Ashes of the Sun can be seen as a spiritual sequel to The Light Traveler. Both of these gorgeous action-exploration games, developed by Heart Machine, are connected in a variety of different ways, and perhaps the two worlds in the universe, which are far apart, also have something in common in form.
What binds the two together is not the story, the world, or the characters, but the style, tone, and atmosphere. In Light Traveler, the vivid pixel palette is filled with meditative RPG gameplay, while Sun Ash presents a dynamic exploration vortex on the void racer Rei's skates. Heart Machine's subtle approach and creative director Alx Preston's desire to overcome trauma are the cornerstones of both games. Epic Games Store describes the latest title as "a collision of Street Graffiti and Wanda and the Colossus, with some elements of Super Mario Galaxy." ”
We talked to Preston about what led to the birth of the game. Inspiration from personal and other classics, and how Unreal Engine helped him achieve smooth gameplay for Rei, and why he appreciated the clouds in the game.
Light Traveler is a very personal game, you said that you have struggled with certain health problems all your life, and the game is a metaphor for this. You mentioned that games should be a reflection of something and must focus on the process. How does the game reflect your journey since the release of Light Traveler?
Alx Preston, Studio Director and Creative Director of Heart Machine: I'm a fragile person, and my trauma keeps pushing me into a trough, but I'm still desperate to move forward. Sun Ashes allowed me to move beyond the norm, grow creatively as a leader, and set me up the path I'm going to take, elevating myself, the work I do, and the studios we co-founded.
Image courtesy of Heart Machine
You've said that the stories of The Light Traveler and Sun Ashes both take place in the same universe, although they are not directly related to each other. What does this mean how should players relate their stories, backgrounds, characters, and monsters?
Preston: It's more like a stupid comment from me that the two can be within the same galaxy in the universe or ten galaxies apart. But what's really important is why this is a heart machine game — the connections between the games may not be directly reflected in the continuity of the story, scenes, and characters, but the style, atmosphere, tone, and important sense of gameplay will make people who have played Light Traveler feel familiar.
This is Heart Machine's second game, and it makes the leap from 2D role-playing action games to 3D platformer action games. What prompted you to decide to make such a huge change?
Preston: We wanted to create a bigger, freer, more realistic world for players to immerse themselves in. Because Light Traveller is limited in many ways, we wanted to be able to give the characters in Sun Ash more free control and open up the rhythm of the gameplay.
Light Traveller is reminiscent of 8-bit and 16-bit games, and you've mentioned in the past that the games were influenced by The Legend of Zelda: Triangular Power of the Gods and Diablo. What aesthetic approach did you adopt in Sun Ash, and was the design or appearance of the game influenced by a particular game?
Preston: Of course, a lot of games and media titles have inspired us, and if we want to talk about specific games, Super Mario Galaxy, Street Graffiti, and Wanda & Colossus are the best contrasts when designing, while Street Graffiti, Behemoth, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are all inspirations for our visuals, as well as many great artists who have further inspired us.
When shifting your focus to platformers, what design did you choose in Sun Ash to highlight the fluidity of combat and movement?
Preston: Our team is very concerned about the sense of impact and weight that comes with the movement of the characters. There are three important elements that help us capture this feeling:
Animation – We're all anime fans. We care about the weight of things, and if handled properly, the impact, elegance, and animation of the game will help market these "game sense" elements to the player.
Using a free camera can make the sense of speed and agility more natural, and it doesn't make people dizzy, because we will change gravity from time to time in the game! We need to make a huge effort to coordinate in order to weave together all the different angles, collision types and optimization options.
Can't stop – we try to make sure that players can really keep going as they wish, without getting stuck when performing a series of keystrokes or over obstacles. This means attacking while moving, rather than letting it stop you. The same is true when using a grappling hook for vertical overshoots or when running on giant mobs.
Rei's designs are striking, and she sometimes looks like a moving watercolor. How did you come up with this look?
Preston: Lots of iterations, think carefully, come up with concepts, experiment! We have talented artists, technical artists, visual effects artists, and graphics programmers, all of whom contribute to this stunning look and feel as good as the experience. I'm incredibly proud of the team working in this (and all others)!
What goals do you hope to achieve by designing your enemies, and how did they become such behemoths? What drove this design decision?
Preston: A strong desire to make the player feel insignificant. If people are trapped in this cycle, they often feel confused, confused, and helpless. So, communicating this in the game will be a challenge. What tools do you use to advance these feelings and instill them in players? Body type is one of the main tools, and how strong you have been, it will make you feel powerless and empty.
Why did you decide to develop this game with Unreal Engine, and what impact did that have on the design of the game?
Preston: Open source is very important to us, the community is strongly supported, Epic's tools are powerful, and our team members have a lot of experience with the engine and can work efficiently across different platforms.
The vision and level design of Sun Ash is beautiful. Where did the inspiration for these terrains come from? How did Unreal Engine help you realize your vision for them?
Preston: We draw inspiration from life, from the art we love, from animation, games and movies! As artists, we always get inspiration and inspiration from things. Unreal Engine is easy to use, and many team members have grown by understanding the essence of building materials and how easy they are to use in all aspects. Plus, we can modify it, which allows us to boldly customize the render pipeline, or we'll be facing a huge challenge.
Are there any particular gameplay or visual elements in game design that you want to emphasize and explain how it's implemented? If so, please tell us about it.
Preston: Oops! SDF Cloud is amazing! Directed distance fields allow us to render these volumetric clouds, which are able to react as players and monsters pass through them. If you see it with your own eyes, you will be amazed! This is one of my favorite unique parts of the whole set of visual effects, an excellent achievement for the engineers, artists, and designers who made the system.
What are some of the aspects of next-generation hardware and Unreal Engine's long-term potential that you and your team are most excited about?
Preston: Flexibility, scalability and stability. Honestly, it's that simple. We're not interested in triangle counting or photorealistic rendering, but Unreal Engine still allows us to dig deeper into rendering and do what we need to do, while still remaining relatively stable and flexible on so many platforms.