When I first conceptualized Tellest, a lot of my friends were stand-ins for the characters in my mind.  That happens, I suppose, when you’re seventeen and you’re using videogames where you can make your own characters as your starting point!

With that said, Kaos and Steel Tip were fairly obvious references to me and Kev.  While a lot has changed in the series since then, and things are changing even more in the next few years, taking us further from these characters as we knew them, I’ll always remember the time where these two heroes were the two of us.

Thank you to Leo for taking these characters, and putting a spin on them so that they looked like the two of us.  Happy early birthday to Kev!

The post Art: Kaos and Steel Tip – Alliance appeared first on Tellest.

So, I know Tellest is still pretty much a fledgling little company thus far, but there’s certain things we take very seriously.  April Fools’ Day is at the top of this list.  While we can’t do something as impressive as say, Blizzard or IGN, we’re committing to always doing something a little funny with our property.

This year, we had two gags that we wanted to share.  One of them actually took a very real step toward reality on Tuesday (sometimes jokes become reality here at Tellest), but we also took a trip into the future with Tellest 3000.  We did a bit of a secret collaboration with an artist on DeviantArt, Marwan Islami / Ai Marwan, who is great at these futuristic designs, especially when it comes to mechs, which we knew was going to be a staple of this April Fools’ joke.

Throughout April, we’re going to give you a taste of the characters and mechs he designed for us.  Today, we’re starting with Kaos and his mech, Wildfire.

Let’s start off with Kaos, shall we?  So, first and foremost, we knew that this project was going to involve time travel.  The characters wouldn’t necessarily change who they were, so Kaos had to be true to himself.  As such, we kind of made him a bit of a marine.

Because technology is prevalent, we really decided it was in our characters’ best interests to utilize weaponry of this time.  So you’ll see that Kaos Kreegan, our quintessential Tellest warrior, is utilizing an assault rifle.

We settled on this one to really give us a good look at what Kaos would look like.  This carries his attitude over into the future pretty well.

After that, we had to decide on a coat of paint!

We decided to stick to colors he would have preferred.

Finally, our artist gave us a better look at him with some nice detailing.  Kaos has the assault rifle, sure… but he also has a blade in case of emergencies.  And you can’t tell here, because it’s a static image, but his left arm hides the evolution of the Sky Talon.  There’s a built in grappling hook in that piece of armor.  One thing is certain: we put a lot of work into this joke!

Now let’s move onto Wildfire:

Marwan gave us a couple of different options for how we wanted to proceed with our mech.  We wanted it to feel powerful and sturdy, but we also wanted it to be agile.  The mechs in this world are typically piloted directly (there are some exceptions), so Kaos needed to be able to feel like he could move around a bit, and perform all the necessary actions he could.

We opted for the more slender of the two models.  Here, you can see a bit more details of the Wildfire mech.  True to its name, it has an arm-mounted, industrial strength flamethrower.  It’ll scorch the faces off of any alien menace, that’s for sure.

Now, here we decided to go with the coat of red paint.  It seemed a little more pertinent here, and we didn’t need to make our mech and our pilot look so similar that they used the same palette.

Here, you can see Wildfire with a bit more shine and polish.  But, you don’t really get a good sense for the size until you see pilot and mech together:

So there you have it.  Kaos and his trusty mech, ready to wreck some alien face (or whatever other evils lurk in the future… I’m getting my info directly from Rhys).

We’ll be spending a little bit more time in this offshoot of Tellest for the rest of April.  There’s still a bunch more to show off!

The post April Fools’ Art – Kaos Kreegan and Wildfire appeared first on Tellest.

We’ve got two more sketches that we ultimately left unused.  I’d love to have had work done on all of them, but it just wasn’t in the budget at this time.

But that’s alright, because we have something even better than those.  We started with the sketch.

It’s a more dynamic pose, for sure, and something we don’t get a lot of regarding these portraits.  So when I knew I was selecting two of them, I went for the one that looked the most fun and animated.

After that, RedPear took it to the next level, with and without Kaos’ awesome sword.

After that, RedPear did what she always does, and tacked on an awesome coat of paint.

