The second demo of Alex and Adva has been released!

...And it can be found at the bottom of this page! But first, let us recap all the fun Alex and Adva facts I posted through December 2018:

Fun Alex and Adva fact 1#:

The flying island of Beluga was originally part of a cursed continent called Albion. Alex and Adva's chieftain Byleif took it over and the islanders count their years STS (since the sacking).



Fun Alex and Adva fact 2#:

Their oldest son is named Swiftdale. He works as the Skosven (personal servant and assistant) to Byleif, their chieftain. Their youngest children are a pair of twins called Benjamin and Beryl.



Fun Alex and Adva fact 3#:

Smokestones are self-carving runic stones made by a combination of elvish and dwarven craft that records all of the great deeds that the people bound to it has achieved. In the game they have one outside their house that the player can examine to see everything that has happened in the game.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #4:

The vinland Sea is a archipelago of islands both great and small.Some islands of notes are Beluga (Where Alex and Adva live), Bjarmaland (where the game takes place), Lauer (a living island that is the mother of Byleif and Tymor), Särkland (a trading metropolis) and Pohjala (a region of darkness and powerful wizards/witches). Further south is the great Belly Continent and to the north lies the dark and stormy sea of Danjernavia.



Fun Alex and Adva fact 5#:

The wanir are a race of strange creatures that live in the woods of Bjarmaland. Long ago they fought a war of dominance with queen Sigtrygg and failed. They look like large spiders but can take human form.

Fun Alex and Adva fact 6#:

The first time Adva gave Alex a BJ she accidentally stuck her horns into one of his eyes.



Fun Alex and Adva fact 7#:

"go north/fara norrönt" is a slang term among the viking community that means going raiding/exploring/trading in the more or less uncharted sea of Danjernavia that takes up most of the northern hemisphere, the head of the giant that the world Alex and Adva inhabit was made from.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #8:

This probably won´t be relevant until I commission my own art assets (the demo is mainly the default rpgmaker stock assets) but the design of the island of Beluga will be based on viking settlements in irland and Scotland, with a mix of long-houses and more sturdy castles.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #9:

Särkland is the capital of a desert island and the biggest trading metropolis in the world of Grangard. Byleif in particular likes to trade magnificent colored silk robes in return for fur, ivory and honey.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #10:

The version of Tymor encountered in the game lost his eyes because he bet his head against some dwarfs. When they came to collect he told them that they had no claim on his neck so they just knocked out his eyes instead.

Fun Alex and Adva fact #11:

Ivaldi and sons is the largest dwarven industrial city in Bjarmaland. It is actually no longer owned by neither Ivaldi nor his sons but rather brought out by the large brewery company Durin's Drick.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #12:

The wolf is a terrifying creature from another world that lives in a castle of cogs and metals in the Iron Swamp. Alex and Adva has to go there since the monster is the only one that can get into the dwarven fortress that the mysterious missionary they are haunting is holed up.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #13:

The mark of Klev is a holy symbol meaning a place is guarded by Klev, the in universe equivalent of Thor (pictured, with the symbol in the black circle on the throne).



Fun Alex and Adva fact #14:

The field of deeds is the largest farmland of Bjarmaland and named for a famous battle against the giants that took place there. It connects Mt Muspel with the capital of Slainhall Towers and the Jormun sea to the east.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #15:



Adva (full name Adva Ambátt) was born as a slave on the island of Holgersö. When the island was sacked by Byleif she was freed and became one of his hirdmen (free servants with pay) instead. She was given the new name Arnabat afterwards.

