Levi Chronicles
Dev Diary #7
Welcome to the seventh instalment of the Dev Diary Series! Its been exciting behind the scenes, working really hard on the start of the next phase of Levi Chronicles!
Lets not waist time and let me tell you about The Vision!
The Vision
So once I had Levi Chronicles Chapter 1 finished, it has given me time to step back and look over what has been accomplished. Making the game was a lot of fun. but looking at the game I can see a concept that hasn't been explored.
So the last couple of weeks I have been back at the drawing board to go over some ideas of where I will take the game. Of course I will be continuing the main story, that will be my primary focus, but a opportunity has appeared for the game, the games scale can be much larger then just a story adventure game.
Here is the current Vision for the game!
Commissions
Commissions will not follow the main story directly but will follow in the same world. The Objective of Commissions is for you or you and your partner to locate a "Artifact" within the play area you are given. These will be surrounded by a rich environment to explore and puzzles to solve.
The Commissions will follow along the same lines as how chapter 1 went. You will have to Explore Ruins and Temples to find your Artifact. The Main part of these Temples will be the puzzles. I want to make sure I make a rich set of puzzles that can be customised from a developers view point to make the creation process quicker!
Story wise, Commissions will be handed out by 2 People.
- A.R.C (Agency of Research & Classification)
- Emilia Coleman
The idea behind having 2 vendors for Commissions is to change the objective of the Commission. Emilia will want you to find out more about the culture that made the ruins to help in the hunt for Levi, Somewhat like a free roam mode, but the A.R.C are only after the Artifacts that are found at these Temples, Ruins and Locations for research into the past.
Along the lines of story! There will also be 2 groups of treasure hunters joining the race in the Commissions!
- The Relic (The Relic of the Gods)
- United Coalition of Hunters
The Enemy groups will play a part in your Commissions. They will be trying to find the Artifacts first to follow in there own agenda. "The Relic" are group that are focused on restoring ancient powers back to humanity(Tomb raider vibe XD). While one the other hand the "United Coalition of Hunters" are treasure hunters only after Fame and Money. You will have to be careful around them to not get caught while completing your objective!
Moving on. Commissions will also introduce the new Class system that will apply for Commissions only. You will be given a set of skills to choose from to create your own class to work with your play style!
The Skill sets will rely on the first 4 classes in the first chapter and a new one in the concept phase!
-Explorer Skill (Explorers Skill can help the player track down footprints or old paths, as well as a flare for light and a beacon to set way-points that everyone on your team can see.)
-Detector Skill (Detectors Skill will range from classic Scanning ability, but with a twist you will need to calibrate the scanner to locate different objects for different use.)
-Extractor Skill (Extractor Skill will involve a few new tools in his arsenal from the Normal large explovise to a weak small explosive to help uncover smaller objects or Murals that are more fragile to extract, Another skill will be digging to locate Artifacts that are underground.)
-Linguist Skill (Linguist will be getting the Skill he deserves now with his ability to Translate ruins! but this will all depends on his reading level. finding more objects to translate will help clear up the language barrier to uncover old clues and riddles.)
-Geologist Skill (Geologist Skill will be the new class added to the game in Commissions! The skill is in early concept but some feedback on the game, someone mentioned a map man should be introduced to help locate where you are, This will be 1 of the Skills of the Geologist. Geologist Skill will also have the ability to tell how old structures are to determine if the path you are on is the correct one and not left by greedy treasure hunters who want to put you off there scent!)
Skill Classes are still to be expended on and is not final, so feedback is also nice :). Now that we have explored the Skill Classes. I want to talk to you about the timeline for this. I cant be too specific as all this is all in early concept currently, but It is going to take a bit of time. The Reason I will be doing Commissions is to get people playing more then just a story. I want people to have fun with creating there own stories in the Levi Chronicles World! This was what I had in mind originally when I first started making games.
I don't want to rush this all out too. This was all a passion project after all. Since I'm a Dev working on this alone it will take some time. But I feel if I Shared the idea now I could get people keen for whats to come. I'm going to start Opening up the Games Development visually to ALL who are keen to see this come!
Ill make sure I host more Alpha Sessions for this game and ill Open up the testing to all of you! I want this to work and I think ill have a lot of fun working with you all! But now I will move on to the next Vision!
Before we move on I would also like to note Commissions will most likely be a 1 or 2 Player Gamemode. Unsure about 4 yet...
Levi Chronicles Chapter 2
The Hunt
This will be the Second instalment of the Main Story for Levi Chronicles! I wont reveal much on this with the story elements, but I will give you this.
Story is still in the late writing Phase. It is a little complicated to write because what ever I change here has big effects on the Last Chapter of the Story. I have to make sure everything is perfect here now so when it comes to the final Chapter, Everything will be in place for a Perfect Finale!
Also Chapter 2 is Desert Themed!!!!!
Check out the progress on the Main Theme of Chapter 2 Here!!!
Its time to move on to the Dev Diary Essentials!
The Inner Engine
Welcome to the Inner Engine! Its been a little bit busy with the work inside the engine. Most of the work done has been clean ups and multiplayer fixes! There was a Full Screen Issue that has bugged the community but I have put a Fix in place for that too.
Chapter 2 wise I have been working on the new characters code for the second chapter. I am completely rewriting the code for the Characters has the old one were... messy XD. Its going much faster though with the knowledge I have now.
I did a full engine clean-out for the major code I have stored. It has made my work flow smoother and better. Hopefully will get the new content to you guys sooner too! Lets move on.
The Pipeline
Not Really too much I can say on this part. I have a lot of work cut out for me.
With Commissions being on the bored too it will prolly slow the work alittle, but the rewards of doing that will increase the speed of all the story chapters by 10 fold. Maybe not for Chapter 3 though. The Character coding for that will be painful XD but that's a bridge I can burn when I get to it!
Lets Move on!
The Community... See the Future
The Community has been having a lot of fun while Playing Levi Chronicles! and it Turns out a lot of non-English countries liked the game too!
I have had people come and ask me to make translations into there countries language! Your calls have not gone unanswered! It is a goal I will try for later down the line in Levi's Development. It will not be a priority though. I have to get the game to its true scope first. I would like to thank you for your patients!
I would also like to thank you ALL for the support I have been getting on this project! There are issues with the game, It was my first one but I worked hard to rewrite and Fix code to get it back on track! Keep a keen eye out for whats to come next!
Also dont forget to join the Official Discord and check out the Twitter for more frequent updates!!!! or to join competitions or to volunteer for voice roles for Chapter 2!!!!
Thanks for Joining along on this Dev Diary! See you in the next one!!!!
-R