We're taking an in-depth look at how some of the core aspects of Son of Nor evolved over the past 3 years! This week: Telekinesis.
- As we're working more and more on end-game content we don't want to spoil, we think it's a great opportunity to zoom out and look at the development of Son of Nor in the past 3 years.
- We're going to look at the three core game concepts telekinesis, terraforming, and elemental magic and look at how these concepts changed during the development process. It's an interesting game design and technological view at making games, taking risks and changing things to make them better.
- In short: Telekinesis was an all-encompassing power. There was a telekinesis-meter that served as a life bar and - at the same time - it was the power you needed to lift items in the world. If you lifted heavy items, the power would go down significantly. If you let them go, your power regenerated, too. If you were hit while carrying something heavy, your telekinesis shield would not protect you and you'd die quickly.
- Telekinesis was also used to conjure sand balls. If sand balls were arranged in specific patterns, players could cast a spell. As if the spell needed to be charged first. But doing this action took time and made combat sluggish. Players were busier with arranging sand balls than battling each other. It slowed down combat to a halt. We scrapped this concept of casting magic via telekinesis.
- With telekinesis, you could also draw paths objects should follow. This feature should have been used to make multiple objects spin around you to form a physical shield. But you needed so many objects to make a shield effective and painting the paths for every object was again so cumbersome, that combat came to a halt as well.
- Today, telekinesis is a very basic, lean and quick power with many uses. You can solve puzzles, move items blocking your path, pick up rocks and use them as weapon by throwing them. It's easy to use and understand, and streamlined to fit an action adventure well. We're very happy how it turned out even though we still have to tweak it a bit!
- Son of Nor is now in the Steam Store as Early Access version. Thank you for supporting us: Store.steampowered.com
- Get into the discussion and join our forum: forum.sonofnor.com
The object shield thing would have been awesome, but you're right. It would definitely be hard to use in battle. Still, I'm totally into a tornado of sharp, aggressive rocks. That's hardcore.