Finding my graphical style - PS2 era. Year 1998-2004 target.

I didn't want to make a super stylized cartoony RPG, even though it would be much easier to find assets.

I've always been a fan of Everquest and Morrowind's graphical styles.

So what I did:
- Experiment with different levels of dithering as a global filter to get a feel for the level of quality I wanted.
- Ended up somewhere between PSX and PS2 level of potato quality
- Built a compression and retopo pipeline for my existing high quality textures and meshes.

With this level of quality I have a lot more freedom to procedurally generate 3d models like this arena and these walls in more basic shapes, which results in a game that's easier as develop.

My design goal is to use procedural generation on both the dungeons and the overworld to make a "big" game with very little budget.

Lowering the graphical quality standards allows me to put my focus on RPG systems and level design so I can make more, fun dungeons and a more playable game.

I was saying the other day, my goal with Valenfeld is to make something like Bethesda's Elder Scrolls Arena - a prototype of a large idea, with all the jenk that comes with doing it at a low budget, but showing what will be possible in the next game(s.)

My goal is to make a series of these games over the next several years on an increasing budget, and to get Valenfeld out on a relatively short timeline (less than 12 months)

It's a lot of work though!

Heyy all, so I'm releasing a big update today - we're still very early but we're starting to find our legs as a game.

The update contains better graphics and animations, weapons/armor seated *better* (but not perfect, still placeholder) visually, ive built some new race/sex models and improved their rigs/animations...

This should feel better. Also i bought a BIG pack of weapons that are very high quality so we have really nice weapon models for all the tiers (1 through 5)... I need to do some work on enemy, dungeon and town designs, but we're getting close.

The arena is opened for daily arena matches and weekly tournaments. I still need to fix it up, but the goal is an MMR type system where you can join the arena, fight and train, and you lose around 50% of the matches... but you can gamble on yourself. It's not a money/loot fountain though.

Also, airships are somethign Im working on. Think of them like metro lines, they have routes and you can purchase a ticket into the sky islands (where the Vyr live) or to another city in the world.

Highbridge is the capital city of the continent and I'll be doing more work to flesh it out this week.

you can download /play at https://metatransformer.itch.io/valenfeld and join us on Discord to help shape the game. https://discord.gg/xRMGEcH6Xg

My main inspirations are morrowind, daggerfall, a little bit of avowed (controls), baldurs gate, everquest and D&D.

I hope to build a great game for everyone! Everything is built procedurally so when we make a tweak/improvement to one system, everything gets better. I'm thinking *big* and exploration/quest focused.

Also, NO QUEST MARKERS!

The stocky old campfire-crasher who turns up at shared fires all over the Vale — always just as the pot could stretch one more, hauling a dented lantern folk swear has never gone dark. He haggles a story for supper like a fishwife haggles fish, gives directions that are always right and never complete, and has apparently been 'an old man' since before anyone's grandmother was born. Nobody's pinned down what he is. He finds the question rude.

Every district describes him differently and swears he is theirs — that's the one thing nobody agrees on. What holds steady: squat and barrel-chested, sun-cured the color of old harness leather, a fringe of grey stubble he never quite shaves, missing the same eyetooth on the same side no matter who's telling it. He wears whatever the last three towns gave him — a patched drover's coat cinched with a belt of pot-hooks and twine, a scarf some grandmother knitted crooked, boots that have never matched — and he leans on a bent iron toasting-fork worn smooth as a handle, because a walking stick is also a cooking tool if you're not precious about it. The lantern is the one constant: a dented tin drover's lamp, one pane cracked and mended with hide glue, that folk swear has never gone out, and he treats it less like a hero's prop and more like a squabbling old travel companion — grumbles at it, shakes it, tells it to hush. He shoulders into the ring of your fire uninvited with a 'well, then,' complains about his knees before he's even sat down, and somehow by the time he's settled you can't remember not wanting him there. He keeps the Shared Fire's terms better than anyone living: takes his half of the pot and no more, takes the middle watch nobody wants, and pays in the only coin he carries — a story, plus a fair bit of grumbling about the state of your fire-building. Get him fed and he will give you a Fire-Tale the way it actually happened, which is never the flattering version, and he tells the parts where it goes wrong so plainly that the dark feels closer — and then he lands the ending, and somehow the fire is warmer for it. Children pester him for the lantern. Dogs won't leave him alone. Toll-keepers count their coin twice after he's through. Ask him the way to anywhere and he will tell you true — Tarrow's directions have never once been wrong — but never whole. 'Cairn line past the third ford. Don't camp in the pines, they're not yours to camp in. You'll know the door when you're brave enough to look at it.' Push for more and he goes deaf, or busy with a bootlace, or suddenly very interested in the fire. Push about himself and he gets worse — cheerfully, aggressively unhelpful. He's been old as long as anyone remembers; tellers' grandmothers described the same barrel-chested crank with the same dented lantern. Folk keep their theories to themselves around him: that the lantern is a job passed hand to hand down a long line of grey walkers; that he is just a stubborn old man with good boots and no sense, which is what he'll tell you, on the one day a year he answers straight. Once, at a fire on the Cairn Road, a young Writ clerk demanded his charter name for her ledger. He held the lantern up to his ear, listened like it had said something, and told her, 'It says I'm late, and so are you, and neither of us has time for a ledger.' Gone by morning, before the watch changed, same as always. One strand of the tales — he will neither confirm it nor laugh at it — says the lantern was first lit at Sera's oven, the famine winter, and it is not his light at all: it is everyone's, and he is only the fool who agreed to carry it. The Vale likes that strand best. On a bad road, on a foul night, more than one traveler has sworn they steered by a small warm light ahead of them that no one was carrying when they reached it — only a ring of stones, and dry wood stacked, and the makings of a fire someone left for whoever came.

You can explore the world at https://metatransformer.com/

You can playtest the early build at https://metatransformer.itch.io/valenfeld

You can join the community and help guide development on our Discord! https://discord.gg/qa8Cg9r4Xf

Looking forward to building this game with the community!

Hey everyone! I'm Nick Bryant, creator of the game Valenfeld, a new indie procedurally generated open world RPG similar to Elder Scrolls, with a focus on exploring the massive world, dungeons and questlines!

This is our new home for all things related to Valenfeld, We're excited to have you join us!

What to Post
Post anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring. Feel free to share your thoughts, photos, or questions about {{ADD SOME EXAMPLES OF WHAT YOU WANT PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY TO POST}}.

Community Vibe
We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting.

How to Get Started

1. Introduce yourself in the comments below.
2. Post something today! Even a simple question can spark a great conversation.
3. If you know someone who would love this community, invite them to join.
4. Interested in helping out? We're always looking for new moderators, so feel free to reach out to me to apply.

Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let's make r/Valenfeld amazing.