LightSpire Fortunes Web - All Released Media

[Havoksage]

Introduction
Hello!
My name is Ashton Andersen. I am the President and Founder of Lukewarm Media, a newly formed development studio.
The team we have is currently made up of professional game developers and hobbyists whom have worked in the industry and have come together to form this studio with the intent of making an Action Adventure RPG using the Cryengine2. This is a sneak preview for our upcoming project “Lightspire”, a total conversion mod.

I know a lot of you are probably wondering what the game is about, what are some of the features, and most importantly, when can it be played; all your questions and more will be answered soon at the launch of the website in the coming week.
However, the team and I have been working very hard on this project for the past 3-4 months, and we are just dying to exclusively leak out some of the work to the other fellow Crytek communities.

Please keep checking in and exploring the websites, as once they launch, they will have all the information needed.
Here at Lukewarm, we like to give sneak peaks with a bang…
Allow me to say “The evolution of fantasy is on its way!”


Positions Available
Character Rigger
Third Person Camera Programmer
AI Programmer
Character Ability Programmer
Time of Day/Lighting Setup
Destructible Physics Object Setup
Particle Effects Setup

Websites-Under Construction
Lukewarm Media
Lightspire Game

More coming soon!
Desktop Wallpapper



Download Full Resolution (1600x1200)
Download Medium Resolution (1024x768)
Download Low Resolution (800x600)

While we are still working on the website code. Here is some media updates along with a "basic" story synopsis" enjoy.


Game World Synopsis
10,000 years on from a cataclysmic event, the world's landscape has changed. The balance of the world has shifted. Races have become extinct, and races have survived and adapted. Others have been cast away into exile. The cataclysm was not fantasy, not an apparition, it was reality, and with it, the world evolved.

The world as it is known now, is dark, grim, gloomy and filled with a sense of hopelessness and depression. Its’ races are forced to change the essence of each of their beings in order to survive an evil, created by a world showing its malevolence.

Prior to the cataclysm, dwarves, elves and other races co-existed in relative peace and harmony.

What wickedness could have emerged that it caused the elves to scatter? What wickedness could have materialized that could cause the elves to die off? What kind of corruption could enter the world that could change the physicality of the elves? The elves were so greatly altered, that they waged war with the dragons in order to absorb their magical powers and therefore enhance themselves. From this war, the elves developed and augmented their powers, following the mantra of ‘only the strong will survive’. The dragons withered and eventually came to be controlled by the elves.

The dwarves, on the other hand, had a far more ominous story to tell.

Due to the harshness of the new world, the dwarves were exiled and trapped. The dwarves’ downfall came about because of their own greed and stubbornness. With no resources, they were forced to use the very fabrics of their being in order to survive. The dwarves palatial homes were broken down in order to build new ones, their prized axes and armor were melted and reused in tools for survival. Even their own hair was used to create rope. The characteristics of the dwarven race were greatly altered, all because of a need to survive. The variation was so great, it compelled the dwarves to learn that which they hated the most. The dwarves too, became magicians.

10th of January - New Forums

Today we would like to introduce you to our new forums. These forums have been setup so that everyone has a place to discuss the modification. Also Luke Warm Media members will be active on the forums and are keen to hear the communities thoughts and ideas. You can access the forums here.

1st of January - Character Update

Rynox - 3d Render
The Rynox is a lethal killer, its favored tactic being an all out charge. Preferring body slams to swordplay the Rynox will throw itself at your defenses with no pity or remorse. You must have your wits about you to avoid being impaled on its huge 20 inch head-mounted horn. Though barbaric and relentless in close quarters battle the Rynox is also a competent tactician and capable of organizing less intelligent beings. Depending on which character you play, you will need to adjust your tactics to fight this killer.





Shapeshifter - 3D Render
At the moment little is known of the ShapeShifter. A mysterious being with the power to transmogrify himself and cast powerful ancient spells. Through his power and wisdom he also carries with him a terrifying curse.



