No Parping: A Valley Without Wind Details
Arcen Games, they most famous for AI War, are still working extremely hard on their next project, exploration-led adventure, A Valley Without Wind. Oh, I'm so desperate for a great exploration game. Will this be the one? Please let this be the one. There's a bunch of new details, and a new trailer, below.
The idea of AVWW is to survive, and explore. Procedurally generated worlds house an ice age, in which those who still live struggle to continue. The glaciers are receding, and the world that was is becoming accessible again, with ruined cities, ancient towns, and much confusion.
Philllll provided us with an exhaustive interview with the team recently, if you want to find a squillion details.
But new bits and bobs are being talked about. Including reworking the game's story, setting, and adding new features. Perhaps most dramatically, the place in which you'll be surviving is getting rejigged. They've decided to ditch the "real-world future" setting, in favour of a purely fantasy world called Environ. This, they say, gives them more scope for flexibility, and allows a larger mix of fantasy and science fiction environments to discover as you explore the world you create by exploring it. You'll still discover modern cities lying in ruin, alongside mysterious areas of unknown technology, as well as archaic bronze age huts and fields.
The team's latest update also brings news of a "rather significant breakthrough in terms of the creation and generation of AVWW's interiors." They've struck upon a way to create procedurally generated interiors - some code they'll be releasing for others to play with in a couple of months. You can read more about that here.
They've fiddled with much else too, improving the NPCs and the graphics, and you can take a look at the visual improvements below.
Clearly the character animations still look a touch dodgy. And good grief, what is wrong with that skellington? Someone just put it down. But this is one we're waiting for with our fingers, arms, legs and dangles crossed. The first beta is due this July. Be good be good be good be good be good.