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| 0s | Josefin: Welcome back to our Walk & Talks. I’m Josefin and I’m here with my colleagues Robin– |
|---|---|
| 4s | Robin: Hello Josefin: –and Jonathan– |
| 6s | Jonathan: Hello again Josefin: –to have a little chat about Valheim and Ashlands development. |
| 10s | This is part two of this series, so if you haven’t watched the first video already you can go ahead and do that first. |
| 15s | But now, let’s get to it. I wanna talk a little bit about what we have shown off so far; |
| 21s | we’ve shown some creatures and some parts of the environment, so how did they all come into being? |
| 27s | Robin: Which ones? What are we talking about exactly? |
| 30s | Josefin: What– Of the creatures that we have shown, do you have a favourite? |
| 35s | Robin: Yes. But I want Jonathan to– Talk about your favourite, Jonathan! What is your favourite? |
| 40s | Jonathan: [laughs] My favourite, I haven’t even considered that yet… I don’t know, I kinda like trash mobs? [laughs] |
| 49s | So I think the twitchers are quite fun. They are like on the brink of annoying, but you can still kill enough |
| 58s | of them to– Yeah, to make them not so annoying after a little while. So, yeah. |
| 65s | Josefin: [laughs] So, how did the twitchers come into being then? Why did we put those in the game? |
| 70s | Robin: We… From the start, the charred melee units and archers – or marksmen – they were random spawns |
| 80s | throughout Ashlands, and it just kinda felt a little bit weird that you were going up against them, |
| 86s | and then when you go up against the Fortress Time – or the fortress, we call it Fortress Time, but – |
| 94s | it felt weird that you were meeting them again, going up against them again. So we felt like we needed something, |
| 100s | some kind of trash mob, a greydwarf– We needed a greydwarf in Ashlands. |
| 107s | Josefin: Again, what would the Black Forest do? Robin: Yes |
| 109s | Josefin: A greydwarf |
| 111s | Robin: But this time, I think twitchers are insanely more difficult than greydwarfs, and more irritating |
| 120s | than greydwarfs. You need to– Jonathan: I think that– |
| 124s | I was just gonna say that’s why I like them, I like games that are like on the brink of irritating, irritatingly hard, |
| 131s | but you can still manage to learn how to kill them and then you can overcome the game somehow, so. |
| 136s | Robin: So, one thing that is a little bit different, is that you have the twitcher spawners, that you– They’re pretty– |
| 145s | There’re many of them. Everywhere. So it’s a little bit– You have to go forward a little bit slowly and try to get |
| 153s | those spawners in order to just cover some ground. But then as the added bonus you get the morgen– |
| 162s | Have we shown the morgen? Josefin: We’ve shown concept art of the morgen. |
| 165s | Robin: We’ve shown– Yes we have, alright, good, awesome. I have no clue of what we’ve shown and what we’ve not shown! |
| 172s | Jonathan: So this will be a very spoilery talk, probably. Robin: Probably, maybe. |
| 176s | Josefin: [laughs] Nah, it’s my job to make sure you don’t. |
| 178s | Robin: Good. Awesome. But my favourite creature is the morgen. I think that one is– It’s fun to play against, |
| 185s | it feels like a mini boss, and it has some fun mechanics, it hurts a lot. |
| 193s | Jonathan: Can we mention the thing that happened when we were playtesting the other, what was it, two weeks ago? |
| 198s | The wall? [laughs] I think that was one of the coolest moments we’ve had playtesting for quite a while. |
| 204s | Robin: Ooh, we could. The thing is that we haven’t talked about specifically that creature! We haven’t shown– |
| 210s | Jonathan: Oh yeah, that’s true. |
| 211s | Josefin: Oh [laughs] Yeah, I know the one- |
| 213s | Jonathan: Okay, let’s skip it [laughs] Josefin: but let’s not mention that and let’s– |
| 216s | Josefin: Yeah, let’s just make this one a very juicy bit of gossip for people to…fear. |
| 223s | Jonathan: Yeah. We had fun, that’s the important part, so there’s a chance that you might have fun |
| 226s | if you play Ashlands. Josefin: Content warning: Fun possible. |
| 229s | Jonathan: Yeah. Fun has been confirmed [laughs] |
| 233s | Robin: Also, the fun line– If you just go past it you get to the frustration line, so there’s a fine line between |
| 241s | fun and frustration in Ashlands, hopefully it’s gonna be on the fun side. |
| 245s | Jonathan: Ashlands puts the fun in funstration. No? Robin: In– Yes |
