotation at the barracks, archery ranges, and siege workshops (four per building, all unique per side, I mean).

So there's no control there for you: presuming that the resources are in place for the next unit in the rotation, it just creates that unit. For a novice player, there's nothing here to think about, and it's all very simple.  The barracks do what the barracks do.

However, the tricky part is that if you don't have the resources for the next unit in the rotation, then it keeps checking the other potential units in the queue until it finds one that it can create.  Do you see the trick now?

I suppose I also now need to mention that there are a lot of resources in the game.  Both "raw resources" which are collected and stored globally per faction, and then "finished goods" that are created on-demand by specialist craftsmen in an individual village.  Pigs are a good example of a raw resource, whereas bacon is a finished good.

Currently there are 15 raw resources, and 11 finished goods.  We're still polishing the exact mix of all those, though, so that may increase slightly by the time beta starts.  If that sounds overwhelming, it's not: the resources all have clearly-defined straightforward ways of being produced, and clearly-defined ways of being used.  Mostly your choice of how you gather and refine resources boils down to what you're trying to accomplish for a given faction or a specific village.  The resource production pipeline is actually one of your primary ways of exerting indirect control over your factions.

See the advanced strategy now?  Each unit at a military training facility has at least one resource that is unique to it, as well as some that are common to all of the units in that facility.  Therefore, you can control what units get produced in the rotation based on which finished goods you make available to that village.  Even better, you can figure out ways to manage the resources such that there are synergies between the different training facilities in a single village.

Other Things
Let's see, there are trading posts with a pretty straightforward trader model (but your traders are at risk of being attacked as they travel, which is what makes it interesting).  There are the aforementioned embassies.  There are three levels of schools to buff units in the towns containing those schools.  There is an (non-visual) upgrade model for all buildings and units.

You can place dozens of "special tokens" that are either general-mythological or specific-god-related.  You can smite land tiles, or make "military commandments" that gives some overriding orders to all the units of one faction (so that's a pretty big broadsword to be used carefully).

And there's some other stuff too, but this hits most of the high points from a broad level.  We're quite excited to be sharing this with you soon -- hopefully beta will be starting before the end of April, with a 1.0 in May!  When we hit beta we'll have everything in place and it will mostly be a matter of balance.

Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

Exodus Of The Machine is a new strategic journey game by Arcen Games, set in the universe of the cult classic AI War: Fleet Command.  Lead a team trapped on a hostile planet and desperately pursuing a threat which could destroy humanity outright. 

Vicious predators, clashing armies, and political intrigue stand in your way.  None can stand before your modern weapons, but where do you use your limited ammunition?  Do you resort to diplomacy, or native weapons?  Will you fall to disease or run out of food stores?  Can you get to the end in time?

Exodus combines Arcen's love of all things strategic within a framework reminiscent of our old favorite Oregon Trail.

This is a title we've been quietly working on.  It's "coming soon," which is a vague way of saying that it will be in 2013 but that we don't want to commit to a date yet.  We wanted to share a bit with you about what we're working on, but right now the above is all we're comfortable revealing.  We'll have something a bit more meaty for you next time!

Two Shattered Haven Let's Plays With Developer Commentary

If you missed the announcement on our main news blog, Shattered Haven 1.0 is now out!  You can pick it up on Steam, Gog.com, GamersGate, Green Man Gaming, or the Arcen site.

In this below video, I walk you through parts of two overworld areas, and completes three levels in the Snow Hill section. For those looking to get a better feel for how the game flows, including seeing both single-screen and multi-screen levels, look no further!

The start is a bit slow with some cutscenes, skip ahead to about 3:00 if you just want to get straight to the action.



In this next video below, I walk you through the process of creating a new level using the built-in level editor for the game.  This includes doing a bit of minor scripting, even -- definitely a hugely helpful video if you're looking to get into the nitty-gritty of the level editor with Shattered Haven.

This level editor is hugely powerful, and is the same one used to create the intricate levels and storyline of the game itself.  If you're into level creation or even adventure design, this editor is a dream come true!



