The Kristala Dev Blog - Issue #28

Hello, faithful feline-lovin' friends and fantasy aficionados! Welcome back to another magically entrancing issue of the Kristala dev blog.

This is the only place where you'll receive a monthly, in-depth look into the entire development process for 3D dark fantasy ARPG Kristala, an indie game built in Unreal Engine 4 by the incredibly talented team at Astral Clocktower Studios.

As mentioned above (and frequently touted across all our social channels), Kristala is a dark fantasy game—which means we definitely want our characters and environments to properly convey that particular element.

We really loved how the demo was looking at the end of 2020, but we thought it embodied a bit more whimsy than it did darkness, so we've officially embarked on a complete overhaul of the entire demo level, including character models, level design, environments, and more.

Now we're well on our way to achieving the proper vibe for the game, and we're ridiculously excited to show you some of the changes that have already been implemented over the course of the last few weeks.

Are you ready to get dark, dear friends? Trust us...we've got you covered.

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Concept Art

As part of our demo overhaul, we recently welcomed a few new team members into our motley crew in order to help us better establish the dark-fantasy vibe we're going for—including the newest member to our Concept Art team, Harold.

Luckily for us, Harold is incredibly adept at understanding exactly what we mean when we put in requests like, "Can you hook us up with something ominous and slightly menacing?"

For his first concept piece, we tasked Harold with an environmental shot showcasing the first Kristal Checkpoint that appears in the Dalamase swamp level featured in the Kristala demo.

The Dalamase lies within Nisargan territory and contains several moss-laden, bog-entrenched, abandoned fishing villages that pockmark a vast, overgrown, tree-laden swamp.

Here's a look at Harold's interpretation of the Checkpoint and its surrounding environment. The denseness of the trees and the wetness of the ground really drive home the "this environment is a creepy, murky swamp" vibe, which we're suuuper stoked about.

After seeing how stunning and chill-inducing his first piece was, we wanted to see Harold's rendition of a portion of the Dalamase's Dark Forest.

This eerie, tree-laden level area of the Kristala demo is chock full of strange, secretive creatures that may or may not welcome your presence. One such oddity is a stick-like, mannequin-esque being called the Twigativa (or, as we like to call them, Twiggies) that vaguely resembles a cat-like Anagativa.

What makes these creatures especially horrifying is the fact that only some of them seem to be capable of life. While many remain still, unmoving as they stand sentry over the Dark Forest, others unexpectedly come to life without warning.

The hard part for you will be determining exactly which ones are which... ;)

We mentioned earlier about the abandoned fishing villages that line the Dalamase swamp. After finishing up the Twiggy concept pictured above, Harold then moved on to a third environmental concept featuring one such village.

For this piece, we also had Harold try his hand at reimagining the appearance of the Lantern Trees that can be found throughout the Dalamase. These lush, stunning, luminous trees are not only ridiculously beautiful, but they also serve a very important in-game purpose too.

As you make your way through the swamp, you'll quickly discover that many of the enemies that dwell within its boundaries either omit or dispense a poisonous substance that'll slowly eat away at your health bar.

To combat this type of noxious damage, simply consume the fruit of the Lantern Tree to receive a boost in poison resist. Doing so just might help you survive a bit longer amongst the poisonous flora and fauna of the Dalamase.

Up next for Harold? Tackling a concept for a damp cave level area that's home to a very secretive creature featured in the Kristala demo.

The narrow entrance to this cave widens into a cavernous room to reveal several clusters of glowing crystals and a series of mysterious doors. We'll let you discover for yourself exactly where each doors leads, but for now—enjoy this look at Harold's Nisargan cave concept.

Last on Harold's list of concepts for this sprint was an environmental piece showcasing an area of the Kristala demo that we've been referring to internally as the Treehouse Clearing.

Featured prominently in this concept is the hulking trunk of an enormous Jhacanda tree whose thick network of branches supports the weight of a gigantic Nisargan treehouse dwelling.

