Oceanhorn 2 in development!

I can’t believe it has been five years since we announced the development of the first Oceanhorn game on this blog. Now the time has come for another major announcement.

We are proud and excited to reveal the next installment of the Oceanhorn franchise, Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm. Here’s how it looks!

Oceanhorn 2 has been in development for little over a year

The boy has grown up? That’s right! But he is a different boy altogether! Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm is set in another time period on the Oceanhorn timeline. The game has a new Hero, a boy who has been trained to become a Knight of Arcadia.

Oceanhorn 2 will be built upon the same elements that were the heart and soul of the first Oceanhorn game: exploring a colorful world, a deep backstory with secrets and twists, amazing music, and most importantly – classic Action RPG gameplay with items, puzzles, battles, and badass bosses!

The Caster is a magical weapon that only Knights carry

The game is played from a third person camera angle that will take players right into the heat of action and allows them to explore even the smallest details of Arcadia. Our battle system consists of sword fighting, utilizing powerful spells and finding creative ways to use various items that Hero discovers on his travels.

One of the key items in the game is the Caster, a gun that shoots magical projectiles! It will have many uses on the player’s adventure, from puzzle solving to luring enemies and casting directed spells.

The game will feature a traversable world map

Oceanhorn 2 will also feature a traversable and vast world map that consists of fields, forests, mountains, and water. It works as a hub between levels, dungeons and towns, much like in many of the classic JRPGs.

"For us, Oceanhorn 2 is the fulfillment of a JRPG dream."

Oceanhorn 2 is an opportunity to create something new from the strong background that we established with our previous game. In Oceanhorn 2, we want to emphasize the elements that people loved and create something new and brave on that foundation.

The world of Oceanhorn has grown and so has our team. The core team working on Oceanhorn 2 is now a team of five!

Heikki Repo, Creator and Lead Artist
Jukka Viljamaa, Lead Programmer
Antti Viljamaa, Lead Programmer
Kalle Hämäläinen, Graphics Programmer
Miko Kiuru, Game Artist

Also, Kalle Ylitalo will return to compose soundtrack for Oceanhorn 2 and the famed sound designer and foley artist Tapio Liukkonen will be in charge of the audio experience.

For us, Oceanhorn 2 is the fulfillment of a JRPG dream. It is a dream of running down green fields with the warmth of the sun on your face. It is a dream of learning the secrets of ancient ruins despite the danger. It is also a dream of finding yourself looking at beautiful mountains on the horizon and imagining what’s beyond them. It will be an amazing journey ahead of us and we hope that you will join us on that journey!

In the upcoming months, we will have many things to show to you and many secrets to unveil regarding Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm. This is a dream project for us, but even more importantly, we are making this game for you to enjoy and experience. So, please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas on Twitter and Facebook!

And make sure to check out Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas on PS4 and Xbox One this fall!

Oceanhorn is ready for Apple TV launch!

Precise controls for Remote and MFI Controller !

Apple launching a new device is always exciting time for us and this time we are especially thrilled, since Oceanhorn is about to debut in your living rooms thanks to the amazing hardware of Apple TV!

To ensure your adventure on big screen is a joyful one, we made several improvements to the game. The camera shows more action around the main character. The landscapes are more detailed and the fields, forests and the dungeons are littered with detail objects.

Apple TV Remote proved to be great controller for Oceanhorn as we have always relied on simple, yet efficient controls. You hold the remote like it is supposed to and click the track pad for sword swings and interaction. Oceanhorn also works very well with an MFI Controller!

Oceanhorn for Apple TV is a universal build, so if you have previously purchased Oceanhorn on iOS you can download it free of charge to play it on your TV.

Stay tuned for more Oceanhorn news in the future!

Oceanhorn comes to Steam March 17th!

We have been working on something special these couple of months and now Oceanhorn is destined to debut on Steam March 17th 2015!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/339200/

Oceanhorn's Steam version will be a completely remastered version of the game, a huge graphical and technical overhaul, that makes the game more suitable for bigger screens and more powerful hardware.

Expanding to new horizons

The game has been redesigned for physical controls and it plays great whether you wish to play it with mouse / keyboard or with a gamepad!

All of the game's graphical assets have been tweaked for the PC platform. We added four times more polygons, sharper textures, normal maps, detail objects and new lighting effects such as dynamic ambient occlusion, soft shadows and realtime reflections to make Oceanhorn look stunning when played in 4K resolution.

Ambient Occlusion makes the cave entrance look darker

We have also read every review and feedback out there to improve the original game all around. We have remastered puzzles and taken care of spots that felt confusing or unfair for the players.