While reviews are still coming in, we were late on getting things to the press because of wanting to get the game polished up before sending it to them.  Still, a few choice quotes:

We’ve been talking about Arcen Games for a while now and if there is one thing you can certainly appreciate about them is that every one of their games is a unique product. Shattered Haven which was released this week is a different title from their previous games and may be their strongest showing yet.
-- Josh Bycer, Game Wisdom

Overall, “Shattered Haven” is a solid action / puzzle game that will certainly get the adrenaline pumping. 8/10
-- Dad's Gaming Addiction

Enjoy!

Just What Is This "Shattered Haven" Thing, Anyway?

Recently we put up a couple of gameplay videos, and hopefully that helps answer a lot of the questions right there.  But if you're not into videos, or still have questions, read on.

Story-Driven Structure
When you first start a new game, it takes you through a brief tutorial level that also contains a goodly bit of story.  On "new game plus," it skips these levels.  Once you're past the tutorial, you emerge into the first overworld area, the Phoenix Forest.

The Phoenix Forest is the first of nine main overworld areas.  Each one contains a number of required levels in it, as well as some bonus levels that are hidden and/or harder.  Not all of the overworld areas are accessible in a single playthrough, as the story branches.  And one overworld area isn't available at all until new game plus.

What Are These Levels?
The levels themselves are basically what you're seeing in the videos linked above.  A single level typically has you coming in with no weapons or tools, and then having to make do with whatever you can find in the level.  They're basically environmental puzzles, and many of them have multiple solutions.

There are also bonus objectives on each level that you can complete to get a better score and a gold marker outside the level.  These bonus objectives are a lot more challenging, and generally also require knowledge of the level to complete, so you won't do them on your first try.  New game plus remembers all your scores and level completion statuses, which is handy.

Each level usually has the goal of killing all the grays (zombies) inside it, although sometimes your goal is just to escape or to kill any one evil animal or similar.  The grays are only weak to iron, water, and fire, so things like regular bullets don't hurt them.  However, you can use a handgun (or if you later find it, a rifle) to stun them momentarily.  Those same guns can be used to kill hostile animals or other creatures.

Lots Of Variety
There are almost 100 levels in the game, and there's twelve main weapons as well as thirteen main tools, and a handful of other items.  There are also some levels where you use the environment itself to kill grays in novel ways, such as stunning them with your whip so they get caught in an avalanche, or pulling a lever that causes a trapdoor to open. 

A lot of the tools and weapons can be used in multiple ways, or combined to create novel effects.  As one example the lantern can be used to light your way, or it can be used to set sticks and so forth on fire.  Grenades are useful for their initial blast, but also for creating holes behind them.  Shovels can dig through dirt walls, or fill in those same kinds of holes the grenades leave.  Hmm.  And so on.

The styles of levels vary pretty widely, too.  Some are incredibly head-scratchingly tricky.  Often those are bonus levels.  Some are a little more reflex-oriented, and aren't really much of a puzzle at all.  Others are mazes, others are logic puzzles. 

The vast majority, however, are tactical engagements where you get dropped into hostile territory, grab for weapons and other deterrents, and then set about dismantling the enemy in the most efficient manner than occurs to you.  Rather like being a lone special forces dude dropped into a hot zone.  All of the levels are hand-crafted to make this as interesting and varied as possible.

Thick Atmosphere
During the alpha and beta we ran, one of the big things that kept coming up was how cool the atmosphere of the game is.  The graphics and lighting, and in particular the writing and music and sound work, combine to create a world that is decidedly creepy and mildly unsettling.  There are a few segments that will get your pulse going more, in particular related to story events that you probably won't see coming.

The story itself is a bit unusual, in that it's about adults looking out for their families, rather than adolescent adventurers out to save the world.  These people don't want to be out doing what they are doing, but they're forced into it by circumstances.  That's interesting to me, and it also affects the general tone and mood.

