Shardlight - A Wadjet Eye Game by Ben304 and Grundislav

Grundislav · Tue 09/12/2014 11:17:35

Wadjet Eye Games Presents:

The world ended on the day the bombs fell.

Since then, it's always been like this. Disease, hunger, death. The ruling Aristocrats have unchallenged authority – a faceless oligarchy that controls all resources, and there's never enough food, water or vaccine for everyone. The poor live in fear, superstition and squalor. The rich receive regular doses of vaccinations in exchange for unconditional government support.

Amy has never known a life beyond this, and has had to resort to working for Tiberius, the ruthless head of the Ministry of Energy, in order to qualify for the vaccine lottery. However, she will soon learn that the government is keeping a terrible secret. With the help of a mysterious figure, Amy will work to unite the oppressed, bring down Tiberius, and find a cure for the plague.

Screenshots:

For those of you who played OROW games The Rebirth and The Reaper, this is the full game teased by those two stories. Look for it in spring 2016!

The Team
Ben Chandler: Background Art, Character Animations, Puzzle Design, Story
Francisco Gonzalez: Design, Writing, Story
Ivan Ulyanov: Character Portraits
Nathaniel Chambers: Music and Sound

Trailer

Buy it here!
Download Demo

AnasAbdin · Tue 09/12/2014 11:23:09

Meh

looking amazing...

Ben never fails to amaze me.
I love that the first two screenshots are linked

Gurok · Tue 09/12/2014 11:27:23

Amazing portrait work and beautiful backgrounds. This looks to be another gem!

Stupot · Tue 09/12/2014 12:07:06

Gorgeous stuff. I've got a total shard-on for this game

Bavolis · Tue 09/12/2014 12:27:42

It's ridiculous how much this pulls on the nostalgia strings.

STTrife · Tue 09/12/2014 12:30:08

The graphics look stunning! Can't wait to play it!

Matti · Tue 09/12/2014 13:01:25

This looks astoundingly beautiful. Keep it up!

Adeel · Tue 09/12/2014 13:25:24

Quote from: Grundislav on Tue 09/12/2014 11:17:35
The world ended on the day the bombs fell.

I'm getting Fallout vibes from the intro. Yes, I do remember those two OROW games. Good luck with this endeavour of yours.

With a new avatar and a new game, Grundyboy is back into the game!

Layabout · Tue 09/12/2014 14:08:36

I am happy you guys get to finally announce this. I know the effort and time you have dedicated to building this world will finally pay off.

CaptainD · Tue 09/12/2014 14:11:24

Looks awesome!!

Bulbapuck · Tue 09/12/2014 14:53:32

Whoa, been waiting for this since you guys outshone all of us in that OROW. Looks incredible! ^^

MiteWiseacreLives! · Tue 09/12/2014 16:48:07

I gotta say those MAGS games had me intrigued about this possible game

If this lives up to expectations (which I'm sure it will) we've got a Game of the Year contender here(nod), now that the bar has been set do we get some blockbuster launches in 2015?

Etumretniw · Tue 09/12/2014 17:24:39

It looks really atmospheric. Looking forward to it.

stepurhan · Tue 09/12/2014 19:11:11

The demo played well too.

Gribbler · Tue 09/12/2014 19:16:28

Day one purchase.

Lasca · Tue 09/12/2014 20:10:34

Oh my!!
Looks absolutly fab!

Blount · Tue 09/12/2014 20:37:44

Spectacularly awesome!

AprilSkies · Tue 09/12/2014 21:12:04

Ok. I just came back from AdventureX in London. I saw such great games there... Then, once I'm back home, I open internet, click on AGS link and I see this.
BOOM!
I already love it.

Grundislav · Tue 09/12/2014 21:34:21

I actually presented it at AdventureX on Saturday! Hopefully the presentation was filmed.

AprilSkies · Tue 09/12/2014 21:38:48

Quote from: Grundislav on Tue 09/12/2014 21:34:21
I actually presented it at AdventureX on Saturday! Hopefully the presentation was filmed.

I was not there on sunday indeed

note to self: next time go all days!

selmiak · Tue 09/12/2014 21:49:03

now this is interesting

Problem · Tue 09/12/2014 22:24:14

Just awesome. I still remember the two OROW games, and I hoped that you'd make a full game out of these teasers. I love the setting, I love the Ben's art style... this can't go wrong. Consider it bought already.

Blackthorne · Wed 10/12/2014 01:29:37

Hot damn, fellas! This looks awesome!! Man, I'm so glad you guys are making games like this.

I can't wait to see more, and now I have to wait FOREVER for a release. THANKS.

Bt

edmundito · Wed 10/12/2014 04:46:48

Fitz · Wed 10/12/2014 08:20:29

Could this be... the famed Scottish Game?

theo · Wed 10/12/2014 10:09:54

Absolutely love the look of this. Great hangin' out and doing some chatting in London, Francisco. Hope we'll be able to drag that lovely ben of yours to the next adventurex so I'll finally get to meet him as well.

