”There are three distinct archetypes within the Daughters of Othercide, each one of them their own strengths and weaknesses. Let’s concentrate on our esoteric desperado: the Soulslinger. Nizar, Alex, here you go again!

Nizar and Alexandre, Game Designer and Art Director on Othercide

A Bullet In Between Their Eyes

Alex: Within the three classes we have in Othercide, the Soulslinger is by far my favorite; and I am not saying this because I am an absolute fan of Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series! (Well okay, it does play a part in my subjectivity…).

She has the full panoply of a “western spaghetti movie” design, but with an additional flavor coming from the lore. The Soulslinger is a sharp shooter, mastering a pair of heavy pistols, but also a mystic manipulator which enchants her weapons with spirits and ethereal essence, in order to master the deadliest effects.

Link to full dev blog

There are three distinct archetypes within the Daughters of Othercide, each one of them with their own strengths and weaknesses. Today let's take a better look at our monster slayer: the Blademaster.


Nizar and Alexandre, Game Designer and Art Director on Othercide
Lonely Blade In Darkness

Nizar: As Game Designers, we were at the origin of the Blademaster conception. Early in the development process, it appeared to be clear that we wanted a triumvirat of Daughters. To increase players’ strategic decision making, each daughter must have unique strengths and weaknesses: we didn’t want to create subtle variation of a single archetype.

Alex: Creating a class in Othercide is a crucial step: in addition of being the main characters of our players, each class must represent a clear function gameplay wise as well as follow the guidelines of our art direction. Building our classes was a long ongoing process, with a lot of iterations and questioning!

In my point of view – and this is applicable in multiple situations – a character rises from a couple of strong ideas. Those main “impulsions” don’t need to be very original, but must be clear and definitive, so that they can resonate along the creative process.

Read more on our website: https://www.othercidegame.com/blademaster-class-othercide/

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David and Yves, our Lead and Environment Artists on Othercide, are thrilled to show you how they created some environments for the Dark Corner!



Learn more about their journey, from research and historical investigation to their production pipeline and inspiration to create Othercide's distinctive atmosphere.

Discover exclusive assets we haven't shared yet with the community and how it is like to be an Environment Artist on Othercide. We are excited to share our work with you!

>> Read more

As we set out into 2019, we have an exciting and challenging year behind us. 2018 saw the concept of Othercide really takes form and turns into this magical thing we are all nursing to its completion right now. But it was far from easy!

Anders Larsson, Creative Director on Othercide



We started working on what has now become Othercide already back in 2016, together with a few members of the team. Initially we started out with the question: how we could make a tactical game where the characters would take on their own stories.

We were a fair bit along in the negotiations with a publisher around this project before they ended, and we set out with pre-production in the fall of 2017. Back then we were calling the project “Band of Hunters”, with the setting being a dark version of current Paris. As the pre-production continued, we were forced to deal with the limits of budget and team, which together with a strong drive from Alexandre in terms of Art Direction and world creation ended up delivering us into the dark corner in a parallel dimension, and the name Othercide.

Game design wise, we needed to strengthen the concept. The dynamic aspects of the tactical game we had brought were not yet clear enough so after lots of thought and iterations, we finally came up with a sort of turn-based system, but with no actual turns, only a time-line in which the actions played out. This was one of those moments when suddenly the parts of the game design that were logically difficult became obvious, and the dynamic aspect of the game became front and center. That was when the Initiative Sequence System was born.



At that point, the energy of team was tangible. Full of confidence in our game design concept we started iterating and…well you know how it is, it’s not that simple. The summer period was coming, but stress was high on the team shoulders as we decided to go out of the blue and officially announce our game, and big time: at Gamescom!

We only had a couple of weeks and worked very hard to deliver a compelling proof of concept.

With shaking hands at first, we multiplied meetings with press and partners, met lots of amazing people (special thanks to our lovely neighbors the Robot Gentleman and Raw Fury). We had such a great time and when the first previews came up, we were super happy! Feedback were positive, press was interested by our game and told us they want to see more soon!

2019 ahead looks to be an incredibly interesting year. The team is strong, and we are excited of the response we get from players and partners we are showing the game to. There remains an enormous amount of work to get Othercide to be the fantastic game we know it can be, but we are full of energy. With the support of everyone interested in Othercide we are certain we will be able to do it!

Developing a horror game is a tricky challenge. You need to have proper characters and story. Therefore, this week I wanted to share a little bit about Othercide lore and background story through one of our main protagonists : The Child.

Alexandre Chaudret, Art Director on Othercide



There is no great confrontation without a powerful antagonist. It was therefore crucial for Othercide to get a strong and meaningful opponent, a creature that will be the reflection of our twisted universe. Indeed, there is no Batman without the Joker, you see what I mean?

