UNRELEASED GAME – AVAILABLE
This game is still in active development and available to the public for purchase in it's unfinished state, either in Early-Alpha or Beta (or any status in between).
Hellish Quart is a fighting game about sword one-on-one dueling, in which the blades block each other using physics, and the characters use motion captured fencing techniques. Players will be able to fight as one of many 17th century warriors: Cossacks, Hussars, Janissaries, Highlanders, Tatars and will use sabers, rapiers, broadswords, longswords and many other blades. The game is is a love letter to ever more popular Historical European Martial Arts (also known as HEMA).Hellish Quart is an indie game created by a team of just two developers and will be released on Steam Early Access and will include single player and local multiplayer mode, but you will still be able to play online, using Steam Remote Play Together (https://store.steampowered.com/remoteplay).
Hellish Quart is a spiritual successor to games like Bushido Blade or Kengo, but with European twist. Main feature of the game is that the swords actually physically clash and block each other, using game engine’s physics simulation. There are no visible health bars and, like in formentioned games, fighters can be killed by a single, well timed and measured attack.
The controls
The view and controls are very similar to a regular 3D fighting game. Players walk with the gamepad’s left stick or a d-pad and the four gamepad buttons represent 4 attack angles. Different button combinations give special attacks and combos. If you are not attacking, your character will automatically try to hold guard against your opponent's attacks. “Try”, because the characters, when blocking, are not invulnerable, like in other games. The only thing that is stopping the opponent’s blade to cut into them, is their own, physical blade, that’s in the way.
The looks
Gameplay looks and feels like a real HEMA duel, you can see on YouTube. There are no hollywood-style, flashy, but unrealistic moves. This is because all animations in the game are recorded by HEMA practitioners, using motion capture. Jakub Kisiel, the head developer of the game, is a mocap artist that formerly worked on games like Bulletstorm and The Witcher III and a lifetime sword fighting enthusiast.
The Setting
Hellish Quart happens in a historical, realistic setting. The game takes place in 17th century Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. This place and time is a wonderful mix of cultures and races, constant wars, battles and duels. It is also a period in which the swords reached their peak in variety and specialisation. All this allows for a really varied character roster. You will duel Zaporozhian Cossacks, Polish Hussars, Tatars, Turkish Janissaries, Swedish Reiters, French Musketeers and more. You will use sabers, palaches, basket hilt swords, rapiers and even an ancient german longsword.
The graphics
The character models are made from 3D scanned, real, historical reconstruction clothes. To do that, the developers use photogrammetry - it’s a scanning technique, where multiple photos of a piece of wardrobe are taken from every possible angle. Then, the scanning software can reconstruct the scanned piece in 3D space.
Features
Sword fighting using active ragdolls and physical sword collisions
Super-realistic motion captured fencing animations
3D scanned 17th century characters
Planned game modes:
arcade
single player story (with 3d cutscenes!)
local Versus mode (Steam Play Together supported at EA launch)
training / sparring
Source: The Game Website.