Update #48: The Village By The Castle

Hi everyone! It's been a while since we shared the new environment and I've been going back and forth with the team on the topic matter. Thank you for the all feedback as always.

Although the environments we shared are work-in-progress, they are roughly 80% complete. This is the kind of look and feel the final product will have. We would not share a half-baked progress for backers to give feedback, so to brush off the concerns with, “It’s still an unfinished piece” is unnecessary. If you have a concern and have an idea that may rectify the problem, we are open to suggestions. However, IGA and the team are fully aware of their preferences and when it comes to balancing the visual graphics and the overall gameplay, they will decide where to push and pull on the quality. I’m going to share what we’ve been discussing and the changes that are planned.


Missing Features

Before I get into the changes, there are certain features that are missing in the village screenshot and video we shared. One is the breakable candles. As you can see in the beginning of the area, there’s a space on the top left corner where the candle should be. I believe it wasn’t included due to some adjustments that didn’t make it in time. The candles act as a partial light sources if you take that into consideration. Another is the reflection capture. The reflection capture, as it may be obvious from the name, reflects light sources on a given surface. This gives the nice reflective light on the ground and adds metallic or wet look to certain areas. This enhances the overall look, but for some reason, the roofs blinded us with glittery gold effect and we had to put it off until it was tweaked. Other missing features include enemies and NPCs, but our purpose is to only share the new environment on its own.


Visual vs. Gameplay

There’s been a long debate on which to prioritize – the visual graphics or the gameplay. As much as we would like to balance both equally, sometimes improving one aspect could hinder the other. For example, almost all Castlevania games have bright foregrounds which are shades lighter than the backgrounds – Platforms are easily visible and has a classic Castlevania look. On the other hand, this could look very artificial and ruin the atmospheric vibe of the game – “stage/indoor” look, light source is unnatural, and unrealistic. We’ll need to choose and decide what we all agree on in terms of both visibility and aesthetics.


Changes

• Roof platforms will be emphasized differently. They will look more horizontal and flatter where Miriam will land. Thickness will be added to the edge so that it will not look like she is landing on a piece of paper.
  
• Doors, carts, bricks on the houses will change colors – We all agreed that they were too blended in. Textures may be overly used.
  
• The moon sun will look more like a sun.

Unfortunately, the house structures are too expensive to change at this process (Thanks Tom Happ for chiming in on the KS comment section!). I suggested making the tree leaves greener and it actually helped lessen the attention to the boxy feel.
Another suggestion was to remove the red reflection on the ground.

I may be forgetting something but I'll pop up again if I have anything to add. Cheers 

I knew that was supposed to be the sun! The update specifically mentioned the afternoon, and IGA had previously talked about the sun in an early interview when he mentioned the volcano. I only went with it being the moon because it's so big and seems to have a texture to it. That makes the odd colors work so much better. That lighting would be sureal in real life, and people are trying to see normal where it's not intended.

Thanks a lot Mana for all the feedback you proved us. I have something to comment about it, not much, but i will add it here:

ABOUT "WORK-IN-PROGRESS"

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Although the environments we shared are work-in-progress, they are roughly 80% complete. This is the kind of look and feel the final product will have.

I'm honestly perfectly fine with it. Considering the videos we had so far, the demo and specially, the screenshots from IGN, the game looks gorgeous for a 2.5D game. Of course, not everything will look perfect and somethings needs to be fixed (that was a sun!? i really couldn't guess it was), but in my humble opinion, if the game look like this for the final product, personally, i have no complains.

ABOUT MISSING FEATURES

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The lack of light from candles and the lack of reflection capture can sure make a huge difference on the final look. We can see that on the screenshots provided by the IGN. Most of them have light sources and look really nice.

VISUAL VS GAMEPLAY

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I said that before, countless times. Sometimes, producers need to choose between improving visuals or gameplay due to technical or financial reasons. I'm ALWAYS for gameplay, no matter what. 

CLOSING COMMENTS

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I wanna close this comment with the already overused screenshots from the IGN interview last year, to prove my point. Those screenshots already have candles and light sources, and it looks like a 100% finished product. If the game will look like THIS, i'm honestly satisfied.

sweet, thanks mana, i actually like the claustrophobic feel of the village and the closeness of the houses cause it emulates the tightness and odd architecture that old english villages can have, excited to see it after the little tweaks yall make ^_^/

Hopefully you give it another chance when you see updates of it in the future. If anything else, you have helped the developers doing a vision of their own, something many of us are grateful for.

Things like these can't be awesome to everyone. Thats the sad truth, but I thank you for the backing, and for the time you spent on letting us know how you feel. I am not a developer, but very in love with the project as is. Its a matter of personal taste and we should respect that.

If you indeed give this another chance, let us know. We like everyone. Even << goofball!

Yup. Cause they're not doing aaaaanymore polishing. None. Finished product, right here.

Snide comments aside, I honestly think this game looks great. For the first 2.5D game in IGA's career, (I believe, the rest have only been 2D or 3D) I think it looks pretty damn rad. And they put a lot of work into it; even going as far as to push the release date to 2018. (So they can perfect it) So I think it's foolish to make judgements quite yet. Especially since concept art is 2 dimension, and that the finished product transitions to 2.5D.

EDIT: Some remakes have been 2.5 D, so it isn't the first game in his career.

Just that its 2D plattforming with action and puzzles involved with a sense of progression and exploring with different difficulties makes me wanna play it. Knowing IGA is behind it with his style is the reason I am following the project. While doing so, hopefully getting some digital friends too

Classic Mode is pixeled, right? Dunno about the prequal though.. Pixels too?

Moo, criticisms such as yours are important for us to hear. It sucks when someone "calls your baby ugly", so I understand some of the reactions from being so blunt can stir up. You felt it was important enough to share your opinion with us though, and I can appreciate that. Please tell me this, though: What were the reasons you backed Bloodstained? Also, would you mind telling us how much money you pledged?

Shades of the Diablo III color controversy... ah, some things never change.