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[DunamisStudios]

Dev Log #1


Hello All,

Today is our first dev log for Rise of Valhalla. Any and all feedback is welcome!



RoV is an attack/defense, multiplayer-only RTS-MOBA hybrid being developed for PC. Players will choose between the fierce Anglo-Saxons (defenders) or the mighty Vikings (attackers). They will have 15-25 minutes in a single match to fight for victory. Over the course of the battle, players will level-up, allowing them to upgrade their units and heroes, as well as increase the size of their army.

In today's dev log, we are going to look at the melee unit for the Vikings: the Vikingr Warrior.

   

• Vikingr Warriors:

   Mighty foot-soldiers, who utilize strength and skill at arms to crush their opponents
   
Abilities:
  Leap Attack (target unit or ground, 15 second cooldown):
         All Vikingr leap ahead (11 m) to close distance and strike fiercely.
         They critically strike for 200% dmg with their weapons if they are within range of an enemy unit.
    Any units not within range will leap but not attack.
    Ability can target either a unit or ground.

Equipment: Hand-axe, round shield, light armor (furs and leather) & defensive charms (runes, animal teeth).
Strengths: Ample health, speed and damage, and magic resistance.
Weaknesses: Little armor, high point cost, short range melee.


The Vikingr are fast and brutal. They can close the distance on high-damage, ranged units with their leap ability (which can be upgraded to snare targets). They have roughly twice the health and damage of a single Anglo-Saxon Footman (the standard melee unit for the defenders), and they can kill low-armored targets within seconds.

Please check out our website at: http://www.riseofvalhalla.com

If you liked our artist Daniel's work and want some freelance stuff done, here is his Freelancer Profile

Cheers,

Dunamis Studios

[BunchofCircles]

Really cool!

[DunamisStudios]

Dev Log #2

Last week we outlined the art that went into the Vikingr Warrior unit. Rather than take you through the whole process of polychopping, we'd just like to show you the "finished" product. Keep in mind this will be viewed in game from an RTS perspective, so the views here are much closer than in-game camera will show.


The final model stands at 2700 polygons (including armor and such):




Viking angry!




Mean muggin'.


As always, please let us know what you think. Any and all feedback is helpful and welcome.


Please check us out at: www.riseofvalhalla.com
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All the art was done by Daniel Merticariu.

[DunamisStudios]

Dev Log #3: Vikingr Warrior Animations

While Daniel was crafting the Viking details, our animator Kieran Williams, has been hard at work on giving him an appropriately belligerent personality.

Keep in mind the videos posted here are GIFs. If you want to see the full animation, we have posted the YouTube links below the images.


Vikingr Warrior Run:









Viking Warrior Attack:









Viking Warrior Block:



YouTube Block Animation



OK, for the idle animation, we wanted to show you how it came together.

First, the breathing:




Then, the axe throw:





And finally, the Idle Animation:



YouTube Idle Animation


Thanks for giving our dev log a read. Please let us know what you think; any and all feedback is welcome.

Please check us out at: www.riseofvalhalla.com
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
All the animations were done by Kieran Williams. Please check out his Portfolio

[Whiskeyjack]

Looks good. Are you going for historical realism here?

[warhammerace]

This looks awesome! I have been waiting for a long time to see a good RTS come out that is not set in the future or WWII. I can't wait to see what comes next. GL

[DunamisStudios]

Thanks for the questions and feedback guys.

At Whiskeyjack: while the game is set during the time of the Viking invasions (9th Century), we are incorporating fantastical elements from Norse mythology, Pagan sorcery, and Christian Europe. So, we want the art to reflect that; i.e. a mix between realism and fantasy.

At Warhammerace: Thanks! We are excited to hopefully take the traditional RTS to a place it hasn't been before...clearly we are quite early in development, but stay tuned for more game-specific logs.

Cheers.

[DunamisStudios]

Dev. Log #4: Viking Leap

Hey All,

Today we wanted to feature the Vikingr Warrior's Leap ability. Please let us know what you think!

Abilities:
  Leap Attack (target unit or ground, 15 second cooldown):
         All Vikingr leap ahead (11 m) to close distance and strike fiercely.
         They critically strike for 200% dmg with their weapons if they are within range of an enemy unit.
    Any units not within range will leap but not attack.
    Ability can target either a unit or ground

Since Rise of Valhalla is an asymmetrical RTS and the Vikings are the attackers, they need to have quick-striking offensive abilities. Leap helps the Vikingr Warriors to quickly close the distance between themselves and pesky ranged units so that they can deal out death quickly and brutally.


