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Neverend

Platform(s): PC
Genre: RPG/Action
Developer: Mayhem Studios

About Judy

As WP's managing editor, I edit review and preview articles, attempt to keep up with the frantic pace of Rainier's news posts, and keep our reviewers on deadline, which is akin to herding cats. When I have a moment to myself and don't have my nose in a book, I like to play action/RPG, adventure and platforming games.

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'Neverend' - Screens

by Judy on Feb. 19, 2005 @ 12:07 p.m. PST

In the world of brave knights and beautiful virgins there roams a lonely creature Agavaen - an ancient fairy with broken wings. Humans are afraid of her and despise her so she found her place among the thieves. It is not a fairy-like life but however... at least she belongs to someplace. Until a day when it all changes. Most of the thieves are gone as well as all the money and the drunk captain decides to turn his anger on her. It has to be mentioned that just before he died, he realised his mistake, but Agavaen stays alone again to step on her uncertain journey for happinnes in the magic world of Neverend.

In the world of brave knights and beautiful virgins there roams a lonely creature Agavaen - an ancient fairy with broken wings. Humans are afraid of her and despise her so she found her place among the thieves. It is not a fairy-like life but however... at least she belongs to someplace. Until a day when it all changes. Most of the thieves are gone as well as all the money and the drunk captain decides to turn his anger on her. It has to be mentioned that just before he died, he realised his mistake, but Agavaen stays alone again to step on her uncertain journey for happinnes in the magic world of Neverend.

Neverend is a RPG that is divided into three main aspects:

  • Locations displayed by the pre-rendered background and engine-rendered characters and objects. The computer at the same time works with a simplified model of the scene that enables nice scenes with more than a million polygons and concurrently have full interaction with the surroundings. Dialogues and the adventure part of the game both take place in the locations.
  • Combat scenes are full 3D with moving camera that dynamically adjusts to the combat situation. Apart from many weapon blows and spells it is also possible to use combos and special moves.
  • The map permits liberty of movement and is also full 3D. It allows the player to travel between locations and discover new parts of the game world.

Key Features

  • Cute and stunning epic story
  • Main character advancement and its transformation into a true ancient fairy
  • The possibility to create your own spells using the rune system
  • ATBS (active time battle system) adding dynamics to combat as well as the possibility to use a lot of hits, blows, weapons and special combos
  • Advanced sound engine with the support of 3D sound , EAX 2.0 and EAX 3.0
  • Game engine using full 3D map traveling, combat and complicated pre-rendered scenes in combination with rendered characters and objects, interactivity with the game surroundings
  • A lot of adventure-like items and non-linear dialogue branching

Technical Information

General

  • New DirectX 9 video rendering technology
  • Optional number of pre-rendered parallax layers in rendered screens
  • Pre-rendered screens using global model lighting
  • Multilanguage support
  • Intelligent dynamic multithread texture management
  • Support of animations in zones, pre-rendered as well as engine and programmable particle systems
  • Adventure items in zones rendered by the engine to fit into the layer

Walking surface

  • Warped
  • Different material types
  • Inverse legs kinetics
  • Character walk animation is adapted to the shape of the terrain (for example they run up the hill differently than down the hill)

Characters

  • Rendered by our own 3D engine (skinning)
  • Animation blending
  • Support of animation setting straight into the surrounding where they take place.
  • Forward - head kinetics. For example - NPC character follows your hero with his eyesight
  • Complex character texturing (Diffuse, Environment, Specular, Glossiness)
  • Character lighting corresponds the whole scene illumination in the pre-rendered layers

Inventory

  • Shopping possibility
  • Engine-rendered objects
  • Displaying inventory through the background while the blur and draw effects are applied on the background
  • Possibility to equip a character with up to 8 different object types
  • Own spell making possibility using the rune system

Dialogues

  • Complex graph representation of the dialogues using dynamically programmable conversation management depending on the actual game status
  • Monologues, dialogues, conferences
  • Different events can be launched during conversation (for example animation playing)

Scripting language

  • Flexibility
  • Close interface with the object model of the game
  • Object-oriented
  • Parallel script execution support

Map

  • Full 3D - 6DOF (Degrees of freedom)
  • Different surfaces support
  • Combat generated on the map - different parts of the map are differently dangerous (there are more dangerous creatures lurking in the forests than on a road)

Combat

  • Full 3D - 6DOF (Degrees of freedom) Final Fantasy style
  • Scripted enemy's artificial intelligence
  • Dynamic camera moving according to what is happening on the battleground
  • Specific character animation according to the type of wielded weapon
  • Attack types supporting different weapon types
  • The possibility to use certain weapons and spells as multi-target
  • Engine-rendered spell effects
  • Battleground surrounding corresponds the place in the game where the combat started

Sound engine

  • Hardware accelerated 2D and 3D Sound
  • EAX 2/3 or hardware accelerated reverb
  • Obstructions and Occlusions
  • Ramping / Click removal
  • Advanced Software emulated 3D Sound
  • Custom samples and streams
  • Stream loop point and marker synchronization
  • Custom DSP processing

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