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A Plague Tale: Innocence - Dodging Rats and Inquisitors in medieval France

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Welcome back to our series of articles unveiling more details and information about the making of A Plague Tale: Innocence, the upcoming adventure game by Asobo Studio to be released in 2019 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

Let’s zoom today on the look of the young heroes of A Plague Tale: Innocence, Amicia and Hugo.

You must always first consider how the shape of character will appear from afar. Will it strike an imposing figure, strong and massive, or be smaller, frail, and weak? Will there be a scar, or a specific, recognizable hair color? Sometimes, the story creates these physical characteristics, while otherwise it comes purely from the imagination of the team.



Sébastien Renard, Lead Narrative Designer, explains that setting a face and an expression for a character takes most of the work. You can’t neglect any details as the player will spend hours with the heroes. Amicia must be in good shape, but not too athletic: she is a child from a noble family who never had to fight to survive. As for the story and psychology of the characters, coherence is key for the team. Hair, face, and expressions are the results of meticulous research into their historical and ethnological backgrounds.



Olivier Ponsonnet, Art Director, wanted to convey two main elements:

• The physical bond linking two children of the same family, translated by the constant proximity and Amicia’s will to protect her brother. They have to be as one against a hostile world.

• The historical details anchoring the game in the medieval era. Haircuts and clothes ensure the player is immersed in 14th century France. Amicia’s braids went through a lot of iteration in development, but now make her a unique and identifiable character. Reproducing it in-game was also a big technical challenge.

The team’s inspirations for young, lively Amicia and cunning-but-fragile Hugo also come from cinema. Movies that showcase frail young characters like Artificial Intelligence, The Sixth Sense, The Shining, or the works of Studio Ghibli were all in mind throughout development.



Finally, the look of our heroes is also linked to the gameplay. As a young teenager, Amicia can’t rush head down into battle. She must think and choose the option that is less risky for her brother. The lack of brute force to overcome enemies is reflected in the character model and forces players to be careful and crafty with the resources they have.

See you soon for more information and exclusive anecdotes about the creative process behind A Plague Tale: Innocence!

https://forums.focus-home.com/topic/24346/roots-of-innocence-children-of-the-plague
 
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Welcome to our Roots of Innocence series of articles, where we unveil more details and info about the making of A Plague Tale: Innocence, the upcoming adventure game by Asobo Studio coming 2019 to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

A Plague Tale: Innocence takes place in 1349 during a period of turmoil in France. War and disease ravage the country, creating a great setting for the team at Asobo to tell the story of Hugo and Amicia De Rune, our two protagonists.



What interested the team at first was the clash between the innocence of children and adversity: war, disease and death. The 14th century and its epidemic bring a lot of opportunities in term of scenery, characters and story. It’s a good period to introduce alchemy to as well, which suits better to the authentic tone of the game chosen by Lead Narrative Designer Sébastien Renard. Alchemy allows us to feature upgrades and improvements to the projectiles used in-game, while staying realistic.

To help the team to picture the environments the player will travel through, Art Director Olivier Ponçonnet and Artist Damien Papet produced concept art of the landscapes and settings inspired by real life spots close to the studio in the South of France. Some concepts have become actual places in the game, while others are only references for the team.

The 14th century is a very brutal time. Great empires are collapsing, the Hundred Year’s War is raging between the Plantagenets and Valois families and the Black Plague is decimating the population. Despair pushes the survivors to burn entire villages to stop the scourge, but it’s already too late and the dead quickly outnumber the living. The Black Plague will spread everywhere in Europe, killing 26 million of people, half of Europe population. At the start of A Plague Tale: Innocence, the plague has just reached the South-West of France and is getting closer and closer to the De Rune Castle, the homeland of our heroes.



The design team have put a lot of work into translating the setting into the game. Lead Game Designer Kévin Choteau explains that it’s the difference between realism and reality: the toughness and dirtiness of this time is so far away from our modern frame of reference that it has had to be filtered to reach the player. If the game were an exact replica of the reality back then, dialogue would be incomprehensible, and the violence would seem ludicrous and gory.

