As we hurtle towards the Steam Next Fest Demo, I'm finalizing the build that will go up there, frantically tying things together, bug-fixing and balancing and ... you guessed it ... still adding in new stuff!
One of the things I've always been meaning to add to the game is Character Class selection, something that featured in Swords and Sandals V Redux. Previously, the series would assign an arbitrary class to you based on your best stats : characters with high Defence / Vitality would be Knights, high agility would be rogues and so on.
In Swords and Sandals Immortals you now have six character classes to choose from ( with possibly more to come during early access. )
Warrior - Battle hardened master of melee and combat
Wizard - Powerful wielder of the arcane arts
Rogue - Crafty and nimble adventurer with many tricks
Knight - Honourable and proud defensive fighter
Priest - Devout and pious defender of the faith
Bard - Uses music and entertainment to bring down enemies
Each of these characters have the following special traits:
1 unique talent that cannot be gained any other way
1 unique skill that cannot be gained any other way
2 bonus stat points ( strength/attack for warriors, for example)
There may also be more unique talents and skills added during Early Access too, as well as other classes revealed. But for now, what's the difference between a talent and a stat?
A talent is a passive ability that stays with the player the whole time. For example the Warrior's 'Battle Forged' talent means you always have 30% more total health than other gladiator classes.
Askill is an active ability that is assigned to your Battle Circle to be used in combat. Skills like the Warrior's Barbarian Storm, a powerful melee attack than be triggered with a long cooldown.
These character classes are of course just starting points for your gladiator. There's nothing stopping you from creating a wizard who ends up using powerful two handed weapons, or a warrior who also specializes in sonic weapons.
Under a week until the demo launches - I've just put together a new trailer which I can't wait to show you all.
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Revealing the BIG BOSS for the game at last!
For a long while many people have asked me who the big boss for Swords and Sandals Immortals will be, and I've kept it quiet for months even though I knew early on who I wanted it to be.
Let's quickly go through the series and break down who the bosses were as a refresher.
Swords and Sandals I : HeChaos the Scourge ( everyone's favourite incompetent leader )
Swords and Sandals II: Emperor Antares ( boo, hiss! )
Swords and Sandals III : Ultratus Omega ( automaton alien guy with two chainsaws )
Swords and Sandals IV : No boss
Swords and Sandals V : Emperor Antares again ( controlled by the mysterious Malevolent )
So... we've used Antares twice. Some people wanted him to return again but that'd be too predictable ( though maybe I'll find a cameo for him somewhere!)
I wanted a new antagonist, but I wanted to tie them back to the series somehow.
I wanted someone who was more on a 'human scale' baddie, someone formidable and highly dangerous, but someone who a legendary gladiator could still take down in a one-on-one battle.
So, I figured - who better to fight our gladiator hero than ANOTHER GLADIATOR?
Cast your minds back to the end of Swords and Sandals III. The player's created hero fights their way through the Gladiae Ultratus tournament , defeats Omega Ultratus and is then invited (along with Bargle) to go and compete in a gladiatorial tournament amongst the stars. This is where the game ended and where most people hoped S&S IV would continue the story. I always wished it would have, but got very sidetracked by the games that followed.
Today, I can reveal the bad guy for Swords and Sandals Immortals is in fact that very same gladiator who went off to fight in outer space ... you shall fight against...
THE STARBOUND GLADIATOR !!!
So, more of the actual story will be revealed in the weeks/months to come, but in a nutshell (as I have written in my Master Document for the game)
"Somewhere along the journey, the Starbound Gladiator was contacted by the Malevolence! Much like Emperor Antares before him, the gladiator was beguiled by the dark magics of the powerful spirit. He was unable to resist temptation, striking a bargain for even more power.
In exchange, he was to betray the Automatons, win the tournament and return to Brandor. He would then attempt to bring the Malevolence through the great portal known as the Constellation Mirror, thus dooming all life on Tritonia."
Now , the Malevolence of course has been featured in S&S before - a giant dark cosmic presence who will feature in Constellation Mirror. ( the RPG I want to build once this is all over , if S&S is still popular enough for me to do it ). The Malevolence influenced Antares and was able to bring him back to life, and has done the same with the former heroic Starbound Gladiator, who now returns to Tritonia and threatens all life.
More, from the Master Document:
"The Automatons , sensing they have been betrayed, turn their own ships around and appear before the great rulers of Brandor. They explain the rogue Starbound Gladiator’s plans and tell of his terrible new powers. Bargle suggests they appeal to the Starbound Gladiator’s pride and hubris - he now has the power to lay waste to armies but will not face them as it is not his mission.
However...perhaps a single hero could prove his undoing - for who would be so bold as to face the greatest gladiator in the galaxy! All agree a hero must arise to meet him in single combat.
To find such a hero, tournaments across the realm will be held. Gladiators will not be made aware of the terrible plight facing the realm lest mass panic sweep over Brandor, but instead will be offered great riches for rising as Champions.
While the player competes on Brandor, the Starbound Gladiator competes amongst the stars. As each chapter passes, the player is informed of the Starbound Gladiator getting ever closer. Eventually, he returns for the final showdown, whether you are ready or not."
So basically the player has 300 days until the Starbound Gladiator arrives.
I'm going to reveal a lot more of the actual story as we go forward,but for now I hope this has been entertaining and whet your whistle for the great battle to come.
