Book of Travels News

[h2]Dear Travellers,[/h2]
In our blog today we’re taking you for a rummage in the studio attic. In its many draws, folders and cabinets are sketches showing Book of Travels in many stages of its life. The first sketches were made in 2016, at the very beginning of development and were created by the art team to explore the kinds of places and people that might exist in this new world.

[h2]Pre-production sketches[/h2]
Below are sketches from the pre-production phase - exploratory designs from a time before the style had solidified.



[h2]Production sketches[/h2]
These are sketches from the ongoing production. Traditional pen-and-paper designs play a major part in the design of the in-game graphics - the current amount of sketches could easily drive a fresh recruit mad!



[h2]Sketches to come back to[/h2]
These strange looking sketches haven't found their way into the game yet but may be part of the future of Book of Travels.



We hope you enjoyed this little peek into the attic! We'll be back in a couple of weeks with a very exciting update... Till then stay safe and take care.

Best Wishes,

Helen and the team xx


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels

[h2]Want more info?[/h2]
[h3]Become a Traveller[/h3]
Sign up on our mailing list for news and an in-game treat in our upcoming game at www.TMORPG.com.

[h3]What is TMORPG?[/h3]
The T in TMO signals an alternative to the more common industry standard MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) putting 'tiny' in the place of 'massive'. That means fewer meetings, which we think means more magic... Read more here: What is a TMORPG?!

[h3]Revealing the Early Access World[/h3]
Later this year Book of Travels will be available for Early Access on Steam. In Chapter Zero parts of the Braided Shore will be open, and among the places to visit is the gem of the region – the city of Kasa. Read more here.

[h3]Join our Discord[/h3]
Join our super friendly Discord to exchange ideas on all things Book of Travels as well as art, games and books. Join here.

With two of our most ambitious titles to date releasing soon, we thought that this was the perfect time to ensure that they'll be cross checked to perfection with the help of Quality Assurance Officer Fleur. We hope you like their Q&A and are brimming with questions yourself to ask them in the comments section!

[h3]Where have you been until now?[/h3]
At Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlshamn studying digital game design, I loved the programming part of the course although the story elements hold a close second. Before that I lived on a small farm outside of Grythyttan where we keep sheep and chickens, of which my favorite is the big grey rooster Sebastian which I raised from a hatchling.

[h3]How did you find your way to Might and Delight?[/h3]
Through a student group posting job advertisements where I fell in love with Might and Delight’s art style and game concepts, it [quality assurance] was a completely new position at the company so it seemed intriguing.

[h3]What do you most enjoy about your work at Might and Delight?[/h3]
The people! Everyone is super kind and welcoming, almost feels like an extended family.

[h3]What’s something that you love doing when you're not working?[/h3]
I love cross stitching and reading fantasy novels! The Terry Pratchett series Discworld holds a special place in my heart for their witty style, intriguing plot and cleverly disguised social commentary. Cross stitching is a relatively new hobby which I started with to keep my hands occupied while watching [tv] series but found that it's really relaxing to do as long as the threads cooperate.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/

[h2]Dear Travellers,
[/h2]
So far we’ve shared a lot about how serene the Book of Travels experience will be, but as we talked about in our inspirations blog, the beauty of the world lies partly in its shadows and the tension that lurks at the periphery. This week we’re looking at some of the dangers that can sneak up on you in Braided Shore. Here we share a few that you can expect to encounter when early access launches this summer. Be warned - the shadows in this world do not fall at the usual angles...



[h2]Beware the chaos of a Kettem [/h2]
Also known as the spirit of the middle winds, the Kettem (Plural:Kettem) is a malicious spirit that rides the winds that bisect the cardinal coordinates. Having no physical form Kettem animate themselves with any objects that lie in their path, creating wild and chaotic melds of unknown intent. A Kettem is a harsh opponent in all cases, but harsher still when animated by harder objects, such as parts of trees or broken boats. Other common Kettem components include seaweed (being plentiful on a high tide) and hay (being skimmed from hay bales). Abandoned junk and personal objects are also sometimes caught in a Kettem’s path. Once its physical form has been destroyed, a Kettem becomes a harmless wind spirit once more and will quickly vanish.



