Index

• About the game;

• Gameplay;

• Characters (the playable ones);

• Quick resume of the plot;

• Art-style;

• Other posts in other social media.

(This is quite long so yeah)

About the game

As mentioned on the post, the game will be kind of a 3D platformer with combat system that almost resembles an RPG genre.

The game is currently being prototyped on Scratch, but it already had many builds in the past (the first one being on the Unity engine).

(Some screenshots from the old builds appear here for demonstration purposes)

Gameplay

The gameplay will played like an usual 3D platformer, you can move anywhere, jump and be on different altitude levels. The camera will actually be facing top-down, so you can also focus on combat.

The game is almost open-world, so you can mess around, practice your platforming and combat skills and get used to the controls before continuing to the story. However, there will be some linear parts, but this isn't fully planned yet.

The basic controls will be pretty simple:

• WASD or arrow keys to move around;

• SPACE to jump;

• P to attack (you'll be able to attack while moving);

The attacks and physics may vary from both the playable characters, which I'll describe them next.

(screenshot from a pretty old prototype, just for example purposes)

Characters

The main character (which you'll play as for the most of the game) is a red fox demanded by his father to become a musketeer, his name is Mickal Bronze.

Mickal's gameplay experience:

• Very quick and responsive movement, consistent speed;

• Ability to attack pretty quickly without any lagg/delays, but they soon start to be slower and weaker if you spam too much;

There's also another playable character (more like a side-quick), a grey wolf wanting to be a knight, Silva Silver.

Silver's gameplay experience:

• Moderate movement with some realistic friction;

• The attacks have the usual delay and weight, but he never loses any sort of speed, he actually gains momentum and the attacks get more effective!

There's also other characters that will impact the story, but these 2 are the only playable ones.

Plot

The game takes place on a country highly based on Portugal, in 2011.

This universe has both humans and mutant animals (there's a pretty big lore on this part but I'll write it separately from this article)

Despite being almost on the present, medieval combat and magic are still practiced due to the evil dark forces still roaming on the globe, causing terror everywhere.

Which is why there are schools that teach this old fashioned combat, and Mickal is on those so he can become a musketeer, but not for self defense, his father put him in there for a different reason... (also pretty big lore in this).

While Silver lives in an almost isolated forest on a pretty small forest village, he meets Mickal and he then wants to become a knight on his own will.

Mickal and Silver then go for adventures, and that's when the game trully starts. They meet enemies, uncover mysteries, and learn the secrets of the Red Dimension (the place where those "evil dark forces live", basically hell), while both of them are also on a quest of their own...

Art-style

The art-style on the concept art is detailed and rendered (despite the wacky proportions and perspective, that's just my fault lol), but it won't be like that for the full game haha (insert "indie game starter pack" template here...)

The art-style is not fully final yet, but the game will feature:

• 2D sprite characters, they'll be either pixel sprites with free rotation animation (like a flash animation) or hand-drawn animation in the style of 70s disney animation (only if I get enough skills and time for that obviously)

• 3D terrain, it will be based on NDS graphics so it won't be too detailed (so the 2D characters don't feel out of place aswell)

• There will be also a different art-style for the "evil dark forces", a line-less abstract style with solid colours that have scribbles serving as textures.

  

  (example of that art-style portrayal)

Other posts about the project

• YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7FGrcTDWO9HHPR9kW2J3rn6gh4vZ32CF

• Scratch studio: https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/35230175/

• Subreddit (eww reddit): https://www.reddit.com/r/Excalinine/comments/1dmnc7k/excalinine/

• Newgrounds: https://jackalocked.newgrounds.com/news/post/1454365

• Patreon (the post is public to everyone): https://www.patreon.com/posts/project-107203326

There will be also an animated series (in like 10 years maybe), but this devlog is only for the game.

#excalinine