Hoplite
Melee bruiserSpear and shield of the phalanx. Valor, discipline, and the wall that does not break.
Embers of Olympus
A 3D action RPG born of Diablo's loot and World of Warcraft's feel, set in a real and mythic Greece. Forged by a single developer, with AI standing in for the rest of the war band.
A mythic Greece, and a woman called Myrra
The first release is one polished act, single-player, from the first step to the final boss. A true game, not a demo.
It begins on the Rarian Plain near Eleusis, Myrra's home ground. A blight, a failed harvest, a rite that will not take. Only slowly does the divine cause beneath the crisis reveal itself.
The three classes
Archer
Ranged / kiterA hunter blessed by Artemis. Precision, speed, and the favour of the wild.
Oracle
CasterStorm, fire and prophecy, wielded in the shadow of Zeus and Apollo.
Combat
Tab-target, in the manner of World of Warcraft: choose a foe, and a rotation of cooldown-bound skills falls upon it. Each class earns points into its own skill tree, where every choice shapes the build.
Loot
The Diablo half. Normal, magic and rare drops with random affixes, uniques and sets to hunt, and the Mortal, Heroic and Divine difficulties to earn better spoils.
At a glance
- Scope: One act, single-player
- View: 3D, over the shoulder
- Combat: Tab-target rotation
- Length: 1–2 hours, replayable
- Engine: Unity
- World: Eleusis and the Rarian Plain
Built with AI, as far as it can go
Embers of Olympus is an experiment as much as a game: one developer, and AI as the rest of the team. AI is used wherever it truly makes the game better or faster, and a human stands wherever a human is still required.
Where AI does the work
- Writing the code: movement, combat, loot and skill systems, saves, UI.
- 2D art: concept art, textures, item icons, UI and promo images.
- Designing the game: the plan, the acts, the skill trees, the bosses.
- The writing: quests, dialogue and item lore.
- Static 3D props, cleaned up in Blender before they enter the world.
- The game's website itself.
Where a human stays in the loop
- Judging what is fun. AI cannot feel the game; a person plays it.
- Rigged, animated characters and monsters. These come from asset packs and Mixamo, not AI.
- Hands in the engine: prefabs, world building and audio in Unity.
What it costs
Where the coin goes when one person builds a 3D action RPG:
AI tools
Subscriptions for the coding assistant and the image models behind the art.
Asset-store packs
Rigged characters, monsters and environment packs. The largest single spend, and the one that makes a solo 3D game possible at all.
Animation
Mixamo animations, free of charge.
Engine
Unity Personal, free while the project is small.
Website
Domain and hosting for embersofolympus.com.
The figures will be revealed as the forge burns on.