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BEHIND THE SCENES
See Development From Start to Finish
BEGINNING OF THE PROJECT
Teams were created in April 2019, and a document outlining the concept of the project as well as declaring team members was submitted.
SUMMER PREPARATION
Over the summer, our team refined some ideas presented in the concept document, as well as began research related to the content of our proposed game as well as the technology being used to create it.
Members of the team unfamiliar with the Souls-like formula played games in the genre to prepare themselves, and developers on the team began familiarizing themselves with Unreal Engine and how to use its tools.
EARLY CONCEPT ART
These are early pieces of concept art created to try and establish the tone of our game. At the time we wanted to focus much more on Lovecraftian elements, but as production progressed many of those elements fell to the wayside.Â
It is also apparent that there was much more medieval influence on characters, and this was toned down in final designs and replaced with more influence from Gothic-Victorian era designs.
At this point the team finalized designs of characters, as well as determining the amount of content expected in the game. We determined there would be 4 bosses, and 3 levels. Each level would have a unique boss encounter at the end of it, and the final boss would be a 2 phase fight where the first boss transforms after being defeated.
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The plan at the time was also to have different visual designs for enemy types depending on what level they were in. This was to add to the immersion of the game as enemies would match their environments.
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Below is a few pieces of concept art that were created during our pre-production phase. Also included below is download links to our in-depth Design Document for Nitor.
LEVEL DESIGNS
FIRST FEATURE IMPLEMENTED
Stamina System and Basic Dodging
First Features
The first features added to the game were dodging and stamina. This is because the animations for dodging were available from the start, and stamina management is at the core of the gameplay of Nitor.
PLAYER CHARACTER
The player character started as a medieval knight type character, but the design was altered to a Gothic Victorian design. There are some different design tests for the character shown in the following sketches, as well as the development of the final 3D model for the character.
NPCS
These are the characters that help the player through the game by allowing them to improve their stats, as well as increase healing abilities by finding collectibles.
GALLERY TITLE
BOSSES
There were originally 4 bosses designed for the game, 1 of them got cut from the game completely, but the concept art and reference artwork is present.
THE GRACIOUS CHAOS
This boss was originally going to be the boss of the first area of the game: The Depths. Due to development time constraints this boss was cut from the game.
The Boss fight was going to be a crowd boss fight where a larger main Boss Enemy would summon minions to attack and distract the player.
GATEKEEPER KNIGHT
The Gatekeeper Knight was the first boss that was conceptualized for the project, but her design changed many times through development. The two main designs can be seen with the sketches below, and the design was made more detailed and the armour much more intricate in the re-design.
After that a model was created but the team decided that it did not match the aesthetic of the game, therefore a new model was created by a different team member that more closely matched the revised design from the concept art.
PONTIFF ALDENRICHE
THE OLD ONE OF THE LAKE
ENEMIES
There are 3 enemy types in Nitor, each with unique designs and AI patterns. Originally each of the enemy types were going to have different visual designs depending on which level they were in, making their design match the environments more. Due to development time constraints this feature was cut.
LIGHT ENEMY
RANGED ENEMY
HEAVYÂ ENEMY
By the end of February the entirety of the world in Nitor was completed. There were small changes and additions made after this, but the full world was created.
During this time last minute features and bug fixes were done, but there was one major change made to the project. Due to issues with some of the recorded animations, we were unable to create a boss fight we were happy with for the Old One of The Lake. This character was still very significant to the plot of Nitor, and they are featured on the cover art for the game, so we decided to use their model as a means to conclude the story of the game to the player as an NPC the player talks to.
