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What is Jewel?
An action-adventure fantasy game (that never left pre-production) for PC.
The story of Jewel follows Laslo and Synne, a young man and woman from the village of Vane who, using a magical piece of jewel Laslo found in a forest, rescue Synne's sister Astrid from abduction by a hive of Ilvak creatures.
From this abduction, Synne and Astrid discover that they are the last two in existence of the "Celestian" race, and as such carry unique abilities that, if discovered and misused, could threaten the future of the world.
In devotion to his best friend, Laslo accompanies Synne and Astrid as they traverse the world of Ameron, attempt to outrun the forces of Skaron, a great and terrible seeker of Celestian power, and uncover the truth behind the source of Skaron's magic, the divine force known as "Jewel."
What do you need to know about Jewel?
Jewel was to be an episodic fantasy saga playing on the strengths and appeal of Super-Nintendo-era adventure games. Like The Lost Sorceress, I would make Jewel with RPG Maker XP and build on the hype started by The Lost Sorceress. This time however, I would develop all the graphic and sound assets myself and thus be able to sell Jewel as my own product.
Due to the memory wipe that struck my PC in 2008, the game elements of Jewel have sadly been lost, although I only got as far as making the battle screen (image above), menu screen, the first outdoor area and the opening scene, so I didn't lose TOO much. Most of Jewel exists in design documents, the most interesting of which you can browse through below!
Click or tap the pictures below to view them full-screen, then scroll through them with your keyboard's arrow keys, or by tapping them if you're using a tablet device. Close full-screen by clicking or tapping the white X in the top-right corner of the screen.
As you'll notice, all my characters for Jewel have "Dorito Heads" as I termed them. In trying to create a cute, appealing, unique visual style for characters that could rival the Mario universe, I gave my characters a head-shape that I knew no other video game characters had and, I could hedge my bets, probably weren't EVER going to have. Simpsons creator Matt Groening once said "you know you've got an iconic cartoon character if you can recognise them in silhouette." This thinking I applied to Jewel and continue to apply to my more cartoony projects to this day.
Most of these visuals revolve around Vane Village and Ilvak Forest, the first two areas of the game. Vane was to be the tutorial area where players could pick up the controls of the game in a fun way without difficulty. I use Princess Peach's castle from Super Mario 64 and Kokiri Forest from Ocarina of Time as the measuring stick for a good first area and aimed to build Vane in a similar way.
Ilvak Forest was to be the first "dungeon" of the game, the sprawling, elaborate obstacle grounds for players to be tested on what they learned in Vane. The Jewel acquired by Laslo would unlock special abilities that, in a battle against a monster, which Ilvak Forest would be teaming with, would affect player statistics in similar fashion to The Lost Sorceress/Final Fantasy. Outside of battle however, these abilities would allow you to interact with your surroundings in expansive, puzzling ways, Legend-Of-Zelda style (so utilising elements of classic games that attracted the fanbase for Jewel, but giving the fans new and unique things to do with these elements). The goal of Ilvak Forest was to rescue Synne's sister Astrid from the Ilvak swarm.
Want to see Jewel get developed beyond just these groundwork images? Please go to patreon.com/lenaray - That's...
...and donate to help Jewel be something that won't financially cripple me!
Any questions, confusion or compliments about Jewel? Leave a comment below!
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