| 250s | Jonathan: [laughs] Josefin: That’s not how it’s spelled |
| 252s | Jonathan: No Robin: But I think, the valkyrie is another– |
| 258s | The fallen valkyrie is something that we have been talking about since way way back. |
| 264s | Josefin: Yeah, you mentioned in the last episode that it did not turn out the way it was gonna be originally, |
| 269s | that it’s gone through a lot of iterations to finally feel good. |
| 273s | Robin: It’s gone through so many stages. But it’s at a stage where I feel that it’s really good– |
| 283s | Jonathan: Yeah Robin: It has a purpse and it has a place |
| 287s | in the roster of enemies. Many times when we’re creating all these enemies you have to sit down and think about |
| 297s | what kind of position, or what kind of role they play together. ‘Cause many times you’ll get all these creatures |
| 303s | joining up and trying to get you. And I feel like we’ve found how the fallen valkyrie is supposed to be– |
| 312s | There was one moment there where we were actually just gonna delete it. |
| 317s | Jonathan: Yeah and visually I think it looks so much– Really just like the past week or so have made some really nice |
| 322s | additions to how it looks. I think it– Josefin: Yeah the VFX for that one is a real gamechanger. |
| 328s | Jonathan: Yeah. Andreas agrees. Robin: Oh does he? |
| 331s | Jonathan: [laughs] No, he doesn’t, but that’s fine! |
| 336s | Josefin: But that’s some creatures, but we also have the rest of the environment, like why does the Ashlands |
| 342s | look the way it does? We have the weather, the locations, the buildings, is there anything there |
| 347s | you wanna talk a little bit about? |
| 350s | Robin: Hmm… I think Ashlands could have been so much, and I think if you look at how it looked back before it became |
| 361s | what it is now, a big difference is that it’s a lot more ash. It’s not called the Lavalands, it’s not called |
| 367s | Volcano Country, so you have to play a little bit with the name and try to find like the identity of it. But I think |
| 375s | we’re at a stage where it feels good, I think it’s a very versatile biome, but– It all depends on where |
| 383s | you are in Ashlands, I guess, but it wasn’t easy trying to get to where it is now. It’s been a difficult road, |
| 395s | just trying to create everything– We’ve had so many assets in the game, so many assets that’s not been used, |
| 401s | many assets that have just been thrown out, because it feels redundant, because it feels too much, |
| 408s | because it doesn’t feel like Valheim. |
| 411s | Jonathan: I think it’s been one of those cases if you say, like, “art is never done only abandoned”, |
| 417s | it could have been done like five iterations ago but it’s so much better now than it was then, so. It seems like every |
| 423s | time someone makes a pass and it’s like “oh, we need a little more of this, we need to go over this a bit more”, |
| 428s | it actually gets a lot better. I think we’ve made a lot of progress, visually it’s really been kind of a |
| 433s | journey in this case, not going from “this is how it’s supposed to look” and bam there it is, |
| 438s | but more like trying a lot of different stuff out, finding something that works. |
| 443s | Robin: I think like I’ve said before, we don’t really work with art passes on stuff. We work very organically |
| 451s | and iteratively when going forward. With that said, we don’t actually block out stuff and then do an art pass |
| 461s | on it like level design; we try to finish stuff, put it into the game and see if it fits. We try to tweak and work |
| 468s | around everything and see what needs to stay or not. Just today I was working on a |
| 474s | rock platform for the flametal– Can I talk about the flametal? |
| 481s | Josefin: Yeah, people know about flametal, flametal is already in the game since before, it’s just been not used. |
| 487s | Robin: Yeah, so– Josefin: We can talk about it. |
| 488s | Robin. Great, so you have to get the flametal, can I talk about how you get the flametal? [laughs] |
| 492s | What can I talk about? Jonathan: Just go |
| 495s | Josefin: I think you can talk about how to get the flametal Jonathan: She’ll just censor everything |
| 497s | Josefin: [laughs] Yeah |
| 499s | Robin: Okay, so one thing that is gonna be– When we were designing it we knew we wanted to have lava |
| 506s | and we got lava into the game. What we didn’t know is that we were going to put flametal into the lava. |
