INNSBRUCK, Australia - April 1 2014 - stillalive studios today announced its additional plans to overhaul the basic concept of its flagship game in development Son of Nor. "We want to bring Son of Nor to the next level, more to what the millions of players out there know and love", said Julian Mautner, CEO of the company. "We're heavily looking at industry standards introduced by well-known game heavy weights. The magic word is free-to-play and micropayments."
Instead of using places like water, tornados and camp fires to replenish magical powers, players will now have to look for Shrines of Nor. There, they will pray to replenish their elemental powers.
For that, players have to spend a certain amount of in-game coin they find in the desert while terraforming sand, called Desert Coins. Replenishing powers takes from 1 to 2 hours, depending on the amount of Desert Coins players find. Of course, this can be sped up! "This is where we take the very best ideas of huge game companies we admire, they showed us the way", said Alexander Grenus, producer of Son of Nor. "To speed up the process AND make the experience more immersive for players, we will have an online shop where you can spend REAL money to buy Desert Coins," Grenus said. "Donating in a game NEVER felt so real! The more Desert Coins players spend, the quicker their powers replenish, which brings the waiting time down to zero."
There will also be special features and new abilities players can buy at these shrines. One of them is revealed here. Son of Nor sports the popular Wind Push based on the wind element to push back enemies and make way to dash from an angry mob of Sarahul.
Designers at stillalive studios speculated, if a mob was on a player's heels, it was very inconvenient to turn around and cast Wind Push. Why not create an ability where players could defend themselves WHILE running away? This is what the team realized and thus created the Backwards Wind Push, which does two things: it pushes back enemies and slows them down because of its toxic odors AND it pushes players forward so they can run away even faster. "Making sounds for this special ability was always my personal dream", says Chris Polus, sound designer for Son of Nor.
This special ability will be available for extra long praying times at Shrines of Nor. 8 hours upwards. Or, as mentioned, you can have it instantly for donations made with real money that players can get directly from the upcoming online shop.
Stay tuned for more cool special abilities you can pray for in our upcoming blogposts...
Happy April 1st. Happy gaming. And if you think we've got a hit of a game coming, share this article with your friends so everybody knows how great the future of gaming will be!
I love this article, it's amazing! ^^
Thanks. We're always hard at work for the gamers around the world!
"Donating in a game NEVER felt so real! The more Desert Coins players spend, the quicker their powers replenish, which brings the waiting time down to zero."
I didn't know the game would go in some sort of pay to have good game experience ? It was planned to be a standalone complete game instead.
Even on kickstarter page it has never been stated this money system :(
I simply don't like DLC and in game shops.
I played Real Racing on mobile that has that awfull system i just stopped playing it quickly, but if they had some complete racing game without this system : pay to not wait , i would perhaps baught it.
I understand from mmo or some mobile point of view when it's a free game we can understand as lot of time and work behind, so you need to gain money in some way indeed.
But personnaly i never paid in games using such system and i'm among people that would prefer a complete game with complete gameplay and experience instead.
The Kickstarter braught the money needed to finish the game ?
That's sad the game is taking the money direction :(
Will bakers that already paid will pay or like that direction ?
They gave you money for a complete game experience and you are making it a money experience .... :(
Did you check the date today? :)
He definitely not
I was totally subjected by the annoucement and i couldn't believe it , i was just oustonished by this announcement.
I thaught elemental powers to become gameplay and i didn't read all article till the end ahahhaah LOL ...
They totally owned me :) hahahaha LOL
Finally, a game where passing gas while sitting in front of my computer is rewarded, instead of the "rewards" I am used to getting (dirty looks, gagging noises, fleeing friends/co-workers). I can't wait to see, and especially hear, this implemented. Mwha ha ha ha!!! Happy 4/1.
Truly an splendid piece of work, GOTY!
Heh, you had me for a few paragraphs there... ;)
Haha, nice. Yes I carefully thought about wording. Going from
- totally believable to
- lifting eyebrows to
- hae? no. really? to
- IMPOSSIBLE!
It's not easy but it seems to have been a nice one this year :) Glad you enjoyed it.
"INNSBRUCK, Australia", haha! amazing :)
Hehe, yes, a small little detail we added. Austria / Australia so easily overread.
If they didn't written last lines , and put some 10 minutes to replenish powers, it could have been the best 1° April joke :)
Hehe, well we wanted to make this totally over the top :) After all, it's not that far fetched. Wasn't Dungeon Keeper for mobile by EA such a time drain? Several hours to cut out a small area and you had to pay to make it go away instantly? ^^ So we were not that far off.