Arcen Games

General Category => A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 => : Martyn van Buren September 29, 2011, 02:41:27 AM

: Desert arches: cool
: Martyn van Buren September 29, 2011, 02:41:27 AM
How cool are the big arches in the deserts?  I really like them.  I'm wondering, are we ever going to get climbable pieces of scenery?  I would really like to be able to fight my way up open towers with the chance of falling off, I guess platform-style.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: tigersfan September 29, 2011, 08:23:49 AM
Chris has said that he'd like to have some degree of this at some point. But, it may be a while yet.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: Martyn van Buren September 29, 2011, 12:56:10 PM
Great, missed that one.  Anyway, in the meantime those are my favorite piece of art from the game so far.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: x4000 September 29, 2011, 01:06:36 PM
Glad you like it!

And in a lot of respects there's already areas with vertical aspects: obviously the caves, but also things like the forest.  But having more vertically-oriented outdoors areas is a goal.

In terms of literally climbing stuff -- not jumping from platform to platform -- that's unlikely to ever happen because it requires a lot of extra art.  So freeclimbing a wall wouldn't be a thing, is what I mean.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: zebramatt September 29, 2011, 03:02:30 PM
Well, maybe not in 2011 or 2012, but who knows what he future holds!  ;)
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: x4000 September 29, 2011, 03:10:58 PM
Well, that is true enough.  Adding lots of animation frames to every character (out of a planned 120+ characters) is something I'd want to have a dedicated artist to do, though, because I certainly don't want to do it.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: Tayrtahn September 29, 2011, 03:14:39 PM
They are cool! I think the deserts are my favorite regions so far (of those that I've seen, anyway). The graphics all really work together and I love the music.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: arcee September 29, 2011, 03:17:08 PM
Well, that is true enough.  Adding lots of animation frames to every character (out of a planned 120+ characters) is something I'd want to have a dedicated artist to do, though, because I certainly don't want to do it.

optimistic translation: if I buy AVVW for all my friends for Christmas, climbing will happen.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: coconutpete September 29, 2011, 06:18:24 PM
Haven't been to the deserts yet.. but at the moment I like the caves the most, since they're filled with all those plants and stuff. Gives an idea how pretty all the building interiors will be when Arcen is adding furniture. Can't wait!

One more thing, I was thinking of. In the background of every regional map, you mostly see just blue or something. It would be awesome if there's something more to see there. For example some buildings you also see in the front, but then a bit farther away.. I think it would add a bit of depth to every map.

So far the game looks and plays fantastic. Haven't had this much fun with a game for a long, long time. It's really unique.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: x4000 September 29, 2011, 06:26:05 PM
Thank you!  That's always awesome to hear.

And yeah, for the backgrounds in regions, I do want to get to adding parallax backgrounds that have a lot of interesting things to them.  Same sort of thing for the caves, too, actually, to make it look like they have some neat depth in them.  But that might not work as well, we'll see -- definitely on the exteriors.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: Underfot September 30, 2011, 09:36:44 AM
The parallax idea is one I'd love to see.  Having 'holes' in the caves where you can see a background with distant light sources would make the underground seem more like a cavern.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: x4000 September 30, 2011, 09:40:17 AM
The parallax idea is one I'd love to see.  Having 'holes' in the caves where you can see a background with distant light sources would make the underground seem more like a cavern.

Ooh!!  That's a really good idea, why didn't I think of doing it that way! :)
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: zebramatt September 30, 2011, 10:01:39 AM
It'd give slightly more opportunity for light sources in the big sections of cavern between the ceiling and floor, too. At the moment all the light sources are very much clustered along the floor, with the occasional floaty bit dotted about.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: Martyn van Buren September 30, 2011, 02:19:19 PM
Oh, just got to the forest, that is pretty much what I was hoping for!  Though for regions like that, that are mostly free-floating platforms, might we eventually see chunks stacked on top of each other instead of next to, so you have to climb to move forward?
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: x4000 September 30, 2011, 02:29:45 PM
Oh, just got to the forest, that is pretty much what I was hoping for!  Though for regions like that, that are mostly free-floating platforms, might we eventually see chunks stacked on top of each other instead of next to, so you have to climb to move forward?

Oh yeah, more vertical ones for sure at some point.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: Lancefighter September 30, 2011, 02:46:00 PM
Will there ever be up/down transitions? Like you spawn at the bottom area, on a ledge, and below you brings you back to the world map.. Meaning if you ever fall, you may just end up back where you started :p
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: x4000 September 30, 2011, 02:50:38 PM
Will there ever be up/down transitions? Like you spawn at the bottom area, on a ledge, and below you brings you back to the world map.. Meaning if you ever fall, you may just end up back where you started :p

Hmm, that's an interesting idea.  Hadn't planned on that, but it could be interesting for sometime in the future.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: zebramatt September 30, 2011, 06:43:36 PM
I'd vote for it.
: Re: Desert arches: cool
: Martyn van Buren September 30, 2011, 10:56:46 PM
Me too!