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Savathûn revealed – Planting the seeds of the Witch Queen’s deception
Building the blasters of Nerf Legends
Tips and strategies for Grow: Song of the Evertree, out tomorrow

Savathûn revealed – Planting the seeds of the Witch Queen’s deception

Posted: 16 Nov 2021 09:00 AM PST

The threads of Destiny's narrative are far-reaching, touching practically every aspect of the game. Over the past year or so, Destiny players have experienced a narrative unfold around one of the game's most beloved characters: Osiris. From the death of his loyal Ghost, Sagira, to his increasingly suspect behavior, questions have followed the famed Warlock and former Vanguard commander for months.

At the start of Season of the Lost, the truth was revealed. In case you didn't already know — SPOILER ALERT — Osiris wasn't Osiris. In fact, Osiris hadn't been himself for quite a while. Savathûn, the Sister of Shapes, the Witch Queen herself, revealed to Guardians that she had traded places with Osiris months prior, and had been sowing discontent in the Vanguard ever since, creating rampant speculation and spawning wild theories among Destiny lore hounds throughout the community along the way.

And that's exactly the way the Bungie Narrative team planned it.

Over the past year the Narrative team has dug deep, planting the seeds of Savathûn's deception throughout the game in unexpected ways. Today we're looking back at some of these pivotal moments and talking with the team about what it was like to bring this story to life.

The First Glimpse

The Savathûn/Osiris narrative was the result of countless discussions within the Destiny Narrative team and something that was planned long before it unfolded in the game. The team had an overarching goal of raising the narrative stakes in the game without resorting to killing characters. They also knew they wanted to embed Savathûn into the Last City; as a born trickster, having her impersonate someone and walk amongst the people felt right in line with her character. Furthermore, the Last City was chosen because Savathûn knew it was the last place her sister and rival, Xivu Arath, would look for her.

"From there it became a conversation in the writers' room about who the best candidate was for her to impersonate," said Bungie's Senior Narrative Lead Julia Nardin. "We landed on Osiris because of his relationship with Ikora, his former apprentice, which gave Savathûn the most direct access to the Vanguard."

The first moment where the Witch Queen took over for Osiris came during Season of the Hunt. Early on, players found a series of audio messages from Mara Sov and Osiris in Zavala's office. The line where Osiris declared that his Ghost, Sagira, had died in an attack – that was not Osiris at all, but rather Savathûn taking the Warlock's place for the very first time, beckoning players to the Moon. For extra credit, Savathûn orchestrated the player's first meeting with Crow, creating the situation where players witnessed him "rescue" Osiris from one of Xivu Arath's minions.

What followed was a carefully calculated campaign of Savathûn manipulating people and spreading distrust and doubt within the Vanguard. Nardin said one of her favorite examples of this was how quickly Savathûn-as-Osiris tanked the initial meeting between Caiatl and Zavala at the start of Season of the Chosen. As soon as Caiatl proposed the alliance between the Cabal and the Vanguard, Savathûn stepped out of the shadows and began questioning Caiatl's trustworthiness.

As Nardin explained, "Savathûn couldn't afford an official alliance between humanity and Caiatl's Cabal, so she sabotaged it. But she did so in a way that prevented Caiatl from launching a full-scale assault on her hiding place, and when it came time to de-escalate the conflict she helped to create, she made sure that her solution kept all the players on her chess board."

Family Ties

After assuming the identity of Osiris and driving distrust at every turn, it was inevitable that Savathûn's ego would get the best of her and that her façade would ever-so-slightly slip. A good example of that was evident during the showdown against the High Celebrant in Season of the Hunt, where Savathûn-as-Osiris, in a prideful outburst, briefly belied her real attitude towards her sister Xivu Arath, claiming she "has no ambition."

"This line came from a discussion in the Narrative Writer's Room where someone suggested, 'What if Savathûn is really annoyed that Xivu Arath has no imagination and is basically just copying her?'" said Bungie Senior Narrative Designer Nikko Stevens. "It showed a little flash of who was behind the Osiris mask and was one more clue that there was more happening underneath the surface."

It just goes to show that even when control of the universe is at stake, there's still room for sibling squabbles.

A Step Too Far

By Season of the Splicer, Savathûn's schemes moved into even more dangerous and divisive territory. As Osiris, Savathûn leveraged people's fears and distrust of the Eliksni refugees living among them, and weaponized it against the Vanguard through Lakshmi. When Saladin came knocking to make amends and help strategize, Savathûn implied that the people believed he was behind the earlier assassination attempt on Zavala's life and turned him away. Every move she made continued to distance Zavala and Ikora from their existing allies. Perhaps worst of all, she used Osiris's relationship with Saint-14 to try to get him to help overthrow the Vanguard.