Stay rad.

shaun9991 · Wed 10/12/2014 14:32:40

Another great looking game guys, top notch stuff

Erenan · Thu 11/12/2014 05:45:35

This looks terrible. You should try making a good game for a change.

No, totally just kidding. This looks awesome!

m0ds · Thu 11/12/2014 09:28:01

Excellent stuff, thanks for bringing it and revealing at AdventureX! It looks and appears to play (as a viewer from afar) fantastic of course

LUniqueDan · Thu 11/12/2014 11:29:47

Omagad ! I soo wanna play it !

Andail · Thu 11/12/2014 12:20:20

Nice of you to show us some early in-progress shots, I'm sure they'll turn out decent somewhere down the road!

Dave Gilbert · Thu 11/12/2014 21:34:02

The Scottish Game is dead! Long live Shardlight!

Vince Twelve · Thu 11/12/2014 22:39:31

Finally. I was getting tired of all the dancing around the name in the podcast.

Looking fantastic, guys!

Calypso · Sat 20/12/2014 05:43:29

Very nice! I've played the OROW games and I'm glad that more of the storyline is going to get revealed. The dystopian atmosphere seems to be strong in this one already.

faerieevenstar · Mon 22/12/2014 20:37:03

Is this the game from The Reaper and The Rebirth from OROW?? OMG I loved those and I was dying to see where they went! *bounces from foot to foot*

Pinback · Tue 06/01/2015 13:53:35

Seeing this is making me want to un-retire from game development. Damn fine looking stuff.

Chicky · Tue 06/01/2015 18:40:55

You've really pushed the bar with those visuals Ben, lovely detailed scenes with tonnes of personality! That character portrait also fits the style perfectly Mr Grundislav.

Reaper and Rebirth were fun but teasingly short, excited to see how they tie together

Pinback · Wed 07/01/2015 12:03:59

Quote from: Chicky on Tue 06/01/2015 18:40:55
That character portrait also fits the style perfectly Mr Grundislav.

Yeah, those portraits really sit nicely in the mix. Delicious stuff.

kconan · Wed 07/01/2015 14:08:28

Wow, this looks awesome!

Adder · Wed 07/01/2015 14:16:54

Holy WOW - this is looking brilliant!! Go you guys!

Grundislav · Thu 28/05/2015 17:09:52

Just a quick bump to show off our new portrait artist Ilyich's fine work!

Ryan Timothy B · Thu 28/05/2015 20:52:02

That's absolutely the very best background I've ever seen. Damn you're getting better at this Ben.

Fitz · Thu 28/05/2015 21:15:46

Loved Ilyich's work for Technobabylon -- so I'm glad to see him involved in yet another promising dystopian game

With Dustbowl out just yesterday and Dead Synchronicity last month -- and hopefully the Mad Max game from the makers of Just Cause 2 -- 2015 looks pretty exciting for sci-fi/post-apo game fans.

ManicMatt · Thu 28/05/2015 22:52:10

A feast for the eyes!

MiteWiseacreLives! · Fri 29/05/2015 04:40:03

The demos were intriguing, the art-work looks great. I will be following this one closely

AndyfromVA · Sat 27/06/2015 03:54:09

Grundislav, how are things progressing on Shardlight? Is it still on track for the last part of 2015?

Grundislav · Sat 27/06/2015 16:32:04

Things are progressing slowly but surely. The game has been in alpha for a couple of weeks, and we're starting to get music for it. Ben is hard at work on the art, and I'm trying to get the design completed. Still hoping to get it out before the end of this year.

AndyfromVA · Sun 28/06/2015 02:27:14

Great, I'm really looking forward to Shardlight!

Priabudiman · Tue 30/06/2015 13:08:27

you guys sure love to make my steam games collection full...

The best of luck on the development! cant wait!

Grundislav · Thu 02/07/2015 15:08:49

If you played The Rebirth and The Reaper, this may interest you:

Mathias · Thu 02/07/2015 22:58:17

I love the general art in this this game. Wonderful use of color. Looking forward to check it out when it's done.

donkeymilk · Fri 07/08/2015 20:46:58

Is there a demo for Shardlight or too soon ?

Grundislav · Sat 05/09/2015 07:34:20

Too soon right now. Demos usually come out around a couple of weeks before release.

This would probably be a good time to mention that the release has been pushed back to Spring 2016.

Blondbraid · Sat 05/09/2015 09:56:24

Looks beautiful, I hope I'll remember to keep an eye out for this one then!

Snarky · Sat 05/09/2015 16:13:13

Got to playtest a bit of this at Mittens, and can report that it's looking excellent! And Grundislav kept improving it throughout the week, including by adding more feedback to one particularly devious puzzle I struggled with. Hopefully my incompetence won't lead Wadjet Eye to dumb down the game too much.

Grundislav · Tue 06/10/2015 18:36:46

We have a trailer!

