Dear Elyndrans!
We’ve decided to change the engine and the art style of Call of Elyndra. We will use Godot and combine pixel art sprites with 3D environments. This marks a huge shift for the game. We have more planned. Read on to find out.
The Decision
Ever since we announced the game, we’ve mostly seen enthusiasm and excitement. Call of Elyndra is a beautiful game. It’s also a lot of fun. Those who have played the demo know that already. Still, some have pointed out some things that could have been improved. The framerate, the game feel, the ease of work, possible quality enhancements… Plenty of room for improvement.
Our huge strength and also the biggest hindrance was the engine. RPG Maker is a phenomenal bit of software, and there are some masterpieces of gaming made with it. Some of our team members are also known in the RPG Maker community. At first, we wanted to make the most technically advanced game in the engine, which we may have achieved as RPG Maker makes up only about 30% of our code. Our team has long gone past the predetermined boundaries. We made the engine do things that it shouldn’t have been able to do. Alas, it still wasn’t enough. Some of the inherent solutions and limitations simply couldn’t be helped. Also, the looks, while quite beautiful, could have been improved upon. There are many games with stunning pixel art and we knew that we needed to shake it up a bit.
The Engine
Godot is becoming an increasingly popular choice for game studios. It has a bunch of features that indie teams, like us, are looking for. It’s free, open source, and allows for a huge degree of customisation and freedom. Luckily, our team is made up of very gifted individuals. They were able to either adapt or remake the vast majority of mechanics and code in the new engine. If the game is a success, we’ll also have an easier time with porting it to other platforms. Not saying it’s something that’ll happen, but it could, if enough people are interested.
A huge part of Godot is that it is able to use 3D quite well. Now, about that…
The Art Style
There are so many beautiful classic games. Call of Elyndra draws a lot of inspiration from them. Still, since Call of Elyndra is a contemporary title, we felt that presenting it in the style reminiscent of 2DHD of Octopath Traveller, Dragon Quest 3 Remaster, Live A Live, and a couple of other games is the right call. Juxtaposing our beautiful sprites against 3D environments will make them pop even more. On the technical side, the game should perform even better now since RPG Maker renders visuals using the CPU and Godot uses GPU processing, superior in terms of efficiency and performance.
In regards to gameplay, the new art style allows us to create more interesting environments. After all, we’ll be able to use verticality for exploration, combat and puzzles.
Plans and Summary
We’ll be revealing more stuff here and on our social media in the future. We also plan a new version of the demo, so keep an eye out for it as well. The development of the full version should take us more time than we previously expected, but we’re on track and quite happy with where we are. Our understanding of the current circumstances is good. We know what to do to make Call of Elyndra as good as it can be, and we’re committed to getting it right.
Thanks for reading, talk to you again soon!