Just need a few more touch ups and it'll be ready for printing
-Taylor
6 Nov 2013
Cyrus Turnaround - Timelapse
A time-lapsed recording of Steve Lynagh's incredible art for Cyrus. Sped up to 5000% speed!
30 Oct 2013
Profile - Empress Elexis
Name: Elexis Tehrani
AKA: Elexis the Vindicator, The Ruiner, The Tyrant
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Height: 179 cm
Weight: 71 kg
Occupation: Empress of Asrodin
Description:
Empress Elexis, daughter of Atash, was born to the Asrodin empire throne. She was an only child, to the bane of her father. Complications during Elexis' birth made it seemingly impossible for her to ever have a brother and for her father to ever have a son. Due to his resentment towards her, Atash was distant from Elexis in her upbringing, teaching her only the basics of leading a kingdom; teaching her not as a father, but as a harsh master. Elexis grew exceptionally close to her mother in her teenage years as she began to reciprocate her father’s resentment. Sixteen years she lived in the palace with her mother and father; every servant assuring her that one day she will make everyone proud as empress.
The Miracle Son was born four months after her sixteenth birthday. Elexis’ mother died in childbirth and Atash had since grown obsessed with the newborn watchfully protecting his only son and legacy of his wife. The child had taken Elexis’ loving parent and the throne; her only way of proving herself. Elexis daydreamed dark and twisted fantasies of taking her revenge. When Atash finally left the child’s side, she acted on impulse, seizing the chance and smothered the Miracle son in his crib. Her short-sidedness allowed her father to walk in on her after the act. Stunned with the scene and his good-willed nature left him vulnerable and she killed him too, in haste.
In the sixteen years since, under the guise of searching for her father's killer, Elexis has ruthlessly called for war against any and all foes. The Empire lives in constant fear. Elexis is ever searching for greater power, the Scroll of the Fallen most of all.
23 Oct 2013
Finished Sketch
After tweaking and editing, the final sketch has been made for the poster of the game. Here is the A3 version of it.
-Taylor
18 Oct 2013
Making the Vision World
As Cyrus escapes the Great Prison in Level 2, he must escape across a rope bridge to get back to the city. The guards block him off on both sides and cut the bridge as he crosses. Cyrus falls down the chasm between the city and the prison.
As he falls, Cyrus enters a dream-like world, stopped in time. The world he enters is misty and confused, showing past, present, and future simultaneously. In the vision, Cyrus meets the mystic figure that released him from his cell, the ghost of Emperor Atash. He receives the Scroll of the Fallen from this world and when he awakes, he is on the shore of the chasm-bed river with the Scroll in hand.
This sequence was originally planned as a cinematic or cutscene, but was expanded into a fully playable level due to the opportunities it presented in gameplay.
To begin the level, we wanted to make the player feel like there was a lapse in time or just that there was something wrong; we took Cyrus' house from level one and mirrored it to make it feel off. After the player wanders around the closed room for a while, the house dissolves into the misty landscape and Cyrus falls to a floating platform below.
The level is quite abstract in design, full of floating assets from Cyrus' past and future. Throughout this level, the player is unable to take fall damage. In the first section, before the temple, the gamespace is capped on the two verticals with a thick white mist that will cause the player to fall from the sky if they fall off the level. In the second section, when the player obtains the scroll and meets Atash, the thick white smoke is a black smog which will kill the player when touched.
Recently, it's been decided that the third level will be the end of the demo we're producing. The player be shown one final cinematic and credits will roll.
As he falls, Cyrus enters a dream-like world, stopped in time. The world he enters is misty and confused, showing past, present, and future simultaneously. In the vision, Cyrus meets the mystic figure that released him from his cell, the ghost of Emperor Atash. He receives the Scroll of the Fallen from this world and when he awakes, he is on the shore of the chasm-bed river with the Scroll in hand.
This sequence was originally planned as a cinematic or cutscene, but was expanded into a fully playable level due to the opportunities it presented in gameplay.
To begin the level, we wanted to make the player feel like there was a lapse in time or just that there was something wrong; we took Cyrus' house from level one and mirrored it to make it feel off. After the player wanders around the closed room for a while, the house dissolves into the misty landscape and Cyrus falls to a floating platform below.
The level is quite abstract in design, full of floating assets from Cyrus' past and future. Throughout this level, the player is unable to take fall damage. In the first section, before the temple, the gamespace is capped on the two verticals with a thick white mist that will cause the player to fall from the sky if they fall off the level. In the second section, when the player obtains the scroll and meets Atash, the thick white smoke is a black smog which will kill the player when touched.
