These are the latest news for our project:
Alpha Concept
Our first Alpha release (scheduled December 2012) is going to focus on the main features for the authentic combat which will be one of the important features of Seelentanz. For demonstration of this combat system we will use a small "hero defense" level. The player will be able to join a multiplayer session with up to 5 friends. The playable area contains an indoor scene; a tavern that can be used to stock up supplies with the money earned by fighting monsters; and an outdoor scene; a medieval marketplace with undead skeletons that can be fought by the player using different weapons. The Alpha won't feature a customizable character editor so the player will only have a choice from 6 different pre-made characters that have different skills and load out.
Storyline - Races
Technetium finished the basic outlines for the races featured in our game. The following summaries have been edited for public distribution. Compared to our internal documents they don't contain any spoilers that would ruin the players gameplay experience. So feel free read them and give usyour feedback.
Dark Elves: Once members of the proud Elven race, the Dark Elves have been corrupted by Lacrymosa, a phosphorescent mineral which greatly amplifies the magical capabilities of its user. Due to the dangerous and unpredictable effects of Lacrymosa, its use was banned in the Elven Empire. This caused a rift in the Elven society between those who supported the ban and those who believed Lacrymosa was a gift from Tzerreth, one of the Six, and that it should be used to make the Elves into a race of unparalleled power. Ultimately, those who supported Lacrymosa use seceded from the Empire and forged their own city deep within the enshrouded bowels of the world so that they may be closer to their precious mineral. It is from this subterranean refuge that the enigmatic Dark Elves strike out at the other races, murdering the weak and taking the strong as slaves to work as miners within their labyrinthine tunnels.
Dwarves: Deep beneath the soil live the Dwarves, a peaceful race that finds comfort and safety in the solitude of their underground realm. A stalwart and loyal race, the Dwarves are fierce allies to both the Humans and the Elves. Human and Dwarven societies are closely connected both economically and culturally, as the two races share a common ancestor. Dwarven scientists are among the most advanced in the world, especially their engineers and alchemists, who play important roles within their society. Although their stone fortresses are said to be impregnable, in recent times the Dwarves have become troubled by the looming threat of the Dark Elves, who savagely attack their settlements and take the survivors as slaves.
Elves: The oldest of the five races, the Elves have existed since the world’s creation eons ago. The Elves believe themselves to be the original creations of the Six, their gods who embody the six elements of Light, Air, Fire, Water, Dust, and Darkness. At the top of Elven society are the six noble houses, each of which claim to be the descendents of one of the Six. These houses are ruled by an individual leader who is chosen by members of the house itself once their leader dies. Only these six nobles are allowed into the sacred garden, where the Six were believed to have convened during their creation of the world. This garden literally is at the epicenter of Elven society, as their immense, solitary capital city was constructed around it. Because of its importance, the Elves do not believe in the long term settlements of other regions of the world. After the fracture in the Elven Empire over the use of Lacrymosa, the Elves have become much less dominant over the other races, allowing the other races to become equals with the Elves both economically and militarily.
Humans: Humans are the most populous of the five races, as their massive kingdom stretches across the known world. Because they are able to adapt to even the harshest environments, Human settlements can be found in many diverse regions such as swamps, mountains, and deserts. The expansive nature of their kingdom has allowed Humans to establish a dominant economy due to the wide variety of goods which flow through their lands. Since the decline of the Elven Empire after the secession of the Dark Elves, Humans have become the foremost military leaders in the world. Humans are constantly at war, often with themselves, and this constant warring has taken its toll on the people. Although their soldiers have become fierce and deadly, Human citizens have grown increasingly weary and demoralized by the ceaseless
conflicts, causing them to look to their king and the leaders of their monotheistic church for guidance.
Orcs: Hailing from the ferocious deserts far to the south, Orcs are a tribal race of people fabled for their tremendous strength and warlike nature. Orcs are primarily are nomadic race, with tribes moving from one source of food to the next over the course of the year, sometimes while herding animals. Many tribes are highly territorial, fighting off intruders regardless of the threat they pose, which has caused several violent conflicts with the other races. In recent times, Orcs have created permanent settlements that have grown to the size of cities. These cities act as gateways out of their desert homeland through which all goods must travel, increasing the economies of these cities and allowing certain merchants to become extremely wealthy. Other than selling exotic goods to the northern races, the Orc merchants also frequently sell slaves to the Dark Elves, who require a massive workforce to mine their precious Lacrymosa. Knowledge of the combat prowess Orcs naturally possess has caused them to become highly sought after mercenaries. Not only are Orc bodyguards good protection, they are also symbols of a person’s power.
Technetium is now working on the general plot and world background. So we will probably read more from him in the next weeks.
New project members
We have two new additions to our existing team.
Our new environment artist Adam started creating assets for our release environment level. You can expect to see some of his works during the next weeks.
Last but not least we found a musician. Alex is focusing on creating a nice theme for our project. You can check out his website at Alex-gelinas.com .
Coding
NavySeal is more and more getting accustomed to UnrealScript and coding in the UDK environment. Up to now we have a basic weapon system using a mace in first person view to crush enemies. These enemies consist of zombie-AI characters so they are not very intelligent - ever seen an intelligent zombie?
Sound
Ben is focusing on the creation of most sound effects needed for our alpha release. So far we have a few nice sounding weapon sound effect we will be using.
Environment
We created a basic UDK level using a few of our assets. I have been focusing on learning different ways to build shader networks in UDK. Right now I'm focusing on a basic water shader, a weather system and a day and night cycle. Here is a screenshot of one of our 3d assets in the UDK standard setup.
These towers are as well featured on our demo map. Together with a few walls they form a small city wall which will be surrounding our Alpha level.
Upcoming
After changing our update-cycle to a monthly one we will try a bi-weekly update cycle now. So you can expect more information and artwork in 2 weeks.
Recruiting
We are currently looking for advanced users of the UDK as well as environment modelers. If you got the skills and like the concept of this game just send us a PM and we will get back to you.
That's all for now - Sorry far the wall of text. Again if you have any questions about the project just let us know. We appreciate feedback and ideas submitted by the community.
Have a nice day
The Liquidbox Team
Cool, can't wait to read and see more =)
hey that Jordan is a phony that character image is stolen from Marco Plouffe from his 3ds max character creation mechanurse tutorial at 3dtotal.
Hi there,
thanks for the information. We removed the content immediatly after realising that it clearly wasn't made by one of our artists.
We are sorry for displaying it in the first place but we didn't know about its original source. Thanks again for your help. We all hope this won't happen again.
-Neovertex