When I came up with the idea for Shadow Royale: The Magister’s Cup, I knew I wanted to make something unique that I could infuse my personality with my interests in a game for everyone to enjoy. Back when I was in university, I studied Greek mythology for a couple of years; I really loved the classes and fell in love with the ancient culture. Heroes fighting magnificent battles against mythical creatures and gods was like a fairy tale for an adult. As I progressed through university, my inner child seemed to do the opposite of everyone else’s and it continued to grow. I was exposed to the world of anime and the endless stories of heroes struggling to overcome insurmountable odds with the coolest of super powers.I took all of my passions into consideration when coming up with the theme for my game. Something that a self-proclaimed fantasy geek could really get behind; or an adventure that a long standing anime fan could really empathize with; or a struggle for life and death just like the legends of old describe. However, it just wasn’t enough to add these random things into a bizarre universe constructed of magic and archaic fighting styles; so I gave everything in the game a back story.
In order for all of the inserted characters, creatures, weapons, and spells to make sense I needed to come up with something that gave them a purpose in the universe. I began to create this expansive history of characters that really brings the ‘Pepe Silvia’ meme to life. Intertwining character history with weapons, armor and spells amongst other characters’ history to create a spider web of lore. As I continued to create I began to love the idea of inserting small details, possibly perceived as Easter Eggs, into the card art as well as the lore. I have spent so many hours creating everything in the world of Shadow Royale that I’m surprised I managed to do all of this while having a normal job too.Strangely enough, I started creating all of the little back stories for the game just for it all to make sense to me. So that when I spoke with my artists, I could have another reason to explain to them why I wanted some things in certain ways and why it made a big difference if it was in it or not. Shortly after I started sharing my ideas with friends and family, they started to ask questions about how I came up with my characters, and how did they end up in the maze; and because of the lore I created, I had all the answers. One day, someone asked if they could read more about the characters. They said they are so deep and have such intricate histories that they’d love to really immerse themselves in the game with something like the written history. That was when I had the idea to write a lore book, a small compilation of great stories with complicated puzzles; which people would need to use the artwork and lore to understand the vast universe of Shadow Royale.
0 Comments