Official Holiday Update

In-Engine Screenshots
Below we are showcasing a couple of new things. We have in order of apperance; A Cavern you will be able to explore, The Shape Shifter(a playable hero), and a few enemies you will encounter and have to defeat called a Rynox and a pack of Goblins. The Shape Shifter will have telekinetic powers, shape shifting abilties, and many more undisclosed advantages to choosing this character. Please be reminded that all the screenshots shown below are in-engine screenshots and the level of quality that is acheivable with CryENGINE 2.

Work In Progress Music
We have included two of our newest tracks in video form for easy access. The first video is a concept track which will be used for battle purposes. The second is a concept for Lightspire: Fortune's Web theme music.

Concept Music 1

Concept Music 2

Wallpapers
We have a selection of wallpapers below we are providing to you as our small christmas present for supporting our modification including two never before seen wallpapers exclusively provided for our fans. Included in the wallpapers are our four playable heroes including the Lancer, Caster, Shape Shifter, and Shield Warrior

November 30th Work In Progress Video
[VIDEO=800,450]http://lightspiregame.com/v2/video/lightspire2.flv[/VIDEO]


November 30th Work In Progress






Real time Screen Shots: Sneak Peak 2






Real time Screen Shots

Renders

Art

[SirBaron]

Lightspire Major Media & News Announcement

Contents:


1. Introduction
2. Major News Announcement
3. Game Story and Synopsis
4. In-Engine Screenshots
5. Renders
6. Concept Art
7. Future Beta Testing
8. Recruitment

Introduction

Welcome to this months major news update on LightSpire: Fortunes Web. Over the past month we at LukeWarm Media have been hard at work to bring you this update. Recently the team have begun creating some of the many new assets that will be a part of the LightSpire world. Utilizing all the cutting edge technologies incorporated into the CryENGINE 2 we continue our quest to bring the evolution of fantasy to a screen near you!

Major News Announcement

We've come a long way from our first media update, and we've been waiting for this day for a long time. Lightspire is no longer a Crysis modification, and Lukewarm Media is now an official Crytek developer. What this means is we will continue development on Lightspire, but we will be developing on an Evaluation License for CryENGINE 2. This will allow us to build our game on a complete version of CryENGINE 2 where the only limitation put on us is we cannot sell our game until we purchase a full license. Just to clarify, we are not getting CryEngine2 for free. We are only getting the Evaluation License to CryENGINE 2. Everyone here at Lukewarm Media would like to thank you all for your support, after all we wouldn't have the opportunity to do this without your support!

With the big news out of the way... You might be asking; What's next for Lightspire? Our plans are to create a small, workable version of our game and pitch it to potential investors, such as EA Games or SEGA. Because of this, our future media updates will not be as frequent, nor will they be posted here on Crymod. Do not fear however, as they will be posted on our own forums and also our upcoming website.

Enjoy the update!

Game Story and Synopsis

Many of you have wondered "exactly what is Lightspire?". Well finally here you have it, an outline of the story as well as a synopsis of gameplay ideas. Enjoy!

Lightspire Story Outline

The biggest and most important aspect of the story and plot is that no one in the current world knows anything about the past. They are unaware to what caused the previous cataclysm, and despite knowing that it happened, never believe it will happen again. This leads to complacency, naivety, and a total lack of awareness that the cataclysm will come again for the fourth time.

In the game, there are four different heroes, who each have their own background and involvement in the world of Lightspire. The most dominant force in the game world is the dragon elves. They are a dictatorship due to their immense army, and control of vast amounts of land and resources. The first hero – the Dragon Lancer - his story stems from them. As described in the Game World Synopsis (See our earlier update), the elves and dragons were involved in a great war. The elves only chance of surviving and avoiding extinction would be to use magic against magic. The elves created a weapon to absorb any magical powers dragons might have had, which resulted in the rapid “de-evolution” of the dragons, and a ‘revolution’ of the elves physical traits, including increased strength, vision, and the ability to live even longer than before. The remaining dragons were enslaved, to the point where dragon’s mental acuity was vastly inferior to any of the elves.

