1 All Work Copyright 2007 by Spellblade Studios Daniela Castillo

Original document written by Chris Taylor Revised by Greg Johnson

Version # 4.06

March 16, 2007

15: MUSICAL SCORES AND SOUND EFFECTS Atonement will have a multi-layered sound score that will include intro cues, area- specific themes, generic ambient music, cut-scene themes, creature-specific loops and various sound effects.

In order to avoid monotonous repetition and tediousness in the sounds, the score will have various layers that will integrate the different sounds.

The genre of the musical score will include a mix of medieval secular dance styles, mixed with lively percussions and flutes. The general soundtrack will include acoustic simple versions of the themes, as well as more complex, looped and less obtrusive versions to play as ambient. The sound effects will be event triggered but will be designed to blend with the ambient music. Ambient and environmental sounds will be added to enhance and give depth to the sound track.

The player will have some control over system sound settings through the preferences interface. There will also be an audio icon to access this menu on the HUD and can be a configurable hotkey. An example of these customizable options would be: background music volume, effects volume, vocals and dialogue volume.

Atonement will include a varied collection of Voiceovers done by professional voice actors. The voiceovers will be used for both main character, NPC and plot enhancing monologue. During intro and cut-scenes voiceovers will be one of the primary methods of conveying information. Each character type/gender will have a distinguishing voice, tone, personality and attitude traits. The dialogue and voice acting will be an important element of the game in general.

General Sound Detail #1 Swampy cave intro and ambient sounds. As the character enters the Swampy Cave the music track goes down an octave or two and gets lower in volume. The tempo slows down as well and the percussions become deeper and further apart. The environment sounds will shift and evolve as the landscape, adding layers of water effects from the swamp, trickling drips from the cave walls and eerie fauna that inhabits the area. Any ambient sound that involves, breeze, wind or foliage will not be part of this level. The swamp has no air currents and thus is strangely still, giving the sound a sort of heaviness that will complement the wet musty environment.

During combat the pitch will rise and the tempo will speed up to enhance the mini- climaxes. The harder the combat level is, the louder and faster the music will get, drawing the player further into the action.

General Sound Detail #2 Gale Sphere Gardens. Airy and light angelic-sounding choirs and a smooth new-age-y sounding track will be heard in the background. The sounds of water fountains and gentle streams will fade in and out as the character approaches and gets farther from these features. The foliage will make a glassy musical ripple when touched by the breeze and beautiful creatures will have melodic voices when approached… that is, until they attack. At the time of the attack the beasts will voice their rage in screeching cries and angry hisses.

66 16: MISCELLANEOUS STUFF

Appendix A: Notes -The HUD will be composed of floating shelves that can be positioned and resized on the screen as needed. The HUD settings will be stored for each player with his/her saved games. This is so different kind of magic casters can have a custom HUD that will better serve their needs. -The text will have size settings in the general preferences. Players can choose what size of HUD text and other in-game text will appear. The reason for this is so players can have a text size that allows them to read letters on the screen comfortably, or choose to minimize it to allow for maximum game area. -There will be an option to optimize the complex hardware-intensive processes for players who prefer speed over eye-candy. This option will be very limited but still included to support top-end previous generation computers.

Appendix B: Online community and hidden content access Atonement will have a dedicated web portal, that, in addition to the traditional information regarding game strategies, world overview, production notes and goodies, will contain a forum that will allow players to communicate with each other, find game tips and tricks, etc. As the player advances in the game, there will be some items that will include hidden tips on how to access information online that will open secret levels and bonus sections of the game.

Some of these bonus sections include: A. Hidden room in the Arcane Library that will include an obscure tome on elemental magic that will provide the person who finds it with valuable and rare spells that could help solve quests and beat certain enemies more efficiently. B. Directions to find a temple room through one of the catacombs in Quietus Temple. The tomb marking the entrance will blend in with the rest of the other tombs and thus will not be obvious to the player that there’s something there. The temple room will have a contraption that gathers energy that can be harnessed to cast a powerful resurrection spell, once per adventure. C. A hard-to-find floating island that appears in the Gale Sphere Gardens with a fountain that emanates a magical liquid that can be used as a spell component to cast magic against demons. The potions gathered from this fountain are one-shot items. D. Pointers to find an herbalism tome in the Mage Academy that specifies how to mix certain mushroom spores with ale to create an invisibility potion. Such mushrooms only exist in the Swampy Cave. E. An additional NPC encounter in which the character finds out about a magical wand held by a statue. The wand holds 10 charges of a powerful illusion spell that causes fear to the most potent of enemies. F. A secret hand-combat encounter with a rogue in the market at Anker. By defeating the rogue, the player will acquire a magical knife that is especially effective when killing vermin (training level)

Appendix C: Art Resources

The Swamp Cave

The following four images are details from the Swamp Cave level. They depict the general tone of the level in which complete darkness will be offset by very bright and toxic looking flora and fauna. In some instances such as the mushrooms and the acid the objects will glow and pulse. In the case of the acid, it will be glowing for a short period of time and then slowly go dark. Mushrooms will glow until killed.