Fun Alex and Adva fact #16:

Sigtrygg Bursdotter is the queen of Bjarmaland and the creator of Grangard, which she made from a giant's corpse. I want to keep it vague how much of it is true, but she is as old as the world the game takes place in.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #17:

Mt Muspel is the highest mountain in Bjarmaland. It is mainly inhabited by dwarves and fire giants, although there is also a small settlement of humans near the base. The mountain commuinty is famous for housing slaves escaping from their masters.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #18:

There are five main social groups in the world the game takes place in:

1 Banished people, who the laws do not apply to

2 Slaves, who are owned but have certain rights concerning treatment

3 Free men and women, mostly farmers or traders
4 Jarls, local lords that may be part of a larger government or groups called an Althing
5 Kings and Queens, rulers of great realms and althings, often with godlike power. The Jarls inhabiting their lands often pay taxes to do them but are otherwise self-governing.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #19:

The iron swamp is a desolate region of Bjarmaland where all the giants and most of the trolls have been relocated after queen Sigtrygg defeated them. Their leader is Tymor of the Outyards, not to be confused with the trickster Tymor employed by Sigtrygg.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #20:

Just as Adva has her underground training arena Alex has a magical workshop (located in a nearby tree) where he grows the plants and makes the tools necessary for his magic.

This always proves to be a bit of a problem when you also has a bunch of naughty kids to care for...

Fun Alex and Adva fact #21:

Draugrs are the undead, the zombies and ghosts of the world and they function basically like they do in norse myth. With a strong enough will it is possible to return after death and with a strong enough will (and the magical know-how) you can return someone from the grave. You can never fully return someone to a proper life, however.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #22:

The outyards are the original abode of the giants in Bjarmaland. They were driven out by queen Sigtrygg and relocated to the iron woods. Nowadays nobody lives here except a few hulders, trolls and werewolves.



Fun Alex and Adva fact #23:

Slainhall Towers is the abode of Lady Sigtrygg and the capital of Bjarmaland. Below is a portal to the underworld where all the best fighters may battle eternally!



Fun Alex and Adva fact #24:

Byleif is sorts the Main character of The World of grangard insofar that he is the kit that keeps the stories taking place there together without neccessarily taking place in them that much.



Alex and Adva fact #25:

The thundergod Klev of Bjarmaland has an axe sharpened by dwarves so that it can cut holes in reality itself and create thunder...because Tymor kept egging them on during the sharpening process.

I CANNAE MAKE IT ANY SHARPER THAN IT ALREADY IS YA DAFT GRINNING LUNATIC

Alex and Adva fact #26:

Huldraful is a ravine in the Outyards where a tribe of elementals live. The game starts in earnest when the couples ship crashes upon the shores of Bjarmaland!



Fun Alex and Adva fact #27:

Science and learning on The World of Grangard is mostly of a documentary kind. Teachings and How to build things are written down, copied and spread by learned men. Dwarves may claim to be scientific, but thet basically throws shit at the Wall to see What sticks. This also neatly explains Why no dwarf-made item seems to be reproducable...



Alex and Adva fact #28:

Learning magic in the world of Grangard I figure is a lot like learning magic in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

”Tell them to read What the branches has written across the sky. Tell them to ask the Hills and the rain!”



Fun Alex and Adva fact #29:

There are three main religions in The World of Grangard. The most common one is the belief that Queen Sigtrygg of Bjarmaland lade The World from the corpuset of a slain giant. Another, popular in eastern Särkland, is that The World was not made by anyone, but that powerful gods live beyond the universe and that they have sent down a representative to care for Grangard. The name of that god is Storkr. The last belief is the same as the first, although Sigtrygg is seen as a Devil that imprisoned all the spirits of the giant and diminished the unbound nature for her own benefit. This is the belief of the jotuns.



Alex and Adva fact #30:

Most countries have a king or queen but they are mostly a distant figure that do not interfere in everyday business. Important decisions concerning a Gathering of small towns and settlements is Held at the Ting where the local lords and other important figures votes on the important issues with the help of a Law-speaker. The lawspeaker of Beluga is named Snurre Sturlarson.

