⚔️ Hail, adventurers! ⚔️
Today we're back with another ToLLA devlog!😎👇
But first, an update on the game itself: the release date draws nearer, and we'll probably end up launching near the end of August. We're still waiting to get through Valve's review process (they have to review and approve the submitted build before it can go live), so once that's done we'll be good to go!
In the meantime, you can wishlist the game right here on Steam: 👇👇👇
View game pageNow on to the devlog...
The game tells its story mainly through the many NPCs you'll meet in the world, and the quests you'll solve for them, but as longtime gamers ourselves we're fond of old-school cutscenes that show enemies conspiring against your party in the background! Which is why we wanted to add them to ToLLA...
The first such scene you'll encounter features Gortak the Plunderer and Mhazura Bloodflame! Their interaction triggers the first time your party leaves the intro area. These two orcs were behind the attack on Fort Ninevus, which Captain Hale & Meredith held against the greenskin tide... You can check out the art collages below showing how a character goes from rough concept to final in-game asset (all art in the game is hand-painted by our artists in their colorful & detailed style).👇
Gortak is a mighty black-orc Chieftain, and leads the greenskin forces in the Expanse... Lore-wise, the orcs in ToLLA are not only physically imposing specimens with overwhelming strength and resilience, they're also long-lived and possess a keen intellect... and they get more powerful with age! Far from being stupid brutes, the cunning orcs come in many diverse sub-races, and are led by black-orc nobles like Gortak. The term 'greenskins' denotes the orcoid race in general due to the green ones being the most numerous, but orcs have a strict pecking order, with their skin color defining their place in orcish society... As mentioned above, black-orc nobles are the leaders and chieftains (think Uruk-hai from LoTR!), green-skinned orcs are warriors, brown-skins are the builders, whites are shamans & healers, yellows are scouts/assassins/trackers, and reds are warlocks & blood-mages... And speaking of red orcs...
Mhazura Bloodflame hails from the smoke-wreathed volcanic wastes of the Crimson Ashlands. She's a wily demonologist and warlock who consorts with infernal beings in exchange for knowledge and power... A cunning and manipulative woman with ties to the enigmatic Crimson Queen, her political savvy is matched only by her skills in court intrigue and spellcraft! Mhazura leaves nothing to chance, and she's not above getting her hands dirty if need be! She's an orc supremacist who desires to see the Sollaran Commonwealth demolished, its human population enslaved, and the continent of Kelembis returned to its "rightful state" under the brutal control of orcish imperiums... just as things used to be, before humanity rebelled and threw off the chains of orcish oppression over 20 centuries ago. Mhazura was the one who masterminded the recent attack on Fort Ninevus, and she's a powerful enemy you'll need to face before the threat in the North can be resolved! Ironically enough, she's got a bit of a soft spot for human men, and lusts after them... just like most orc women do, so you may be able to use that to your advantage when you finally face her!🥵🥵🥵
The scene between Gortak & Mhazura gives players a sneak peek into the enemy faction arrayed against Fort Ninevus! If you take the time to play through the whole thing, you'll learn a great deal about your enemies' plans... in addition to seeing the two orcs trading some colorful insults with each other!
We wanted to do something different when we were designing the orc race, and so decided to move away from the usual fantasy template where greenskins are depicted as dumb brutes that exist only for your party to mow through. We wanted to give players a formidable enemy faction, because the stronger the enemy, the more heroic and epic the fight against them! In ToLLA, orcs used to be the undisputed masters of an entire continent the size of Pangaea, and the only reason humanity managed to free itself was due to the orcs' internal squabbling as their empires degenerated into infighting and civil war after thousands of years of uncontested dominance. The continent is littered with the bones of their past Imperium; at their zenith, orcs had subjugated the known world and all its races for centuries; now, these monolithic ruins are all that's left of the orcs' past glories...
Nowadays, most orc clans war against each other for territory and bragging rights, having been driven into the mountains by Commonwealth Legions over the centuries... where they're biding their time, waiting to surge again and reclaim what they feel is their lost birthright... especially if it comes riding on the broken bones of humanity! Orc society is at its core a degenerated civilization that's fallen from grace. Many orcs lament their race's loss of eminence and organized power, but their constant clannish bickering prevents them from unifying - a social defect that could be 'cured' by a new Horde arising from these exiled remnants...
In other news, Vixi (our primary artist) painted a few backdrops for interior locations like the Smoky Stag Tavern, where many of the initial NPCs you meet are located... We've added the background pic to Wulfric's convo to test how it plays. Depending on feedback, we might add these backdrops to the rest of the NPC interaction events. Every interior location would have a unique background, which we feel adds to immersion while you're interacting with the various people staying there. Feel free to comment down below to let us know what you think!
Also, quite a few of you asked for a way to replay previous lewd scenes, so we've implemented it! The game now has a 'memory crystal' that's located at the Herbalist's Cottage in the Southern Wildlands. This crystal can be used to re-view any lewd scenes you've unlocked in your current playthrough! Right now it's freely accessible, but once we do a mechanics pass and implement a few of the things we have planned you'll need to use Conviction to access the crystal (Conviction points are gained by completing quests, and by finding Captain Hale's hip-flask icons in the game world). We'll migrate the crystal's functionality to the Lewd Loremaster in the HQ once we finalize that map... but for now it's freely accessible, so you'll be able to check it out once the game releases.
Finally, here's the changelog for this update:
implemented a fully voiced major scene featuring Gortak the Plunderer & Mhazura Bloodflame
added a bonemold convo UI for the purpose of in-game cutscenes between hostile plotcrit NPCs
remastered a couple of the VOs for the intro cabin to bring them in line with the rest of that section
recolored Meredith's 1st and 2nd footdom heart-icons from sepia to purple... should make it easier for players to find them now
added a new tavern background to Wulfric's convo inside the Smoky Stag (testing this setup for now, might add it to other interior events)
added a purple viridian memory crystal to the Herbalist's Cottage in the Southern Wildlands (allows replaying of lewd scenes)
squashed a couple of minor bugs in various scripts, and ironed out a bunch of text to improve flow & readability & layout
That's all for this devlog! We'll be back with more news & updates soon. Don't forget to follow us directly here on Steam if you'd like to keep up with our work: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/CrimsonDelightGames
Much love,
~ the CDG team ❤️