While the user interface of our combat alpha is still in the final polishing process, we can already present two screenshots from the upcoming scene.
A warband of orcs (along with a troll) ambushed the player’s party in morning hours while traveling through the wilderness.
Until we can show you a more detailed video of the combat system, this little preview clip will give you a first impression of the Fireball spell at a higher character level. Those poor Goblins never had a chance and died many deaths during the development.
Beside combat, we have been also occupied with one of the most important visual elements of traditional RPGs: Character Portraits. We needed to find a good compromise between quality and quantity because every NPC in our world that the player can interact with, must get his/her very own unique face.
For us, that’s one of the most crucial points if you want to realize a believable world. A small but expressive 2D portrait can deliver much more personality and individuality than a high-poly 3D model with fancy shaders and physically simulated hair.
After some experiementation with various Photoshop techniques, we finally figured out a proper way to create portraits in a reasonable amount of time in decent quality. The world of Realms Beyond, Argea, will be initially populated with at least 250 unique NPCs (common villagers without dialogue lines won’t have portraits) plus dozens of unique encounter bosses and various mysterious creatures in dungeons and wilderness areas. We will not disclose every culture and faction yet, but those examples will give you a first impression of our portrait style and the groups that populate Argea: 
SCREENSHOTS
