Eternity's Child Delayed - Sequel Announced! [WiiWare World via Dtoid]

I thought the videogame industry was different, but no it's actually harder and worse than any other one, I still wonder why people hate Dennis Dylack for no reason and Uwe Boll, I don't think if people realize the psychological things it can do to people. People love to hate for no reason, and well I've got enough problems in my personal life to do another game after Eternity's Child.

While I like Luc personally and would be first in line for a graphic novel filled with his artwork and ideas, he is kind of coming across like a fourteen-year-old girl on Livejournal here. Guessing it's an artist thing. You don't need to leave, Luc. You need to be an art guy with a decent programming team behind you. Buck up, little soldier!

Won't Be Continuing [Luc Bernard's Blog]

Loved
The Art Design: Luc Bernard's artwork for Eternity's Child is what drew me to the title in the first place, and it looks even better in motion. The animation purposefully mimics 2D marionette movement to give the whole game a pop-up book sort of feel.

The Music: Sean Beeson's score for the game would be completely at home in one of the more whimsical Tim Burton films. Hard to believe this much work went into such a tiny game.

The Price: The game only costs $4.99 via Steam, for which you get the 20 levels that make up the first chapter and the promise of free addition chapters in the future.

The Level Editor: Just an extra bit of fluff that lets you mess about with Bernard's artwork or add your own to comedic effect.

Hated
The Story, Or Lack Thereof: Bernard wrote a wonderful background for the story involving a dark future where the earth has been flooded, the wingless hunt down the winged out of revenge, and nature is slowly being overtaken by the mechanical, all of which is addressed in a scrolling text opening and then never really visited again. Such an intriguing story needs to be explored, not ignored.

The Two-Character Mechanic: While it looks good on paper, having one character platforming and the other shooting feels completely unnecessary. Most of the time the two are completely separate, with Angel standing still while Rose shoots the enemies. When it is essential to run and shoot at the same time, the mechanic just feels unwieldy.

The Enemies: Aside from lacking variety, the enemies in Eternity's Child are a bit on the stupid side, especially the giant mechanical birds, who are a major threat until you realize that simply moving back past their activation point sends them back to their starting position. Move forward, shoot, move back, repeat.

Level Design: While the levels in Eternity's Child are beautiful, they seem to favor chaos more than order. Timing jumps can be a chaotic affair, while platforms in one particular level had no real sense of timing at all, causing me to sink into the ocean again and again until I was ready to strangle someone. At times I enjoyed the challenge; other times I felt I was being screwed by poor design choices.

It's important to note that Eternity's Child is still very much a work in progress, despite its status as a Steam release. Just yesterday the game was patched to make the giant bird enemies die a little easier, and Luc has informed me that more changes are on the way – removing the Destructoid robot, adding new achievements, and possibly getting rid of the particularly sadistic roller coaster level, which had me shouting curse words I hadn't used in years. It's nice to see the team actively tweaking the title, though I'm not sure it will be enough to reconcile the clashing of excellent artistic design versus sub-par gameplay.

Eternity's Child does have a lot to offer for $5 – beautiful graphics, enchanting music, and a level editor to muck about with – all it's lacking is solid gameplay to complete the package.

Eternity's Child was developed by Luc Bernard and Silver Sphere Studios, published by Silver Sphere Studios. Released on July 31st on on Steam. Played game to completion.

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There's no word yet on the official site for either Eternity's Child or Alten8, which is handling the port, on when it will arrive for Wii. When it does it'll have exclusive levels and four-player co-op mode. If you appreciate indie games, it'd probably be a nice gesture to crowbar the five bucks out of your account and support this one.

Eternity's Child on Steam [Steam, thanks reader Cpt_bongwater]

The version I played was but one level, in which you control Angel with the keyboard and his heart-target wielding companion with the mouse, reflecting the nunchuck/Wiimote control scheme of the WiiWare version. As expected, the artwork really shines, with Bernard's distinct style oozing out of every background and enemy. This really comes as no surprise to anyone who has caught the screenshots we've posted on a regular basis. The art really melds with Sean Beeson's music, creating an enchanting atmosphere.

So looks great, sounds great...how does it play?

So far the gameplay is relatively simple. You control your character as he navigates platforms while pointing and shooting at enemies with the mouse cursor. The mechanic works alright on the PC though the real fun here will be in the WiiWare version, where two players can take up one of the controls to navigate the levels cooperatively.

