Resonance: Rhythm in You - Elizabeth

A Festive Holidays and a Happy New Year to the itch.io community and Resonance Games fans, followers or those seeing this for the first time!

After a rocky 2020, Resonance Games is itching to jump into 2021 with gusto, committing itself to the continued development of Resonance: Rhythm in You and moving forward with the awesome people who have contributed to the project thus far!

I want to apologize if anyone was expecting an update last week. Things have been slow over the holidays and there may be times where a longer-form post like this is bi-weekly. I encourage anyone who wants to stay completely up to date with Resonance Games and its debut title to follow us on Facebook and Twitter at https://www.facebook.com/resonancegamescommunity and @Trinity_Xtreme respectively.

Today we'll talk about our Hero's better half, a native Zephran named Elizabeth.
In Resonance: Rhythm in You, you'll often find Elizabeth at home, a steadfast anchor during our protagonist's journey. Here in Zephra she walks a path tread by only the bravest of souls and slaying obstacles greater than any monster. That is to say, she raises their child in Zephra: a town not necessarily conducive to family living!

I wanted Elizabeth to be a strong female counterpart to our Hero and be the core foundation of his family, the driving factor in the decisions he makes throughout the course of the game. I imagined the Hero's home as a sort of way-point throughout the course of Resonance: Rhythm in You, somewhere you would return to often to rest and heal, talk to Elizabeth, and a start point of many of the game's eventual quests. As such, it's important that we make Elizabeth as much of a dynamic character as possible. My eventual goal is to have a plethora of dialogue sequences that will both be tied to the current game-quest, and include other moments that can trigger as you return home at random points in time. I want the player to be able to come home and not feel like Elizabeth is a static character with too many repeating lines of dialogue.

Their child also plays an important role in both the game's story and the Hero's motivations. You'll often find Elizabeth at home comforting the baby, and it's important that throughout the game, the player feels a connection to them both. I often joke that there are always huge kerfuffles when a game allows the player to pet their dog, and that Resonance will innovate on that design by allowing its players to hold and comfort their baby. While it is a humorous notion, it's something I do want to include, as well as other moments that will endear the Hero's family to the player.

As we were designing Elizabeth, it was important for me and Barret Frymire, our concept artist, to make sure she had a distinct visual design that looked unique enough to be memorable, but ordinary enough to reflect her position in Zephran society. I think Barret did an excellent job at doing that, giving her a look that makes sense as a middle-class commoner, but flourishing her design with her shawl and pendant. As part of the concept process, I provided Barret with a narrative chunk that he used as a base for her character, and I've posted that below for those interested in reading more! Enjoy:

Our Hero’s story is only half as rich as it would be without his wife and best friend, Elizabeth. Having met eight years prior to the events of our Hero’s  journey, Elizabeth was an upper middle-class Zephran citizen living with her mother in their humble home in the Zephra South District.
The young Elizabeth would often accompany her mother around town, assisting in chores and, on occasion, her mother’s business connections, an heirloom of her late father. Often courted by young Zephran suitors, Elizabeth’s mother would often attempt to position her into perusing relations with upper Zephran nobility to her daughter’s great chagrin.

It wasn’t until one fateful day, on a regular outing with her mother, that Elizabeth noticed a peculiar sight: a man adorned in unusual armour, loitering leisurely in the street. Her mother left her to attend to some minor assignment, and it was in this moment that Elizabeth’s curiosity got the better of her. Approaching the man, she began to converse with him, her curiosity growing ever still. Elizabeth always had a love for learning, with a particular taste for Zephran history and the adventures that often followed. The man seemed to embody this particular fascination, a scavenger who frequented many areas Elizabeth could only imagine, lest her mother scorn her and precede to rattle off the many dangers which those places were known for. Their conversation was cut short as Elizabeth’s mother hastily broke up the two’s discussion, angered by Elizabeth’s procrastination. It was over the next several weeks that the two of them would grow to know each other more, with Elizabeth eager to seek out the man whose identity was only revealed to her on their fourth meeting, often hiding his face with his curious helm.

Then, one day, both Elizabeth and her mother found themselves in a predicament. As Zephra’s population found it harder and harder to live off the agriculture allocated to the town from higher up, more and more were forced into alternative methods of survival. It was on that unlucky day that Elizabeth would kindle her love. As her and her mother were under duress from local bandits, not often fond of leaving witnesses, it was by a miracle that Elizabeth’s new-found friend discovered them and put his own body in between the two groups, driving off the bandits and injuring himself in the process. Elizabeth’s mother was taken aback by the young man’s selflessness, a trait not often seen in Zephran society in those difficult days.

After much discussion and weeks more of slow introductions, that young man, completely enamoured with Elizabeth, approached her mother for a favour: her daughter’s hand in marriage. And so, it was that our Hero swooped into Elizabeth’s life: a scavenger with little to offer, and the rest,
they say, is history. The young man joined them in their abode, and helped take care of Elizabeth’s mother in her last years. The two of them decided to try for a child, and after some time, were blessed with one. Now, a year later, our Hero finds himself in a completely uncharted situation, and it will be
Elizabeth and his child alone that steady his resolve in the face of a new and terrifying adversary.

I hope you've enjoyed today's segment, and I very much look forward to the day when I can share the pixel-art versions of all these excellent concepts! If you're seeing this for the first time, please consider going back and reading both of our previous excerpts:

First look at our Hero:
https://resonancegames.itch.io/resonance-rhythm-in-you/devlog/202916/resonance-r...

First look at the town of Zephra:
https://resonancegames.itch.io/resonance-rhythm-in-you/devlog/205350/resonance-r...

I will also take a quick moment to share that we've picked up some help in the last several weeks and are hoping to get a prettier version of the prototype up sooner than later, including our own environment and character art. I would also love to hear what you think about the concept pieces. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll be happy to answer!

Stay tuned and thank you so much for following us on this indie journey!

...can you hear the music?

Kurin Laing
Founder of Resonance Games