DREAM FACTORY NEWS – HUNTING THE HOLIDAY FUN

We are already back live with our small but nice dev blog. There is also a lot to report this week, so let’s go!

Time to say goodbye … to the old menus

The last days of the year are slowly approaching us. Even in the house of the eight-legged horse it is getting calmer and more contemplative … NOT! As before, everything is still running at full speed so that our release date for our first official “The Hunter of Falkenberg” demo can be met.

A few minor bugs have been fixed, but especially the last new features have been worked on. To do this, a couple of menus had to be completely revised again. The hands of our enchanting artist had to bleed a lot, the coder for a number of “text shifts” for buttons were also badly affected. So all in all a very peaceful two weeks, right?
Our Steam page has also received its much-anticipated revision. New screenshots have already been shared here. Of course, this also includes a few capsules that were only made for Steam processing. This has not always been easy, as the steam limitations of the images have not always been so good, but we are satisfied with the result.

Of course, we are always happy about every Steam wishlist.

Click HERE!

Talk to the Team (TttT) – The artistic art of art

What do you get when you mix pens, paint, a painting tablet and lots of crazy ideas? Right! The best artist that Sleipnir Dreamware could only wish for and probably can afford. We’re talking about none other than Stephanie SH, or Steph for short! Applause! Applause!

Hey Steph! Finally we meet! You who swing the pens like no other. You artist on the trampoline of life! Master of the manifold stick figures! Tell us a little bit about yourself and your real life.

Is there something we should absolutely know?

Thank you for your kind words, and for having me here.

A bit about me: I am a traditional artist converted into digital for this and other projects, because it is just the most efficient way. My instincts remain very “real paint and pencil”, so I needed to adjust my techniques, brush up my digital skills, adapt in every aspect of the word.

I am a Belgian, residing in New York, for quite a long time already. It is quite funny to be living in our time, and being able to work with people across the ocean and producing this work that we do without ever meeting. It is really amazing, and am very grateful to the team members who make this work possible and running smoothly. I am also the only non-German member of the team.

My background, I have art history and archeology studies in my past. That makes me turn to classical works and ancient artifacts often as reference for inspiration and it is rather important to me to use sources from the same time period to create something in game. Of course, I fail, because it becomes very tempting to mix timelines and styles, and one ends up with something very eclectic as a result. Luckily, this is fantasy world.

Hand on heart: is Seshomaru the better Inuyasha?

Absolutely! You are making reference to my avatar on Discord, for those who don’t see the picture. He is the refined, polished, grown up (except when his brother drives him mad) ice-cold prince of that manga’s world. One of my favorite manga characters of all times!

When you think of the Sleipnir Dreamware team, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

TRUST. I love the way I feel when working with all of them. I can focus on my part, and I know that somehow, through the magic of coding, it will be part of something wonderful and will be working. I know that everybody is doing their best and it will be rewarded one day. All my free time outside of day work and family responsibilities was put into this project and I am happy for it. It would not be so without trust.

How did you come to belong to this group of all people? Was your talent known beforehand?

We used to play a game together, with André Schmidt, aka Boandlkrammer, as fellow gamers, not even in the same team. Then that game died, and the community was very sad. Some tried to go into development themselves and without proper teams and set-up, it is a difficult enterprise. I raised my hand to be on one such attempt as graphic artist, but then when it didn’t work out, a good friend told me André was working on his project (not The Hunter game, yet). So she introduced us, and I started working on Astendir, still work-in progress. It was going well but we put it aside to join a bigger team with more immediate potential to get a game out. Kramy got me here, in other words.

You designed many of the wonderful Hunter of Falkenberg graphics, including the many busts of the various characters. Which character do you have the most fun with and why?

The antagonist. When I was given the assignment, I was asked to make him dreamy-good looking and I kind of liked how he turned out to be Another I liked very much was Anders, because same reason, he has a cloak in one version, that makes him a spooky looking hooded assassin. Also I went completely off my time/period reference for armor, I used Japanese armor inspiration for his looks and hey, it’s my favorite kind. Here goes my “trying to go for stylistic unity” approach. Yeah, totally not working!)))

Describe a normal day-to-day work in Team Sleipnir Dreamware. Is it very difficult to meet all the different desires?

Actually not so much, because we have a system. We have an Art Director (hi Kevin!), who is the primary person selecting a design when I propose alternatives or am having questions. His style is different from mine but we both agree on the style the game has and we often use each other as sound board and then there comes this wonderful moment when we reach the same conclusion. He convinced me a few times that adding or changing some elements could be good, and then I tried, and what do you know, it was really good. We do listen to each other in this team, that is at least my experience. The only time it can be overwhelming, because I have multiple items I am working on, and we change priorities, so I have to jump from one thing to another. It is still ok, because we accept priorities as a team. That’s a normal thing on a project, and it is important to adapt.

Sometimes, we go completely sideways, like for the Sundering demo game we did for a game jam this summer. That was not directly work for main game, and very fast paced, but fun challenge.

And what do you like best about your work as a team artist? Have you been so fascinated by the creative side (of power)?

I truly like that I don’t have to think about back-end, that’s something guys are working out without me. I occasionally might pin-point some issues when it is my turn to make a visual presentation of functions or menus, and I can propose solutions that I think could work. That is the moment when graphics meet coding and it is interesting but is something I don’t have to go too deep into. True power is not about making decisions but overcoming a challenge. We have been successful so far with solving our challenges.

An artist doesn’t write simple letters, she paints them! And those who write so few letters are probably much more used to dealing with words! Also: Finally, describe your favorite Halloween monster in exactly 4 words without naming the monster.!

Clever, polite, educated, cold-blooded.

Uiuiui! Pretty crazy, such an artist! After all, she still has both ears, her mind in her head and her heart in the right place! So it has to be!