Hello everyone! My name is [url=https://twitter.com/LNorwegians]Fredrik[/url], director of Combustion. A common question I get from people is “What is Combustion?”. That, dear reader, is something I hope to explain in these developer blogs. I think a good start to answer that question is to look at and explain how Combustion started and what works inspire it. [b][h1]Low Poly Animals.[/h1][/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42959934/47d61e29906b931c05b0c0fb11d8cc52e4ec1828.png[/img] The original idea for Combustion was literally to just make something with little low poly critters. Even after technology pushed graphical fidelity into higher resolutions, my love for low poly graphics persisted. I still loved to see what people were doing on less powerful hardware such as the Nintendo DS, PSP and even smartphones. I never grew out of that look. The one thing I wasn’t sure of was the theming. Being into pen-and-paper role-playing (nerd), I defaulted to a fantasy/medieval theme at the time. It didn't take long before I decided to explore other themes and settings that I enjoy rather than resting within my fantasy world comfort zone. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42959934/388c98d1adef27b21ccf3b6467f5675d942f7856.gif[/img] This time in development was great for developing the necessary skills in low poly modeling and texturing. [h1][b]Concrete Jungle[/b][/h1] I decided to make the game’s setting a more contemporary one, instead. I also decided I would do one in a style I feel that’s often neglected (and hard to nail down) called “Dieselpunk”. There are a variety of “punk” genres, the two most popular being steampunk and cyberpunk. Roughly speaking they are defined as exaggerations of the Victorian era and the not-too-distant-future. Dieselpunk to me is decidedly 20th century and features exaggerated technology, but through a more contemporary filter. It sits in the middle between the two styles in time. The initial idea was for the game to take place in the 1930s until eventually I settled on something that took place in the 90s. “Develop what you know”. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42959934/2ec333d044e345913bc3ec1d3c2f31a3cd0fdcf4.gif[/img] The initial design for Calico was a black cat, but that was changed after it became clear that a black cat would be really hard to see in dark environments, something the dieselpunk aesthetic has a lot of. The calico fur-pattern, with its black, red and whites, ensures the character always has low, high and mid tones. The police theme was inspired by games like Deus Ex, Metal Gear Solid and even Batman. Stories of high ranking agents, vigilante detectives and military special ops are fun and interesting, but I wanted something more down-to-earth so I put my character Calico to the pavement and gave him the City Norrune as his beat to walk. [h1][b]Back in the 90s[/b][/h1] Once the time had been picked, the pieces began to fall into place. Being a low poly game set in a fictional, exaggerated 1997 opened my mind to have a game inspired by all of my favorite games from that video game era. The Playstation-era of games features a multitude of games with a darker visual tone. Games such as Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2 and Oddworld all encapsulate dark and industrial looks that you really didn’t see a lot of in the 16-bit era. My goal with Combustion has always been to create something that is in the spirit of the era, yet wholly unique. As such its inspirations are many and I enjoy being a bit of an alchemist with those influences, conscious or otherwise. A good example of this would be Calico’s uniform, whose tailor obviously has been to Raccoon City, Shadow Moses and Midgar. With a camera style like Metal Gear Solid, dieselpunk aesthetic like that in Final Fantasy 7 and Oddworld, and the constrained exploration and interactions like the original Deus Ex (And much, much more) I hope that Combustion will be an interesting experience. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42959934/2a705f0d5f4e6391d53b98235f2891adf122b047.gif[/img] The dark PS1 aesthetic also helped decide the theme of fire in Combustion [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42959934/9787879ab342beed586f5beca8cce29c5c46cc85.jpg[/img] [h1][b]An Ignition for Combustion[/b][/h1] The game has seen many varied experiments in gameplay during development. A fun fact is that the game initially had combat similar to that seen in Punch-Out purely due to the fact that it would avoid the challenge of developing AI that moves through a 3D environment. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42959934/8b0a2ed1b95d3bf8c69e2dab5fbb2f6abf602629.gif[/img] What Combustion is now and how it plays I think will be very interesting. Now the game is fully-realized with moving characters, jump mechanics, exploration, NPC interactions, RPG mechanics and novel interactions. Basically, all the things I always wanted this game to have. I’ve even been able to realize the smallest ambitions, like giving the game a dedicated smell-button. As these dev logs go on, I’d be happy to share more of the game’s core mechanics and some interesting traits. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42959934/03e0c9224061e56af3d8b034056e2f6948fddb11.gif[/img] Don’t forget to [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2145090/Combustion/]wishlist Combustion[/url], follow us on [url=https://twitter.com/3DRealms]social media[/url] for more updates to come. That’s it for now! I’ll see you in the next update! - Fredrik S