Yet all this subterfuge was beginning to take a toll on the Witch Queen. "Even though all this deception feeds her worm, this parasite that gives her power, it still wasn't enough," Nardin said. "Savathûn made so many mistakes during Season of the Splicer because she was in a great deal of pain. She was desperate, and when Savathûn gets desperate she gets sloppy."

For example, at one point, flustered and weary from months of shapeshifting, Savathûn stammers through a contradiction during a conversation with Mithrax, claiming the Black Armory has things under control. Sharp dialogue enhanced by a great performance from Osiris voice actor Oded Fehr really brings Savathûn's momentary struggle to life.

"We worked closely with Oded on the Savathûn-Osiris storyline twist," said Stevens. "In fact, when we told him of the swap, he was delighted and immediately adjusted his performance for Season of the Lost to sound more like 'Savathûn-as-Osiris.'"

Savathûn Revealed

Throughout multiple Seasons, the team worked to bring the Savathûn-as-Osiris plot to life in different ways. Still the team knew that "the big reveal" would need to make an impact. They also knew that many players would have seen information on The Witch Queen after the Destiny Showcase in August, so the decision was made to put Savathûn's admission front and center immediately in Season of the Lost.

"At the time we were working on Season of the Lost, we didn't yet have a character model for Savathûn, so we had to get creative with her onscreen transformation and how she'd maintain a physical presence in the world leading up to Witch Queen," Nardin said. "So much of game development is finding solutions to these sorts of challenges, especially when we're walking multiple creative paths at the same time."

The Savathûn reveal was the payoff for all the breadcrumbs and subtle nods that were threaded throughout the last three Seasons and a grand setup for the action yet to come. Guardians now know the truth and, while Savathûn's deceptions have been revealed, the fallout is something that Guardians will be contending with in The Witch Queen expansion, in Season of [REDACTED], and beyond.

Interested to know what happens next? Don't miss The Witch Queen when it's released on February 22, 2022!

Building the blasters of Nerf Legends

Posted: 16 Nov 2021 08:00 AM PST

Hello! I'm Mihai Preda, studio head here at Fun Labs, and we're the studio behind Nerf Legends. GameMill Entertainment, our publisher, had been discussing the opportunity of a potential Nerf game with Hasbro and when they brought the pitch to us, we really liked the idea of bringing the toys to life in a video game and creating a unique universe to go along with them. From the start, everyone was very supportive of having creative freedom to come up with a unique set of characters, levels, and story and to create a universe never before seen in any Nerf game before.

Nerf Doomlands The Judge — real toy on left, in-game model on right.

In terms of my personal history with the Nerf brand, my son loves Nerf blasters – it's one of his favorite toys and he has been a source for lots of inspirations and creativity throughout the project. There is something about his adventurous spirit and wonder that just brings me joy. I see it when we're chasing each other around with blasters or challenging each other to shoot targets across the room. Mostly, though, I think he likes to pretend I'm an alien so he can fire darts at his old man.

It has been a lot of fun taking those Nerf blasters my son and I play with and translating them into the game. We were fortunate to receive the 3D CAD models used to make the plastic molds for the toys. This was a great starting point for us because they were basically blueprints which allowed us to quickly make high quality game-ready blasters that we knew were authentic to the real-life counterpart.

Nerf Elite 2.0 Shockwave — real toy on left, in-game model on right.

For the game, we wanted to take things up a notch and make the blasters come alive to match the new universe we were creating. We did this by taking inspiration from the shape and look of the blasters and imaged them with sci-fi coatings, animated lights, and other effects without changing the identity of the blaster. That was important to us because we wanted to ensure that the blasters still looked recognizable to what people played with as kids (or as adults who still enjoy Nerf blasters).

Nerf Elite Titan CS — real toy on left, in-game model on right.

Getting the blasters to feel right was just as important as making them look right and we wanted to make sure they all felt different. We took inspiration from many other shooter games and grouped the blasters into classes. Some, like the Judge, are great short-range blasters that do a lot of damage up close. Others like the Nerf Mega Centurion are specialized for long range sniper-like action. Then there is the Nerf Ultra One which is a well-rounded mid-range blaster. Furthermore, each is specially balanced with a wide set of parameters such as range, accuracy, spread, drop, reload speed, cooldown, and more. Beyond this, we put a lot of energy into the visual and audio identity of each blaster. We hand-crafted the visual effects, the animations, and the audio to further differentiate how they feel. For example, the Nerf Elite Titan is a huge blaster that feels powerful but slows you down because it's bulkier. It's a far different experience than the quick, rapid firing Nerf Ultra Two.

