Our second closed beta update is approaching, so it’s the perfect time to tell you about one of the major new features that will be available on March 20th, a brand new Illustran unit: the Cura. This new addition challenges players to adapt, strategize, and explore new tactics. Let’s talk about how the team came up with this new card and how they implemented it inside the game.
Each new feature or card represents a puzzle piece waiting to be integrated into existing strategies or crafted into entirely new ones, thereby enriching the gameplay experience. “The creation of new cards is another way of addressing potential balance issues and preventing staleness by revitalizing gameplay dynamics”, Game Designer Pierre Heinisch explains. Ultimately, the creation of new cards is the lifeblood of any strategy card game, fueling Vestiges: Fallen Tribes’ evolution towards deck building.
Creating the Cura
The Cura is part of the “Citizens of Illustra” deck. The story behind this very roman inspired tribe is a desire to stay close to the Studio’s Mediterranean roots. “We are located in Lyon, France, which was funded by the Romans in the 1st century BC,” Art Director, Suzanne Rault, explains. Indeed, Lyon, called Lugdunum at the time, still embraces that Roman influence today. Downtown and the old Lyon are part of the Unesco World Heritage Sites. You can visit the Gallo-Roman museum and sit at the Ancient Theatre of Fourviere where musical and theatrical festivals are organized. Actually, most of France was occupied by the Romans at the time…
The Cura (on the right) is a healing unit, protecting the rest of the tribe.
Just like the other units, the Cura is largely inspired by one famous roman symbol: the Vestal Virgins. “The Vestal Virgins played a crucial role in ancient Rome as priestesses tasked with maintaining the sacred flame of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, ensuring its continuous burning as a symbol of Rome’s perpetuity and prosperity”, Pierre Heinisch adds. Except we wanted to provide players with a strategic advantage by offering the ability to sustain their Illustran soldiers with a healing unit, prolonging their mostly grouped presence on the battlefield and potentially turning the tide of a match in their favor. The idea of the Cura was born.
“While drawing the Cura, I had this view of this very powerful feminine and healing figure inspired by Panacea, goddess of health in Greek and Roman mythology. Both Vestals and Panacea are often pictured with long draped dresses that I combined with modern golden ornaments”, Suzanne says. The Cura carries a staff surmounted with wings and associated with the Hermes’s caduceus in Greek mythology – which was supposed to heal snake wounds – or the rod of Asclepius which is the Ancient Roman symbol of healing and medicine.
3D Artist Pauline Arnoux working on modeling the Cura.
Integrating the Cura
Once the concepts were validated by the team and the 3D artists were done with their modeling, Lead Developer Benoît Djerigian needed to code the Cura’s behavior inside the game.
We are using Unreal Engine to make Vestiges: Fallen Tribes and what is important to understand is that Pierre created a specific architecture so that every new unit added to the game will automatically have those common specs:
- find a target
- move toward a target
- attack a target
- health points
- a movement speed
- a team number (associated with its deck)
“This system allows us to integrate new units without having to start from scratch every time so we can focus on adding the settings associated with the specific unit’s role”, Benoît explains. All 10 units we’ve had in the game so far were only attacking each other in different ways, so everytime they would find and attack their target they would do damage to their target so they lose health points. “The simplest way to make the Cura work with our system was to treat her healing ability like an attack. Pierre came up with the simplest solution: it’s an attack, but dealing negative damage”, Benoît continues.
Inside Unreal Engine’s behavior tree’s editor: the Cura is always looking for the closest ally and starts healing them until she has no energy left.
Also, we are working on a Gameplay Ability System. “It’s a very cool tool that would help us associate specific active or passive abilities such as Cure, Attack or Defense to different units without having to counter the basic architecture or adding specs manually”, Benoît explains. This tool will help the developers associate specific behaviors to specific actions such as circling your target instead of coming from the front when they are attacking at close range. It is a way to influence each unit’s gameplay and create more diversified deck’s. Gameplay ability systems can also handle aspects such as input handling and sound/animation synchronization.
Fun fact
If you ever played with the Illustrans, you’ve likely played the legionnaires which have the special ability to reduce damage like a shield when they’re hit from the front. “While I was testing our build including the Cura, I noticed that since the Cura’s healing is considered as an attack for the system, the legionnaires would also reduce the cure and would not heal as fast as supposed to”, Benoît laughs.
So Benoît told the system that every negative damage this unit shall receive is a cure and should be received fully. Basically, without the gameplay ability system, it becomes very hard to think about every possible interaction and code them manually.
Stay tuned to learn more about Vestiges: Fallen Tribes. Get your Closed Beta access to enjoy this next update. Feedback from players is essential as it provides valuable insights into their experiences, preferences, and areas for improvement, helping the team refine and enhance the game to better meet the needs and expectations of the player community.
There are a few ways to give us your feedback on the game :
- the feedback form , the most efficient
- the discord, the most detailed
- X, also a possibility
Thank you for being a part of this exciting evolution, and we can’t wait to see where the Closed Beta takes us!