Achilles: Legends Untold News

One of the most common questions we get from you, both in comments and our email inbox, is "why do you describe your game as a soulslike?".

The idea behind the first trailer we published was more to introduce you to the mythological tale's atmosphere than to present gameplay, so it's no wonder you have doubts. It's quite popular lately, after all, to write that a game is "a Dark Souls of a particular genre" by looking at it from the perspective of difficulty level. Did we do the same? Did we want to tap into the popularity of this genre?

The answer is - NO. To clear all doubts, Achilles: Legends Untold is a soulslike game at its core. Yes, we aim for a slightly lower entry point, because we want our game to help players fall in love with this genre. However, long-time fans of this type of games will find here all the elements they fell in love with while playing other titles under this banner. Including challenging, methodical battles, extensive world exploration, and deep lore. Just picking up a controller will make you feel like a fish in water. Even designing its support, we've done our best to make sure soulslike fans can use their acquired muscle memory.

Why did we choose this particular genre and not the more accessible hack & slash? We've been loving soulslike gameplay ever since it reached the masses in 2009. It just so happens that the majority of our team follows all From Software titles and also plays games inspired by them. This mysterious atmosphere that pours straight from the screen, duels that require long hours of practice and unearthly reflexes, are also very fair to the player... All this builds an image of something very familiar, after all, soulslike is still an action RPG, but also something very unique at the same time.



While wondering what kind of game we would like to create, we collectively came to the conclusion that we have enough ideas and inspiration to add more elements to this uniqueness.

For example, we’ve come up with a new approach to boss fights. Normally, in soulslike games, the players want to tackle the bosses with little “soul” count, so in case of death, they won’t lose as much of this precious currency. In Achilles on the other hand, the more “souls” you bring to the fight, the greater your chance of victory! Also, not every boss in our game must die… but you’ll have to wait for more details a bit longer.

We can't wait for you to delve into the world of Greek mythology. If this is your first time tackling the soulslike genre, we hope Achilles: Legends Untold will help you take your first steps and fall in love with it as we did.

Until next time!

PS: Do not forget about our social media channels. All links you'll find below:

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A word about AI in games. It’s not a new idea and it has seen its share of modifications throughout the years. There are many design solutions responsible for enemies’ tactics in games. Finite State Machine is the oldest one and, together with its hierarchical version, it is still in use. Behavior Tree is also very popular, and planners such as Goal-Oriented Action Planning or Hierarchical Task Network, which is used in Achilles: Legends Untold, are gaining momentum.

There have also been attempts of using neural networks and machine learning. Solutions are chosen to suit the tasks at hand and there is no right answer which would fit every task and project. However, the goal is always the same: to make the characters in games seem intelligent. Each character has a set of rules and behaviors, which react to the player's actions or even to the actions of other in-game characters. This leaves us with a collection of individualized characters, who can behave in a more or less predictable fashion.

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Game developers sometimes add an additional layer to this process, which serves as an overseer of sorts - deciding whether to intensify an action, spawn additional opponents or trigger a certain in-game event. However, even such additional layers do not change the fact that opponents in games act as individual units and do not interact with each other directly. Even if the player is faced with a squad, its units cooperate with each other only on a tactical level. If direct interaction ever appears, then it is the effect of a scripted action triggered at a specific time or location.

This is where GAIA steps in, as an additional layer overseeing not only the opponents but also the environment. Our system is tasked with analyzing the situation in the player’s surroundings, choosing one of the available actions, and triggering it. GAIA actions enable the opponents to directly interact with one another - the behavior of enemy units in Achilles: Legends Untold will seem more human – the best example is one of the enemies kneeling with his shield raised above their head, while another enemy unit takes a running jump, launching themselves from that shield into the air and attacking the player from above. Naturally, GAIA also enables the enemy units to cooperate on a tactical level, with enemies protecting each other, like for example group of enemies protecting their ranged units or commander. Also enables interactions with the environment.

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AI in games should form a challenge and be entertaining at the same time. Even the best-looking game will become boring fast if the enemies are not making things interesting for the player. This is GAIA’s role. In most cases, the player is able to learn the behavior patterns of individual enemy types. Additionally, the player’s character becomes more powerful as the game progresses, making the enemies who seemed challenging in the initial stages become more trivial with time.

GAIA allows to minimize this effect and make the game challenging throughout its duration. GAIA actions have varying threat levels and it is difficult to predict which of them will be triggered. The same action can be utilized by different types of enemy units, and the same enemy types can utilize different actions during consecutive encounters. GAIA allows making the gameplay more engaging, enabling us to focus on an aspect often neglected in game development - the credibility of the enemies. Thanks to this, combat will always be a challenge.

We hope that, very soon, you will all be able to experience GAIA. Until next time!

