Hello! Welcome to our 4th community update! This week we're covering the Prince's story and how narration will be explored in the game - given it's a roguelite it will be slightly unusual but nothing too crazy! There are minor spoilers here, but nothing that you won't discover for yourself in the first 30 minutes of the game. As usual, a video version is on our YouTube channel: [previewyoutube=0vApjwqzvmg;full][/previewyoutube] [b][u][h3]The Prince[/h3][/u][/b] Our story can essentially be summarised as "you're stuck in a save file gone wrong". The Prince himself has already been living a kind of roguelite his whole life, a ‘roguelife’ if you will. Yes, we went there, just go with it... Ok one more, he didn't choose the rogue life, the rogue life chose him. I'm done. His bola, gifted to him as a baby, sends him back in time to the last truly safe place he was in before he dies. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//44971889/d05d71a78cd3aa806542efce61de6407f62f79ae.png[/img] What is a bola? It's just a small hollow piece of jewellery shaped like a sphere, often with a kind of mesh or lattice as an outer layer. So, the Prince doesn't know who gave him his bola or why, all he knows is that this secret (and suspiciously convenient) power has let him take huge risks to perfect the skills of acrobatics & combat in his youth. If he messes up while jumping between buildings or pulling off a crazy move in combat, well, he just dies and goes back in time to when he was last safe. Now a young man, this power has moulded him into a formidable warrior and acrobat, but this safety net has failed to teach the young Prince the value of patience and strategy. While headstrong and reckless, he still cares deeply about his country and the Persian people, and desires nothing more than to keep them safe. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//44971889/d6cb8a240dadd63486480f2b25e6787e666aee9c.gif[/img] So when a Hun force appears near the Persian border and King Peroz wants to take time to strategize and establish contact with the Huns, the Prince is at odds with his father. At first he obeys him, but then the Prince hears stories of strange beasts and dark magic from villagers fleeing the area near the Hun's camp. Driven by his desire to protect his people, the Prince secretly heads out with a small force to confront the Huns, confident in his bola's protection. But when he reaches the camp, his force is quickly overwhelmed by the Huns, who use dark shamanic magic to wield strange powers. Defeated in combat by the Hun King Nogai himself, the Prince slips into unconsciousness. Yet when he wakes up, he is not in the hands of the Huns, nor back in time. His old mentor Sukhra has saved him, bringing him to the Oasis - a safe hidden place near the capital city. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//44971889/a9b7b0fc92303d8203fb6bcf1490df413c2933cf.gif[/img] The Prince quickly learns from Sukhra that his rash actions, though made with good intentions, have triggered an invasion of the city by the Huns. The Prince immediately sets off to stop them, but again he is bested by their dark magic and killed. The bola's power activates and returns him to the last safe place he was in - the Oasis. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//44971889/0901459294318f841e1a61b555b09544fefb105b.gif[/img] The Prince realises with horror that he is stuck - his bola won't take him back further in time and so the Hun invasion is now irreversible. Faced with the first true test of his character, he must head into the city again and again in a seemingly eternal loop, searching desperately for a way to stop the Hun invasion, and hoping in vain for a way to reverse it. Only by confronting his weaknesses and regaining the trust of his family can he save both them and his people from his mistake, and to become the hero he has always wanted to be. [b][u][h3]Narrative Exploration[/h3][/u][/b] Narrative can be tricky in a roguelite - you're doing the same run again and again, so revealing the story can be awkward, convoluted, or can simply just not make sense. This is one of the many reasons why we chose to go into Early Access - to get this narration exploration right, so as to make sure that discovering the story is clear, isn't tedious and also that fits well with the discovery of other gameplay elements. We want the story to arrive naturally, so it is linked to unlocking new biomes, discovering new information, and doing certain interactions. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//44971889/e15ae2485dbce16615c3e7524547de727b8c8833.gif[/img] For example, you could discover a character in one biome, they talk you about another biome which is now unlocked. You go to the new biome and find a letter giving clues about the whereabouts of another character and a way to unlock the path to them. Now you must do certain actions in a certain order on your next run to arrive at this other character and so on. Not exactly ground-breaking stuff, but in this way the narrative is unlocked alongside new biomes and information, and you must complete multiple runs with different paths to discover everything. This can quickly be too much information, so to help you keep on top of it, the Prince has a mind map at his disposal. This saves and links all the clues you find about characters and locations so you can reference it whenever you need to. This will eventually help you to figure out exactly what you need to do... [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//44971889/5ec0765408f6e50e7bba201063ffca5b1efefe6a.gif[/img] At Early Access launch, we only have the first story act in the game, but more will come. But don't worry, there's plenty of weapons, medallions and other things to discover - so there is plenty to keep you occupied until the next story act arrives! That's all for this update, the next time we post it will be for the game launch! [u][b][h3]Dev Stream[/h3][/b][/u] Speaking of launch day, if you'll be stuck somewhere you can't play, we will be doing a dev stream at 18:00 CET/ 09:00 PT on the Steam store page, our [url=https://www.youtube.com/@EvilEmpireStudio/streams]Youtube channel [/url]and [url=https://www.twitch.tv/evil_empire_studio]Twitch channel[/url]. We'll be talking with chat, so if you have any burning questions, come say hi! Hope to see you there on launch day, either playing or watching :) Thanks for reading, Matt & the Evil Empire team [url=https://discord.gg/princeofpersia ]Discord[/url] [url=https://twitter.com/Studio_Evil ]Twitter[/url] [url=https://www.tiktok.com/@evil.empire0]Tiktok[/url] [url=https://www.instagram.com/evilempire_studio/ ]Instagram[/url] [url=https://www.facebook.com/evilempirestudio/ ]Facebook[/url] [url=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxaHW3xw8sByMXnrcAMEPg]Youtube[/url]