She did a marvelous job with one of the series flagship characters, and we couldn’t be happier!

The post Art: Kaos Kreegan 2 appeared first on Tellest.

Still, I have a sore spot for Kaos.  He was my first character.  He’s not exactly a straw man – he’s got the values that I strive for in my life. So he’s kind of like a moral compass personified.

That said, he’s more than that.  He’s got some pretty interesting traits that made him a fun character to write, and in that way, we were kind of saving him as it pertained to working with RedPear. We finally have something to show for it though.

First, I’d like to start off by showing you a few of the sketches that we passed on.

These were both pretty cool sketches, and if I had the budget for it, I probably would have commissioned every one of the ideas RedPear had.  But we had to narrow it down to the one that truly spoke to us.

This one felt more in place with the portraits that we’ve already had done.  RedPear gave us something that we could work with in an awesome way, and then she touched it up even better.

With the direction even more firmly established, she began hammering out the details.

There it is.  This was a fantastic look at Kaos that I really could get behind.  And then, she went further.

Let there be Wildfire!  With the sword touched up a bit to show the flaming variant, Kaos looks even more impressive.  He’s not the kind of hero you want to tangle with.

And of course, what better way to finish a portrait than to give it a splash of color?

And, as if this post wasn’t long enough already, RedPear, ever as awesome as she is, went the extra mile, and gave us a “widescreen” version of the piece.

I’ll tell you what, I’ve got some great artists!

The post Art: Kaos Kreegan appeared first on Tellest.

But fear not.  I’ve not forgotten about you.  Today’s art piece is a book cover.  Since we technically haven’t done a grand launch of it, it’s quietly slipped underneath the radar.  But As Darkness Falls was pretty impressive for Tellest when it first came out, and it would be foolish not to recognize it… for either its merits, or its badass new cover!

As we’re apt to do for our bigger books, we chose to do a double-wide with Leo at the helm.  It’s always so much more impressive, even though it is twice the cost.

The first thing we did was rule out the cover we “didn’t want.”

This was actually the cover I really wanted.  It was what I had always envisioned in my head when I considered the events of As Darkness Falls.  We had what we can assume is our evil dragon on the front, and then a dragon of ambiguous regard on the back.  It was exactly what I wanted!

That said, I was outvoted in this particular matter.  I really want to eventually get this piece finished, if for nothing more than my personal collection.  Instead, we moved toward an equally impressive piece of art that captured the mood a little better.

Now, what I really liked about this one is that it gave our antagonist some awesome cover real estate.  It also reminded me of one of my very favorite games, Shining Force.  Plus, we still get a good glimpse of Kaos in all his glory.  We also see two dragons on the back… so what does that all mean?  Well, you’ll not hear it from me unless you read the words I’ve written in the book!

The cover did experience some changes as we neared completion:

At one point, we experimented with the dragon in the background being a white dragon, but we decided to go against that because it blended into the background just a little too much.

When Leo sent me this one, I was pretty sure that we were all set. But he did have some changes that he wanted to make…

We altered a few things here, namely the lighting of the piece, which directly affected the ground and the dragon’s face and wing.  We also brought up Kaos’ head so that he was looking his foe more directly in his scary maw.  And in the background, you can see that a collar/necklace was added to one of the dragons.

We finally had our completed piece.  This last bit required a few more changes.  We started by moving some of the smoke around so that the dragon’s wings weren’t as obscured, but the area just south of his face, where hot breaths would be, would be a little smokier. The ground changed as well, to blend in with the characters a bit more.  And last but not least, Kaos’ outfit and physical appearance changed somewhat.  It wasn’t too drastic, but it was enough to really appreciate.

And there you have it.  It was a lot of work, but Leo shined as always. Very impressed with his work, as I always am.  I hope you like this cover, and I hope you’re like me, and you’re ridiculously excited to see what he does with the final cover of the Child of the Stars Trilogy!

The post Art: As Darkness Falls Cover appeared first on Tellest.

This is going to be a pretty massive post, because Leo and I never worked harder than we did on this incredible cover here.  There was so much back and forth, and I felt it was important to get the protagonist just right.

