Al: Narrative Update v1 and Feedback

Summary of the Deep Background Lore

Reagan Tombend is a novice wizard training in the magical arts alongside other magic users in a small abbey away from the village of Roundrock. The village and the abbey have a working relationship where the village provides food and the wizards provide protection from harmful magic and hostile monsters.

As Reagan was studying, they heard a commotion outside of their personal tower. Upon investigating, they found that all of the other wizards had been polymorphed into defenseless animals and the village was inaccessible, blocked by a magical barrier. 

As the only magic user around, they must fight monsters that have crept into the surrounding area in the meantime and rescue their fellow mages and request their assistance in breaking down the barrier.

After gaining access to Roundrock, Reagan confronts the Archwizard, who has polymorphed into a powerful dragon using a forbidden ritual tome, which had created ripples affecting the rest of the mages and attracted monsters to the dark magic source. 

They must fight their mentor to return him to his human form to be reprimanded by the rest of the mages for abusing the gift of magic.

Feedback on the Latest Assets

• This game has a very interesting storyline. The sound effects and art assets matches well with the fantasy-like theme. How will the indoor portion of the level be designed?
• The visuals and the music really sell the story you've created. Maybe having separate music for the battle parts would be good, the normal theme doesn't seem like it'll fit intense parts of the game.
• I like the low poly look. I wish more studios went for it rather than failing at trying to make something hyper realistic. I get down with the cartoony style.
• I like the background music, very medieval like. I wonder if the indoor portion of the game takes place within the village houses. If so, what can you do there?
• The sounds are great and story is cohesive, I really like what's been done so far and can't wait to see what's coming up.
• I love the art in this so much! It also seems like you have an enby protagonist which is also really rad. Only concern I have at this point is on the gameplay side, wondering how combat will feel.
• The aesthetics and storyline mesh together quite well. It looks serious enough to make the player feel endangered but light enough to go with the mystical theme.
• I'm a big fan of the assets you're using for this! Low-poly art can still have a range of styles so seeing all of it mesh together really well is cool.
• I really like the lowpoly look! I think it matches the story perfectly. My only question is what the indoor portion of the level will be?

...and Narrative

• I like the amount of detail you have for the story, it seems like you'veput a lot of thought into the game's world. I also like the way you've pretty clearly defined what the main character's goals are. I'm interested to see what the ending of the game will look like and if reprimanding the wizard who turned themself into a dragon will be a part of the game. Like some others have mentioned, I think it might also be nice to have some different music for more intense portions of gameplay.
• I like how your simple, colorful aesthetic helps to give the story more of a sense of levity rather than one of grave danger. It's different than other stories of magic abuse. What I'm not sure about here is what the Archwizard's story is: why did they abuse magic the way they did? how did they get so much power in the first place? what happens to them after the situation is resolved?
• The player's story is fitting, and I appreciate that even a cartoony, less serious game has a plot involving a mentor gone bad.

Further Developments to be Made

• Develop and name the other characters of the story, by order of importance: the Archwizard, the Druid/Wizard/Witch, and minor flavor for the townspeople. 
• Create dialogue interactions for the NPCS
• Finish the spells and other scripting
• Create the wizard towers
• Finish finding SFX: battle music, character voice blips, more monster noises, attack swings and damage hits
• Fixing the glitching terrain that appears in editor?