MEDIAN
An original side-view action RPG built around committed combat, hard-earned movement and a connected world.
The game
One axis, and the jump
MEDIAN is played from the side on one axis: left, right and the jump. Every swing commits you, every new way of moving is learned in the world, and the rooms join into one place. It runs on our own C++ engine, built for this game.
01
Commit to the strike
Light and heavy attacks, charges and combos, with a guard and a parry to answer them. A swing, once started, is yours to live with.
02
Movement is earned
The dash, the wall jump and the double jump are not given at the start. They are learned from the people and relics of the world.
03
What you drop stays there
Fall, and what you carried waits where you fell. Going back for it is your choice and your risk.
The world
The Quiet Court
The first area: a courtyard, a gallery and a garden. This walk is staged for the web from the game's own scenery and character bakes. It is not a level from the game.
The first area
Courtyard
The first room: a place to rest, someone to talk to, and the first ledges to climb.
Characters
Drawn the way the game draws them
Pick a character and an action. Costumes and animation are placeholders from the current build and will be replaced.
Baked in-engine art · work in progress
The cast
Veyra
The default look: long hair, all in black, reed blade in hand
Action
36 frames, played at the timing the game uses, with the weapon held and turned as the game holds and turns it. Characters are modelled and rigged in 3D, then baked to layered sprites that the game colours and assembles at run time.
In development
Built so far
MEDIAN is a working engine with most of a game's mechanisms. It is not a finished game, and we would rather say so.
Runs today
- Our own C++20 engine, with a level, animation and world editor
- Side-view movement with dash, wall jump and double jump
- Combat with charge, combos, guard, parry and status effects
- Four enemy archetypes, and bosses defined as data
- Dialogue, quests and items as data
- A map, menus, three save slots and controller support
- Characters assembled from separately animated, recolourable parts
Does not exist yet
- A story
- Final character and environment art
- Level content beyond the first prototype rooms
- Sound and music
- Playtesting for feel