Koji Igarashi: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is “20 to 30% complete”
Posted on 7 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in News, Switch | 18 Comments
Koji Igarashi has talked about his upcoming Kickstarter project Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night at the recent BitSummit event in Kyoto. He revealed that development of the game is roughly 20 to 30% complete and he has acknowledged that he needs to “increase his pace” if he wants to complete the game by its intended release date of 2018. Igarashi also stated that the reason the Wii U version was cancelled was because the Wii U would not be a relevant system anymore in 2018. Since the game is using the Unreal engine and is being ported from PC, developing the Switch version is a lot easier. Finally, he’s thinking about showcasing the game at E3 since there are a lot of North American backers (although it is not clear if he meant this year’s E3 or next year’s).
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night reveals three new characters
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 2 Comments
As part of the latest Kickstarter update, the team behind Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is revealing a trio of characters today. We’re introduced to Dominique Baldwin, Alfred, and Anne Knolles.
Below are the introductions for each:
Dominique Baldwin
Age: 25
An exorcist dispatched by the church, she supports Miriam as the shopkeeper. She speaks in a posh way, but she treats everyone kindly. While the church believes Miriam and Gebel to be demons, Dominique trusts them as human beings. In order to foil Gebel’s ambitions, she asks her old friend Johannes to summon Miriam.Alfred
Age: 57
Alfred is one of the alchemists responsible for the demon-summoning uproar ten years ago. He was Johannes’s mentor, and a father figure to both Johannes and Miriam, but he’s lost his former self as he heads to the castle seeking the Book of Logaeth in Gebel’s possession. Quite and intelligent, Alfred’s alchemic ability was unmatched even among his fellow alchemists.Anne Knolles
Age: 12
A village girl whose parents were murdered. Anne was saved by Dominique and Miriam when demons attacked her village. When Dominique is out of town, Anne looks after the shop. She is a bright and cheerful girl.
That’s not the only news on Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Developer Koji Igarashi has answered several new questions in a video, posted below.
Bloodstained officially announced for Switch, Wii U version cancelled
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 89 Comments
The team behind Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has made it official: the game is heading to Switch. Additionally, plans for the Wii U version have been cancelled. News about a Switch version of Bloodstained first emerged earlier this month.
In a Kickstarter update, it’s noted that “the situation has drastically changed after the release of Nintendo Switch.” It made sense to include Wii U during the campaign as Switch wasn’t in the picture at all, but that’s no longer so. “This change made it difficult to receive the necessary support from the hardware maker, which has led us to drop the Wii U development and shift the development to Nintendo Switch,” the Kickstarter update reads.
Those who supported Bloodstained on Kickstarter can change their backer survey platform from Wii U to Switch or any other version. A refund should also be possible under most circumstances.
Read the full Kickstarter notice about Bloodstained on Switch below.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night heading to Switch
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 28 Comments
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is coming to Switch. In an official news notice sent out to system users via Nintendo of Europe, the game’s logo is featured alongside several other titles.
You can see Bloodstained’s logo in the second to last column below, towards the middle. The graphic is similar to what was sent out a few days ago following the Nindies Showcase, but Bloodstained’s inclusion is new here.
Bloodstained was originally targeted for Wii U. But since the title won’t be arriving until the first half of 2018, the team probably felt that moving it over to Switch would make the most sense.
Bloodstained introduces two new enemies, composer interview
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 7 Comments
As part of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night’s February Kickstarter update, two new enemies are introduced. We have a first look at the flying harpy Aello and the demon beast Gieremund.
Below are the official comments from Bloodstained Koji Igarashi about both enemies:
“Our first new enemy is Aello. This flying harpy keeps its distance from the player. Our original plan was to put her in the ship stage, where she would use physical and wind attacks.
This second enemy is Gieremund, a fast-moving, beast-type demon that attacks on all fours. Guarding against this enemy’s attacks will require quick reflexes.”