We love how the treehouse itself is illuminated by several sources of light that shine out from its windows like a beautiful beacon of warmth amongst the dreary, damp fog of the Dalamase.

Curious about Harold's process for building out each concept's composition? Stay tuned to the Kristala dev blog—and to all our socials—to learn how you can get exclusive, behind-the-scenes access into Harold's entire, step-by-step process.

Although the feline-like Anagativa and the rodent-like Kotakaya are the most prominent creatures featured in Kristala, the Kota aren't the only rodent race that thrives on planet Ailur.

In fact, contrary to your typical Kota foe, the Hemani are friendly rodent creatures that have willingly integrated into the Ana way of life. For this reason, most Hemani you'll meet along your travels are more than happy to assist you however they can.

One such creature featured in Kristala is a sweet and gentle Hemani named Cloudette, an NPC you'll encounter in a unique level area called The Hermitage.

Before we show off Cloudette's beautiful concept—created by an incredibly talented concept artist (and friend of studio) named Amanda—say hello to Game Producer Allie's IRL hamster, Cloud, who served as the furry inspiration for Cloudette's character.

With the help of our friend James, a super gifted concept artist, we were able to cross off another important character concept this sprint...one who serves a large role in Kristala's core storyline.

Svar Ekat is a hairless Anagativa who originally hails from the Sykomana clan, a mysterious clan that's gifted in the art of both telekinesis and telepathy. Bored by the perceived monotony of his home clan's lands, Svar eventually severs ties with the Sykomanans and sets out on his own as a rogue, covert traveler.

We don't want to say too much about Svar just yet, but we can assure you that this furless feline has a fiendish face you won't soon forget. Don't believe us? Just have a look at the concept for Svar and we think you might agree.

As a rogue wanderer traversing the wilds of Ailur, you'll rarely spot Svar without some sort of blade or staff in his grasp. We're still working out which of the beautiful weapons that James designed will be Svar's go-to form of defense, but we definitely wanted to show them off too.

These are all so gorgeous and detailed that you'll most likely end up seeing each one of these featured in the full version of Kristala in some capacity.

Which piece do you think matches Svar's aesthetic the best? Which piece is your favorite? Let us know in the comments section below.

In ACS concept artist l_aciel's world, badass armor was on the menu this sprint—something she's ridiculously adept at designing.

We've showed off l_aciel's base armor concepts for the six clans of Anagativa in past issues of the Kristala dev blog, but we think this next concept is her best work yet.

Members of the raven-coated Myrtuna clan are incredibly skilled in the art of necromancy, an ancient area of focus that closely aligns them with Ailur's spirit realm. Although this connection with spirit has its benefits, it also allows souls that have passed onto the spirit realm access back into the living world.

In order to maintain order and properly police spirit access, a group of gifted Myrtunan warriors decided to band together to form Ailur's elite group of Spirit Hunters. Here's a look at the Spirit Hunter armor set that will be featured in Kristala.

Shifting gears back to the dark-fantasy overhaul we're currently performing on the demo, our next character concept features a revamp of our mutant Gilsanka enemy that's native to Ailur's sprawling swamplands.

Freely roaming the abandoned waterways and bogs of the Dalamase's abandoned fishing villages, these fish-like Gilsanka are one of the only enemies in the Kristala demo that engage in combat using both melee and magic combat.

Here's a look at several versions of this aquatic mage, followed by a peek at a few of the weapons you may find the Gilsanka wielding in game.

Stay tuned to the programming section of today's dev blog to see how you can expect these baddies to behave in battle.

The last concept we were able to cross off our list this sprint is a character concept featuring a jolly and loveable Ana NPC named Neil of Nisarga.

As his name suggests, Neil is a member of the Nisargan clan. He's a merchant NPC you'll meet as you embark on your journey to becoming a Raksaka warrior.

