The Rogue Prince of Persia News

Hello!

Welcome to our 4th community update!

This week we're covering the Prince's story and how narration will be explored in the game - given it's a roguelite it will be slightly unusual but nothing too crazy! There are minor spoilers here, but nothing that you won't discover for yourself in the first 30 minutes of the game.

As usual, a video version is on our YouTube channel:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]The Prince[/h3]
Our story can essentially be summarised as "you're stuck in a save file gone wrong".

The Prince himself has already been living a kind of roguelite his whole life, a ‘roguelife’ if you will. Yes, we went there, just go with it... Ok one more, he didn't choose the rogue life, the rogue life chose him. I'm done.

His bola, gifted to him as a baby, sends him back in time to the last truly safe place he was in before he dies.



What is a bola? It's just a small hollow piece of jewellery shaped like a sphere, often with a kind of mesh or lattice as an outer layer.

So, the Prince doesn't know who gave him his bola or why, all he knows is that this secret (and suspiciously convenient) power has let him take huge risks to perfect the skills of acrobatics & combat in his youth. If he messes up while jumping between buildings or pulling off a crazy move in combat, well, he just dies and goes back in time to when he was last safe.

Now a young man, this power has moulded him into a formidable warrior and acrobat, but this safety net has failed to teach the young Prince the value of patience and strategy. While headstrong and reckless, he still cares deeply about his country and the Persian people, and desires nothing more than to keep them safe.



So when a Hun force appears near the Persian border and King Peroz wants to take time to strategize and establish contact with the Huns, the Prince is at odds with his father. At first he obeys him, but then the Prince hears stories of strange beasts and dark magic from villagers fleeing the area near the Hun's camp.

Driven by his desire to protect his people, the Prince secretly heads out with a small force to confront the Huns, confident in his bola's protection.

But when he reaches the camp, his force is quickly overwhelmed by the Huns, who use dark shamanic magic to wield strange powers. Defeated in combat by the Hun King Nogai himself, the Prince slips into unconsciousness.

Yet when he wakes up, he is not in the hands of the Huns, nor back in time. His old mentor Sukhra has saved him, bringing him to the Oasis - a safe hidden place near the capital city.



The Prince quickly learns from Sukhra that his rash actions, though made with good intentions, have triggered an invasion of the city by the Huns. The Prince immediately sets off to stop them, but again he is bested by their dark magic and killed. The bola's power activates and returns him to the last safe place he was in - the Oasis.



The Prince realises with horror that he is stuck - his bola won't take him back further in time and so the Hun invasion is now irreversible.

Faced with the first true test of his character, he must head into the city again and again in a seemingly eternal loop, searching desperately for a way to stop the Hun invasion, and hoping in vain for a way to reverse it.

Only by confronting his weaknesses and regaining the trust of his family can he save both them and his people from his mistake, and to become the hero he has always wanted to be.


[h3]Narrative Exploration[/h3]
Narrative can be tricky in a roguelite - you're doing the same run again and again, so revealing the story can be awkward, convoluted, or can simply just not make sense.

This is one of the many reasons why we chose to go into Early Access - to get this narration exploration right, so as to make sure that discovering the story is clear, isn't tedious and also that fits well with the discovery of other gameplay elements.

We want the story to arrive naturally, so it is linked to unlocking new biomes, discovering new information, and doing certain interactions.



For example, you could discover a character in one biome, they talk you about another biome which is now unlocked. You go to the new biome and find a letter giving clues about the whereabouts of another character and a way to unlock the path to them. Now you must do certain actions in a certain order on your next run to arrive at this other character and so on.

Not exactly ground-breaking stuff, but in this way the narrative is unlocked alongside new biomes and information, and you must complete multiple runs with different paths to discover everything.

This can quickly be too much information, so to help you keep on top of it, the Prince has a mind map at his disposal. This saves and links all the clues you find about characters and locations so you can reference it whenever you need to. This will eventually help you to figure out exactly what you need to do...



At Early Access launch, we only have the first story act in the game, but more will come. But don't worry, there's plenty of weapons, medallions and other things to discover - so there is plenty to keep you occupied until the next story act arrives!

That's all for this update, the next time we post it will be for the game launch!

[h3]Dev Stream[/h3]
Speaking of launch day, if you'll be stuck somewhere you can't play, we will be doing a dev stream at 18:00 CET/ 09:00 PT on the Steam store page, our Youtube channel and Twitch channel.

We'll be talking with chat, so if you have any burning questions, come say hi!


Hope to see you there on launch day, either playing or watching :)

Thanks for reading,
Matt & the Evil Empire team

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Hello and welcome back to another community update for The Rogue Prince of Persia!

