First, a quick announcement, we will be releasing what may possibly be the final demo for the game around the middle of the year (likely May or June) in time for Steam Nextfest. Mostly this will feature a lot of updated art and a few tweaks. Speaking of which...
We are proud to announce that the main character sprites for Shrine's Legacy have been updated! They are now much more faithful to their genre!
Now that's what I call better Contrast!
And here is a lengthy showcase video showing the new sprites in action! 👀⤵
This is thanks to the hard work of finalbossblues, a friend of ours and an excellent pixel artist! He's really breathed new life into the characters that we never could have imagined before now. If you are an aspiring gamedev (especially for RPGS), he also has a massive amount of pixel art assets available through his Patreon that we highly recommend checking out if you can! finalbossblues | creating Pixel Art Game Assets | Patreon
It's been really cool seeing how the characters have evolved over time! Seeing them reach their current form has been truly satisfying. Thanks to the wonderful artists that have helped us get this far! From the questionable early days before we revealed the game. To the sprite designs I made for the current demos. To the early original digital designs by Shrimptoast. To the awesome portraits by Toaomr. To the fantastic digital designs by Steph for our Key Art. And finally full circle back to the sprites redesign by finalbossblues. Rio and Reima have already been through quite the journey, and the game's not even out yet!! 🤯
To everyone who's pushed us to make the game the best it can be, thank you! And if there's anyone else I'm forgetting who contributed to the designs in some way.... thank you too!!! 😊
Closing That's all for Steam Chronicle #11. Thanks for hangin' around with us!
Until next time,
Joseph
Steam Chronicle #10: Illdar Preview and More!
Town Progress
All major towns now have their basic foundation set. Things like NPCs and shadows are not placed yet, nor do all the houses function, but it shows a somewhat accurate account of how the town layout will be when it's finished.
As an example, here is more progress on the Mountain Town of Illdar:
Art Updates
Last time we had a mockup of Parum Tunnel, this time we have the Tunnel working in-game. It could still get some adjustment, but it's good to have the tiles and lights working in-engine.
A more finalized look of Parum Tunnel, in-engine
Closing
That ends Steam Chronicle #10. Please keep an eye out because we plan to have some really exciting news in the coming month regarding our favorite two protagonists! 😎
Until next time,
Joseph
Steam Chronicle #9: MAGFest, New Title Screen and Dungeon Art
New Title Screen
The title screen sketch that we showed off last update is now finished and can be seen animating in game!
Art Updates
Here is our first WIP mockup for Parum Tunnel, a mini-dungeon that takes place shortly after the end of the current demo on Steam! It'll get some tweaking (especially the floor and lights) before it's totally finalized but this should give you an idea of what to expect!
Do you dig it?
Aaand, a small teaser for one of the dungeons that hasn't been shown yet! We'll keep this shot small to leave some mystery for this one. 😉
What spooky things lay waiting in this forgotten place?
Closing
That's it for Steam Chronicle #9! Don’t forget that we will be at MAGFest this weekend! So if you are going, be sure to give our booth a visit while you're there! I hope that 2023 treats you all well! This will be a tough but rewarding year for us, because we'll be doing our best to make this the year that Shrine's Legacy launches. Thank you for being here for us! 😊
Until next time, Joseph
Steam Chronicle #8: Fellinore Sneak Peek and Dungeon Progress
Dungeon Progress
Dungeons have made a huge amount of progress since the last update! The tileset art for almost every dungeon in the game is now close to complete, and the rough room and obstacle layouts are laid out for them too!
Within the next couple months we'll be developing custom dungeon functionality, tiling the rooms, and making brand new enemies/puzzles for them, so that's pretty exciting!
Commissioned Art and Art Updates
We're in the process of updating our title screen art with the help of the artist who made our current key art, Steph. It's almost complete, and we'll be excited to show it off once it's totally ready, but for now check out this early sketch for it!
Can't wait to see the completed version!
Enjoy this early sneak peek WIP of the town square in Fellinore, a wealthy city of magic-users! At the center of the square houses a mysterious statue... 😮
What a beautiful statue! But who is it?
Closing
And with that we close off Steam Chronicle #8. Thanks for sticking around with us on this tough journey towards a more complete and polished alpha!
Until next time, Joseph
Steam Chronicle #7: Big Progress and MAGFest!
Happy Halloween and welcome to Steam Chronicle #7! 🎃
First, some quick news. Weather permitting, Shrine's Legacy will be showcased at MAGFest 2023 in January! It's in the National Harbor area in Maryland. Alan and myself will be there in person, so if you are going, it's a great opportunity to say hi and visit our booth. 😊 It'd be an honor to meet you there! 🙋♂️
With that out of the way, let's get into what's been completed since last time!
Dungeon Design Progress
Dungeon progress has been very good this month. In fact, we've managed to get the basic floor plans for nearly every dungeon complete! Not only that, but elevations, obstacle layouts, and key/lock functionality has been placed for most of the dungeons.
We still have to make them actually look pretty and finish tiling them, but having the functionality there is a big step in the right direction.
Frost and Foxes
Hope you are ready for Winter! We got started mocking up the snowy town of Illdar where the fox people called Vulpecs live. Here's the very first WIP look at the town:
Brrr...! I hope you brought a jacket
Spoopy Woods...?
Oh! Since it's Halloween, we'd thought it would be cool to share something a little... spoopy too. This is a very very early preview of some of the foggy forestry of Moglore Woods.
It's still very early WIP, but already looking pretty spooky!
Closing
That's all for Steam Chronicle #7, hope you enjoyed what we had to show today! Can't wait to get even more of these dungeons completed!
Until next time, Joseph
Shrine's Chronicle #7: Big Progress and MAGFest!