Also for the new Kickstarter update, Igarashi interviewed composer Michiru Yamane. Watch the full discussion below.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night video shows new village area
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 1 Comment
A brief Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night video has been prepared showing a new village area. You’ll be passing through it on the way to the castle entrance, according to creator Koji Igarashi.
Igarashi writes in a new Kickstarter update:
“As you can tell from the video, the village is red, which has nothing to do with Christmas! During the eruption of the Laki volcanic fissure in 1783 and 1784, “the afternoon sky was dark as night and red as blood,” according to a contemporary saying from Hampshire, England. So we tried to express that in the afternoon scene you see here.
Building your visuals from a piece of historical data makes the world more realistic. (The internet is so useful!) The village is also under the demons’ attack, so of course there will be enemies here. We are also planning to put a shop here to support the player, and you’ll find Johannes, who we introduced previously, here too.
In addition to Johannes…Oh, we can’t quite tell you yet, but you’ll hear more about them in our later updates. Please look forward to it.”
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night dev update explains how procedural generation is being used
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 6 Comments
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night creator Koji Igarashi took to Kickstarter today and explained how the team is going about improving environments on the game.
One of the issues Igarashi wanted to address was players being unsure of “where a platform was, or whether the thing they were looking at was a wall or something they could pass through.” This has been improved by increasing the brightness of the front side of platforms while making more distant parts of the environments darker.
The Bloodstained team is also now making use of procedural generation in environments. Before that term scares you off, the explanation makes sense, as it will allow for smoother development. To put it simply, procedural generation is being used “to auto-generate environmental grime and destruction effects.” Doing so means environments will have more of a visual flair and will ensure that areas won’t give off the impression of being “looped”. Variation could have been done by hand, but it “would require a disproportionately large amount of resources,” Igarashi noted. Procedural generation allows for that variation without putting a huge burden on the developers.
The following video shows the usage of procedural generation:
For the full Kickstarter update, visit the source link below.
DICO, Monobit contributing to Bloodstained’s development
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments
Two more partners are on board for the development of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
First, DICO is assisting the team. Creator Koji Igarashi worked with this company in the past, and “will be on the frontline for this stage of the main development.”
Monobit is also involved for “support on all technical aspects of the project.” They’re comprised of “a group of exceptional programmers who have experience working on game engines.”
Here’s a video introducing the two companies:
Igarashi mentioned in today’s Kickstarter post that updates will be slowing down somewhat due to a reorganization of the development structure. However, he feels everyone will collectively “deliver the quality output that the team and the backers are both anticipating.”
Koji Igarashi on the status of Bloodstained’s Wii U port
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News | 72 Comments
The team behind Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is in somewhat of a tough position with the Wii U version. It’s well-known that the Wii U is on its way out, and by the time the game is ready in 2018, many Nintendo gamers will likely have moved on to NX.
Bloodstained creator Koji Igarashi touched on the situation with IGN, telling the site that “it’s a very complicated problem.” He all but said that it may not make as much sense to continue with Wii U, since “certain pieces of hardware become irrelevant” through the passage of time. If they need to re-address potentially abandoning Wii U, it sounds like the team would need to talk with its backers about how to proceed. Assuming the support is there, “we’ll be able to do things that are maybe more interesting.” An NX port, perhaps?
Igarashi’s full comments on the Wii U version of Bloodstained:
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night dev partners with 505 Games
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 3 Comments
The developers of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night are indeed working with a publisher, but not with Deep Silver as previously thought. 505 Games is being brought in to assist the team as work on the project kicks into full gear. The company will also be able to handle the publishing-side of things.
Creator Koji Igarashi explained the move in a new video shared by 505:
“For our development of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, 505 Games will be working with us. Although we have started this project through Kickstarter, we wanted more people to play now that we are in full production. However, we believe this isn’t possible with our power alone. We are so grateful that a publisher with a vast marketing power such as 505 Games will be working with our small production team. Now that we cannot let everyone down, let’s work harder to develop Bloodstained together.”
Here’s the full announcement video:
