A Valley Without Wind from Arcen Games Gets Screenshots, Video, Shadows, Particles

Arcen Games, makers of AI Wars, are hard at work on their new procedurally generated action-adventure, A Valley without Wind.

What is procedurally generated? What it means is that the game uses an algorithm to create graphics and objects as opposed to everything being made prior to playing and then being static. It allows for things like dynamic lighting, shadows and objects. For example, artists needn’t create hundreds of trees for a forest or use the same tree over and over making the environment unrealistic. So it both saves time and money during development and gives the objects in the world that element of realism via semi-random generation. Perhaps the most well-known usage of it is the Left 4 Dead Director that changes the game on the fly by reading player statistic, skill levels, ec.

Now, on to A Valley Without Wind. In the latest developer diary, Christopher Park talks about all the changes and progress they’ve made lately including:

• Art Progress: Shadows!
• Skelebots
• HUD
• Spell Targeting
• Inventory and Scrap
• Traps
• Particle Effects
• New Objects And New Junkyard Scene
• Story Evolution

So instead of recreating all of Christopher’s work, I’ll simply point you to it, but I have included the new video below along with some screenshots. The game looks to becoming along rather quickly and rather well. We’ll try to have a chat with Arcen and Christopher Park at the earliest opportunity and get more about the game from him.