Here is our basic Leap Animation:







Notice this version does not show the Vikingr leaping very far and there's a bit of a slow-mo effect. That is because in-game the leap will be of variable length.

This is a bit closer to what the Leap would look like in-game:







As always, we appreciate your feedback.

Cheers.


Please check us out at: www.riseofvalhalla.com
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
All the animations were done by Kieran Williams.

[Jad]

If this is the rise of Valhalla, does that mean that the dead champions of Valhalla have to rise again into the land of the living to take care of business in Midgård?

[Gabriel Naro]

Looks great!

I'd like to know more about the historical aspects of it, love vikings history!

[DunamisStudios]

If this is the rise of Valhalla, does that mean that the dead champions of Valhalla have to rise again into the land of the living to take care of business in Midgård?

Looks great!

I'd like to know more about the historical aspects of it, love vikings history!

Jad & Narolol,

Thanks for the questions! Hopefully this should provide answers for both of your queries. Basically, the title illustrates the historical and fantastical elements of the game coming together. The game is set during the Viking invasions, but most of the elements in Norse mythology will be present (eventually) in the game. So imagine that the invasions occurred while Valhalla was rising, bringing with it the fallen warriors, the fire giants of Muspell, the Valkyries, and the good old historical Berserkirs, and Volur, to name a few. That then, allows for the Anglo-Saxon side to defend with it's fantastical elements of Arthurian legend, pagan sorcery, and holy Christian power.

We wanted to make something epic that allows for the best elements of medieval history and medieval lore and fantasy to come together in one game.

Cheers.

[Whiskeyjack]

ETA on Anglo-Saxon art/ models?

[DunamisStudios]

Whiskeyjack,

I should have clarified what is coming up in our next dev log. That is all for the Vikingr Warrior. Our Anglo-Saxon melee unit, the Footman, will be featured next week.

Thanks for asking.

[ComTruise]

I've got a suggestion for some helms in case the designs haven't been locked down yet. Came across what is supposedly the only complete viking helm on Reddit and thought it'd be cool to incorporate it into the game:


Excerpt:
The Gjermundbu Helmet dates to about AD 970. It is the only complete example of a Viking helmet yet discovered, and was found beneath a burial mound on a farm in Norway, broken into nine pieces. The helmet was designed with a horizontal rim that went around the head, attached to which were two vertical strips, one extending from ear to ear, the other from the front of the head to the back. Protective iron plates were riveted onto this framework. It probably would have had an aventail (a chainmail neck guard) but none was found.
The discovery was made in 1943 at Gjermundbu, a site that is just outside the village of Haugsbygd in the Ringerike municipality of Norway. In fact, two rich Viking burials were uncovered there, named Gjermundbu and Gjermundbu II. Excavations revealed a huge number of Viking warrior gravegoods. In addition to the helmet, these included spears, axes, swords, shields, and a chainmail shirt, all of which were dated to the second half of the 10th century.
Few remains of Viking Age helmets survive in the archaeological record. Maybe they were considered heirlooms and passed down from father to son, rather than being buried with the dead. The Gjermundbu helmet is similar in design to the pre-Viking helmets that were found in the 6th- to 8th-century AD Swedish Vendel burials. These feature a rounded cap with the spectacled-face guard, and mail aventails, a design that was common across Anglo-Saxon, Frank, and Slav cultures, and often embellished by decorations to depict individual warriors. Such ornamentation disappeared in later periods, in favour of a simpler standardised conical helmet with a nosepiece. There is no evidence that Vikings wore horned or winged helmets into battle. Horned helmets did exist in pre-Viking Nordic and Germanic cultures, but for ceremonial use only. The enduring image of horned-helmeted Vikings probably stemmed from a misinterpretation of evidence, popularised in 19th-century Romanticism, and taken up by the German costume-designer Carl Emil Doepler for the Viking characters in Wagner’s operatic version of the Nibelungenlied, thus embedding the image in popular culture of the time.

Your Vikingr already looks pretty sweet with his chrome dome. Maybe you could use the helm for embellishment on one of the in game screens or subtly build one or two into the map as ruins. Just a thought.

Keep up the good work!

