The Cracks Beneath the Surface (A Post Mortem of our Old Idea)
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Old Art Style NOT in use With New Version
Hi everyone
It’s been more than 50 days since our last post-mortem for our Old demo.
We know, that’s a long time, and saying “we’ve been busy” doesn’t even begin to cover it. September and August were two intense months filled with reflection, reality checks, and Major Development news, too. But we will talk about those in Future Devlogs, so for now we will continue with our post-mortem Post, where we talk about how and why we changed our entire game Idea from 1 year ago.
In our last post (Devlog #04), we looked back at the first fight system in the early version with basic combos, a parry mechanic, and one-on-one combat with our old idea in 2023. Back then, we were dreaming big. We wanted a mix of stealth gameplay and free traversal, creating a world that felt open-ended, where players could move vertically, sneak past enemies, and complete objectives in multiple ways.
It was our first glimpse of what a deeply interactive and choice-driven experience could be. That idea excited us. It was bold, ambitious, and full of possibilities. But as development continued, the cracks beneath the surface started to show.
The Harsh Reality of Scope :
But as we started putting that dream into practice, cracks began to show beneath the surface.
To build that kind of freedom, stealth animations, takedowns, traversal moves, enemy awareness systems, and seamless transitions between them, you need a lot of animation work. Just for stealth alone, we estimated it would take at least three animators and two full years to reach a playable, polished state.
And that’s not even counting the level design. To support deep player navigation and multi-approach gameplay, we’d need an entire art team to fill each environment with meaningful assets, alternate paths, climbable surfaces, hiding spots, interactive props, and so on. Based on our early estimates, that would mean five more artists and another three years of work.
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Some Images of Environment Art We made in 2023 (Old Version)
Then came our unique art style (Our Celshade art style), beautiful, but time-consuming. Every visual choice we made increased the workload even further.
In short, what we wanted to make wasn’t impossible…
But it was impossible for our small team at that time.
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Images showing our Art Style in 2023 (Old Version)
Images showing the Tree and grass in our old Art Style in 2023 (Old Version)
Images showing the Main Character and Enemies in our old Art Style in 2023 (Old Version)
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After the Demo, It was the time when Reality Hit hard :
When we finally released the old demo, we were proud. It was a 15-minute playable snapshot of our vision, functional, focused, and ambitious. But it also opened our eyes.
Behind the scenes, our team was stretched thin. Our art lead had already left midway through production, and while we managed to finish the demo without him, that left a huge gap. What we had was essentially an MVP, a “minimum viable product,” not a foundation we could easily expand into a full game.
We began reaching out to publishers, hoping to find a partner who could help us take the next step. But again and again, the answer was the same: “It's more or less impossible to make, based on your Team.”
When asked to present a development plan with milestones, team allocation, and production estimates, the truth hit us hard. With a three-person team and limited time, there was no way to deliver the game we had originally envisioned. Our dream version simply wasn’t possible — not without sacrificing quality or burning out completely.
Redefining the Dream
So, we went back to the drawing board. We stripped everything down and asked ourselves the toughest question:
“What can we deliver — beautifully, meaningfully, and completely — with the team we have?”
It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the turning point. We began identifying the core pillars of our game — the elements that truly define the experience and make it fun, immersive, and achievable.
It meant rethinking not just what we wanted to build, but how we wanted to build it.
This is where the new direction truly began.
We decided to completely remove all actions regarding stealth mechanics.
We decided to keep the feel of the cinematic that Firva was moving toward.
We decided to have a unique experience rather than having lots of filler mechanics.
We decided to keep our Story Rich World, but only tell the necessary stories.
We decided that now that we are using fewer mechanics, we need to have more Atmospheric theme.
We decided not only to keep the Narration and Dark Fantasy Mood, but also to expand it.
We decided to move toward a combination of Classic games like God of War from 2005 and try to take a Modern Approach to appeal to old and new players.
And all of these Decinces led us, led the Firva to this conclusion :
Firva Strings of Fate must be a story-driven action-adventure with atmospheric cinematic scenes and set pieces, set in a rich, grimdark world. Experience fast-paced combat with dashing or master the art of parrying. Step into the darkest fate as Firva, driven by vengeance and bound to a path of revenge.
In our next devlog, we’ll dive deep into these core pillars and expand on them. so
Stay tuned, and as always, thank you for following this journey with us. Your feedback, comments, and energy keep this dream alive. đź’Ş
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