2016 Progress Report

Early last year I published a progress report of what we’ve accomplished on The Regret of Vitrerran. Well, another year has come and gone, and it’s time to do another one of these. Much like the first one, these percents are estimations, not all categories are created equal, and we are hoping to have this game done and out within the next eight to ten months.

2016 was a super productive year!

Maps

We’re defining maps as the level geometry throughout Viterran. If you’ve caught any of our Let’s Builds or our blog posts about the various countries across our continent, then you have a strong understanding of what we’re talking about.

Ice level: 100%

Fire level: 100%

Jungle level: 100%

Sand level: 90%

Wind level: 30%

Swamp level: 100%

Water level: 10%

Neutral level: 15%

Battle Maps

We’re defining battle maps as the small, usually 16x16 square maps where battles take place. There are between 10 and 15 per dungeon.

Ice level: 90%

Fire level: 100%

Jungle level: 0%

Sand level: 90%

Wind level: 0%

Swamp level: 80%

Water level: 0%

Neutral level: 0%

Dialogue

We’re defining dialogue as how far a set of characters are through their respective campaigns. It should be noted that all dialogue with the Merchant character—some 17 pages worth—is finished. I have not included those tallies in the below figures.

Kvalt/Tylek: 63%

Pakasoph/Caud: 100%

Herahk/Aros: 63%

Marcus/James: 63%

Art

Artwork is one of the biggest things we have left to do for Vitrerran, yet some aspects of it shouldn’t take that long to do. The portraits are a bit of a time-sink, but the animations themselves aren’t all that bad because once one walk cycle is completed, it’s just a matter of following that path. The mold’s been created, so now it’s time to replicate it.

Level Tilesets: 85%

Character Portraits: 50%

Character Animations: 40%

Cards

We really can’t estimate how far we are on the card front because Vitrerran promises to have a lot of them, and “a lot of them” isn’t a number. We’re making them up as we go in a sense, but the good news is they aren’t terribly difficult to make or churn out.

That being said, we do have at least half of them finished.

Sounds

Of all the rough estimates here, sounds are probably the roughest since I cannot say for certain how many sound effects the game will need. I also can only estimate how many songs we’ll have, but ideally I’d like to cap that number at 20. That’s two per dungeon for a total of 16, and then four more for things like boss fights and our overworld music.

Music: 60%

Sound Effects: 15%

Design

We’re defining design as playable and complete levels from a purely gameplay-driven perspective. This includes all fighting and rewards only.

Pakasoph/Caud: 40%

Kvalt/Tylek: 25%

Herahk/Aros: 25%

Marcus/James: 25%

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Development Update: Before and After

On the last development blog, I posted a bunch of pictures of the Smaradagus Swamp, which is an example of what our game will look like when all of the proper art assets are in place. Well, we have more art assets in place! I've been spending the last few weeks going through some old levels and sprucing them up, adding trim to houses, grass to floors, and a bunch other little odds and ends to our world that really makes it come to life.

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Music: We are the Ocean Born

Hey, have some more Vitrerran music why don'tcha!

So, this song is the main theme for The Scarfoam Coast, or our water area. I was trying to channel my inner Alestorm, and while I probably missed that mark by a wide margin, I am happy with what I got going here. This song was super fun to make!

What sets this one apart, I guess, is that it uses a new plugin called Sakura. Well, not "new" to the world but new to Dual Wield Software. It came with some awesome strings, including the violin and guitars you here in this song. I finally have an upright bass, guys. You have no idea how happy that makes me. Got a wicked nice harp too.

Pretty sure the Greyjoys liked to go "we are the iron born," so that's where the title is coming from. I'm finding it harder to pun off of A Song of Ice and Fire things as I make more tunes. I haven't read the books in a very long time.

Anyhow, cheers. Hope you like the song, and as always, follow us on twitter @DualWieldSoft, find us on FB, and some third thing. I dunno.

Song after the break!

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Comparing Video Game Writing with Novel Writing

As development of The Regret of Vitrerran continues to chug on, I’ve taken a break from level design to return to the writing side of things. We’re getting ready to really start putting some major level pieces together, and that means the dialogue has to be finished and ready to go.

Having spent most of my free time over the last two months writing and editing long-form fiction, I’ve really been struck by how different video game writing is. That isn’t to say I find the differences surprising—I don’t—but they are interesting.

I find interesting things fun to talk about, so here go. To make my life easier (and to make this more interesting), I’m going to lead by example. What follows is the first conversation between Pakasoph and Caud told in long-form writing:

[CLICK FOR MORE]

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Play The Land of Glass Demo Now!

The wait is over, and now our demo available to play!

You can find it here on Mediafire and here on Google Drive

I feel like big projects should be measured in milestones, because let's face it, if you're working on something that you know will take years to finish, you can't spend that entire time stressing about release day. You'd go crazy!

Well, The Regret of Vitrerran hit two very big milestones in the month of April. We got Greelit on Steam, and today marks the release of our demo.

I'll be honest, I expected these to be further apart than they are, but I'm also happy to have them back to back. It really makes this whole thing feel official, like more than a hobby or "garage project."

It's also a nice package of overwhelming, elating, tense, nerve wracking, and exciting.

We hope you enjoy the demo, and the insecure artist in me needs to stress that it's a small slice of a very big, work-in-progress project.

That being said, please, please, PLEASE tell us what you think of it. We don't just want feedback, we need it. The Regret of Vitrerran can only get better if you guys find its faults, be they in sound, gameplay, writing, design, etc. That's all simply part of the process, so don't hold back.

But, you know, also find time to enjoy it. That's the end goal, and one we will hit before it's released. That's a promise.

~Chad

 

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On Silence and Publishers

Hello friends, curious people, and those that fall between,

We've been quiet lately, far too quiet for my tastes, and for that I apologize. I'd like to take a brief moment to explain why, and for once, I promise to be brief.

About three months ago, perhaps a bit less, we were approached by a small, indie publisher about funding. We had a brief chat with them, had a lengthy chat amongst ourselves, and then had a second chat with them. We sent them information, and two months ago (thereabouts), we sent them our demo.

That's when the waiting and the silence began. With such a big decision hanging over us, I just didn't feel like it would be appropriate to continue on as if everything where normal.

So we waited and waited, and after a few months, we were declined. It is possible we'll work something out in the future--no doors have been closed--when the game is further along and that small, indie company is ready for a project of Vitrerran's type, size, and scope.

For the record, they did enjoy the game.

We haven't lost anything, and during this waiting period, we continued to work on Vitrerran. Progress is advancing as usual. The demo is done--and has been for quite some time--and after one more round of testing on our parts, it'll be ready to go out into the world. When I say "coming soon" I mean you'll be able to play it by next week. Perhaps sooner.

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