Something Classic Games

Hi all, this week I’m going to talk about a subject near and dear to our gaming heart: airships. No retro RPG is complete without an airship – and since we here at Something Classic Games take great pride in milking jRPG tropes for all their worth, we just had to have an airship in Shadows of Adam! And so it was done.

The airship is acquired later in the game (as airships often are) and carries some plot significance. Without giving away too much, the airship itself serves as a minor dungeon and the place of some key plot events. But since good prevails over evil, the airship changes hands and becomes the heroes’ to wield for the final part of the game. From that point on, the world and its sidequests become your oyster.

The airship isn’t just a mere vessel for travel, however. No siree! Much like the classic Final Fantasy games, you can go inside of the airship and explore it while you’re flying. How does the airship continue on its course without a pilot? How does our hero know how to fly an advanced military aircraft only used by the elites of a notoriously bloodthirsty kingdom? Who knows!

When pressing the menu button while flying the airship, you are taken to the deck. Originally, we used a stock RPG Maker 2000 sky background to remind us of the good ol’ days. But we have standards here at Something Classic, so we put some of our budget towards this sweet sky background. The clouds even scroll! Madness, I tell ya.

While walking through the airship’s interior, you’ll have a rare opportunity to talk to your party members one on one. You’ll get a brief glimpse of their thoughts and feelings of the events that have unfolded so far while building the strength to finish the final ordeal that lies ahead.

Being a military grade aircraft, the airship comes with some lovely amenities. Don’t worry, you’ve earned them if you’ve made it this far!

The airship includes a full set of shops, complete with high level weapons, armor, and some lovely healing items that’ll be needing for the upcoming dungeon. And what’s more, the shopkeepers are former comedic-relief antagonists who have joined the side of good to peddle their wares.

And last but not least, the final area of the airship features a set of beds befitting the weary band of heroes on the go. And the best part? They’re free! No more pesky innkeepers once you have the airship… a good night’s sleep and a full HP’s restoration is available absolutely free of charge. It’s almost too good to be true, I tell ya!

Well there you have it, a glimpse at the airship in Shadows of Adam. We really wanted to capture our favorite aspects of older RPGs and I feel like we knocked the airship out of the park! Now if we could only program in some Mode 7 scrolling…

Discuss on the forums: https://forums.shadowsofadam.com/threads/weekly-content-blog-41-updates-updates-and-more-updates.20/

We want to thank all of our backers once again for the incredible support! Running the Kickstarter campaign has been an incredibly humbling experience for all of us. Since the conclusion of our Kickstarter campaign, we have been working incredibly hard on the game. In this update, we are going to show off some screenshots, some GIFs and provide an overall progress report regarding the state of the game. This post will be media heavy, so I apologize in advance to those who may have a slower internet connection! Also, if you have not yet done so, come join us on our forums: https://forums.shadowsofadam.com/

Since our last update, how have we progressed?

The Story
From the start, we wanted Shadows of Adam to focus heavily on story and character development, with a central theme being a journey of self-discovery. We did not want to weave a tale filled with the clichés of old: “Our village was destroyed…” / “An ancient evil is awakening” / “Collect the crystals to save the world from doom!”. Instead, we wanted to share a story about how four unlikely friends (Or siblings, in Kellan and Asrael’s case :)) react to the changing world around them. Of course, we still have many tropes of games past, but we wanted the story of SoA to be something different from the norm. As development has progressed and the cut scenes that established the histories of these characters were developed and fleshed out, the player will develop a strong connection with these characters and will understand the motives that drive them, even if we do not explicitly state their motive. The story is definitely a strength, and we are very excited for everyone to experience it 🙂

New Enemies
When we released the SoA demo during our Kickstarter campaign, we received a significant amount of feedback regarding enemy weaknesses and strengths. Players wanted to see battles play out more like a puzzle, where certain enemies are more immune to some attacks but weaker to others. This was always our intention. The Wind Tower will definitely please those players who want to see enemies with a wider range of abilities. Since the conclusion of our Kickstarter campaign, we were working hard on developing more enemy varieties and giving them additional abilities. In the Wind Tower, you will encounter enemies that have full immunity to physical attacks as well as enemies which give immediate rebound damage. Some may even receive more than one action in a single round, overwhelming your defenses. Here are three screenshots showing off some of the new enemy sprites we have inside the Wind Tower.

Defend Command!
Another recurring request we have received was for a ‘Defend’ or a ‘Wait’ command. Due to the nature of our AP System, maybe you want to withhold an attack or action for a round in order to recover some valuable AP. We took the suggestions and had a great discussion in this thread: https://forums.shadowsofadam.com/threads/lengthy-demo-feedback-battle-ui-maps-and-a-bug.6/ and took it a step further. When you use a ‘Defend’ ability, you receive additional perks instead of the regular defense boost and AP% restore boost. In Misty Woods, there are enemies who would constantly counter your physical attacks. Well, go back to that area and use Kellan’s ‘Parry’ command and smack them right back with a counter! Click the thumbnails to see what each ‘Defend’ command does for each character.

Introducing Talon
We gave Talon a short character teaser back in Dev log #34, but we were mostly silent regarding the abilities Talon has in the game. All of Talon’s skills are called ‘Tricks’, with the offensive abilities based on chance. His signature move, the aptly named “Pick a Card” ability, has Talon shuffle a deck of cards and then flip one at random. Further, he possesses many defensive abilities that makes him a very difficult target to strike in battle.

Water Garden!
Legend says that before the Wraith War, the Water Garden was the most beautiful and wondrous location in the world. Today, the water garden is an overgrown ruin. Mechanically, the water garden is a very interesting location. The heroes have to drain pools of water to open new passageways, deal with ancient guardians, and manipulate an old Wraith War artifact to control pillars of water. It may be a ruin today, but it is still a pretty area to explore :).