Full Level Editor
All the levels in the game were created by an in-game level editor that is included with the game.  It's right there on the main menu.  It's a little complex, particularly if you get into scripting events or cutscenes, but it's also possible to do some straightforward stuff pretty easily.  The key thing is that it's extremely powerful, so for people who really get into this they can create some entire stories and adventures of their own.


And that's about it!

Shattered Haven Launch Trailer -- 1.0 is March 18th!

Shattered Haven goes to 1.0 on Monday, March 18th, 2013!  Get the game from the Arcen site, Steam, Gog.com, GamersGate, or Green Man Gaming!

An Environmental Puzzle Game About Family, Grit, and Survival

Grays roam the land, largely in the absence of human interference.  These aren't your typical Zed -- theirs is a very different sort of apocalypse. Animals spontaneously transform into twisted, violent beings.  The earth decays, collapsing into a network of abysses.  The wilderness thickens.

It has been nine years since That Day when it all started.  Pockets of humanity still exist, but are ignorant of one another.  Within these isolated havens people try to live as best they can -- for even in a world so broken and dark, daily life must go on.

Darrell and Mary Williams were able to build such a life inside a five-acre fenced yard out in the country.  They were even secure enough in their isolated compound that they had a daughter five years after the zombie-like grays appeared.

Life carried on as normally as it could, until another refugee on the run is killed during a nearby attack. Her son is saved and taken in by the Williamses -- who do not realize that this kind action will destroy their home and threaten their entire family.  They find themselves caught in the midst of a struggle between two eldritch horrors, and the path to survival is anything but clear.

Two Shattered Haven Videos (Oh And Beta Started Today)

If you missed the announcement on our main news blog, Shattered Haven has now entered beta!  I didn't quite have any video footage ready for the launch, but now I've got two for you.




The voiceovers are done by Prince Taylor, who is the voice of Darrell in the 11 voiced scenes in the game (the bulk of those are part of the various endings you can get, but 4ish of them come during the game itself).

These two videos are pretty much the first public footage of the game, other than a shaky-cam sort of video from a trade show last fall.  It was hard to see much of anything on that older video, and it was a much older version of the game, too.  A lot of players have been trying to get a sense for how this game really plays, and so both of these videos include a solid segment of continuous gameplay footage.

If you like it, remember that the game is 25% off its normal price of $9.99 USD through March 18th, when it goes to 1.0.

Enjoy!

Twelve Shattered Haven Screenshots

I can't quite say that these are the "first" screenshots of Shattered Haven, because there were some really ancient ones posted of the game way back in 2009, and more recently I posted about the evolution of the graphics of one particular level. 

So there have been little peeks here and there, but by and large we've not shown the in-game graphics for the game because we wanted them to be final or near-final before getting too much scrutiny of them.  As you can see from the older screenshots linked to above, the game has evolved a LOT. 

We're now imminently close to starting beta, and actually 1.0 is darn close, too.  Beta will likely start tomorrow, and 1.0 is expected to be on the 18th.  We're finally very, very close to being done with this game, which started development in January 2008 (there were some large gaps in those five years where we didn't work on it at all, obviously).

Anyway, with all that in mind, here are twelve screenshots of some of the various levels in the game.  There's not anything particularly spoiler-y in these, by design, so you can look at them freely.  There are a very few non-finalized bits of art here and there in some of the screenshots, but I doubt you'd be able to pick out the differences between this and final if I showed you these and final screenshots side by side.  So this is pretty much what 1.0 is going to look like!

Soundcloud Player: Valley 2 Theme Song - To One Who'll Stand And Fight

For anyone who hasn't heard it yet -- or who wants to share it, as we've had some requests for that as well -- here is a soundcloud player version of Pablo's amazing new theme song for Valley 2.  To One Who'll Stand And Fight features both him and his wife Hunter singing, with her singing the main lyrics in the middle of the song. This is definitely some of Pablo's finest work ever!

Valley 2 and Shattered Haven Plans and Status

I just wanted to clarify where we are with Valley 2, what our goals and priorities are at the moment, and what's been happening lately.  We're getting close to the end, and things are getting quite busy (as if they weren't already), so clarifying these things might help our beta testers in particular know where things stand.