Sorry it's a bit later than planned, the game delay threw us out of loop a bit ^^

This time around we’ll be going into the art direction of the game, this also includes a bit of a dive into the absolutely banging soundtrack and who’s behind it, and we’ll touch on our animated trailers too.

As always, if you prefer to watch/listen, here is a YouTube version:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

First, let’s start with the the art of the game itself.

[h3]Art Direction[/h3] Persian miniatures

Since a Prince of Persia game is above all an epic and adventurous tale, the team was inspired by old Persian miniatures, that were often used to illustrate books of Persian tales and are often said to have a dreamlike quality.

The Rogue Prince of Persia IS a tale that someone is recounting – at the very beginning of the game there is a narrator saying exactly this, so it already seemed to be a good fit.



Battle scenes, myths and legends were the main scenarios depicted in these miniatures, so that was another tick in the box.

On top of that, the painters were often supported financially by the royal family, and this is a game about a Prince of Persia, so for us that sense of nobility seemed to be a natural fit for the game.



When discovering those Persian miniatures we were all charmed by how bright and colourful they are. The use of clean colours, which you can clearly see in our art direction, were captivating. But these pieces of Persian art, while beautiful, don’t have much sense of depth and are quite busy. When you’re playing a game, even a 2D one, you need to be able to distinguish the foreground, background and gameplay elements.

Franco-Belgian graphic novels

So, to counter this, and also probably because we have mostly french people in the team, we also drew heavy inspiration from Franco-Belgian bande-dessinée artists. Bande-dessinée essentially means graphic novel.

Obviously, there isn’t one style for all these artists – there are a wide variety of schools and styles and everyone is unique. Even a single artist will change their style between different projects.

But we can say that the sci-fi/fantasy work of Moebius, the pseudonym of Jean Giraud, was a big inspiration in particular. His work also used vivid colours, like the Persian miniatures, with clean lines that are occasionally broken, giving it a distinct style.



Epic backdrops framed central characters with unusual colours, inspiring your imagination to run riot and lending a dreamlike quality to the image.

This was particularly inspiring to us as the game’s story IS a dreamlike myth – the Prince has a bola which takes him back in time every time he dies, and he needs to save his country from an invasion that’s using a dark magic that corrupts those who use it. It’s not exactly grounded in reality.



Of course, working on the Prince of Persia IP also means that we’re also going to draw inspiration from the series, and you’ll see the impact of every entry in the series on our game, from the rotoscoped sprites of the 1989 version (and its purple skin Prince in the DOS version ;) ), to the classic Sands of Time and beyond.



Put this all together and you end up with the unique visual identity of The Rogue Prince of Persia, and it’s one that we are proud of.

So we’ve covered the art direction, now let’s go into an immensely important element of any game -the soundtrack.

[h3]The Soundtrack[/h3]

We really wanted to pay respect to ancient Persian music styles, but with a modern, urgent twist that would fit the action-platforming gameplay. The idea was to make you feel immersed in the world our artists have created, but to also have a beat always driving you forward, just as the Prince cannot rest until he has saved Persia.

We were a bit stumped here because let’s be honest, that’s quite a niche request. But then Yoann Laulan, who was working on the music for Dead Cells with us at the time, mentioned “Persian trap”. Curious, we turned to Google and an artist called Asadi popped up.

From the first listen we knew it could only be him.



Asadi is a Persian-American electronic music producer and artist with a unique sound. Using a wide array of traditional Persian instruments such as the Setar, the Tar and the Daf, Asadi expertly blends the unique melodies he creates with electronic, hip-hop and trap influences. The result is inspiring (check out the YouTube video above from 4:00 to hear some of his creations).

Asadi has tailored each track to fit perfectly into its own level, whether that’s the heavy oppression of the Tower of Oblivion, the tranquility of the Oasis, or the pulsating boss fight against Berude the Unstoppable. Without his efforts and enthusiasm, The Rogue Prince of Persia would be much poorer.

We finally have news about the release of the OST, which will be on 31st May and you can pre-save it here - https://ubisoftmusic.ffm.to/therogueprinceofpersia-ost


Last but definitely not least, he also worked to elevate our animated trailers to a whole new level. And yes I said trailers plural, because there’s one you still haven’t seen yet…

[h3]Animated Trailers[/h3]

Speaking of the animated trailers, let’s talk a little bit about how the animation studio La Cachette brought our version of the Prince to life!

La Cachette are the talented studio behind the animation of the award-winning series Primal –the series where a dinosaur and caveman team up to kick ass and take names. They’ve also made episodes for Love, Death and Robots, Star Wars: Visions and more. So we were pretty confident in their ability to make us some amazing character-based trailers, and they definitely delivered.



