Hello Röki fans, Alex from Polygon Treehouse here!
We’re excited to introduce our next game following Röki… Mythwrecked Ambrosia Island. It’s a sun-drenched 3D exploration and narrative game where YOU get to save the long-lost gods of Greek mythology and solve the mystery of their stolen memories.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
We’ve already showcased Mythwrecked at a number of events including PAX and LudoNarraCon. Here’s what folks had to say about it:-
“Polygon Treehouse won multiple awards and two BAFTA nominations for Röki and I can see why from just the demo of this game alone.” -Fandomentals
“The 'cozy game' is an itch I haven’t scratched in a long time, and the art style, story, and relaxing vibe of Ambrosia Island tell me this might finally be the experience I’ve been looking for.” -Noisy Pixel
“You can see much of what made Röki fun reflected in Mythwrecked. The environments are interesting to poke around in, puzzles are breezy brain ticklers, and it has Polygon Treehouse's sense of humour.” -Rock Paper Shotgun
WISHLIST & FOLLOW MYTHWRECKED TODAY!
If you enjoyed our debut title Röki, then we’re sure you’ll enjoy Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island.
It'd be amazing if you could head on over to the Mythwrecked Steam page and wishlist + follow the game for future updates.
FOLLOW THE ADVENTURE
That’s all for now, but don’t forget you can keep up to date on Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island by following our Twitter, joining our Discord or subscribing to the Polygon Treehouse Newsletter.
Until next time, Alex & Team
CI Games Publisher Sale
We are proud to share that the CI Games Publisher Sale is now live! Our entire back-catalogue is now on sale for up to 90% off.
With a vast library of various genres, there is a game for everyone!
Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 1 & 2
With the release of the CI games Publisher Sale, we have also bundled Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 1 & 2 together to provide a challenging collective experience, with two dramatic single-player campaigns.
Use a mix of stealth, tactics and precision to take out your targets with the most satisfying sniping gameplay in these immersive campaigns.
Plunge into a dark fantasy Action-RPG, harnessing powerful magic alongside a satisfying combat system. When the tyrannical god, Adyr, invades the human realm seeking vengeance for his imprisonment, humanity calls upon an unlikely defender… a convicted sinner named Harkyn.
Tails of Iron is an epic RPG Adventure with punishingly brutal combat. As Redgi, heir to the throne, you must embark on a perilous quest to reclaim your Kingdom. Explore a deceivingly charming world. Assemble a band of brave companions. Banish the merciless Frog clan!
Fast-paced and brutally challenging, Eldest Souls is a unique Soulslike experience. In a final act of vengeance, the Old Gods have unleashed a great Desolation upon the world. Mankind's only hope lies with a lone warrior… and his greatsword of pure Obsydian.
Röki is a stunning adventure set in the snowcapped wilderness. As Tove, you must explore an uncharted world of hidden legends and forgotten monsters. Solve puzzles, collect curiosities, and uncover a tale of tragic loss, as you chart your path to redemption.
LIMITED EDITION TOVE PLUSHIE IS READY FOR ADVENTURE (& YOUR SHELF!)
THE TOVE PLUSHIE
This week just got a whole lot better, and not least of all because Röki is currently 65% off! We've collaborated with Makeship to adapt Tove to plushie form and we're in love with the results!
At the start of the process, we shared all of our original designs and Tove's in-game models with the Makeship team and their designers really knocked it out of the park.
'Tove Plush is made with an Ultra Soft Fleece exterior that feels amazing! While the interior is stuffed with fluffy Polypropylene cotton filling to keeps its shape for years to come. Each Plush is tagged to show exactly how many were created, making your limited edition plush even more special. Tove Plush arrives in a reusable drawstring bag and shipped in a compostable mailer to limit environmental impact.'
WHO ARE MAKESHIP? Makeship are a company who collaborate with creators to bring their characters to life in limited-edtion plushie form.
They've teamed up with some awesome indie game teams in the past, from Coffee Talk to Darkside Detective so we were super pleased to be invited to collaborate with them on a Tove plushie from our debut game, Röki
THE MAKESHIP CAMPAIGN Once the plushies are good-to-go Makeship then runs a crowdfunding campaign.
During the campaign window fans can order the plushies, and id by the end of the campaign the minimum goal (200 plushies) is met, then the plushies go into production. If the minimum goal is not met then fans are refunded for their order.
The plushies are strictly limited edition. Once the campaign window ends you won't be able to get one, so order now to not miss out!
ORDER YOURS NOW! The Tove limited-edition plushie campaign is NOW LIVE and will run until the end of July. You can order your Tove here.
We'd love the plushies to go into production so if you can help us pass the campaign goal of 200 plushies that'd be amazing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THANKS FROM THE TEAM The Tove plushie was something we wanted to do as a 'thank you' to the fans for their support of our debut indie game.
We hope you like how she turned out as much as we do and enjoy having her on your shelf. No doubt she’ll provide some most-welcome support as you navigate the mysterious, snowcapped wilderness of our action-adventure game, Röki - currently 65% off!
Team Röki
RöKI is Now Playable on Steam Deck - Embark on a Small-Screen Adventure!
Adventurers,
Grab your backpack, put on your coat and visit the cold nord on Steam Deck!
Explore the snow capped wilderness and experience the tale of tragic loss on the Steam Deck's LCD screen making the experience even more immersive.
Running at a solid 60fps on Steam Deck, there has never been a better time to explore a world full of hidden legends and forgotten monsters.
Get ready and set off for your magical adventure, NOW with 70% OFF!
Experience two fantastical journeys in the new bundle ft. Röki & Arise! OUT NOW!
Hey Adventurers!
We’ve teamed up with Untold Games to create the 'Brains, not Brawn' Bundle, featuring the perfect critically-acclaimed pairing, Röki & Arise: A Simple Story, get ready to embark upon two emotional tales about tragic loss on these fantastical journeys of redemption. And for this week only, you can get an additional 10% off!
Röki
Röki is a stunning adventure set in the snowcapped wilderness. As Tove, you must explore an uncharted world of hidden legends and forgotten monsters. Solve puzzles, collect curiosities, and uncover a tale of tragic loss, as you chart your path to redemption.
Arise: A simple story
Arise is an emotional journey through the bittersweet lives of two people where memories come alive and time bends to your will. Lose yourself in moments of happiness and overcome every hardship as you relive your life’s story. A story of joy and sorrow. A simple story.
Lose yourself to adventure with this discounted bundle now!
You’ve arrived at a great time. We’ve got 65% off Röki so you can get in on the creepy critters that lurk the wonderful world that hides from us.
We know it’s been a while since we launched - over a year in fact. So, please do come, relax and enjoy this short trailer showing you the wonders of Röki.
[previewyoutube="9nNQNpC6b4I;full"]
We’d love to see your Halloween outfits this year. Head to our twitter to share your spooktacular Dracula, or your white as a sheet ghost get-up. #Halloween
OUT NOW - Play Tails of Iron the Next Master-Crafted Adventure from United Label
Greetings Explorers,
Today, we’d like to invite you to embark on another eye-catching adventure that will undoubtedly pull at your heartstrings and trigger your long lost love of challenging gameplay. Allow us to present Tails of Iron, our latest RPG adventure... OUT NOW!
[previewyoutube="dURR7WW6MGA;full"]https://youtu.be/dURR7WW6MGA [/previewyoutube] A Grimm’s Fairy Tail Inspired Art Direction As with Roki, Tails of Iron embraces a beautifully unique art direction, in part, thanks to art Director Martin, whose Czech Republic background played a big role in his environmental design. The thick black lines that help characterise the stunning environments and intriguing characters are something that’s heavily inspired by Eastern European wood carvings, while the game’s dark moody atmosphere was heavily informed by the tones of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Martin really enjoyed the way in which those stories appeared cute on the outside but harboured creepy dark undertones - a juxtaposition prevalent throughout the Tails of Iron experience…
The Deep, Raspy Narrations of the Legendary, Doug Cockle In addition to the alluring art style, prepare to be swept away by the instantly recognisable vocals of the legendary Doug Cockle. Doug has lent his award-winning deep and raspy voice to the game's narrator, providing commentary on how Redgi feels about the situations he finds himself in, while also helping guide you through the Rat Kingdom - a very welcome tourist guide, if you ask us!
Immortalising Real-life Rats in a Video Game As for the anthropomorphic cast, Dan, the Creative Director, owned a pack of rats that provided ongoing inspiration to the team while developing Tails of Iron. He’d owned rats during his childhood, too, but as a boy, grew up with a garden that would often inhabit hoards of toads, too.. As a result, he developed an unnatural fear of them. In turn, he’d spend hours imagining a world where his pet rats had jobs of their own, some of which were brave warriors who defended the realm (AKA garden) against these vile toads. Years later, these fantasies helped spark the world of Tails of Iron, and today, you can delve into Dan’s imagination and see for yourself just how heroic and noble the race of rats can be.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1283410 Head over to the store page now and get 10% off Tails of Iron this week only - we’re sure our latest release will touch your hearts just like Roki did almost a year ago - Your tail begins…
Features:
A compelling story narrated by the deep, raspy vocals of the legendary Doug Cockle
A gorgeous and lovingly crafted 2D hand-drawn art style
A vast and beautiful Kingdom comprised of six distinct biomes, each with its own hidden paths and secrets
A range of side quests offering players additional gold on-the-side
Hidden blueprints to forge new and powerful equipment
OUT NOW - Pixel Art Adventure, Eldest Souls
Hey everyone,
Following in the footsteps of the critically-acclaimed Röki, we’re delighted to announce that United Label’s second ever title, Eldest Souls, releases today!
A pixel art adventure dripping with gorgeous 16 bit attention-to-detail, check out the brand new Gameplay Launch Trailer below…
[previewyoutube="v31r2jgyRSE;full"]
In a final act of vengeance, the Old Gods have unleashed a great Desolation upon the world. Mankind's only hope lies with one lone warrior, and his greatsword of the purest Obsydian. Players must explore the consecrated Citadel, in search of the Old Gods – and engage in fast-paced melee encounters, where every moment counts.
Deep within the world’s labyrinthine passages, you’ll also encounter intriguing NPCs, compelling questlines and a series of ominous mysteries, as you slowly uncover the truth behind the Old Gods and their agelong imprisonment…
Eldest Souls Feature:
Battle your way through a series of uniquely challenging Boss-Rush combat encounters.
Discover a cast of intriguing NPCs and questlines as you explore the ancient Citadel.
Unearth the mystery of the Old Gods, before total devastation befalls the World.
Bask in the glorious pixel-perfect graphic style, dripping in gorgeous attention-to-detail.
Your Build. Your Rules. Customize your own combat style from a multitude of ability combinations.
United Label Launching Two New Indie Titles This Year
Hey everyone!
We’re very excited to announce that United Label will be releasing two new indie titles this year; Tails of Iron and Eldest Souls, both of which debuted brand new trailers during the E3 Future Games Show last over the weekend. Find out more info on both below!
Tails of Iron
Tails of Iron is an epic RPG Adventure with a focus on formidable foes and challenging combat. As Redgi, heir to the Rat Throne, you must embark on a perilous quest to reclaim your Kingdom. Explore a deceivingly charming world. Assemble a band of brave companions. Banish the merciless Frog clan!
Fully accompanied by the deep, raspy narrations of Doug Cockle, prepare to embark on an epic adventure across the mediaeval-fantasy Rat Kingdom. Complete side quests and faction hunts for some additional gold-on-the-side, or join forces with a sharp-eyed companion to help even the playing field.
Bask in the pixel perfection of Eldest Souls, dripping in gorgeous 16-bit attention-to-detail. In a final act of vengeance, the Old Gods have unleashed a great Desolation upon the world. Mankind's only hope lies with a lone warrior… and his greatsword of pure Obsidian.