When we were successful with the Kickstarter campaign, we managed to nab a stretch goal that would see us updating all of our older titles (that being the original trilogy).  Though The Bindings of Fate already has a half cover on the ‘zon, we knew we needed a full cover when we were ready to go to paperback.  Here was our process:

As you can see, we came up with a basic concept for what we wanted on the front cover.  This has been the front cover that’s been on my brain since I wrote the book, I just didn’t have the means to make the version I wanted to with my limited skills.  Leo managed to take what I had in my head like Dumbledore did to Harry in that one movie with the wizards.

If you’ll notice, the background doesn’t change at all.  We knew what we were going for as it pertains to all the players in back – it was the foreground and front cover that needed the most love.

The top two were the runners-up.  The first one was easy to discard, just because I didn’t like the idea of our hero looking straight at the reader.  That, and the antagonist – Raithly in this instance – teleporting to the back cover seemed a little jarring.

Our second choice was a little more dynamic, and most likely would have made the cut were our winner not so spectacular.  It features Kaos doing battle with Essex, and had the bonus of having Dirk in the foreground as well.

But that third one put Kaos in the spotlight, with Essex in the background.  It would have featured Dirk more prominently as well, but the final picture didn’t end up like that.  You’ll see the changes we made as things continued along.

Here, you can see the progress we began making.  At first, Leo did some magic on the whole piece.  The characters had more life, and you could really distinguish who was who in these particular sketches.  Steel Tip, Juramentado, Raithly and Adelia are preparing to do battle in the fight for their lives.

Kaos and Essex, too, are coming together, including the layout of the equipment and the armor.  Dirk is still an amorphous blob, but it looks wholly promising.  Even the locale itself seems so full of life here!

And here is where things are beginning to look spectacular.  The back is almost entirely done at this point, and the characters seem fully realized.  The castle has textures and lighting effects, and even the front of the cover has a background that really pops.

The only thing that really needs to be adjusted at all are the characters that we’re going to be focusing on in the book.

The cover really came together in that next step, but some sacrifices had to be made.  Dirk just didn’t fit into the overall picture, and we had to make a very difficult cut with that in mind.  Kaos and Essex, meanwhile, made some astonishing progress, including the display of Wildfire and the Sky Talon.

Of course, things just weren’t quite perfect yet, and we needed to rectify those things.  For one, there was a little too much Jack Black to our hero.  He looks a little bit too much like a hobbit in this variation, and Kaos is old enough and fit enough here where he shouldn’t have had as round a face as he did.

Leo proceeded to age him up and skinny him down a bit, and you can also see that the saturation was brought down a little bit.  I’m usually very flexible with these covers, and I think that Leo did a great job with it, as he always does, but I wanted to perfect it.

I had to bring in help, in the form of Rhianna.  You can see, here, the steps we took to alter him sufficiently, and give him the look we were ultimately going for.

The first thing we needed to do was dial back his jawline a bit.  He was still a little pudgy, which isn’t necessarily bad, but it wasn’t the view we were expecting to put out.

After that, we knew that we wanted to tighten the lips, raise the hairline and shrink the nose just a bit.

Here, you can see the difference from the original version to the variations we made.  And here’s a fun fact: all those changes that Rhianna made?  They were from her iPhone.

Leo was great about making those alterations, and before long, we had our finished cover.  With almost no more fanfare, I give you the completed piece for The Bindings of Fate:

Da da-da da!

I’m incredibly happy with all the work that was put in here.  While we’ve always had our artists cranking out impressive cover after impressive cover, this one took a lot of effort, a lot of creative input, and it came out on the other side looking so darn good.

The post Art: The Bindings of Fate Cover appeared first on Tellest.

Early Life

Michael Kreegan was born to country folk in the plains west of Atalatha, on Flamedays 12^th, 957.  His parents, Tessik and Elly, had a small farm, and were pleased to have a child around who could help them tend their home.

Two years later, Adelia Kreegan was born.  The two children were inseparable.  They would often play among the countryside, investigating caves for treasure and imagining that they were great heroes.