[h2]Never mess with a Maisu[/h2]

The Maisu (Plural: Maisu) is not known as the ‘spirit-of-foul-words’ for nothing - this spirit is the embodiment of every expletive spat in vitriol and is said to be summoned by feelings of hate. Where spite is usually something unleashed in rare and hot flashes, for Maisu it is an eternally roaring fire. They love nothing better than to hurt folk and cause them distress, but their attacks can often be more baffling than life threatening. But Maisu can also be cowardly and not particularly strong-willed - farm families will sometimes come together to vanquish a Maisu that has been troubling the surroundings. Because of Maisu, Braided Shore folk choose their words wisely, scolding “Curse-for-the-Maisu!” at folk who use foul words. Maisu are bound to a knot symbol of unknown meaning that also resembles their facial features. This “rune” can be seen floating in the air before the demon itself becomes visible.



[h2]The torment of Mares [/h2]

Called simply 'Mares' these dream horrors take the shape of slender yet beast-like creatures that fly in a swimming fashion. Mares are a fairly recent phenomenon in Braided Shore and are believed to be a manifestation of the ills that have more recently troubled the region. There is no doubt that an encounter with a Mare is a very serious moment indeed: their uncanny aspect transfixes all who lay eyes on it, but a Mare must be quickly dealt with for their attack is mighty. Over time, Asken folk have come to know these ghouls as the nightmares of Sefra, wrangled loose from their dream world and drifting in torment across the land. Some say they have witnessed a Mare dissolve as its Sefra wakes, and others have been successful in destroying Mares while its Sefra sleeps on, more peacefully with its Mare now returned to its world of dreams.



[h2]Be watchful as you wander[/h2]

These are just a few of the dangers you can expect to face in Braided Shore, but there’s plenty to watch out for on the roads and in the wilds too… All kinds of earthly good-for-nothings will knock you off your path. Poachers, kidnappers, smugglers and bandits may choose to rob or attack you, and though they may not be the most daunting of foes, an encounter with one may leave you as confused and depleted as any sprite or gast!

As always, we are so glad to have your company! We’d love to hear your thoughts about these and other beings so please do drop them right here in the comments section below…

Best Wishes and Stay Safe,

Helen and the Dev Team x

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/
[h2]Want more info?[/h2]
[h3]Become a traveller[/h3]
Sign up on our mailing list for news and an in-game treat in our upcoming game at www.TMORPG.com.

[h3]What is TMORPG?[/h3]
The T in TMO signals an alternative to the more common industry standard MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) putting 'tiny' in the place of 'massive'. That means fewer meetings, which we think means more magic... Read more here: What is a TMORPG?!

[h3]Revealing the Early Access World[/h3]
Later this year Book of Travels will be available for Early Access on Steam. In Chapter Zero parts of the Braided Shore will be open, and among the places to visit is the gem of the region – the city of Kasa. Read more here.

[h3]Join our Discord[/h3]
Join our super friendly Discord to exchange ideas on all things Book of Travels as well as art, games and books. Join here.

[h2]Dear Travellers,[/h2]

How does it feel to travel the road? What is it like to take a turning from the beaten path? Well-worn tracks bear the shape of familiar behaviours, but making new tracks brings us to the present moment, releasing new energy for fresh adventures... Such choices in these times are, for many of us, flights of fantasy, and today we hope to keep those flights aloft with the help of some music from Book of Travels. Whether you’re home-bound, locked down, or on the road, we hope you get some time to listen to them and let us know what you think...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Different moods for different journeys[/h2]

The title 'Book of Travels' stuck because it so clearly places journeying as the heart of the game, and so it’s vital that these journeys are rich in mood and ambience, and here music plays a huge part, creating not just mood but depth and variety. Lead Sound Designer Josef Tuule explains: “These two pieces are meant to be companions for different kinds of areas in the game. ‘The Elden Road’ offers the comfy vibe of walking a path that others have walked many times before. By contrast, ‘The Weaving Wilds’ describes the kind of terrain we think of as an off-shoot - where culture and tonality may differ from your normal path. The player should feel they have progressed into a new area, hence the expression is more vivid.”



[h2]Instruments from the East recorded live[/h2]

Music in Book of Travels has many different roles to play in the game, as well as being present as a traditional game score, it will be performed by the inhabitants of Braided Shore themselves. All scored pieces are composed and produced by Josef Tuulse and Retro Family, who comprise Ulf Wahlgren, Jokke Pettersson and Alfred Andersson. The band has a long relationship with the studio and is responsible for the unique sound of the Shelter Games series. Ulf Wahlgren attributes much of that style to the band’s method of recording live performance: “We play all of the music and instruments live, nothing is programmed or fixed, and that makes the music come alive within the game.”

Retro Family play instruments from around the world, and for this soundtrack combine the oud, flute, darbuka, saz and bass with hand percussion.



“The soundtrack takes influences from artists in Egypt, Turkey, Greece,” says Ulf, “A new instrument to us is the oud, an Arabic string instrument, which reminds me of a lute. It has no frets on the neck, so it slides beautifully between notes, and we use a fretless bass to blend with that.”

Just as the game design takes inspiration from many sources, so does the sound design. Ulf and the band look to “classic adventure and RPG games, classical Ottoman music and a wide variety of traditional music from Armenia, Greece, Turkey and Iran to name a few.” As with all things Book of Travels, the aim is to take these most excellent ingredients to make something fresh and exciting. As Ulf says, “We want the player to feel that a new world is awaiting them, a world, mayhaps, that they have not experienced before.”



[h2]Celebrating music in our games[/h2]

To hear more of Retro Family’s soundtracks and watch them play live, check their Youtube channel. You can also follow their Instagram where they post pics and the occasional musical video clips.

This week we are also celebrating Retro Family’s score for Shelter Games as we head towards the release of Shelter 3. Check the post here and get a free soundtrack DLC of Shelter 2 by joining our Shelter newsletter here.

We’re super glad to be sharing this music with you and we can’t wait to share more lovely things as the game gets closer to completion this year. In the meantime, please let us know your thoughts right here in the comments… What music do you like to travel to?? What other games have you enjoyed journeying in? If travel’s your thing, there’s a whole channel dedicated to just that in our Discord. We'd love to see you there.

Best Wishes – and stay safe,

Helen and the Book of Travels dev team x

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/

[h2]Want more info?[/h2]
[h3]Become a traveller[/h3]
Sign up on our mailing list for news and an in-game treat in our upcoming game at www.TMORPG.com.

[h3]What is TMORPG?[/h3]
The T in TMO signals an alternative to the more common industry standard MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) putting 'tiny' in the place of 'massive'. That means fewer meetings, which we think means more magic... Read more here: What is a TMORPG?!

[h3]Revealing the Early Access World[/h3]
Later this year Book of Travels will be available for Early Access on Steam. In Chapter Zero parts of the Braided Shore will be open, and among the places to visit is the gem of the region – the city of Kasa. Read more here.

[h3]Join our Discord[/h3]
Join our super friendly Discord to exchange ideas on all things Book of Travels as well as art, games and books. Join here.

[h2]Dear Travellers,[/h2]

The last year was one where we slowly opened the door to Book of Travels and all it involves. We’ve been deeply gratified to read your response, in particular those replies that have lead us to books, art and other media that you feel share similarities with the square-peg project that is our TMORPG. With that in mind, and to make for a reviving start to the epic year that will be 2021, we’re dedicating this post to a deeper investigation of key inspirations behind Book of Travels, and we hope you feel inspired to share your own inspirations with us too!

The Library of Babel by Érik Desmazières

[h2]Circularity and uncertainty from literary magic realists [/h2]

Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges is famous for fiction that undermines all notions of reality. One of his best known works is The Library of Babel, whose (almost) infinite stacks of randomised texts prompted the production team to begin designing a game world that has players get lost on an (almost) infinite quest of their own design. In Borges’ story characters respond to the uninterpretable texts in many ways - as cultists, cabalists, or simply on a searching for meaning and truth. The exploratory decentred experience that is Book of Travels owes a lot to Borges’ library and Ficciones. Other stories such as 1001 Nights and Judith Schalansky’s Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands have also inspired the dreamy reality and magical everyday of Braided Shore.


Tove Jansson’s Hattifatteners haunt Moominmamma

[h2]Light and darkness from Tove Jansson[/h2]

All Moomin fans are familiar with how the light-hearted domesticity of Moomin life is made brighter by lurking darkness. A Groke, hattifatteners and the Lady of the Cold all loom in from the periphery to quietly nudge you out of your existential comfort zone. No matter the infinite beauty of the new day’s sun there’s always something unnerving in the offing. If Book of Travels gets anywhere close to conjuring this kind of uncanny we would be thrilled indeed.


Standing in the rain with Totoro

[h2]Peace and solitude from Studio Ghibli[/h2]

Hayao Miyazaki’s work is much loved in the studio, and the stillness and silence in films like Spirited Away, Ponyo, and Totoro is something we love a lot. These daring minutes of peace aren’t validated by any narrative task, they’re simply part of a meandering journey, allowing us to get lost in something or nothing in particular. We’ve often written about getting lost in Book of Travels and about how tranquil it is, the effect of Ghibli’s ‘ma’ is something we dream of achieving in game form.


David Lupton’s Ged from Ursula le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea

[h2]Ambiguity from Earthsea [/h2]

Everything mundane and ethereal in Book of Travels emerges from a grey zone somewhere between good and evil, and the game’s design and scattered narratives quite consciously evade that classical binary. So while we’re clearly very inspired by fantasy RPGs, the spirit of the game’s design owes a lot to fantasy classic A Wizard of Earthsea, in which Ged learns about the balance of the cosmos and fights inner turmoil rather than outer forces of darkness.


Layers of mystery from Baldur's Gate

[h2]Open world gaming from Baldur’s Gate[/h2]

If there is one game we never tire of paying tribute to it’s Baldur’s Gate. This was the original it-doesn’t-hold-your-hand RPG and many of the team have spent uncountable hours playing it, both since production began but also way before the Book of Travels seed was even planted. The sense of just wandering the lands freely, just enjoying nature and the adventure is still an unparalleled experience in the RPG genre. Interestingly BG1 was created by medical doctors and not seasoned game devs - they wanted to make a game with a much more open style of play. In terms of game design, this is the team’s number one inspiration and we’ll be over the moon if we can even slightly live up to its achievements! Other games that we looked at are Journey, ICO and RPGS like Knights of the Old Republic.


A still from Jiri Trkna’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

[h2]Character design and a diorama aesthetic from Czech animators[/h2]

Czech animation has something of a cult following, but it’s Jiri Trnka in particular whose illustrations and puppets are an all time favourite of Art Director Jakob Tuchten. Trkna’s almond-eyed, graceful-limbed creatures are dressed in the deeply-hued cloaks of medieval style fairytales, an aesthetic that blends easily with feudal Japanese and Middle Eastern dress. Trkna’s animation also inspired Book of Travel’s diorama feel. This mix of 2D and 3D was a big technical challenge but, we hope, now evokes a Trknaesque atmosphere, suggesting fictions consciously staged in a world that’s deeply immersive.

The Blue Heron by AJ Casson


Arnold Böcklin's Isle of Death

[h2]A light and dark aesthetic from many fine art masters [/h2]

While ambiguity is a source of dramatic tension in Braided Shore, visually, dark and light are very polarised. For the painting style, inspiration finally came from AJ Casson whose picture above became the cornerstone of the game’s visual style. Casson’s lines are fluid, vivid and detailed, and echo expressionists (such as Munch and Van Gough) in invoking the motion of wind. Wind is a very important phenomena in Braided Shore, so this aesthetic also works to hint at its continuing presence and magical influence. Away from the woods, dense looking rocks and flat reflecting water are borrowed from Arnold Böcklin’s Isle of Death series to create a bleak feel. The art team also looked to the Orientalists whose figurative art documented everyday life in Middle Eastern cities. From them comes the hustle and bustle of our biggest city, Kasa.

The Reception of Ambassadors in Damascus, by an unknown Venetian artist


Waterhouse's Love for Circe

[h2]Those unexpected human things [/h2]

Of course there are tonnes of other influences that go into the Book of Travels cooking pot to stew, some of which are those unplanned, organic and human things. There’s a phenomena in the theory of visual art whereby artists cannot resist the temptation to fill all available space with detail. It’s known as Horror Vacui, and unsurprisingly that’s exactly how the game ended up looking how it now does. For that we have Lead Artist Marcus to thank! A studio copy of Madelaine Miller’s Circe now creaking with use like it has a spirit in its spine has also bled into our approach to spells and magic.

-----------------------

We hope that this very brief dive into our various influences has inspired you to discover something new and fun. For sure, our journey of discovery is never over, and we'd love to hear all your suggestions for cultural rabbit holes that we can lose ourselves in, so please drop us a line below and let us know what Book of Travels makes you think of...

Thank you so much for spending your time with us! From the whole team, best wishes and stay safe!

Helen and the Dev Team xx

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1152340/Book_of_Travels/

[h2]Want more info?[/h2]
[h3]Become a traveller[/h3]
Sign up on our mailing list for news and an in-game treat in our upcoming game at www.TMORPG.com.

[h3]What is TMORPG?[/h3]
The T in TMO signals an alternative to the more common industry standard MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) putting 'tiny' in the place of 'massive'. That means fewer meetings, which we think means more magic... Read more here: What is a TMORPG?!

[h3]Revealing the Early Access World[/h3]
Later this year Book of Travels will be available for Early Access on Steam. In Chapter Zero parts of the Braided Shore will be open, and among the places to visit is the gem of the region – the city of Kasa. Read more here.

[h3]Join our Discord[/h3]
Join our super friendly Discord to exchange ideas on all things Book of Travels as well as art, games and books. Join here.