Nerf Mega Sniper — real toy on left, in-game model on right.

Nerf Legends takes place in the near future where blasters are enhanced and used for a Nerf tournament. In this context, the sound of the blasters is inspired by the toys, but enhanced and taken to a whole new level. We leaned into some sci-fi sound effects which vary greatly from blaster to blaster, but it's not the pew-pew sounds you might hear in movies. We leaned into the idea of enhancing the mechanical inner workings of the toy and giving them subtle electromagnetic sounds, as if the blasters are propelling darts forward with magnetic forces.

Nerf AccuStrike RaptorStrike — real toy on left, in-game model on right.

We worked closely with Hasbro to come up with a diverse list of blasters across several different series like the Ultra, Mega, and Elite, including both older and newer models. Most blasters in the game came out within the past five years, but we also have some that released as recently as this year. We hope that you will find a Nerf blaster you love when the game releases on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on November 19.

Tips and strategies for Grow: Song of the Evertree, out tomorrow

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 07:59 AM PST

Greetings gamers! My name is Stephen Takowsky, and I am the community manager for Grow: Song of the Evertree. Discover a vibrant unique world at your own pace, build the town of your dreams, and prepare for a wonderful sandbox adventure with Grow, launching November 16 on PlayStation 4. Australian-based Prideful Sloth is the developer of Grow and they wanted to share some important tips and strategies to help you on your journey to restore the Evertree.

Explore the worlds of Alaria

Who knows what strange and interesting things you might find when you explore? Oh! There's a chest over there. What's that? A recipe for a World Seed! I wonder what's in this cave… WELL! We will just let you discover that one for yourself <3

Shop til you drop

Buildings aren't just a great place for your residents to live and work in. They also sell items. Need some new clothes? Plonk a tailor down. In need of a new do? Well, the Hair Salon is the place for you. In need of adventure supplies, the General Store has everything you are looking for (and some things you didn't even know you needed).

Visit the Everkin often

The Everkin are helpful companions you will meet on your adventure, and they have their own mini city known as Where-Ever. It is a fantastic place to visit and a great place to trade items – you see, the Everkin don't have much care for worldly possessions. But you just might!

Sort/Organise your tools to save time

There is so much to accomplish each day and you might not want to waste time. You can access your tools in more than one way so make sure you play Grow in a manner that is best for you! You have the option to sort your tools for the best efficiency for the way you want to play.

Interact with the world

Pick flowers, shake trees, cut grass, play with critters, solve puzzles, engage with townsfolk, design an incredible layout for your town, and so much more. One of our goals was to create an interactive sandbox game with life management and adventure elements. You will not only get to build your town, but you will also take your experience to the next level by creating a unique community.

Make the Worlds you want to explore

Does a warm and tranquil world sound nice to you? Then make it. Want to try out a world that's a bit squishy and smells? If you really want that, well we got you covered. What about a cute and dreamy world with heaps of sparkly goodness? We've got you.

You are in control of the world seeds you create. Have fun, mix things up, and don't be afraid to experiment. Sometimes even the strangest combinations lead to interesting things.

You can also take it easy and not rush things

Even the most dedicated of Everheart Alchemists' needs to take some time off for themselves. Why not find a nice fishing spot, pull out your fishing rod, and enjoy the scenery? Or spend some time cuddling up with some of the adorable critters and maybe even snap a selfie with them?

Stop and smell (and customise) the flowers

After you have raised your town harmony high enough, you'll be able to customise the grass, trees, flowers, and shrubs so that each area really has its own personality.

Don’t be afraid to experiment

Grow provides a variety of ways to obtain items and essences. So don't be afraid to use items, place buildings where you want, and dress villagers as you want. There's no wrong way if it feels right to you! So don't hold back, enjoy, and discover.

Kazumi loves a good snuggle

As your ever faithful steed, and long-term companion, Kazumi deserves lots of pats and snuggles. Don't forget to capture the lovely moments you share with Kazumi. And who knows… if you take extra good care of Kazumi, exciting things might happen.

Thank you for taking the time to read our tips guide. Please join our community, share your favourite images from Grow, and let us know what you think by visiting us on our official social channels. If you are interested in playing Grow: Song of the Evertree launches on PS4 tomorrow.

Food And Recipe Fusion

Tuesday, November 16, 2021