Digit Game Studios
Yearly Archives: 2013
Aura Kingdom DevBlog 5: The Residents of Azuria
Welcome back, future Envoys!
We believe that a great fantasy experience hinges on an endless supply of wondrous creatures. This week, our focus is on the various species of NPCs—both friend and foe—that you’ll encounter as your adventure in Azuria unfolds. Check out this look at a few representatives of the races in Aura Kingdom!

Humans
Time and again, humans have proven themselves the most curious and innovative people in Terra. With an eye for art as well as functionality, Humans strive to make their clothes, tools, even their weapons things of beauty. The Church in the city of Navea is the central seat of power in Terra, dispatching its Templars to protect the smaller outlying towns.
Notable Human: Shadow Knight
Though this mysterious armor-clad warrior has only appeared in recent times, he has quickly become one of the most feared beings in all of Terra. The Shadow Knight’s motives are unclear for now, but players will uncover them as they work to undo the damage that his nefarious plots have caused across the land.
Makar
There is no prouder race than the feline Makar of Ventos Prairie, and with good reason. They are physically imposing and value honor above all. They view all outsiders with a measure of suspicion until they can adequately prove their worth. The few who are fortunate enough to count the Makar as allies, however, will find their unshakable loyalty and fortitude invaluable.
Notable Makar: Odum
Odum used to be a prince of the Makar tribe, but has been exiled by the king. However, many Makar believe Odum to be the rightful heir to the throne, and that his exile may be a cruel plot by the king and his two other sons. By helping Odum challenge his brothers and reclaim his rightful place in the Makar tribe, the player will gain a valuable ally.
Centaurs
The reclusive Centaurs are a mysterious bunch that people generally try to avoid. These brutal warriors tend to inhabit the ruins and wastelands that have been abandoned by the other races, and are as unpredictable as they are tenacious. In your journeys as an Envoy of Gaia, you will be one of the few people to actively encounter Centaurs—here’s hoping that you survive.
Notable Centaur: Vhell
Recently, a group of centaurs left their home at the East City Ruins to occupy the Dwarven battle arena. They have placed Vhell, a powerful sentinel, on the road to the arena to prevent anyone from entering.
We’re just getting started this week though! Be sure to drop by MMOHuts and OnRPG tomorrow for our biggest DevBlog reveal yet!
Nether Online First Look
By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor)
It is no real secret that survival sandbox games have been really popular lately, and have been bringing new forms of innovation to the normally stagnant shooting genre. There is a new kid in town, and its name is Nether. As a fanatic for anything in the survival sandbox genre, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Nether to see what new innovations would burst from the shadows. Unfortunately things haven’t gone so smoothly over the last few weeks in the public beta phase.
Nether is a first person urban survival game and, as said on their website, offers unique features to the genre. This is a bold statement coming from a game so heavily inspired by its successors, but let’s sum up these features real quick. Nether is about mutants. Some will see them as aliens, and some will see them as zombies, but the Nether are basically mutated humans that hunt you as their prey. These Nether are quite a bit more imposing than your average stumbling zombie hordes than what we have seen before, but unique? I would say no. The game itself currently does not offer any other unique features and thus we are off to a good start.
Let’s talk some more about the Nether, because after all the whole game spins around them. There are a lot of different types of Nether, and each one of these species has its own abilities that will scare the hell out of you. Most of these Nether have teleporting capabilities; they will teleport around you in an attempt to surprise and scare you from every direction and angle. I had a few good encounters that made me jump out of my seat. Needless to say it’s rough outside of the safe regions when you don’t have an extra pair of eyes watching your back. If there are Nether in your area, you might want to turn around and find a different path, because these dangerous predators will come and say hello as soon as they see you. Just watch out as their hearing is far superior to their eyesight, and one wrong step can be enough to ring the dinner bell for the hordes.
As such the primary goal of survival is simple enough. You’re among the last survivors in a Chicago-inspired city of ruin. The setting has a feeling that the Nether are nothing new, as nature has already begun to reclaim major sections of town, causing the urban setting to resemble Will Smith’s I am Legend landscape. While surviving is always your primary goal, scavenging food and protection plays a close second in lasting from day to day. In the lower right corner is a concise piece of UI informing you of all you need to know: ammo, sprinting stamina, health, and hunger are all accounted for. Currently the water and food meter are combined as one, and this is something I would rather see separated as water should be a much scarcer and more valuable resource for gameplay reasons.
