Work over the past few months has been ongoing on a variety of systems we need for this years demo and one that is almost done is the visual part of character creation.

When I first started working on Lair of the Leviathan I had originally planned for a main character with limited customisation and a party of premade npcs. Working solo I was really careful about overscoping and I felt that this system would be something easily achievable by myself.

After teaming up with Oliver things however have changed. Oliver and I grew up playing the SSI DnD Goldbox games and being able to customise the way your party looked was a huge part of those games. I remember spending literally hours trying to get everyone looking exactly the way I wanted before even starting each of them. I guess most readers aren't old enough to remember those games but at the time they were groundbreaking, having open worlds and tactical turn based combat that up until then I hadn't experience before.

Bikini Chainmail - always a classic


A big part of those games was also the ability to customise your party. You could choose from various body parts and colours for your battle sprites and in the first game, Pool of Radiance, they even had character portraits. Recently Oliver and I had been discussing character creation and and we were thinking, if we are really going to try to be a 'Goldbox' inspired game, why don't we just go all in on customisation? So we are now at the point where we are trying to maximise the visual options for players as much as we can, allowing them to try and visually create exactly the party they want.


As it stands, for our own system your combat sprites you will be able to choose from a variety of animation archtypes such as 1handed fighter, 2 handed magic user, etc and then further customise that sprites appearance, choosing from their weapon, armour set, hairstyles, etc. As you go through the game more weapons and armour sets will also be unlocked giving people something to 'collect' for people who like that kind of stuff and give party member that sense of growing in power.

We also discussed whether we want to lock appearances to gear but we decided in classic Goldbox style you can change each characters appearance at any time to whatever you want.

Keep in mind, the ui is for testing and we will most likely have drop down menus to make it easier to just choose the parts you want.

These are some of the combat sprites I was able to come up with playing around with the parts we currently have.

Furthermore in a nod to Pool of Radiance we are also creating portraits that you will be able to customise. There should be a fair variety of different parts such as eyebrows, beards, hairstyles to play around with once we get to the demo and this will further expand as we get closer to release. The portraits will be the main representation of your characters outside of battle on the world screen too.

Excuse the lack of body types for now. There will be way more available by the time the demo is ready.


We feel this will (hopefully!) give players enough options to represent their parties and make adventuring in the world a lot more personalised and fun.

Greetings, adventurers! It's time for a wrap up on what's been going on in the development of Lair of the Leviathan this year.

Firstly, thanks for all your feedback on the great "Top Down vs Side View" debate of 2024! The battle was fierce but in the end, you voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Top Down view. ( Someone actually pointed out to me this is actually a 90 degree isometric view, but that doesn't really roll off the tongue, so top view it is.)

Reflecting on this, I think you guys are right. Both David and I love the visual look of the side-on view, but from a gameplay perspective, keeping things consistent with the world map and exteriors ( which are top down ) just makes way more sense. This also allows us to stage combats inside interiors, and allows me to just use the same code for regular buildings like armourers and taverns, as well as dungeons. Anything that saves me time is a good thing!

Work won't begin on Interiors until probably Feb-March this year, but because I've already got pathfinding and collisions etc from the exteriors, this shouldn't be too much work (famous last words).

So, here we are at the end of 2024 - representing roughly five months since I joined the project in late July this year. David started work on the game at the start of this year, so we're officially twelve months in, though the dream for the game has been in our minds for a lot longer! (Separately of course, as we didn't know each other before July - I only discovered David and the incredible project via a Reddit post, fortuitous as it was!)

Since July, I've rebuilt what David created for the trailer from scratch. The original game was build using (if I recall), a game making framework called Construct. Because I'm much more familiar with the Godot game engine ( and am relatively fresh off 2023's RPG Swords and Sandals Immortals) , Godot was a much more natural fit for me - so I started completely from zero, just using David's excellent art and design as a guide.

Having talked extensively with Anders Laurissen (developer of the incredible Skald RPG), I was convinced I needed to build very robust RPG making tools for the game itself, instead of just jumping into building the game, story, combat and so on. Having good tools inside the game itself allow David and I to quickly create content via drop down boxes, popups and tools , instead of tediously typing thousands of lines into spreadsheets and notepads.

This is the first 'real' game editor I've built, and I'm learning a ton in the process. I wanted the editor to be 'in-game' so we could play the game, hit some shortcut keys and edit things in real time. The editor is progressing very quickly - I'm not yet at the point where I could say it's something that could be released to the public as a modding tool, but it's not inconceivable at all.

In the game editor, I've built everything from a map editor that allows you to set weather, terrain and encounters to an item editor where you can create any number of magical and non-magical items. The Item Editor was finished off just last week, and I'm really pleased with how versatile it is. Items can be assigned properties, from healing to adding powers and status effects. There's even 'Books' that could be read in the world to provide extra lore.

There's also a full character creator largely based off a simplified version of the Pathfinder 2E ruleset ( I want to stress we are GREATLY streamlining it for the purposes of our game ), but this game will be instantly familiar to those who have played Pathfinder or D&D. There's only the standard human/dwarf/elf style hero classes and races at this stage, but plenty of room to add more down the road.