Happy Halloween and welcome to Steam Chronicle #7! 🎃
First, some quick news. Weather permitting, Shrine's Legacy will be showcased at MAGFest 2023 in January! It's in the National Harbor area in Maryland. Alan and myself will be there in person, so if you are going, it's a great opportunity to say hi and visit our booth. 😊 It'd be an honor to meet you there! 🙋♂️
With that out of the way, let's get into what's been completed since last time!
Dungeon Design Progress
Dungeon progress has been very good this month. In fact, we've managed to get the basic floor plans for nearly every dungeon complete! Not only that, but elevations, obstacle layouts, and key/lock functionality has been placed for most of the dungeons.
We still have to make them actually look pretty and finish tiling them, but having the functionality there is a big step in the right direction.
Frost and Foxes
Hope you are ready for Winter! We got started mocking up the snowy town of Illdar where the fox people called Vulpecs live. Here's the very first WIP look at the town:
Brrr...! I hope you brought a jacket
Spoopy Woods...?
Oh! Since it's Halloween, we'd thought it would be cool to share something a little... spoopy too. This is a very very early preview of some of the foggy forestry of Moglore Woods.
It's still very early WIP, but already looking pretty spooky!
Closing
That's all for Steam Chronicle #7, hope you enjoyed what we had to show today! Can't wait to get even more of these dungeons completed!
Until next time, Joseph
Steam Chronicle #6: We’re in Alpha!
Welcome to Steam Chronicle #6, and it marks a very important milestone for the game's development. We've officially reached the Alpha stage! 🎉
What does this mean, exactly? It means the entire game is playable from beginning to end in some form or another. In our case, the entire floor plan of the game and the most basic form of cutscenes are all laid out (not to mention the first two dungeons being basically finished from the demo).
It's still a very unpolished Alpha as we're still missing things like final art for each area, designing out the details and elevations of most rooms, and enemies and bosses being made and placed. So, there's still quite a road ahead of us! But it's still an exciting milestone, nonetheless!
Dungeon Design Progress
Our main goal for last time was to get the remaining dungeons floor plans finished, and I can say we succeeded on that goal. What does floor plan mean, you ask? Think empty house, but rooms intact!
New Art and Town Progress
We're very close to finishing commissioning all the art for the towns of the game now as well! Next up will be the remaining dungeon tiles and more of the overworld. 🎨
Still very WIP, but as a teaser, let's take a short look at how the farm town of Omdale is coming along:
Love those turnips! 🤭 👩🌾
Closing
With that we close Steam Chronicle #6 and a major milestone in the development of Shrine's Legacy. Time to begin the journey onward toward "polished alpha" and eventually "beta"!
Until next time, Joseph
Steam Chronicle #5: What’s a Tiorse…?
It's that time again, we've reached the 5th monthly Steam update. 🙂
Shrine's Legacy was showcased at the Gamescom convention in Germany courtesy of our Publisher! Although we weren't able to be there in-person, Freedom got a couple of good pictures for us: Folks enjoying the Shrine's Legacy demo!
New Art
We got chickens and horse... I mean tiger horses now! We're still deciding on a final name for them but Tiorse has been the code name. And... Just look at them. They're an absolute unit!
And look at that strut :)
🎨 There's some more tileset art that's been made as well but we'll save that for next time when we have it prepared in a more showcase-able form.
Closing
That's it for Steam Chronicle #5. As always, thank you so much for reading. Wishing you the best in September!
Until next time, Joseph
Steam Chronicle #4: Dungeon Progress and Galadine Castle
Hello! Hope the end of your July is going well, and welcome to the 4th monthly Steam Chronicle for Shrine’s Legacy!
Inside of Galadine Castle
Last month we showed off some screenshots of Galadine, but there was no castle interior yet. Now there is! Here is a first look at part of Galadine Castle. Note it is a heavy work-in-progress!
Dungeon Design Progress
So far, four dungeons and the overworld have reached the “floor plan” complete stage, two more since last month. “Floor plan complete” means all the rooms in the dungeon exist now and are connected in a way that closely resembles how they will be connected in the final game. ✨🎉 At this point the goal with dungeons is to get all the dungeons to the "Floor Plan complete" stage or higher by two months from now, which will be Steam Chronicle #6, and to get more art done as well! At that point, we'll be at the roughest form of the alpha stage, since technically the whole game will be playable in some form, which is exciting! And then we can start deep diving into specific areas and making them complete and fun.
Closing
Just thought I’d throw that out here, but please take care of yourself in these times, folks. 🤗 Mental and physical health are no afterthought, and you have to be your own strongest advocate for taking care of it. That's all for my public service announcement. At any rate...
Thank you so much for reading Steam Chronicle #4! See you next month!
Steam Chronicle #3: Scenes and Galadine
Welcome to Steam Chronicle #3, a devlog where we’ll keep you up to date on progress for Shrine’s Legacy!
Cutscene Progress
All of the basic cutscenes for the main story are now implemented into the game, and most of the ones for side content are also implemented! What this means is that both the story and the areas are now in the game in a very crude form. There's still a lot to do to actually make each area feel complete, but it's great progress to have made regardless.
Galadine is in Development
Additionally, we've gotten art from our artists for Galadine (also known as the capital of Ardemia, complete with a castle) and I got started on building that out yesterday! It's still very much a WIP, for example you'll notice that most of the shadows are missing, and the layout and colors aren't necessarily final. There's much tweaking to be done. But at any rate, take a look at some of what we have so far:
Galadine Castle Entrance
The Courtyard
Be quiet. This is a library!
Oooh, treasure!
All of this is working in-game right now, and we plan to share a video of exploring the town once we have more of it finished, so look forward to that! 🙂
Closing
That’s it for Steam Chronicle #3. Thanks again for all your patience so far. Look forward to seeing more of Galadine later!
