Hey gang! The game has been released on Steam. Check it out at the official Steam page! Join the discussion group, leave some comments and reviews. Let me know if there are any questions. Thanks!

http://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/604920/Darkblood_Chronicles/

I just wanted to muse a bit on the process of story writing.

Originally, the concept for the game was a parody of the popular vampire genre of books and movies (this was about four or five years ago). My friend and I created a draft for a background legend revolving a vampire named Malahyde. It was naturally a little hokey, and meant to poke fun at what the genre had become in recent years. Having said that, I will mention I am a big fan of Diary of Vampire and classic Romero Zombie movies, in contrast to the modern 2000+ mainstream horror "classics". But I digress.

As I fleshed out this draft, adding the existing story on top of it and using it as a basis and inspiration for the story that occurred afterwards, something weird happened. I found myself finding it difficult to write a parody. I started to care about the characters and wanted to write characters that were realistic and convincing.

Samantha, naturally, is based largely around myself. Obviously, I am not female, but her personality, and her personality traits, are largely how I view myself. She's a bit unsure of herself, is slow to take action, but when it's crunch time, gets stuff done. And while she can be insecure at times, she knows what she's capable of and has realistic expectations of her limits and abilities. I tried to make Samantha as well rounded as possible, and not once in the story, I am proud to say, do I objectify her, or put her in a position that would be deemed "damsel in distress". I will say now, I absolutely loathe the treatment of female characters in contemporary video games, and I wanted Samantha to be a quiet and understated slap in the face to all the shallow, stereotyped and objectified female video game characters of today and beyond. But I digress, again.

The first draft of the script was pure dialogue. I think most game scripts, especially dialogue rich JRPGs, are drafted this way. There were light sprinkles of character actions here and there, and I would note where I wanted a dungeon to be placed, when the player was free to explore and so on.

The script was read over, abridged, edited, altered and reviewed two more times. Luckily, I was quite happy with the end result, and began integrating the dialogue into the game engine almost immediately afterwards. I zipped around quite a bit, creating scenes that I felt were compelling first, or creating ones that were more vivid in my mind (so I could move and animate the characters).

Looking back at it now, I am happy with the end result. The storyline has enough hidden meaning that for those interested, I feel there is a big payoff to explore and really investigate the meaning of certain events, characters and symbols that appear throughout. At the same time, however (and obviously it's too late to change large proponents of the story), one thing that was needed even more was compressing certain characters and elements together. For example, in the game, both the Zodiac warriors and Queen Nova sacrifice themselves to save the Dark Realm. This happens every one hundred years in the mythos of the game world. Both these characters essentially serve a similar purpose. I could have worked the story out better so that they served different, complimentary purposes, or were simply the same character. This is just a small example, and fortunately, the storyline is quite streamlined, but not bare or missing depth.

Thanks for reading, hopefully this insight has been interesting.
Dorian T.

I was looking at and reviewing the games on Steam, while thinking about my original intention with creating Darkblood Chronicles, and that was, brining more classic JRPGs to Steam.

What is the staple of a JRPG? I think it depends on who you ask, but in my opinion, JRPGs focus on characterization and story. I should say, however, that not every JRPG is successful in this regard. I think, perhaps, JRPGs focus on the story and characters, but, and it somewhat pains me to say, some JRPGs just don't tell a very good story or have interesting characters. Obviously this is left entirely to interpretation and opinion, and this point of view is my own.

Having said that, the focus with Darkblood Chronicles is the same. Looking back at the media we have uploaded for the game, perhaps this isn't entirely clear.

I grew up with JRPGs. Classic games such as Suikoden, Final Fantasy VI, Granstream Saga, Persona and other similar games have influenced Darkblood Chronicles.

I do honestly believe that too many JRPG developers fall into the trap of focusing on other aspects of development and forget what the original genre was all about: immersion into a wonderful story filled with interesting and original characters.

Series such as Star Ocean, for example, are addictive because the gameplay is such a joy. But the characterization is sometimes seriously lacking, nevermind the storyline which sometimes plods along with nothing interesting really happening. Again, this is my opinion.

What I have attempted to do with Darkblood Chronicles is create an interesting backstory first, then proceed forward and create a sort of "sequel" afterwards, which is the game itself. What do I mean by this?

Basically, there's a whole history before the game starts that the player is unaware of. As the game progresses, the player learns bits and pieces of this history, and they realize that this history itself shapes what is happening in the present. It's a little hard to explain, but basically, if we think of Persona for example, the decisions the characters make, and their personalities, are shaped by the experiences in this past. Because of a child-hood trauma, for example, a character in Persona might be hesitant to take a certain action, or be docile or uncomfortable in a certain situation.

Applying that to Darkblood Chronicles, Samantha, the main character, is entirely a "victim" of her history. This history unfolds and becomes more apparent as the player proceeds through the game. Major events in Sam's life and history become clear, and the player begins to unveil and understand what makes Sam "tick", so to speak.

It's a little difficult to talk about without major spoilers, as the game is also inspired by psychological horror games such as Silent Hill, but basically, the dark realm, the place within which Sam is drawn, is a metaphor for her past, her history, her personality and her reality.

I will reveal more information in the coming days.

Thanks for reading,
Dorian T.

I just made an announcement on the Greenlight page regarding familiars. Check it out if you haven't already!

Familiar System

It explains it pretty well. What I will add is that the Familiars are based off of monsters or characters from legends, mythology and the horror genre. There's also a large dash of original characters, and characters and monsters from games I've worked on, or personally created. It's more or less what the other half of the 40 available Familiars consist of. Expect the usual suspects such as Succubus and dark lord Baphomet, with a dash of the original and inspired.

The Familiars was a concept that I wanted to somehow incorporate since the beginning of development. It sort of kills two birds with one stone, as it adds a new amount of strategy while eliminating more difficult spots. I really look forward to hear people's thoughts as they start playing.

Thanks for reading.
Dorian T.

The previous version of the game didn't have a world map. Every area was connected to each other in one giant gameworld (that never zoomed out, ala world map style). It was my good friend Eric that suggested I do a world map instead.

I was a little hesitant at first I thought to myself, is there really a benefit? After all, FFX never had a world map. Other games however, that I hold very dear, such as Suikoden, did. But, yes, there are tangible benefits, some not immediately obvious until you're actually on the world map.

• A sense of a larger and more expansive game world
  
• Opportunity for easy placement of teleporters that connect game world
  
• Opportunity for creative and unexpected secrets and secret areas
  
• Epic music track that really sets the mood
  
• An idea of what this game world really looks like, from a bird's eye view

I think the last point is actually pretty important in the case of DBC. I was originally going for a retro feel, and the world map does that perfectly. The concept of a world map has been around since the dawn of JRPGs (Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy immediately come to mind), and people familiar with the originals in those series will immediately feel at home and recognize the retro feel I was going for. At the same time, the genre we've selected for DBC, is best realized in a world map that's bleak, desaturated and somewhat of a wasteland. It really reminds me of the world of ruin from FFVI. So hopefully, mission accomplished in setting the mood.

Although Steam doesn't allow images to be posted within groups, you can check out some screenshots at the Greenlight page:

World Map Screenshots

Thanks for reading,
Dorian T.