See you soon for more information and exclusive anecdotes about the creative process behind A Plague Tale: Innocence!

https://forums.focus-home.com/topic/28228/roots-of-innocence-a-tale-as-old-as-the-hills
 
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Welcome back to our Roots of Innocence series of articles, where we’re unveiling more details and info about the making of A Plague Tale: Innocence, Asobo Studio’s upcoming adventure game, coming 2019 to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is set in a plagued, medieval French Kingdom. Fear, war and disease generate violence. With no scientific means to fight the disaster, the people are defenseless.

In order to ensure our game is consistent as possible within the period, we’ve committed ourselves to heavy research and the analysis of many historical texts. One thing that has struck us throughout this research, is unveiling the sadness that underlay much of the Middle Ages. Like many fairy tales and bloody legends before, we could clearly see one main topic: a tumultuous Europe.



As you’ve seen in the 16-minute gameplay video released during Gamescom, 1349 was a war-filled year, which strongly inspired us during each step of development. Every element in the game reflects, as much as possible, this dramatic period. Architecture, siege engines, weapons, armor - everything has been researched down to the smallest details to offer players fantastic immersion within this historical period.



Sebastien Renard, our Lead Narrative Designer shared with us his memories of the beginning of this project, and the struggle the team faced in being as consistent and coherent as possible. “The team initially started work on a slingshot animation before realizing that Amicia would have to wield a sling crafted from materials such as linen, wool, hemp and leather. The slingshot was actually only invented in the 19th century, following advances in chemistry and the creation of rubber.”



Continuing this dedication to the historical setting, we also find it important to clarify the famous “trebuchet” that appears in the Gamescom demo. This siege weapon is actually what’s known as a “Couillard” – this is a smaller version which is easier to trigger by a smaller, less strong person, which is why our protagonists are able to use it.

“Amicia and Hugo are children,” explains Kevin Choteau, our Lead Game Designer here at Asobo. “This means that in every environment, we need to make sure all their actions are actually doable for children. The game world has to be coherent for the players to believe the story and setting we create”.

See you soon for more information and exclusive anecdotes about the creative process behind A Plague Tale: Innocence!


https://forums.focus-home.com/topic/30030/roots-of-innocence-truths
 
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aweigh

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I this gonna be a ps4 exclusive? Either wya, it looks great. The gameplay seems like it could get repetitive but everything about it just screams TLC.
 
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PC, PS4, Xbox One.

RPS said:
It does look disappointing linear and simplistic in this video, with puzzles that aren’t puzzles as much as solutions waiting for us to set them in motion, but that’s perhaps not a surprise.

Do remember the purpose of Gamescom gameplay demos: to present the pieces of the game and the ways they can interact so clearly that it can be understand even by a hungover games writer who hasn’t yet realised they have currywurst in their ears and a blackletter forehead tattoo of the name . Fingers crossed the full game gets trickier and more creative, though obviously it’s not a pure puzzler so a fair part of satisfaction is to come from the kiddywinkles’ journey.
 
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aweigh

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I'll never understand why people think that a game being linear makes it "less-than". They need to shrug off the programming they received from the gaming media.
 

toro

Arcane
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A game where you have to chase a retarded kid ... from a shovel-ware company ...
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Codex 2014
Steam page:



A Plague Tale: Innocence tells the grim story of two siblings fighting together for survival in the darkest hours of History. It sends you on an emotional journey through the 14th century France, with gameplay combining adventure, action and stealth, supported by a compelling story.

Follow the young Amicia and her little brother Hugo, who face the brutality of a ravaged world as they discover their purpose to expose a dark secret.