Recently, it's been decided that the third level will be the end of the demo we're producing. The player be shown one final cinematic and credits will roll.
17 Oct 2013
Marketing drafts
So after assisting a team member with texturing, I have been tasked with doing designs for the poster that will be displayed on showcase.
Here is a few I have made today and the decision was the first one with adjustments needed.
Here is a few I have made today and the decision was the first one with adjustments needed.
-Taylor
11 Oct 2013
Profile - Cyrus
Name: Cyrus Kajiya
AKA: The King's Smith, The Hammer,
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Height: 182 cm
Weight: 112 kg
Occupation: Blacksmith
Description:
Cyrus Kajiya was a halfborn of Asrodinian and Akrotahn descent. He was born in newly conquered slums of Akrotah and fostered at a young age into the large Asrodinian family, the Kajiya’s. He soon became a blacksmith, following in the footsteps of his foster father. His skills were such that he quickly found a name for himself in the empire and was soon by the side of Emperor Atash.
When Atash and his newborn son was murdered, Cyrus was a key suspect in the crime and was forced into hiding. Since then, he has raised his only son alone in the offroad pits and slums behind the great markets, still performing his art in secret to make a living.
9 Oct 2013
4 Oct 2013
Profile - Lord Khaja
Name: Lord Khaja
AKA: The Beast, Tall Boy, Behemoth
Age: Unknown
Gender: Male
Height: 237 cm
Weight: 211 kg
Occupation: Captain of the Empress' Private Guard
Description:
The Beast, Lord Khaja seems as if a giant walking among man. He stands over all in Asrodin, enshrouding those near to him in his enormous shadow. He has dedicated his life to Empress Elexis and to her protection, her whim is his command.
Many say he lost his tongue when he was young, for he never speaks. He most commonly found beside Elexis, kneeling to the side of her throne; he must merely stand and a roomful of bickering and yelling falls silent in fear.
2 Oct 2013
Podcast of the Fallen - Episode 3
This week Aiden and Max are joined by Lead Programmer Sam Heaslip and Artist Brandon McGregor
24 Sept 2013
Making the Prison
At the end of the first level, Cyrus is beaten and taken away by Elexis' guards to the Great Prison. In the world of Scroll of the Fallen, the Asrodinian Empire is known for its extraordinary military power and its ruthless, unforgiving treatment of enemy war-leaders. The Great Prison doesn’t just hold ordinary prisoners of Asrodin, it houses the warlords, the defeated champions, kings and noblemen from all over the world who dared to cross the empire.
The prison level was one of the first levels we hashed out in the pre-production phase. We wanted it to give the player a sense of high tension and risk. Cyrus has been released from his cell by an unknown man with a key and must find his weapons and escape from the prison.
Our aim was to convey this feeling of tension without changing the mechanics of the basic gameplay too drastically.
We knew the prison level would require a strong design to pull this concept off. The plan was to create a set of illusionary choices; offering different paths, one leading to a large well lit room full of guards and the other leading around that room through a darkened corridor. The player doesn't have weapons to fight for the first half of the level, which makes the well lit rooms far less favourable. Due to this, the choice of well lit rooms full of guards vs. darkened halls quickly dissolves into a calculation in which the only answer is the safe routes. After two of these "avoidance scenarios," when the player has learnt the answer is to avoid guard-filled rooms, they find themselves in the rafters above a large room filled with guards. They must carefully perform feats of platforming to activate a distraction in the next room over.
At this point the player can move through to the next room and pick up their weapons and to their escape.
To model the level we used the Platinum Arts Sandbox to create a basic blocked out model of the level and to separate sections to smooth out the pipeline for texturing. From there we put the level into the Unity engine to place assets and set up triggers for story and game events.
 | ||
| Prison Level Blueprint |
Our aim was to convey this feeling of tension without changing the mechanics of the basic gameplay too drastically.
We knew the prison level would require a strong design to pull this concept off. The plan was to create a set of illusionary choices; offering different paths, one leading to a large well lit room full of guards and the other leading around that room through a darkened corridor. The player doesn't have weapons to fight for the first half of the level, which makes the well lit rooms far less favourable. Due to this, the choice of well lit rooms full of guards vs. darkened halls quickly dissolves into a calculation in which the only answer is the safe routes. After two of these "avoidance scenarios," when the player has learnt the answer is to avoid guard-filled rooms, they find themselves in the rafters above a large room filled with guards. They must carefully perform feats of platforming to activate a distraction in the next room over.
At this point the player can move through to the next room and pick up their weapons and to their escape.
To model the level we used the Platinum Arts Sandbox to create a basic blocked out model of the level and to separate sections to smooth out the pipeline for texturing. From there we put the level into the Unity engine to place assets and set up triggers for story and game events.