There are some new items in the shop that will hit the nail with people's demands. Second Chance Potion might be expensive, but you will be lucky to have it in a boss fight and Mana Refill Potion will be a priceless possession in Frozen Palace. What could be the function of the Ancient Arcadian Radar, though?

Overall, we are pretty damn happy with the outcome of this definitive version of Oceanhorn and we are truly honored to welcome the Steam audience to enjoy the adventures at Uncharted Seas!

Unsuccessful laser turret attempting to fry that bacon

... and the Winner is!

1st: Joel won over jury's hearts with his smart book cover!

Oceanhorn Anniversary Screenshot & Fan Art Competition is now over! The jury has given the scores and we have our Top 10 entries!

The winner is Joel Julian with his fantastic imaginative children's book cover! Congratulations Joel!

In Joel's entry Oceanhorn is represented as a children's book called 'The Uncharted Seas'. The smart idea is executed perfectly. The work is unique, but still honors the source material: the character, the colors and the symbols are spot on! It is delighting to start decrypting the image. The adventure takes place in a bathtub that is based on our Hero's boat and the sail has been transformed into a towel. I can almost imagine him going to bed after the bath, dreaming of the adventures he is going to take when he grows up.

The quality of the competition was very high! The members of the jury went through all the participants, hand picked what they thought were the best of the entries and gave them score according to their personal preferences. Thanks to this complex process we now have very varied Top 10 entries. The competition was very tough at the top. The top 3 had only slim difference in score!

Here are rest of the Top 10 with comments!

2nd: Tom's unique approach to fan art!

Tom Stone came second with his awesome Oceanhorn themed puppet! I think this one took everyone of us by surprise and indeed it was favored by all the jury members.

3rd: Francesco is aiming for critical hit!

Francesco Botti almost took the prize with his high quality digital painting! The picture has it all. The details are loyal to the game visuals and it tells a clear story: the Hero is desperately trying to get the key from the raging ogre's neck to open the door on the background. Viewer can imagine that the arrow he is grabbing for is the one that will relieve ogre from its earthly problems.

4th: Thomas Rollus captured a warm get together

5th: MonsterRobotStudios enjoys their battles hot

6th: Rob Sharps epic battle

7th: WeDoPlay's humorous style inspired other artists!

8th: Francesco Gambino found a perfect spot for fishing

9th: Rogers' use of watercolor medium is superb!

10th: Jamie Jones' impossible screenshot. I know how hard this one is!

Finishline!

When we announced Oceanhorn Screenshot & Fanart Competition we could only dream of having such amazing entries that we have had so far.

Taking screenshots is not easy...

We have seen stunning screenshots, which required a lot of patience and talent to capture - we have seen wonderful works of art of varying talent, but all the same charming. But the competition is not finished yet, there is one more day left!

Who will win the brand new iPad Air 2!

The winner will be picked by Heikki Repo (Lead Artist / Creator), Jukka and Antti Viljamaa (Lead Programmers) and Thomas Kern (FDG Entertainment). Each member of the jury will give points for several of their favorite works and the winner will be the entry that gets most points!

We will reveal the winner next week and also cover other entries!

Check all the entries from here!

Oceanhorn 2.5 is live - Win iPad Air 2!

It's time to start tweeting!

Oceanhorn 2.5 has just been released, with Ultra Graphics for iPhone 6/+ and iPad Air 2 - just in time for some celebration!

Celebrate the 1st anniversary of Oceanhorn with us and take part in an awesome competition! Brand new iPad Air 2 can be yours, just follow these steps and participate!


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1 ) Take a beautiful SCREENSHOT of our game or do some awesome FAN ART
2 ) Tweet your image with #oceanhorn before 10th of January 2015 to participate

The development team will look for all the #oceanhorn tweets and handpick the best entry. Winner gets a new iPad Air 2!

- You guessed it. It runs Oceanhorn on Ultra Graphics!


Couple of tips for your screenshot hunting! Your screenshots will better stand out, if you take them from places rarely seen in Oceanhorn screenshots. You can also pick up objects and place them around for better compositions. If you climb higher, camera shows more of the landscape. It doesn't have to be all artistic though, if you manage to take a screenshot of a rare event in the game it might work for your benefit! - To take a screenshot on your iOS device, press lock- and home-button simultaneously.

For artists out there, we judges here love colors, so colored artwork will immediately have better impact than quick doodles. All kinds of fan art is appreciated, but why don't you try to capture some of the most memorable moments from Oceanhorn! Screenshots might be easier to take, but fan art has unlimited possibilities to win this competition!

Only one will win the iPad Air 2, but we will feature the best of screenshots and fan art here in our blog with comments from the development team.

Unleash your creativity and impress us!

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Competition Rules, Terms & Conditions