Another location from the main game, Arken is a frequented hub and a town of great import as it sits on the Empire's largest marble reserve as well as close to other treasures of the earth. The settlement borders the Arkoros Forest, where instead of trees large standing stones cover the terrain. With low walls of stone and several districts (including a set of villas and temples), Arken would be a lovely place if not for the constant dust and the wind that whips it. Thus, only people who work here live in the town along with some merchants and a handful of dedicated craftsmen. Stones are gathered in warehouses to be sold and shipped off all over the Empire. A strong garrison of undead soldiers - maintained by necromancers - guards the town as no living beings would stand on the walls constantly plagued by the terrible dust. But how loyal are those who run Arken to the Empire with such a force at their fingertip?

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 to talk about the Journal. Even though I don't think most gamers are super-excited about the details of in-game journals or quest logs, it is still extremely important to get them right in a game as complex and as full of storylines, tasks, quests, and objectives as Vagrus, and gamers do appreciate quest logs that work well and aid them when they need information.

The Empire in the Riven Realms is based on the Roman Empire of our history, so it's no surprise that the gladiators of these cultures are also very similar.

This character artwork is that of the gladiator enemy that you can come across in arena battles. These arena or pit fights will feature in larger settlements, as the Empire of the Riven Realms is very fond of such bloody games.

Most fantasy adventures have an inn or two but in our case - in a game where you lead a caravan and its crew on all kinds of journeys - taverns and inns are vital and appear in almost every sizeable settlement.

The artwork you can see, the versions of which will serve as a backdrop for such watering holes in Vagrus, was painted by the amazing Péter Kovács. The image perfectly captures the alien feel of the world, the dark and hard fantasy elements, as well as the relatively peaceful atmosphere of an inn.

One of the core mechanics of the game is that time passes in-game each turn (1 turn equals 1 day) and you, as the vagrus, have to plan ahead when it comes to distances, supply consumption, and upkeep. At the end of the day you make camp to rest and make decisions concerning the above. This is where the Camp UI comes in.

As a strategy-RPG hybrid, Vagrus is pretty heavy on UI, so a lot of our effort goes into designing a functional and appealing UI for various elements of the game. Today, we'll take a look at our progress with the 'main UI', which is on the campaign map. This is what the player will see the most of and it's UI has to be a gateway to several key game elements.

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.

Avernum is the most important city in the Northern Searing Plains. The reborn Empire moved back to the scorched and abandoned region soon after the Calamity and found it ideal to settle because of the new resources that can be found in the vicinity: salt, rare minerals, and even obsidian. Thus, Avernum was built at the center of the Smolderbone Flats. The city mostly lacks the religious apparatus of large provincial settlements, but has a fairly large military presence there under the direct control of the Prefectus, its governor. Rumor is that due to its backwater status, the city of Avernum follows Imperial regulations more loosely, and it has become essentially the private kingdom of the reigning Prefectus.