19 Sept 2013
Podcast of the Fallen - Episode 2
This week Aiden and Max are joined by Alice Picksley and Max Fynmore
10 Sept 2013
Final Logo and scrapped drafts
After a lot of discussion, we finally were happy with the final outcome. Further suggestions are being made with inputting some background image to fit the logo.
After trying to find a suitable design for the air, it was later decided that another group member is tasked with the air design. I will post the group of scrapped designs for the air emblem.
-Taylor
After trying to find a suitable design for the air, it was later decided that another group member is tasked with the air design. I will post the group of scrapped designs for the air emblem.
-Taylor
4 Sept 2013
Motion Capture
Today we had our Motion Capture session. This session was designed so that we could capture the animations needed for the game and webisodes. Team mates Declan, Kelly and David helped out today by donning the capture suit. With the animations recorded we can now start applying them to our characters. A special thanks goes out to the QUT Animation Department, Chris Carter, Paul Van Opdenbosch, Joel Bennet and Travis New.
- Billy
- Billy
28 Aug 2013
Welcome to Scroll of the Fallen
Welcome to the Scroll of the Fallen blog!
Now, we're all new here, so allow me show you around and tell you a story and about our project.
I thought it would be easy to show you around, but I'd prefer to not use twenty carets, greater than and less than symbols, and 'V's.
You will be able to find the latest news and posts right here (where you are reading now), or here at the homepage. If you're looking for all the videos and art that's been featured on this blog, you can find it here. If you want to see who worked on or is working on this project, look no further than here.
The Story
Scroll of the Fallen is an epic fantasy tale that spans centuries in a middle-eastern themed land.
Long ago, in the times after the great purge of magic, the first king took the throne of the Asrodin Kingdom. The first king had four sons and to them, he gave the last remaining divine weapon, the Signum Malis.
The great and powerful sword was split into its four elemental pieces when the sons of the first king were given the artifact. The first son received the Blade of Aura, the fastest short sword in existence, said to piece the heart of darkness, and is the blade of the Signum Malis. The second eldest son received the Talisman of Solum, an amulet of that makes even the lightest of feathers as heavy as gold and the most massive of structures as light as dust, it is said to be able to hold evil at bay, and is the pommel of the Signum Malis. The second born son received the Vial of Imber, an unbreakable that spews forth an unyielding flow of pure water, said to purify even the murkiest of souls, and is the hilt of the Signum Malis. The youngest son received the Scroll of Ustrina, an ancient scroll that's warm to the touch but cannot be burnt, it is said to hold the most demonic darkness within its ink, and is the handle of the Signum Malis.
When the first king was assassinated in his sleep, the three eldest sons, as if compelled by a festering darkness within, warred over the crown of the Kingdom. They became known as the four kings of Asrodin, splitting the kingdom with their war for the throne. As time grew on and the three eldest slid further into darkness, the youngest son, King of Fire, worked towards reclaiming the Signum Malis to end the war and seal away the darkness within their hearts.
The King of Fire slayed his brothers and reformed the kingdom, from then on calling it the Asrodin Empire. According to legend, when the King of Fire became the first emperor, he destroyed the Signum Malis to ensure no one would ever hold that much power again. Unable to burn the Scroll of Ustrina, he sealed it away and passed it through the generations, acting as guardians. It became known as the Scroll of the Fallen.
The Project
Now, this project I've been banging on about. We hope to bring you into the world we've created through whatever means you're comfortable with, in short our project is an exploration of transmedia storytelling. There are three key projects we are producing, they are aimed to show you different aspects of the same world.
First is a series of webisodes, thirty seconds to a minute each that show you the characters of Asrodin. The first webisode focuses on the legend you've just read, "The Legend of the Four Kings", which is about the four brothers fighting over the crown and the King of Fire's eventual triumph. Other webisodes focus are two perspectives of a tale you'll learn about soon, the names of these perspectives are, "The Sin of an Empress" and "Sins of an Emperor". The webisodes are closely connected and feature characters and elements that are in the second project.
The second project is a 2.5D Action-Platformer that tells the story of Cyrus, an Old Blacksmith to an Old Emperor. The game is set hundreds of years after the "Legend of the Four Kings", at the end of the first emperor's dynasty. Empress Elexis, after committing fratricide and patricide, took the throne of Asrodin and cast over the land an age of darkness as she searched endlessly for the Scroll of the Fallen. Cyrus, a servant and friend to the last Emperor, was told to protect the scroll until his last breath, but when he was found and his son was taken he couldn't resist; he gave the scroll to Elexis in exchange for his son's life. The Empress broke the deal, using his son as a sacrifice to unlock the dark power of the scroll, and imprisoned Cyrus. The game is a story of revenge and epic destiny.
