Hargad Tuul (an old name meaning 'The Hollow Plain') is our next location artwork reveal that is found post-Prologue. With its fog, overcast sky, solitary gnarly trees, and greenery the area is a far cry from the usual arid wastelands and rocky deserts of the rest of the continent. The art captures its melancholy dampness and bleakness perfectly.

Another non-human character joins our cast, this time a Dwarf! Dwarves are typically lonely, cranky, calculating fellows in the Riven Realms. Their homeland was utterly decimated in the Calamity and has remained uninhabitable ever since. All the magnificent achievements, inventions, and treasures of the mighty Dwarven kingdom went up in flames when it was engulfed in a volcanic cataclysm. And because the volcanoes are still very much active, there is little hope of reclaiming anything from the ruins. Most Dwarves were killed during the Calamity and today, only several thousand remain. For all intents and purposes, they are a dead race.

The next artwork on display is that of the Jagged Waste. You won't spend time wandering there in the game's Prologue but may catch a glimpse of it, as this area is available in the main game. Here's a little snippet to go along with the revealed environment image for the area:

One of the greatest desert regions in the whole Empire, the Jagged Waste is named after the spiky, sharp, and jagged rock formations that cover most of it. Sub-regions differ vastly but generally, the Waste is an arid plain dotted with various formations of rock. Saw-like ridges and ravines are very common. The Waste usually has a washed-out yellow or bone color. Skies are visible but have an orange tint due to the sun’s terrible power that beats down on the naked stone. Winds often become brutal, carrying deadly dust and stone that can - according to legend - eat the flesh off men.

In Character design - Part 1 we talked about the types of characters in Vagrus, focusing especially on Companions and their roles in the game. Now it's time to move onto the topic of what exactly goes into the graphic design phase of these characters.

Markets and bazaars are the throbbing heart of the rebuilt cities of the Riven Realms. Due to the isolation of many settlements and regions thanks to the Calamity, trade - propagated mostly by comitati - is key to the survival of these regions and thus to the survival of the Empire.

Time for another project update! Seventy-seven days have passed by and even though it was summer - supposedly calmer times - it felt pretty frantic. In the good sense.

A huge Thank You! and wishing all the best to Marci

As your might remember, our previous post started with the news of Marci joining the team to complete his summer internship with us for his degree in software development. Marci has been instrumental to the progress we made on the Codex & Journal functionality and UI, as well as to catching up on our design documents. Now that he has returned to his studies, we wish him all the very best for his goal of finishing his Bachelor's degree. We're pleased to see that he is on the right track to become a great game developer!

One of the largest continuous desert areas on a continent of many deserts, the Searing Plains spans several provinces that used to be forested regions and fertile plains before the Calamity, but became scorching hot and arid lands of sand dunes and little else. Some parts of the plains have low mountain ranges, rock gullies, or ravines, but, yellow sand dunes and salt flats remain the most common features. A constant, hot wind blows from the East and North, creating sandstorms regularly.

This video is showcasing the UI in combat in its current state.

What's new, you ask? Several things:

- Target's Stats and Expected Outcome

While the active character (whose turn it is) is displayed on the left part of the UI, the current target can be seen on the right side. When you select a skill on the active character, you can see its expected outcome (damage, etc.) as well on the target panel.

The Calamity burned down the great forests, tranquil glades, and neat hedges of the region that is now the Searing Plains. A part of it, what is today called Smolderbone Flats, used to be a series of large lakes and islands surrounded by these forests. During the cataclysm, the lakes became sour and salty in a matter of hours and everything in them died. Today even the traces of them are gone. What remains is a barren, infertile, salty flatland that is only inhabited by weird monsters that thrive in such environments: salamanders, fire lizards, even fiery elemental creatures. 

Another horrifying undead joins our creature roster: the Congregated is here. It'll be one of the more challenging enemies in the game.

A unique kind of undead was formed when the lethal hot ash of the volcanic cataclysm hit the regions at the foot of Dvendar Tharr in a wall of searing death on the eve of the Calamity. The ash cloud covered many human settlements in a heartbeat, finding people on streets and inside homes. These unfortunate souls died an agonizing, fiery death, and did so in the most unexpected positions, often clinging to each other in their final moments. The ash blanket preserved them, and the curse of the region later reanimated them: amalgamations of corpses that are drawn to all life and bent on extinguishing it. The Congregated. They are fused together forever by the ash and the curse, encased in a grotesque, porous, stone-like form. These sad beings roam the area near the lost kingdom of Dvendar Tharr, a lethal threat to all travelers.