#outofthestorm

Blood Horns

More creatures infected from the crystals found in Out of the Storm and OotS: The Board Game.  This time deer are next to turn due to the influence of the local crystals.  Red, energy filled crystals grow and spread across the deers’ bones and antlers.  To the point they completely cover the the bone in crystal or in the case of the Charger, push it out completely as the crystal takes over the brain.  

Unlike the rabbit who had earth abilities we decided to go with lightning as their element.  Perhaps these creatures are closer to the source of whatever is causing such a powerful storm.

As suggested by user @Invadingyourspaces on Imgur we went with the name Blood Horns.  Seemed fitting for the color even if Antlers aren’t truly horns the Charger variant seemed more of a horn than an antler and the name stuck.

Announcement

I also want to take this moment to say thanks to everyone for the support thus far.  We appreciate your support and understanding from our shift of focus from Out of the Storm to its board game counterpart.  We fully intend to continue to develop OotS as soon as we’re able but it was obvious that our fundraising attempt was not going to sustain our development and thus has been removed from the site as we switched focus to the board game.

I (Dakota) wasn’t sure how to tell you all this so I just switched focus without telling you all why.  That was a mistake.  I have a habit of trying to make games with a scope out of my reach financially in order to deliver games of great quality to you guys and gals.  That quality assurance comes with a cost and I apologize for not being capable of covering those cost up until now.

Although my income isn’t any higher than it was three years ago when I graduated high school and set out to develop games, I have however made sure that when designing OotS: TBG that I focused on making sure that we are staying within my capabilities while still being able to deliver that quality experience I’ve always thrived for.

Kyra

Bio:  Like many of the members of the Illuminous, Kyra has ample reason for distrusting the Crystal Order.  It is the Church’s responsibility to take care of it’s citizens however after a drought her family was left poor and struggling to survive.  Her parents had borrowed from the church to keep for on the table.  They caught ill and the church refused to treat their illness until their debt was paid.

Kyra was thirteen at the time.  Her sister only three years older.  Despite their efforts they couldn’t pay off the debt on time.  Her mother was the first to go.  Her father soon after.  Her sister, Diana, took it upon herself to raise Kyra.  The drought had led to a shortage of work and Diana turned to the only source of income she as a young woman could provide without a job.  A choice though not necessarily illegal in Arénious, it was frowned upon by the church and as such one participating or had ever participated in such an act was never to marry.

Diana would often come home beaten and bruised and despite Kyra’s pleas she continued to go out night after night.  “Don’t you worry about me.  It’s nothing I can’t cover up.”  Which she did on the outside but Kyra could hear her sister cry herself to sleep more often than not.  That’s when Kyra turned to pickpocketing.  One day she was caught by a priest as she tried to take a necklace from his hand while a friend of hers kept him occupied.  The plan failed and the priest took her hand and led her straight to a prison cell.

Her sister was furious when she found out, “What were you thinking?  Are you trying to get us banished?  You can’t steal, especially not from the church!”  Kyra crossed her arms and looked away, “Why not?  They stole from us.”  Diana stood up straight with her arms crossed too, “What did you say?  I can’t hear you if you’re mumbling.”  Kyra jumped up on her feet and threw her arms back yelling, “THEY TOOK MOTHER AND FATHER!!!”  She cried out, tears pouring down her cheeks.

A guard approached and Diana stopped him, “Please don’t. Just let me in, I’ll talk with her.”  The guard hesitated at first but proceeded to open the door.  “I’m locking it behind you.”  Diana didn’t hear him.  She just fell to her knees and pulled her sister into her arms.  “It’s okay Kyra.  It’s okay.”  She kept repeating those words over and over again with her arms over her little sister.  Her left hand running through Kyra’s hair.  The little girl’s hands squeezing at her sister’s clothes as she couldn’t help but let the tears flow into her sister’s blouse.  “It’s not fair.”  She cried and cried as the moonlight poured through her prison window.  “It’s not fair.”

Kyra’s parents were the first to go.  Then her friend who helped distract the priest.  Her mother and father died side by side in their bed.  Her friend was caught stealing once again and a guard cut his throat and left him to bleed out in the street.  Then a few weeks later, her sister was next to die.  Her dress torn, neck broken, and tossed into a well.  When guards fished her body out of the well they cursed her corpse for polluting the water with her vile existence.  “One more piece of trash off of the streets.”  Were the words Kyra heard as she stood there out of breath, shocked by the circumstances.  She ran to her sister and cried, pulling on her dress.  One of the guards kicked her onto her back and left her dizzy.  By the time she regained herself the guards and her sister were gone.

It was in that moment she turned from pickpocket to killer.  First she tracked down and took the life of the man who had killed her sister.  She still felt empty, everyone was still gone.  So she went to the guards who had disgraced her sister’s body and took their lives too.  But she still felt empty.  So she turned her eyes to The Crystal Order.  The Church who cost her parents their lives and sent her family on this road to agony.  After she took the lives of four members of the church Alexandria Rose approached her, “You have talent and skill, but you lack reason.  Come with me and I will show you how to take a life with purpose.  Perhaps one day, you will find a way to fill that void.”

Working on card backs for OotS: TBG.  What do you guys think?  Also should all backs be the same color scheme or vary like the examples shown below.

Same

Different

Hey there Dakota of LDE. First things first, we're able to work on OotS: The Board Game until completion now :D So we should be able to finish the development in about three and a half months and then it’s up to things like testing and Steam Greenlight to decide where and when you can get it.  Now onto development talk. I’m taking concepts from Out of the Storm to create cards for OotS: The Board Game as you’ve probably seen by now. Today I’m working on encounter cards, namely what I would consider “Rank I” encounters.  These are basically normal animals that people typically hunt and would more than likely run from you.  Here’s some samples...

and here’s the concepts they’re taken from...

As you can see, these concepts weren’t originally designed to be art for cards.  It’s an indie dev trick I want to try out this week and cut “frames” out of old concepts and then have the focus point touched up a bit.  This allows us to get work done quickly, on a lower budget, and make use of art we already have.  Plus they still look pretty good (better than anything I can draw personally) so why not?

OotS - The Board Game Basic Gameplay

This video was mainly meant to explain the basics of how the game is played to programmers but I figured I’d share it here too.