Despite this, the last of the remaining dragons managed to escape, but the dragon race was on the verge of extinction. Aware of this, she summoned up all the magical powers she could muster, in order to shape shift into a human to mate with one of the mountain tribe warriors to pass along the ‘true’ dragon bloodline. The Dragon Lancer is a descendant of this hybrid bloodline. A mountain tribe warrior, but with features of a dragon being. The dragon elves on the other hand, were determined to hunt down all who came from this bloodline. Their goal is to end the bloodline once and for all. The opening cinematic of the game will show the Dragon Lancer rushing into a town tavern, where he meets the three other heroes for the first time. The first of which is the Shield Warrior.

The Shield Warrior comes from an isolated city. It’s the only city with any form of religion. Because of the darkness in the world, having a God or a religion is considered to be false. The Shield Warrior is on a quest to find ‘faith’, if it at all exists. He wants to find the truth about God (if he exists) and why the world appears to have been abandoned by all greater powers’. He is at the beginning of a search for his faith, and his being at the tavern is coincidence…. Or is it?

The Caster, who is one of the evolved dwarves as explained in the Game World Synopsis. The dwarves, smartest of all races, know the truth about the occurrences of the cataclysm. The dwarves, who lived underground due to being exiled, have never left their city until now. Six of the wisest and most courageous of the dwarves were sent out to seek answers to prevent the coming of the fourth cataclysm. The Caster finds himself at this tavern, on the beginning of his quest to learn more about this dark and terrible world. The fourth hero is a character that few people if anyone, know anything about, but is drawn into this mix of different races by pure chance.

Fortune’s Web (the game title) represents the web of these characters. Despite being completely unrelated, they are bought together by faith and fortune for a much larger purpose than their own. Early on the game, the ‘Simurgh’ encounters them. The Simurgh encounters our heroes who were brought together after they aid the Dragon Lancer in escaping a group of assassins. The Simurgh sees in this eclectic group something they do not, but manages to coerce them into working together to prevent the coming of the next cataclysm.

During the game, you will learn more about the characters as you progress, while following the unpredictable plotline. Despite the characters own personal goals, they gradually build trust, unite, and work together to fight against a common cause that will ultimately have far-reaching consequences, whether they succeed, or whether they fail.

Lightspire Gameplay Overview

• Each character class has its own special gameplay abilities. The Dragon Lancer is essentially a “button masher” combo based character. The Lancer is highly agile and provides fast paced action gameplay. When fighting stronger enemies, the Lancer can quickly dodge out of the way to avoid attacks. The Caster on the other hand is not very agile, and cannot dodge attacks as easily as the Lancer. Instead of relying on quick evasive maneuvers to avoid attacks, the player controlling the Caster has to think of what spells or what combination of spells he should use to stop/evade an enemy of overwhelming power. For example, if there was a Rynox charging after the Lancer, he could barrel roll out of the way to avoid taking damage. The Caster would have to rely on magic to avoid this situation by using magic to throw the Rynox backwards or slowing/freezing him.

• The combat system has a variety of abilities that the player can use to string together stronger and more impressive attacks. There are a few generic abilities that are shared between the four character classes. These are mainly the generic melee and generic ranged attacks. You also have your primary abilities which are unique to each class. these
range from damaging spells, to healing spells, to additional shape shifting forms. Players string together powerful combos by combining unique abilities with generic abilities. The most powerful combos however are “Coop Combos” where two or more players string together their unique abilities for catastrophic damage.

• “Coop Combos” are extremely deadly if used correctly. For example, the Caster is in an epic battle but has run out of energy to cast spells. He can choose to sacrifice his own health in place of energy, but he won’t survive long enough to make his sacrifice useful to the other players. This is where the Shield warrior comes in. The Shield warrior can heal his colleagues while he is engaged in combat. He can operate as a “battery” for the Caster by providing him with health while he knocks back enemies keeping the Caster safe from harm. There are many other combinations between the different heroes and their abilities.

• The upgrade system in Light spire is a cross between God of War and Diablo. Each character will have three different skill trees they can choose to upgrade certain skills from. For example, the Shield warrior could upgrade his shield so that he could throw it. The next upgrade would allow a thrown shield to bounce off of multiple enemies. A third
upgrade would add a temporary stun to the targets affected by the shield and so on. Once the Shield warrior’s shield throwing ability is fully upgraded there would be a visual difference between the normal shield and his “upgraded” shield, rewarding the player for fully upgrading a skill. Players will be able to upgrade skills after accomplishing challenging goals within the game in combination with gaining experience from killing generic enemies.

• Other upgrades would consist of new abilities not available to the player at the start. Such as new spells for the caster, combat techniques for the Lancer, shape shifting forms for the Shape shifter, and auras for the Shield warrior. Players should have a uniquely customized character once the end of the game nears.

• Environments within Light spire will have a high level of dynamic interactivity. As the Lancer you can cut down trees and block the enemy’s path. While the enemies try to climb over the trees the Caster can set fire to the trees and the enemies unfortunate enough to be climbing over. In another scenario, the Caster is outnumbered with the Shield warrior at his side. The Caster could freeze his enemies alive, and the Shield warrior could use his shield to knock the frozen enemies into live targets as frozen projectiles.

• Puzzle solving in Light spire will primarily be cooperative puzzles that players must solve together. For example there could be a dungeon where the obstacles are actually controlled by the other players, giving them the opportunity to lead their team mate to his goal, or his untimely death.

• Boss fights are more than just linear battles where all you do is damage the boss until he is defeated. Each boss fight is a mini-game in itself, you must use all your knowledge that you have picked up from playing the game up until the boss fight itself to defeat it. The boss fights will be challenging enough for four players to feel as if they have accomplished something by working together to triumph over impossible odds.

• Linear AND Open World game play will be featured in Light spire. There will be linear levels that continue the story/plot in conjunction with open world levels where the players are free to roam in whatever direction they like continuing the story at their own pace. There will be an overall goal to achieve in the open world levels, but the player can fulfill that goal in any order they feel, spending as much time as they like in the level before proceeding. Linear levels of course have the player follow a general path to his objective without the freedom to go anywhere.

• Inside the Open World levels there are various towns you can visit. The towns have pubs, taverns, and inns where you can talk to the locals and pick up side quests that will yield rewards that may be useful to the player in his campaign. In addition to the side quests you can pick up, the player can visit libraries where he/she can read up on ancient history, recent history, famous figures, and other miscellaneous literature. The player may even find secrets on how to defeat powerful monsters by reading about various species.

In-Engine Screenshots

Here is a compilation of In-Engine screenshots, these were taken in realtime* and represent the graphical quality that LightSpire will possess.

*The screenshots were taken on a PC system with the following specification: Core 2 Quad Q6600, 4GB DDR 800 RAM, HIS HD 4850 IceQ TurboX, Asus P5Q Motherboard.

Technical Demonstration

Over the past two days Dave Baron (Engine Cinematics) and Gareth Coker (Composer) have been hard at work to bring you this video demonstration. It shows some our extremely work in progress scenes.

It is recommended that you watch the full quality HD video.
[youtube]qlNIq48062g[/youtube]

Harnessing the power of the CryENGINE 2, LightSpire makes use of many of the engines graphical features, Here you can see a comparison showing a character with and without Screen Space Ambient Occlusion.

Renders

Here are two new renders of our goblin character.



Here are some WIP renders.



Concept Art

When designing characters, models and levels it is important to have good references. Here are two of our concept drawings.




Beta testing

In the over the next couple of years as the LightSpire community grows and the game progresses, we will be offering beta testing to certain prominent members of the community. This will only be offered to community members who follow the forums rules and respect other members of the community.

We are recruiting!

Lukewarm Media is currently looking to acquire the following positions to help up develop and finish our tech demo and game presentation for further development. Artists and programmers alike will be giving the opportunity to work with a dedicated, professional team working on the cry engine 2 Evaluation license. So if you’re looking to break into the industry, or develop more portfolio work this is the position for you. Dedicated and serious inquires only.

For more information, please have a look at our recruiting thread on our forums.


Related Links:
- Forum Thread: LukeWarm Media Presents, Lightspire: Fortune's Web
- ModDB: LukeWarm Media
- Website: LightspireGame.com
- Forum: LightspireGame.com/forums


- HavokSage (Joe Garth), Lead Engine, LukeWarm Media