First draft by @roketronz, final draft and editing by @pfque_ .

 

Heroes, heroes, spam, heroes, and more heroes!

It seems like that’s all we talk about nowadays and like we’ll never run out. Well, it’s not true! At this pace we’ll run out week after next. But worry not, that’s a problem for another day – today you get to enjoy Part 3 of our amazing Four Part Spotlight on the New Heroes of Okhlos!

Our weekly Hero count is now up to:

Meaning you will be meeting 6 brand new Heroes today!

 

Hannibal

Hannibal Barca of Carthage, one of the greatest military commanders this world has ever seen, was a leading figure in the Punic Wars, a conflict that just might’ve set the course of western civilization, and he has absolutely nothing to do with Ancient Greece. He rose to prominence almost a century after the Greek Classical Era had already ended!

Buuuuuuuuuuut… he was just too COOL and BADASS to leave out! We don’t care if it’s a bit anachronistic, we want our eyepatched tactical genius in the game and by the beard of Zeus, it’s our game and we’re going to include him!

In fact, in the game Hannibal is going to have a very interesting ability with a lot of tactical potential. Any enemies within a certain area around him will be automatically slowed down, allowing for some cool mix-ups and close calls.

 

No, this isn’t the cannibal dude played by Anthony Hopkins, this is the guy who marched elephants over the Alps!

 

[Super Slave With Multitple Arms But No Name Yet]

Slavery and serfdom were very common in Ancient Greece, and slave units are an important part of your mob in Okhlos. Rebelling against gods and society, they fight alongside philosophers and warriors to bring down the oppressive machinations of fate!

… Actually, they just mostly carry items for you….

But even the valets have their Heroes, and [Super Slave With Multitple Arms But No Name Yet] is a Super Valet Slave! This big ol’ bloke, reminiscent perhaps of a mini boss from some well-known, deadly fighting game, will be able to carry up to 4 items at once with his big strong, muscly arms!

 

Fun Fact: [Super Slave With Multitple Arms But No Name Yet] also gives the best high-fives in all of Ancient Greece.

 

Icarus

Icarus was the son of another of Okhlos’ Heroes, Daedalus, the famous inventor of the labyrinth. (No, not that movie with David Bowie, the inescapable death-trap with the Minotaur.) Well, if you know Icarus’ tale, you know that his good ol’ pop made him a set of wax wings to fly around with, but warned him sternly not to fly too close to the sun.

Did Icarus listen? Noooooooooope.

He flapped up right there next to those beautiful sunrays, and the wings melted in the heat, and Icarus fell to his dumb, stupid, very much preventable death.

Moral of the story: the Ancient Greeks didn’t really know how the solar system worked or that the incandescent ball of hydrogen that lights our world is actually really, really, really, impossibly far away. Or that the higher you climb up in the sky the colder it gets. (Oh, and there was something in there about hubris and arrogance, but I don’t remember.)

 

 

 

By the time we dug him up for Okhlos though, it seemed like Icarus had well learned his lesson and he promised us he will never fly again. (It’s totally not because the game is already chaotic enough without some snotty kid flapping about!) We’re not sure if we believe him, but just in case, to compensate, Icarus’ Hero ability will speed up the whole mob!

I mean, just look at how cool his running animation is!

 

PUT PUT PUT, PIDGEON BOY!

 

King Nestor

So far we’ve included a King in each part of our Spotlight and we don’t want to break the habit now!

Nestor is a HUGE figure in Greek Mythology! We’re talking B-I-G! He was an Argonaut, took part in the Trojan War, fought the centaurs, and participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar! Many other heroes and important figures of Greek Mythology looked up at him for advice, and he even had a shield made of solid gold!

We’ll be honest, we haven’t quite decided what Nestor’s ability will be in Okhlos just yet. He could be a simple King unit, like the others, and raise the amount of people you can have in your mob… but the man is important, and we’re very tempted to give him an additional ability on top of that. We’ll just have to wait and see…

 

Although, you have to question the ‘wisdom’ of a man with a shield made of solid gold, a mineral as precious as it is soft and totally not protective…

 

You might or not believe this, but we actually do some research for every Hero we include in the game. We look up the character’s history and the myths told about them as well how artists have portrayed them in the past (read as: Google Images). This last bit was pretty tough for Nestor, because our searches kept getting swamped with pictures of Argentina’s ex-President, Nestor Kirchner, a very influential figure in our country at this time, since we’re nearing elections. We swear, this man must have more streets named after him than anyone else in the world!

Sisyphus

Oof, Sisyphus, once King of Ephyra, is perhaps our most miserable of Heroes. For leading a life of trickery and deceit, for repeatedly deceiving the gods, for being pompous and arrogant, believing himself more clever than Zeus, and generally just being a huge pain in everyone’s butt, Sisyphus was cursed to roll a giant rock up a hill for the rest of eternity. Every time he got it near the top, the boulder would escape from his hands and roll all the way back down. I guess when you piss of Ancient Greek Gods you lose some and you lose some.

In Okhlos, we freed Sisyphus from his eternal torment so he could join up with the mob. It seems he’s grown really fond of his rock and has decided to use it against the very Gods who cursed him… and also against anyone and everything in his way. Let’s not forget that he’s still kind of a huge jerk though, so monsters are a lot more likely to go straight after him than the rest of your units.

