XD launched Sword of Convallaria, a tactical RPG for iOS, Android, and PC to audiences within the west in August ’24 (round a 12 months after the sport’s East Asian launch). Closely influenced by Techniques Ogre and Closing Fantasy Techniques, the sport has captivated followers with its meticulously crafted battle story and extremely strategic battles, all performed out to a phenomenal soundtrack.
Simply over a 12 months following its launch, a really main collaboration between Sword of Convallaria: For This World of Peace and CD PROJEKT RED’s open-world RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been totally realised and delivered to avid gamers. Geralt, Yennefer, Triss, and Ciri now appear in Sword of Convallaria as playable characters; permitting gamers to take pleasure in collaborative tales and quests surrounding the Lord of the Forest from one other world.
Bartosz Sztybor, Franchise Artistic Director at CD PROJEKT RED, defined his tackle the collaboration and the way it got here collectively: “At CD PROJEKT RED, storytelling is on the coronary heart of every little thing we do, and we take a hands-on method even when collaborating with exterior companions. For our partnership with Sword of Convallaria, our Franchise Artistic crew labored carefully with developer XD Worldwide to craft a narrative that captures the essence of The Witcher universe, each for the anime trailer and the collaboration quest. Working with a accomplice who shares our ardour for The Witcher is all the time a privilege, and we’re thrilled with the outcomes of what we’ve created collectively. We’re wanting ahead to sharing the fruits of this partnership with the group, and might’t wait to see their response!”
CD PROJEKT RED’s Satoru Homma, Japan Nation Supervisor, provided additional perception into their partnership with XD Video games: “For the collaboration between Sword of Convallaria and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I used to be chargeable for mission administration on behalf of CD PROJEKT RED. I’m personally an enormous fan of Sword of Convallaria, and I had a robust need to see The Witcher 3’s characters — rendered in stunning pixel artwork — playable inside a tactical RPG. With the deep love and understanding Sword of Convallaria’s crew holds for The Witcher 3, and below the thorough supervision of our in-house lore specialists, we had been in a position to ship grounded and genuine storytelling within the collaboration quest. I sincerely hope that The Witcher 3 gamers who could also be unfamiliar with the tactical RPG style will take the time to take pleasure in this content material, which is infused with a deep appreciation for the world and its characters.
Director of Sword of Convallaria, Guo Lei (of XD Video games)spoke about this collaboration in additional element — in addition to the circumstances that led to it changing into a actuality.
Impressed by Techniques Ogre, which he performed in highschool, Guo all the time wished to change into a sport creator. He’s additionally a fan of The Witcher 3, and his favorite characters are Geralt and Yennefer.
Guo on Sword of Convallaria passing the primary anniversary of its western launch and the way he feels wanting again on the previous 12 months:
Sword of Convallaria bought off to a profitable begin, however there was a interval once we had been looking for the fitting route to go in. Nonetheless, due to the assist of our followers, we had been in a position to flip issues round and efficiently have fun our first anniversary. Any longer, we’ll proceed to develop the sport with confidence and pleasure for the followers who’ve excessive expectations for it.
Relating to the sport’s content material, the World model noticed the discharge of Iria, and the story of her moving into the world that lies past was depicted on the primary anniversary. Sooner or later, Sword of Convallaria will enter its 2.0 story arc, taking gamers on adventures past Iria, and develop a narrative through which the participant protects peace. We hope you’ll stay up for it.
— On how the The Witcher 3 collaboration happened:
Guo: From the start, our crew had already been acquainted with the CDPR China crew. Throughout one of these informal conversations, we talked about that it will be thrilling if we may in the future work on one thing collectively based mostly on Sword of Convallaria and The Witcher 3.
Later, we had the chance to satisfy the CDPR Japan crew in individual at Tokyo Recreation Present 2024. Throughout our discussions there, I confirmed them my private love for The Witcher 3 and the curiosity in exploring whether or not we would create one thing collectively. They inspired us to submit a proper proposal, which set the collaboration into movement. The Witcher 3 is a sport that boasts worldwide reputation, so I used to be over the moon when he positively thought of our proposal for a collaboration. After appreciable effort, the collaboration was formally permitted. From that time onward, each groups devoted practically a full 12 months to growth, in the end bringing this collaboration to life within the type you see right this moment.
What it was about The Witcher 3 that notably appealed to him:
First of all, it is the sense of immersion that comes with being so life like. You get the sensation that you simply’re immersed on the earth, one thing you possibly can’t expertise in different video games. Additionally, it is the story ingredient. What’s nice about it’s that it depicts so many tales you could empathise with. It’s extremely distinctive in that you simply make painful decisions that change the end result of the story. I used to be overwhelmed by how the fascinating characters play an energetic position within the story.