Like any merchant, Neil of Nisarga has all the trinkets, items, spells, and charms you'll need to surely aid you on your way. We especially love how Neil's concept captures the colorful, eclectic, hippie-like aesthetic of the peaceful, nature-loving Nisargans.

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3D Character Design

If you thought our concept artists were the only ones bustin' buns this sprint, you'd be sorely mistaken. Our 3D modelers were just as ambitious during the month of March.

For today's 3D modeling updates, our resident character modeler, Bianca, kicks things off with her work on the second and third Kotakayan Soldier variants featured in our demo—including their leather- and buckle-adorned armor.

After finishing up the Kota soldiers, Bianca then started in on the models for our custom, fish-like Gilsanka mage enemies.

Using the concept we shared with you earlier in this issue as her guide, Bianca started by blocking out the initial shape of the Gilsanka model.

Once she had the base down, Bianca then started adding in the unique details included in the concept, like the sharp, pointed spinal fins along the character's head, neck, and back—and the fine, thin webbing between its fingers.

Bianca also blocked out the ropes, shells, and hooks that serve as the Gilsanka's armor. Stay tuned next month to see how this enemy's model progresses.

If you've been keeping up with our dev blogs over the past couple issues, you'll know that we've been working hard to come up with a way to create realistic-looking fur for our various animal-like characters.

This sprint, 3D Generalist Joe continued working with hair cards to create the fur for our Kota soldier models in a way that keeps their overall polycount as low as possible.

Moving forward, Joe will continue to refine and improve the look of the fur, adding a dither effect to the hair shader to soften the edges of each card.

With Joe working on rodent fur, Lead Character Modeler Pete started creating hair cards in Zbrush and applying them to our female main character to familiarize himself with how they work and how they can be manipulated.

Once he played around with the cards a bit, Pete found them rather easy to create and, surprisingly, pretty practical to individually edit. Here's a look at some screenshots Pete shared with us during this beginning phase of the process.

After working with the hair cards for awhile, it dawned on Pete that he could actually create a proxy texture that would easily troubleshoot the orientation of each card.

Essentially, if the green arrows pictured below are prevalent, the hair cards will look correct; if the red bars attached to the arrows are too prominent—especially in the silhouette—that represents something that needs to be addressed further.

To further test this, Pete isolated an area on the model's brows that would be easy to control and manipulate.

Next, Pete exported the hair cards into Unreal in order to build a universal hair shader that could then ultimately be applied to every fur-havin' character in Kristala. Convenient, right?

While building up the hair shader, however, Pete struggled to find a way to actually bake out the flow map information (meaning: the directional flow of the hair cards) onto an image pulled from the 3D suites our modeling team typically uses, like Maya and Blender.

Though the reasoning behind the necessity for this is ridiculously technical and specific, the presence of the flow map itself greatly improves the look of hair and fur in Unreal.

Why? It's through this very flow map that Unreal generates the life-like shapes of specular highlights that naturally occur from various light sources on fur and hair.

After a bit more research, Pete was finally able to to start the official furring of our Nisargan female player character.

During his first official pass, Pete was finally able to make the textures and shaders work in tandem. Though the fur cards in the screenshots below still need quite a bit of editing, Pete is definitely on the right path.

Stay tuned to future issues of the dev blog to learn where you can find a complete, step-by-step, detailed tutorial on how to create and master the process we used to create realistic fur using hair cards.

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3D Environmental Design

In the world of 3D Environmental Design, ACS team member Cass kicked things off this sprint by continuing his work on the large, decrepit Cathedral that serves as a centerpiece for our Nasahara level.

The once-grand Nisargan city of Nasahara was tragically ransacked and set ablaze by a band of ruthless Kota soldiers during the Great Kotakayan Rebellion. The resulting destruction was so brutal that many of Nasahara's beloved structures and landmarks were obliterated, leaving its streets abandoned to this very day.

Even so, some say they can still hear eerie laughter and menacing whispers emanating from the city proper, a frightening set of sounds that seem to grow louder the closer you get to the massive Cathedral.

Here's a look at Cass's texture work for this beautiful structure, one of the few buildings that still stands after the carnage that took place in Nasahara so long ago.

Once he was done texturing this piece, Cass then started laying out the design for a stained glass window that adorns the Cathedral and adds a bit of color to its singed hallways and ruined pillars.

The rounded window composition features a whimsical and bright Nisargan scene that starkly contrasts the devastated state of present-day Nasahara—almost frighteningly so. Hovering above a grassy, sun-kissed field floats the Nisarga clan's shard of the ancient Sacred Kristal.

In addition to his revised model for the Cathedral, Cass also started remodeling a few of the swamp houses and homes that will be featured in the Kristala demo level.

There are several of these structures that need redone, so be sure to stay tuned to future issues of the dev blog to see Cass's updates on each piece.

With Cass hard at work on the houses themselves, 3D Generalist Karena continued working on some furniture that will be featured inside these swamp structures—including the bed and sleep set that's pictured below.

To highlight the fact that this bed is a Nisargan bed, Karena created a patchwork quilt for the bed's spread. Nisargans are jolly creatures that utilize found objects and collected items to create various pieces of decor, so the pieced-together feel of this quilt fits them perfectly.

In addition to working on the Nisargan bed and accompanying comforter, Karena also started working on the design for a consumable item that will be used as part of our quick-travel warp system.

We initially had a few crystal-encrusted rocks as consumable items to initiate warps, but we ultimately felt like the items were a bit confusing and not unique enough from one another for players to easily determine which item would perform which kind of warp.

To replace the rocks and make the warp items easier to differentiate between, we thought it might be super cool to create a brand new consumable that features a butterfly wing (or two, depending on which warp item you find) encased within a shard of brilliant crystal.

Here's a look at the butterfly wing Karena designed, followed by a peek at the progress she's made thus far on the outer crystal that will contain the wing itself.

If you tuned into our last issue of the Kristala dev blog, you may remember that our 3D Generalist, Nick, had been working on creating 3D versions of each of our six Anagativa clan crests.

The first crest Nick tackled this sprint was the Lyumina clan crest. The Lyuminans dwell on large, floating islands that hover amongst the tallest peaks and jagged crags of Ailur's sprawling, snow-capped mountain ranges.

The Lyuminans settled so high above sea level in order to be as close to the light of the sun and stars as possible. But why?

Every Lyumina craves the light; they harness its energy to use as a form of defense against their enemies—a necessity for them to be able to properly utilize the magic contained within their Sacred Kristal.

Here's a peek at the 2D concept for the Lyumina clan crest, followed by Nick's 3D rendition.

Up next for Nick? Creating the Keoza clan crest that features an intricate tribal design behind a heavy hammer and massive anvil.

The Keozans are island-dwelling creatures that utilize the hot magma of Ailur's active volcanoes to forge awe-inspiring weaponry and armor. Because of this, the Keozans are incredibly adept at blacksmithing and can craft awe-inspiring, intricate designs.

The hairless Sykomana are one of the most mysterious and unique clans of Anagativa. They're incredibly adept at mastering mental-based abilities—such as telepathy and telekinesis. Both quiet and secretive, the Sykomanans are truly talented in matters of the mind.

To properly represent their unique abilities, the Sykomana clan crest features a pair of clawed, Sykomanan paws cupping a swirling and intricate bundle of thought.

The sixth and final crest that Nick adapted into 3D form was the Tandara clan crest.

The tundra-dwelling Tandarans live amongst the snowy landscapes of Ailur and expertly wield a weather-based magic. Because of the icy, harsh conditions of their clan lands, the Tandarans are especially skilled hunters and fishers that utilize antler and bone from their prey to strengthen and bless their weapons and armor.

