Gods: Lands of Infinity Wrap Report

The ancient world of Bellarion has been shattered by two millennia of constant warfare among its gods, who all sought to claim the Divine Throne following the murder of their leader, Xarax. Unable to vanquish each other individually, they sent their armies to attack. None were able to tip the balance of power, so the deities secured themselves and their forces within great fortresses, further protecting their territories with lethal magical traps. The ensuing centuries drained away the life from the land, but gave no indication of a resolution to the stalemate until the divinity of darkness, Mortagorn, somehow discovered a new type of weapon. A staff with a pale crystal at the end, it produced a cold light that brought death to all upon whom it shone, with neither magical nor physical protection able to stay its ominous power.

In Cypron Studios' Gods: Lands of Infinity, one final hope remains. Arswaargh, the deity of fire, has created a being, Vivien, from his own astral body, and dispatched to search through space and time for a counter-weapon. A magical portal has brought her to a world called Antasion, but in the process, she has lost her divine essence and become mortal. In the game, which is described as a blend of RPG and trade strategy, she must figure out how to regain her power, and then find a way to counteract Mortagorn's new advantage before it's too late. We initially spotted this project some time ago, and now that it's available in the North American market, Lead Designer Martin Sabo-Balog, assisted by Chief Director Stefan Pavelka and colleague Christopher Curdes, provided this highly informative post-release report from the team's perspective.

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The Project

Martin Sabo-Balog: Gods: Lands of Infinity is a unique fantasy game that combines features of both RPG and trade strategy, all wrapped in an easy, attractive and dynamic concept. It is a game that honors features of the old school RPG classics and presents them in a new fashion. The story of Gods starts in the ancient world of Bellarion, which is suffering at never-ending war of its gods. When a new threat emerges in the hands of the evil god Mortagorn, all hope seems to fade. The fire-god, Aarswargh, creates a divine avatar from his astral body and sends her to seek salvation on other worlds. You start the game as this lost avatar, embodied into a female fighter named Vivien, who must explore the new world of Antasion in the search of the ancient gods to regain her power and to find the counter-weapon against the evil god Mortagorn.

We allow the player to walk in a fanciful environment, to fight monsters, to wield mighty weapons and amazing spells, to meet interesting fantasy characters and share their destinies.

Vivien doesn't travel alone, of course. As our game is a party-based RPG, she gradually meets heroes and adventurers from this new world to aid her in her difficult quest. You move about and discover the realms of Gods in first-person point of view; you can speak to people, take various side quests or the lead quest of each kingdom, make money through many trade opportunities - but when it comes to a fight, a special battle scene appears, and the game switches to a turn-based combat system that makes battles transparent and easy to control.

In comparison with real-time combat involving many characters, which is often rather confusing, this concept allows you to concentrate fully on the potential of each member of your party, to enjoy all the actions and effects performed. A turn-based combat system with various skills, spells, and other battle actions requires tactical development of each character and building the structure of your party.

The Team

Martin Sabo-Balog: Cypron Studios is your family, your mother, father and your Obi-wan. The only thing we miss is more females on the team. :) Seriously, when you work on a smaller team, you know everyone; most of us are close friends, and we spend most of the time together. Of course, during the development process, some members left while others arrived.

The skeleton core of the team is two people, Lead Programmer Emil Popovic, and Chief Director (artist, manage, and everything else together) Stefan Pavelka. These two started making their first games on ZX Spectrum and Commodore Amiga during their high school days. After their first attempts, they published successful games on Amiga and - last but not the least - a real-time strategy, State of War, for the PC, which was followed by the datadisc called Warmonger. Just a few weeks ago, a brand new State of War: Arcon with a revolutionary strategy concept was completed. The Gods team is now working on a sequel that will focus on a new race in Gods, the dark elves.

High-Level Goals

Martin Sabo-Balog: When we first decided to create Gods: Lands of Infinity, we wanted to make a brand new kind of a fantasy game - something wondrous, adventurous, entertaining, exciting - something that you would remember. The first and the most important aspect of any game concept is entertainment, and the feel of an adventure. We wanted to avoid knotty game calculations, lots of tables, statistics, and long, boring dialogues as we assumed that if a player wants to play, he doesn't want to read a 600-page book. We allow the player to walk in a fanciful environment, to fight monsters, to wield mighty weapons and amazing spells, to meet interesting fantasy characters and share their destinies. The final effect we got from our "alchemy room" is a smooth, catchy and original game that combines various features from other RPGs and tries to avoid their negative experiences. We wanted to forge an adventure!