As you explore the labyrinthine passages, in search of the Old Gods, you’ll encounter intriguing NPCs, compelling questlines, and a series of dark and ominous mysteries. Slowly uncover the truth behind the Old Gods and their agelong imprisonment...
As I mentioned in last week’s blog, over the course of the project, we’ve released several time-lapse videos showing off the creation of some of our concept art images. Whilst they offer some insight into the process, they don’t show the whole picture (no pun intended), in part because they’re a couple of hours of drawing sped up into 30 seconds, but also because more has happened to create the image that you don’t see in the video. So let's try and fix that and go into a bit more detail about the steps I take.
1. Reference. Is. King.
No matter what you’re drawing, even if you think you know how to drawer it, your final image will be better for taking the time to find some reference. This can be a google image search, photos taken by yourself, or even just looking out of the window - whatever the form, just do it. I promise it will make a difference. Often for the time lapse images, I’ll have a whole bunch of photos and images open on my other monitor that I can refer to during my drawing.
2. Composition
This needs to be the first element of the drawing to get resolved. What is the focus of the image, and how is it best framed. I’ll often do several thumbnail sketches to explore different options and find the right layout. I work of 3 general rules;
❄️ The rule of thirds. If you divide an image into 3 vertically and 3 horizontally, the intersection points are the areas the eye is naturally drawn to. Placing an object of interest on 1 or 2 of these points is normally essential for a strong composition, unless you're deliberately breaking the rule for a different effect, but that’s a whole different kettle of fish. ❄️ Generally I like to use some foreground elements to help with depth and framing. Often then can stop the eyes escaping at the edge of the page and help force the view back into the image. ❄️ Big. Medium. Small. Images tend to look good if you push visual elements into these size categories (you need all 3 for it to work). They can take the form of an actual thing like a mountain, but they can also be an area of nothingness, like a clear sky. Repeating shapes within these size groups also works very well. The human eye likes repetition!
Here the church sits nicely on the right hand 3rd, whereas the raven and cross sit inside the left 3rd, allowing the view to move across the image. They also keep the eye moving around the picture, essentially trapping the viewer's interest into the image.
3. Palette.
This can either be made up, or taken directly from reference. The important thing is to find a harmonious colour palette. This means that the colours in the image not only work well together, but also help convey a mood. I often use the Adobe Colour Wheel to work out a palette before starting work on an image, then stick to these colours (or slight hue shifts of them) throughout the concept. I’ll also tend to do a rough colour pass on my chosen composition sketch just to make sure I’m happy with the direction I’m taking before spending time working it up.
Church Rough Sketch.
4. Flip it up.
Flipping your image horizontally is a good way to make sure your image is cohesive both left and right. If it only looks good one way, the composition isn’t strong enough.
Church image flipped. Still holds up, but creates a very different feel for the viewer.
5. Perspective.
This can be an onerous one to get right, but it will ruin an image if not done well. Often I find it quicker to roughly sketch what I want, then to go and build it crudely in 3d to take a screen grab of. This then gets put back in the image as a layer to reference so I can make sure all of the perspective is accurate.
Quick 3d mockup of the church for perspective and lighting.
6. Adjustment layers and post.
Will all the good will in the world, it’s rare that I can’t improve on my original choices. Whether this is balancing the colour values or resizing key elements of the image, I’ll often spend a decent chunk of time pushing different areas to ensure I’ve gotten the most out of the image. Top photoshop tip here - use Ctrl, shift, alt & E to copy your whole image into a new layer. This ten makes it really easy to resize bits and be a bit hacky without damaging any of your working layers.
7. Shapes and line tools.
Quite specific to the Röki style this one, but I find I get much crisper and more graphical looking drawings if I draw freehand with the marquee tools and colour fill them in. I’ll then use layer masks to tweak this shape if I need to.
Phew! I think that might be it. It’s worth pointing out that everyone works in different ways, so there is no right answer. This is just the mental checklist I tend to go through to get the best out of myself, but hopefully you find it useful as well.
