The road to EGX

I thought it would be a grand time for an update- we at the Forge have been working hard on Ascend for over 13 weeks now, and Tranzfuser has come and gone.

Developing a game isn’t easy- while we’ve all made smaller student games before creating a game intended for a wider audience and to be appealing for a publisher to help fund our continuation is a bit challenge, and I am happy to say that I think we rose to the challenge and we’ve done incredibly well.

We’ve had to make some difficult decisions during development- there’s always an idea that could kick up your game to an infinitely higher level, but scope is something we’ve learned to keep well under our grasp, and I believe we’ve done a fine job of balancing a realistic achievable development with some more exciting ideas.

It’s not long now until EGX when the public will be welcome to play Ascend at the Tranzfuser hub on the floor, and to celebrate this moment I’d like to share some progress shots comparing the original blockout prototype we made within the first week of Tranzfuser compared to some of our most recent work- considering we did all this in 10 weeks, I’m incredibly proud of my team.

This is the beginning area of the game- designed to be an open meadow where the Warden first lasts from her descent from the skies. We wanted a lush, peaceful start to the game which gives players a chance to get a grasp on the general controls and pace of the game.

The small woodland stream which you travel through on your path to the first gate, which joins up to the water pool on the other side of the rocks

The water pool and mural wall- this would be the first area where the player can start to get a grasp on the background story of the game, and where the rune switches to open doors are first introduced

Another shot of the pool and door

The second door which blocks your path to the open section of the level 

The level opens into a ruined cityscape- we had originally only planned for some pillars and a broken path, but when bringing in more of the story elements for the game, we knew this area would be much better served if it was a ruined part of a city, collapsed and in bits, to better present the backstory of the game

 The large runic shrine- we originally played with the idea of having this area be a floating island suspended in the air which players would need to walk and jump across a ruined bridge to get there- we still held onto a similar idea in the cave area on the opposite side of the level, but we decided we wanted a grand, built up shrine with multiple parts in this area instead. But, if you look at the actual layout and building of the shrines, it's still very similar.

 The grand reveal- we did a bit of experimentation with the end of the level and how it would work. The tree is meant to be the focal point of the world, so we wanted an environment that would frame this and help build it's importance. We also knew we wanted the path to the other planes (how the player continues to the next level in the game) to be the Bifrost bridge, a vital bridge between the heavens and earth in Norse mythology, and Jord came up with the concept of an enclosed area which blocks your path the end of the level- you can see that it's there but you can't get in until you activate the orbs which open the door. Also look how big the tree was to begin with!

We're still working away now on polishing and pushing the prototype to be as good as it can possibly be by EGX, so I'll do another update nearer the time. Now back to the Forge!