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Story Cutcenes
Believe it or not, many people enjoy Swords and Sandals games for their stories! Shock horror! Funny enough, the games of course started out with next to no story ( you're a pirate, crash on an island, fight some arena champions ) but it's grown to be quite a long tale now. Swords and Sandals Immortals is of course no exception to this, with what I hope provides a compelling story for the player to follow as they make their way around Brandor.
One of the things I've learned from making these games is you definitely want an overarching story as a way to guide the player on what they're supposed to do next, a reason from going from point A to point B, a reason to defeat these Arena Champions , a sense of urgency and so on.
I made a bit of a mistake back in the day when I was building Swords and Sandals Pirates - and that was to scrap the proposed story I had been writing in which our captain tracked down the X number of pirate captains who had betrayed and left him for dead. Without this story, the game was more of an open ended sandbox, but it left the player a little aimless without a motivation as to why they were sailing around.
Now of course, the heart of S&S Immortals is combat, but I want the player to be inspired, to feel like they need to be winning battles and making progress.
To this end, there will be a number of cutscenes sprinkled throughout the game, often when you unlock a new shop, or new game feature etc. These will be very simple scenes where a character pops up, spouts 3-4 lines of dialogue and then the game progresses. I know many people hate reading a lot of text so I've tried to keep these short, punchy and fun enough to drive the story forward without getting in the way.
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Grand Adventures Await!
What would a Swords and Sandals be without adventures? Going all the way back to Swords and Sandals 2, almost every S&S game has had 'Choose Your Own Adventure' style mini quests to take part in throughout the game.
Indeed, Swords and Sandals Immortals is no exception! Throughout your journey you will find yourself in many different scenarios that may affect your fortunes for both better and worse.
Each time you enter a town (and once your gladiator is high enough level to access the town) you will be given the opportunity to go on one of these adventures. Take a look at the first screenshot here, and you'll see a nice hand drawn sketch of the location you're visiting, a description of the town and some further information. If there is an adventure available, you will be able to click on the button and the adventure will begin.
Adventures in various locations will be tailored to that area. So, for example, Willard's Sound ( the starting town for the game ) is a sleepy fishing village on the west coast of Brandor. Naturally, the adventure here centers around fishing!
Those who have played S&S games before know that each adventure is a game of chance. This is not always the case in the new game. Adventures encountered in towns have fixed outcomes depending on the choice the player makes and offer different rewards and outcomes.
However, adventures encountered on the road are much smaller and less text heavy ( think of something like "A merchant's wagon has broken down. Help with the repairs?" )
In these smaller scenarios, choosing your option will show you the familiar 20 sided die - you'll have to roll higher than a certain number ( usually 10 ) for the adventure to have a positive outcome.
Once this adventure plays out, you will either gain rewards or suffer a penalty. Everything from increased stats to gold and stars to special items are potentially yours for the taking - so choose wisely and hope that luck is with you!
In other news, I've also almost completed the "Regional Champion Battle Intro". Remember the classic 'portcullis opens, boss steps out of the darkness" from S&S 2? Well, in S&S Immortals there are both local "Regional Champions" ( one for each location ) and "Great Champions" (name to be decided) that you only fight at Doomtrek and must be invited to fight - this will happen once you've defeated enough provincial champions.
I think you'll like the new Regional Champion introduction, it's got a great heavy metal rock soundtrack and feels a lot like a WWE wrestler intro, gets the blood pumping!
Cheers, Oliver Joyce Whiskeybarrel Studios
Exploring the Overworld Map
Today in Swords and Sandals Immortals development I want to talk about the overworld map. Now the first time ( aside from Crusader's moving armies around), our individual gladiators can now explore the wider continent of Brandor and its many interesting locations and cities.
When our game begins, we find ourselves camped outside Willard's Sound, a small fishing peninsula village on Brandor's western coast ( as seen in the second picture above). You can see in this picture there are a familiar set of circular buttons to press, each taking you to a caravan shop, the Fight Selector, or the overworld map. Each shop you visit will cost you one hour of time, fights will cost you 3.
Leaving the town, you will find yourself now on the overworld map. You can zoom in and out of the map with the mouse wheel, as well as pan around the map. At first, you'll see a few towns to visit and the rest will be shrouded by a 'fog of war' ( which is slightly translucent so you can still see the map itself. )
As you approach locations on the map, they will become visible to you, and will stay visible as destinations for the remainder of the game. Each destination takes a certain amount of hours to reach. Close locations like Shackleford are five hours walk away, cities like Braxis will take many days to reach.
As you walk along the map ( by clicking on the location, our hero auto walks towards it, and the hours pass.) . If the clock turns to midnight, they will make camp for the night wherever they are. The Battle Caravan will follow after you to major cities and towns, but it will not visit dungeons, adventure locations and so on ( when you encamp halfway between a city, you'll be solo etc.). There may also be random encounters ( bandit attacks and so on).
Once you reach a location, you will see a parchment popup with a sketch of the location, the option to have an adventure or to potentially enter the location itself - each location has a 'level' lock, meaning you must be at least a certain gladiator level before you can enter and go in fights.
You can tell how far away and what level the location is by glancing at the icons on the map, the shield represents the level and the hourglass the distance to travel.
There are also other locations you can visit as mentioned above. Mini 'choose your own adventure' style scenarios as seen in previous S&S games like Crusader, Pirates and S&S 2 will make their return as well as (not totally confirmed) small dungeons to explore with potentially cool rewards.
