Hellenica Party Intros: Scylax, the Wandering Magian Part 2!

We're finally wrapping up Hellenica's party intros with some of Scylax's unlockable skills!

Before jumping in, there are only five days left until Hellenica is released! Hop on over to Steam and wishlist us if you haven't already.

Alright, so last time we introduced Scylax, one of Hellenica's magic users. (Check out Part 1!) Today I'll tease a couple of his other skills, starting with Fire Wave.

Fire Wave is great for close quarters, especially when you can group up some enemies using your other party members' pushes and tosses.

Once Scylax has powered up his Intensity, Fire Wave becomes even more powerful.

The empowered version of Fire Wave shoots out a line of flames in four directions, dealing a massive amount of damage if you're able to position Scylax just right.

The next skill, and some of our testers' personal favorites, is called Fire Blast.

Fire Blast combines Scylax's affinity for area damage with the joys of tossing characters. Also, he can use it on himself or party members for a classical take on the rocket jump:

When empowered, Fire Blast deals more damage and launches targets even farther, which can be very useful on boats and other tight levels with a lot of verticality.

Just be careful you don't knock your own party members off the edge!

Friday I'll be putting together a post on combat in Hellenica in general since our turn structure is somewhat unique. Check back then!

And let your friends know Hellenica is launching Monday!

Hellenica Party Intros: Scylax, the Wandering Magian

Hellenica launches in one week! Tell your friends on Twitter and wishlist the game on Steam!

And since it's Monday, here's the next character intro: Scylax, the Wandering Magian! Scylax is an expert swordsman traveling the world on a quest to find the True Fire.

His adventures have brought him experience, wisdom, and even a powerful weapon, but if you've ever played any role-playing games, you already knew that.

All of Scylax's skills, including his basic sword attack, deal Magic damage, which is doubly effective against Heavy defense types.

In addition to his sword, he also controls powerful fire magic thanks to his training as a Magian. Cauterize is a starting skill that can be used to damage an enemy or heal an ally at range.

Anytime Scylax uses one of his skills he gains a level of Intensity, his passive skill. These are represented by tiny flames hovering around him.

Once he reaches level three, his flames will turn blue, and his next skill will be empowered. An empowered skill is much stronger than the normal version, often dealing more damage, affecting a larger area, or even having a new unique effect.

An empowered cauterize, for example, has its damage and healing scaled up two-fold, and it affects an area instead of a single target!

There are few things sweeter than a 5-target blue cauterize.

On Wednesday I'll show off some of Scylax's unlockable skills and their blue-flame variants. Come back then! (Part 2 is now live!)

Also, please help spread the word about Hellenica's launch! Here's our launch trailer for easy linking:

Hellenica Party Intros: Brasidas, the Exiled Spartan Part 2

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you've got a fun weekend planned. I, of course, will be playing Hellenica, as usual. ;)

Today we're wrapping up Brasidas' party intro with two of his unlockable skills: Iron Vanguard and Tribute to Ares! Go ahead and catch up on Part 1 if you haven't already. Really, I'll wait.

First up, Iron Vanguard. Brasidas is able to channel his extensive Spartan training and create a makeshift vanguard all on his own. When used, four Iron Spartans will spawn in the spaces adjacent to Brasidas until the end of the enemy turn.

Iron Vanguard is perfect for blocking off a chokepoint or walling in an ally on the brink of death. And, since it's Hellenica, you can push and toss any of the Iron Spartans around the level for some great bounce damage.

Next is Tribute to Ares. Brasidas is unique in that he can unlock a number of passive abilities to aid both himself and his allies. Tribute summons down a totem on each recently defeated enemy's space at the end of the player's turn. These totems will persist for the remainder of the fight and grant an attack bonus to any ally that moves onto that space.

This is great for longer fights that are centered in a particular area, as the bonus damage can really add up over the course of a fight.

Whew! That's three party members down. Next I'll be introducing Scylax, the Wandering Magian, so check back Monday.

Also, please check out our Steam page to wishlist Hellenica and visit our Twitter and share our announcements with your friends. Thanks!

Hellenica Party Intros: Brasidas, the Exiled Spartan

Just twelve days until Hellenica's launch, which means we're prepping our togas and olive wreaths for the celebration. Help support our launch by wishlisting us on our Steam page and retweeting our updates on Twitter!

It's wednesday, which means it's time for the next party member introduction. Meet Brasidas, an exiled Spartan on a quest to prove his innocence and redeem his honor.

