HEX - The Calling

[VexedEnigma]

The Tale
One young woman's desire for closure on her tragic past, leads to the discovery of her families twisted web of secrets, blood and dark magicks. Trapped in a nightmare and stalked by dark shadows and whispering ghosts, she must face the secrets buried within and embrace them if she has any hope of survival. But the past can be deceitful, and the road to the truth is as long as it is deadly.

The Manor House
The setting for the story is an early Victorian Manor House, built on a small island off the coast of west Wales. The house once belonged to a wealthy merchant from Bristol, William Caswell, who bought it as a wedding gift for his beautiful wife. Caswell made many alterations to the manor and the surrounding grounds until his death in 1879. Since then, Caswell manor has remained relatively unchanged. Isabella Clark inherited the manor from her late mother, though how she was connected to the Caswell legacy is unknown.

Comprising of four floors and dozens of rooms, Caswell manor is more akin to a palace than a home, surrounded be acres of gardens and unkempt woodlands. The manor is accessible by a man-made land bridge at low-tide, or by boat. Many superstitions and folk-tales surround the house and the island upon which it was built. Some even say that the island is all that remains of the "Lost Land of Wales" - a Kingdom said to have been lost to the sea in a single night, killing hundreds.

The Heroine

Amelia Christina Mallory
Age: 22
Amelia is not one to dwell on the past. The past is painful and holds nothing but uncertainty and fear for her. The future, instead, is what Amelia dreams of - and she is well on her way to making her future a bright and happy one. Having just finished her masters degree, Amelia is looking forward to leaving University and making her way in the world. That is, until news of her Aunt's death brings to the surface years of painful memories.

After losing both of her parents in a car accident at the age of 13, Amelia was placed in foster care - her aunt Isabella (her only living relative) unwilling to care for her. Amelia never understood why her aunt abandoned her all those years ago. After hearing of Isabella's death, Amelia decides to travel to Caswell House in hopes of gleaning some insight into why Isabella left her all alone after her parent's deaths. What she discovers, however, is a truth far darker and more disturbing than any she could have prepared herself for.

Screen Shots

Character & Concept Art

Spoiler: Click Me!

Features
HEX - The Calling is a game that will take different aspects of gameplay from a few different existing videogame genres and piece them together to create a rich and compelling experience. Featuring original artwork including custom made tilesets, character sprites and ingame art, as well as a rich and evocative sound track compiled from various free-ware sources, atmosphere and environment play a large part in what will hopefully make HEX a great game to play.

Search the manor house and it's grounds, solving a plethora of puzzles from adventure game style "Item based" puzzles and environment manipulation to mini-game style puzzles such as lock-picking and alchemy.

Discover a rich and engaging story that takes inspiration from various myths and legends from two very distinct cultures - Celtic and Roma Gypsy - that lead to multiple different endings. Where Amelia's journey leads is in your hands. The path to the truth is shrouded in mystery, and only the strong can battle through the darkness to find the light.


Thank you for taking the time to read about our game! Any and all comments are greatly appreciated. Anything you want to know, just ask and, so long as it isn't spoilerific, we'll be happy to answer. :D

 

[Black_Vamp]

Man I'm surprised no one has commented yet..

The games art looks awesome, I'm digging the logo and the character Art the mapping is very nice as well; the story sounds good so far I;m kinda interested on the gameplay for the Creation systems and how the battle's will be played out but it's looking good keep it up! I hope to see more :]]

 

[mouse_std]

its only been 1 day :haha: the first thing i noticed clearly is the character picture , its original and very good art, all of the char art seems....lack of feel for girl eyes unlike the 2nd concept art it look more like girl eyes & got more mesmerizing eyes that you cant take your eyes off it . i may be way off on this , its still very good art :thumb:.
btw desk are supposed to be 1/2 our height right?

yeah i still dont get what the gameplay is , is it just action puzzle (meaning pushing block/activate switch/etc) + horror style (running away from enemy , if have certain item can disable enemy) OR just Rpg turn based with puzzle .

 

[VexedEnigma]

@Black_Vamp
Thanks for the comments! The battles will be for the most part, traditional turn based encounters. However, since you only have a single character, the impetus is on survival rather than domination. Defence rather than offence if you like. A lot of the spells and charms are used to either protect yourself or weaken/bind your enemies. As Amelia battles and is exposed to these otherworldly enemies she absorbs the residual spiritual energy of her foes and can then channel that energy into casting Hexes, for greater damage or increased defensive effects. However, unlike spells and charms (that are obtained via alchemy, exploration and crafting) Hexes are only obtainable through storyline events - be they mandatory or optional.

The crafting and alchemy systems vary depending on what it is you are attempting to create. As you explore you find recipes and manuals explaining how to create different spells or pieces of equipment and it is then up to you to source the ingredients or components and prepare them accordingly. For example, Belladonna is a plant that can be used either as a sedative, a hallucinogen or a poison depending on it's dosage, preparation and application. You may need to grind the leaves to powder and dilute before mixing with another ingredient. Or you may need to use the berries instead. Once you've prepared the ingredients, you can combine them anywhere that has the necessary apparatus.