 

Go Sisyphus! Distract them with your boulder, ya  jerk!

 

Fun Fact: Sisyphus also appears in another Latin American game, Rock of Ages,  made by the amazing Chilean devs, ACE Team!

 

Arachne

If you thought that the divine punishments had ended with Sisyphus, you’re dead wrong. Dear Arachne was the greatest weaver in all of Greece, and boasted that she was even better at weaving than Athena herself, the very Goddess of Crafts. As Ovid tells it, Athena was outraged by Arachne’s arrogance and challenged her to a weaving contest. But when Arachne won, demonstrating that she was indeed the greatest weaver of them all, bitter and vengeful Athena turned Arachne into a spider, dooming her and her descendants to weave for all time. (Greek Gods sure have a thing for ‘eternal punishment’.)

Just like with Sisyphus and Icarus, we managed to save Arachne from her fate, and gave her a cool Hero Ability to smooth over the transition. Arachne will cause area damage to all enemies around her.

 

There’s something to be said about having complete dedication to your craft.

 

 

Well, that’s all we have for this week folks! Tune in next week for the final instalment of our Spotlight on Okhlos’ New Heroes!

 

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This post was outlined by @roketronz, then written and edited by @pfque_ .

 

Hey gang!

Welcome to Part II of our New Heroes of Okhlos Spotlight!

As we mentioned last week, we’ve decided to turn Okhlos’ special Hero units up to 11, that’s inspired us to create a bunch of new dynamics and characters. This spotlight is meant to be a meet-and-greet, a way for us to introduce them to you and show you just how fun it’ll be to try them out!

 

Well, without further delay, let’s check on our Current Hero Count:

58! That’s six up from last week! Let’s get ready to meet them! :)

 

Panacea

Panacea is the Greek goddess of universal health and remedy. Her name literally translates as, ‘Cures All’, and she hung around on Olympus with a potion that healed the sick – it’s where we get the modern concept of ‘panacea’, a solution or remedy that is supposed to solve all problems or cure all illness. (It’s also from where we get the Final Fantasy item that removes all status ailments. ;p)

In Okhlos she’ll revive your fallen units strewn around the battlefield.

 

You see? All better now! Up and at ‘em, Tiger! :)

Ernestos

You might or might not know Daniel Benmergui, a friend of ours who’s appeared on the blog before. He’s made a few games like Today I Die, I wish I Were the Moon, and Storyteller… and won the IGF 2012 Nuovo Award, I guess? He’s currently working on Ernesto, a cool puzzle game about charting paths through dungeons. It’s a game we like a lot and we wanted to make a little tribute to it in Okhlos. So here’s he is, our brand new Hero, Ernestos!

Ernestos will allow the mob leader to draw a path behind them as they move across the level. This path will last only a limited of time but during that time enemies will not be able to cross it, herding them off to one side!

 

If all goes well, Ernesto and Okhlos should actually be launching very close to one another! :)

 

Pygmalion

Pygmalion was a Cyprian sculptor who carved a statue out of ivory so beautiful and lifelike that he immediately fell in love with it. The statue, Galatea, was later given life and they smooched and had a kid or some such cliché thing. (Pygmalion is also a play by Bernard Shaw, from which they then made the movie, ‘My Fair Lady’, I guess?)

In Okhlos, our love-struck sculptor will occasionally summon badass, combat-ready Galatea to punch some serious monster butt with her ivory fists!

We like to think of her sort of as the equivalent of an ancient Greek battle robot.

 

King Agamemnon

King Agamemnon of Mycenae or Argos, depending on your sources, was the commander of the united Greek armies during the Trojan War. He doesn’t differ too much from the other King units in Okhlos – he increases how many units can join your mob – but he was just too cool not to mention here!

 

He was also the father of Electra… you know, the one that Jung named the Freudian complex after…

 

Hipparchia

Hipparchia of Maroneia was a Cynic and one of the most well-known women philosophers from ancient Greece. (Despite not being given top-billing traditionally, there’s actually more of them than one might think!) Hipparchia’s Hero ability will make enemies drop items, and as she’s also a philosopher unit, you’ll be able to play as her!

 

Cynic 4 Life!

 

Deianira

Deianira – whose name also translates to ‘man destroyer’ – was the wife of super-famous demi-god, Heracles, and she was said to “drive a chariot and practice the art of war.” She sounds like a badass! But also she maybe accidentally killed Heracles by smearing the blood of this centaur dude, Nessus, inside his lion-skin shirt? Oops! Talk about clumsy!

(I guess the centaur’s blood was poisonous or toxic??? How was she supposed to know? That’s not a reasonable thing for a person to assume!)

So, anyways, inspired by that little “accident”, we thought it’d be appropriate if Deianira’s Hero ability caused ongoing bleed damage to enemies when they get hit. Kinda like how rogue classes work in some games.

…wait, does this mean we can put rogue-like on the back of the game box now? Wait, we’re not going to have a game box, are we? That’s not something a digital game can have, right? Can you like, download a game box?

 

You know,  just in case, maybe try not to have Heracles and Deianira in your mob at the same time…

 

And, THAT’S THEM!

Thanks for coming by and meeting our new Heroes! We’ll have a brand new batch next week when we put up Part III of our New Heroes of Okhlos spotlight! See you then! :)

 

 

 

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