AND HERE IS THE DEMO:

http://tymorthetrickster.com/AAADemo2.zip

The use of supplemental materials in creating a video-game narrative

Although not that many of us can reasonably create huge amounts of supplemental material for our games it can still be worthwhile to study how it can be used, as well as the unique storytelling problems that writing for an ongoing videogame series provides. For the discussion I have choosen two games, Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch. My reason for choosing these two games is beacause Team Fortress 2 was one of the first games to use supplemental materials to add narrative to the game itself. Sure, games before may had a story in the manual, or even some sort of official comic or animated series. But these were not part of the official canon, or influenced the games in any way. Furthermore the era of Team Fortress 2 comics and videos can be divided into five clear and very different eras:

The promotional Era

2 Pastich of an era

3 Update comics

4 Searching for purpose

5 The ongoing story

Comparing the supplemental material of Team Fortress to Overwatch´s may seem a little bit unfair, since it has not been out for quite so long but in my opinion it is remarkable how the comics/animations of Overwatch corresponds to the different eras of Team Fortress´s material. Indeed, the year and a half that Overwatch has been out is almost like seeing the history of Team Fortress in extreme fast forward.

In addition I will discuss the game I am working on right now (just as I did about my last-non maker specific tutorial about the use of the narrative curve in videogames). It too has supplemental material insofar as I have written out a full story set in the same world the game takes place in and I will post chapters as new versions of the game are put on my website.

Let us begin the first installment of this series by looking how the three games handle the promotional era.

Team Fortress 2

Nine mercenaries have come together for a job. It's the middle-ish part of a century a lot like the one we just had. A simpler time. There are three TV stations, one phone company, and two holding corporations that secretly control every government on the planet. Each corporation administers its half of the world with a multi-disciplined army of paper pushers. For any problem lacking an obvious bureaucratic solution, mercenaries like these are contracted to address the situation through a massive application of force. Now's your chance to Meet the Team.

As it started out Team Fortress had nothing but the above excuse plot meant to give a minmum of context to the maps the players fought over. As the developement changed from a fairly realistic shooter to a cartoony shooter with greater emphasis on the characters, the "Meet the Team" shorts were created. These short cartoons have no plot, just showing the characters in their natural habitat with a broad somewhat darkly comical sort of humor.

There is also a promotional video, showing the ability of all classes. Note that while some weapons and abilities were changed the character relationships were already pretty set in stone. The game was released after nine years in development without any kind of open beta (this not yet being a way to promote a game yet).

Overwatch

The cinematic trailer of Overwatch establishes a bright and colorful world with the terrorist group Talon pitted against the two faces of Overwatch (Tracer and Winston) for the ownership of the infamous Doomfist´s gauntlet. Although it talks about the history of Overwatch the storyline set to run concurrent with the game has not yet started up. It feels more like the prototype of a map more than anything else. The focus is on the world, not the characters as a result of Blizzard focus on storytelling. There is also a gameplay trailer that is remarkably similar to the Team Fortress one, character abilities are showcased and a character “who beats who” is established.  

While Team Fortress undoubtely wanted to be worth the wait after nine years and make the game lasting, Blizzard immediately had their eyes set on the e-game scene. That meant that the open beta was almost only open to streamers. Blizzard also stated that the comis and animations are not canon or will influence the game in any way.

Alex and Adva/ I´ve heard Norse (my game)

My own game takes place in a Viking-esque called Bjarmaland with a written story taking place in the afterlife of the same. I currently have a prototype done with three main goals:

1 Show the initial storyline and setting with a prologue

2 Show the main gameplay by having the characters climb a mountain and use their abilities to traverse it.

3 Showing specialized gameplay by having characters traverse a platforming section with some hidden areas and a boss

The story has similar goals:

1 Establish the setting and characters

2 Showcasing the main theme of the story (the duty of the privileged to help those in need)

3 Have a first “episode” of the main characters life in the underworld

As you can see, the three points complement each other.

Just like Blizzard I do not want the story to influence the game too much, but I do want the two to be canon to each other. Just like early Team Fortress updates (“Bidwells big Plan” being concurrent with the addition of the in-game store for example) I want the story and game to intersect at key points. A example is when a early sort of train built by dwarves crashes into the mountain, opening a hole to the underworld. The player now has to deal with a demon infestation and the souls of the dead (in the story) has to deal with rocks falling down from below to crush their dwellings.

