Here’s a still-uncooked side-shank from what I’m currently working on: a slide-animated trailer for Perdition, the gloriously complex and bloody game I’ve been working on.

I think Max, my good friend and project leader, threw some colors over it so he could put it in the new video that’s up on Kickstarter (which, if you haven’t seen yet: http://kck.st/aGy19U). 

But enough about that, let’s talk a little bit more about the game itself.  Or rather, I’m going to step aside and let someone else more qualified than me talk about the game itself: me.  

What the hell am I saying, you say?  I’m glad you asked, Timmy!  Now shut your hole, I’m talking.

Here’s an article I wrote yesterday about the game’s mechanics- all the bells and whistles and horrible swinging blades that make a game fun, and I’ll let it do the talking for me instead of my current raving, sleep deprived, hopped-up-on-too-much-Vitamin-Water self.  God I love this stuff.  I wish they had it in bulk.

—————————————————-

A Little Bit About Our Big Game, Called Perdition

So there seems to be a lot of confusion fluttering about as to what Perdition, the game that I’ve been working on, actually plays like.

All the info on our site currently doesn’t do a great job of talking about this - which is something we’re going to fix, but while we’re doing that, I thought I’d take some time to sit down to talk about it.

For those of you who’ve somehow missed my eleventy Facebook blasts and AIM pesterings, Perdition is a game that I started working on somewhere around February, as an artist and now also as an overall designer.

But enough about me, let’s talk about the game!

First, some generalizations:
At its roots, Perdition is a good old fashioned old school puzzle/action platformer game.
However it is not your typical good old fashioned old school puzzle/action platformer.  It is instead, a thinking-man’s typical good old fashioned old school puzzle/action platformer.

What am I talking about?

Well, its going to feel like a combination old school gameplay (think Metroid) and new school (think Prototype), with an action-reaction character development system reminiscent of Knights of the Old Republic, or Fable.
To wit: there will be a vast networked and interconnected world to explore and conquer (Metroid), which will respond to you in living, dynamic ways, featuring fast-paced adrenaline-pounding action (Prototype),  and depending on how you play and the decisions you make, your character will change and develop (KotoR).

Let’s talk about that last one a little bit more, cause this is where it gets good.

As your character makes his way through the game, he slowly becomes tainted by his hellish environment.  This gradual growth and corruption grows from deep within and flourishes differently depending on his temperament and actions.  How you play the game will directly affect how these changes develop, and you’ll be able to clearly see them as they change your game-play abilities, your character’s physical appearance, and even the environment that you find yourself in- certain areas of the game may become accessible or inaccessible to you depending on how your character has grown- an agile player could climb to heights that others could not reach, while the strong character could break through obstacles to reach areas that others would have to find a way around.
The character develops and changes in seven different ways, based on specific traits and tied to the seven deadly sins of old - lust, wrath, gluttony, sloth, pride, envy, and avarice:

Lust: agility and evasion - by playing the tease and being evasive and swift to circumvent enemies instead of attacking them directly, the lustful player can jump higher, move quicker, and better avoid danger

Gluttony: resilience - the character is able to grab enemies and attempt to viciously devour their souls to regain health, and the gluttonous player who does this often will grow corpulent and fat, and be able to take more damage without succumbing

Wrath: physical combat - the wrathful player wades into combat without a second thought, relying on his weapon and his physical strength to win the day, and thus grows stronger

Sloth: magic - by avoiding physical activity altogether and relying on magic to solve his problems for him, the slothful player atrophies physically even as his magical powers grow ever more potent and terrifying

Pride: defense - by making effective use of blocks to avoid taking damage, the prideful player refuses retreat as a sign of weakness, and is able to better hold their ground and play defensively

Avarice: grappling - by grabbing and throwing the enemy and trying to be all hands, the avaricious player’s limbs grow longer, and their hands swell in size, allowing them to take more for themselves, and to grab and throw enemies farther

Envy: no overriding trait - the grass is always greener on the other side to the envious player, and those who maintain a balance of traits will find themselves growing in all directions, but only slightly

The cunning player who’s aware of these changes can take advantage of them to accommodate their playstyle - whether it be playing defensively (pride), playing aggressively (wrath),  evasively (lust), magically (sloth) and so on.

Other features of the game include an intuitive spellcasting system based on the four elements which, mapped to four buttons will allow the player to mix-and-match elemental spells to gain spectacular and powerful effects - for example, the combination of a fire spell and a stone spell to send forth a jet of burning liquid magma.  Not only will these effects look pretty, they will realistically effect the environment - fire burns wood, water turns to steam, and boulders break things.  There will be tons of effects, and like the combined beam weapons in Super Metroid, the player will have to experiment to discover what combinations do what.

But a game needs things to interact with to be interesting.  It takes two to tango, and the game can’t just be running around killing an endless stream of faceless mooks in a repetitive environment.  Even with the most dynamic and interesting main character, that game is boring.
Luckily we have plans for this, and our game features a vast, dynamic and deep world to explore and interact with.
There are nine levels of Hell to descend, each with its own cluster of demons and terrors to encounter - each with its own unique set of monsters to and obstacles to defeat.  Within this, as mentioned before, entire areas of the game can become accessible or inaccessible based on your character’s abilities, and even within this, secrets lie deep within hidden areas, buried in water and stone and fire, to be discovered only by the most cunning and determined of players.

That’s our game in a nutshell.  A very large nutshell, but a nutshell.

For those of you who donate, we’ll be putting up more in-depth updates on the Kickstarter website, with more updates to come in the weeks left.  We’ll also go in depth into exactly how we’re planning on achieve the crazy water-color and hatchmarked look that’s in the concept art as well as some other process notes such as our game engine, our artistic inspirations, and other things that make this game tick.

So if you’ve got some money laying around, and feel like helping out a couple of guys trying to make a dream come true, pledge some money to our Kickstarter, or if money is short, pimp us out to your friends and family, and if you do, we’ll make sure the afterlife is a little more comfortable when you get there.  Guaranteed.

—————————————————-

Here’s the Kickstarter: http://kck.st/aGy19U
And here’s our company page: http://www.abandonhopegames.com/ 

Some non-Perdition related stuff going up soon.  I’ve been up to lots, and lots and lots, and Perdition isn’t the only egg currently incubating in my head-basket.

STAY TUNED