We've been silent for some time. But. This. Will. Change. Elements Destiny is making quite the progress these days. And finally the game is in a stage where we are not only ready to talk about it but also show off more about it. And if you're coming to this years Gamescom, feel free to say hello at the Indie Arena Booth in Hall 10.2 - we'll bring a fresh Demo with us.
The demo will also be available on Steam in the coming days. But for today, we've got something else... The first real Gameplay Trailer for Elements Destiny.
New Elements Destiny Demo Patch & Patch Notes (Patch #1)
A new version of the Elements Destiny demo is now live! (Patch #1)
These are the patch notes:
Resolved Bugs/Issues in Combat:
We have fixed several issues that could cause the game to freeze during combat.
The HP bar will now update correctly at all times.
The boss will no longer immediately receive a status effect if the same effect has already been applied to them.
Attacks that miss will no longer trigger their corresponding effects.
The Elemental Shock status icon will no longer be hidden behind the combat timeline for the Brilliant Scholar enemies.
Erika's marking techniques now have the intended effect.
In combat, there was a bug in the calculation of resistance and armor values, causing increases and decreases in these values to have no noticeable effect.
Other Resolved Bugs/Issues:
We have addressed various problems that could cause certain puzzle mechanics to malfunction.
Multiple layer and collision issues have been resolved.
Several problems causing light cones in dark rooms to erroneously turn off have been fixed.
Control input in the main menu is now disabled until the scene has loaded.
UI text will no longer shift incorrectly.
After a game reset, the player will now always start with Erika.
The menu UI will no longer move along with the character if the menu is opened during movement.
Karen is now playable only after she joins the player.
New Features in Combat:
All status effect icons now display a round counter.
Debuffs on group members now have sound effects and a new animation (to be further expanded in the future).
Characters will regenerate a small amount of EP when taking damage.
Defending now provides the following effects:
Slight TP and EP regeneration.
If a character takes damage while defending, they will regenerate more EP than when taking hits without defending.
Other New Features:
The end of the demo is now clearly identifiable.
A loading screen has been added.
The game can now be exited at any time via the start menu or the main menu.
New Beta Demo & Known Issues
Known Gamebreaker Bugs:
If the Technical or Elemental menu is opened and "Confirm" is pressed too quickly again, the battle freezes.
Rapidly alternating between pressing "Confirm" and "Cancel" shifts the interface, potentially causing the battle to freeze.
Selecting "Game reset" from the pause menu may cause the player to be unable to move after the first scene.
Other Known Bugs:
Descriptions and information for Elemental and Technical attacks may shift around.
The HP bar sometimes doesn't update properly while the displayed number remains correct.
If a status is added to the Guardian of the Light and then thrown back by the boss using Purification Star, the same status can immediately be added again.
Even for missed attacks, all effects are triggered (status potential, EP charge, etc.).
In one case, Maline received no damage and no status potential even though her attack was reflected by the Guardian of the Light. The battle didn't proceed after that, but the battle continued after using "Cancel" and then inputting a different action.
The Elemental Shock status icon is often positioned behind the battle timeline for the Brilliant Scholar.
The loading time from a battle loss to the "Game Over" screen is extremely long.
When healed and simultaneously injured (e.g., through bleeding), the numbers from the floating text overlap.
Erika's marking techniques have no effect.
In the start menu, the player can already be controlled after selecting a starting point and then pressing "Confirm" again.
The text under Main Quest in the menu occasionally has display/formatting errors.
In the room with the second mirror puzzle, the previously lowered pillars disappear after collecting the yellow orb.
The player character is not always reset to Erika after a manual game reset.
When the player character's movement is ongoing and the main menu is opened, the menu UI twitches.
Cutscrenes may not perform correctly on low-performance systems due to frame skips.
Karen is playable before she joins the group (not a proper "bug," as it was a necessary workaround for another issue. However, it will be fixed).
The fade-out at the end of the demo doesn't last long enough before the game resets.
Entering a battle while the ground is flashing in light floor sections keeps the ground visible after the battle.
The player light is uncomfortably bright in some rooms in the catacombs of Lourant.
The light cones of NPCs/player in dark rooms malfunction in some rooms.
The movable floor plates in the second passage of the final Light Floor puzzle aren't functional.
Initiating a battle during the first mirror puzzle renders the mirrors unusable afterward (can be fixed by leaving the room and reentering).
Minor movements of character graphics in battle can distort over time. Additionally, originally smooth movements are twitching.
Layering and Collision Bugs:
The wall in the upper left of the inn (ground floor) has no collision.
The statues in front of the castle entrance intersect with the player's head.
If the player runs too quickly towards the door leading to the throne room, the player disappears behind the door.
Near the pillars in the corners of the main hall of the castle, the player can only pass by running.
The player's head clips through walls when getting too close to the walls in underpasses.
The upper area in the monster room in the catacombs of Lourant has misleading collisions.
Treasure chests from elevated positions can also be opened from below.
Planned features that will be added latest with the final release:
Additional messages will be added to the combat messages under the timeline.
A combat log that can be accessed at any time during battles will display the latest combat messages and explain all currently active status icons.
All status icons will receive a round counter.
If a character in the group suffers a debuff, this will be visually emphasized.
Defending will receive the following, other functions: Slight TP and EP regeneration. More EP will be regenerated when attacked while defending. It will also be clear whether a character is currently defending.
A character will receive very slight EP regeneration when attacked.
The representation of the current turn order in battles will be further improved.
Erika will receive a technique that allows viewing an enemy's LP bar alongside its element and type.
If multiple identical enemies are involved in a battle, they will be identified with a number in the timeline and on the battle field.
Enemies in battles will receive shadows.
The TP will be shortened by one digit.
For Lias's Illusory Blade techniques, visibility will be improved to show that they cost both TP and LP.
The costs of Elemental and Technical attacks will be represented differently to make them easier to attribute to resources.
After a victorious battle, there will be a results screen.
Items will be usable (in and out of battle).
Saving and loading will be possible. (obviously)
Long loading sequences will have a loading screen.
At the end of the demo, text will be inserted clearly indicating that the demo is over before returning to the title screen.
A backlog for rereading past text boxes within dialogues will be implemented.
While a text box's text is being built, it will only be fully displayed when the confirmation button is pressed before the next text box is called by pressing the confirmation button again.
Some of these bugs we want to fix for the demo as soon as possible. Once the patch is live, we will release another post with corresponding patch notes.
Furthermore, there were many other interesting ideas and suggestions that we will discuss within the team over time. However, to keep this list from becoming too overwhelming, we won't mention them here. Thank you for your feedback!
Elements Destiny Live Stream #2
In this JRPG you play as Erika and have the task to save your country. Find friends along the way that support you, grow your powers and fight the evil!
Elements Destiny
In this JRPG you play as Erika and have the task to save your country. Find friends along the way that support you, grow your powers and fight the evil!
Steam Next Fest Demo Released
The Steam Next Fest of October has started - and we're part of it!
Development for Elements Destiny is coming along nicely and we're making a lot of progress. Slowly everything is coming together. However, we're still far, far away from an official release. And yet we wanted to take the opportunity to let you play the game for the very first time.
We've decided to take part in the Steam Next Fest and prepared a small playable demo for everyone to check out. The demo contains a small fire dungeon, a few fights and a few puzzles. Keep in mind that a lot of things are still placeholders, quite a bunch of animations are still missing and there are parts where effects and all the nice little details are still missing.
And yet it should give you a good idea of what we are aiming for. Also: No worries, dear Backers, this is not the version we've promised you. We're still working hard on getting bigger parts of the game in a playable and polished state.
Announcing our Publisher
Our community knows about the history of Elements Destiny and how everything started. It began as a simple hobby project. In RPG Maker. And suddenly we had a super successful crowdfunding campaign for the german voice overs. And everything got bigger than we've ever expected. At some point we realized that the RPG Maker wouldn't fit our needs anymore.
So we switched to Unity. For that we needed additional people to create all the assets from scratch again. And recently we've been asked quite often how we were able to continue development and how we were able to finance this step. So let us tell you what exactly happened back then, when we switched the Engine: We signed a publishing deal.
Today we can finally confirm that we've been working with Deck13 for quite some time now. They always believed in our vision for Elements Destiny and the game itself did fit perfectly well into their portfolio. They believed in us and the vision we had for the game..
We made quite some progress on the game and slowly everything is coming together. We can't share too many details yet but we wanted to let you know that Elements Destiny is more than just alive. And who knows? Maybe, closer to the end of this year, you might be able to try a first playable version of the game for the very first time. More on that, once the time has come.
Elements Destiny - Year in Review & Outlook
A lot happened last year. And even more will happen this year. Time to look back. And to look ahead. Elements Destiny's review of the year!