End notes on the promotional era

As we can see Team Fortress and Overwatch, although both begins with promotional material sort of starts at opposite ends. Team fortress had no story except for the above excuse-plot, comics and media eventuelly swelling into an ongoing story. Overwatch immediately got a narrative, but the developers have stated that it will never influence the game at all. In the next part of this tutorial we are going to start and take a look at how the games finds their feet and refines the setting in what I call the pastisch era.

Jubileum!

Idag är det en stor dag, nämligen hundrajubileum för min blogg! Inte hundra år då så klart, men väl hundra poster. Bloggen har dock funnits i fem år. Det skall fyras med det allra intressantaste och roligaste som finns, nämligen statistik! Först ut kommer info om min hemsida som jag fått via google analytics:

Jag har tappat användare, men å andra sidan använder jag knappt hemsidan till något annat än backup för mina böcker och spel. Kul att folk stannar länge än genomsnittet dock. Nästan, eh, två och en halv minut...(att folk besöker mest 4 på morgonen kan bero på att det är Amerikaner)

När det gäller ålder och kön är väl det mesta rätt uppenbart. De flesta som besöker hemsidan är i min ålder (eller yngre) och män.  Något förvånande är att fördelningen ändå är rätt jämn. Jag tror att det kan bero på trafik som kommer in via wattpad, som har en övervägande kvinnlig publik.

Totalt har hemsidan haft över femtusen unika besökare varav hundra kom in den senaste månaden. Undrar av någon av dem laddade ner ett spel? Nedan kommer lite statistik om min berättelse Jackalopes som ligger på just wattpad!

Jackalopes ligger rätt jämnt runt en unik läsare om dagen i genomsnitt. Inte ett helt dåligt resultat om jag får säga det själv!

En unik läsare är dock inte värt något i sig. Jag vet ju inte om de läst hela boken eller en mening och sen inget alls! Ser man till de som lämnat en kommentar är resultatet mer sparsmakat men ändå förhållandevis högt!

Detta är den viktigaste statistiken för mig eftersom den talar om när läsare valt att inte läsa mer av boken. Jag har alltid haft problemet att första kapitlet är rätt svårforcerat, men för de som tagit sig förbi det kan man se att läsningen är rätt jämn. Mot slutet dalar det bort men det kan bero på att de sista delarna är Tolkien-style appendix som kanske inte alla vill läsa! Toppen nås vid kapitel tre, då Jane tar sig till underjorden och börjar sin utbildning, som jag överlag har fått mycket beröm för.

Här kan man se jackalopes i sin helhet! 2344 unika läsare, 21 delar och 238 personer som röstat på dem under tre års tid. Första delen har för övrigt 1000 views nu så förhoppningsvis blir den featured på wattpad inom kort!

Visste du att min blogg har tre underavdelningar? Räknar man in dem har faktiskt bloggen i sin helhet inte mindre än 180 inlägg! Här är de fyra mest populära/delade/besökta inläggen i varje avdelning.

http://zombienightonline.blogspot.se/2017/09/mad-rez.html
Visserligen är konsten bra och videon rolig, men jag tror största anledningen till att detta inlägg har flest besökare är att den är taggad med BBW.

http://atspela.blogspot.se/2016/08/forsok-till-vikingastil.html
Fortfarande en av de bästa texterna jag skrivit.

http://tymorthetrickster.blogspot.se/2015/08/first-part-of-new-jackalope-book.html
Uppföljaren till Jackalopes som aldrig blev av, eftersom jag började jobba med spel mer eller mindre på heltid.

http://youknowbatsy.blogspot.se/2014/10/snabbanalys-av-samtliga-karaktarer-i.html
Någon som minns min Batman-blogg? Nej? Nå. i alla fall var min drift med figurerna i Arkham-serien populärast. Lätt när man är det enda inlägget.