PS: Do not forget about our social media channels. All links you'll find below:

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The story of the mythical Achilles is familiar to many. He's a hero from Greek mythology, an outstanding warrior who became famous during the Trojan War. While developing the initial vision of the game, he was an ideal candidate for becoming a protagonist.

When we started working on the game we wanted to have a model of Achilles ready as soon as possible. That's why we unconventionally approached this task. It was created without a concept, and during the creation process, things like the look of armor or helmet were decided on the go. Only later we concluded that it was time to create a proper model of the main character.



When we created Achilles, we wanted to show him as a mythological hero, and we also wanted him to be unique to our game. That's why we've approached the look of Achilles in such a way that during the attack on Troy he wears armor and uses a shield inspired by Greek mythology. However, in the latter stages of the game, there is a change, and the player gets completely new armor which is unique to our game.

The first step was to prepare a series of basic concept sketches showing only the silhouette of the hero. We wanted just one glimpse of a character that not only looks like a powerful and experienced warrior but also instills fear in the souls of his enemies. Then, having the basic silhouette, the details of his armor and helmet were worked out. The concept artist had full freedom in building the character, the most important thing was to make him unique and expressive.



The final concept of Achilles in our unique armor

The finished concept became the basis for the design of a three-dimensional model. At this point, it is often necessary to verify the artistic vision with the appearance of the character, which will eventually appear in the game. Although it was a very labor-intensive process, thanks to the experience of a talented graphic designer, we were able to translate Achilles' design very faithfully into a three-dimensional environment. It was important to preserve the proportions of the body so that our character would not be "exaggerated" but would at the same time feel like a real hero.

First, a base geometry was created in Modo. Then the model is sent to Zbrush where the whole High Poly model is created. The High Poly model is the base for the creation of the Low Poly model that will be implemented in the game.



A completely separate process, in which we had to put a lot of effort, was to prepare a model of Achilles' head. At this stage, we had to remember that it will express different emotions and each of them must look as natural as possible.



The whole process of Achilles' creation - from first concept sketches to final 3D model - took us 3 months. We are proud of the final effect and we are convinced that you will like our vision of the Greek hero.

Until next time!

PS: Do not forget about our social media channels. All links you'll find below:

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Bang! We have just launched a new series of videos called "About..." that will allow players waiting for the release of Achilles: Legends Untold to learn more about our studio and the production itself. The first episode is now available on YouTube and our social media channels.

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In the episode opening the series, Paweł Waszak, our CEO / Lead Game Designer tells what the studio means for him, talks about the team's previous experiences, and answers why this exact title was chosen. In addition, you will learn from the material why we've decided to use the mechanics known from soulslike games, as well as about the plans for the nearest future.

Let us know what you think about our game. And if you want to know more, check out our Discord!

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Hi! Dark Point Games team here! This is the place where we’re gonna be sharing some tales from our development process with you! We really hope you’ll enjoy our stories, as we want you guys to feel like you’re a part of the project. Let’s start with how the game has evolved from a fun idea to this complex, playable system of intertwining mechanics i.e. a video game! :)

One of our first ideas was to give Achilles a bow. After making a few prototypes, we figured out that it would force players to change their weapons a bit too often for our liking. That’s why we’ve changed the main ranged weapon of our protagonist from a bow to a throwable shield, and it pretty much did the trick. Other major changes involved the dungeons which, in their first iteration, were planned to have a predetermined level structure. Halfway through the development, they took a random-generated form to avoid repetitiveness, especially in co-op! However, the changes also affected opponents.





Other things that evolve during the production phase are game mechanics themselves. For example, in our initial prototypes, Achilles was very slow when using ladders. It just absolutely broke the pace of the gameplay, and we’ve decided to make the animation quicker and more snappy! The status effects system was also very random at the beginning, and we gave it a much-needed depth by incorporating the immunity stat and throwing the RNG hiding behind this mechanic out of the window. Even the HUD and the inventory screens were completely rebuilt, a few times even, between the various builds of the game.





But the ideas and game mechanics aren’t the only aspects of Achilles: Legends Untold that have changed throughout the years of hard work. When you create something on such a scale, it’s bound to change. Even in terms of graphics and visual designs. Let’s take a look at the first area of the game - Troy.

Troy was super important to us, as it has to deliver the initial hook for the player, being the very first map in Achilles: Legends Untold. I can’t even count how many hours we’ve spent rebuilding the level over and over again, and adding completely new assets and shaders, so we can make it super impressive to look at for gamers. We’re still constantly working on the lighting to this day. We’ve added Volumetric Fog, Distance Field Ambient Occlusion, and no to mention the foliage that our designers say is “still not good enough”. :)

As you can see for yourself, video game production is by no means a simple or easy process. The final or near-final product does not have to be an exact iteration of the original idea, and it's difficult to refrain from implementing new concepts on the go. That is why we at Dark Point Games like to say that game development is actually a kind of adventure!

Until next time!

PS: Do not forget about our social media channels. All links you'll find below:

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