Brasidas is a veteran Spartan warrior, which means he knows how to handle himself on the battlefield. Accustomed to fighting alongside his armored brethren, he excels in a tight vanguard of his allies.

Brasidas has a unique passive skill called Protector that allows him to split any damage received by an adjacent ally. Since Brasidas has the Heavy defense type, his share of the damage will also be reduced by half.

This is a great way to keep squishy allies in the fight when they are threatened, but be wary of area of effect attacks that might be used against you!

His basic attack is a spear jab, which differs from other melee attacks in that it can strike diagonally or pierce up to two spaces in a straight line.

His final starting skill is called Shield Bash. This hybrid offensive and defensive skill deals moderate damage and pushes the target one space. It also applies a one-turn debuff that reduces the target's damage by half.

Like all repositioning skills in Hellenica, if Shield Bash is used on an ally, no damage or debuff will be applied. This means it's safe to use on your allies strategically without any penalties.

Friday I'll show off some of Brasidas' unlockable skills so check back then! (Part 2 is up!) And remember to check us out on Steam and Twitter!

Hellenica Party Intros: Nephele, the theomechanist Part 2

It's still Monday in a few places, and that means the next part of our party intros series is due!

Last time I introduced Nephele, our affable and outspoken theomechanist, and today I'd like to explain a couple of her unlockable skills.

Nephele is one of the major damage dealers in your party, but sometimes you have to be clever to make the most of her talents.

For example, here's her skill Sky Shot. When used, Nephele will fire a volley of arrows up into the air that will do a ton of damage upon landing. So what's the catch?

The catch is that the arrows won't hit their targets until the end of the player's next turn! So, you need to plan ahead and target an area you think enemies will be standing in the future. Of course, you can also make use of any repositioning skills your other party members have to setup the shot.

The other skill I wanted to reveal is called Power Shot. Most of Nephele's abilities deal Physical damage, which means any enemies with the Heavy defense type will take reduced damage. Power Shot deals piercing damage that ignores this penalty, and it also hits all enemies in a line.

If you're able to shove some enemies around, this line shot can be super effective.

Each of these skills costs some steam pressure to use, so tracking that resource is central to utilizing Nephele effectively.

Wednesday I'll introduce our third party member, Brasidas! He's another completely different character altogether, so check back!

Also, if you haven't already, please visit our Steam page and wishlist the game! Sharing these blog posts and retweeting us on Twitter also helps immensely. Thank you!

Hellenica Party Intros: Diona, the Arktos

It's finally January, and that means Hellenica is launching very soon. If you haven't already hopped over to our steam page, do so and wishlist it! We'd really appreciate your support.

In celebration of the upcoming launch, I'm going to be posting introductions to the party members you'll meet in Hellenica. I'll have a new one up every MWF leading up to our launch on January 23rd, so check back often!

First up is our main protagonist, Diona. She's been with us from the very beginning, but she's gone through some serious changes as the game's developed.

Diona is a disciple of Artemis, goddess of the hunt, and as such has been granted the ability to transform into a bear for short durations.

I'll give you a moment to let that sink in.

So how does that work mechanically?

At the start of combat, Diona will transform into a bear. She'll remain in this form for three turns (player and enemy), granting a large boost to her health and movement range. She'll also gain access to a new set of skills that allow her to focus on disrupting and manipulating enemies (or allies!).

One skill you can unlock is called Beardozer. Once unlocked, Diona can charge in a straight line up to five spaces, tossing anything in her way behind her. Enemies, allies, barrels, anything.

Not only is this a good way to cover a lot of distance, it also lets you set up a cluster of enemies for an AoE attack or a line of enemies for a long bounce chain. Beardozing as your first action in a turn means the rest of your party can take advantage of the new positions of up to six characters.

Here's a two-step sequence I set up with Diona and Nephele that exploits a chokepoint to deal a ton of bounce damage:

After three turns Diona will revert to her human form, which enables a completely different set of skills.

Check back on Wednesday for part two where I'll go into the different ways you can outfit Diona's human form to play a support role or a damage role. (Part 2 is here!)

And don't forget to add Hellenica to your wishlist to support us! Thanks!

Monday Update #6 - Gameplay iteration and a new character reveal

Howdy folks. Aside from some technical difficulties this week, I've been busy designing and iterating gameplay lately, tweaking hero abilities, level layouts, and enemy stats. Once these are all feeling good, I can be confident about moving forward with final combat art assets, and then we can ship this thing!