Before either of the children was very old, Michael was afflicted with a terrible illness.  Neither of the parents thought that he would survive.  Adelia watched over him though, and was present when Michael developed his uncontrollable precognition.  The children kept his power a secret from their parents, worried that danger might befall them if the truth was known.

Growing Up

When Michael was very young, Tessik would often talk about the city to the east.  Atalatha was a city of gold, a city of wonders, according to the patriarch.  In Nehr of 964, an invitation to the city was received by the Kreegans.  Knowing that they would only have one opportunity to live like royalty, the family made plans to attend an event in Atalatha.

Elly took the children south, to Viscosa, the capitol of Raleigh.  There, they briefly met with Cedric Renzeya, the captain of Viscosa’s guard.  It was his influence that convinced Michael that he wanted to be a soldier.

When they arrived home, the Kreegans had a carriage waiting for them.  They traveled to Atalatha, where Michael formed fast friendships with David Garus and Alicia Mane.  He also fell under the attention of Stephen Caista, a trained swordsman that served with the city’s guard regiment.

Unable to stave off the urge to swing a sword, Tessik began training his son in combat, as best he could.  He was a farmer, however, and didn’t have much experience to offer.  Instead, he hired the swordmaster from Atalatha.  Stephen and his younger brother, Zachariah, came to live with the Kreegans.  Michael began his training under Stephen’s watchful eye.

When war broke out between Raleigh and Blacklehn, Tessik was drafted to the front lines.  Stephen remained behind, continuing his training with Michael.

In 972, Stephen convinced Michael to return to Atalatha to prepare and train for a gladiatorial contest later that year.

Tessik arrived home from the war shortly after, but not without injury.  The elder Kreegan’s arm had been amputated.  He returned with more grim news as well.  Stephen had to take his place at Sentinel Pass.  Both of the Caistas left the Kreegan home, leaving Tessik to take over his patriarchal duties.

Together, father and son returned to Atalatha to enlist Michael in the gladiatorial combat that Stephen had prepared him for.  Much to his regret, Michael lost the contest to his childhood friend, David Garus.  Disappointed, the Kreegans returned to their farm.

Becoming a Warrior

Becoming a Man

On Flamedays 12^th, 974, Michael and his father set out to the west.  Tessik told his son of a place called the Valley of Mists, where he would learn what it took to become a man.  While there, he met with Cedric Renzeya once more, learning more facets of combat from him and his soldiers.

The Family Falls

After the time spent in the Valley of Mists, Michael returned home, eager to tell his family of his experiences.  When he arrived, however, he found his house burned to the ground.  Try as he might, he could find no survivors.

Fostervilla and the events thereafter

In his moments of weakness, Michael decided to travel to Fostervilla, to see if his family had somehow ended up escaping there.  When he arrived, penniless and broken-spirited, his life fell into even more disarray.  Too poor to commit himself to decent lodging, he slept on the streets, avoiding the discerning eyes of the guards as best he could.  He began stealing from people with the intention of giving them back their goods later.

Unfortunately for Michael, he was discovered by members of a group called the Syndicate.  Apprehended, he was given an ultimatum: Join their ranks or die.  Opting to join the syndicate, Michael took on a new name, Kaos.  Little did he realize at first, but the Syndicate was actually a guild of protectors of the city of Fostervilla.

During his time among the guild, Kaos began finding himself on a balancing act within the city.  A rebellion broke out, and he found himself caught on both sides.

New Recruit

Joining the Raleighn Army

Following the massacre at Fostervilla, Kaos left the city.  While some of his earlier whereabouts are unknown, he joined the Raleighn army with a wolf named Dirk at his side.  He reconvened with Stephen Caista, who had been promoted to a general of Raleigh’s army.

The Hunters

Stephen recognized Kaos’ skills as an individual, rather than a simple soldier, thanks to his training in the Syndicate.  The general sent him on reconnaissance missions, and the two briefly planned on a foray into Blacklehn.

Before the sojourn to Blacklehn, however, Kaos met Steel Tip, the ranger from the south, and the two quickly formed a friendship.