| 513s | Because back in the day it was just these big lava pools and they were just taking up space. You didn’t do anything, |
| 520s | you were not engaging with the lava in any way, so we threw out the flametal into the lava. Now it becomes this |
| 528s | little game mechanic of how you get the flametal. But now we had to do an iterative process again, |
| 537s | and through that we found that we need these platforms where we spawn the flametal onto. |
| 544s | And just today I’ve been doing again another pass, I think it’s like the tenth pass or something, |
| 550s | on a different platform for the flametal platforms. But yeah, that’s really interesting, also pretty tedious. |
| 562s | It’s like trying to find what’s right, what works, what doesn’t work. So you make a platform, you go out, you |
| 570s | you playtest it, and you’re like “no, don’t like it”, and you do it again and you do it again until you |
| 576s | find something that is nice. |
| 579s | Josefin: Alright. Another thing that I wanna talk about is the siege engines that we have shown a little bit of, |
| 585s | and also the Fortress Time that we’ve hinted at– Jonathan: Oh dear |
| 589s | Josefin: What is that, and what can you expect from it? |
| 591s | Jonathan: Yeah, what can we expect from that, Robin, what do you say? [laughs] |
| 594s | Robin: Haha, so. In the early days I had this idea that Ashlands would be all about undead war, |
| 608s | sieges, attacking Ashlands; I was having a discussion with Richard and we were just talking around– |
| 621s | He said something, “what if we had a battering ram?” And I was like “wait, can we do that? Are we allowed to?” |
| 630s | Because so many times, it’s like, some things work in Valheim, some things shouldn’t be put into Valheim. |
| 638s | And siege engines was like “what, woah, you’re innovative now, what are you saying, can we use battering rams? |
| 645s | Really? Is that something– how would we do that?” And then we started talking about it even more and more, |
| 652s | so yeah, now we’ve got battering rams and catapults in the game, where you have to try to siege the fortresses |
| 659s | to get the rewards inside. And so far it’s been pretty interesting. If you follow us on Twitter, |
| 671s | you’d see that sometimes we’ve thrown out these playtest Friday maps, I guess, where you can see where |
| 679s | we’ve died, or where Andreas died a lot. That’s a lot from the Fortress Times, and– |
| 684s | Josefin: It’s gonna be difficult Jonathan: Yeah, I think playing in like [laughs] |
| 689s | I think there’s gonna be a lot of dying in Ashlands, I just wanna say. And also playing it hardcore, |
| 694s | it’s gonna be– I’m gonna be surprised if I see anybody– When we first see somebody |
| 699s | beat the game without dying, that’s gonna be crazy, I think, if they can manage Ashlands. |
| 705s | Robin: Yep. It’s gonna be fun seeing people die. But I think that’s not really the big highlight, or, |
| 717s | it’s not seeing people die, it’s seeing how they die, in what manner [laughs] |
| 724s | Jonathan: I think we’re gonna see people being very creative, like, in ways that we didn’t imagine this |
| 729s | is how you can actually beat it. By giving them the tools of a few siege machines, and in addition to everything |
| 735s | else that they have, I think that it could be interesting to see how it works out. If it works out [laughs] |
| 741s | Robin: If it works out. Jonathan: Yeah |
| 743s | Robin: It’s been really fun, to say the least. It’s really fun, but it’s also a little bit… It is difficult trying to, |
| 756s | to understand how to actually do the siege in a good proper way. Even when we’re running in, like we’ve got Jonathan, |
| 766s | me, Andreas and Christoffer – four people trying to take on a fortress – and if you don’t have tactics, |
| 774s | if you don’t have each other’s backs, you will die. So many times. And they will still– They will hunt you! |
| 784s | Like, we’ve set up bases outside of the fortresses and they start sieging us, they come out. |
| 791s | Josefin: How the tables may turn Robin: And we’ll be like “No. Go away.” |
| 794s | Jonathan: [laughs] Yeah |
| 796s | Josefin: I think on that very cheerful note of being hunted down by the very creatures you were trying |
| 801s | to hunt down yourself, we’re going to wrap up this episode and continue our chat at a later date. |
| 809s | So I wanna say thank you so much for joining me today, both of you, and let’s say goodbye to the audience. |
| 817s | Jonathan: Bye Robin: Goodbye audience, haha! |