A Valley Without Wind Update #10: Overworld Maps, Soft Focus, and NPCs

Arcen Games is excited to share the latest update for our procedurally-generated survival action-adventure title A Valley Without Wind. Many new developments have taken place since last we checked in, highlighted by the addition of the new Soft Focus visual style, revamped Overworld sections, and tons of progress on Crafting, NPCs, Settlements and various other areas in the game.



We now have a map editor with a variety of functionality for drawing, filling, and smoothing that allows us to create a large number of heavily randomized maps and variants for players to explore. All Overworld chunks are now 256x256 in size; many of them were previously 128x128, which makes for a fourfold increase in size. To give a visual comparison, each tile on the world map is equal to around two-thirds the size of the the entire world map of the original Legend of Zelda.



To fill these large and numerous maps, a lot of progress has been made on crafting, NPCs, settlements, and other meaningful areas. Visually, we've added and improved several areas including new objects, spell/environment effects, and more. We've also introduced a new and improved visual style around the entire game that makes colors more saturated and dramatic, as well as ties all the elements together.



To show everything off our latest video -- Pre-Alpha Footage #10 -- is out now, and nearly two dozen screenshots are available to view on the official AVWW page. For a complete comprehensive look at what we've done this time around, we point you to the title's latest Developer Journal which explains every aspect of the update in full detail.



A Valley Without Wind is currently targeted for official release on PC and Mac in October 2011, with a playable Beta build available to customers who pre-order coming this summer.



About Arcen Games



Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.



AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles.