Weekly Update 5/28/16 - Mockups and concepts

Hey, Orbs! We've got quite a lot of content, for last week and this week! Lets get started.

From our lead character designer, some spy character concepts. You won't be seeing these anytime soon, but it'll be worth it when you do!

The official Poptropican reference for Orb Legend. Yes, Poptropicans in Orb Legend have necks and fingers. :P

Here are a couple possible walking animations for our hero. Which one do you like best? Thanks to TC and Feng for the animations.

A couple new sprites for Meridian's bedroom!

Finally, a layout for the BHP HQ! What do you think of these sneak peeks?

Andrew

Weekly Update 5/14/16 - Sprites and animations!

Hey Orbs! This week, we've mainly been working on sprites. Check out these glimpses of OL!

The standard bed.

More Main Menu development in the form of a dropdown!

A... giant canister of hair gel..?

We've recently commissioned Reiforce from DeviantArt to do some animations for us. Their first attempt was good- but the direction Meridian was walking? Not so good. Our oversight resulted in hilarity.

Artist SmileyFaceOrg finished up this awesome piece this week, of the character Scavenger! Her designed is heavily influenced by Buddy from the RPG LISA, but she has a few secrets of her own.

And finally, check out this battle mockup! Don't read too much into it. ;)

That's all we have for you this week! Look forward to more dialogue development in the next weekly update.

-Andrew

Amending Menus | Sneak Peeks

Greetings Orbs! This is co-head writer and voice actor Joshua Hawk here with a important update.

As Andrew touched upon in his most recent Weekly Update, we here on the development team have been working hard to create a demo of the game for you all. So it is with overwhelming enthusiasm that I present to you all the first sneak peek for the aforementioned demo!

Before I continue, I must take some time to thank the people who worked to bring this sneak peek to you. Special thanks to Andrew Wiles for his leadership regarding the project and for providing his voice for the narration of the video, to Santorno for his programming and recording of the visuals, and to Taitoki for the music. And while thanking myself would be rather conceited and frankly redundant, I will (in the third person) credit Joshua for provided his voice to the hog we have dubbed Mr. Piggles.

Anywho, in this sneak peak we show off the start menu for the game. And while it is not completely finished yet, it is largely finalized. We hope to have the completed product look and feel very similar to this sneak peek in both design and functionality.

There you have it! The first sneak peek for Orb Legend's up and coming demo! This is most certainly a big step forward in terms of productivity, so I want to know - do you like what you see here? Does this help get you excited for the demo? Let us know in the comments below!

Until next time...

-- Joshua Hawk

Weekly Update 5/7/16 - Progress on the demo

Hey Orbs!

Sadly, our beloved Cobalt has left the development. I'll be continuing posts from now on. We'll miss him!

A few big changes -- we've expanded our team! Please welcome Santorno, Criaha, Crafty, and Ackee! They're all priceless additions and I'm super excited about our time together.

I think the most important piece of information I can give you on this post is we finally have our first build in the works! The start menu is being built currently. Yes, we still plan on making a demo! Be on the lookout for version Baby Meridian soon!

We have a new pixel version of the OL logo that you'll be seeing very soon! Check out the comparison below. I think its an upgrade. :)

As you can see, we've updated it to better match our full quality logo that you can view at the top of this site.

Here's a sketch for a quirky character: Santorno's character addition to the game!

And here's an unfinished room! Who could inhabit this workspace?

Here's a pig for good measure. How could he fit into this legend?

I know we said we'd update the character page last week, but because the blog is going to be redesigned entirely, we're going to postpone the release for that. :) What do you think of these sneek peaks? Tell us in the comments!

Andrew

Weekly Update 4/22/16 - Take a look at these scenes!

Wihi Orbs, Cobalt back with another Weekly Update for ya!

We have some cash updates today yo! 

Alright, alright - I know we said the character pages and meet the team pages would be updated this week, and we had to hold off on that. Why? We have new format ideas for them, so it'll be a bit before they change.

I know pronounce you bed and wife!

This is your first ever glimpse into the upcoming demo version of Dimensional Warp, enjoy I guess?

A new sprite artist gives you a glimpse of a character frozen - oh wait, that's just the statue. Yeah, the character is actually frozen in time. Though, he's slightly more blue than bronze. ;)

Pretty...

Who is this warrior? Find out when we update the character pages!

Whoa, a burst of speculate worthy stuff! A lighthouse, and Uncle Mulford's breakfast place thing! What can this all mean? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Okay, these are all the snippets I'm showing you this week. Peace peace.

-Cobalt

Textures, Scenery, and screen...ery! - Weekly Update 4/16/16

Hey Orbs, Cobalt here!

I'm genuinely sorry we didn't have a Weekly Update last week. Honestly, it's a bit hypocritical of me to complain about the Daily Pops on Poptropica not being daily when I did this. I apologize if you were frantically refreshing from the moment you woke from the moment you wept at midnight, but hopefully, this week's work we put in makes up for it! Just check out this amazing piece!

I... I have no explanation for this.

We worked on character pages, character dev, story, scenery, and we even have a new team member, and you'll be seeing her on the Meet the Team Page soon!

She's a sprite artist and an incredible one at that. We also have more possible members in mind, let's get this baby out by her due date, eh?

((Funny enough, the reason this is coming out so late today is because I spent most of it watching my aunt in labor.

But without further ado, let's get on with it heroes!

Say Uncle!

I see the light!

Not done yet, but I swear, you'll see it on the big screen!

Testing testing, 1, 2, weed!

Also, here's what you've been waiting for since two weeks ago... the amazing inventory concepts!

Of cooouuurrrseee the last one is a joke, haha...

I'll see you all next week, make sure to check the Character Page and Meet the Team page, it'll be updated during the week!

Peace peace.

-Cobalt

Ancient places and Characters for your faces! Weekly Update 4/2/16

Hey Orbs, Cobalt here reporting in for another Weekly Update! I'm stoked the crew worked on more non-spoilerous content this week, you're in for a treat!

((Also, yes I am back this week! The Keystone liked my previous work, so he said he may ask me to do more! Regardless, I like making updates for you heroes, so let's get on with it! (Thank you Small Fire for the meme!)

Rooms and Maps

Wait a second, is it the year of the dragon or the fish?

Your mind can ponder many places while looking at this, but to give you a hint, try to keep it close to home. 

Dat Asgard!

Despite Orb Legend being in it's own universe with it's own history and mythology, some mythology and history like Greek and Norse may slide it's way in as well!

Characters

Trust me, you can inspect and analyze these all you want, but all you'll get is some flimsy evidence.

From doodle to doodle! Wait, Cobalt? Isn't the one to the right a sprite? Yeah it is, why? Speaking of doodles, check out these freaks we've been working on all week!

Almost everyone from the team has one or more of their characters in there, including me! It was fun and great collaborative work! We blurred some of them out for being too spoilerous. Is spoilerous even a word? I've used it like three times this post. Eh, it is now.

Also folks, of course we're working on even more things behind the scenes. Trust us, if you're working with us, there's one thing we can all agree on - sleep is for the weak. 

Until next time, this is Cobalt signing off!

Room concepts? Puck! Weekly Update! 3/26/16

Hey, Orbs! Cobalt reporting in, with some [insert synonym for exciting] updates for you all! I'm going to be filling in for The Keystone's Weekly Update series this week, considering he is at a youth retreat and has some upcoming family events. That okay with you?

Fantastic! Anyway, he didn't add me to the Meet the Team page before he left, but I help out with coding, sprite work, and the story. You'll get to know more about me later, and if you follow the PHB, you already do!

The Orb Legend Crew has worked hard this week, from room concepts, the title screen, writing up scenes, sketches, artwork, dialogue, story consistency editing and, of course, soundtracks.

So, that makes this Weekly Update fantastic, right? No, it doesn't. Yes, we did a lot this week - but it's too spoilery! So, for your future enjoyment, I had to make a sacrifice. I'll show you two pictures that may or may not have a major significance in the future.

Good ol' Uncle Puck's character page! Meridian and he have a very loving bond.

My second favorite thing we worked on this week was the BHP Lobby! We worked with a lot of people on this, and we hid a few things in there, mostly that contain things to the characters included likings, but really only things you'll only understand... in good time.

A lot of time went into this, and although it's just a rough sketch, trust us - you're going to appreciate things like these more and more when you notice all the references and secrets they hold!

Hope you heroes enjoyed this little glimpse we had to offer this week and trust us, there is a lot more to them; and a lot more we did. Sorry we had to hide a lot of it, though.

The itinerary next week isn't completely up to me, but I think it'll be about time we show you the final title screen, inventory concepts, and some more rooms!

Not sure when you all will hear from me next, but until then, this is Cobalt signing off!

-Cobalt Spinner

Title Screen! - Weekly Update 3/19/16

Hey, Orbs (I'm actually rather angry about this but whatever)! I'm starting a new series on the blog where I post every Saturday about progress made during the week. This week, the main focus was the title screen!

So I've been working closely with a possibly new team member on the title screen for Orb Legend. I had a basic idea of what I wanted in it, that being buttons for "Options", "Books", and "Credits". We've drafted up some sprites and are currently working on putting them into effect. I don't want to spoil too much, but here is the basic premise for the title screen:

Beyond the title screen, I went on to work on the book selection, which I'm personally really excited about. Each book design is actually themed to contents of said book, easter eggs planted throughout. Here are some concept sketches for a few of them.

The itenerary for next week? Rooms outlines, title screen coding, and a secret project for GHA. See you Saturday. ^^





MERIDIAN SINKER

Characters and team members!

Hey, all! I'm just here to update you on a few things we've added to the site recently.

The "Meet the Team" has been revamped, with new icons and bios. A neat feature is that the page showcases the most major character that the person has contributed to the story of Orb Legend.

You may have noticed that a "Characters" page has been added - now with only 3 characters but a total of 8 to be added in the future! It has info on some of the characters that have been a mystery up until now.

I also am sort of curious as to what you guys want to be called! Use this Straw Poll and let me know. Til then, you'll find me in my lighthouse!

MERIDIAN SINKER