I've been working on improvements for my dark fantasy game, Caverns and Dryads on Steam. Although these are minor things, they are necessary at this moment. I'm going to tell you about them, and also about how the other major feature I'm working on is going.
THE GAME ART
I've improved since I started. I use the same techniques and tools. The difference is that now I'm more inspired and have more skill. So some images seemed ugly or poorly done to me.
I'm adding some new images for Tamzyn and Sioul, in combat and camping.
This is one of them:
I also want to improve Sioul's images. I don't know if I'll be able to do it immediately. If not, I'll make the main update and then other minor updates.
As you know, I use a mixed technique of generative + painting, so it takes time, although it's not excessive.
WRITING
And the intro, as I mentioned in another post, I've also edited it. That intro contains a lot of information, both for the game and for the novel's story.
The problem was that it wasn't understood. It could even be a tedious intro, because Tamzyn repeated the same thing 4 times. Now the dialogue is more fluid and natural, and each character's personality is visible.
I wrote that previous intro just as it came to me for the game. While writing the novel, many things feed back into each other and improve. My perception now is greater.
So when I make the update, I recommend experiencing the intro again from the game menu. You'll see that a couple of Sioul's images also changed. In one of them he looked sinister, and the other new image is more expressive.
In a couple of images I removed, he looked too old or sinister. That's not what Tamzyn sees upon arriving, and it contradicted the text.
A question players have asked me is"Why is Sioul so buff?":) Well, the intro says so. Surely the old text didn't communicate it. He's not the typical fantasy wizard, elderly and frail. He's medium-sized but solid, blonde and fair-skinned because he comes from cold and rough lands, in the north.
Sioul comes from the Golden People. They live in caves during winter, and in summer in the forest. They don't measure time, their mages are shamans, they paint on cave walls, and they don't feel the cold. Yes, he's practically a mountain cave dweller. It's a hard life, and Sioul is strong, like all his people.
Throughout the novel he's seen climbing and moving through slopes with ease, and in the game he does things that require strength. Despite this, he doesn't know hand-to-hand combat. That's Tamzyn's thing. She's strong in another way, as explained many times in the novel.
This explains his affinity in many things with Tamzyn. The two of them experience time and nature in an uncivilized way.
MONSTER NAMES
I've decided to change monster names that are "typical". For example:
- The Kobold is now called Nurg. Anyway, it was a dog-man and not a lizard-man.
- The Troll will be called Trog. Troll is a shape-shifter, and doesn't correspond.
- Minotaur = Bullman. Too overused in movies.
- Zombie = Walking dead. Because zombie is a word too overused and connected to a specific culture.
- Ghoul = Morbid. They're running dead. It's not exactly what ghoul means.
- Werewolf = Wrag. They stop being werewolves and become two-legged dog-like beings, but without the cursed meaning of those, and without connection to wolves. Wolves aren't that bad, and I hated promoting their black legend.
- Vampire = Blood devourer. It's different from a vampire. Also I don't like the whole "cursed" thing derived from morality and all that. This is a different creature, similar only in some ways.
I decided a long time ago there wouldn't be elves, not even dark ones. I called them "umbrial".
And no orcs either. In my world they're green, and they're called "urgs".
The shop lords have lost their pointed ears. They're not gnomes anymore. They're short dudes with colorful hats.
The reason for all these changes is that my world has many creatures of its own. I wanted to erase all traces of typical fantasy folklore. We're quite bored of dwarves, elves, and orcs, right?
At the beginning of creating Caverns and Dryads I made typical decisions. The only reason I added such things is because I wanted nothing to be missing.
Then, when connecting better, I realized that the Chasm has its own personality. I'll talk more about this in another post.
Why follow in the footsteps of Tolkien and others? I'm seeing a different world, much more interesting for many people. I have an authentic experience of a different universe, and I must reflect it.
As I wrote the novel, I avoided those typical creatures and focused on what's unique to the Chasm.
Also there are other reasons. The vision of dryads, for example, recovers a myth of all Humanity. There are creatures in the Chasm that are unique, and others connected with universal myths.
Typical dwarves and elves lack the ambiguity of myths. Dwarves are beardy lords underground, strangely tanned.
And elves... pale and blonde beings passive and stiff, for some reason representing beauty, music, and the natural, with pointed ears.
That is: they've stolen the idea of dryads, they've masculinized it, and stripped away the Dionysian aspect. And they keep the pointed ears... But those ears symbolize the animal and the wild! Very, very wrong.
That is: it's fine and I enjoyed it. I adore Tolkien. But enough already.
We're going to go to the origin. We're going to show something new again.
For that, we're going to descend underground. Follow me, follow me...
Comments
Post a Comment