Make sure you tune into listen to The Voices of Terminus stream on March 5 at 6 PM EST to listen to their interview with Pantheon developers Tod Curtis and Ben "Kilsin" Walters. You never know what new details will emerge from these interview so they are well worth listening to!
Updated: March 07, 2018
Bazgrim posted a great writeup summary of the show. You can head over the the Official Pantheon Forums to find it HERE
Bazgrim scored a chance to interview Visionary Realms' Senior Game Designer Corey "Ceythos" LeFever. It's a great interview and well worth checking out!
As always, hearing about the thought and effort which these guys put into the game is inspiring.
February's Newsletter is live and ready for your viewing pleasure! Lead Game Designer and Creative Director; Chris "Joppa" Perkins provides us with the latest State of the Game.
It's amazing that a year has passed since I wrote the last State of the Game - and like I said then, so much has happened in the last 12 months! As Oni of Thronefast will tell you, there is an Ocirican proverb that says, "The heart is trained by the ear…
The big news for many is that Pre-Alpha has officially begun. The Pre-Alpha players have been spending their time running around, leveling up, questing and most importantly, testing in the human capital zone of Thronefast.
The Elves of Terminus also get a thorough discussion by the team which delves deeply into the creative design decisions behind the elusive race, their cultural icons and teases us with mention of the mountainous Elven city of Faerthale!
Faerthale. I have dreamt more about that city than any of the other nine, and working through the environmental art has only made me more excited. I don't hope it only pleases me, I hope Faerthale is an intimate and iconic home for many, many people for a very long time. I hope the effort to consider details big and small creates a place that everyone can cherish, no matter how little of the story they care to know.
If Faerthale speaks for itself, we've done our job of telling.
I am once again blown away the intense focus on detail from this amazing group of talented designers. You can tell that these guys love what they do and are driven to make this the best game out there. I can't wait to see what next month's newsletter reveals!
A great stream was posted to YouTube which takes us into a city under development. We get to view the massive city gates and also get the view the process which was used to build them.. from the initial concept art, through various refinement stages to the final full render. I'm constantly amazed to see how this is done and how no small detail is missed. 'll probably spend months of time just looking at small little details when the game is released!
Also fascinating was getting a glimpse "under the kimono". Inside of the massive city of Thronefast, we can see many buildings as well as what are placeholders of sorts through a process called "grey boxing". This is where in-game structures are roughed in using flat grey surfaces. This really helps the world builders calculate and adjust the scale of the different structures in relation to the other in game items like buildings, walls, decorative objects, etc. Once again, watching the time and effort which the team is putting into budding this world is simply amazing.
Another great video to watch which gives us all a great look behind the scenes of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is The Technical Art of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. We start out in a wooded area where lighting and clip plane adjustments are covered. Next it's to the top of a tall tower near the human city of Thronefast. This allows a demonstration of the view distance and procedural cloud effects. Next it's time to head to the ground at an arch near the tower to learn more about the processes involved in adding details to objects (grunge, moss, etc) and tools created to help cut down on 'grunt' work. Now it's time to head near a lake to see how lighting, shadow distance and rendering works (using custom shadow programing helps improve performance). Why just look at the lake when you can go for a swim right? Custom coding on water and effects (sub-surface scattering) really look great (and this is in the early stages).
Now it's time to hit some cool looking ruins with mist, background sounds and awesome looking skeletons on patrol! This demonstrates one of the environmental effects called 'gloom'. To wrap up the tour, a visit to a dungeon which was visited a while ago. The team showed off the significant lighting and environmental improvements made to an area around a bridge.
Takeaways from the video:
It's the start of the new year and what better way to start it than with a new monthly newsletter?
First up is a review of 2017 (and what a great year it has been!)
2017 marked many milestones for us, not the least of which was the start of the long awaited Pre-Alpha testing phase. We also had our first live gameplay demonstration at TwitchCon, increased our number of live streams with our friend CohhCarnage, closed our Series A funding, expanded our team and reached increased levels of exposure thanks to many opportunities and the never ending support of our fans.
Key members of the team weigh in on what they felt were high points of 2017 around Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen's development.
.. there are a handful of "I will never forget this" moments that come to mind - my favorite would have to be the memory of watching the first players log in to the first session of Pre Alpha testing and begin to scatter all over Thronefast. -Chris Perkins
Something near and dear to my heart was revealed by Benjamin Dean.
20 years ago, in 1997, GDC was held at the Long Beach Convention Center. It was at that GDC that EverQuest was first shown publicly. Brad recounted the story to me on how they suspected they had a good game but it was only at GDC when they *knew* they had something special, based on fan reaction.
How appropriate that 20 years later, at the same venue, Pantheon makes its public debut. And the reaction was more than we had hoped for. It was a real thrill!
There's so much more to read about Pantheon in 2017! Make sure you check it out! Also, the newsletter went into depth around harvesting (something critical for crafting). I fondly remember sitting on the docks in Freeport fishing (who knew so many rusty daggers and old sandals were in that water?!)
When it comes to interacting with harvesting nodes, all players will have access to 5 skills they can raise through use;
- Fishing
- Gathering
- Mining
- Skinning
- Woodcutting
