We bring you all the latest news on Sword Of Symphony, Stephen Ddungu’s solo project. An action RPG title with a musical heart. Stay with us to discover them
Dear readers, we return to update you on the solo-dev project, Sword of Symphony. For those who have not read the previous article in this regard, you can easily retrieve it here. Sword of Symphony is still in development and its Dev, Stephen Ddungu, keeps the bar straight on all deadlines.
So let’s see where it is and what’s new…
Animating the first cutscene…
Animate the first movie
The animation of the first cutscene will lead directly into the tutorial section of the game. In this creative process, the first NPCs of the game were also created. Their design and their aesthetics mainly recall the London (the birthplace/hometown of the Dev) of the XVIII – XIX century. This also follows for the whole part of the musical symbolism, which by adapting to the historical period makes everything more organic and coherent.
The Dev’s premise: “My plan for the animation in the first cutscene is one of my most musically creative ideas for this game. It will show first hand one of the many roles that music has, in relation to the lore of the game.” – gives us hope.
From what we’ve learned, the ending of the first intro cutscene is set in the same area as the environment for the first level takes place. An element of comfort for the player and a possibility of parallel development for the Dev. Which therefore made a necessity to model the environment for the cutscene an opportunity to forge in detail also the entire mission route for the first level in detail.
Also, the ending animation for the intro cutscene was a milestone not to miss. The texturing and post-processing will happen at a later stage. The main purpose of performing this activity is to create a loading screen (which will be this cutscene) to smoothly transition to the tutorial section of the game. Since the events in the cutscene and tutorial section occur consecutively.
The management of 3D modeling
Coming to such an important point in the evolutionary phase of the video game; means delegating some tasks. It is inevitable and understandable. Indeed, the solo-dev speaking of the modeling of the environment for the mission path of the first level, says that it won’t be done all by himself, but by some additional 3D modelers that he has personally selected.
However, there are still many tasks that will be performed by the Dev, such as:
- Animation
- Game development
- VFX
- Character modeling
- Music composition
And many others for which Stephen Ddungu, strongly wishes to maintain his precise artistic vision, such as: texturing, the artistic style of the environments, the composition of the music, the writing and ‘part‘ of the modeling of the environment.
All the tasks that can be done in the background (mainly modeling the environment and NPCs at the moment), it was decided to delegate their execution, significantly speeding up a huge part of the game development process.
More tasks could be delegated if deemed necessary but for now this is the winning formula adopted by Stephen Ddungu.
1st level environment almost finished…
Opening applications for more 3D environment modelers, it has been possible to accelerate the creation of game environments so far. “Currently we’ve almost finished doing the environment in the first level in just 2 weeks!” – comments the Dev. His hope that by the end of Sword Of Symphony, is to assemble a reliable team of 3D environment modelers. Potentially also other specialists who he’ll be able to also commission for his future projects. Projects such as: Purpose : EIGENGRAU, Purpose: VERSA & VERSUS, Sword Of Symphony II (yes, you read that right and we hope so too!). “After what we’ve been able to achieve in just two weeks, this feels more and more likely to be a reality. I’m looking forward to further enlisting their assistance as this game’s development continues; so far, I couldn’t have asked for better people!”– concludes Stephen
Writing music for the tutorial level…
The first task done for the tutorial level: music. “Since Sword Of Symphony is a music-driven game, it’s important that this comes first, as the music will control the pace and action of the gameplay. It’s been a while since I’ve been actively composing music for this game, so now I can finally do what I do best! ”. – that’s what the solo-dev says
Due to the fact the tutorial begins right after the intro cutscene, the music must be made for that too and treat the music for it and the tutorial section as if it’s one track.
We are at the end of this update on the musical world of Sword of Symphony. No doubt, it continues to amaze us from month to month. Surely, we crave for more news on the development of Sword of Symphony! So, stay with us because we are sure that there will be much more to discover. As always, comment and let us know what you think.
Good Game everybody!
