Greetings! My name is C.W. Hendricks and I am the lead designer, developer, and writer for Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death. It is a profound and serendipitous honor to make your acquaintance.
On behalf of our (very) small studio, I want to graciously and humbly thank all of you who have given our demo a try, or followed us on Facebook or Twitter, or wishlisted our game on Steam, and all of you too who have yet to do any of this but have still found your merry way to our mysterious and wonderful corner of the internet.
Thank you. Sincerely, our dream is to create a game worth diving into, a story you can lose yourself in for hours on end, an adventure that will resonate with the very core of your being and leave you entertained and awash with feelings of both nostalgia and the satisfied wanderlust of experiencing something new.
So, without further ado, please allow me to provide some insight into the inner workings of our studio and our current plans for the game.
Our Studio
The Incandescent Bard is a studio created in 2023 with the goal of delivering captivating, high quality stories to a broad audience through the medium of video games. We are currently a studio of two people based in Maryland in the United States. We are gamers through and through, and gaming has been a hobby of ours since we were tiny buds on the branch.
Over the years, we’ve found modern games, by and large (there are exceptions!), seem to have shifted their focus away from the amazing storytelling and lore that captivated us as children and drew us into the world of video games to begin with. We want to bring those feelings of epic storylines and grand adventure back to the forefront.
As such, our design philosophy focuses on the three pillars which we believe form the foundation of what makes a game truly approach greatness:
🌻 Story. RPGs are at their very best when playing the game feels as much like an interactable book as it does a video game. The characters should be relatable and their struggles should move you. The plot should leave you on the edge of your seat wanting more. The setting and lore should enchant you and inspire a drive to dive in and be immersed in a world so different and yet, at its core, similar to our own.
🌻 Art. Maps, enemy design, animations, character design, etc. should be enjoyable to experience and add to the story in a way that brings the game to life. Indie video games are as much an expression of creativity and art as anything else, and the work woven into the illustration side of a game should, at the very least, reflect the love and passion that goes into the writing, design, and development.
🌻 Gameplay. This is the pillar that holds high the story and art and places them in a space different than that of other mediums. And the key to unlocking satisfying gameplay is actually rather simple: the game needs to be fun. Whatever we’re designing, we’re always asking ourselves, is this fun? Would I have fun playing through this plotline or mini-game? At the end of the day, to us, everything a player could be doing in the game needs to meet this simple but all important requirement.
Speaking of fun, I think that’s enough about our studio, let’s get into some more exciting stuff about Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death 😊.
Did you know that characters in Amuniai will react differently in response to events throughout the story? There are various hidden conversations that can lead to deeper lore and sometimes even treasure!
Current Plans for Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death
Story
Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death is a story that will span over four acts, each focused on a different part of our heroes’ journey to restore peace and stability to the Broken Isles.
Such a task will neither be easy nor without pain, as the Diadochi of the western mainland stir. The wives of the ailing and heirless Martellus, the Blood-Soaked Emperor, who each rule a piece of his conquests by writ of marriage and right of steel, set out against one another to cement themselves as the sole woman who shall inherit the crown. Agothaclia, 2nd wife of Martellus and basilissa of the Helvonii, a battle-hardened people who make their lives on the eastern coast of the mainland, has set out with an army in tow to bring the Broken Isles to heel.
Meanwhile, powers fel and fierce bubble up from the darkest corners of the Abyss, emboldened by the rising terror of a goddess whose icy grip spreads across a land left embittered with their gods of old.
What sacrifices must be made for freedom? Can so few make a difference against so many? Is the stability of the old ways worth fighting for, or is change, though brought about with blood and iron, the better path forward into a new era?
Wedelia isn't accustomed to the eccentricities of emperors.
Art
Three main islands make up the core of the Broken Isles and each have their own flavor and style to experience. Pharsus, where our story begins, is the largest of the three and is covered in a dense woodland both magical and mundane.
Act II of the game will center on an island already under the control of Agothaclia’s iron fist, and is home to the largest city of the Broken Isles, Aordhos. The city itself has a distinctly Hellenic flair to its design, and its people traditionally worship a flippant god of mists, trade, and sophistry. Grand temples, bustling markets, and powerful feats of engineering using water can be found throughout the island.
Further locales to be designed in other parts of the Broken Isles include a wasteland of brimstone and sand, temples dedicated to the old gods and goddesses that once formed the core places of worship on the Isles, a mountainous village tucked away under the bubbling eye of a volcano, and a deep cavern rife with the trapped souls of the violently slain.
This is not at all a comprehensive description of the art and settings to come, but more of a sneak peek and overall key plans for what lies ahead!
Gameplay
Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death is, at its core, a classic-style RPG. Expect the sort of gameplay established by old-school RPGs with key twists to the formula. Some of this is already said on our Steam page, but we’d like to go into a little more detail on what we are building:
🌻 Strategic battles that require thought and planning, with an active battle system that demands quick thinking but allows for “pauses” for decision making. Spamming Attack will take you nowhere except into the clutches of the Goddess of Death, we’ve warned you…😊
🌻 A class system that encourages replayability and allows any one player to approach encounters very differently than others. We are designing our class system with the goal that battles can feel fresh and exciting every time a new class is unlocked. Our classes are designed to approach battles in ways that we think feel fun and unique, while still keeping with the traditional foundations established by the RPGs of yore.
🌻 Ability to sail throughout the Broken Isles and visit places off the beaten path. There will be hidden dungeons, treasure, and story content throughout the map that encourage and support an adventurous playstyle. The map will not be gigantic and full of empty ocean plains, but modest in scope with myriad places to explore tucked away generously throughout. The world map is focused solely on the Broken Isles.
🌻 Accessibility is and will be a key driver throughout development. There are both easier and more grueling difficulty options for those only interested in the story or those who want to fight tooth and nail against Death itself. There are options to disable both skill and monster animations for those who feel ill with too much screen movement or graphical effects. Controller, keyboard, and mouse support are included, and we will continue to polish these aspects. More systems and marketplaces such as the Switch and PlayStation are on the radar. Support for more languages is planned. Rest assured we will try our very best to make the game accessible to as many as we can.
Were you able to discover the secret mini-boss encounter? A clue lies within the scroll!
That’s it for now! I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed reading and learning a bit about our studio The Incandescent Bard and our current title in development, Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death!
Remember that you can reach out to us anytime through the following channels:
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Sunflowers-and-the-Goddess-of-Death/61555427985989/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/SGoD_game
Stick around for our next Dev Diary coming in March which will cover a sneak peek at content in Act II!
PD: ¡Actualmente se está desarrollando una demostración en español!
Safe and enchanting adventures to you, traveler.
- C.W. Hendricks