It has been awhile since the last update – the good news is that the project is alive and well! All three of us are working on the game in our free time so progress tends to come in peaks and valleys. Another reason for not posting is that we are spending a lot of time creating levels – content is proving to be the most time consuming part of development but is also the area that may be most important to get right. For this update we have updates around new level art, menu systems, music and more.
Level Art
A challenge of achieving the aesthetic of ancient Rome in a gritty, retro style is that iconic elements such as marble run the risk of coming across too bright and clean. Intricate interiors can also be problematic as a lot of details and embellishments become noisy at a low resolution. Recently we spent some time revisiting one of the early stages that we created to try and establish a better thematic aesthetic while still delivering on the grimy, pre-rendered look that the game revels in. The new street scenes maintain the simple geometry that are the building blocks of the game while utilising more props and texture variety to better situate the player in the time of Caesar. Some new props include washing lines, carts and furniture. Slanted roofs make an appearance and we are experimenting with more interesting skyboxes to render the environment less muddy. This is all a fine balance as over decorating a scene could end up detracting from the final result. Our main goal has been to create unique environments that facilitate fast and readable gameplay while also evoking their setting clearly.
Most of our design decisions have been informed to varying degrees by historic reference. This reference however, is often informed, adapted (and sometimes ignored!) in favour of our own intended art direction. Some examples of this are taking elements that clearly evoke ancient Rome but may be from a slightly later period than the game is set. The Sid Meier ethos of using the children’s section of the library for research resonates here in that we’re not aiming to create an accurate depiction of the time but rather to conjure that narrative setting in the player’s imagination.
Menu Screen Overhaul
New menu screen offers a more digetic level selection with icons denoting level completion, secrets found and time trial achievement.
While we all liked the look of the old menu, we realised that it didn’t scale well to meet the needs of where the game was going (and the amount of content it would need to hold). A challenge of making a retro, low-res game is crafting a world from tiny textures and simple shapes while still instilling a sense of time, place and atmosphere. The old menu certainly fulfilled its function but missed out on significant world building opportunities. The new design places the levels on the map screen, diegetically situated on a table. This approach gives the player a better sense of place while introducing an opportunity to include more artwork to better set the scene. The game is currently planned to span across three acts, each with their own maps to create a stronger feeling of progression throughout the experience.
Moving towards this format has also opened up potential for better iconography to communicate ideas. A theme for our project has been ‘the excess of Rome’ – what better way to express this than an pre-rendered door that opens in place of a text-based exit button? The 90’s nostalgia also feels more distilled in this approach, harking back to the days of obtuse UI that may not be the clearest but certainly had a lot of character.
Many of the incidental props and pickups are much higher res than they appear in game. The pre-rendered map screen has the added benefit of giving us an opportunity to show off these more detailed props outside of their pixelated down scaling.
The custom font used throughout the game is of our own creation and the logo was made in 3D Coat. This approach allows us to easily play with lighting effects to achieve a distinctive result. One thing that a lot of early 3D games did was feature higher detailed renders than the real-time 3D in the actual game, something we wanted to emphasise in this logo. We are still iterating the design to balance readability and character.
Music
A Hateful Passage experiments with a more aggressive and spontaneous style, channeling the torment of the Roman underworld and drawing its name from the mythos surrounding the River Styx.
This track is more niche than the last one I posted and was written with the intent to lean towards the more intense end of the game’s score. This is an interesting challenge when the baseline comparison is already high-tempo and reasonably heavy. With this song I aimed to explore different time signatures and key changes that would push an aesthetic of dissonance even further. One option could have been to make the mix heavier though the overall cohesion between songs is also essential – while we aren’t strictly following a genre template, a lo-fi thrash sound defined the early musical direction and is a key pillar to each composition. This means that we are actively avoiding electronic parts and any audible synths (though there are some subtle supporting layers). Similarly, all of the songs are written in drop D which makes transitions and blends between atmospheric tracks more seamless. Overall I am very happy with how everything is sounding and how effectively these songs frame the game. Something exemplified by this track is the number of different changes and layers within its duration. The lack of vocals means that more generic structures risk becoming overly repetitive and given that this is a game where the player restarts a lot, sixteen bars of the same progression again and again could become tiring. In an attempt to mitigate fatigue, most songs avoid dwelling on one riff for too long and often jump between several ideas in short periods – an added benefit of this is how the sporadic blasts of guitars and drums reflect the intensity and pace of gameplay, crafting a cohesive experience between play and audio.