Now that we're getting closer to the finish line, we finally moved forward with a couple of the remaining character portraits we required. I don't feel too bad spoiling this one, as he shows up very early on in the game.

This is Sisyphus, one of the early big baddies you'll encounter throughout the world of Hellenica.

For the unacquainted, Sisyphus was a dastardly king sentenced to eternal torment by the gods for his deceitful, sometimes disgusting deeds. As punishment, Sisyphus was required to push a boulder up an impossible slope, endlessly stuck in a loop as the boulder always rolled back down before reaching the summit.

In Hellenica, Sisyphus has found a way to finally crest his impossible obstacle thanks to some supernatural assistance. However, his curse is not entirely broken, as he is still eternally burdened with the remains of the boulder.

In typical villain fashion, he has converted the source of his torment into a weapon, which he will happily use to defeat your party if they get in his way. Coupled with some new supernatural powers related to his curiously transformed legs, he is a force to be reckoned with.

The original sketch YDY put together was pretty spot on. The hair and face communicated the frenzied craze that we expected of someone previously mired in eternal, divine torment. His brute strength developed over years of continuous labor was obvious. His supernatural aspects are tricky to talk about in detail here without spoiling the story, but we were shooting for a craggy, ancient forest vibe. I think it works pretty well.

After some tweaks to the chains, we moved on to coloring. The first pass was good, but we felt there wasn't enough contrast between the leather bands and the boulder. Switching over to the green of the cloth also reduced some complexity which we thought helped to tie things together.

Let us know what you think of Sisyphus in the comments!

Hellenica Characters: Anaxagoras

It's been a while since we revealed any new characters here on the devlog, and with Christmas coming up soon, I thought it only appropriate to introduce you to our very own Santa look-alike, Anaxagoras!

Anaxagoras is an inventor who has been at the forefront of the Greek industrial revolution for years. Our main goals in portraying him were to communicate his friendly, helpful nature and to echo the visual aesthetic that we had developed for Nephele, our other character strongly related to steam technology. Our basic approach included:

• create a friendly facial expression and a non-threatening physique
• add lots of tools and tool pockets
• use brass gears and adornments
• pick colors that match Nephele's outfit to further establish the image of the ancient Greek steam engineer

This first sketch was already quite close, but there were a few small details we wanted to revise. The pocket on the stomach felt impractical and probably uncomfortable. We also felt the device on his wrist was a bit too modern for Hellenica's time frame.

This new version looked great, so we moved on to coloring.

We wanted Anaxagoras to look right at home in the workshop, which meant using browns and oranges that blended in well with the metallic tones found there. We had already achieved a similar look with Nephele, so her palette served as a great starting point.

After that, it was just up to our partners over at YDY-CG to finish up the coloring of the sketch and add in the final details (wristband colors and pouch ornaments). As always, they did a great job executing on our direction, and we're super happy with how he turned out.

Happy holidays everyone!

Hellenica Characters: Reworking Diona, Nephele, and Nyx

Now that we've wrapped up most of our character portraits for Hellenica, we had some time to go back and revise some of our earliest characters. We realized that the first pieces we worked on with our previous artists didn't quite match up with the style we established with our current artist. Ack! Who will save us now?!

Oh, I guess our current artist. Probably.

So, we had her do a little touch-up work. Here's a process shot of how our characters were transformed:

Nephele and Nyx were fairly straightforward. We shrunk their heads and eyes down a bit to be closer to the mostly realistic character proportions of our other characters. In Nephele's case, we had to make her nose and mouth a little more well-defined as well.

For Diona, we made similar adjustments to her facial features, but in the end we just weren't happy with the way the pose was working out. During her conversations in game, she looked unbalanced and a bit awkward. So, starting again from the sketch stage we put together something more natural. We already had a great color scheme worked out, so it was a little easier than completely starting from scratch.

And that's that! As on the internet, photoshop can fix any problem. What do you think? We're hopeful that once players get into the game they'll never even know that these three characters were originally done by a different artist!

Hellenica Characters: Oracle at Delphi

No Greek epic is complete without a proper visit to the Oracle at Delphi, and we've remained faithful to tradition in Hellenica. Of course, whether you visit Delphi is ultimately up to you, but hey, if you insult Apollo by skipping over his temple on your journey, that's on you.