[ComTruise]

Sutton Hoo Anglo Saxon helm:


Anglo-Saxon, early 7th century AD
From Mound 1, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England

This extraordinary helmet is very rare. Only four complete helmets are known from Anglo-Saxon England: at Sutton Hoo, Benty Grange, Wollaston and York.

The helmet was badly damaged when the burial chamber collapsed. By precisely locating the remaining fragments and assembling them as if in a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, conservators have reconstructed the helmet. A complete replica made by the Royal Armouries shows how the original would have looked.

The helmet comprised an iron cap, neck guard, cheek pieces and face mask. Its form derives from Late Roman cavalry helmets. The helmet’s surfaces were covered with tinned copper alloy panels that gave it a bright, silvery appearance. Many of these panels were decorated with interlacing animal ornament (‘Style II’) and heroic scenes of warriors. One scene shows two men wearing horned head-gear, holding swords and spears. The other shows a mounted warrior trampling a fallen enemy, who in turn stabs the horse. The rider carries a spear which is supported by a curious small figure, standing on the rump of his horse – perhaps a supernatural helper. Similar scenes were popular in the Germanic world at this time.

The face-mask is the helmet’s most remarkable feature. It works as a visual puzzle, with two possible ‘solutions’. The first is of a human face, comprising eye-sockets, eyebrows, moustache, mouth and a nose with two small holes so that the wearer could breathe. The copper alloy eyebrows are inlaid with silver wire and tiny garnets. Each ends in a gilded boar’s head – a symbol of strength and courage appropriate for a warrior. The second ‘solution’ is of a bird or dragon flying upwards. Its tail is formed by the moustache, its body by the nose, and its wings by the eyebrows. Its head extends from between the wings, and lays nose-to-nose with another animal head at the end of a low iron crest that runs over the helmet’s cap.
[Shamelessly lifted from http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/h/helmet_from_sutton_hoo.aspx]

[DunamisStudios]

Dev Log #5: Weapon Effects

Hey All,

So, our high-res model of the Footman unit is about done. Before we give him a reveal, we thought it would be fun to post a teaser of an early version of our map as well as some shots of our WIP weapon upgrades.

Each unit has an upgrade tree so that through the match you can specialize them. Here are some previews of our Fiery Axe, Frost Axe, and Lightning Axe upgrades for the VW.


Fiery Axe:



•   Attacks may set opponents aflame (burning DoT and reduced chance to block)


Frost Axe:



•   Chance on hit to chill enemy, reducing movement speed


Lightning Axe:



•   Attacks may do additional magic damage and chain lightning to nearby opponents.



Let us know what you think! Feedback is always welcome.

Particles were created using Particle Playground 2. Test map created using Medieval Environment Pack.

Check us out: Rise of Valhalla

[DunamisStudios]

Dev Log # 6: Anglo-Saxon Footman




Hey All,

As promised, here is the Anglo-Saxon Footman, the bread-and-butter unit for the defenders. Enjoy!



Footmen

Well-equipped soldiers who rely on discipline and coordination to pummel the enemy

Abilities:
Dashing Shield Bash (min. range 4 meters, max range 15 meters  target  ally or enemy squad,  20   second cooldown)

• Dash to the enemy and stun for 2.5 seconds.
  
• Any enemies encountered will be knocked to the side and slowed to 60% movement for 2 seconds

Equipment: short sword, kite shield, and medium armor
Strengths: low cost; effective in large numbers; high armor; can overwhelm other lightly armored targets
Weaknesses: low damage individually; low health; slow movespeed


And for the final render:




As always, thanks for the feedback. We look forward to showing you some sweet footman animations and, in a couple of weeks, a Vikingr vs. Footman showdown.

Cheers.



If you like Daniel's work, check out his  portfolio

Check us out at our website

[Whiskeyjack]

Is this going to be an asymmetrical RTS? And are you planning on implementing hero units?

Regardless, good luck. RTS is my favorite genre, but it's hard to do right, and it seems to be dying.

[DunamisStudios]

Whiskeyjack,

Thanks for the questions. Given the attack/defense nature of RoV, we will be asymmetrical, if you mean that each side fulfills unique roles. The Anglo-Saxons are definitely built to be the defenders (support, healing, high armor, strong ranged attack, etc.) and the Vikings are built to be the attackers (high damage, large health pool, lifesteal, health regen, etc.). We will have hero units and, unlike other MOBAs, hero units are confined to a team. We chose to do that because heroes are designed to work in conjunction with the basic units on each side.

As always, thanks for the feedback and interest.

Cheers.