How the story was designed, its core themes, and the artistic collaboration behind it
We wished to create the worldview of The Witcher 3 throughout the world of Sword of Convallaria. Nonetheless, it goes in opposition to Geralt’s beliefs to become involved in conflicts between nations, and in reality, if we had been to depict an epic story involving The Witcher 3, we felt that it will be fairly a excessive hurdle to determine how one can resolve it. Because of this, we determined to purpose for a down-to-earth story.
The story revolves across the Leshen from The Witcher 3 showing and inflicting bother, and Geralt and his pals teaming up with the Chief to defeat it. Behind the scenes, the story additionally depicts the malice of folks. For instance, when an issue happens, folks assume that it’s the work of these from a unique background to themselves and blame them. The theme of the story poses a query of morality, as Geralt and Yennefer intervene to attempt to resolve this.
In The Witcher 3, Geralt and Yennefer are portrayed as uncommon individuals who current otherwise from the common individual. Naturally, they’ve differing personalities and methods of conducting themselves. We made it a precedence to fastidiously categorical the assorted aspects of these characters within the collaborative story.
We made certain to speak carefully with CD PROJEKT RED. We created shared paperwork, edited these paperwork, and obtained suggestions, all of which allowed us to proceed with growth meticulously and effectively. This resulted in a enjoyable growth expertise not like some other.
How they approached reimagining The Witcher 3 characters into the pixel-based world of Sword of Convallaria:
The Witcher 3 has a sensible 3D visible model, however when translating that into pixel artwork, our first precedence was to consider how one can categorical the motion in a manner that may fulfill gamers.
Nonetheless, the designers additionally love The Witcher 3, so they’d enjoyable designing it with care, for instance, to make it clear the distinction between a silver sword and a metal sword. Because of this, I bought the impression that the visuals went easily.
The areas that had been important goal for the collaboration:
Worldwide. Sword of Convallaria is obtainable in 4 languages: Chinese language, Japanese, English, and Korean. As with The Witcher 3, we now have a worldwide perspective and need sport followers all over the world to take pleasure in Sword of Convallaria Sword IP. Due to this fact, each area is essential to us.
If I needed to say, we’re notably eager about English-speaking international locations. We see the English-speaking world as a area the place we nonetheless wish to acquire extra followers for Sword of Convallaria. It goes with out saying that The Witcher 3 has already gained many English-speaking followers, so we hope that this collaboration will assist us additional attraction to the English-speaking world.
Features that notably stood out for him throughout this collaboration:
I believe this was a real collaboration. The incontrovertible fact that each events had been working collectively in the identical route was a sense I would by no means had earlier than, and it was so much of enjoyable. It was a beautiful expertise for us. So, this time, we had been in a position to talk instantly with CDPR, and never solely was it very environment friendly, however we additionally felt that everybody gained one thing from this mission.
The half of the collaboration that symbolised its success, or made him particularly proud to be a component of it:
What’s needed when collaborating with different artists is love for the work. I believe that solely when we now have a robust love for the work can we create one thing that satisfies our collaborators. We ourselves had all the time wished to collaborate with The Witcher 3, but it surely was due to CDPR that we had been in a position to make it occur. We’re really completely happy. Now we have additionally ready skins for Geralt, Yennefer, and Triss. Now we have created skins based mostly on the scenes that moved us probably the most whereas we had been enjoying The Witcher 3. Geralt often wears armor, however for this pores and skin we created one which realistically expresses the love between father and daughter when Ciri visits Geralt.
As for Triss, in The Witcher 3, Triss and Geralt attend a dance occasion. Nonetheless, the 2 of them aren’t very within the dance occasion, so that they sneak out halfway by and luxuriate in a date within the backyard. We recreated that ambiance with the pores and skin.
Every pores and skin was created with love, so I hope all gamers will verify them out.
His message to the Sword of Convallaria gamers who’re wanting ahead to the collaboration:
I want to take this chance to specific my gratitude to all of our followers. It’s due to you all that Sword of Convallaria has grown a lot over the previous 12 months or so, and that we now have been in a position to safely attain our first anniversary. Thanks a lot! Because of everybody’s assist, we had been in a position to collaborate with The Witcher 3. How will Geralt and his pals play a job on the earth of Sword of Convallaria? We hope that not solely the Leaders but additionally followers of The Witcher 3 will benefit from the occasion.
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