Max Bodrikov, Producer of Elven Legacy, discusses the release and ending development of Elven Legacy in an exclusive Developer Diary only available on Strategy Informer.
Title: Post Mortem of Elven Legacy
By: Max Bodrikov, Producer of Elven Legacy
The fate of Elven Legacy was not as simple as one might assume. To begin with, many gamers might not know that it was initially a new Fantasy Wars title, with a subtitle added to denote the new content. Fantasy Wars was fairly well received, with favorable reviews by players and the press, but Elven Legacy was to represent more than a new chapter for a series, but a new world.
Elven Legacy was also renamed because “Fantasy Wars” made the wrong impression: players anticipated a simple game and were not prepared for one with such tough battles that required so much consideration. The name change also makes sense because Elven Legacy is all about elves! We did try to mention its relationship to Fantasy Wars in interviews, however, so fans of it and of the wargame genre would know that there was more coming their way. Players can also jump right into Elven Legacy without having played Fantasy Wars, because the plots of both games are simply set in the same world and not interrelated. A name change just represented a great way to set the title up on its own, focusing on the rich characters and combat within, which we think it deserves.
One of the first considerations when approaching Elven Legacy was the plot. We didn’t want to simply repeat our previous efforts, and with a story following one race in particular, we were able to really focus in on a core set of characters and their histories. Since elves live for so long, we had plenty to work with in regards to providing for the heroes’ ambitions and motivations. It’s really the conclusion to a lot of stories that have long been in the making, and players get to live out the heroes’ last grasps for glory. Not only will gamers get to see all of the events in some exciting cutscenes, but they will also get a little more of the history through bonus missions that are unlocked whenever they perform well - the culmination of events is really exciting.
We also improved the interface and introduced some new features. The introduction of new tactical capabilities was very important to us, because we wanted to make the combat more intense and varied while at the same time maintaining all of the elements that fans of hexagonal wargames enjoy. It wasn’t easy trying to satisfy both the diehards and newcomers, but we hope players will find that we succeeded. We really needed to consider the abilities of the elven army carefully: just how much does it differ from a human or an orcish army, what unique capabilities do elves possess? Some things, such as experience for units, would obviously be implemented for the elves as well, but not everything was so easy. Despite elves having a long and rich history in the fantasy genre, the process of determining the type and strength of abilities was difficult. Some ideas went straight into the wastebasket while others were retained, with everything that remained polished and tested until we achieved a desirable result.
The motion capture came after we finished the scripts for all of the in-game movies, created all of the new units, and wrote all of the dialog. Motion capture, mocap for short, is the recording of body animations for use with in-game models; it gives the units on the screen a more lifelike quality, and really brings a sense of realism to such fantastical creatures like elves. Needless to say, it was a long time before we finally started! All of our efforts were worth it though, as it was a very interesting experience (one which has been detailed in one of the earlier diaries) that differed markedly from our previous experience with Fantasy Wars.
Development on the missions and supporting content (i.e. polishing the animations for the new units, working on the movies, skins for the interface, etc.) went on parallel with each other. In working on multiple aspects at once, we were able to get the localization kit ready in time and begin on the voiceover work. It’s always tricky when localizing a game as references and inferences are not always obvious or fully translatable, and Elven Legacy was no exception. Fortunately for us, we were supported by several parties that worked tirelessly in portraying our vision as accurately as possible on-screen, and our team of translators worked around the clock with last minute adjustments to ensure our vision.
If text offered some difficulties when translating, then you can imagine that voiceover work is also no easy task. The script was quite extensive and required more actors than we had selected, but since all of the actors were such professionals, they were each able to perform several of the roles; they did a fantastic job, speaking in completely different voices and performing with such different mannerisms. A unique problem arose during the voiceover work in that the timing of several phrases differed between the spoken Russian version and the spoken English version, due to there being a difference between the average amount of sounds each has in a sentence. Because parts of phrases were too long for some of the movies, we had to spend more time on making sure that the critical phrases were timed just right. The sentences that weren’t aligned properly had to be recorded again, which were done by our sound engineer at the studio, who assisted in making sure both versions were properly recorded. Translation problems are never easy, but through diligence and the support of everyone involved, we were able to overcome whatever came our way.
In finalizing Elven Legacy, our last goal was to have it ready to ship certified for Games for Windows. I won’t go into the specifics about the process since I have a feeling you find elves and magic much more interesting, but needless to say we were able to get it certified and on store shelves for you to enjoy! It was a long road that wasn’t always easy, but the result has been worth it: we are keeping alive our beloved hexagonal wargames with a title that is our own mark on the genre. We hope that with the campaign, the editor, and online play, you will enjoy Elven Legacy for years to come.
