Archaelund (now updated with screenshots and video!)

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Asklar

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I absolutely love how the game is looking, and I'll definitely get it when it's out. It so manages to capture that old-school feel, it's insane. The only thing I feel I have to comment is the tile interface/colors during combat. It looks weird? They just feel out of place, and look sort of "low quality". Can they be toggleable? Or just have the blue arrow instead? Or only "light up" the tile you're hovering over? Or change the color palette to something more immersive and less distracting? Sorry I know it's pretty off putting to have a comment like this but my OCD demanded me to mention it :(

Other than that, though, it looks truly amazing and I'm gonna get it regardless of that.
 

DavidBVal

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I absolutely love how the game is looking, and I'll definitely get it when it's out. It so manages to capture that old-school feel, it's insane. The only thing I feel I have to comment is the tile interface/colors during combat. It looks weird? They just feel out of place, and look sort of "low quality". Can they be toggleable? Or just have the blue arrow instead? Or only "light up" the tile you're hovering over? Or change the color palette to something more immersive and less distracting? Sorry I know it's pretty off putting to have a comment like this but my OCD demanded me to mention it :(

Other than that, though, it looks truly amazing and I'm gonna get it regardless of that.
Don't worry, those colored tiles are provisional and won't be there in the final game.
 

Asklar

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That's interesting news! I know the game is still being developed so it was a little bit of a dumb complaint. Still, really looking forward to it! I get some strong Elder Scrolls: Morrowind vibes with a very unique, own feel. So exciting! :D
 

Zachariah

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Re: Information about my next game (preliminary!)



Indeed characters will be visually customizable and gear will be far more varied than in EK, and that'll be one of the advantages of moving to 3D. Same thing with animations, particles, etc. Exiled Kingdoms is not as varied in that regard because it's a 2D game, which makes it very hard and resource-eating because all sprites need to be pre-rendered and kept in a texture, then every texture is used to compose the image of a character, like in children's paperdolls.

Have a look even at all-time-great 2D isometric games like Baldur's Gate or Arcanum; their character sprites are just a little more varied than EK's. A few years later on the first 3D titles in the mid 2000s, the variety of visuals is multiplied because in a 3D game adding new models and animations is much simpler.

I'll miss the charm from 2D though!
Coming to mobile... when?
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As you'll probably know, development of Exiled Kingdoms is officially complete with version 1.2 and even if it's possible I release more content in the years to come, right now my focus is on my next game: Archaelund.

About Archaelund

First of all, Archaelund is not a sequel to Exiled Kingdoms, but a completely standalone game set in the EK world. It's a far bigger, more complex and ambitious game. I won't be holding anything back here, since the success of Exiled Kingdoms gives me the freedom to develop this game without making any compromises. Or that's the plan, at least ;)

Archaelund will be a game targeted at the PC platform, which will try to bring back the old flavor of the Golden Era of RPGs, pretty much like I tried to do with EK on mobile. A mobile release is possible, and it might be released on some popular consoles as well. However my priority is to make it a perfect PC game, and I won't limit functionality, design or scope because of other platforms; at this point the only thing I can confirm 100% is the PC release, although I am aware of the EK mobile fanbase and will do my best to have a mobile release as well.



You'll control a full party of adventurers, and explore the broken lands of the vast continent of Andoria, home of the fallen Empire. The Exiled Kingdoms are claiming the shores of their mythical Homeland, but they'll find the region is not as deserted as they expected... prepare yourself to be inmersed in dozens of small plots and quests over a large world map once again, and to face a main plot of epic proportions (no, really!).



The game will feature a very unique combination of real-time exploration and careful turn-based strategy during encounters; you'll explore the world in first-person perspective in a 3D world, much like in the Elder Scrolls games or in the classic Wizardry or Might&Magic games. But battles will happen in isometric perspective! When combat begins the camera floats up to offer a top-down view of the scene, so you can individually move your party members. The idea is to have the best of both worlds: an immersive exploration and tactical combat at the same time, allowing huge epic battles. As far as I know, no modern RPG has done this before; classical games like Pool of Radiance or Betrayal at Krondor did, but in a very limited way and using much simpler graphics.

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More videos:

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I'm developing a full-fledged rule system called Geryon for this game, with dozens of classes, skills and a huge list of spells and abilities. Still I'm carefully designing the progression to make it intuitive and quick to understand. The combinations of races, classes and builds will be immense, so it's impossible to have everything on your party in a single playthrough.



Content will be, as you probably imagine, an important part of the game. Expect the same open-world design, and the same weird combination of seriousness and silly humor and themes you "enjoyed" in EK; yeah, I am afraid the terrible jokes stay, and might get even worse. I already have a large list of ideas for side-quests, and a very interesting plot in mind for the main quest as well; when all is said and done I'll try to have a game that spans over 100h for the "completionist" player.

US needs it on mobile also
 

VDX_360

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Per David, Archaelund won't be mobile due to the issues surrounding limitations of mobile devices????
 

DavidBVal

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99% chance of Mac release happening along Windows one. Although maybe not for Early Access.
 

Ciericis

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I am curious, what is different about the Mac interface versus the Windows interface that prevents the early access version from running on both? Ive always wanted to know the reason for the incompatibility issues.
 

Alan_SP

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I am curious, what is different about the Mac interface versus the Windows interface that prevents the early access version from running on both?
I'm not David, the developer, but I'll try to answer what I think the main problem is.

When you write code, each version (i.e. version for different hardware platform) has some "small" differences. In early phases of development maintaining all that "small" differences is additional task that can be done, but takes time out from development, thus slowing it down.

That's why I think it is only done for only one hardware platform, to make development process faster and smoother for developer (i.e. David), though I understand why people with Macs want it asap. Later, when you deal with "finished" product, you need to go through all the trouble to port it for all supported hardware versions and you can "slow a bit" at that phase anyway, as finished product is already on "shelves" to be bought.
 
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