From what I have seen in the limited area we beta tester get to play, the world itself is a major compliment of Nether. It’s massive and if the mini-map is to be believed, we haven’t seen anything yet. Unfortunately since this is a beta, we are only limited to a couple blocks, and we can only stare into the distance to the land that has not been opened yet. And this is where I honestly ran into my first problem with Nether. I believe Nether is one of those games that should’ve stayed in the alpha phase for a tad longer, and this can be seen in the actual game world itself. The vegetation isn’t really great looking, and the world itself can use some patching up. Some textures like smoke aren’t finished yet, and as a result the smoke will look fake as it sits stationary in mid-air.
The inside of most buildings are completely empty, and there seems to be more junk than actual furniture or other props. It seems like the people took all their furniture while trying to flee the country. The world itself looks empty and full at the same time; you will see many blocks that simply look copy and pasted, which was not a great sign considering they had already limited our travel to so few blocks. Unfortunately your character’s movement animations were also a bit lacking. Various and commonly occurring bugs with movement can result in your character seeming like they are walking in a suit of iron, rockets and jetpack not included. Everything looks and works like it could use an update, and I honestly believe the launch itself was rushed for some odd reason. Unfortunately game studios tend to forget that the first glance of a product is more important than the actual outcome of the game, and I think most people that have either seen footage, or played it had honestly expected more of this game. It all feels a little wonky and clunky.
Just like we have seen in other survival open world games, Nether’s community ended up breaking down into a big deathmatch with each man killing indiscriminately for sport. It’s a real shame because there are a couple features that encourage playing together with your friends and complete strangers. In Nether players will find outposts, or safe zones that can be attacked by waves of Nether. These places are not a safe haven at all, and you will definitely have to watch out when passing one or trying to enter one. The Nether are also a lot stronger than I had expected and can be an insurmountable threat when you find yourself exploring with no ammo left. Despite this there is some real dedication from Phosphor Games to include a variety of melee weapons that exist more as a method to keep the Nether at bay while your backup fires away safely behind you. Unfortunately when you are soloing nearly everything, these tools’ silent nature isn’t enough to balance how useless they are against one or two dangerous mutants.
Conclusion
From what I have seen, Nether suffers from a combination of lacking features and unpolished gameplay. Nether has a lot of potential to be a really good game, and I personally am a big fan of the environment. The urban environment’s awesome spooky atmosphere is its saving grace as well as a beacon of hope that better days are still to come. Currently there isn’t that much to explore or do. Even though a lot of buildings are open to explore, the majority serve no purpose and feel more like an oddly designed empty parking garage than apartment complexes. From what I currently have seen, I must admit that I am a bit disappointed, and that makes me come back to the fact I have already mentioned, the game simply went open to the public too fast. I hope they are able to shape this up into a really fun game, because it definitely has the potential to get far in this industry.
We’ll follow up with Nether before long and see how the title has improved as we believe Phosphor Games can recover from this rocky launch with a bit of funding.
Shotgun News 11/18: LOTRO, Red Blood, Yulgang Online, and More!
LOTRO Delays Helm’s Deep Launch
Turbine has temporarily delayed the launch of LOTRO’s Helm’s Deep expansion after suffering a power outage at its data center. As of now all servers are up and operational and more news on Helm’s Deep is expected later today.
Games-Masters.com to Publish Red Blood in Europe
A deal has been announced to launch Red Blood in Europe with German and English language clients. The MMORPG is developed by Korean company Gorilla Banana. It is set to launch in the summer of 2014.
Luvinia World Donating to Philippine Red Cross
For three weeks Luvinia World will donate the proceeds from the sale of three items to the Philippine Red Cross to help with recovery efforts after Typhoon Haiyan. The items, Protectors Knapsack, Refined Precious Stone Gift Box, and Ashes of Void Crystal x1000 are available now.
Yulgang Online Beta Registration Begins
Games-Masters.com has announced that beta registration for Yulgang Online has begun. Anyone who registers on the official site will receive an exclusive Founder package.
Kingdom Under Fire II Gameplay Trailer G-Star 2013
Kingdom Under Fire II showcases its interesting hybrid between RTS elements and action combat.
Kingdom Under Fire II G-Star 2013 Trailer
Blueside presents a dazzling new trailer for Kingdom Under Fire II at G-Star 2013.
Tree of Savior Online Gameplay Trailer G-Star 2013
IMC Games reveals its first gameplay for Tree of Savior Online at this year’s G-Star.
