Resources are in!

Holiday break is now but a memory, and after a bit of laziness, we got back to our normal work mode. Figured out it might be time for another post to show off some bits we’ve been doing recently.

  • Resources – these now spawn neatly on the world map according to their database definitions and most of their models are now more or less finished. They all look much better compared to T:TA because they now use higher resolution textures, normal maps and are shiny in all the right places. Here are two screenshots from the forest biome:

Iron

Wheat

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Yikes!

I’ve just realized that our website updates have fallen somewhat behind… I was never particularly good (or speedy) at writing news but this is unacceptable. A’vee – you’re fired!

Oh, wait…

So first, I wanted to share a brand new character art (only one for now, just to tease you :P). I asked our amazing artist Finn to make a couple female gatherers to resemble some old ones from Thea: The Awakening. Below is a T: TA gatherer on the left and T: TS on the right:

But of course, much more stuff happened over the last two months than this 🙂

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It’s a-live!

Hi all!

Finally,  Thea 2: The Shattering Kickstarter campaign is live!


[www.kickstarter.com/projects/muhagames/thea-2-the-shattering]

 

Numbers change pretty quickly, so I’ll use this handy Kicktraq widget below to show the funding progress and remaining time.

Thea 2: The Shattering -- Kicktraq Mini

If the current trend continues, we’ll hit the goal before Khash says Mississippi 😀

EDIT: Yee-haw! We’ve crossed the funding threshold, so it’s time for stretch goals!

If anyone would like to support us but doesn’t have a credit or debit card – we’ve opened up a small “pledge store” here: www.theakickstarter.bigcartel.com

These pledges won’t be visible on totals on the KS page, but every penny will go towards them. We’ve got 5 tiers available – £15, £30, £60, £90 and £500, with the £90 limited to 5 copies (because it contains limited rewards).

Thank you to all our backers and supporters so far, you guys rock!

First look at our new event editor.

Hi, it’s been a while since we’ve given some progress update here, so today, I will showcase our event editor for Thea 2.

Those of you who tried the one from Thea: The Awakening may find some familiar features, but the tool has been done again from scratch and has some amazing potential, especially for those willing to do some scripting too.

Please keep in mind that this is still very much WIP this is certainly subject to change.

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Thea 2: The Music

Hi everyone, it’s time for an update!
We don’t have much to show you today, but we wanted to present a couple sound tracks from Thea 2. On launch, Thea 2 will feature 33 tracks that fall into 3 categories – battle themes, settlement themes and map themes. And there’s of course one menu theme.
We’ve hired the same guys that did the music for Thea: The Awakening – murmur sound workshop! Nik & Victor did a great job last time, so the decision to ask them to write music for the sequel was obvious.

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Monsters of Slavya Part 2

Continuing last month’s expose on the many good and bad monstrosities in the eastern lands of Thea, we’ll talk about some more demons and the scourge of the unliving.

The un-living are those poor wretched beings who’s soul was destroyed/torn out or taken, yet the bodies remain animated by dark, gruesome magics. Unlike demons, who can also be born out of death, the unliving were made by necromancers, twisted warlocks or wicked witches. Such magic is deadly, dangerous and forbidden by the gods, yet its scourge remains a constant threat in Thea. While last month we gave an account of varied creatures who may or may not wish you harm, today’s selection is rather more keen on human demise.

During the long century of darkness, it has been recorded that the unliving gained strength and numbers and while the sun has awakened more than two centuries ago now, the shattering has once again de-balanced our world and brought out yet another wave of the unliving plague.

A sample of monsters, both natural and unnatural – although the distinction is often foggy at best.

Skeletons and unliving corpses – the two main types of the unliving are skeletons and corpses. Scholars argue to whether the two forms are separate in type: do they require different rituals to raise? Are they different in nature? Some insist that the two are simply raised at different stages of the body’s decomposition cycle, thus some will be mere skeletons and others will still carry flesh. But some experts suggest that unliving corpses have been known to bite and even devour the flesh of the living, while skeletons seem to work more as bodyguards or fighters, and seem rather uninterested in any form of sustenance. There are few written accounts to draw a single conclusion, but the latter carries more weight.

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Day/Night cycles

Today I wanted to share one bit I’ve been working on recently – day/night cycles.

Those of you who have played Thea: The Awakening surely remember that one of the game’s features was a day/night cycle that affected visibility and difficulty. We’ve decided to keep this element in Thea 2: The Shattering as well. An opportunity to work on this bit appeared after Khash has added handling of specular maps into his terrain and water shaders this week. So to test how things work, I played a while with different light setups and thought it would be cool to put together a switchable animation with a set of lights that would show the day/night cycle. After two days of trying to get the light and shadows right (being fairly new to different lighting settings),  here’s a short video showing the progress:

 

Other terrain elements also got an upgrade – water got an improved normal map, can now bounce off light and also blends with the shore much better. Also terrains can now use emissive maps, so I can add a nice glow to lava tiles on the volcanic island (yet to be done). And KIhash is improving terrain blending as I type  this post. Of course there’s still much work needed – rivers are a bit buggy, fog of war is missing, etc. – but I do hope we’re going in the right direction.

Below are a three more screens from different biomes.

Demons of Slavya part 1

Thea is a vast land split into many continents and cultures, and now, after the shattering, it is even more fractured and diverse. Slavya was once a continent where the Cosmic Tree grew and the battle with the Darkness took place. Despite the earth being torn to pieces, the floating islands remain steeped in Slavyan folklore and infested by the so called demons.

In a world filled with ghosts, risen dead, magic and unhumans, it is often unclear how the Slavyans distinguish one to be a demon, but the general definition stands as follows:

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