On the run from the Inquisition's soldiers, surrounded by unstoppable swarms of rats incarnating the Plague, Amicia and Hugo will learn to know and trust each other as they struggle for their lives against all odds.
  • An original, powerful tale following the trip of the young noble Amicia de Rune and her adorable yet smart brother Hugo
  • Survive a great, enigmatic danger in a brutal, unforgiving world. With the Black Plague appeared deadly swarms of rats, indiscriminately devouring everything in their path.
  • A seamless blend of adventure and stealth gameplay, deeply embedded in dark medieval mystery.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Codex 2014


A PLAGUE TALE: INNOCENCE RELEASES MAY 14 - NEW WEBSERIES TAKES YOU BEHIND THE SCENES STARTING TODAY WITH EPISODE 1: ROOTS OF INNOCENCE

A Plague Tale: Innocence is the new own-IP title from Asobo Studio, with a newly-announced release date of May 14, 2019. Asobo are game development veterans who have honed their craft on some of the industry’s biggest projects, and now forge new ground with their own original story of Amicia, Hugo, and the Black Death. Focus Home Interactive will highlight the work of this incredible French team in a new behind-the-scenes webseries, the first episode of which, Roots of Innocence, is available now.

The first episode focuses on Amicia and Hugo, the two main characters of A Plague Tale: Innocence, and their relationship. These children encounter 14th century France in a similar way to the player, an unknown and dangerous place that they barely understand but must survive. As the realities of the world of adults press down on them, their familial love will be tested as they work together to overcome challenges from the rat plague and pursuing Inquisition alike.

This episode also introduces you to Charlotte McBurney and Logan Hannan, the young actors who provide voices for Amicia and Hugo. Both are immensely talented and have their own approach to and opinions of these realistic, troubled characters. As your constant companions through the adventure, their work is as vital as anyone’s to creating a moving, emotional experience that will stick with you long past the first playthrough.

A Plague Tale: Innocence releases May 14, 2019 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
 
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Welcome back to our devblog series where we unveil a wealth of details about the making of A Plague Tale: Innocence, Asobo Studio’s upcoming adventure game coming 2019 to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Today, we’re excited to share more info about a “protagonist" that you will have to face in our game: The Inquisition!

Let’s welcome our Narrative Designer Sébastien Renard who will cover the creation of the Inquisition in A Plague Tale: Innocence, as well as the many challenges the team faced during development.

The Inquisition, a Constant Threat

The Inquisition you encounter in the game is a combination of historical research and our own idea of the medieval organization. In A Plague Tale: Innocence, they are trying to stop the rats and ultimately the plague from spreading, so you could say that their goal is rather noble. Their methods, on the other hand, are extremely harsh and cruel. The inquisition wasn’t known for caring for the common people.

ef5cf11ee1c339a00b61b7724e37c91f3dd66363.jpg


A Plague Tale’s version of the Inquisition is a progressive one. Driven by a particular and personal faith, the leader of the Inquisition, Vitalis, sees beyond contemporary dogmas. While his army is combating the spread of the Black Death, he attempts to find an answer through alchemy. Vitalis is convinced that he is working for the common good, and is prepared to commit the most heinous acts in its name.

Creating an Original Inquisition

We wanted to depict our Inquisition as having its own identity (made possible thanks to the art direction). The Inquisition was very powerful at the time, and we show this partly through how they continuously develop new technology to deal with the rats. We also wanted to show the great discrepancies between the Inquisition and the Church. The Inquisition is visionary: it understands the new danger faster than the Church, which is too busy hiding. Vitalis himself is at odds with the Church and wants no ties to it.

You will quickly come to realize that the Inquisition has a veritable army at its disposal. This is a good way to convey their power at a mere glance. It’s also a direct reference to how the Inquisition used to seize goods from nobles who had supposedly run foul of the law. By these practices, they grew as a direct rival to the Church.

During the Great Plague, the Church was ready to dismantle the Inquisition. However, in A Plague Tale, we chose to portray an Inquisition that is managing to dodge the Church’s attacks. It’s far more powerful under the Great Inquisitor Vitalis, and as a result, it’s also the only force able to fight the plague.

To counter the animalistic danger represented by the rats, we needed a great human threat. We first thought of other figures, such as heretics, but the Inquisition felt like the right choice. What was incredibly useful about the Inquisition was that we could give it a proper visual identity thanks to their armour and banners. These are symbols of the era and reminders of how religion influenced every aspect of society. The Inquisition therefore brings something new to the table: a human opponent with deeply human behaviour. It also helps to shine a light on the constant clash between innocent children and corrupted adults.

The stealth gameplay comes through as a result of The Inquisition forcing Hugo and Amicia to be wary and stay out of sight as they travel. Amicia can fight the Inquisition, but in order to do so, she must develop her skills over time. At the start of our story, our protagonists are cautious, but gradually, they learn to use the rats in their favour. For both Amicia and the players, the main goal is to understand the Inquisition’s new “technology”, and to either choose to stop it or use it to fight back.

The Inspirations for our Inquisition

The Inquisition is a rather grim symbol of the Middle Ages, and best known for the terrible Spanish Inquisition, which was far more violent than the one present in Bordeaux at the time. There, the Inquisition seemed quite reluctant to severely punish people, with the exception of state criminals.

0d26a83d898d849c71237d3497b02b76160d43d3.jpg


To create the Inquisition, we were particularly influenced by various works in popular culture. Movies such as The Name of the Rose and Black Death, TV-shows like Inquisitio (a french show) and even the manga Berserk (mostly due to its dark aspects).

See you soon for more behind-the-scenes information and anecdotes about the creative process behind A Plague Tale: Innocence!

A Plague Tale: Innocence releases May 14th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/752590/announcements/detail/1753492326981873288
 
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The medieval fairytales of the Grimm brothers were strange and gruesome. Stories of children having their hands chopped off, and young women getting their eyes pecked out. One story, called ‘The Ungrateful Son’, tells the tale of a greedy young boy who hides food from his father. As his punishment, a big toad latches itself onto the boy’s face and refuses to let go. The boy is then forced to feed the toad every day for the rest of his life, or else it will get hungry and eat his entire face. As a protagonist, your odds of keeping every part of your body until the last page were low.

It was these fairytales I was reminded of while playing Asobo Studios’ game, A Plague Tale: Innocence. It’s a story of two children, Amicia and Hugo, who must survive the black plague in 14th century France. In this rendition of history, the disease has manifested in thousands and thousands of rats, who will swarm to fresh meat and devour anyone who steps into the shadows.

Unlike the naughty children in the short stories of the Grimm brothers, Alicia and Hugo have done nothing wrong, they’re just trying to survive a country ravaged by war and disease.

A Plague Tale is structured into chapters, each section focused on Amicia and Hugo’s journey through a particular treacherous area. It’s not only the dark force of the rats devouring the country – France is at war with Britain, and several chapters take place in devastated landscapes. Asobo Studio has created an oddly beautiful world from all the gory chaos. In one part you guide the children through an abandoned farm at night, its windmill has been set on fire illuminating the surrounding fields littered with bloated pig corpses, the rats festering inside.

Facing off against angry mobs of villagers, the governmental Inquisition, and thousands of the aforementioned bloodthirsty rats, Amicia and Hugo have few ways to directly fight back. Gameplay is made up entirely of stealth and environmental puzzle-solving, plus a quick-time-event chase sequence or two.

Amicia has a small sling that she can use to hurl rocks, allowing her to cause distractions, and within the first couple of hours there is /a lot/ of sneaking, distracting, and running. Sneaking past some guards, running away from angry town’s people, making a distraction to slip past some more soldiers – it’s a little repetitive.

But, thanks to the game’s world building and art direction, it doesn’t become frustrating. As you creep past guards, you can hear them chatting about a dark force beneath the surface.. As you press on, you realise they’re unnerved – they don’t want to stay after dark. It’s a great build up for what comes next, down in the dark crypts, where you first encounter the real stars of A Plague Tale.

