Destined Legends

The Big Picture: Lore

As you have noticed the past month or so has been light as far as updates. Shawn and I have been super-busy with conventions and moving into our new place. We haven’t been able to play the game as much as I would have wanted to, but what can you do? 

One of the things you tend to do during a break in active testing is look at the big picture. The past month has been great for stepping back and looking at the project as a whole. It allows you to make sure your priorities are in alignment. One of the big things I’m excited for is our development of the game’s lore. Lore is an area of opportunity for so many other card games. It’s really a testament to the grander vision of the creators. If the game designer’s only goal was to have a functionfing game with a fantasy themed skin, then there is no incentive or motivation to take it beyond that. It also limits what you can do with it later on, because you never thought to give it the faculty to be able to be expanded upon later. Having the vision of a deeper universe up front definitely helps force development of those aspects right from the start, allowing those elements to be baked deep into the final product.

When I look back to the thing that make old RPG videogames so amazing, the story/lore is always one of the big draws. And since I want Destined Legends to be much more that a card game (in the long run), I want to make sure it is an area we don’t skimp on. You can argue the quality of the lore is as important as the quality of the gameplay. Destined Legends began as an idea for a videogame RPG so it is by nature, a very character driven story. I hope that comes as a breath of fresh air to everyone.

Going to conventions helps think of end products. We’re shooting for the game to be around $30. Aside from the game itself, I really hope we raise enough money to put out a companion book. I already have some ideas of what it would consists of. It would start with some excerpts from the universe’s ancient scripture known as “The Book of Legends.” Then a big chunk about our current state with the actual characters from the card game. Then it would be cool to finish off with a compendium of the cards, including larger artwork and strategy for each card.

However we manage to do it, the lore will be delivered in a satisfying way. Anyways, I’m looking forward to our new setup and hopefully, with less distractions, we can change back into full development to meet our release goal of Summer 2013.