The game does need a bit of polish, as Bernard readily admits. There are some animations that need work, and shooting at certain bigger enemies doesn't seem to have any impact on them whatsoever until they eventually explode. The level I played through was large and sprawling, but I sometimes found that the next jump I had to make was so far off screen that I needed to make a leap of faith, praying that I landed somewhere safe.

The game has a great deal of potential, and I look forward to playing through a more complete version in the near future.

The sad thing is that videogames are still considered toys and not art, I hope that this game can show that games can be just as important as films.

This is pretty strong strong stuff, especially for a platform as family friendly as the DS. If this does make it to fruition, you can bet it will be heavily watered down. Mr. Bernard has sent Kotaku three initial screen shots from the game that he insists will probably be censored down the road for their use of Nazi symbolism. So make the jump to take a look at what may be the only unfettered shots of this game you may ever see. Be warned, the accompanying text to a couple of the images is rather disturbing.

Eternity's Child Heading to WiiWare (Updated) [WiiDS.co.uk]

Being a failed mechanical creature, Mr. Cuddles was throw out with the trash, after which he turned to cross-dressing and prostitution to make money for a place to live and to support his growing alcohol and drug dependency. Yeah, it's getting a bit deep.

So the drug-addicted, alcoholic, cross-dressing prostitute mechanical rabbit meets the cello player who can kill with a touch, and together they go on a journey to find acceptance in a world that doesn't want them or fears them.

The Rose Princess herself is inspired by Megan McCauley, a singer/songwriter from Cleveland Ohio whose work includes songs on both the Fantastic Four and Elektra Soundtracks. If you hop to her MySpace you'll immediately see the resemblance. Bernard calls McCauley his "artistic muse", and is hoping to get her to lend her voice to the main character in the game.

Bernard calls The Rose Princess a "Glam Action RPG", and considers it to be his chef d'oeuvre - his masterpiece. Unlike Eternity's Child, the game will be entirely 3D with a completely cello-based soundtrack. He hopes to release it in episodic format, and while no platform has been chosen yet for the game he is very interested in the PlayStation Network.

Below you'll find some concept art for the game featuring the titular Rose Princess and her bunny companion. It's a pretty avant-garde concept for the video game industry, but perhaps that's exactly what we need to generate something fresh and new in a business that tends to feed on itself a bit too much.

Alten8 To Develop "Luc Bernard's Eternity's Child" For DS And Wii

Alten8 has agreed with Luc Bernard on the creation and publication of Nintendo DS and Wii versions of the Eternity's Child game , bringing this delightful creation to an even wider audience. Luc will be working closely with Alten8 to bring his creations to life on these formats

The story of Eternitys Child and the orphan 'Angel' - the planet on which Eternity's Child is set on. The planet was once filled with many living creatures and vast forests, however due to the pollution created by the habitants the icebergs melted and the whole planet was flooded and most of the creatures became extinct. The creatures without wings that were left became jealous of the ones with wings (that allowed them to survive the flooding), so the land creatures started murdering all the winged creatures until there was none left. To repopulate the world, many mechanical robots were created so that the world would not seem as empty as before, but most of those creatures got out of control and started attacking and destroying what was left.

Eternity's Child Wii version details -

Angel was left at the door of a orphanage when he was a baby, to protect him from being murdered his wings were cut off. The years went by as he stayed in that orphanage, not accepted by the other children and being often tortured and picked on. Angel then escapes from the orphanage to try to find any remaining creatures of his species and hoping to be accepted by them despite him not having his wings.

Details about Wii version -

* The entire game is hand drawn
* the animations are done traditionally by hand frame by frame (like old disney films)
* the soundtrack is all orchestral
* the game is an Interactive Fairytale
* there will be songs in the game like old disney films
* 2 player co operative mode will be available

DS version -

* the game will be a 3D platform game
* will not have the same story as the Wii version

Regular updates and information will appear on the Alten8 and the Eternitys Child web site.

About Luc Bernard

Luc Bernard is a young 21 year old artist/dark fairytale creator, he is currently working with Alten8 on the Wii and DS versions of Eternity's Child. Eternity's Child is planned to be turned into a animated series, toys, and various merchandise. For each one of his tales he takes inspiration from his life. Apart from Eternity's Child he is also working on various other dark fairytales such as The Rose Princess, Samuel, Manufactured Beauty. www.myspace.com/lucbernard