Demonicon is an action-RPG for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 set in the dark and grim setting of the Shadowlands which are part of the popular role-playing universe of “The Dark Eye”.
Screenshots
Entrance of the Market District
The market district is the center not only of trade but also of most quest interactions in Warunk. While quests may take you to other districts most quests start and end here. Not only does your family eventually transition into a quest house at the market, you can also find he heads of the two opposing factions of Warunk, the city guard and the Kreutzercartel.
The Guards
Depending on which of the factions you decide to side with, you will have to fight the other, in this case the guards.
The Market
At the market you can trade in your loot, buy weapons, enhancements or potions. There is also a blackboard with side missions.
The Heshthot
The market also becomes the site of a big battle against a lesser demon, a Heshthot. As Cairon, the main character, finds out about his appearance shortly before it happens, he instructs the Warunkians to erect some makeshift barricades to contain the fight.
It’s Raining Fire
While the fight does get heated, it stays within the barricades. How these are cleared up after the fight was left to us Level Designers, so we decided to use them for guidance and took them apart gradually during the storyline.
The Old Rondra Temple
Other big fights also happen inside, such as this showdown with Rondrians, fighters of the holy order of Rondra, the Goddess of Battle. Their strict code of honor binds them to only fight in fair duels. Something that we needed to enforce through scripting.
The Upper City
The district of the wealthier Warunkians still bears the signs of long years under Necromancer rule, and the fights for the cities liberation. The broken and burned top of the golden Pyramid, former home to the ruling Dragon Rhazzazor and the Margrave’s residence that is still under construction can be seen in the background.
The Former Academy
The former magic academy has seen better times. Through the times it also served the ruling necromancers as a base and hideout during the liberation and as mental asylum. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s cellars are rumored to be haunted.
The Bandits
The conflicting factions do not care much for district boundaries. Here Some assassins from the Kreutzercartel try to subdue Cairon.
Necromancy and Demonic Powers
Skulls on the Building’s faces, remnants from the necromancer’s rule, bear witness as Cairon overcomes his adversaries with his demonic “gifts”.
Fire Demon
The Margrave’s residence is under attack through a fire demon. One of three that spawn through-out Warunk during chapter 3.
Ice and Fire
The fire demon finds support in smaller demons fighting along him. The Ice lance can keep them at bay for a while though, along with doing quite some damage.
Peace and Savety
Once the upper city has been rid of these demons, peace and safety resume and gates are opened again.
The Rich and Wealthy
The upper towns inhabitants live relatively sheltered from the people in the lower districts. They even have their own little market square.
About Demonicon
Brief: Demonicon is an action-RPG in the dark and grim setting of the Shadowlands which are part of the popular role-playing universe of “The Dark Eye”.
Outline: 50+ people, 5 years , PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 using Vision Engine, Released for PC on 25. October 2013
Developer: Noumena Studios GmbH (Renamed to Skilltree Studios in 2014, closed by Kalypso Media in March 2016 after releasing Crookz: The Big Heist)
Publisher: Kalypso Media GmbH
Position: Junior Level Designer (5 months)
Previous positions: Level Design Intern (7 months), Level Design Working Student (8 months)
Time frame (of employment): March 2012 – October 2013 (20 Months)
Official Page: formerly worldofdemonicon.com, the domain is now in new ownership
My responsibilities:
- Level Design:
- Designing and implementing levels with vForge, the level-editor for the Vision Engine
- Primary work on Warunk, the settings maincity
- 5 different city parts each in their own scene
- Level geometry placement
- Terrain editing
- Designing various interiors including e.g. cellars designed to contain traps
- Trap placement and set up
- NPC placement
- Placing and integrating other interactive objects (chests, skill-checks, mechanisms)
- Scripting the quest-logic in Lua including:
- Dialog and cutscene integration
- Questbook integration
- Combat scripts and combat integration (wave set up, spawning set up, loot, quest update)
- Setting save points and ensuring the level consistency on loading them
- Creation and maintenance of design documents:
- Excel tables with e.g. combat and gameplay element placement, savegame lists … etc.
- yEd graphs for Story and Quest flow
- Walk-through guides for QA (yEd and Word)
- Wiki pages for e.g. placed traders, tools and functions (MediaWiki)
Team efforts
I mostly worked on Warunk, the main-city of the Shadowlands, where the game takes place. While the rest of the Shadowlands is still very demon-infested, Warunk has been freed, but struggles non the less with food supply and it’s recent past.
Warunk is split into 5 districts and it’s the setting for 2 of the 6 main quest lines (incl. the tutorial) which quite possibly makes it the most complex of all settings. To battle this complexity I worked in tight formation within a small Scrum-team consisting of one other Level Designer, two 3D Artists, an Animator, an Author and up until recently a Concept Artist.
As we all worked on these scenes, the audio-visual part of designing these levels was really a team effort. This also freed some resources for us Level Designers to focus on the structure and implementation of quest-line, to iron out the kinks and implement some of the more complex narrative requirements.
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