Here's a look at Nick's interpretation of the Tandara crest, which features several antler-adorned blades piercing a solid chunk of ice.

With all six crests now completed, Nick was able to move on to a few 3D pieces that will replace some of the demo level's existing models.

One such piece is the revised model for our Kristal Checkpoints. These places of rest not only allow players to save their game and level up, but they also play a key role in how our warp system works.

You can learn more about our warp system and how it functions in the programming section of today's issue, but for now, have a look at Nick's updated model for the Kristal Checkpoint.

Another crucial piece to our demo overhaul is creating and placing a bunch of trees to highlight the dense, desolate, overgrown feel of the Dalamase swamp level.

With concepts Harold created as his guide, Nick took on the challenge of modeling out six unique, moss-covered boughs for this exact purpose.

Just wait until you see how our Level Design team has strategically sized and placed these throughout the demo to really drive home the thick, swampy vibe.

Remember the concept of the Treehouse Clearing level area we shared earlier in today's issue? Our 3D Generalist, Joe, spent a majority of this sprint modeling out the truly gargantuan tree and house that serve as the centerpiece for this concept.

After creating a low-poly mesh for the tree, however, Joe started to worry about how high the polycount for this piece would ultimately end up being.

Joe will continue working out how to best implement the leaves and branches without drastically increasing the polycount over the course of the next sprint, but here's a look at how the tree and accompanying house look so far.

What's a true Nisargan abode without a few comfy, cozy floor pillows?

This sprint, our 3D modeling Intern, Iuliia, created a few pillow models that can be used to decorate the floors, couches, chairs, and beds found throughout our Nisargan level areas.

We absolutely love how colorful and bright these pieces are; they definitely properly represent the aesthetic of our peaceful, hippie-like Nisargans.

In March, we welcomed our friend Shelly back to the ACS team. Shelly is an incredibly talented modeler and texture artist who's extremely skilled at creating realistic and lifelike props, foliage, and furniture.

As her first task upon her return, we asked Shelly to create a couple brilliant blooms and fungi to help populate our new and improved Dalamase swamp level area.

Next, we tasked Shelly with creating and texturing a new version of our Lantern Tree based on the concept provided by our art team.

After playing around with a few different shapes for the poison-resist fruits that bloom amongst the branches of the beautiful Lantern Tree, we finally settled on a version that we think properly conveys the beauty and majesty of this stunning structure.

With flowers and foliage out of the way, Shelly's next task was to create a few props and pieces of furniture that can be used throughout our Nisargan level areas.

We really love the attention to detail Shelly includes in all her pieces—like the rust, moss, and mildew you can see throughout the textured models below.

To round out this sprint, Shelly wrapped things up by creating several versions of colorful, glowing crystal structures that we'll be able to use not just in our Nisargan level areas, but throughout the entirety of the game too.

Stay tuned to the Kristala dev blog and the ACS Games social channels to learn how you can gain access to detailed, in-depth walkthroughs about how each of our modelers creates his/her pieces and expertly textures and paints each one.

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Level Design

With so many new concepts and 3D models created this sprint, our level design team now truly has a lot to work with to properly convey the dark and ominous vibe we're going for with Kristala.

While it's certainly true that redoing an entire demo level is no easy task, our Lead Level Designer, Tiffany, is the perfect gal for the job. To begin, Tiff started this sprint by creating a custom material for our Dalamase swamp's base.

Next, Tiff officially commenced the overhaul by honing in on the first Kristal Checkpoint area featured in the demo and re-laying everything out to match the concept Harold created for this environment.

Once the base was completed, Tiff then went through and started placing the new models for our swamp trees, foliage, and Kristal checkpoint before going back through to finetune and detail the scene.

Next, Tiff played around with the scene's lighting and added some fog, foliage, grass, and vines to the Kristal Checkpoint area.

She then added some wind to the ferns, fixed an issue with the sky sphere, prepared a walkway shortcut that leads to another level area featured in the demo, and prepped the entire area for level streaming.