Till sist vill jag dela denna lilla bild på ett mini-projekt jag jobbar på.  Spelmotorn Visual Novel Maker har äntligen släppts (mer än ett år försent) och jag för att lära mig motorn vill jag göra ett kort spel som utspelar sig på ett hemsökt tivoli. Om någon mot förmodan minns min gamla bok Super Power and The Mushroom-shaped Giga Ship hoppas jag göra en spelversion när jag bemästrat denna spelmotor! God jul och gott nytt År och ett stort tack för att du läser min blogg.

Alex and Adva (gameplay updates)

The development of Alex and Adva; I´ve heard Norse, originally a spin-off from my Journeys East of Knez game (made in RPGmaker) is coming along nicely and it is finally ready for a first shaky prototype to be shown. The prototype is a small part of a level taking place on Mt Muspel, which the rabbit couple must scale for one reason or another. As you can tell, I am still working on the script. This prototype is in no way ready to be playable yet and I have simply designed it to try out ideas, abilities, monster placements/difficulty and platforming segments to find out if they are fun to play. In this article I will show a few abilities, a few enemies and the world the game takes place in. Please be aware that most, if not all, graphics are taken from the basic RPGmaker installation package and will be replaced in the future. 

The basic gameplay of the game is inspired by Mario and Luigi (as you switch between two characters to solve puzzles and battle enemies) and the Gameboy Zelda games (the swift-real time action as opposed to Mario and Luigi´s turn-based battles). Alex and Adva are supposed to be completely opposite in what they can do as character yet complete each other in the gameplay. The most notable difference between them is that Adva uses close-combat abilities while Alex prefers long-distance spells and weapons. I kinda want to avoid swarming the player with enemies and instead let strategy play a part in battles. Do I get rid of the archer with a fire spell from Alex or do I let Adva vanquish the troll that are attacking us? Do I let Alex cast a protective spell and let Adva jump up to get the archer? Anyway! Let us now scale Mt Muspel and take a look at what the adventure brings!

Adva brings a sword and shield (sometimes to a gunfight) the sword is used to vanquish nearby enemies and block all sorts of faraway attacks.

Alex has a hookshot that can be used to grab certain posts to pull him and Adva over gaps and over enemy attacks.

He can also throw powerful fireballs, but they consume a lot of his magic. The reason is once again to distinguish Alex and Adva as characters; Alex can do a few powerful finishers before having to recharge while Adva can keep going for a long time, but only do smaller blows.

"Sounds like our love-life"

"Heh"

  

Here we have the bombs, which both Alex and Adva can use. I wanted to try something different compared to say, Zelda, when designing the bombs. Although bombs are a limited resource in Zelda you can almost always find more in the grass or in chests so you newer get stuck. In my game bombs are a real limited resource (Can´t find any "in the wild", so to speak) yet never required to proceed. Instead they can be used as desperation attacks or finding secrets and easter eggs.

Lastly we have a few or the usual rpg-items such as potions and phoenix down. They are used in real time just as everything else, so make sure to choose before the battle what you want to bring!

The next step is to look over what works in this prototype and what needs to improve. Although I think the basic gameplay-system works very well I want to make it more fluid, so that the player does not constantly need to stop and open the menu. Instead, I want all new abilities to be automatically assigned to Alex and Adva (except for bombs, potions and similiar items that they both can use) and switch between them with the press of a button.

The environments needs to be ironed out a bit too look more natural and make it more obvious what can and what cannot be interacted with. I am very happy with the jumping, which can also be used to avoid enemies. Finally, there are a few graphical glitches and scripting errors. How many can YOU spot in the video?

This is the first prototype, showing of the adventure part of the game. It takes place on Mt Muspel, home of the fire ogres. There are a few other areas and gameplay sequences I want to explore in prototypes the future before I start building the game proper:

1 Cutscenes and shopping in the rabbit capital of Hybrasil, also some tutorials ending in boss fight..

2 A pure platforming section (sideway 2D) in the swamp of Od.

Luckily the script I am using has a nifty system for going to any part in the game in order to try something new out. Now to work some more!

