Mooncrest Combat Primer Part #1, Art Q&As

Since the last time we checked, the developers at KnightMayor have prepared three new development updates for their action-RPG Mooncrest, for which they are preparing a second Kickstarter campaign after the first unsuccessful one.

The most recent update is the first part of an image-laden combat primer that’s meant to give us an idea of what the developers are shooting for. Stamina management will be a key part of the combat system, according to it:

The foundation of Mooncrest’s combat is its stamina system. Actions such as attacking, evading, running, and activating abilities all put a strain on your stamina bar by either reducing it in chunks or draining it over time. Conversely, it will regenerate at a fixed pace when you aren’t engaged in those activities.

While each attack and ability has a specific cost, it is entirely possible to spend more stamina for an action than you currently have in reserve. This results in a stamina debt which will delay the regeneration of the bar. The greater the debt, the greater the delay.

This ebb and flow of resources creates a combat environment in which you need to carefully and quickly measure the cost of your actions rather than mindlessly hacking away at your targets. If you run out stamina, you won’t be able to defend yourself when the opponent strikes back. That bar is your lifeline; monitor it well!

The other two updates include a Q&A with concept artist Raph Lomotan:

What made you interested in working on Mooncrest?

I am a big fan of fantasy RPG games, majority of the games I played when I was still a kid are of this genre. Mooncrest is the second RPG game I’ve worked on and it is an honor to work alongside crazy talented artists and experienced developers.

…

Where do you draw inspiration from for your art?

I really like reading sci-fi and fantasy novels, especially the ones written by great authors like Michael Crichton, J.R.R. Tolkien and even J. K. Rowling. Their stories really inspire me to do art because you have the freedom to picture the worlds they created using only words and you have the freedom to interpret it into something visual and that’s a wonderful thing to do. I also love reading Marvel and DC comic books so whenever I create characters they’re partly based on my favorite action heroes.

And one with art director Jeffrey Visgaitis:

What is your vision for the art style of Mooncrest?

I’m not interested in making Mooncrest photorealistic, but it does embrace a more realistic style resembling Shadows of Mordor or Guild Wars 2. There is also a slightly stylized look to the setting. The reason for this is to bridge the gap between realistic areas like of the city of Mooncrest and otherworldly areas like the various dimensions. I wanted a style that was appropriate for portraying both extremes without appearing visually jarring to players.

While Mooncrest eschews hand painted textures and features a more realistic look, we are being careful to avoid making another drab looking world. I’ve played countless games that feature an endless palette of browns and grays which are not only depressing, but boring to look at. Color is an extremely useful tool to help set the mood of a scene and communicate emotion. Games like Journey, Destiny, and Fire Watch not only look great, but they do an amazing job of imparting emotion into their environments through the use of color. I’m leaning heavily on color and games and comics that use it well to help make the environments in Mooncrest vibrant and more visually appealing.

What are your inspirations for Mooncrest?

I love Game of Thrones and there are so many bad ass female characters in the series to draw inspiration from for our two protagonists like Daenerys Targaryen, Brienne of Tarth, Ygritte, and Arya Stark to name just a few. Outside of the characters, I like how the show carefully introduced people to the setting so they weren’t overwhelmed. It started as more of a period piece and gradually added more to the mythos as the series went on. Now we have dragons, flaming swords, people rising from the dead, blood magic, wraiths, giants, ice zombies, etc. Even with all of these fantastic elements the series is grounded in realism which is important as it makes the world more believable.

From the pen-and-paper side of things I’m inspired by classic D&D settings like Planescape and Greyhawk. There are multiple dimensions that players will get to explore in Mooncrest and nothing serves as a better model for dimension hopping than Planescape. As for Greyhawk, I always preferred it over Forgotten Realms. I’m a big Realms fan, don’t get me wrong, but there are so many super powerful NPCs walking around like Drizzt and Elminster and magic is too prominent for my tastes. Living in the Realms is akin to running end game content in World of Warcraft and I prefer things a bit more down to earth and gritty. Greyhawk is better than the Realms in that regard.