Azrael

Hey there folks! Today is a somewhat special day. In the past here, we have spoken about everything from game mechanics, released artwork, even how we go about managing the company itself. Up to now, we have been really tight lipped about one of the central aspects and features of Emerald Kingdom: it’s story. Story play’s a very central part to the world of Emerald Kingdom. To that end, a lot of work has been put into the development of it. Today, we’re going to talk to the two people most central to it’s development: Azrael and Castiel.

Castiel:

No emoticon could properly describe my excitement about this sneak peek for the story. Oh. My. AZRAEL.

I don’t want to sound like I know everything there is to know about stories – because trust me, I’m not the Kurt Vonnegut of video games. But when I approached writing for Double Cluepon, I tackled it head on with excitement and vigor. Hey! I thought. This is totally what I want to do for the rest of my life! So the thought of showing you all my first draft is kind of nerve-wracking and exhilarating.

This is the first ever section of the revised story that I did and the product of one image that sprouted in my mind which just wouldn’t go away. That was my first idea for Avatea. It was just so powerful to me and really visual that I scrambled to write it down in my school note book and made sure to flesh it out when I got home. I’m more used to the screenwriting format in that I keep everything as minimal as possible and show character emotion through physical action, but it was nice to stretch my legs and get back into writing a more prose-centric specificity and inner dialogue. What novelty! I could go on and on about the differences between screenwriting and fiction writing, but I don’t want to bore you.

Beatrice is the “Luke Skywalker” of this story in that she is the most normal character for people to latch onto and understand what is going on in this world because we are seeing these changes through her eyes. She’s the one asking the questions, she is the one we should be able to relate to the most.

So, the first question I had to ask myself was: how was I going to set up this world? It’s not easy writing a story that has a completely immersive world without some character to pose as the audience in order to answer all of their questions as the character learns about it himself (i.e. Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson). Some fantasy and sci-fi worlds can be successfully understood through masters like Tolkien or Martin. Yet, it is a useful writing device to help the audience seamlessly transition into this strange world. However, we don’t have something like that. All of our characters are fully involved in this world, so I had to provide a window of opportunity for you as the reader to dive head first into the narrative.

Azrael:

I too am pretty happy with this opener. It’s a story tease, and introduces a major character in the Emerald Kingdom universe. Avatea is one of the first Sprites designed. Both in design documents, and visually. Avatea in her earliest form was just noted as “Moon”, and gave the mark of Moon. My original notes date back as far as 2005/2006. Well before Double Cluepon existed. I’m pretty sure Avatea was the first, but I could be wrong. It was a long time ago, even before it had the name “Emerald Kingdom”.

I always envisioned her as a gentle, attractive woman but not a vain one. I wanted her appearance to give one impression, but her actions and demeanor to convey another. This was quite deliberate on my part for a lot of reasons. I think when Emerald Kingdom is played, and you meet and interact with Avatea some of those reasons will come out. That said, Castiel captures this very thing quite well, especially here in this opening bit of the back story. I think more than anything…one of the things the back story does is convey urgency, and what people do in tumultuous times. Sometimes those tumultuous times can be years, months or even minutes or seconds.

Keep in mind, the world of Emerald Kingdom…the one people will be playing in, takes place a long time after the events of the back story. But, because of how we’re doing story in Emerald Kingdom…we had to write a complete and well edited back story. We’ve done this so that the game events, and story do not in any way become contrived. But, with that said, it’s important to know that what happens these dark days in the past, will have direct impacts on the world of the player. Seeing how that impacts players, and finding out why it does is going to play a significant, (yet optional) part of the game.

If you’re quick on the draw, you may even find a secret bits of story. Something another of our writers wrote from the first draft, that’s still very relevant. Amesha is a solid writer, and his first draft established a great deal for Emerald Kingdom.

Castiel has taken that draft, and has been plugging away at it. It’s come a long long way, and it’s still evolving. The world, and the story of these wonderful characters is incredibly vibrant and full of life, and more importantly, will comprise an interactive mythos.

Castiel:

Avatea is a gentle, attractive yet not a vain woman, as Azrael mentioned; however, I wanted to make sure that she was someone the audience could easily like. And yes, sometimes loving the villains is way more fun than loving the good guys, I aimed to give every character some kind of personality flaw that completed the trifecta of three-dimensional characters (i.e. expertise, history, and flaw). You will get to see Avatea grow and change over the course of the game and come to see that she’ll make mistakes and do things that are very – in a sense – human.

Recently, I’ve noticed that a lot of readers (particularly of the women sort) peg many female characters for being “Mary Sues” or overly-perfect and annoying heroines. However, whenever someone calls a character a Mary Sue, it’s most likely because the reader doesn’t like the character and just wants to hate her for no other reason that I can decipher. But since I’m aware of the problem, I made an extra effort to go out of my way to do what I must. I didn’t focus on making these female characters perfect – I made them characters. If I put any of the character traits on a man that I had previously put on a female – he would be a fan favorite. But if I give those traits to a girl, immediately she’s too unbelievable. It shouldn’t be about gender that makes a character likable or not. It should be about what they do that defines who they are.

There are some plot points for Avatea that were already established before I came on board but ohh~ boy am I super excited to actually write it. Let me just say this right now: Even though Avatea can be considered a more “princess-like” character, she can let her badass streak show. And if there’s one thing you need to know about me and this company, we’re all about strong female characters.

That about says it all we think.

Without further delay, go check out your first small taste of Emerald Kingdom…

After you do, we’re sure you’ll have Questions. Ask away in the comments.

You never know what kind of an answer you’ll get.