We really love how dark and dreary this new version of the level is turning out. Stay tuned to future issues of the Kristala dev blog to see how this scene progresses even further.

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Programming

In March, we welcomed two new team members, Andy and Julian, to our Programming team. Both gentlemen are well-versed in working with Unreal Engine 4, and we were super excited to get them into the Kristala build to have them work their magic.

As part of the overhaul we've been talking about throughout this issue, we wanted to specifically address the behaviors of all the game's enemies to make them more formidable foes all around.

New Gameplay Programmer Andy volunteered for this sizeable task, and we can't wait to hear what you think about the new moves all these baddies now have.

Here's a look at some of the improvements Andy's already made to our Kota Soldier, Gilsanka, Twigativa, and Dalakin enemies.

With the improvements made to our Kota Soldier enemy in particular, we then asked Andy if he could look into programming the functionality for a Gunner version of these ratty baddies—a shooter enemy mechanic we'd struggled to properly implement in the past.

Luckily for us, this task was a piece of cake for Andy, who was finally able to get this additional Kota Soldier to actually fire its weapon...which means we can now add this enemy into the demo. Check it out!

Since implementing the Gunner Soldier proved to be an easy task for Andy, we then asked him to look into improving the functionality of the spider enemies that will be featured in the Kristala demo.

In addition to how the spider itself attacks, we also wanted to set up a few of the spiders to be able to omit a poisonous gas that would cause area-of-effect damage to unsuspecting players.

Although Andy is still working on making these enemies behave exactly how we'd like them to, here's a look at one of the poisonous spider enemies in action.

To round out this sprint, Andy worked on improving the behavior of the last minor enemy that will be featured in the Kristala demo—a lanky, lurid Leech enemy that surprisingly packs quite a punch.

If you're interested in getting a peek into the entire process Andy went through to troubleshoot, implement, and improve each one of these Kristala baddies, stay tuned for details on how you can become a Patron and help support our dev journey.

With Andy hard at work on all our creepy crawlies, our second new Gameplay Programmer, Julian, focused in on addressing a few existing bugs we were experiencing in the demo.

In addition to implementing a fix for an issue we were having with pickups not behaving properly when interacted with in-game, Julian was also able to address an annoying bug that was preventing spell-cast functionality from working properly in the tutorial section.

As part of the fix to the latter issue, Julian made it so that players can finally cast magic and block with a shield using the same button control. Now the new remapped button (R-click) can be used to both cast a spell and block when a shield is equipped.

After working on the dual cast-block issue, Julian then shifted focus to work on improving the functionality for our super cool Hydro Tornado spell.

This spell is meant to immediately target an enemy you're locked onto when casted. Stay tuned to see how this incantation improves even further.

Even though all of Julian's work that we just showed off was super helpful in making Kristala the game it's meant to be, there was another issue he addressed this sprint that was, without doubt, one of the biggest programming wins for the month of March.

For the past few weeks, we've been incredibly stumped as to why our quickstep dodge mechanics weren't properly working...which is probably one of the most frustrating (and tragic) issues you can experience in a game that's meant to feature quick, crushing, and fast-paced combat.

After much confusion and frustration, Julian worked his own form of magic and finally figured out what the root of the dodging issue was. Because of his expertise, we now have the proper dodge mechanics in place that will make bashin' on baddies suuuper fun.

Say it with us, y'all: HALLE-FRICKIN'-LUJAH!

With our two newest Gameplay Programmers well on their way to mastering their respective areas of focus, our third Gameplay Programmer, Rodrigo, was free to take a deep-dive into how to properly establish and implement our quick-travel warp system.

In short, the Kristal Checkpoints you'll see throughout the entirety of Kristala are not just for saving your progress and leveling up. They also serve as various locations to which you can quick-travel during gameplay.

Here's a nice, detailed walkthrough video Rodrigo recorded and shared with our team that better explains exactly what this system is and how it works.

In addition to quick-traveling from one Kristal Checkpoint to another, players will also have the ability to warp back to a recently visited Checkpoint using a specific consumable item.

We already showed off the idea and design for this particular consumable item in this issue's 3D Environmental Modeling section, but below is a look at how this item-warp would actually work in game.

If you're interested in taking an even deeper dive into our programming team's general wizardry, stay tuned to future issues for an announcement about where you can get more detailed and comprehensive versions of each installment of the Kristala dev blog.

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Rigging / Animation

Although our Studio Founder and Game Producer, Allie, was super busy this past month with welcoming and onboarding a ton of new folks to the Kristala team, she still had time to address a few important, ongoing dev tasks.

First, Allie kicked things off by checking the textures for our mid-grade Kota Soldier variant in Unreal Engine as she preps each of the three variants for rigging and animation.

Next, Allie addressed an on ongoing issue that seemed to be unexplainably creating strange separations within the skinning on the model for our female main character.

After a bit of inspection, Allie realized that the issue appeared to stem from a few skin weights that were affecting a single joint on the character's waist.

After much frustration (and several strings of four-letter expletives), Allie was able to pinpoint the problem and adjust the weight so that the model's torso remained in tact when bent.

If you're interested in checking out a detailed breakdown of this issue and a step-by-step walkthrough on how Allie fixed it, stay tuned for details about our Patreon and how you can get exclusive access into our entire rigging and animation process.

Speaking of the model for our updated player character, the last dev task Allie was able to squeeze in this sprint was adjusting the eyelids on the model and applying their new textures that our Lead Character Modeler, Pete, created.

All that's left now for this badass kitty warrior is applying animations and getting her into UE4 so she can start kicking some Kota booty.

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Events - Kristala Featured at IWOCon 2020

We recently had the pleasure of exhibiting a special convention build of Kristala at the first annual IWOCon, hosted by the incredible folks over at Indie World Order.

The convention was unlike any other virtual con we've attended or exhibited at in the past, because IWOCon was lovingly designed to be a game itself. Available for download from Steam, the app allows you to sail the high indie seas as a swashbucklin', parrot-wearin' pirate.

Hop in your ship and sail to various islands within the app that house all the booths for the 200+ indie titles that were featured at the convention.

The week-long IWOCon celebration featured tons of engaging and informative talks hosted by a motley crew of talented indie developers, skilled industry professionals, popular indie streamers, and wonderful IWO creators.

We can't wait for next year's event, and we're so incredibly thankful to the entire Indie World Order team for all the hard work, passion, and love they put into this event. If you didn't get a chance to check out the IWOCon app during the event, it's still available for download via Steam, so be sure to check it out, mateys!

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Sound Design

Music is an important piece of the Kristala puzzle. Not only does it help set the mood and provide some background noise, but it also serves as an important storytelling device.

Because of this, we've been working incredibly hard to ensure the original soundtrack for our 3D dark fantasy action RPG is packed with harrowing tracks and magical songs that really allow players to feel something.

You can get a peek at some of the tracks that will be featured on the original soundtrack for Kristala on our official Kristala Soundcloud page.

All songs are composed by our incredibly talented resident musical wizard, AdLibPiano.

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Kristala Bloopers Corner

Here's a look at some of our favorite game dev bloopers we captured over the course of the last sprint. Let us know which clip made you laugh the most. For us, that silly spider definitely takes the cake.

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Thanks for tuning in to another installment of the Kristala Game Dev Blog. If you've been enjoying our monthly development updates, we wanna hear about it!

Register for a site account and leave us a comment, or join our Discord community to chat directly with the members of our dev team and stay up-to-date on all things Kristala. You can also follow our dev journey on social media via the links below.

Until next time, thank you for your continued support...and thanks for stopping by.

-The ACS Games Dev Team