Bonus Promotional Shots
The first continent in Shadows of Adam in 4k resolution!

The Water Garden in 4K resolution!

Report Card

Currently our artists are prioritizing art tasks for our backer Alpha Demo. This demo will provide gameplay up to the end of the Wind Tower and will be given to all backers. Once these art tasks are near complete, we will be sending off the surveys and allocating tasks to the artists to fulfill all in-game art requirements for backer rewards.

Currently all maps are designed and feature complete, sans backer specific rewards (Such as NPCs), with the exception of the final dungeon. Art tasks have been created for the final dungeon.

All in-game events have been implemented from the game script, with the exception of the final dungeon. The total event count is currently at 210; at the end of our Kickstarter campaign we had 130 events completed. We currently have 111 different level IDs; at the end of our Kickstarter we had 74 level IDs. Please note: These level IDs represent the amount of individual level files we have in the game. They do not represent ‘unique’ levels that can be explored.

Our 500 Point backer reward: a custom drawn desktop BG given to all backers is currently in production.

Our 1000 point backer reward: All Kickstarter backers will get an exclusive live orchestral recording of the Magma Sanctum song. We are working on this now and will get it sent out shortly.

Our 1200 point backer reward: a digital art book will be worked on once our backer alpha demo is sent out.

Finally, if you have not yet done so, feel free to register on our forums: https://forums.shadowsofadam.com/. All backers receive a special ribbon 🙂

Contact
If you would like to get in contact with us:
E-mail: info@somethingclassic.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomethingClassc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomethingClassicGames/
Forums: https://forums.shadowsofadam.com/

Woohoo! We did it! Thanks to all of you backers for this very impressive last hours surge! Of course we couldn’t have done it without you. We’ve got the charts to show it, and we’ve got the rewards to prove our thanks!

Now made available to all backers is the Shadows of Adam digital art book. Look, see, and learn about the art in Shadows of Adam as we give you a digital tour of its aesthetic. You’ll discover full-color concept art, progress shots, special write-ups and more in this Kickstarter exclusive reward.

Our next and final goal is at the 1500 mark. We believe you guys can unlock it! Below you can find out how.

Now that we are funded, getting greenlit on Steam is our highest priority!

Now we’d like to make mention of a new reward tier and a blow out sale.

Legendary Hero Reward Tier: Is now just $300. Which is a 33% savings from the original $450 price!

Do you have what it takes to be the best dungeon designer? Usurp the Wraith Lord and create a dungeon that will put players to the ultimate test. Your dungeon will be made available to every Kickstarter backer for free as DLC. The dungeon will be made available to non-backers for purchase. INCLUDES THE DESIGN A QUEST REWARD.

Finally, let’s wrap things up by giving a final shout out to some great projects that could use your help.

Dragons of Legends: If you’re a fan of beautiful pixel art and online play, this game is for you! The project recently failed its first campaign and immediately relaunched to great success! They still have a lot of time left in their campaign and could use your help to fully realize the game’s vision.

Feudal Wars: Are you a retro RTS fan? This game is a medieval realtime strategy game, styled after the great RTS titles of the 90s. The game will be free and easily accessible from the browser, with an emphasis on multiplayer and online community.

Knights and Bikes: Inspired by games like Earthbound and Secret of Mana and films such as The Goonies, Knights and Bikes looks to be an incredible ride through nostalgia lane. From developers on Tearaway, LittleBigPlanet, Ratchet & Clank, this is a product you can be sure to trust!

And that wraps things up. If you have yet to pledge, have been meaning to increase your pledge, need to see Shadows of Adam on Wii U, PSVita or want to take advantage of the new rewards and deals, now is your last chance!

Hey everyone,

We have officially entered the final 72 hours of our campaign and have hit 75% funding! We are feeling super pumped about getting this game fully funded and the last few days have seen a HUGE increase in pledges. Thanks to you all!

Thanks to your efforts you have unlocked the next surge reward!

The Magma Sanctum is one of the final dungeons of the game where the player must traverse timed heat rooms, jump over lava pools, and solve complex Wraith Orb puzzles.

When tasked with composing the music for this level, I knew I wanted the music to be earthy and have a tinge of anger to it. The element of fire brings to mind strong, visceral feelings. I felt the best way to capture this energy was in a 12/8 Afro Cuban rhythm (example here: https://www.google.com/search?q=12%2F8+afro+cuban&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8).

This piece features fiery brass stabs, an ethereal sitar melody, and a relentless afro Cuban rhythm played by the bass, piano and drums. Not being content having this tune only existing in the context of Shadows of Adam, I then adapted the tune for my 19 piece big band, The Tyler Mire Big Band. In fact, it was just this last Sunday that we went into the studio and recorded it!

Click to unlock your reward!

Some people were curious about the previous surge reward (alpha access up through the Wind Tower dungeon) and its availability. Once the Kickstarter campaign has ended we will focus on finalizing the alpha build and will make it available to all backers through a private link.

There are only 2 days left, but plenty more rewards to unlock! Here’s a reminder on how you can help fill the surge meter.

Don’t forget to vote YES for us on Steam Greenlight. We are very close to being greenlit, and would appreciate your help in these final hours!

Before we sign off we would like to point you guys to a very cute project in its own final hours. Wandersong is an adventurous little title where you walk around and interact with tons of unique and memorable characters through song and music. It has really colorful visuals and a fun, whimsical, style. It’s a beautiful title, and with your help it can sing for you songs of praise!

And that wraps things up for tonight. With just $5000 left to raise, we are confident that this game will be funded. But don’t be lulled into a sleep, there are only 2 days left! If you have yet to pledge, or have been meaning to increase your pledge now is the time to do it.