Thorvalla Kickstarter Campaign Update #5, $37,300 and Counting

Guido Henkel and Neal Hallford’s Thorvalla Kickstarter has received a new update concerning the graphical approach and the engine choice for the title. As it turns out, this is yet another project going for Unity, aiming for a 2.5d look with 3d characters and monsters and pre-rendered environments:

Instead, Thorvalla will be implemented as a 2.5D hybrid. Backgrounds will be pre-rendered and polished by the artists in an isometric view to make sure we can add a high level of detail to these graphics. Characters and monsters will then be layered on top of these backgrounds as 3D models. While perhaps not as perfectly crafted and polished as 2D sprites, the benefits of this approach are undeniable.

Animation data are small by comparison and as a result of this approach we can have large amounts of individual and customized animations for these creatures without the need to create tens of thousands of bitmapped sprites that blow up the footprint of the game, cost a fortune to create and will be hard on the required memory specs.

In addition, this approach allows us to easily customize characters something that is, while not impossible, inherently difficult and costly using sprites. Not only can we give the player more freedom to create his dream characters this way, but it will also allow us to show changes in armor, clothing and even damage. So, overall it is clearly the better approach and I am saying this not because I have been overruled by the team, but because after careful evaluation of both the technical specs and the implementations, I do feel that it is the approach that gives us the flexibility we need while maintaining a high level of visual quality.