What's Been Going On Lately
Me -- As you've noticed, I've been mostly focused on the monsters, but also with some asides for a few other things like controller support, aiming, and various miscellany.  I've also been working on coordinating everyone else, the art, and working on getting the code for Shattered Haven where we need it to be.  Right now I'm kind of running a mile a minute, and actually worked all through last weekend to get more stuff done.

Keith -- He is spearheading the implementation, internal testing, and balancing of the strategic side of the game.  He and I are working together on actual design of this.  When he's not on strategic stuff, he's on mostly multiplayer-related bugs, most of which take a really long time to solve individually compared to most other kinds of bugs.

Josh -- He is spearheading the monster and spell balance fine-tuning, and anything to do with bad slices, as well as overseeing the slices that are coming in.  He's also been overseeing some parts of object artwork that are coming in, although that's been put on hold for a few weeks for him due to time issues.  And most importantly, he's been reading all the feedback on the forums and mantis, and trying to come up with a concentrated list of what is most important for us to address sooner than later at any given time; Keith and I also read, but it's a big job to get to everything and someone needs to hold it all in their head; someone who is not me, because my head is full of design and code right now.  The problem is that Josh has been seriously ill for about 12 days now, though he's getting better now.  That's made us a bit short-handed, and so some of these things have fallen behind temporarily.  Nothing to worry about, but it's why some of the balance isn't more finely tuned than it is thus far.

Where We're Headed - January
Me -- Overall, we're planning 116ish monsters for Valley 2.  I say "ish" because it was 114 just a week ago, but two got added because I had ideas and art for them.  My goal for January is to get most, or if possible ALL, of those monsters in by the end of the month.  In addition to that, I'm trying to get all the remaining base code in place for Shattered Haven by the end of this month, and do my various managerial/design things as needed also.  Aside from that, I'll also be addressing the most critical bugs and other issues that I (or Josh) think are really detracting from the game in the short term and/or need a lot of testing.  That's pretty much all I'm going to have time for this month, and it's going to be a stretch (and tons of overtime) for me to hit just that.

Keith -- The big goal for Keith this month is getting the strategic game settled down.  We have a fourth round of major improvements to it that we came up with yesterday, and I think that you'll be really excited to see these.  But anyway, there's lots of testing and balancing and implementation work on the strategy side, and then after each round of changes we sit down and talk about what we think can be improved from there based on our own experiences and your feedback.  We feel we're getting close on this one, but I've reserved most of the rest of January for Keith to focus on pretty much solely this (getting in more multiplayer fixes as he can beyond this).

Josh -- Balance balance balance is the big priority for Josh this month.  My goal is for all of the monsters and spells to be in the right ballparks by the end of the month, and that's a big job.  It's hampered partly by the fact that I'm still constantly adding monsters, and that underscores another reason why I'm making such a concerted push to get all of those out this month.  Beyond this, Josh is still fixing bad slices that are identified as soon as possible whenever they do happen (those tend to be game-breaking), and he's also still internalizing and reporting on the cumulative feedback from mantis, the forums, and so on.  That way nothing that's too huge an issue completely escapes our notice, and that way we have a solid work-list in hand for after the January sprint is over.

Where We're Headed - February
As Keith puts it, "there are two phases to coding: bugging and debugging."  My goal is to get as much of the bugging as possible, and all of the broad balance and design, implemented and done in January.  Once we transition to February, the focus will be on polish, finalizing balance, getting everything tuned up and fun, and so on.  Also getting the last of the art in place, and getting all of that finalized by mid-February, when our 1.0 is going to be ready.

So that's pretty well the plan -- I thought you might like to know the schedule, and where our focus is at each point.  Right now we're busily "bugging" as fast as we can, and if we're not responding to all bugs as fast as we often do, it's because of the two-tier structure that we decided to go through this go-round.  Come February, if we hit our January goals properly, we'll be doing nothing BUT debugging and balancing.  On this game and Shattered Haven, actually (though with Shattered Haven, there will still be some story bits, and some later overworld bits, that are being implemented; but that's level design, not code; and largely Zack is the one doing that).

