The sprite I kept for far too long

Some things get postponed simply because they block nothing. The hero of Lore of the Ember was one of them. I had picked him up off the net, a long time ago, just to test the game. It did the job for checking that the game ran properly and that the hero could actually be steered around.

The trouble with that kind of stopgap is that it is supposed to stay a stopgap ;)

He has just been designed by a real designer. He is heavier, broader, far more armoured. Still in the spirit of the Bitmap Brothers, but this is my design, my hero.

The second character is not an extra at all

At the Bitmap Brothers, in The Chaos Engine, your partner was always on screen, controlled by the AI or by a second pad. You always played as two.

I settled the question recently and I stand by it: there is no solo mode. A second hero is with you at all times. If someone sits down next to you and picks up a pad, they control him. If nobody does, he moves anyway, on his own, and fights at your side.

The name of this second hero is the Gravedigger. He is armoured, he is square, and he carries a heavy weapon in both hands.

For the demo he will be the only second hero available. Others will follow, each with his own way of fighting, but I would rather ship one that is genuinely finished than six that are half done.

Here they are

I put together a short video to introduce them both. It runs about thirty seconds, it gives nothing of the story away, it simply shows the two characters in the dark.

The two heroes of Lore of the Ember.

One clarification, because I have been asked already: I do not draw these characters. I write the game, and the pixel art is done by an artist who joined the project for that.

What comes next

The creatures are still missing, and so is the boss waiting at the end of the first level. That is the next stretch of work, and it is what stands between here and putting a playable demo in your hands.