Hi there everyone!

We have been hard at work re-building the world into the ideal vision of what Asalthana would be - with many of the systems, models and more already implemented!

This post is mostly intended as a long form discussion about the new version of Verdict of Silence, as well as an insight into the thought behind many of the changes and redesigns we are implementing.

Though we had grand aspirations with the original version of ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence, we encountered constant roadblocks with the inflexibility of RPGMaker MV, as well as constant problems that arose from it’s engine - which was based entirely on Javascript and ran in an embedded browser.

Due to this, a lot of features and design concepts we had originally wanted for A:VoS ended up being shaved down, modified or cut entirely, either because they were (mostly) impossible within RPGMaker MV without large rewrites of the engine’s core, or affected performance in a severe manner due to the inefficiency of RPGMaker’s entity/tile handling.

Instead, we have turned to an engine that we are familiar with, and one that we’re sure that we can produce the results we aspire to - Unity.

Verdict of Silence - a reenvisioning of the original game - will be an entirely 3D, open world adventure set in the world of Asalthana, following the story of the original version, but extended and packed with more content than ever before!

Previously, we spoke briefly about the overhaul in the 1.0 post (found here), but didn’t go into any exact detail due to the project still being mostly under wraps.

Almost a year later, we’ve finally set a lot of concepts for the new version in stone, and development has been progressing at a great pace.

For people who enjoyed the story of the original game, there is no need to worry - as the new version will feature all content from the prologue, but expanded into a much larger, complex world.

We’ve also spoken briefly about Verdict: The MMORPG, which we have been working on alongside Verdict of Silence.

As Verdict of Silence and Verdict: The MMORPG take place in the same world, not too far apart from each other, both games will be using the same map, character assets and more.

This process of sharing assets between both games means that when a character is made for one of them - it can go straight into the other game, which increases development speed for both of them exponentially.

Thanks to this dual development process, Verdict: The MMORPG is making good progress as well, and fans should expect to hear more about it in the near future.

(Pictured: Steif in Felodrift Forest)

First and foremost in the reimagining, we are placing a lot of value into the player’s experience in the game and how it feels to play it - because a game that feels like a slog, doesn’t respect the player or makes them feel like their time, effort and input is worthless - is not a good game.

We want players to be able to spend many, many hours in the world of Asalthana, and to enjoy that experience without feeling like they are being held hostage, which is the unfortunate route many modern games have taken with their development.

A lot of games these days put more focus onto the raw hours a player invests in the game, valuing the metric of a player’s time over anything - including actual content. This leads to a lot of games being designed with systems that purposefully waste that time or expect them to grind excessive amounts for very little reward (such as a “battle pass”, or other time/point gating systems).

Avoiding this was a primary tenant of the new design of Verdict of Silence, as we wanted players to be able to play at their own speed and still feel like worthwhile progress is being made - without the looming threat of expiring timers, limited time events or other goading techniques used to entrap a player into playing when the developer wants, rather than when the player wants to.

(Pictured: The Player’s Camp)

Our largest goal with Verdict of Silence has been to take everything that was established in the original, and expand upon it, refine it and create a better product that more closely matches what we had imagined originally.

The result of this process is reflected differently in each part of the new game - with some systems being rolled into others, or entirely remade to be more streamlined and enjoyable for the player.

One of the largest parts of this redesign was the world, specifically the maps of each zone. Previous versions of ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence had much larger zones (such as Felodrift Forest being one entire map, without transitions) as we wanted the experience of exploring the world to be as streamlined and immersive as possible.

This was ultimately cut from the original, as the more content that was placed in the map, the more that RPGMaker struggled, with performance issues becoming exponential.

We wanted to bring this back in it’s entirety for the new version, and better than before - with an entirely remade, open world map that represents the majority of Asalthana, including many new, unseen and extended locations.

While large worlds are a common claim for open world games, more often than not these worlds are filled with copy-pasted content, excessive, pointless collectables and large swathes of empty space that exists merely as a number to slap on the box.

Avoiding this is one of the primary goals of our development of Verdict of Silence, with the aim to fill the world with meaningful content, unique experiences and something interesting around every corner.

(Pictured: Steif and Canse in combat)

Many of the systems in the original ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence were unfortunately bloated, complicated or otherwise felt out of place among each other, mainly due to the way RPGMaker handled data and menu integrations.

The result of this was menus with too many buttons on them, complicated methods of doing tasks such as upgrading items, and many systems involving clicking through two or more menus to get a simple outcome.

Streamlining these systems is something we’re putting a large amount of focus on, to make them more accessible to the user and less fatiguing to use during extended gameplay.

This includes systems like the upgrades, runes, glyphs, oils and other weapon/equipment upgrades being merged in to a single system that is accessible directly from the inventory, or skills and talents being rolled into a single menu.

We want to stress that in this process, none of the depth of any of these systems will be lost, but rather made much more accessible and less obfuscated in play.

Many features of the original game either never completely reached their potential, and became underused, or were presented in such a way that made it an annoying process to engage with them, which is why we chose to completely redesign many of them.

The result of many of these changes should be that engaging with the world, such as climbing a wall, clearing a rockslide or picking a lock will present the user with less interruptions to the flow of gameplay, and investing time in customizing and growing your character will be a more enjoyable experience.

(Pictured: Steif in Grimmstench Swamp)

Though the scope of changes to the new version are much greater than listed here, we are aiming to make it an experience that anyone - either those familiar with the old game, or new to the Verdict series entirely - can enjoy.

One of the larger problems the original game had, was that the delivery of quests and story had a tendency to be a bit haphazard and scattered, with only a few major questlines, and a few side quests available.

This was, in part, due to the handling of NPCs and event data in RPGMaker, which made even the most simple quest a teetering pile of cards that often collapsed when changing or updating adjacent things.

We wanted to address this in the reimagined version, as questing and cutscenes are an integral part of creating an immersive fantasy world, and as such have completely overhauled the way these work.

Quests in Verdict of Silence will be presented in one of two ways - the first being “Primary” quests that feature a story about a character, object or location in the world of Asalthana, that will share this story through voiced dialogue and cutscenes.

The second of these quest types are “Secondary” quests, which are minor tasks, jobs or errands that players are sent on, usually acquired from job boards, letters, world objects or NPCs. They may feature voiced dialogue or cutscenes, but are more often than not are a simple task given to guide the player around or provide them with a source of income and items.

In addition to the quest redesigns, we’ve put a large focus on making the experience of progressing through and exploring the world more enjoyable - primarily wanting it to feel more interactive and part of the player’s journey, rather than a backdrop.

Though there is much more to cover, we don’t want this post to drag on too long, so we invite players who wish to learn more, chat with the devs (and fellow fans!) or follow the development to join our Discord, or visit our Website.

See you there!

(Pictured: Ghist at Taslynn’s Garden Shop)

You can keep up to date with information about ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence, Verdict: The MMORPG and Verdict of Silence at the links below:

VerdictGames Website

VerdictGames Forums

VerdictGames Discord