Last year was an important milestone in the development of Elements Destiny. We were finally able to announce that we were switching engines. Originally, the project started as an RPG Maker game and we had no idea how massive and big the game would become. We thought that RPG Maker could handle everything we wanted from Elements Destiny - and had to learn the hard way that we needed to upgrade to a technology that could handle everything we set out to do. We kept upgrading the team and finally made one of the most important decisions: We switched to Unity.
All in all, in retrospect, this decision was certainly made a little too late. A completely finished game first had to be rebuilt. But it was still the right decision, we are convinced of that. Even though the change had an impact on the overall development time of Elements Destiny, it was also worth it, as it allowed us to create a more fluid and polished experience for you, the players.
The first prototypes of Elements Destiny in Unity are already running and we have been able to try out and implement a lot of new mechanics. The creation of our assets is also in full swing! Here we have also started and redesigned in many places, but with every monster, every interface element and every character artwork we see that our dream of a really good adventure is getting a bit closer.
We were also finally able to launch a Steampage(https://store.steampowered.com/app/1635500/Elements_Destiny/) and are incredibly grateful for the many Wishlist entries we have received so far! We are also already in talks with other stores and who knows, we might be able to reveal more about this very soon.
But enough of the review. Let's move on to 2022, which will most likely be one of the most important years for Elements Destiny. We are working hard every day, sometimes until late hours, to finish all the assets, all the functions and all the tools for our team so that they can finally build Elements Destiny. The first maps have already been built and the story placed on them. While we're at it, both texts and story are almost completely finished and are being diligently integrated as we speak! All monsters have been designed and a good half of their artwork has already been finalised.
We know that you are eagerly waiting for a release date. Unfortunately, we have to put you off a little longer. We are still missing too many mechanics and the game is simply too extensive to be able to give a concrete outlook here. But right now we are seeing how everything is gradually coming together.
With that in mind, what are our plans for 2022? Well, first of all, we want to show a lot more of the game, especially in-game footage and gameplay. We will soon start working on a first big trailer and also announce the game to the press. And maybe there will be a few more nice surprises then.
People have kept asking about possible console versions, and while we can't confirm things at this point, we'd like to talk more about that later this year as well. And maybe, just maybe, we can also offer a first playable demo at a certain time when we all usually meet in Cologne. We are not sure if we will be able to complete something fully fleshed out in time, but we are trying very hard to reach this milestone.
What we can guarantee in any case: We will announce a lot in 2022! And - depending on how well we progress - we will start very, very soon.
New blog post- Writing tracks for a videogame soundtrack
In this blog post, Composer Gianny Abel shows you how he created this previously unreleased fire dungeon track from our OST. Here's an extract:
Soundtracks in general
When composing for a videogame there is one thing which should not be forgotten: A full soundtrack is being composed, not just a lot of single tracks. It is therefore best to have a rough idea of the direction in which the entire soundtrack should move right from the start. There are other things you’ll then need to think about: How big will the soundtrack be? Which tracks need to be done first? Which genre should it be, do I compose for a Jump & Run or a Simulator? Is the game set in a future setting, the past or a fictional time? Especially the time can influence the instruments one may use, for example synthesizers for futuristic settings or more traditional sounds for the past. Is the game set in a special place? Example: Fire Emblem Fates with the more European Nohr and the Japanese-inspired Hoshido. The soundtracks of the areas are very much based on sound patterns typical for Europe and Japan.
These preliminary considerations create a rough orientation framework that breaks down the large mountain of tracks into smaller stages and helps you to decide which song you want to create in which way. Of course it is impossible to plan the whole soundtrack from the beginning till the end, ideas will show up every now and then, changes need to be made along the way – but creating a rough outline will ease up the production a lot.
Composing for Elements Destiny
RPGs usually have rather massive soundtracks – due to their playtime. You usually need a lot of tracks for different areas, character themes, battle themes and atmospheric tracks for dialogues and other situations. Early on, we put the priority on battle themes and tracks for the dialogues as these two parts are essential for the game and players will spend a lot of time listening to them. With a similar priority, we handled the character themes of the main characters. The reason is simple. We work with a lot of leitmotifs (more on that later on) and we wanted to establish these for each character early on. Since Elements Destiny is a a fantasy RPG, we’ve decided to go with typical fantasy elements like epic tracks, orchestral work and so on. But since it’s also set in a fictional world and time, we even had the freedom to use synthies and e-guitars. Plus a lot of the locations are more or less based on real world places, so we could use influences from these cultures as well and move a bit away from “Just another fantasy world” approaches. Among other things, this has the consequence that individual tracks stand out from one another more strongly and the soundtrack appears even more diverse overall.
