RPGWatch Feature: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary #2

In his 2nd diary, Jan Beuck from Master Creating talks about creating the Legend prototype and pitching the game to interested publishers:

First of all, you need to build a so-called prototype. A prototype is a small part of the game which basically corresponds to the finished product. Okay, so that’s probably exaggerated: many objects will be represented by placeholders. There are no sounds, no skills, no mini maps… to be exact, a prototype will not contain anything that is not absolutely essential.

Read it here.
More information.

Ah, the comments are working this time.

I quite like the art. I seem to recall 3D People (Kult / Heretic Kingdoms) did some contract art for Restricted Area but I assume the new bigger team did this in-house.

Well, they are bragging how much technology they have… and nothing wrong with the art… but honestly the game still looks really outdated from those screens.

Master Creating founded (or contracted ? Not sure about the legal stuff.) a 20-25 people art studio in Bulgaria and (they or dtp) hired ML Enterprises to produce Legend. The "L" in the name, Hendrik Lesser was the responsible Take2 producer for the Sacred games.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
but honestly the game still looks really outdated from those screens.

Keep in mind that these screens are from the PROTOTYPE!

Please visit www.legend-game.com for "real" screenshots.

Originally Posted by dtp Olli
Please visit www.legend-game.com for "real" screenshots.

Ack! When Flash goes bad…

Yup. Incompatible with Opera 9 and no HTML fallback.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Yup. Incompatible with Opera 9 and no HTML fallback.

Works with IE7 but when I visit a site, I want to get straight to the information and not play some kind of mini-game with a flashlight or firefly or whatever the hell that is supposed to be to dig up the info. Horrible site design. Please try again… kthx

I have to agree. I detest Flash sites and this one is particularly bad. I really don't understand why some web designers are so in love with full Flash sites.

It´s only a temperory site. The final one should come pretty soon.

Dhruin for once i actually have to disagree with you. although there is a bit of lag with the firefly light i think well done flash sites outshine any other site, though they should not be used on news sites of course. lots of bands for example have interactive flash sites, just like movie sites. so why not games sites. if done well they immerse you into the beauty of whatever 'world' you are entering. also lets not forget that website/graphic designers are still designers and why should video game developers get all the glory/fun of creating interactive worlds.

Taking this thread way off topic here but I can't understand that. I don't visit websites for immersion - I visit them for information in some form or another. I'm not saying a little Flash here and there isn't pretty but when the entire site is Flash based, it's never (and I stand by that: never) easier to navigate or find information than a straightforward html site.

What do I care what the web designers want? It's my ease of navigation I care about.

well, after finally managing to find the screenshots on that site… (I agree functionality over cool effects…… at least in this case… if the flash is doen very cool it can be nice… but I prefer to have the option of a html info site in that case)

I have to say I am still dissapointed… textures are very low res on the trolls for example….. There is a lot of aliasing too.. but that can be solved I guess.. the blood on one of the pictures looks like blood from 2002. Of course if the game will be great… I could care less about the graphics

Looks like there is a job listing for a texture artist on their website!! Very good thinking! It is surely needed! Hope they can find a good one!

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
I have to say I am still dissapointed… textures are very low res on the trolls for example….. There is a lot of aliasing too.. but that can be solved I guess.. the blood on one of the pictures looks like blood from 2002. Of course if the game will be great… I could care less about the graphics

We all know graphics are so important, something with bad graphics could never sell and would be a bad game.

On a side note, the nintendo DS (with it's inferior graphics) hasn't sold over 35 million units. <——(Insert subtle sarcastic wink)