As far as the game itself, David created an incredibly detailed pixel art map of the starting map ( which you see in the game trailer), complete with sparkling rivers and deep forests. This map is where the demo will be set, but the full game will extend off in all directions, from scorching deserts to icy tundra and even underground. I've got a full weather system in place, with storms, heatwaves, rain and flocking birds. If you've ever followed my game dev, you know I love night and day cycles as I love how they change the ambience of a scene, and Lair is no exception.

I've got the characters moving around the map , the game supports both mouse and keyboard (and partial support for gamepad, as we plan on getting this over to consoles at some stage.)

The plan for early 2024 is to finish off the "Powers" editor ( everything from walking and jumping to casting fireballs and cleaving your enemies in twain ) and then turning my focus to the Combat engine - which at this stage will be set on a hex grid. What you see in the trailer does not represent combat, it will be much more detailed and strategic, and less JRPG-esque. Heroes will move around the combat map and use terrain to their advantage. Think "Gold Box" game with a hint of XCom.

David's focus is on getting through all the character animations, weapons and equipment art, then he's moving onto interiors, dungeon tilesets and more.

I think the game editor/engine is realistically 6 months from being in a playable state, then we'll spend maybe 3 months or so using all these tools to put together a nice polished demo sometime in late 2025.

Thank you so much for all your support and enthusiasm for the game this year, it's easily the most fun I've ever had working on a game and I truly believe we're onto something a bit magical.

Cheers, good fortune and health to you and yours over the holiday break!

Oliver Joyce and David Aron,
Whiskeybarrel Studios and Nostalgic Realms

Greetings, adventurers!

This is Oliver Joyce from the Lair of the Leviathan team. Since our last update, David from Nostalgic Realms has been working hard on the game's location art. From dank, oppressive swamp towns to cozy taverns with crackling fireplaces, David is putting together a ton of art for the game, one pixel at a time.

Meanwhile, I've been working on the game engine itself. I have created a pretty powerful in-game editor, where I can do everything from add lights, points of interest and set the weather for the realm, I can also create encounters, conversations, link locations and more. I've also got the character creator fully built too. Next up for me is most likely the 'skills creator' so I can prepare for building combat in the game.

I've got party chatter conversations going in the game too. Although you custom create your own hero ( and you'll have to create up to 4 other custom heroes to join you), there will be the option to have pre-made heroes join the group too. These heroes will have their own personalities and comment on things they see and experience through the game.

Right now the in-game editor is just for David and I to use, but at some point if the game does well, I'd love to open it up to the public to allow people to make their own modded adventures for the game itself.

Last week I started linking encounters created in the Editor with the actual game itself. I've just uploaded a video which shows this off, check it out.

What you see above is the five heroes ( all just using a 'dwarf' figurine right now but they will all have unique and animated figurines to move) walking around the first town in the game, Stoneward. The heroes have full pathfinding, so they can navigate their way around buildings, go behind trees and find the most optimal path to where they are going. Both mouse and keyboard will be supported ( and gamepads too) as we are planning on hopefully porting the game to Switch and PS5 at some point.

Also in this video, two characters having a quick conversation. One of them rudely remarks the town stinks, and the other tells him he'll feel right at home. This kind of little banter will appear all through the game but won't interrupt game flow ( and I may even have an option to turn it off for players who want totally silent party members )

However, with all this built, we now turn our attention to the town itself! Notice how the town is using a "Top Down" view, same as the overworld view. This works for exteriors, but we've been experimenting wtih a potential 'side view' ( antfarm, dollhouse etc) for building interiors.

This is the TOP DOWN view of an interior:

This is the SIDE VIEW of the same interior:

There are some practical reasons for switching to a side view for interiors.

• It's faster to create art on the side view perspective
  
• We don't have to worry about Y Sorting everything in crowded buildings ( where players can walk behind tables etc, this kind of pathfinding issue can be challenging to solve in interiors
  
• It cuts down on the constant 'walking' in the game - less dead time. Meaning, on the side view, you'll just see icons above the blacksmith for 'Repair", or above the tavern patrons for "Rumours" and so on.

Exteriors, overworld, dungeons and combat will of course remain top down view.

What do you think of the proposed side view for interiors? Also, we'd love your feedback on how the game is coming along so far. We're realistically 9 months away from a decent playable demo, but we're hoping to have one out sometime in 2025. It takes a long time to put together a decent game engine and toolset , but once we have it all working robustly, the game's content itself should come along quite rapidly.

Cheers!

Oliver and David
Whiskeybarrel Studios / Nostalgic Realms

Teaming up!

Well for this update there is some big news. Over the past month I have been in discussions with Whiskeybarrel Studios and we have decided to team up on making Lair of the Leviathan.

I have always been happy working solo but the sheer scale of the project meant it was going to take far longer than I had anticipated and combining efforts we can get this done in a fraction of the time. If you have played the Swords and Sandals games you will also be familiar with all the great little synergies and stats in those games and I think this will bring a lot to Lair as well.

