[h3]Greetings, Lampbearers.[/h3] This week’s HEXWORKS Dev Journal will deep dive into the dreadful lands of Umbral, the realm of the dead. Guillem, Game Designer on Lords of the Fallen, grants you important knowledge that should help you survive the abominations lurking within this hellish world. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42849889/d33257af6984c2e2d688686a71c7165b7c0bdcca.png[/img] [h3]Umbral, the realm of the dead[/h3] We had a clear idea of what it should be like for players to be in Umbral: once dead, we wanted them to be trapped in a strange world, the world of the dead, existing in parallel to that of the living world, Axiom. We wanted them to focus on trying to find a way out, and from this seminal concept, all kicked off. Umbral is dominated by a primordial cosmic entity, like the Caligine. It was the murk looming everywhere before the beginning, before chaos, before even the gods that humans venerate existed. Yet umbral is hidden for most mortals, it thrives in a plain of existence that is invisible, and from the shadows, it manages to exert its influence on the living. Whether by fate or accident, the player comes across the Umbral Lamp, a device of ungodly powers that grants the ability to peek into the other side. However, they must proceed with caution, for in this realm they are not welcome and will become prey of the creatures inhabiting Umbral, each with desires to carve their vital essence. [h3]The Umbral lamp[/h3] The lamp is a curious and rare object, one which grants its chosen bearer a strong connection with the umbral. Little is known of the people who created the Umbral Lamp, only that they were an ancient, almost extinct culture, who worshiped what was known as the Putrid Mother. Players that devote themselves to the primordial goddess and pay attention to details will eventually discover how these lamps were forged. Because there’s more than one lamp in this world, and plenty before the one you are holding. The Umbral lamp provides its chosen bearer a series of unique (and heretical) abilities. Among other things, it can be used to peek into the Umbral or to dive into it, granting players the power to flay the souls of the living for a short time and enabling them to create their own vestiges. Of course, it is also a reliable source of light that does not need recharging. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42849889/3944c44fad40bd88fb7172e182811fd93b329ee9.jpg[/img] [h3]Death loop[/h3] Most of the team - including myself - was alive in the 80s and 90s and we kind of have a taste for some old dark games. In some of those games and in many pop culture references we grew up with, the protagonist navigates an alternate version of reality which is darker and grimmer, so that is a fantasy that is somehow rooted in our imagination. We honour those roots and something inside ourselves quietly compels us to renew that experience, to make the best version we could of what people could expect nowadays using UE5. I think we could not be prouder to create this next level interaction and inspire a new generation of kiddos. The most challenging part to nail was probably to combine Umbral with the death loop and the corpse run so characteristic of this genre, in a way that felt natural and balanced. Integrating the death loop with Umbral nicely was a collaborative process with the whole team, in which people would play each prototype and we would collect their feedback to decide the next step forward. Their input and their investment on the feature was really crucial. In its final form, the death loop is as follows. When lamp bearers die, it is not the end. They have two lives granted by the mysterious Umbral lamp. They can also willingly decide to sacrifice one of their lives to go to Umbral and perhaps explore a secret corner of the level after some sweet loot. While they have another chance to live in the realm of the dead, they must keep in mind that if they die here, it’s “true death”. When that happens, this forces players to do the more traditional corpse run: walk all the way back from their last vestige to the place where their vigor was dropped. There is also a caveat: if players die to an Axiom enemy, their vigor won’t be just dropped on the floor for them to pick. If they want to retrieve it, they will have to extract it from the dead body of their murderer. In this way, we found a nice way in which the lore integrates perfectly with the mechanics and helps immersing the player into the experience even further. Players need to be cautious because they will start in Umbral with half their HP withered, so any hit will slay at least half of their lives which can be recovered by attacking enemies. Any form of Healing does not work the same in Umbral as it will give you a part of regular HP and a part in withered HP which you’ll have to cash by attacking enemies. Also, lamp bearers are strangers in Umbral which has its own “ecosystem”, and they’re definitely not welcome there. The more they will be affected by The Dread and the more dangerous creatures will come after them. If players want to exit Umbral (and they will) they can do it by finding a vestige and resting there, resetting the world and appearing again fully restored in Axiom. They can also find some special effigies that will allow them to go back to the world of the living with their current stats. However, these effigies of reincarnation do not work if there are enemies nearby, so sometimes they’ll have to earn their way out. [h3]Enemies[/h3] The enemies of umbral (or Umbries, as we called them for short) had to feel like they belong to the world of Lords of the Fallen, but clearly not to Axiom. We started with a very high level idea for them: they would have distinctive features and they would complete each other in ways that go beyond mere addition. Then the twisted mind of the artists revisited their worst nightmares it seems and gave them a body that totally suits their function and the game. I may be biased, but they are some of my favorite creatures in the game. We also have another type of umbral enemies in the game, the Parasites. They are nasty little creatures that materialised in Umbral and learned to feed across the realms, feasting on the vigor of the living. However, they don’t just take, they live in a symbiotic relationship with their hosts and in exchange for their souls, they grant them ungodly powers from the umbral realm. If you ever wondered what was the explanation to what happened to Bruce Willis in Unbreakable: he probably had an umbral parasite. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42849889/31a3f6b6123e239c776b031d2c32f9f4c0c766af.jpg[/img] [h3]Art Direction[/h3] In terms of aesthetics, we didn’t want to create the entire world twice. But still, we wanted Umbral to be very present in the game. So with Alex, HEXWORKS Art Director, we ended up developing the current form of umbral. It ended up being this sort of layer of filth that grows everywhere but frozen in time forever. It grows relentlessly, unaware of what’s devouring and yet, like the mold, it takes the shape of the space it inhabits. But as Cezar, HEXWORKS Creative Director imagined, it does not just take the shape of the spaces, but also of the emotions that linger in that space. We wanted Umbral to look medieval. Even if Beksinski, Gigger and Olivier de Sagazan were references for the umbral world, Alex didn’t want umbral to feel sci-fi or modern, instead we wanted to root it in the grim dark medieval fantasy we were building for the game. We based the umbral aesthetics into repetition and saturation, so we combined the main references with an approach similar to the rivers of souls that Gustave Dore engraved for the Divine Comedy to get a bit more ancient. We still wanted to give each level (and each zone within it) its own particular touch in Umbral so we worked with Alex on establishing a characteristic identity in umbral for each level. [h3]Stigmas[/h3] To unravel the story of our game, players will have to pay attention to many details in the environment, between the lines of the NPCs and in the descriptions of items. But if they traverse the lands of Mournstead in Umbral, they will be able to find also some secret nuggets of story and lore and perhaps some more surprises. Moments of challenging decisions and intense emotions got crystalized in Umbral like scars in the tissue of time, we call them Stigmas. Players will perceive them as ghostly figures trapped in time for eternity. If they soulflay those ghosts, they will be able to reenact the events of the past and acquire its secrets sometimes, literally. [h3]Puzzles and secrets[/h3] Some places will be only accessible if players dive fully into Umbral. It will always be worth the effort, but it will not always be easy. They can but don’t need to get obsessed with checking every single corner of the world in Umbral to find useful stuff, we welcome and reward any kind of obsessive madness for the twisted beauty of Umbral but we don’t make it necessary. It won’t take long for players to realise that Pale Moths and Lilies of the Dead will tend to gather in places where Umbral forces are particularly strong such as Vestiges and Effigies of Reincarnation. Moths and Lilies share in fact a bond with the Putrid Mother and, with their subtle presence, they usually signal a puncture, a bridge between Umbral and Axiom. Once in Umbral players will find some tortured souls, humans so arrogant that dared to get too close to the Umbral and got trapped and integrated in its organic growth forever. These ever agonising figures still keep their soul with them, also fused to the Umbral amalgam. Thanks to that, the player will be able to use its Soulflay ability to pull from them and manipulate the Umbral environment, opening new paths and discovering valuable secrets. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42849889/17f0d69a823b62470611df8b04c29b6840564fb8.jpg[/img] [h3]Q&A[/h3] [b]What are umbral eyes?[/b] [i]Well, Umbral has many eyes besides the creepy ones that will be always scrutinising you from the environment, you’ll see. Players can find the eyes of ancient heroes, these will be rare but powerful. Once they find them, they shall bring them to the lamp-maker in order to socket them in their haunted lamp and gain secret umbral powers. Players can also earn plucked eyes from avenging falling comrades. They can use them as offerings to the Putrid Mother and trade them for Umbral goods. And lastly, there will be the eyes that players won’t want to see, the eyes of The Dread. While players stay in Umbral, they will attract predators that will come after them. Players can track the progress in the interface while in umbral. The main eye will be always beholding, but different types of special Umbries can come after them when the small eyes appear around the main one. Also, when the main eye becomes red, you better run for your life.[/i] [b]Are there any weapons or spells that the player can use that are stronger when we are in Umbral?[/b] [i]We have some upgrades you can socket to your lamp that will grant you bonuses while in umbral, but in general we want the player to feel threatened when in there, so the main thing that will get stronger in umbral should be the fighting spirit of the player.[/i] [b]Are there unique treasure chests and loot drops only obtainable in Umbral?[/b] [i]Surely they are. There are very juicy things waiting for you in Umbral if you dare to explore. But maybe sometimes we make you suffer a bit to get them.[/i] [b]Does Umbral have its own god?[/b] [i]Umbral is governed by an ancient deity known to humans as the Putrid Mother. I cannot tell you much about her without entering the spoilers territory or without you descending into madness irremediably. Suffices to say that: She is large, of cosmic proportions, she can eat Gods for breakfast. She is ancient like time itself. And she is hungry. Very hungry.[/i] [b]Are there any Umbral-only NPCs?[/b] [i]There are NPC that you can find only in Umbral indeed. They may surprise you the first time you see them and they may make your heart skip a beat, but they can be very helpful in the end. I cannot go much into detail without spoiling some nice surprises, so I will leave it as it is.[/i]