Today’s Showcase Event gave fans their first-ever look at Stormbinders gameplay, along with a deep dive into the standout in-development features that will make this a must-play for strategy lovers.
Stormbinders takes inspiration from legendary turn-based classics, blending the nostalgic charm of old-school strategy games with fresh, modern mechanics and plenty of new content to explore.
Watched the showcase and I stand by the fact that things looks great aside from the art style of units and towns. I am not talking about quality, since that's solid overall, but the art direction of some of they key elements. Players will spend a lot of time on battle screen and in towns, so these in my opinion require some significant improvements, at least for now.
I've been thinking a lot about what's wrong with the town screens and ultimately I think it that they clash with the overworld map style. The world has more toned down colors, weather, shadows and so on, while the town screens are strangely vibrant and colorful, strongly reminding me of free Flash games from the old days. I initially though they cannot be salvaged, but maybe with some palette swap and edits it can still work. I'm afraid however that his element will be something I won't like and currently falls way behind things like towns added to the HoMM III Horn of the Abyss or Day of Reckoning mods, but almost every other part of the HoMM series.
As for the units, they looked better on the overworld than on battle screens. I'm putting an example below of what I mean by it to hopefully illustrate my point better:
1. Stormbinders is the top left corner. Great background and amazing monster idea with the flying eye project, but the while things feels off and slightly like a mobile game. The units sharply contrast with the background, which makes them feel like a separate layer of flat cardboard-cut outs placed on a single sheet with the battlefield. The borders of unit model details are also too sharp, they focus the eye on all the design imperfections while slight blurring would elegantly mask these instead. Colors are too vibrant, especially the excessively overused gold that presumably is utilized to showcase upgraded versions. Humanoid models overall aver simply ugly and anatomically strange, partially due to one thing not seen here, which is animations. They feel stiff, as they focus on a few points in each model that were designed as "joints", resulting in very puppet-like behavior. Hopefully animations are work in progress and will work differently.
2. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is the top right corner. Units seem to be slightly too small compared to the battlefield, but they feel organically placed on it and have some interesting designs. The colors feel toned down, but fit the style well overall. They feel perhaps a bit too modern, but certainly look like something designed for the PC from the start.
3. HoMM III Horn of the Abyss is in the bottom left corner. Despite the dated engine, new units and old ones blend with the rest of the art style well. There is no clear cut-off between a unit and the map unless the unit is selected. There are tons of shapes and unit types, an they have a stylized, yet pleasing old-school aesthetics. Colors are all perfectly balanced and not over the top.
4. Songs of Conquest in the bottom left corner. Despite the fact I personally abhor pixel art as a design choice, I can still appreciate the level of detail that went into these units. They again look and feel unique, blending with the background perfectly. Colors are pleasing and the usage of lighting especially is top notch.
https://youtu.be/IAJ0k8vUD4Y