Alteil Horizons Alpha Preview
Alteil Horizons is yet another game franchise that has been saved and commandeered by a devoted staff of developers, and put up on Kickstarter for the community to look after. As of this article, the funding for the project is over their initial goals; there’s clearly a demand for digital, online card-trading strategy games. Many of the artists and devs working on Alteil are industry vets that have been involved in titles as ranged and varied as Final Fantasy Tactics, Star Ocean, Zelda, and Valkyrie Profile.
Though it’s fairly common knowledge now, for those that aren’t familiar, Kickstarter is a unique website that was set up to allow consumers to directly fund projects they believe in. It’s a method of direct investment that limits the involvement of middle-men and publishers (Electronic Arts, for example). Since its inception it has been wildly popular and instrumental in acquiring funding for a number of inventions, games, and media projects that would have otherwise never been taken on by traditional investors. In short, Kickstarter is a kind of absolute investment democracy, and is changing the way many people think about funding projects and ideas.
The setting of Alteil Horizons takes place in a world called Lavato, and like Magic: The Gathering, it has various card types that have benefits to working with one another. One of the more interesting aspects of the game is that a player’s deck is not shuffled and drawn from at random, but instead players are allowed to pick and choose from their deck to play cards as needed, lending more skill than chance to the way the game is played and victory decided. There is a heavy emphasis on cards that utilize conditional effects, such as Lycanthropes that become stronger at night, as well as cards that synergize through buffing themselves and other cards of the same type on the field.
Combat is turn-based, naturally, and lanes of enemies operate on two opposed grids of three-by-three. This allows players to form orderly regiments of units, with melee at the front, and ranged units further back. When I played it in alpha, it seemed like a solid system, and I especially enjoyed the colorful art on the cards. Though the preview was too brief for me to really plumb the depths of the game’s systems, it seems that the core gameplay is rock-solid, and knows exactly what genre it’s in. The introduction of soul cards, which occupy a space to the left side of the battlefield, apparently allow players (called Iczers, in this setting) to use specialized attacks or spells against the enemy, as well as abilities to buff their own units.
The primary issues I saw in the alpha (which will no doubt be corrected) were horrendous typos and text glitches in the dialogue. But given that this game was originally Japanese and is still in the earliest stages of development, that can obviously be forgiven. The real question that has to be asked is whether or not the world needs another digital trading-card game. Obviously there’s a fan-following for this particular game, or it wouldn’t be funded. But whatever happened to actually physically trading cards? The rainforest is no doubt grateful for alleviating the paper demand through continual digitization of these types of things, but nothing really beats the feel of physically holding your precious cards in your hand. This point might be lost on the latest generation of gamers, but older gamers remember a time not too long ago when cards weren’t vulnerable to system hiccups and solar flares.
Not that your trading cards would be much use in the collapse of society that would follow a solar flare, but still. It’s important to have a sense of permanence to the things you own. This article has become sidetracked. Moving on!
Regardless of your opinion on whether or not trading cards should be digital or physical, Alteil Horizon certainly shows a great deal of competence with its solid core gameplay and smooth aesthetic design. Their donation rewards seem generous, and on the kickstarter page it looks like they’re awarding actual boxes of cards. I tried to find out whether or not they’re awarding real cards in boxes for donating large amounts, but the search came up inconclusive. It certainly would be neat, but also would require them to invest a great deal in manufacturing them. There might be something to this only-digital business, after-all. At the end of the day, rewards or no, Alteil Horizons is a solid title with ambitions to put up permanent servers for advanced matchmaking and PVP. These things aren’t cheap, so fans of Japanese pop art, turn-based strategy, and socializing over our era’s equivalent of competitive chess, really shouldn’t pass up the chance to help fund this project and get involved. At the very least, we should all be pleased we live in an age that allows consumers to vote with their wallets so easily.
To catch the alpha test in action, be sure to catch JamesBl0nde’s video preview of the game and catch more info on the official kickstarter page, still active at this time.
Tagspeech is the alias of author W.B. Wemyss, who was responsible for the bizarre cyberpunk fever dream called Children of Athena.
Spark Rising Trailer #2
If the concept of Minecraft + Star Wars Battlefront 2 sounds like “Hell Yeah!” then check out Spark Rising from Wicked Loot.
Spark Rising
Spark Rising is a third-person strategy game with gameplay elements inspired by the Galactic Conquest mode of Star Wars Battlefront 2. Build fortresses, creatures, ships, and more, and then send them off into a three-way battle. Play co-op in any of the game’s three game modes: Creative, Campaign, and Conquest. Jump into exo-suits, each equipped with unique class-based abilities. Better yet, you can import your creations from Minecraft or Qubicle for a truly unique, player-driven experience.
