The toads come in different sizes, from a few inches to about the size of a small dog. The bigger they are, the tougher they get to kill. Their color resembles and oil slick that shifts with the light. Their tongue is also very dangerous and long.

The ferns have lashing tendrils that will attack the character. They are blue- green and grow in clusters. Some of the ferns are tree-sized and some small next to rocks. They all have the same attack style but with different level of effect depending on size of the fern and the cluster itself.

The mushrooms in the cave, besides oozing acid, have healing powers once processed into a potion. Different mushrooms and fungi have different qualities. The character can collect these for sale or for processing later taking care not to take damage from the acid and spores.

The floor of the cave is swampy and smelly. Much decayed plant and animal material litters the puddles and dry ground.

The colors were chosen because of the impact they will have inside the game engine. They will capitalize in the volumetric particle processing and lighting capabilities of the engine itself to make them stand out. Bright greens and purples are often associated with evil and toxic. That’s the idea in this cave. Anything that glows is dangerous.

The Arcane Library

The following set of images are details of different characters and views of the Arcane library. Inside the library there will be several NPC characters, but the most important are the Master Librarian and the Demon Scholar Angoth-kel. They will both aid the character and will provide quests, information and opportunities to learn for the character.

The Librarian has been further developed because she will be a recurring NPC with an important role in the story. The color scheme for her has been chosen because she’s elegant, practical and ageless. Her hair is gray naturally and not necessarily due to age. Her eyes are deep pools of black with no detail to them, making her even more mysterious.

The library building itself is an upside-down castle growing straight out of the under side of a cliff in a gigantic cave. The only way to access the library is through magic portals located at the bottom of the spires. There is also one tunnel that connects the library to the Mage Academy of Anker, but this tunnel is secret.

The outside of the library is pitch black, but it’s obvious that the building is made out of the same stone as the cliff side where it grows. The spires at the bottom of the towers and turrets are green.

Quietus Temple

The color scheme for the Quietus temple has been chosen to reflect a dead, dilapidated and grim environment. The area surrounding the temple is a vast graveyard, going as far as the eye can see. There are small tombs, big tombs and mausoleums. They are all made of the same crumbling gray stone riddled with lichen and vines. The land is covered with dry brown and green patches of grass and weeds.

There are a few trees still standing but most of them are dead and stubby. The whole place seems to be dark all the time, neither night nor day.

In one of the courtyards of the temple there is a fountain called The Fountain of the Soul. It seems to be the last remnant of goodness in this chilly environment. The rock of the fountain stands out, as it is carved out of this pink marble resting against a sea of gray. The color scheme was chosen because the warm hue of the fountain should be able to tell the player that it’s worth investigating.

At the heart of the catacombs under the temple, there is a large underground mausoleum where the Queen Asskel, a powerful undead creature, lives. Her wrath is unleashed upon any daring soul that wakes her eternal rest. She is dressed in burgundy and red colors and has dark black and purple hair. Her bottom half is that of a snake and is covered with black and dark metallic scales.

Hell Domains and Liege Demon Therrak-Tai

Upon entering the Hell Hub, the character will find the head of Master Valder. The head is still articulate and helps the character in multiple quests. It’s a sight to behold. The head is hanging from a large chain from the top of the domed ceiling. Sharp spikes extending from the chain are interred deep within the skull holding it in place. The neck is still an open wound where the rest of the body was severed and the bone is visible.

The head is inside a large cage atop a dais and the room’s walls are completely covered with carved runes that seem to crawl and move as the character looks around.

The next image is an action pose of the Liege Demon Therrak-Tai wielding Caress the Punisher, his preferred weapon. A cat of nine-tails whip with very destructive powers. Several schemes were explored for Therrak-Tai, but a bright magenta, orange, purple and blue was chosen due to its complexity and shock value. He seems to glow.

Therrak-Tai’s domain and fortress has that same color tinge to it. Almost like blood and bruises, as depicted by a sketch of his fortress.

A detail picture of his Liege Torc and Whip are also provided. His Torc denotes rank and confers him various powers.

Phoenix from the Gale Sphere Gardens

The Phoenix is a wondrous beast. He is intrinsically made out of fire. His physical form is that of a mythical bird but what that body houses is much more than just a bird. He is powerful beyond imagination and he can’t be killed. This doesn’t mean he can’t be defeated, but as he dies, he will just rise out of his own ashes to fight another day.

His color scheme was chosen because those are the colors of a very bright fire. He glows and emanates tremendous heat and light. The Phoenix can appear any size he chooses from a small bird to a gigantic winged beast.

Wraith

The Wraiths in the Plains of Haze are barely visible and quite harmless to living beings, but once the soul passes into their realm, they become these creatures of power and dark light waiting to destroy souls permanently. They feed off the soul energy preventing that soul from returning to life ever in any form. The closer the creature is to death, the more tangible and real they become.

Objects and Weapons

This is a sampling of different objects and weapons found in the game. Specific descriptions appear in the Objects and Weapons section of the Design Document.