Voxel Chronicles: Exorcizing in the Metaverse
Ashara Studios
video game studio made up by video game fans who work hard on creating significant experiences for gamers.
Ashara Studios continued to bet on the metaverse. After the studio's experience with Tower of Myths, its first game in The Sandbox , the team presented a new project: Exorcist Reborn.
This article will present the path that led the company to the development that is being executed today on the game.
?? The beginnings of the Exorcist saga
The Exorcist saga began with the creation of the homonymous video game, developed by Ashara Studios in 2017. The game is set in a world of horror and fantasy, which allows players to assume the role of an Italian exorcist named Bamone, who uses the Grimorio di Ombre to seal demonic creatures in infernal planes.
The original idea of the game was to allow the player to create glyphs that would trigger spells by executing a cell pattern. Spells could be of attack, defense, or enhancement. The mechanic was simple but effective, and it allowed the player to feel like a real exorcist.
The game's setting was inspired by the team's love of horror games, as well as the popularity of the genre in other audiovisual media. The game was a critical and commercial success, as evidenced by the number of downloads and positive reviews on the Play Store.
For the game's mods, it was considered relevant to take creatures based on the most popular races, such as demons, angels, poltergeists, souls in pain, and guardians. After that, traditional and new ideas were considered that included as a starting point a characteristic for the creation of these cursed entities, such as coincident colors and shapes.
?? Link game: Exocist in Play Store
?? The Sandbox Game Jam
With the precedent of the Exorcist video game, the development of a revival of the idea of exorcism of creatures was proposed, for which the team used this idea in their participation in a Game Jam of The Sandbox Game with a portal theme.
During this participation, the team took as a basis the 2D assets of the original game to bring them to the Game Maker of The Sandbox. The objects were modeled in 3D, except for the final bosses, which were kept in 2D to provide a unique sticker style that would highlight them as the camera was 2D.
The lore of the game was expanded by establishing that the Exorcist Saga would be starred by individuals of the Bamone surname through various generations, inspired by the handling of the lineage that is done in the anime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Portal mechanics were created along with attacks triggered by the Grimoire by the new character named Kai Bamone, who is given to the player at the start of their exploration of the game's four levels. A secondary mission of collecting souls was also included.
This game was put on hold until Ashara Studios considered that its mechanics and elements were appropriate to be addressed again. It is worth noting that it was after this Game Jam that The Sandbox Game approved the financing for the start of the production of Tower of Myths.
?? The new pitch: Exorcist Reborn
After the previous one, Ashara Studios mobilized the team around the great project that constituted Tower of Myths, a medieval experience in Voxelart developed in a 2x2 land. This experience, for its mechanics and secrets, is the largest developed to date in this metaverse.
Months passed and the team consolidated around specific branches of the organization, such as art, development, and marketing. Natural leaders were established in each area, and cross-functional actions were carried out by personnel from these teams. This allowed, for the presentation of the new pitch, the game production team to be strengthened.
Thus, Ashara Studios sent a pitch to The Sandbox Game for the creation of Exorcist Reborn, which was happily accepted.
The team made an effort to maintain the essence of the video game proposed during the Game Jam. For this reason, the 2D camera was kept, the main character continued to be Kai, and the setting was set in the early 20th century.
For the mods, it was decided to use creatures that had been previously considered, when the possibility of releasing a collection of art of creatures from this universe was considered.
In the end, the game was consolidated as a metroidvania that would be linked to another game called Exorcist: Cthulhu's nightmare.
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?? Developing Kai's World
At the time the team was already developing Exorcist Reborn, a new Game Jam was presented with the theme of the Backrooms, which fit perfectly with the horror atmosphere and inspiration from the works of H.P. Lovecraft that the team was creating. This is how Kai's world was expanded through Kai's Nightmare, set in a sinister nightmare in which the character had been captured before experiencing what was proposed in Exorcist Reborn, by the evil action of Marduk, who imprisoned him in his dreams with a mystery to be solved.
Thanks to the participation in the Game Jam, the tone of Exorcist Reborn was finalized, in which Kai fights against that enemy that had him in his dreams and must defeat this evil army that prevents the hero from reaching Marduk, who is a servant of Cthulhu, the true target of Kai's revenge.
For the development, it was decided that there would be various buildings with bosses to reach after solving mysteries or opening doors or areas using the Grimoire, which acquired elemental properties when destroying its enemies, after receiving an elemental soul.
The setting and mechanics were inspired by the Castlevania series, without completely leaving aside those developed in the The Sandbox portal game jam.
Visually, the game sought to make the creatures or bosses of each area have a striking and complex modeling, while the elements associated with the hero were more guided by the cute component to generate the contrast between good and evil.
The same happened with the coloring, which had as its central axis colors such as black or red to highlight certain areas of hidden places, yellow for particles and divine areas, and the final level with the invasion of the lighthouse by the evil influence of Marduk, in purple, who patiently awaited his battle with Kai.
?? Exorcist Saga
Once the linking component of the games that were developed and were being developed was made clear, which are: Exorcist, Cthulhu's nightmare, Kai's nightmare, Exorcist Reborn, the creation of a Miro page was proposed to capture a timeline to place each game created from this saga.
The general objective at the end of the entire saga is related to Lovecraftian mythology, highlighting writings such as: The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow over Innsmouth, Rats in the Walls, among others.
At Ashara Studios, we continue and will continue to strengthen the lore of the Exorcist saga with each new release and in the face of the possibility of extending this development in the future through transmedia.
We seek to create fun, Lovecraftian games that are intertwined by the malignant influence of Nyarlathotep.
Thank you for reading this article, and we provide you with links to play all the games associated with this IP:
Written by Isnel Ramírez Silva
Edited by Andrea Liliana Ramírez Silva