Things should really pick up pace from now so stay tuned!

Some game news

In game preview news here's a little teaser of the bounty hall from the main city hub. You will be able to get all kinds of quests here from hunting outlaws, finding missing people and best of all, hunting down rare and dangerous monsters. As you complete quests more and more difficult bounties will be available with better and better rewards.

Some of the later bounties will be very challenging and also require going out and looking for clues to find them. I want to provide as much variety in gameplay as possible along with the main quest and also an 'end game' activity for players to focus on even after they complete the main story.

And in keeping with the 'represent as much as possible visually' theme of the game as you hunt down these bounties, little trophies of the fights will appear so you can have a souvenir of your battles. Trying to fill the entire hall will be a little optional challenge for players to complete and there might even be a final mega bounty for those who can do so.

In the next news post I'll post a little more about the updated combat system. Until then, here's a little teaser.

How enemies help keep turn based combat fun

I thought I would describe how enemies in my game work and how it helps keep combat interesting and challenging. Some of it is basic stuff but there are a few spins on it. I'll be using goblins as an example (everyone loves goblins right?). Here's a pic of some of them.

Variety

There are a lot of different varieties of enemies. Using my goblin example, you have your basic kinds, spearmen, archers etc: and some like the 'mounted' goblin with a few extra tricks. Some of the more advanced units get really bonkers. There's a lot of inspiration from the movie Labyrinth with goblins in the game being crafty, inventive and varied.

The goblin 'flinger' can reach into his bag and throw a variety of objects from poisonous mushrooms to spikey balls to starving rats, you never know what might come flying at you. The goblins alone have almost 20 varieties.


Even more variety

Throughout the game there are also rare and very rare enemies for most enemy groups. These are named, much stronger enemies with more experience, loot and sometimes even bounties to collect in town. You might get hints about their locations or bounty board requests and it can be fun hunting all of them down, especially as some have unique and powerful items. It really helps shake things up as you make your way through dungeons and seeing some of these stronger enemies appear.

Like "Grizzik Beetlebinder" here. He is a rare type of goblin that has a variety of buffs for any giant insects around him and can make them truly terrifying. So players will want to prioritise taking him out as soon as possible. However while adjacent to insect he will gain a huge damage reduction as damage is redirected to the protecting creature. Do you just try and focus on him anyway? Or take out all adjacent creatures first? It also becomes a lot harder if the random buff that he gives out was some sort of extra armour or magic resistance buff on the unit protecting him.

Keeping enemies relevant

Ok, 20 different goblins, plus all these rarer types, but who cares if you're overpowering these encounters after the first few hours and never come back to them again? That's where the horde system comes in. As you get to more difficult areas, enemies will start appearing in groups rather than as a single enemy. Rather than waiting for 20 enemy individual turns, each 'group' is represented as a single sprite. These new 'horde' enemies do more damage, have more health and also more abilities. Suddenly goblins are way more of a threat when they're in stacks of 3, or even more.

This adds an extra layer of strategy and planning which abilities you want to use for your characters. Some characters can specialise in taking down these hordes with area attacks or cleaving attacks that do extra damage. Or certain abilities like block might not be as effective as there is a block penalty on horde attacks but tanky characters with higher health might do better. at absorbing the high amounts of raw damage.



If you have any ideas on what else you think would make enemies more interesting or what you don't like about enemies in turn based games I'd love to hear it.

Lair of the Leviathan is an old school rpg based on classics from the past such as Baldurs gate 1 and 2, Phantasie, Ultima and the SSi Goldbox games. I grew up playing these games and wanted to make something similar as there has been a shift away from this type of rpg in recent years in favour of roguelikes and deckbuilding rpgs.

Essentially there are the classic four main parts to gameplay: world exploration dungeon exploration, combat and npc/party interaction. It is your typical classic rpg formula we all know and love from the past. No roguelike random elements other than a random encounter system (not just random combat! events like the original fallout games)

It all begins in your main hub town. After completing the initial introduction you are free to explore the world, finding towns and quests and secret locations on your own with minimum hand holding. Remember those days before everything was marked on the map for you and you were railroaded into a particular course of action? This is that kind of game. Want to head west to that creepy looking swamp and see what that's about? go for it? Want to ignore the rumours you heard in the local tavern about ogres being seen in the northern path and just go there? You can do that too!

Combat is challenging and turn based. I know turn based combat isn't everyone's cup of tea but I am trying to find ways to make it more interesting. For example every encounter is important and can sap your resources. There are also a large variety of skills to use making it interesting and fun to try out different combos. The last thing I want is boring autopilot combat like some games do.


There is a main storyline but it's up to you when you want to do that. Everything pushes you further north where strange things are said to be happening but you can do it at your own pace and in your own way. I hate when games force are too linear and force me into experiencing things a certain way. It is linear but there are minimum cut scenes and those that exist are very short and are there to add a bit of spice, not be the main meal.


I don't know if that clears anything but I guess the tldr is: Explore a big open world, find interesting locations and dungeons, kill monsters, level up your party members and push north to ever increasing danger and glory.

Now back to work on the trailer.