Mictlan: An Ancient Mythical Tale News

Sisimite #2

Remember the concept art we shared about the sisimite?

A truly savage creature which is slowly coming to life thanks to the work of our incredible art team:

This ape-like creature, with disturbing backward-facing feet, is mistakenly known by some people as the “Mexican Bigfoot”. It's actually a creature from the legends in Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

It dwells in hidden caves in the Central American high mountains, and all the stories about it describe the sisimite as a morally ambivalent creature. On one hand, it is an herbivore that feeds on wild fruits and protects small animals from human hunters and fishermen. On the other hand, it captures women and takes them to the caves, forcing them to give birth to ape-men.

Despite its scary appearance, you'll be glad to know that the sisimite has two elemental weaknesses: water and fire.

Picture this: you are backtracking a set of four-fingered footprints leading to the mountain; there, you find the sisimite’s lair, and you bravely chase it away (or even defeat it!) exploiting its elemental weaknesses, finally reaching your objective: a cave that will grant you access to the underworld.

This is just an idea, but… how do you imagine your own encounter with the sisimite in the open world of Mictlan?

Legends, myths, facts, history: Mictlan has it all! We're aiming at including in our game the most incredible stories, and we will continue updating you with news, concept arts, sneak&peeks of our creative process, so make sure to follow us on our social media channels to stay updated!

Mictlan's animated spin-off series: sneak peek #4

"Somewhere in Mexico's Basin, a Teocalli rises painted with blood from the sacrifice…"

Dear Mictlantecas, we're working really hard to bring this Mictlan spin-off animation series to life and we're very excited to show you a little bit more of our concept arts about the environment.

We've been thinking about launching a trailer for the Kickstarter campaign, and also producing a pilot episode and pitching it to Netflix.

But first of all, we wanted to show the progress we're making to you, our fantastic community that has been supporting Mictlan since the very beginning.

[h3]Many thanks to all of you, great things are coming![/h3]

Take a look at the previous posts about the spin-off:
#1 #2 #3

Our collaboration with Cinetica

We are very excited to announce that our collaboration with Cinética Studio continues.
We also want to thank the incredible team at Atlatl México for being part of the motion capture tests.

Atlatl is one of the few organizations that are recovering the ancient warrior fighting form; all the work they do is independent and they do not have any support from the government. We must support them by spreading their work to continue conserving Mexica Art.

Cinetica is one of the few studios in Mexico that specialize in MOCAP and Virtual Productions on Unreal Engine, we are very happy to start this great collaboration with their studio during the mocap capture of our Guerreros Mexicas and our main actors!

[h3]Take a look at this video![/h3]

From reality to digital: our characters

Today we want to share more about the process we go through to capture the photorealism of Mictlan's characters.

We're investing our time and resources to recreate the original cultures of Mexico. During our travels, we met Milpa Alta, a descendant of the Nahua kinfolks, who spoke to us in his native language about the old days of his life.

Using the digital photogrammetry technique, we were able to define the dimensions and location of each of the details of his facial features.

He asked to be a pochteca (merchant) in the game, therefore, in the digital transition, we decided to make him a little younger - since he is actually 94 years old - so that his character was consistent with his in-game role in Mictlan.

If you're enjoying seeing how Mictlan is developing and you would like to see more of our game, please support us by registering on Kickstarter and follow Mictlan: An Ancient Mythical Tale!

How we're including the Nahual in Mictlan

The legends of the nahual in Mexico have deep roots in magical events and folklore.

These mythical beings are guardian-spirits intimately linked to their humans, who feel a mix of fear and admiration before their extraordinary powers.

Nahual is believed to reside in an animal, such as a deer, jaguar, or bird. Others believe the nagual is the animal into which certain powerful men can transform themselves, acquiring the animal's unbelievable skills (we've talked about the Nahual kids before).

🔥 In Mictlan, we've been working really hard to design a special dynamic in which the characters can contact their nahual (spiritual companion) by two different methods.

🐆 They can make an invocation to let these creatures manifest themselves in the physical world as allies in battle and as an aid to discover secret locations.

🐦 We also thought about the idea of letting the player become one with their nahual, transforming themself into powerful animals with a unique set of abilities.

[h3]What do you think? Would you call you nahual in the game? Would you prefer transforming yourself into one?

We would really appreciate your feedback about this.
Let us know what you think in the comments![/h3]