If it isn’t gold, it isn’t good!

The smoothest part of the development cycle for Eternal Warlords: Arena so far has been the building of the art assets. Design began in October 2006 and the rendered frames of the animation were complete by January 2007. I attribute this primarily to the skill and work ethic of the contractor. As a first time art director, I had a clear vision of what I wanted visually, but I lacked the technical knowledge. This became apparent when we started integrating the animations into the game.
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I spent a good chunk of time listening to various interpretations of death screams and sword clashes in my hunt for sound effects. As with anything “free,” the quality varies. Samples range from fairly professional to obvious recordings of other sound effects.

Sound is a highly subjective medium. It often requires a visual context in order for a group of people to associate the sound with the same source. Even when accompanied by descriptive text, there were some sounds that didn’t reflect what I expected to hear.

This led me to a minor epiphany. Continue reading →

A unit’s secondary attributes include Level and Cost. The level of a unit is a general gauge of its power. The higher the level, the more powerful the unit.

A unit’s level also helps determine how much experience the player gains when they destroy that unit in an Arena battle. The difference in levels between the destroyed unit and the unit that deals the killing blow acts as a multiplier. If the killing unit is lower in level, the player earns more experience points. If it is greater, the player earns less. No experience is earned if a unit destroys another that is 3 or more levels lower than itself. Continue reading →

There are two additional primary attributes for each unit: Area and Fatigue. Area is the area of effect a unit’s attack has. Fatigue is the number of rounds a unit must “rest” after attacking before it can be activated again.

The secondary attributes include race, level, cost and size. Eternal Warlord: Arena units are either Medium or Large. Medium units occupy a single square, while Large units occupy four squares (2×2) and count as two units. A unit’s level governs its attribute bonuses and cost. Players cannot command units whose level is greater than the player’s Warlord level. Continue reading →