Malevolence: The Sword of Ahkranox is a procedurally generated old-school turn-based RPG similar to classics titles such as the Might and Magic series and Stonekeep. Players take on the role of the Guardian of Ahkranox, whose purpose is to rid the world of Ahkranox from evil.
On their journey, the player must embark on quests, delve into various dungeons and defeat the evil monsters that lurk within them. The game contains a classless system that allows the player to play however they please. If they wish to change their play style throughout, they can at any time. Let’s talk with Norton to find out more about Malevolence.
Damien Smith: With Early Access receiving a bit of a bad reputation over the past year or two due to games being left unfinished, do you feel that this has had an impact on Malevolence?
Smith: Being a one man development team, it is clear that it takes longer periods of time than the general public may expect to update the game. Has this ever caused anger among the community?
On one side you have the people who really appreciate the artisinal craft required to make a video game and are happy to wait so long as they get a bit of insight into what’s going on, and then you get the people who don’t care or want to care about what goes into a game, only that it is done fast, is pretty, is smooth and entertains them.
I guess it’s like people who collect wines and really savour them compared to people who just buy a cask and go through it while watching TV. The trickiest part is, neither way of doing it is wrong! Many artists are also - at the same time - entertainers, and people respond to that entertainment in their own way.
Smith: Malevolence is the first ever game to contain a genuine infinite world. How is this made possible?
Malevolence isn’t generated using numbers, so it doesn’t use that cap. So long as you have the hard drive space to store the data required to store information on things you’ve changed in some way, you can just keep right on walking. A lot of people assume that I’m sitting here coding a video game, but in fact I’m actually coding a sort of “AI”, so to speak, which is trained in how to create a game world.
So the Malevolence engine (called the Hellfire II engine) acts like a sort of “Dungeon Master” which keeps building the world for you using a very intricate set of patterns so that it can retrace its steps again if it needs to.
Smith: Due to the procedural generation nature of Malevolence, the game does not have an interactive storyline to it. The game is about creating your story and adventure. Why did you decide to take this approach to the game?
So while Malevolence does have a very rich and detailed history and backstory, I wanted the players to create their OWN story, rather than have it fed to them. That is why they can travel anywhere and as far as they want, and never have to stop. I wanted them to be able to carve out their own mark on the world of Ahkranox and then tell that story to others.
The Expansion pack will introduce a limited story, but it will be hand-written and will have an ending. I’m hoping to get it to be a decent length of gameplay, though, as there’s nothing quite as unsatisfying as too small an amount of gameplay, I find!
Smith: The next update for Malevolence is said to be the biggest it has received to date. What can players expect to see in such a big update?
That’s how big the update is haha. The major feature is of course the new magic system, but they’ll also start encountering the dreaded boss monsters (who use magic themselves). Also, they will encounter some new online interaction wherein you will be able to stumble across the fallen corpses of other permadeath players and loot them, thus creating “equipment continuance”.
Once someone loots a corpse, it disappears for all other players, however, it will lead to true legendary items being formed, stories being written around them, and then shared in the game. And instead of being something created by a team of writers, that item will be something that actually DID go on those adventures. I think that’s pretty cool, personally. It’s my favourite feature in the game yet, and I’m really excited for the players to start making use of it.
Smith: You have stated on the forums that Malevolence is getting ever closer to reaching its final release. What content can players expect to be added for the final release?
Smith: One of the most popular discussions on the Malevolence forums is that of the expansion. What kind of new content is to be expected with the expansion of the game?
Once the enchantment is in place, that’ll be it, really. All that’ll be left to do after that is various bits of polish and bugfixing, but the game itself will be feature-complete…. Finally…
Smith: You mentioned that the expansion for Malevolence is to implement the main storyline quest. How will this work with the procedural generation nature of the game?
Also in the expansion pack, new areas are going to be opened up to the player, such as the subterranean cities of the dwarves as well as a hell-like dimension filled with magma and brimstone and demons. Cities will even have sewers underneath for you to explore!
Lots of fun places to poke your nose into, but you will be introduced to them gradually through this hand-written story which will lead to certain revelations about the world – why it is the way it is, what is threatening it, and what is your true purpose as the guardian of Ahkranox.
I think the fanbase is going to go nuts when the first trailer drops. The audio track for it is already done (no music, just narration), but every so often, even I pull it out and listen to it again. Gives me the shivers!
Smith: A few members of the community already have created some small mods for Malevolence. What are your thoughts of the community creating further mods for the game?
Smith: In September last year, you announced on the Malevolence forums that you and the game are included in the Game Art book by Matt Sainsbury alongside titles such as Dragon Age Origins and Final Fantasy XIV. How does it feel to be alongside such monumental titles?
Someone even made a wonderful mod manager tool for it which I got very excited about. I think the first community mod was a UI mod to assist people suffering from colour blindness, which was excellent! A lot of developers don’t like people modding their game, but I’m an old-school modder from way back. I’ve always heavily encouraged it.
There is no denying the immense ambition of the game. The fact that for the first time, a genuine infinite world exists within a game alone is a technological marvel. It is a game that has a tremendous amount of work put into it, especially for a one-man development team.
If you would like to find out more about the game, you can do so through its website, forums and Steam store page. A demo of the game is possible to download from the official website for those who would like to give the game a go.
For any fan of old-school RPGs such as Eye of the Beholder, Might & Magic, Stonekeep and much more, it may be a title worth checking out. I would like to thank Alex Norton for taking the time to talk to me about his game Malevolence: The Sword of Ahkranox.
