{"id":1801,"date":"2012-04-24T14:32:58","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T13:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/positech.co.uk\/cliffsblog\/?p=1801"},"modified":"2012-04-24T14:32:58","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T13:32:58","slug":"explaining-a-valley-without-wind-what-the-heck-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.positech.co.uk\/cliffsblog\/2012\/04\/24\/explaining-a-valley-without-wind-what-the-heck-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Explaining “A Valley Without Wind.” What The Heck Is It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Guest Blog Post by Chris Park<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Just what is this game “A Valley Without Wind<\/a>” from indie studio Arcen Games all about?\u00a0 Read on to find out.<\/p>\n

Procedural World Filled With Choice And Customization<\/strong>
\nAt first glance it looks like your average 2D Metroidvania title, just with magic instead of guns.\u00a0 The difference is choice: except for a brief linear intro mission, this is all a procedural open world.<\/p>\n

Rather than linear levels, the emphasis here is on tactical combat and strategic planning.\u00a0 The overlord is strong, you’re weak, and you need to figure out how to fix that and go kick his or her butt.\u00a0 In a lot of respects the mentality is that of a strategy game (makes sense given our past games, eh?), but rather than it being an army of characters you control, it’s just one character at a time.<\/p>\n

The amount of customization is pretty crazy.\u00a0 There are “only” something like 40 spells you can directly craft at the moment, but there are also passive enchant buffs that you can apply to yourself.\u00a0 Enchants change anything from how you move; to how your spells behave; to how you light your way, or if you can breathe underwater, etc.\u00a0 Enchants are procedurally generated like loot in Borderlands or Diablo, and there are a few hundred thousand unique combinations possible at this point.\u00a0 Various items can be scavenged out in the world, too, such as magic scrolls to turn yourself into a bat, heatsuits that make lava easier to deal with, and so on.\u00a0 Figuring out how to best customize your character to match your skills as a gamer is one of the cooler aspects of the game.<\/p>\n

The Community Vs The Self, Permadeath, And Thinking Outside The Box<\/strong>
\nWhen you choose your first character, the game warns you not to get too attached.\u00a0 It’s not a question of IF your character is going to die, but WHEN.\u00a0 Upon death, the character is gone forever — and most of the time, a vengeful ghost arises from their corpse and makes the area you died in even harder.\u00a0 So, uh, tactical retreats aren’t just for the faint of heart in this game.<\/p>\n

It’s not like permadeath in a roguelike, though, where the mechanics are overtly punitive — we’re not out to punish the player.\u00a0 When you die you get to choose a new character immediately, and you keep all your inventory, enchants, and general progress in the game.\u00a0 There are some minor character-specific things that are lost, but it’s nothing remotely heart-breaking.<\/p>\n

We’ve also tried to emphasize choice with “community focus versus focus on self.”\u00a0 There’s a lot more that we want to do in that area in the future, but what is there is pretty nifty already.\u00a0 You can rescue NPCs and construct buildings for them, and in return those NPCs can help you out via long-range magic scrolls, for instance.<\/p>\n

I really love games where players get an opportunity to show their cleverness, rather than just jumping through a set of hoops the developer set out.\u00a0 In your average Metroidvania title, each challenge has one solution (see red door in Metroid = shoot with missiles), and that can be really fun in its own right.\u00a0 But in AVWW each challenge tends to have four or five solutions (at least), each with their own pros and cons.\u00a0 If you play as a bat you don’t have to worry about jumping, but you also deal less damage, get blown about by the wind more, and can’t go into lava or ice age areas.\u00a0 And so on.<\/p>\n

I like to tell the story of this one player who, during the beta, made essentially a melee fighter using the spell Death Touch and some jump-related and defense-related enchants; he managed to kill an overlord with this build, and I was blown away that this was even possible.\u00a0 It took a lot of sideways thinking to make the build in the first place, and then a lot of skill to bring down an overlord using that build.\u00a0 That’s what I mean by encouraging players to show their own cleverness (as well as skill).<\/p>\n