The Alliance

The war against Blacklehn quickly deteriorated when the country of Ippius joined the fray.   The island nation assisted Blacklehn with an addition of soldiers, as well as a fleet of airships.  The war continued for three long years.

After the War

When the last airship fell, Ippius withdrew from the war.  Without its ally, Blacklehn was forced to retreat.  Kaos and Steel Tip took measures to repair some of the damages that had been done to the northern villages of Raleigh.  Stephen’s unit was decimated.  Only his horse was found.

Finally, Kaos returned home, ready to avenge the deaths of his family.

The post Kaos Kreegan appeared first on Tellest.

Look at that handsome devil.

We used the opportunity with Joman to really see what he could bring to the table pertaining to character artwork. He’s got a style that is very distinct, and he really knocked it out of the park with Kaos.

In the next few weeks, we’ll revisit Joman’s artwork again and again, demonstrating that he’s done a wonderful job with us so far, and that he will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

The post Art: Kaos Kreegan Finished Piece appeared first on Tellest.

General

The Sky Talon is one of Kaos Kreegan’s magical antiquities.  It is also one of several that he cannot explain his possession of.  In the year 976, a sizable portion of Kaos’ memory had lapsed.  One day, he woke up in a field in southwestern Raleigh, the Sky Talon among his belongings.

Attributes

At first glance, the Sky Talon appears to be naught but a mundane grappling hook.  Unlike its commonplace counterparts, however, it can rest in midair.  Whoever wields the Sky Talon can will it to lock into place, where it will act as though it has hooked onto stone.  Likewise, the wielder can express their desire to release the hold, which will drop the device into their hands.

Early Events

Upon waking far from home in a strange land, Kaos realized that he had acquired several items that he was unfamiliar with.  Among them was a simple looking grappling hook.  Unfortunately, because of its innocuous appearance, Kaos was unaware of its uncanny ability for quite some time.

Kaos activated the Sky Talon for the first time without being conscious of his actions.  Beset upon by goblins, he ran for his life, and was keen on leaping from the height of a waterfall, praying that he would land safely within its gentle embrace below.  He realized his err too late, however, when the sight of the rocks caught his attention.  His prayer instead landed upon his nameless grappling hook, which he desperately swung toward the rock face.

Miraculously, he believed he caught himself on one of the waterfall’s jutting rocks on his way down.  As he carefully ascended the cable of the hook, he realized the truth.  The grapple was merely resting in midair, answering his prayer in the most insane way he could think of.

Ongoing Operations

Once Kaos was aware of the grappling hook’s amazing characteristics, he gave it the name Sky Talon.  It became one of his more regularly used tools, gaining him entry into hard to reach places and offering him escapes when they were sorely needed.

The post The Sky Talon appeared first on Tellest.

There are so many other reasons to try to pull away from the novel format as well.  Timing is very important, and if I jumped into every character’s past, I’d never be able to get to the details of their unraveling future.  One of the ways to try to circumvent that problem is to find a different way to pace it correctly.  I’ve long dreamed about giving a few stories a videogame treatment.  It’s a cool way to connect some of the dots, and it really does lean on the Tellest mantra, The World is in Your Hands.  When someone is playing a game, the choices are ultimately theirs to make – I want to give people the opportunity to develop tried and true characters in meaningful ways.  Without any further ramblings from the madman, here are the ten storylines that I would want to tell through videogames:

10. Naryx, the Devourer

Every now and then, you want to take a step away from what’s been established.  While rockbiters have been mentioned and seen in As Darkness Falls and The Enemy Within, we don’t get to learn much about them, other than the fact that they have a voracious appetite, and a fear of “keyzaks”.

Devour was going to be my first game.  I was working in tandem with a programmer, and was in talks with artists and musicians.  We were going to tell a story about aspirations.  It would have presented the truth that sometimes, wanting something bad enough can help you become the best there is.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of any solid financial foothold, my programmer flaked and left the project.  Rather than pick up from the same place with someone new, I’m going to wait until I’ve got a thicker wallet, and begin Devour anew.

