Last week, we heard more about Tick of Tick’s Tales–this week, creator Bryce tells us about Tick’s allies, enemies and the girl of his dreams!

Gandarf

Though Gandarf shares his name with another well known mighty wizard, I wanted him to be the primary victim of Tick’s mischief. Growing up, I think we many of us had the old neighbor down the road who was fed up with the young whipper-snapper’s shenanigans. That’s Gandarf, powerful though he may be, he can’t seem to rid himself of this pesky Tick.

Bloodclot

Tick is completely reckless. His motives for trying to become a knight are completely selfish, and so my intent with introducing Bloodclot was to have that recklessness finally catch up with him. I decided to create, Bloodclot as a villain who threatens to destroy the town, kidnap Georgia McGorgeous, and make Tick his snack. Tick may try to weasel his way into becoming a knight, but in order for him to defeat his true foe, he’s going to need to dig deep.

Georgia McGorgeous

I thought it’d be great to have Tick’s love interest only means of communicating with him be through his daydreaming. This would keep the player wondering: Does Georgia actually like Tick? Or is that just his imagination running wild? Does Georgia even exist?

Frankie Rockfist

Tick doesn’t just have one villain to deal with. Frankie Rockfist is Georgia’s current boyfriend, and also the leader of the “Super cool secret club,” a group of malicious gangsters out to subvert him on his quest to defeat Bloodclot.

Pay Period 2 (May 2015)

With his adventure game debut coming in less than a week, it’s time to meet the star of Tick’s Tales from none other than his creator, Bryce Covert!

“Tick’s characterization as a troublemaker really started from the realization that most adventure game protagonists are troublemakers in disguise. You break into houses, take stuff, and often lie. What if all the townspeople recognized the protagonist as such?

In writing, people say, ‘Show, don’t tell.’ I figured the best way to show Tick being outed as a whippersnapper was to have Gandarf be fed up with all the hardship Tick has caused him, whether it’s burning down his house, freeing his pet dragon, or stealing his magic cowboy hat.”

“Often in adventures, good guys do good guy things just because they’re good guys. I didn’t want it to be so for Tick. I wanted it to perhaps seem to others that he was turning over a new leaf, when, in fact, he is trying to do a noble thing like becoming a knight  for a purely selfish interest (impressing Georgia McGorgeous). Additionally, I wanted to make sure that the means by which Tick becomes a knight where decidedly un-knightly.”

Will Tick end up doing the right things for the right reasons and becoming a true hero? Find out on June 9th when Tick’s Tales: Up All Knight releases!

Cornerstone contains a number of different playable vehicles that Tyrim uses to get around. Some of them he even crafts himself!

Hang glider

Sick of falling? Craft a hang glider to make otherwise treacherous jumps and insure a soft landing!  Just stock up on wool and you’ll be good to go. This will be the first new mode of travel you’ll encounter in the game.  Make good use of it!

Raft

An old carpenter made plans for seaworthy vessels and this is his most compact one yet!  You’ll need this to start your journey out to the other islands, so that you can eventually upgrade to…

The Mad Goat

Like father like son. The son of the designer of your raft has made plans for a truly seaworthy voyager.  Equipped with a garden where you can grow food and medicine, you will not worry about starvation or sickness as you sail the seas of Nygard.  This vessel will stay with you throughout the rest of your adventure, no rebuilding necessary!  But first, you have to retrieve those plans from your old “friends”, the Rocklovers.

Windsurfer

The desert can be wide and empty.  Perfect place to shred some grains as you ride Mokaga’s trademark (patent pending) windsurfers through the dunes and canyons.  Use the dust devils for extra boost but be careful of the explosive flora that can ruin your flow! Comes in 2 flavors: personal and cargo.  Personal windsurfer blueprints can be found at the local shops; there’s one conveniently located on the Mokaga pier. Enjoy!

Mine cart

What’s a mine without carts to re-enact Temple of Doom in?  The mine cart system of Dune is in need of some repair but you can still get some short thrills zooming down a stretch or two, and even use them for some creative problem solving! But don’t forget to mind the gap.

Learn more about the design and changes in development for some of the unique monsters and enemies Tyrim will encounter in Nygard,

Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim is set in the world of Nygard, where Tyrim will explore 8 unique islands on his quest. Let’s take a closer look at some of them!

Borja

Tyrim’s quest begins on his home island of Borja, where the Vikings live. A lush and green island, it was originally called Borjana in the game and was listed as such on the map for most of development. Only the village was called Borja.  It ended up getting too confusing because the “na” just wasn’t enough to distinguish them clearly in conversation, so now the island and village share the name of Borja.

Rockwell

The dwelling place of the mysterious Rock-lovers, Rockwell is an underground stronghold and library where Tyrim must sneak carefully to avoid detection and travel vertically to explore the full island.

Above ground on the island are fiery exploding skeletons. Testing this section proved quite challenging for QA, leading to giving players more of a heads up about the upcoming explosions so the section was a little more forgiving!

Himama

Himama is a smaller outpost island with connections to the island of Himalu, and currently inhabited by bandits!

Mokaga

A large desert island, Mokaga is littered with ancient ruins, huge bones bleached in the sun, and small villages built around oases.

Here, Tyrim travels through the dunes on his windsurfer!

The Veil

Mystery shrouds this mysterious, misty island…

The world of Nygard is made up of eight islands that Tyrim visits on his quest. Get a closer look at each and hear what inspired the designers to create these eight very different locations!

Cornerstone releases of April 26th–pre-order today and save 20%!

As we saw in last week’s Developer Diary, Cornerstone is filled with quirky and interesting characters of all kinds, from the main character of Tyrim to the people and creatures he’ll encounter on the way. This week, let’s see how some of them changed over the course of development!

Tyrim

Tyrim has gone through some changes since his conception and even since he was first seen in the Cornerstone Kickstarter. Below you can see some of his evolution into his final look for the game.

Yngvar is someone you encounter early on in the game, an Older Viking who teaches Tyrim how to fight. The developers kept a distinct style that they carried from the concept art through to the 3D versions of their characters.

Tyrim lives with his mother, Alma, and his twin sisters on Borja; below are some early concepts for Alma. 

Skeleton

It wouldn’t be a role-playing adventure game without some skeletons to fight!

Samurai

On the island of Gou-Hai, the temple is guarded by fierce Samurai. They are quick to attack and carry fuel barrels on their backs to use in a dangerous fire-breathing attack!

Rocklovers

The mysterious hooded figures known as Rocklovers are an ancient cult that specializes in elemental summoning.

This week, we’re taking a closer look at Tyrim, the hero of Cornerstone, and some of the characters he’ll be meeting on his journey to find the men of his village.

Cornerstone releases on April 26th, and is available for pre-order at a 20% discount in the Phoenix Online Store. Try the demo for free at the Cornerstone website!

We are kicking off the countdown to April 26th and the release of Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim with the first developer diary! In this video, developers Jon and Sam talk about the gameplay, from physics to crafting to combat, and how they designed, implemented, and refined their systems over the course of development.

Cornerstone is available for pre-order at a 20% discount in the Phoenix Online Store, and the demo is available for free at the Cornerstone website!

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller – Game of the Year Edition follows the story of Erica Reed, an FBI detective with the power of retro-cognition. The game has previously won several awards including the “Adventure of the Year” reader award over at adventure gamers. (continue reading…)