It was said that the Delphic Oracle was effectively the highest authority in ancient Greece. Men dominated most aspects of life, but when you needed divine advice on political controversy, military conflict, economic turmoil, even relationship issues, you asked the Oracle at Delphi.

For our version of the Oracle, we started from a fun theory about the source of the Oracle's inspiration: the volcanic fumes in her chamber! The gods work in mysterious ways.

Compared to our other characters, we wanted to set the stage for the Oracle a bit more thoroughly. She's seated up high to play up the drama of the scene, and a steam-powered pump is chugging away to feed her inspiration straight from the source. Unfortunately, we weren't really feeling the jazz hands, and the tubing looked a little too F-15 fighter pilot, so we took another go at it.

With those issues ironed out, we spent a bit of time figuring out what colors worked best for her. We originally went down the route you see on the left, but quickly realized she matched all of our Spartan characters. Who she hangs out with on the weekends is her own business, but for our purposes, we needed to avoid any possible confusion. The colored eyes were also starting to weird us out at this point, so we did some more experimenting.

And that, dear readers, is how the Oracle at Delphi (in Hellenica) came to be!

So, what will you ask her?

Hellenica Characters: Xenophon

Last week I introduced you to Brasidas, the refined product of militaristic Sparta. This week, I'm introducing Xenophon from nearby Athens, who's much more scholar than soldier.

Xenophon still has some tough lessons to learn about combat, but until then, we wanted to make sure his enthusiasm for war shines through. He comes over-prepared for any encounter with his bag of scrolls and manuscripts detailing the tactics of his idols, and even a scytale!

To take it even further, we opted to replace his spear with his helmet and yet another bag of reference materials, as if he's just grabbed his things in a rush to make it out to the battlefield.

At this point, we were still trying to figure out the right facial expression for Xenophon. We wanted him to look enthusiastic and hopeful, not cocksure, so to that end we tried to round out the eyes and eyebrows and open up the smile a bit.

  

In parallel with the search for the right face, YDY cleaned up the image and worked out the colors. The traditional colors for Greek soldiers were white and a dark, royal blue. We thought the first rev strayed a bit too far from the source material. We've also been trying to stick to natural hair colors, so we had to nix the blue hair.

The other detail we had to work on was the shield. While we technically used the iconic Athena owl image at first, we just didn't think it looked great on his shield. We asked our artist to tie in the Greek colors and try out their own take on the owl, and I think the result speaks for itself!

Let us know what you think!

Hellenica Characters: Brasidas

"You could have me outnumbered twenty to one and I would still have the advantage."

Spoken like a true Spartan!

This week we're revealing Brasidas, an elite Spartan soldier who embodies his city-state's ideals of bravery, honor, pragmatism, martial prowess, and rigid adherence to authority. He also happens to be the butt of most of Diona's jokes. No one ever said being Spartan was easy!

We wanted Brasidas to come off as a fairly typical Spartan warrior, at least until you get to know him better. Also, while much of the world of Hellenica has been transformed by the ongoing steam-powered revolution, Sparta's mostly stuck to its traditions. To that end, we set out to design "The Spartan Warrior", with some welcome touches from YDY to fit it into our aesthetic. Here's the first stab at it:

Well, I certainly wouldn't want to start a fight with him.

Brasidas is one of our strong male leads, and this initial attempt satisfied that need pretty well for us. There were just a couple things we had to fix up:
 - That iconic horsehair crest atop his helmet was actually reserved for officers or generals. Brasidas is just your average soldier, so that had to go.
 - While Brasidas has seen his fair share of battles, we didn't want his armor to look too shoddy. The cracks and wear in his legguards needed to be reined in.
 - We thought his legs could stand (ha) to be a big more muscular.

Looking good. We wanted to go after the iconic Spartan red for his cape, and for his armor, we stuck to the metals we know they had back then: iron, brass, and copper. Here's the first rough color:

I can't tell you how nice it is to work with artists that can get this close on the first try! Actually, it's my blog post, so I guess I can. (It's really nice.)

Our only qualm here was that the armor looked a bit more golden than we had wanted. As I mentioned before, we complete our portraits in batches, which gave us the ability to look at all of our Spartan characters and standardize their armor across the board. Awesome!

Here's Brasidas with his new set donned:

As always, once we're happy with how things are looking, the guys at YDY do a final pass for lighting and atmospherics. Here's the final image we'll be using in-game:

We're really happy with how Brasidas turned out. He adds some nice diversity to our cast, so I'm jazzed that he's finally making his appearance in the game.

'Til next time!