I´ve heard Norse (map and concept)

Nu när utvecklarna äntligen har behagat släppa den där spelmotorn jag väntat på i snart över ett års tid kan arbetet med Alex och Adva- spelen fortsätta! Detta är världskartan till Alex and Adva: I´ve heard Norse, ett Mario och Luigi/A link to the past-liknande spel som är inspirerat av fornordisk mytologi. Precis som i fornordisk mytologi är världen skapad av en jättens skalle av fyra gudar; den vise Sigtrygg, den listige Tymor, den urstarke Klev och den milde Storkr. De kallas de fyra skadade gudarna eftersom de alla fick någon typ av permanent skada när de dödade jätten.

Efter att de skapat världen bosatte de fyra gudarna sig på tre öar (Sigtrygg och Klev delar på en ö som mor och son), där Tymor fick den minsta. Adva är medlem av de fyra gudarna kvinnliga soldater och Alex är öns magiker.

En dag får Tymor besök av en mystisk missionär som kallar sig Seymour Smiles från Storkrs ö som attackerar Tymor och tar mycket av hans kraft. Missionären fortsätter mot Bjarmaland där Sigtrygg och Klev bor. Adva skickas för att varna dem och Alex kommer med eftersom hans magi behövs för att åka på Jormungandr, en enorma tunnelbana byggd av Tymor och driven av gigantiska skräcködlor.

Tyvärr kraschar den på vägen och Alex och Adva strandas i jättarnas värld Outyard i norra Bjarmaland. Äventyret börjar!

Från vänster till höger; Storkr, Tymor, Sigtrygg och Klev

Nu skall det poängteras att spelaren inte kommer att tyngas ner av en enorm backstory i spelets början. Spelet börjar in medias res utan att något förklaras; man får veta om världen och dess kultur under spelets gång. Sen kommer självfallet inte heller hela spelet göras, utan endast en kort prototyp som blir typ startfilmen, Alex och Advas hemstad samt en bosstrid på Jormungandr. Så, nu känner ni till lite om spelets handling, men hur spelas det!?

Spelet spelas i realtid, man kan använda olika vapen och magier samt byta plats på Alex och Adva för att utföra specialförmågor ute på fältet. Man kan även levla vilket ökar ens egenskaper. Man får även en liten runsten för varje gång man levlar upp samt utför vissa saker i spelet som kan användas för att öka enskilda egenskaper.

Allt det här kommer förhoppningsvis bli mer lättförståeligt så fort jag får klar en visningsbar demo klar.

Till sist kommer den stora frågan om spelets svårighetsgrad och balansering. Förra året gjorde jag ett mer traditionellt rpgmaker-spel där svårighetsgraden (önskar att jag kunde säga att det var med flit, men så var det inte) var lite som i Kid Icarus. Även om de första banorna i teorin var väldigt lätta blev det ändå svårt eftersom man inte hade så många attacker eller rörelser att försvara sig med.

Senare delar i spelet var lätta i jämförelse! Sedan föll inte systemet med sidequests för att levla upp inte väl ut, men det kan vi lämna därhän eftersom detta spelet inte alls kommer att fungera på samma sätt!

Första steget blir att känna lite på spelmotorn för att se vad den kan göra och vilka begrönsningar som finns. Detta spelet skulle också kunna göras i rpgmaker (jag har jobbat lite med scripts i rpgmaker för att få det att funka) men tyvärr gör det striderna rätt så klumpiga och träiga. Men bara denna nya spelmotor har den användarvänlighet och möjligheter jag efterfrågar så kan vi snart ta oss på ett hisnande äventyr i vikingamiljö för att svara på frågan om vem den mystiska missionären är och vilka mörka krafter som står bakom hans gängliga gestalt!  

Prototyp till prototypen