Everyone Else!
Oh, and not that I'm ignoring Pablo, Erik, Zack, or all the fine folks at Heavy Cat -- they're all working like mad as well. 

Pablo has only one remaining track for Valley 2, but it has some choral vocal bits that he's still waiting on one voice recording from a colleague for.  Beyond that he's working away on the soundtrack for Shattered Haven. 

Zack has been working steadily on level design and story integration for Shattered Haven since September, and he's done an amazing job. 

Erik did a lot of writing for Valley 2, but we're all set on that now; he and Zack and I were also coordinating on the story and writing for Shattered Haven, and now he and Zack have taken up the mantle of finishing that without quite as much input from me since I'm stretched so thin.  He's also been coordinating with Kevin about trailers for both games, doing all his usual PR and marketing work, and so on and so forth.

Heavy Cat has a core of around sixish artists finishing up the art for Valley 2, and I'm really excited about how that's going.  At one point there were 23 artists working on the game, but having a smaller core to do the finishing touches makes it feel more cohesive and consistent all around.  A couple of their artists are solely focused on polishing existing pieces at this point, while the rest are focused on getting the remaining art assets in place largely by the start of February as well.  Then they'll have a little more breathing room to do any final polish in Feb as well. 

Heavy Cat also has a talented team of pixel artists working on finishing up the last 380 or so sprite frames for Shattered Haven; I believe it's three or four people working on that at the moment.  For the comic panels, we have all that we're going to need for now with that game, although post-release (or in an expansion) we might do more.  Work on this pixelart is going to extend into February some, but in plenty of time for Shattered Haven's 1.0 to release about a week after Valley 2's 1.0 version comes out.

Both games are really coming along super well, and our schedule for both seems very attainable (if hurried this month in particular), but with 2-3 weeks remaining after the main schedule for us to just focus on polish for both of the games.  It's really important, and really nice, for us to have that breathing room.  It's something we didn't do with AVWW1, to my regret.  Anyway, there's a sense of high excitement both at Heavy Cat and Arcen about both of these games, as they each close in on the end of quite long journeys.  Shattered Haven goes all the way back to January 2008 for me!

That's the news.  Cheers!

Valley 2 Enters Private Alpha -- First Alpha Screens And Video!

Up until now, I've been guarded about showing media relating to A Valley Without Wind 2, and with good reason, I think.  These things take time to do right, and we're now hitting the point where we're really proud to start sharing this with a wider audience.

First off, here's the new video -- it's more or less a Let's Play where I walk you around through a bit of the early game.  Apologies for the sound of the game kind of drowning out my explanations in a few parts there.


And screenshots (you can click them to enlarge them):

Heavy Cat Studios, who has been contracted to do the art for this game, has really been doing a superb job, eh?  Bear in mind that some of this isn't final yet, and there's still more to come.  All in all the art for this game involved over 3,500 individual pieces of art (including animation frames in that number), and that's an enormous order that they've been turning around in a really stellar amount of time.

Did Someone Say Private Alpha?
I did, indeed.  The first batch of players has the game now, and we'll be doing more batches over the next few days.  We only get to collect each person's first impression once, and having a strong start to the game (with it being easy to pick up) is important to us.  So we're doing alpha in multiple groups in order to make sure we make the best use of the first impressions available to us at this early stage.

What About Public Beta?
We're expecting to hit public beta early next week, probably Monday or Tuesday.  We still have a lot of art to add and monsters and characters to add before we hit 1.0 in January, but the game is imminently playable at the moment and quite a bit of fun.

As soon as we're certain we've got the initial experience down the way we want based on player feedback, and have a few more coats of polish here and there, we'll be all set for beta.

