Discussing the Next Temple

Last week, Fred got back after spending 2 weeks in Germany. As usual, we celebrated his return by going to our favorite fast-food restaurant, armed with our sketching books and multiple discussion topics!

One of the most important things we discussed was the next temple, because after just one more area has been implemented (Mt: Bloom), it's time to start working on it. I may have mentioned some ideas here before: the theme of the temple will be time travelling, and the setting will be reminiscent of ancient asia. 

Today, we finalized some of these things, and here's what we've come up with so far:

• The "temple" will really be a village/town of sorts. When you enter it in the present, it'll all be in ruins, but as you travel back in time with the help of certain 'rifts' across the map, you'll be able to explore the town in its glory days as well.
• The puzzles will involve unlocking new parts of the town/new rooms etc by altering things in the past. For instance, moving a pillar back in time may unlock a path that the pillar blocked in the present.
• When it comes to enemies, you'll probably mostly be fighting the 'basic enemies' in the present, while the past will involve talking to people, solving quests/puzzles and exploring the story rather than grinding enemies. With that said, there may be special storyline battles taking place in the past, so it won't be entirely without fighting.
• Graphics wise, we want there to be a pretty big difference between the past and the present. In the past the town will be vibrant and alive, in the present everything will be in ruins, broken and overgrown. This means I need to make two unique versions of every single part of this area, which obviously will be a huuge workload for me (although it'll definitely be a fun one)!

Some Sketches & Ideas

I'm going to start creating sketches & mockup-props for this area as soon as possible in order to get a feel for what it could look like. I won't be able to start working on it properly (as in creating the actual area) until we've decided on the layout of the village and worked out all the puzzles, though, so there's still a lot of planning to be made!