@ mouse_std

Thanks for the comments The first piece of concept art is just that, concept art. I agree that Amelia's eyes aren't as striking in that piece as they are in the one after, but that piece was made simply to give a sense of the atmosphere of the game. But I do know where you're coming from and will take it on board for future art :D

And as for the gameplay, the battle system has been explained above. However, the puzzles are just as important as the battles. It's not a puzzler with battles, nor is it a turn based RPG with puzzles. Both parts will take up just as much time as the other and each feeds the other. Battling enemies may yield solutions to certain puzzles and solving puzzles may lead to easier ways to defeat your enemies.

I hope than answers you're questions :D Looking forward to sharing more details on the game soon!

 

[unklmnky69]

This has a great look/feel, and this project sounds quite promising. What I want to know is, who did the face/concept art? It's beautiful.

 

[VexedEnigma]

Thanks very much! All of the artwork [sprites, tiles, concept and ingame art] was created by me. It's really great to hear people complimenting my work. :biggrin:

 

[mouse_std]

now i get it, somehow i like the 2nd concept art better but not just the eye..its the neck : all the others seems to have a slightly long neck and thinner, this is just my opinion though.
oh and in the first screenshot theres a desk , i dont know about special desk, but the desk i know is 1/2 the height of a person maybe less.

 

[unklmnky69]

Thanks very much! All of the artwork [sprites, tiles, concept and ingame art] was created by me. It's really great to hear people complimenting my work. :biggrin:

Well, pooh!!! I was hoping that the art was done by a team member that I could beg for faceset assistance on FFID.....I don't suppose you'd be interested in taking a small part in a second project is there? lol Anyway, keep up the good work, I look forward to watching your progress.

 

[VexedEnigma]

Happy Halloween from everyone at 24ctPenguin Games! Hope you all are enjoying the festivities and staying safe.

Thought I'd update this thread with a selection of new screens from HEX - The Calling and also give a brief update of how the game is coming along. A small demo is near completion which is really exciting as this will be the first time anyone outside of the team will be playing the game. We'll be gathering together a group of trustworthy people to play the Demo and give us feedback on how the game plays and feels so that we can create the best experience possible. After we hear back from everyone and make changes based on the feedback given, a second, public demo will be next on our to-do list.

@mouse_std
Thanks for the feedback. The tilesets are constantly being edited and improved as we add new elements to the game and the desks have been made shorter since those screenshots were taken. The unusual heights of some of the furniture is more a stylistic decision than anything else, an exaggeration of the grand, Victorian decor of the manor house. Many elements are larger than life to give a sense of size to the surroundings and also to make Amelia seem smaller. It may not be correctly to scale, but then, a lot of things in Victorian and Regency decor were over-sized to show a persons wealth.

@unklmnky69
I'm really sorry, but this project is taking up all my time at the moment! Seriously, I've been eating, sleeping and breathing this game. Hope you find someone to help out though, and in the mean time, practice! If you end up having to wait a long time for someone to help you out, you might end up being more than capable yourself.

Ok, now onto the screenshots!

Spoiler

 

[gRaViJa]

That balcony screenshot looks very good (and so do the others).

 

[VexedEnigma]

Hey all, been a while since I updated this thread, but I've been hard at work. Following an internal demo, feedback and after some serious thought we've decided that the story, atmosphere and general feel of the game would be better suited to an adventure puzzler, rather than an adventure RPG. That's not to say there won't be any danger or death in the game, it'll just be handled differently to how you might expect.

Anyway, onto more fun stuff. A new batch of screen-shots showing off the improved Manor House tilesets as well as one of the puzzles.

New Screenshots

Spoiler: Click Me!

@gRaViJa

Thank you very much. :grin: Hope you enjoy the updated screens too! :biggrin:

 

[Erichermit]

Wow! This game looks really good. I love the dark feel of the graphics and the way it promises to be based around puzzles. I've always found magic to be an exciting idea as well and I'm glad to see that you seem to be taking the witch aspect of it quite seriously in this game. Do you plan on releasing it for free or commercially?

 

[VexedEnigma]

Thanks very much!

Yeah, we really want to make sure that we can get as much truth and tradition as possible into the magical elements of the story without sacrificing on the darker "fantasy" elements and so a lot of research has been done into traditional practices used by witches of various cultures and eras. Our goal with that is to really try and push the boundaries of how witchcraft is perceived in gaming. In HEX, it's not this all-purpose fix-it-all solution that can make everything better again; a lot of it is dark and dangerous stuff that deals with forces beyond control. It's hard work and a skilled craft that requires discipline and training and of course, for every "spell" you cast, there's consequences and repercussions.

At the moment, we've not decided on how we'll be releasing HEX. We're certainly not ruling out the possibility of a commercial release and we're taking measures to make sure that we can legally do so by using only original and RTP resources as well as royalty free music and sound effects. Either way, there will be a demo made available closer to release.