Hi everyone! It's been quite a while since I updated anything on here. What with the pandemic and general life things I just haven't gotten around to posting any updates. I do however post quite regularly on my dev twitter (https://twitter.com/samw_writing, go check it out!). That being said, I will try and post updates on here at least once a month to provide updates on my solo project "Ellandour" as well as anything else I feel is relevant to share! Now that that's out of the way, let's get on with things!
"Ellandour. A rich and most bountiful land filled with all manner of insects and arachnids, spanning across rolling hills, freezing glaciers, mist shrouded forests and scorching volcanoes. All watched over by the Trees of the First Seeds - five giant trees believed to have once been the founders of Ellandour, the First Seeds, and worshiped by the masses. "Ellandour" follows the tale of Alakyrr, a young grasshopper and his journey to prevent a catastrophe at the hands of the Order of Resurrection; a sinister cult with visions of resurrecting the First Seeds to reshape the world in their image."
Before I get into it, if you want to catch up on Ellandour's history and have a peek at some of the locals you'll be visiting, you can download "Ellandour: A Guide to Our Most Bountiful Land" from the Projects section!
When initially concepting "Ellandour" I had originally decided it would be a 2D side scrolling action RPG, in a similar vein to "Elliot Quest" and was planning to work in Unity to make the game. As things went on, I had created and animated the three main characters, Alakyrr, Sanni and Juk, and was ready to start working in engine when I discovered something that completely change the course of things.
About a month or so ago I was looking through some pixel art tutorial son YouTube and stumbled across a video showcasing a piece of software called "GB Studios". It was free and allowed you to make Game Boy and Game Boy Colour games and actually export them as ROM files to play on a real physical Game Boy (provided you had the correct kit). My mind was blown. The original Pokémon games and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Seasons games are some of my favourite games for the systems and I knew immediately that this was what I wanted to make "Ellandour in. Unfortunately that meant going back to the drawing board and remaking and animating the sprites I had already done to fit within the Game Boy limitations (minimal colours, restrictions of sprite and pixels etc).
It might seem strange to go backwards almost. I can do so much more with Unity and put so much more detail into the project, but honestly seeing what other people have done with GB Studios I knew I could create something incredible with it. So Ellandour went back to the drawing board and re-emerged as a top down J-RPG style game. A lot of extra work, yes, but with this new software and new ideas swirling around I was more than ready to get started.
And that pretty much brings you up to speed! I've been working on lots of art work for the game and some programming along with documentation and writing and the demo is currently under construction! It's going well but it's still a long ways from being finished. Below I'll post some WIPs so you can see how my progress is going but for now thank you for sticking around and I hope you look forward to hearing more about Ellandour soon!
Sam
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