9. Gomp

You may remember Gomp as the blind dwarf from the Child of the Stars trilogy.  He’s mostly there to show the importance of family, although he does have his own moment a few times during The Enemy Within.  But there’s also some references to him being a hero among his people, and we never really get to observe that.

Gomp’s story is going to be intriguing to show through a game because his tale would be told by him.  If you’re familiar with the term u”nreliable narrator”, Gomp would certainly fit the bill.  But that would be through no fault of his own.  To put a twist on the game, you’d have him telling his story to a swarm of children.  The children would interrupt the story, as they are prone to do, with their own interpretations and suggestions, altering the landscape and realism of the tale.  It would be a way for me to bring a kind of playful ridiculousness to the Tellest universe.

8. Escape

Sometimes, you want to go in the exact opposite direction with a story.  You want to open up the game with no details.  In Escape, you would wake up inside a dreary old castle.  Your character, who knows nothing about themselves, must work to find their way from the place.  It would start with a very linear feeling, but as the game progresses, you’d realize that it was like an expansive dungeon from Legend of Zelda.  You’d have to use your intuition in conjunction with a pile of items to make your way out.  But of course, nothing is ever that easy… 

7. Christopher

Christopher Linus is the kind of character that has had most of his backstory laid out for the readers.  We know that Juramentado utterly destroyed his entire village to come up with fodder for his undead army, but we never truly experienced that.  We’ve seen the end result – Christopher is left with many scars, and it has led him down the path he currently walks (serious, he’s badass when it comes to dealing with the undead).  But I’d venture to say that the journey is always more important than the destination.

We’d be able to see the events unfolding.  Juramentado’s first attack, Christopher’s escape, another survivor perhaps…

And then you could really throw the whole thing on its head by showing you an alternate point of view… where Juramentado is the character that you play as.

6. Knights of Virtue

They’re one of the more interesting groups I have, but the Knights of Virtue have been very mum on their past endeavors.  The most important thing they’re known for is their thwarting of Roark, the former leader of Blacklehn.

Just as important as the rise and fall of a tyrannical dictator, however, is the introduction of these characters to each other.  I want to give the Knights of Virtue game a very typical old-school RPG feeling, where you get to witness the first moments of a lot of these people coming together.  It could be beautiful, and it could be tragic – we’ve seen seven of the Knights of Virtue, and we know that one of the originals is no longer living by The Bindings of Fate.  Just because the game would follow the Knights of Virtue, however, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t others of importance that may have fallen…

5. Shards of Tellest

I am an absolute nerd.  There’s no way around that truth.  You know it by now, and I’ve known it all my life.  So rather than trying to avoid it, I would love to just wholeheartedly embrace it.

I’m a huge fan of time travel.  More than that, I’m a huge fan of alternate realities – alternate futures, pasts, presents – it’s all gravy.  Shards of Tellest would basically be an excuse to turn Tellest on its head without breaking the canon version and throwing everything into disarray.

Shards would have such ambitious goals, that it may be one of my “golden dreams” as far as games go.  The game would be massively mobile – that is to say that everyone would be able to play it on their smartphones.  Rather than focus entirely on the smaller, more intimate details, you’d give players the opportunity to create fantastic armies out of the Tellest cast (as well as the goodly races and creatures in the universe).  People would be able to chat and trade items and units.  Occasionally, you’d have limited events that allow the players to interact more fully with each other – PVP events, team events, etc..

The best part about it is that the concept lends itself so wonderfully to a persistent, growing fantasy.  You never really have to end the game (although I’d suppose a primary campaign would help to put a tack in it).  It could be a hauntingly beautiful companion piece to the main stories.

4. Defense of Sentinel Pass

Zachariah Caista was a bit of a fan favorite in The Bindings of Fate, and we know through his conversations with Kaos that his brother, Stephen, played a big part in the expanded universe.  Unfortunately, Stephen can no longer lend his character to the expanding future of Tellest.

Instead, he let’s us look into the past.

We know, from reading The Enemy Within, that the Sentinel Pass has been heavily contested for years.  Raleigh and Blacklehn have been at odds within the mountain pass for longer than some of the characters have been alive, and Stephen had a big part to play in that.