So What, In A Nutshell, Is Different From A Valley Without Wind 1?
Well, the art is obviously very much better -- that's an easy one.  But pretty much the entirety of the gameplay has been revamped, too.  The original game had drifted a lot toward the MMO genre in its design, and we've reigned that back in and are planted solidly back in Metroidvania territory where we had always intended to be.

Even within the genre of Metroidvania, we're doing some really interesting and unique things, though.  Combat is more visceral and tactile this time around.  Spells have mass and can block each other, and the way enemies are designed and placed has been re-thought from the ground up.  Combat has been slowed down to some extent, but also made far more intense.

The "mage classes" give defined loadouts that are still way more flexible than your average Metroidvania title.  And the feats and perks give interesting customization.  While our interpretation of equipment gives a mild taste of random loot drops, though that's not a major focus here; if you're expecting a Diablo or a Torchlight experience, you're going to be sorely disappointed with that aspect.  But it's really cool and unique for the Metroidvania genre.

With AVWW1 we first tried having a strategy game and a citybuilding game as part of it.  Then we cut the strategy and just focused on the citybuilding.  Then we revised the citybuilding bits several times.  It never really accomplished what we wanted, although each iteration was interesting in its own right.

Here there is a very defined strategy game that is extremely tightly coupled into the main Metroidvania gameplay -- you literally can't progress in either mode of play without playing them both, and you'll find yourself flipping back and forth between modes every few minutes, keeping either one from getting monotonous.  I'm extremely excited about how this is turning out on the strategic side.

The other thing is that with the first game there wasn't much of a story to speak of -- lots of backstory, sure, but not much going on with your specific characters.  Since there was permadeath, you had just a run of bunches of Generic Character #5s that you'd never get that attached to.  Here you play as one character the whole time, and there's a lot more dialogue and interactions with both your rebel allies and your evil foes.  The overlord isn't some abstract presence that is "oppressing people" in ways unseen -- he's actively out there in the world oppressing you at every turn.  No NPCs are going to have to tell you that guy has it coming. ;)

And lastly, the design has really been tightened.  Gone is the crafting, the permadeath, the missions that you go on (NPC dispatch missions are still here), the worlds of infinite size, and a host of other extraneous things that were getting in the way of the core experience.  That sounds like we've stripped a lot out, and that's true -- but what we've built instead is something more focused, and something that is actually quite a bit larger than the first game in its own way.  Rather than going for breadth of features, we went for depth, and that shows all throughout the design, I hope.

In a nutshell, I'd have to say that Valley 2 is the game we originally set out to make when we made AVWW1.  But we had to make AVWW1 first in order to gather enough research and do enough experimentation in order to make Valley 2 possible.

If you want to discuss it, the forum thread for this article is typically the best place.

Oh, and I almost forgot: we have a google spreadsheet with the status of where we are on our roadmap to 1.0.

Until next time!

The latest on the Valley 2 schedule

Without preamble: I had been hoping to have the Valley 2 beta out to folks by around next week, but for a variety of reasons that's no longer feasible.

The short of it is that we could definitely get you a playable beta then, but it wouldn't reflect the level of polish that would do well by us.  We're getting there, but one more week just isn't going to be enough.  We're now aiming for more like 3 weeks from now until beta, and 5-6 weeks from now until the 1.0 (knock on some serious wood for the latter).  In other words, we aren't planning a long-term and protracted beta with this one.  Folks have given us vast amounts of feedback for the last year+ on AVWW1, and Valley 2 is the mature successor that's resulting.

Another way to look at it is this: it's very hard to take out much from this game and still have it completely work.  That's a good sign.  The first game was so loosely tied together, such a big collection of semi-related things, that you could easily add and remove stuff without affecting the core experience all that much.  With the sequel, there's not really anything I can think of that's in the game and not directed towards the core experience.

Anyhow, don't take this as too much of a downer message.  I've actually been on a super high since late yesterday when I finally got the new lighting model (complete with colored and shaped light sources) working.  Man but this game is night and day different from the first one -- and we just mainly want to ensure that you see it on the best possible terms when you first do see it in action.

Until next time!

