Devlog #1 — Why We’re Making Rottenlands

When we started Arsvatra, the main thing we wanted was pretty simple: to make cool and fun games together. Rottenlands is our first project as a team, and we decided to start with a tower defense because it gives us plenty of room to experiment with different mechanics, systems, characters and ideas while learning as much as possible along the way. We’re still figuring things out as we go, but we hope Rottenlands turns into something you’ll have as much fun playing as we have making it.

Where Rottenlands Came From

The world of Rottenlands is inspired by a project we made for university a while back. We liked the setting enough that, when it came time to decide what kind of world our first game should take place in, we came back to it.

From there, we started expanding everything: the lore, the different regions and Baskets, the characters, the Mold and the general rules of the world. A lot has changed since that original project, but it gave us the foundation for what Rottenlands is today.

How We Work

Most things start with the three of us throwing ideas around. Sometimes that means putting together boards in Miro, sometimes writing everything down on Discord, and sometimes just talking until an idea starts making sense.

We discuss what we want to add, how it would work mechanically and, most importantly, what it actually adds to the game. Once we’re happy with the idea, we figure out how to turn it into something playable and get to work.

Making the Art

Ana handles the art direction of Rottenlands, so when it comes to deciding what something should look like, she’s the one making the final call.

Once we know what we want to add, she starts by sketching and exploring ideas before turning them into finished assets. Environments and structures are mainly created in Blender, combining 3D models with hand-made textures and her 2D art style to give them the look you see in the game.

Units and enemies take a different approach. They’re drawn and animated frame by frame in a digital art software, with each character having multiple animations for everything they need to do in-game. It takes a lot of drawing, but it is also a huge part of what gives Rottenlands its personality.

Putting Everything Together

We build Rottenlands in Unity. Cristian handles most of the implementation, taking the ideas and assets we create and turning them into working parts of the game. He also keeps the project organized, sets up the systems and managers needed to keep everything working together, and handles the production side by planning our schedule and keeping development on track.

Fabian handles programming and is the person with the most experience when it comes to code. He focuses on the game’s underlying logic and makes sure our systems are reliable, work together properly and don’t fall apart the moment we start adding something new.

Of course, things rarely work perfectly on the first try. A lot of development is implementing something, playing it, realizing something feels wrong, changing it and doing it all over again.

And That’s Where We Are

Rottenlands is still growing, and so are we as a team. There are plenty of things we want to add, change and probably completely rethink before we’re done, and we want these devlogs to be a place where we can share that process as it happens.

If you were curious enough to read all the way to the end, thank you. Whether you’ve been following Rottenlands already or you’ve only just found us, we’re happy to have you here while we figure out where this project takes us.