:: What we've been up to ::
Believe it or not, we're working hard on this game. Here are some updates.
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Hello, Pretenders ✨
First of all: HAPPY NEW YEAR! May 2021 be better than 2020 or any year prior to that. We know we have a long slope to climb but we really hope for the best. So, from all the team at Passtech Games, best wishes for the new year!
So... You probably clicked on this email to know the official release date of Curse of the Dead Gods? Let us not disappoint you, here it is:
FEBRUARY 23RD, 2021
Available on Steam, Epic Games Store, Origin, Playstation 4, Xbox One & Nintendo Switch
That’s right! We are planning our full release for next month and we can’t wait to reveal the ending of our game with the community! We are also happy to announce that Curse of the Dead Gods will be available on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch at the same time! Additionally, you'll also be able to find it on the Epic Games Store and Origin! Have a look at our announcement trailer:
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Curse of the Dead Gods Release Date Trailer
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The Early Access of Curse of the Dead Gods has been a rollercoaster, and we are very pleased with the reception of the game. The community has grown over the months and we’re proud of what the game came to be thanks to your feedback and reports! February 23rd marks a new chapter in Curse of the Dead Gods’ development and we can't wait to continue this journey with you. Stay tuned for more news as we’re approaching our release date!
It's been more than a month since our last massive update. You may have missed it with all the things happening in the gaming industry at the moment (new gen consoles, the Game Awards, Cyberpunk 2077...). It's okay, it's not too late! You have a ton of new content to discover in Curse of the Dead Gods. First, a new Temple 🦅 We are so proud to have released the third and final Dead Gods temple, it was a huge milestone in the development of COTDG! We are pretty happy with the results and we feel that it is our most accomplished temple so far. With this one, we introduced a new element to the combo fire & poison: lightning. It fitted the theme of the Eagle perfectly, as they truly are the masters of the sky. New traps and enemies are as ruthless as always, and you'll have fun learning all the secrets of the Eagle temple.
What you'll find in this new temple:
- New environments to explore,
- New traps to fall in,
- New foes to destroy,
- New Champions to defeat,
- And a new Temple Boss to confront.
Today, we thought we could go into some details about the making of the Eagle temple! Before that, have a look at our latest roadmap to get filled in with the details:
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That also means that, since THE FINAL CURSE will be our last update in Early Access – as it's the official release of the game –, we are going to focus all of our efforts on this final sprint! We've still got a lot of things left to do: the grand finale, mixed temples, consoles certifications, achievements, new menus... That's why we decided not to release any minor patches until everything is ready. We'll give you some news when we can and in the meantime, you can always join our Discord server to chat with us or watch our livestreams on Twitch.
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The making of the Eagle temple
The Eagle temple being the third and final temple of Curse of the Dead Gods, it was definitely a challenge. We had two other temples to compare it to, both with different atmospheres and mechanics. With the Eagle temple, we needed fresh ideas that could fit the story we wanted to tell through the environment. The environmental storytelling is a big part of Curse of the Dead Gods. Since the beginning, we tried to create compelling decors and ambiances that could help the players figure out a little bit of the story. Most of it is to be read in the codex entries of foes and can be totally ignored by the players if they want to. But the feeling to discover new environments, rooms and decors is something that affects everyone. Obviously, the main theme of the Eagle temple is the sky: you've reached the final floors of Xbeltz'aloc's temple and you can actually see outside – a place you wish you could be. Rain, thunder, and hights were much needed to create that singular atmosphere that you can find in the Eagle temple.
It's also the place where you learn a little bit more about Yaatz, the goddess of Lightning, and her followers – those poor souls who traded their lives to be enhanced by science and machinery. The Sentinels replaced their arms with a mechanical bow; babies were sacrificed for experimentations; and you might find a Frankenstein beast waiting for you in the temple. All those new foes contribute to depict the fall of the Chatacs, this old and lost civilization.
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:: Meet the Cursed ones ::
Have a look at the team currently busting their asses off to make this game.
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Etienne Guyard
3D Animator @ Passtech Games
Etienne's job is to make people move with his mind. No, he's not using telekinesis (or is he?) but his talent is greatly appreciated at Passtech! The temple foes wouldn't be that intimidating without Etienne!
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What is your job on Curse of the Dead Gods?
I'm in charge of animating the characters in the game so that they can have some kind of life. As for timing and posing, another thing that is important in video games is that you need to be able to play with the characters, the gameplay is in the foreground. So I make animations of mostly the characters, but also the traps, fighting styles’ movements, doors... I don't do the FX though! It moves, but it's not me who makes them haha.
What's your creating process for the animations of Curse of the Dead Gods?
I first receive the character's mesh (i.e. the character's appearance, his skin) in a T pose, which means straight as an i and lifeless. I begin to analyze what should move on his body, or what should not move. I am helped at this point by Valentin, our art director, who has better insights since he designed them and is in charge of FX. Then I move on to rigging, which means the bones and the skeleton of the character. This will allow him to move later because I define the places where there will be rotations. Most of the time in the case of Curse of the Dead Gods, it's very similar to the human body. All of our characters, except for a handful, are based on humanoid creatures; this makes it easier in animation because I can take my body as a reference. From that point on, once I have the skeleton, I have to reattach its mesh (skin) to it. Then I can start animating. I'll start with the posing, paying attention to the number of frames. At each frame, I will stop to determine a pose according to the character's template or behavior (agile, heavy, etc.). Once this big preparation work is done, I discuss with the art director and the game designer to make the animation progress: they come to complement my work by bringing more information on the types of attacks needed, the character's behavior, etc. There is a lot of back and forth between me and them over the course of a few days, until the moment when we perfectly capture what we want for this character. There is a whole phase of integration in the engine, which will allow you to see the animations with the game's camera. Many very precise retakes (sometimes to the nearest millisecond) are made at this time. From the moment I receive the mesh, until the last animation pass of the character, it takes about 2 weeks. Of course, I work on several characters at the same time.
What was the most challenging animation to make?
The whip! I imagined it was going to be simpler than that, but there were a lot of things to take into account. I think the constraint of having to export it into our engine made it more difficult, compared to the basic animation in Maya (animation software).
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:: Some things to watch ::
We recommend this great content about Curse of the Dead Gods
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:: Join us on social media ::
Your feedback, suggestions, bug reports and deep conversations about poodles are necessary.
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Come, my children. Our lovely community will welcome you to our private Discord Server. Sounds like the beginning of a horror movie, isn't it? Promise, there's no trap 👀
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Head over our Steam community page to discover a magical world full of Screencaps, Achievements, Videos, and Trolls. Well, we do our best to keep our Trolls under a bridge.
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We're also very talkative over there:
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