This month has been rather quiet for me, what with real life compounding my own struggles to be a better game designer as well as a few personal problems hindering my ability to gam mak. Which led me to delete some 300+ maps of the 10+ hour version of Tristian. But I felt this destruction was necessary to build a stronger project.

Back in July 2013 when I started working on this, like with Enelysion, I just threw together a couple of ideas without any real planning. But it wasn't 2011, and I've grown lot as a developer. As of now, I'm trying to outline the plot as much as I can ( though certain key elements from the old versions are still kept intact ) as well as drawing upon medieval history ( like The Anarchy and War of the Roses. Both FFT and Game of Thrones are based off the latter ) to build up a more realistic world and plot but with the usual fantasy elements of magic and myth thrown into the mix. The game world itself is being overhauled. I felt it was too large and too empty, quite unlike Enelysion's smaller but far richer world of Tairngire. As such, it also affects the game's plot ( i.o.w, no evil Empire taking over smaller countries and annexing them. Rather, it's a power struggle brought upon the death of Genoa's High King between two prominent Houses ). Of course, this means that there will be several new antagonists. The Blue Order from the old demo plays a much larger role this time as well ( think of them as the Death Corps ).

Between writing scenes and plot outlines, I've also done a bit of graphical work.



Some images from the prologue:


Parm Valley, because I need to add at least one lush area to the game.



Tristy protecting Ianna always gives me huge feels. 100% custom content.

As for the actual demo, I am planning on making a 30-45 min game. Given the amount of work I need to put into this, I'd rather make it brief but memorable, as opposed to a 2-3 hour sluggish demo. The game itself won't be as long as Enelysion anymore.

Given what happens to the lady knight, I feel her adventure should be brief, but glorious ( no more than.. say, 7 hours of playtime, half the game's proposed length ). This will be my first attempt at a politically-fueled RPG as well. I think it's more interesting to see how conflict brings out the best and worst in people, rather than fighting a millenial-old Eldritch Abomination come endgame. Even Tristian will have to make some questionable decisions, getting her hands dirty ( and bloody ), all in the name of her future queen.

So, that's the status of the game for now. =)