Signet Studios is currently
producing a Christian RPG entitled Egress, which begins 2 days before
the rapture of the church into heaven. The basic idea of this game is to become
a believer, realizing you were 'left behind', and bring people to Christ, while
trying to survive through the spiritual battles, solve the various sub-quests of
the plot, and ultimately make it to the second coming of Christ. Matthew 24:36
(NIV) tells us, speaking of the second coming of Christ, that "No one knows
about the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the
father." Therefore, the rapture must be used as a base time system. This can be
done by saying the current date is something such as "One day before the
Rapture", "The day of the Rapture", "One week after the rapture", or "1 year, 3
months, 1 week, and 2 days after the rapture".
As it’s a Christian RPG, a
different "spell" system had to be designed, as spell casting is completely out
of the question; thus, the idea for prayers and prayer warriors, as opposed to
spells and spell casters (such as conjurers, magicians, sorcerers/sorceresses,
etc) was born. In other RPGs, sometimes a "spell" would "miss" the opponent;
whereas in Egress, it would just be a prayer the character prayed
that simply was not the Lord’s will, or at least not His will at that current
time.
It's coming out very well, but the
company’s main goal right now is to design at least 10 "towns" and one world map
that connects each town. This world map will consist of the following: 2 (or
more) continents, mountains, hills, rivers, lakes, caves, kingdoms, countries,
cities, villages, and all the other things you might find in a real world. If
the town is to have a castle in it (for instance, the main character's town),
then there will be the castle, king, and the connecting town of the kingdom. If
it is just a village, or a small town along the adventurer's journey, a mayor's
house (and, of course, the mayor) would be apropos, instead of a castle and
king.
The intro is completely designed,
awaiting production. All of the weapons, armor, items and prayers have been
'designed' and categorized into where gamers will find them in his or her
playing of the game. In other words, better things will be found as the
character’s journey takes him or her to places he or she has not been to before,
as in many other RPGs. Many of the characters, as well as many of the enemies
have also been designed. After map design completes, production will begin on
the storyline. As this is all taking place, the artists, designers, programmers
and other project members will be corroborating with the story writers to
produce the 3D models, music, and other media for Egress. This media
will include production of the intro scene, characters, enemies, weapons, items,
prayers, maps, backgrounds, and etc in whatever order flows as most conducive to
a quality video game. As the project team presses on, each person will not only
be working on his or her individual task in the production of the video game,
but each person will also be offering their comments and suggestions in
bi-weekly team meetings and daily division meetings to help better the game as a
whole and attempt to fit each individual element of the game with the others.
The design of the main game
engine, which calls the world map, town, dialogue, battle system, and other such
game engines, as well as the other mentioned engines is coming out well. Signet
Studios, of course, is far from completion of the actual game engines, due to
the necessity of having the resource database (graphics, models, dialogue, etc.)
for Egress to plug into it’s various game engines. However, we're
making good time!
After all previously mentioned
items have finished production, a beta version will be released, and finishing
touches will be added. Next, as our beta testers play the game and test for
problems, we will begin marketing, retail box design, and completion of the
retail product will commence, readying the game for mass production.