They’ve already helped us to show you a Prince who is highly skilled in acrobatics and combat and who will stop at nothing to stop the Hun invasion of his beloved Persia. Who can’t stop himself from helping anyone in need of aid, bound by his duty to protect his people.

Combined with Asadi’s stirring compositions, these trailers reflect the headstrong yet caring hero you will discover in the game.

So that’s about it, I hope that this has given you a better idea of our inspirations and how much care we have put into designing the Prince and this game. We are all extremely excited to have the opportunity to make our own entry in this historical and iconic video game series and can’t wait to share it with you all.

Thanks for being here and we'll be back soon!
Matt and the Evil Empire team

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Hello everyone,

So if you didn't see our post on Friday, we're briefly delaying the launch of The Rogue Prince of Persia.

You can read that post with the full explanation here.
TLDR: Hades 2 stealth drop is taking up all the air in the indie gaming/roguelite/Early Access space!

You can imagine that last week was a bit of a manic one for us, but we said we'd be back today with the new release date and so here we go... we will be releasing on the 27th May.

Not too far away, but it will let people finish up playing Hades 2 and the other great games that came out last week (and the ones which are coming out this week ^^'), and we'll keep adding polish for our own release too.
If Silksong shadow drops in the next two weeks I'm burning the whole thing down!

Apologies again to anyone who was hyped to play it tomorrow, but we really believe this was the best choice for the long-term health of the game. We hope you understand and can be patient just a bit longer.

In the meantime, we have some juicy bits to keep you going until launch day - a full gameplay trailer featuring our theme song and (finally) the game's price! We think you'll like both :)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Next Community Update[/h3]
So yeah, the music you just heard in the trailer was part of our theme song, made by the insanely talented Asadi, specialist of Persian trap music. He has created the entire soundtrack for the game, blending ancient tones with modern rhythms and, spoiler alert, it is absolutely banging..

We'll be going into his background and influences in our next community update on Friday 17th May, as well as the art direction...

[h3]What will the game cost?[/h3]
We've been seeing quite a few questions about the price of the game, with guesses varying from 30$ to 60$ (60$, really?!).

Well, we can finally reveal that The Rogue Prince of Persia will cost... 19.99$/€!

There might even be a cheeky little launch discount too, if you needed any more reason to start playing on launch day.

Hope to see you all there, for now it's back to debug for us!


Cheers,
Matt and the Evil Empire team

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Hello everyone,

So it's been a bit of a crazy week for us! It all started when a little game called Hades 2 released - you might have heard of it?



Seeing as everyone and their mum is playing that game (including our entire team... and their mums), we have decided to let people have their fun with it before we release The Rogue Prince of Persia.

We will still be releasing in May and will be back with a precise date on Monday.

While we have every confidence in The Rogue Prince of Persia, it's not every day that a game in the same genre as you, which is one of the most anticipated upcoming games of 2024, will release into Early Access a week before you plan to do the same.

We are not prideful enough to ignore the implications of that, and we truly believe that this short delay is the best decision for us and our Early Access journey.

We also want to give Hades 2 a headstart before we start running, it's only fair ;)



This also lets us keep polishing up the game, add even more cool things and kick some stubborn bugs out before release. The Day 1 patch was getting pretty hefty, so gaining more time to test it and add more stuff before launch day has considerably lowered the stress levels of our producer and game director already!

We completely understand that this is annoying news to hear for everyone who was eager to play the game, especially so close to the anticipated release. We can only hold our hands up, apologise and hope that you understand.

It will be worth the wait!

Thanks for your patience,
Matt and the Evil Empire team

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Hello everyone,

Welcome to our second community update for The Rogue Prince of Persia!

Sorry it's a bit late but let's get stuck in! As before, if you prefer to watch/listen, here is a YouTube version:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This one is all about how we made the game feel like a Prince of Persia with the controller in your hand – the action, the platforming, the wall-run.



We want you to feel like you are in a constant state of flow, with no interruption between traversal and combat. This will need some mastery from you of course, but we've given you all the tools you need to feel like you are the Prince himself.

[h3]Wall-run[/h3]
So let's start with the one and only, the wall-run! A classic Prince of Persia move, the wall-run is key to the Prince's movement and combat strategy.



It allows you to avoid traps, move between platforms over plummeting drops, escape groups of enemies when the odds are against you, maneuver yourself into an advantageous position before attacking, and to get to areas that seem completely out-of-reach at first glance.

You can wall-run horizontally, vertically and diagonally but not downwards. But if you're worried about falling onto a big ol' pile of spikes then have no fear!

