Arcen Games is wholly excited to announce new updates for their procedurally-generated exploration and survival game A Valley Without Wind. A ton of work has been put in over the past couple months, as the game edges closer to its first playable beta. Today includes reveals for brand new character models, the introduction of armor suits, new time period details, and a full gameplay video of the title’s latest build.
AVWW now has completely new character models; more of them too! They’re a significant upgrade from what was previously in the game, and dozens--if not hundreds--of models are still in the works. Heat and Snowsuit tech-armor have been introduced as well; as hot and cold now very much matter to human inhabitants of Environ. 16 new character/armor concept art images are available to view with a breakdown of each, plus new time period details, and art credits over on Arcen CEO Chris Park’s Games By Design blog.
Many of these additions and more can be seen in the 17-minutes of gameplay footage recently released from the title’s latest build (available to view in 1080p for full effect.) Chris narrates throughout, and also has posted a full explanation of everything happening in the video over on the aforementioned developer blog.
A Valley Without Wind is on target for a playable beta release for PC and Mac in September, with instant access to those who pre-order the official version coming later this year.
About Arcen Games
Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.
AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook or on Twitter: @ArcenGames.
Oh, so you're using stock models for your characters?
ReplyDeleteThey're customized and combined in various custom ways, but the actual components are 100% stock, yeah. As with 90% of the art in this game, it's combined from unusual stock sources.
ReplyDeleteDAZ character models feature tons of morphs, so you can really get a lot of variety out of the models. I think it's cool to see those being used so well in a game.
ReplyDeleteThanks! And yeah, I love all the morphs. I had been using Poser Pro 2010, but I've found that DAZ 3D is just way more featureful and stable for my purposes. I'm finding it a really great resource for doing human sprites and humanoid sprites, and I expect I'll be able to do some good animals in there, too. For some models that aren't already rigged, like the bat that I did a few months back, I've been rigging them in Poser still, but then I can export them to DAZ for actual posing and render.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen their new "Genesis" line? Seems like it might be a very handy thing (basically, from what I understand, the Genesis figure is one figure that can be anything humanoid, and they just release new morphs from time to time. So, one figure works for male, female, adult, child, monster, etc.).
ReplyDeleteYep, the Genesis line is pretty cool, and I plan to use it for some things like dwarves and ogres. The main problem with it right now is that there are hardly any clothing, hair, or other props for it! So for most characters it's a lot more straightforward to use Michael and Victoria, which have tons of stuff, and then just use Genesis more for monsters at the moment.
ReplyDelete