TSI Games – the studio created by former SSI developers – is still plugging away at their CRPG Seven Dragon Saga, taking time to make changes to it that fans had suggested to them back during their unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign. With the December update having just been posted, it seems their agenda is, right now anyway, on improving the visuals. A couple in-game screenshots show how far it has come since their original build.

We’ve been chattering about the re-release of some of our old SSI games, so we thought we’d show you some current images of Seven Dragon Saga, the new one we’ve been grinding on. As you can see above, the environments have significantly improved. The player can rotate and zoom the camera, so they can get a good feel of the world, spot NPCs, and enemies, and plan their missions. We use real time lighting, so the shadows are dynamic, and we can shift from day to night without issue.

These depict the rebellious and ungoverned Mann Highlands, east of the Feydri Homeland. Home to bandits, rebels, and the dangerous Slyth. These worn buildings were part of the greater Drakyi kingdom in the days before the dragons turned their greatest cities to glass, and drove them beneath the ground. The Empress and even the Feydri Queen have little sway here. You will have to survive on your wits and strength of arms.

The GUI is also being reworked, with some preliminary examples of the hotbar shown:

Along the bottom of the screen is our main user interface, sans final icons. Each diamond would represent a possible action, color coded by the size of the action (characters get one big, one medium and one small action each turn.) Hover over an icon and it will describe the skill. The sword and shield icon allows for changing weapon sets, such as dual blades to a bow.

In the lower left, we have a combat log, so players can review their results. Players can resize the panel to meet their needs, minimizing it if they don’t care.

TSI encourages those interested in Seven Dragon Saga to keep checking back, as they plan to release similar updates during the new year.