Pylon - ARPG In Development [Quantum Squid Interactive]

[QuantumSquid]

Hi all!

Welcome to the official development thread for our ARPG, Pylon.

We want to give the community a voice during the making of this game. So, as we post new content on game design, philosophy, art, balance, story, controls and whatever else over the next few months, please give us feedback!

Here are a few screen shots of the first area players will be fighting in, concept art of some enemies and a couple armor sets, and a 3D render of an NPC. Expect to see more soon!

Thanks guys!

Updated Video to GCD Game Play Preview

Low bandwidth Version | Pop Up



Screenshots and Concept Art

[undeadcow]

That concept art looks strong. I like the more realistic style and primitive concept in the screenshots. I know it's probably way to early but is there any estimated release timeframe?

[QSI_Steven]

Originally Posted by undeadcow

That concept art looks strong. I like the more realistic style and primitive concept in the screenshots. I know it's probably way to early but is there any estimated release timeframe?

We are shooting for early part of 2013.

And thanks regarding the art and screenshots! Our artists want to get in here and engage with you guys about that stuff soon, so any comments or thoughts are helpful.

[LOLavi]

Looks very nice Looking forward to more info

[QuantumSquid]

This week marks our 25th week in development. When we set out to make Pylon, there were certain ARPG standards that we wanted to hit that we haven’t fully seen in mobile. Each week when we review our progress as a team, we ask ourselves, is this game fun as a player? We have been trying to let that question guide every decision we make.

Alright, so what does all that mean? (Anything that says “Currently” has been implemented or developed, but everything is subject to change based on future evaluations and your input.)

• Lots of Gear (Currently: Helm, Chest, Legs, Boots, Gloves, Ring, Amulet, Main-hand, Off-hand).
• Armor Sets (Currently: 5, more in the future.)
• Lots of Weapons (Currently: 1-Hand, 2-Hand, Swords, Maces, Dual Wielding, Staffs, Wands etc.)
• Lots of Gear Affixes (Currently: 25 different affixes.)
• Flexible Affix System (Currently: Players decide what Affixes go on gear through a gemming system, making armor and weapons almost purely aesthetic.)
• No Defined “Class” system (A flexible way to play a mage, then a warrior, without having to reroll a new class.)
• Lots of Abilities (Currently 21 active - 9 passives, split into three unique skill trees.)
• Enemy Abilities (Something besides basic damage for majority of enemies.)
• Unique Boss Fights (Currently: Our bosses have 4+ abilities each.)
• “Elite” enemies (Currently: 11 different types of Elite special abilities.)
• Random Enemy Spawns (Although levels may not be random-generated, the monster spawns are.)
• Fast-Paced Action (No slowing the game down to make it feel longer.)
• Content (Currently: A central town, and 10 levels with 4 completely separate and unique aesthetics. 5th hopefully to come.)
• Additional Difficulty Levels (Planning on 3.)
• Lots of Leveling (Currently: Capped at 40.)
• No Price Wall. Finish the game without forced IAP.

In the future, we plan to post more specific thoughts/plans for the various aspects of the game, but we wanted to get an overview up so that you guys can kind of know what to expect and where we are heading. Things we know we want to discuss soon include:

• The relationship between our stat system and traditional ARPG class systems.
• Skill Trees and their Abilities (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence)
• Breakpoint Systems - rewarding Stat dedication.
• Affix categories and how they work with gear.
• Weapon Bonus synergy with Abilities
• Health Potion functionality
• Armor and Reforging Aesthetics
• Enemy Elites and their functionality
• Difficulty curves
• Art Pipeline techniques
• Systems and Programming Pipelines
• Story Overview and Short Story Releases in PDF format

Look forward to posts on these subjects, as well as content updates - videos, art, and screen shots. Most importantly, help us out! What matters to you in an ARPG? What would you like to see implemented into Pylon?

[vibliribland]

You should really add a strong emphasis on defense, not just offense

Look at the souls games (dark souls and demon souls) for inspiration, the focus on defense makes the action extremely tense.

Just focusing on offense just makes the game a drag, Diablo 3 is just a big click fest, you plow though the game.
Defense brings strategy, tension, memorable fights and an feeling of epicness when slaying bosses and elites.

Take it in consideration.

The concept art looks great and a lot of the things in your vision sounds great!

Good luck!

[undeadcow]

Those developments sound promosing; unique bosses, armor sets... bring it on. A few things I'd in ARPGs:

- Randomized dungeons
- Open world non-linear gameplay options
- Hard difficulty challenge dungeon intended for death obsessed ARPG aficionados
- Skills/magic that are accessible and not too draining on magic/mana.
- Diverse environmemts/enemies
- New Game+ or easter egg options. (Let me play as those boss characters after I beat them even if it's in some areana disconnected from plot)
- Mysterious/elusive super creatures/enemies (high hit points, escapes frequently, etc)

[QSI_Lucci]

Glad you like it, we spent a good deal of time discussing art styles. If you look at Diablo 2, it is a very dark oppressive game, D3 a little lighter. Then look at Torchlight, the shapes are more pronounced, colors brighter.

With Valve's work on Dota 2, they mention thing like staying away from over-saturation of color, yet having strong color schemes that compliment the overall idea of a character.

We thought it would be cool to have a more mature look, but not on a level that was too dark. Bright colors and an accessible art style.

[QuantumSquid]

Hey guys! So in our original post, we showed you the concept art for the monsters from the jungle area. Wanted to let you see how some of them turned out!





These two monsters are always seen together in-game. The big guy up top, (we call him the Triceraboss) is the alpha, and the smaller raptors make up the pack. There are several different types (outside of Elites) of these pairings, depending on where you are in the game. They will have different aesthetics and also different nuances to their relationship.

In this case, if you kill the Triceraboss before you kill all of the raptors, the raptors will enrage, gaining increased attack speed and damage. In another area, the pack monsters explode if you kill their alpha. If you guys have any ideas or suggestions for other interactions between alphas, their pack monsters, and the player, let us know!

[Rusothil]

Wow I'm loving the art by you guys! I have a couple suggestions regarding the interactions between alphas and their pack monsters.

1) Maybe have two groups (1 alpha and their pack in each) side by side. Depending on how much damage you're doing to one alpha, the other alpha and its pack either increases or decreases in attack power with the health difference between the two alphas. This makes it so you have to switch between alphas for strategic battles.

2) Maybe have the alpha eat its pack to regain health if its taking too long to kill the alpha, or if the alpha isn't being attacked.

I love the strategy you're involving in this game. Keep it up!