I personally feel that the frightening monsters feed from our own inner demons, from the instincts and thoughts we can’t control, held in a « dark corner » of our mind…

Once we decided to give Othercide a « horror game » flavour, we knew it was time to grab our shovel, find the creepiest and darkest graveyards in the past of our artists, and start digging. That’s where we found the Child.
The Others feed and grow from human feelings… One of them chose a poor, tortured and lonely creature, a scratched figure and worst echo of mankind’s cruelty, to become his host, his vector… The Child’s pain provides an inexhaustible stream of energy for the entity who wants to shatter Reality…

The Child’s story is struck by disease, sickness, confinement, madness creativity, injustice, and forbidden love… a story that dies ultimately in a long and passionate scream of anger against the world that made him suffer so much. From his Dark Corner in between consciousness and unconsciousness, he shapes and sculpts the legions of nightmarish creatures that haunt the realms of Othercide, and the grid of our horror tactical game.

Stephen King

That said, like everything existing in Othercide, there are two faces in the same mirror. Thus, the Child is a representation of what we try to accomplish in our project. A contrast between the fragile figure of a tortured infant and the unutterable horror within his incredible powers, a link between the tragic lore he endured and the emergent narrative that will be disseminated through environments, creatures, sound design and music.

Is The Child the final – and terrible – key that opens the gateway for the Suffering Other? Or just a poor victim of the incredible cruelty of mankind? In any case, some answers will appear during your last stand to prevent reality from shattering. Will you be able to do the necessary sacrifices for a greater cause…? Or will you face your own inner demons?

Take our hands, follow the path behind the mirror… Don’t worry if it is a bit dark, my dear, don’t worry if it is a bit cold and pay attention to the nibbling scratches and off-key lullabies you hear down here…

Last week, fresh up to speed and back to work, we mentioned going to Gamescom to present a first peek of Othercide to the press. This week I wanted to share a little bit about how we made Othercide trailer we used at Gamescom.

Anders Larsson, Creative Director on Othercide

In Othercide Gamescom trailer we are trying to achieve two things, communicate hints and ideas about the world of the game, as well as showing that Othercide is a tactical turn-based game. In the end we want people to want to dream about both the unique world we have developed and the experience of playing the game!

For the trailer we are relying on the characters and scenes produced for the game. We start off with a dark screen and a calm voice (of whom?), in order to pull the viewer into the mood of the world and the video. Then we come into a great set piece built up by our 3D modeler, Antoine, and our lead animator, Jérôme.


By first focusing on the face of the Gunslinger, we tried to build up more tension to prepare for the overall scene that gets revealed. This scene shows both how the characters in the game co-operate against monsters that look really dangerous, but also that these are not your regular monsters!

As the face is broken up like a mirror, we are giving a little glimpse about other threatening silhouettes. Don’t forget that, in Othercide, everything is connected and has a meaning…
Finally we wanted to tease you what it would be like to play Othercide even if it’s still early in our development.

For that we used snapshots from inside the game, trying to highlight the uniqueness of what we are trying to achieve.

We started by showing a quick zoom-in over the City, and then dive into the battlefield to show you what kind of tactical turn-based the game is. That’s why we left the user interface (UI) in place at the begining , so you have a glimpse of our Initiative Sequence System. Obviously the UI will evolve so we didn’t want to stay too focus on it (plus UI is usually not the sexiest part of a game).




One key thing we hint at is how the Initiative Sequence System works (the bar in the bottom of the screen), where you see that the players planned action will force the enemy to delay until later.

To conclude the trailer, we decided to show some badass attacks you can trigger so you can feel our intentions to create dynamics in every fight in order to deliver a compelling gaming experience for a tactical turn-based game.



We hope the Othercide Gamescom Trailer got you both imagining the world of the game and what it would be like playing it!

Phew, back in Paris and the team is finally back at basically full strength. This is our first dev blog, now that we have started to tell people about Othercide, our upcoming game!
We hope to give you an idea about how Othercide progresses and what we are up to with this dev blog.

Anders Larsson, Creative Director on Othercide


At an exciting Gamescom at the end of August 2018 in wonderful Cologne, we showed off Othercide to a bunch of French and German journalists.

In order to properly introduce the game to the press, we decided to take their hands (not literally, we are not that intimate!) and guide them into the horrific and ethereal world of Othercide. Each walkthrough was followed by a Q&A sessions during which our Art Director and Lead Game Designer detailled what’s behind our dark and challenging tactical turn-based game.

Despite an approximate 45 meetings with journalists, we came back full of energy, as their response was so positive! Some of the things we heard them say right there in front of us were: “This is a clear Day 1 purchase”, “Othercide is the most interesting thing we saw at Gamescom so far”!

Now we are getting to the most challenging part, finishing the game in a way that it realizes all their and our own expectations.

We hope at Lightbulb Crew that you will want to follow us on this dark and twisted journey into the unique world of Othercide!

Hi,

Lightbulb Crew's team here !

Some news from Othercide project. We are currently working hard to offer you the best possible gaming experience. But we cannot achieve our goals without you !

Therefore, we are going to communicate with you on a daily basis. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know. We will also share with you content such as dev blog describing the progression of Othercide, screenshots, gifs, trailers and builds.

Stay tuned and thanks for your support !

Cheers,

Ps : please enjoy a new screenshots selection :)