[h3]Dagger brake[/h3]
The Prince can slow his descent by sticking his dagger into the wall (if there is one of course), allowing you to avoid traps or falling straight into bad situations.



OK this one isn't exactly a Prince of Persia move, but it looks cool!

[h3]Poles[/h3]
What happens if the wall is too long for a wall-run? Weelllll there's usually some handy poles around that you can grab onto or perch on. Use these resting spots to stop and scout out your next move or, by timing your next jump right, bound and swing from pole to pole in a speedy whirlwhind of acrobatics. I'll let you guess which one is more fun!



[h3]Wall-run #2[/h3]
There's also the "other wall-run", you know the one where you run up vertical walls. The middle child. We should really find a name for this one... Wall climb?



Anyway, this allows for quick vertical climbing and also doubles as a way to get a horizontal boost at the end as you backflip off the wall to the next spot. If you're lucky and have two vertical walls next to each other then go ahead and ping-pong upwards to your heart's content.

[h3]Dash[/h3]

The dash is a... dash. Use it to get yourself out of a tight spot, out of a bomb's radius or to close the distance to an enemy. Or use it for it's primary purpose - do a speedrun in under 8 minutes.

[h3]Dodge[/h3]
If you dash towards an enemy when close enough, the Prince will dodge over that enemy's head, putting himself behind them and ready to go to town on their unprotected back.



The eagle-eyed ones of you will notice a similarity to a move in another Prince of Persia game...

Fine, it's basically the vault from the Sands of Time.

[h3]COMBAT[/h3]
That's the movement set, now what about the combat?

Well there'll be a lot of it, so we've provided lots of options for you to manage the numerous enemies who are waiting to bonk you on the head, stab you in the delicate bits or just smash you into a pulp.

[h3]Primary Weapons[/h3]
We're not going to run through the specifics of each weapon, but rest assured that there is something for everyone.



We have quick stabby weapons, weapons you can throw, heavy weapons, and of course the twin daggers you've seen everywhere. Each one has a combo as well as a special attack, so it's not just a question of mashing the attack button in every situation (unless you want to, we're not your boss).



Each weapon is based on something that was around in the rough time period that we've based the game on, with some artistic liberties of course!! More will be added during Early Access too.

[h3]Tools[/h3]
Tools are way more exciting than they sound, we just didn't want to use the term 'Secondary Weapons' because it doesn't 100% fit this pool of items. These items have 'charges' that are used up with each use - you can refill them by hitting enemies. Already starting to sound more exciting right?

There are classics like a bow and chakram, but you will unlock others that allow you to try something different. You can find ones that pull enemies towards you, pull yourself forward or jump up into the air and smash down.



Switch between Tools as you find them in a run to adjust to how your loadout is evolving or just how you want to play.

Like the Primary Weapons, more will be added during Early Access.


[h3]Kick [/h3]
Sometimes even the Prince can get overwhelmed with enemies, at this point the kick can come in very handy. At its simplest it allows you to push an enemy backward to give you some breathing space, but it is much more than that.



It also allows you to sparta kick an enemy into oblivion. Or a trap. Or spikes.



As if you needed any more reason to kick an enemy, it also has the added bonus of stunning the enemy if it is kicked into a wall. Kick an enemy into another enemy and they are both stunned, leaving them insanely vulnerable to a follow up attack.



Kicking an enemy onto a shielded enemy (who you will quickly learn to hate) breaks their shield instantly, which would otherwise take precious time to break.



So yeah, the kick is kinda useful.

[h3]Dive[/h3]

OK, the dive attack isn't very Prince of Persia-y. It just feels great to use and lets you both stun enemies and break shields at the same time!

[h3]Medallions [/h3]
These aren't a combat move but they do enhance your fighting moveset.

Medallions are triggered by a wide variety of things, such as kicking an enemy or wall-running above them. They then either apply effects to enemies like damage or slowdown, or they can affect you with something like healing.



You can only use four, and they can upgrade each other depending on where you slot them.



Upgraded weapons can also trigger effects that medallions are triggered by or interact with, so there's lots of synergies and builds for you to explore.

[h3]Only the beginning[/h3]
As mentioned before, this is just the start of Early Access, so more weapons, tools and elements will be added - this is all only a base for the game to build on!!

Hopefully you can see how much we worked on making the flow between traversal and combat as seamless as possible - you really should feel like going through a level is one big fluid movement.



But there is always room to make things even better, and your feedback will be crucial to how we move forward, so we hope you will be able to join us on the journey through Early Access.

We'll be back next week with a dive into the music and art direction of the game so don't miss that one!

Cheers,
Matt & Evil Empire