AnasAbdin · Tue 06/10/2015 18:40:56

Why am I crying?

Grundislav · Tue 06/10/2015 18:58:45

Because you live near an onion factory?

Hobo · Tue 06/10/2015 19:11:49

Quote from: AnasAbdin on Tue 06/10/2015 18:40:56
Why am I crying?

You probably got some shardlight in you eye or something.

Great trailer! A lovely voice, bunch of outstanding animations and little background details, plus the atmosphere was so thick, I could almost taste it.

Gribbler · Tue 06/10/2015 19:50:55

Looks fantastic! Can't wait to play it!

Quintaros · Tue 06/10/2015 19:51:58

Looking good. The voice acting is so much better than the temp tracks that you had during the Mittens demo.

selmiak · Tue 06/10/2015 19:52:51

this is nice, real nice!

SilverSpook · Tue 06/10/2015 20:50:10

Can't wait for this! Kudos for branching out to Urban Fantasy as well. I wouldn't know the first thing about that.

Atmosphere is suffocating (in a good way), the lighting rocks: the radioactive/mystical green and brown glow is a nice changeup from the cyan-themed Technobabylon.

This may be a total subjective nitpick that I notice cause I do audio engineering and no one will give a crap about, but watching the video with headphones in there seems to be a noticeable amount of compression of the music when the voice is speaking toward the middle/end of the video.

Great stuff!

Dave Gilbert · Wed 07/10/2015 13:56:21

Quote from: SilverSpook on Tue 06/10/2015 20:50:10
This may be a total subjective nitpick that I notice cause I do audio engineering and no one will give a crap about, but watching the video with headphones in there seems to be a noticeable amount of compression of the music when the voice is speaking toward the middle/end of the video.

Hehe. You caught me. Yes, I lowered the volume of the music juuust slightly towards the end because the VO was difficult to hear. I tried to hide it as best I could. I figured only audio engineers would notice it. Lo and behold...

Snarky · Wed 07/10/2015 15:33:52

I also noticed it, and I'm no audio engineer (but I was listening with earbuds).

The game looks great, but I wasn't so keen on the music in the trailer: there were some weird rhythm changes and odd notes mixed in that kept throwing me off. Maybe it will work better in-game.

Stee · Fri 09/10/2015 20:00:32

Maybe you've had this exposure before and I haven't noticed but Shardlight got some coverage off a pretty big site

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-10-08-wadjet-eye-reveals-post-apocalyptic-adventure-shardlight

dactylopus · Sun 11/10/2015 05:18:34

Wow, this looks spectacular.

Grundislav · Fri 13/11/2015 18:39:30

Shardlight is previewed in the Holiday Issue of PC Gamer!

splat44 · Sat 05/12/2015 07:41:58

Wow! Interesting!

Since it's coming spring 2016, I don't mind helping to test this prior to release.

I am in fact testing one of AprilSkies game and he knows how throughout I am:
tales demo

Let me know

Grundislav · Fri 22/01/2016 16:22:17

A nice Hands-on at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Amayirot Akago · Fri 22/01/2016 17:00:17

I got a chance to play the preview as well and wrote some thoughts over here. Spoiler: it was good

https://akagos100gameoath.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/preview-shardlight/

Dave Gilbert · Tue 16/02/2016 19:23:32

We've got a launch date! The game comes out on March 8th.

We also have a new trailer:

[embed=640,400]http://youtu.be/-CyEusvEpjw[/embed]

SilverSpook · Tue 16/02/2016 20:18:48

Crazy Epic! So pre-ordered!

Also, that soundtrack really pops; reminiscent of the Primordia motif, but run through a Clint Mansell prog-rock filter.

Dave Gilbert · Tue 16/02/2016 20:32:18

Not surprising since the same guy composed it!

dactylopus · Fri 19/02/2016 23:54:59

This just keeps getting better. That new trailer is wonderful. Can't wait to play it, and now I know when I will have the chance!

Thanks for the update!

Grundislav · Tue 01/03/2016 15:57:21

From now until launch (March 8th) you can pre-order Shardlight at a 10% discount, and receive bonus content along with it. There's also a free demo to try before you buy.

www.buyshardlight.com

arj0n · Tue 01/03/2016 16:56:26

This was the awesome birthday gift for myself I was looking for, ordered.

Grundislav · Sat 05/03/2016 01:50:11

Updated first post with link to the demo.

[delete} · Sat 05/03/2016 04:16:08

Hooray! Been waiting so long for the Scottish game since it's first rumours on the BCT podcast and your Twitter. And now, it's finally here.

Amy Wellard's boots are meant for walking...

AndyfromVA · Sat 05/03/2016 19:23:55

Preordered! I've been looking forward to this for months.

Stupot · Sat 05/03/2016 23:09:05

Pre-ordered yesterday. I was going to play the demo first but then somehow ended up on GOG, putting my paypal details in and buying a copy

Shardlight - A Wadjet Eye Game by Ben304 and Grundislav

m0ds