I’ve always loved tower defense games.  It’s only been recently, however, that any significant story has been established in any of them.  Defense of Sentinel Pass would be a perfect way to aid in some critical character development.  Pendrich and Kain would be awesome characters to expand on, but ultimately, the game would give us a decent insight to Stephen, and how he went from expert swordsman, who trained Michael Kreegan, to a General in Raleigh’s army against the country to the north.

3. Steel Tip

Ahh, Steel Tip.  Fan favorite among many.  The ranger has a kind of attitude that people flock to.  He has this bountiful charisma that just oozes with confidence, and that comes from a combination of being a little wet behind the ears, and a hearty identity crisis.

Steel Tip’s game would focus on the time period after he first arrives on mainland Draconis.  We know that he ended up fighting in the war against Ippius and Blacklehn, alongside his friend Kaos.  But there was a time before that when he was trying to test his mettle against other forces of evil.

His story would help to expand on his past, but it would also help to stitch some smaller storylines together.  We would see how he acquired that quiver of endless arrows.  The player would have firsthand knowledge of bits and pieces of the ranger’s prior motives.  And his is the kind of story that could mix in a lot of other things that I’ve dialed back on, such as the other races on Tellest, some special kinds of magic, and so on.

2. Kaos

Child of the Stars trilogy Kaos is kind of an anomaly for me.  He’s clearly a strawman of me – there’s no denying that.  Because of that, I tried to embody in him the sort of traits that I value in a person.  He’s morally obligated to situations, he’s clever, he’s brave – he’s a damned boy scout.  And that is utterly disgusting.  It’s hard for a lot of people to find him interesting as a character because he is so perfect.  That’s why, by the end of the trilogy, I had to break him down.  I had to take Kaos from someone who I aspired to be, to someone who questions his own morality, someone who toes the line between what is right, and what is necessary.  Too many times Kaos has a choice that is convenient and morally white.

The beauty of his past is that Kaos has been broken before.  When his family was murdered, he was at rock bottom.  He felt alone, weak and scared, and it was a slow, hesitant climb before he became the person we saw in The Bindings of Fate and As Darkness Falls.  When everything falls to shit for him, you can bet your ass he’s going to withdraw back into his old habits.

But as of now, we haven’t seen the implications of Kaos as a broken man, or even a man in the middle of recovering.  It’d be nice to see him somewhere in the middle, where he’s unsure of himself, and not nearly as confident in his abilities or his propensity to survive any situation.

We also know that he has some pretty cool artifacts, but we don’t know how he happened upon them.  It would be cool to delve a little deeper into that.  A game would be the perfect opportunity to do some fun things with the Sky Talon and the Iron Kiss.  I would try my damnedest to make Kaos’ story into a fun metroidvania, and the story would not disappoint.

1. MMO

The Big Daddy.  This is the ultimate goal for cohesion between gaming and Tellest, at least for now.  The world that I began created thirteen years ago is big enough to do so many things with, and while it may take thirteen or twenty or fifty more years to get it ripe for such things, an MMORPG is a logical step for the universe.

Imagine being able to make a new story with players in mind.  Consider the fact that there are so many established people and places that the possibilities are endless.  It would be so fun developing quests that led people into forgotten areas.  There are so many ways that you can develop logical fan service, and it gives people the opportunity to grow alongside the heroes of Tellest.

I also don’t thing there’s any better means to really get into the whole Tellest mantra.  The World is in Your Hands.  Consider what it would really mean for a videogame world when that idea holds true.

There’s a good chance that many of these will never end up seeing the light of day.  Though Tellest is growing more and more as the years go by, the reality is that these things take money.  I’ve thought on dozens of occasions that I had an idea that was effortlessly brilliant, only to see a slow burn instead.

On the flip side, even if these ten games were all released and did wonderfully, that’s not to say that I don’t have others in mind.  These are just the ten that are rolling around on the top of my brain.  And these ideas are mine alone – can you imagine the kinds of things that could happen if you combined my imagination with a brilliant artist or a programming genius?

Scary.

The post The Top 10 Storylines I want to tell through Videogames appeared first on Tellest.