AI War 6.0 Trailer (Also Featuring Ancient Shadows)

Version 6.0 of the cult classic strategy game AI War: Fleet Command arrives this Friday the 19th, along with its fourth expansion: Ancient Shadows.  One of the best-reviewed PC games of 2009, AI War has continued to grow each year with new expansions, new free content, and continual refinements to the deep strategic gameplay it already boasted.

Selected Reviews

AI War breaks most of the genre's rules. Which is precisely why it's incredible... This out-of-the-blue one-man passion project is one of this year's finest strategy games.
- Alec Meer, PC Gamer UK, November 2009

It's a balancing act, with your own strength on one side, and the AI's opinion of you on the other. Piss it off before you're ready to face it, and you're going to get squashed. That moment, when you're finally in a position to turn the tables, is about as glorious as gaming gets.
- Phill Cameron, Eurogamer, February 2011

I think I've stumbled across this year's Really New Thing. There's a lot of 2009 to go, but I'll be surprised if anyone else twists the RTS formula this dramatically and this effectively. And I'm hoping it'll be the Next Big Thing, because it's big, different, entirely unprecedented and an exciting way to play an RTS.
- Rush, Boom, Turtle: And Now for Something Completely Different, by Tom Chick (Crispy Gamer)

Want more reviews?

More About Ancient Shadows

Not Even The Machine Sees All...

Introducing Champions: These modular behemoths can be upgraded, gain EXP, and lend powerful aid to your main forces.  But champions possess a unique power that sets them even further apart from other units: they can explore entirely new parts of the galaxy where the AI cannot reach.  Splinter factions of humans, zenith, neinzul, and spire all dwell in those backwater nebulae.  Some are hiding.  Some are plotting.  Some have gone totally insane.  It is there, in the shadows, that your champion can find relics from the ancient race which constructed it.  What power awaits?  At what cost?

Key Features:
* A whole new kind of human player.  It's possible to control champions alongside your main fleet, or to have a friend or family member control just one single massive ship.
* Several new sub-races dwelling in the backwater parts of the galaxy for your champions to interact with.
* Modular fortresses.
* 9 new bonus ship classes.
* 3 core AI guard posts and one new minor faction.
* 2 new AI types.
* 2 new map types.
* 98 minutes of awesome new music by Pablo Vega.

For the release notes from version 5.0 to 6.0 (warning: 65k+ words!): http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Current_Post-5.000_Beta

New AI War Screenshots (base game + all expansions)

It's been a couple of years since we've updated our screenshots for AI War: Fleet Command, and version 6.0 really improves the visuals of the space backgrounds.  So here's our new selection of screenshots.

As a reminder, version 6.0 of AI War is going to be coming out officially on this Friday the 19th, along with the latest expansion -- AI War: Ancient Shadows.  This will also be the debut of the latest expansion on Steam and Gamestop (which has thus far been available only through our site and GamersGate while in beta).

One more reminder: if you've had the beta of the expansion, don't forget to download the full installer on Friday.  That's the only thing that will include the new music for the expansion, which you won't want to miss out on!

Meet Some Of The Monsters Of Valley 2 (Concept Art)

I thought that folks might enjoy seeing some more of the concept art sketches for various of the 120 new enemies that are coming for A Valley Without Wind 2.  These concept sketches are done at Heavy Cat for purposes of informing the final sprites that will be created of each monster; these aren't the actual sprites themselves, in other words.

The Overlord And His Henchmen

 Demonaica -- The Evil Overlord

 Slender

 Fanzara

 Lilith

 Vorgga

Wordrak

A Few Monsters

 Swamp Thing

 Wall Crab

 Pigman

 Clockwork Blockade

Floating Bone Mass

 

 Hungry Ghost

 Insect Fiend

 Steam Cannon

 Steam Flyer

 Urban Tackle Droid

 Submersible Suppressor

 Slug Fiend

 Owl

 Deepwoods Gargan

 Landshark

Ceiling Vampire

 Flying Eyeball

 Clockwork Avian

Auroch Warrior