UR-Vile will continue to roam Voudland!

November 8, 2017November 8, 2017 Juha ValonenLeave a comment

Breaking News! Official approval to use UR-Vile in VOUDS – The Bloody Wars

UR-Vile is one of the main characters in VOUDS – The Bloody wars. Ur-viles are literal creations of the famous author Mr. Stephen Donaldson and appear in Donaldson’s classic science fiction novel series The Covenant Chronicles, for an example in Lord Foul’s Bane and The Runes of Earth. Ur-viles appear as monsters also in classic Rogue, a game behind the whole rogue-like genre.

Today we received a letter from Mr. Stephen Donaldson’s representatives who showed us green light for our request to use UR-vile in our game! We are very pleased to hear these great news and are truly grateful to Mr. Donaldson for his understanding in this matter.

UR-Vile’s sinister plans cannot be explained in detail – no spoilers here! But I can promise that he has a plot of his own which might intervene in Voudland’s King’s endeavors.

Following description is direct quote from Voudland lore:

“UR-Vile is sinister and mystical creature of whom very little is known about. There was a story told by a wandering rogue, which gave some light to his dark past. The rogue dropped a hint that UR-Vile might have escaped the maze of Yendor and could be one of Yendor’s creations, but in fact the matter might the opposite. UR-Vile might be even older than Yendor and might have something to do with the very existence of Dungeons of Doom. Very few have encountered him and lived to tell about it. UR-Vile is able to cast necromantic spells and has black flesh that no light can gleam off.”

King Frog Theme Song and Official Teaser Movie Release

October 25, 2017October 25, 2017 Juha ValonenLeave a comment

Official Teaser Movie Released and Some Afterthoughts of NGDC2017

I am proud to introduce the official VOUDS – The Bloody Wars Teaser Movie and The Theme Song: King Frog! The tune rocks like beast. Also introducing the dance moves of three of the main characters King Frog, King Wolf and King Moon. Just can’t beat those steps!

The Nordic Game Discovery Contest is now behind and it was a blast, literally. Pitching the game in short notice was almost unbearably exciting, but the audience responded well and we got lots of valuable feedback from the judges. But not all of it was that easy to reconcile one self to. It was quite a roast =D

The judges pointed out that our business model needed clarification, which was true and we have been working on that quite hard. VOUDS being a remake carries all of the design features of the past with it and it is not that easy to adopt the new microtransaction policies to it. One thing that got some of the judges quite upset was our planned target group of gamers. Of course we are planning to direct VOUDS to everybody but mainly to retro gamers who have warm feelings of the Amiga era. One particular notion kept on echoing in my head when a judge said that “It is pointless to target 40+ people since they are going to die soon!” Well, eventually we are all going to die, so why not die playing VOUDS – The Bloody Wars with a happy smile on Your face!

Our design philosophy has always been to make games that we love to play and to our point of view our games have to stand out for their own greatness, playability and entertaining values. We do not believe in designing games in order to maximize the profits. That said, a some reasonable compensation for our 25-year efforts is expected, but we try to keep the price tag low and offer a fair deal to gamers who love to play for the sake of playing.

Special thanks goes to John Romero. It was a great privilege to receive constructive feedback from him as well as from all the other judges too, but Romero kindly gave some suggestions for our release options. He also introduced us to Spiderweb Software which many of you may already know as being dedicated to making terrific games but also for their customer support and money-back guarantee. Maybe their approach would suit us too…

Other important notice considered the UI. One of the judges was clearly with us (thanks for the slogan: Play until You die), but he pointed out that text based buttons in UI were maybe a little too old school. This remark led to some very constructive discussion later between I and Make resulting a decision the make a TOTAL REWORK FOR THE WHOLE UI! We have now re-designed all of the UI buttons to work with icons instead of text. Also the whole graphic scheme has been changed to a some what more appealing and theme oriented look. Please take a look at the mockup below and decided if it is for the better. Any comments and feedback would be very welcome. Stay in touch!

Nordic Game Discovery Contest

October 3, 2017October 3, 2017 Juha ValonenLeave a comment

WE are happy (and also terrified) to announce that VOUDS: The Bloody Wars was selected as a heat finalist in Nordic Game Discovery Contest at the Northern Game Summit 2017. We will be presenting the game concept to a live audience 5 October at 11:20-12:20 – at the Bio Rex room at the venue (Kauppakatu 38, 87100 Kajaani). And now off to work with our keynote presentation… no hurry, just sheer PANIC!

VOUDS: The Bloody Wars – new animation, screenshots and a game play movie

September 27, 2017November 14, 2017 Juha ValonenLeave a comment

Voudland News Flash!

We added some screenshots and a game play movie of the development version. Things have been been moving on lately at a steady pace. We have also been busy with some new animation. So now introducing – King Wolf’s dance moves!

King Wolf Dance

More animation is under way. Hopefully soon King Frog and King Moon will too step on the stage. We are currently familiarizing ourselves with new software, so some patience is still needed.

And what would be dancing without music? The title track – King Frog – is just about to be published. Just a few tweaks to the mix and we will have a rocking time! Stay tuned!