The third and final main project is an App that's in the style of an ancient history book, designed to allow anyone to delve deeper into the world. Through the Appbook, the user can find information about the little tidbits of the world that the game and webisodes don't cover. The appbook also goes into full detail on every character and setting from the game and webisode's stories. As the user either watches the webisodes or plays the game, they'll find small runes that unlock more pages and artifacts in the appbook.
Now that we are all acquainted, we look forward to giving you plenty of updates on our progress.
- Callum
Now, we're all new here, so allow me show you around and tell you a story and about our project.
I thought it would be easy to show you around, but I'd prefer to not use twenty carets, greater than and less than symbols, and 'V's.
You will be able to find the latest news and posts right here (where you are reading now), or here at the homepage. If you're looking for all the videos and art that's been featured on this blog, you can find it here. If you want to see who worked on or is working on this project, look no further than here.
The Story
Scroll of the Fallen is an epic fantasy tale that spans centuries in a middle-eastern themed land. Long ago, in the times after the great purge of magic, the first king took the throne of the Asrodin Kingdom. The first king had four sons and to them, he gave the last remaining divine weapon, the Signum Malis.
The great and powerful sword was split into its four elemental pieces when the sons of the first king were given the artifact. The first son received the Blade of Aura, the fastest short sword in existence, said to piece the heart of darkness, and is the blade of the Signum Malis. The second eldest son received the Talisman of Solum, an amulet of that makes even the lightest of feathers as heavy as gold and the most massive of structures as light as dust, it is said to be able to hold evil at bay, and is the pommel of the Signum Malis. The second born son received the Vial of Imber, an unbreakable that spews forth an unyielding flow of pure water, said to purify even the murkiest of souls, and is the hilt of the Signum Malis. The youngest son received the Scroll of Ustrina, an ancient scroll that's warm to the touch but cannot be burnt, it is said to hold the most demonic darkness within its ink, and is the handle of the Signum Malis.
When the first king was assassinated in his sleep, the three eldest sons, as if compelled by a festering darkness within, warred over the crown of the Kingdom. They became known as the four kings of Asrodin, splitting the kingdom with their war for the throne. As time grew on and the three eldest slid further into darkness, the youngest son, King of Fire, worked towards reclaiming the Signum Malis to end the war and seal away the darkness within their hearts.
The King of Fire slayed his brothers and reformed the kingdom, from then on calling it the Asrodin Empire. According to legend, when the King of Fire became the first emperor, he destroyed the Signum Malis to ensure no one would ever hold that much power again. Unable to burn the Scroll of Ustrina, he sealed it away and passed it through the generations, acting as guardians. It became known as the Scroll of the Fallen.
The Project
Now, this project I've been banging on about. We hope to bring you into the world we've created through whatever means you're comfortable with, in short our project is an exploration of transmedia storytelling. There are three key projects we are producing, they are aimed to show you different aspects of the same world.
First is a series of webisodes, thirty seconds to a minute each that show you the characters of Asrodin. The first webisode focuses on the legend you've just read, "The Legend of the Four Kings", which is about the four brothers fighting over the crown and the King of Fire's eventual triumph. Other webisodes focus are two perspectives of a tale you'll learn about soon, the names of these perspectives are, "The Sin of an Empress" and "Sins of an Emperor". The webisodes are closely connected and feature characters and elements that are in the second project.
The second project is a 2.5D Action-Platformer that tells the story of Cyrus, an Old Blacksmith to an Old Emperor. The game is set hundreds of years after the "Legend of the Four Kings", at the end of the first emperor's dynasty. Empress Elexis, after committing fratricide and patricide, took the throne of Asrodin and cast over the land an age of darkness as she searched endlessly for the Scroll of the Fallen. Cyrus, a servant and friend to the last Emperor, was told to protect the scroll until his last breath, but when he was found and his son was taken he couldn't resist; he gave the scroll to Elexis in exchange for his son's life. The Empress broke the deal, using his son as a sacrifice to unlock the dark power of the scroll, and imprisoned Cyrus. The game is a story of revenge and epic destiny.
The third and final main project is an App that's in the style of an ancient history book, designed to allow anyone to delve deeper into the world. Through the Appbook, the user can find information about the little tidbits of the world that the game and webisodes don't cover. The appbook also goes into full detail on every character and setting from the game and webisode's stories. As the user either watches the webisodes or plays the game, they'll find small runes that unlock more pages and artifacts in the appbook.
Now that we are all acquainted, we look forward to giving you plenty of updates on our progress.
- Callum
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