As the biggest threat in the game, the rats are absolutely terrifying. Even though the horde is made up of tiny bodies, they all move together with a single hive mind. A torrent of them with spill out from the narrowest gap in a wall, a tidal wave will crash around the sides and underneath doorways, a new river will flow through the cracks in the ceiling – there are an overwhelming number of them ready to rip the flesh from your bones.

There’s one sequence where you are running through a field, and mounds of dirt rise up from the ground – rats smash them open, swarming out onto the surface. It feels like the game itself is going to burst at the seams. Together, the cacophony of tiny, grizzled squeaks sounds like a scream.

The only way that Amicia and Hugo can protect themselves against the rats is by staying close to a light source. Creating paths of light to reach the next area is key to not being devoured alive by 1000 sets of tiny teeth. It seems strange that rats would be deterred by light, but hints in what I saw point to an arcane element controlling them – medieval alchemy is bubbling beneath the surface.

Managing light sources is how Amicia and Hugo are able to outsmart those pesky flesh eating rodents, but the power of the rats can also be used in other creative ways. If an enemy spots the siblings, you can use Amicia’s sling to hurl a rock at their lamp and smash it, leaving them without a protective light source. The rats then swarm onto the soldier, covering them from head to toe as they squeeze around his armour and eat him alive.

As might be now clear, A Plague Tale has some gross scenes that are squeamish to watch as an adult, let alone for its child protagonists. Amicia and Hugo have to survive some horrific events and, similarly to Clementine and AJ from The Walking Dead, both lose their innocence along the way.

Having to kill an enemy soldier? For me as the player, that’s no problem. I’ve killed many monsters and humans in videogames and could have happily skipped past my fallen enemy. But for Amicia, it’s the first time – and the game takes a moment to stop and make you notice how horrified she is at her own actions.

It’s a lesson for Amicia, and it’s a lesson for me as well. It seems likely that A Plague Tale will slowly escalate these psychological moments throughout the game, and that Amicia will have to make some difficult moral decisions in the name of survival.

A Plague Tale: Innocence would sit nicely next to a game like Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. This journey is going to be a melancholy one, told as a short, impactful experience with some stellar storytelling and stunningly haunting art direction.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/a-plague-tale-innocence-review
 

Ulukai

Literate
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Feb 27, 2019
Messages
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The crowd simulator is very impressive when you are indoors in the dark


The rats stare you with their demonic eyes and the developers have designed the levels realistically so that the vermine can escape through holes or passageways


The problem I have with this game is that the puzzle seems to be always the same: set aflame a static or moving element (like a chandelier) and move as quickly as possible. Repeat this after a dialogue


The sling can also destroys every part of the knights armor you will encounter, so there will be some variety in gameplay but I'm afraid that the main concept is not enough to create memorable challenge


Good points: we identify easily with both characters facing terrifying threats (avowed inspiration from The Last Of Us), very neat graphics and incredible sound design


Here french journalist who tested the game and enjoyed it

 
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What I've gathered from the videos is that it's a very pretty game with a thin veneer of gameplay over the top.

It all looks severely railroaded and half seems to play itself.
 
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aweigh

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What I've gathered from the videos is that it's a very pretty game with a thin veneer of gameplay over the top.

It all looks severely railroaded and half seems to play itself.

10/10 !!!! Strong female!!!

If u don't like u r sexist incel racist because games like this R MATUR
 
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aweigh

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Nothing inherently wrong with a good walking simulator, tho. I enjoyed Dear Esther quite a bit, especially the caves section, really good sound design and graphics.
 

toro

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Nothing inherently wrong with a good walking simulator, tho. I enjoyed Dear Esther quite a bit, especially the caves section, really good sound design and graphics.

We should have a rating "Blasphemy" for this kind of posts.

Edit: I see Heresy but I don't have it
:despair:
 
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