The dragon should preferably be fed, as its a pretty hard monster to fight, he hits hard and has a high protection. Its not really a monster for the current level of characters to fight.
yes, there's kinda a hunger system; if you don't rest (either at a tavern or via camp), the party gets "exhausted" which pretty much halves party's efficiency. Then you need to rest, which is where the party eats as well.
Nobody's dies if you don't rest, but there's no other way to restore spell points (although you can heal through other means and reverse exhaustion, but that will a few spell slots which you may not have)
Hello, I'm actually having trouble finding information on how to determine my party's hit rate. I can't find it in the manual. Which attribute should I increase? My Barbarian always hits whenever he swings his club, but somehow the knight always misses, even though he has high Technique.
There's no "hit rate" or "attack rolls" like D&D or anything like that, so you wont find anything like in RULEBOOK.pdf. TDB takes a very simple approach on melee, basically damage = (weapon damage - monster protection):
damage = power mod (i.e. if power = 24, power mod = 2) damage += rand(weapon damage min, weapon damage max damage -= (monster protection * 0.8)
if you knight can't hit much it could either be 1) his power mod is low / negative 2) his weapon damage is low
Much appreciated, btw when I entered the monastery(only when holding the gold key, can be resolved by putting them in inventory), the game suddenly exiting, I'm using windows version
I thought about that a couple months ago but it will really needs some research first. I mean, it all depends on what AmigaOS version supports OpenGL 2.1 and C++11.
I'll give it a try after everything settles down, just for the fun of it :)
Just bought this yesterday, LOVE the retro vibe of this game! Wanted to ask, is there a way to use custom character portraits for my characters? Also, is there a way to type in the character's names during creation rather than pick from a list?
Apologies for the late reply ;) thank you for the support and for your good words!
Yeah, this game is all about having a retro crpg gameplay experience, while respecting and borrowing stuff from the legendary old titles of the past, but also adding a few touches from my own vision and ways that I would like to play the genre. I am glad this seems to be liked by quite a few players so far :)
Yeah, I have some feedback already about custom portrait and typing a custom name as well, along with your now, somewhat high in my list. I will consider the best way to deal with this in time, no worries.
Amazying game. I love the art style and how the effects and sound blend nicely to create an enjoyable experience. I was wondering if you are using any commercial engine or just 2D libraries for this project?
Yes, one of the main goals is to stick to the basics and details, as much its possible, while filtering out useful feedback. Can't get much wrong when I am after older titles ;)
For example, I liked how DM uses these sound and graphical effects (i.e. spells), so this is one of the main inspirations.
No, I am not using a commercial engine; in fact, I am using my own, called Jolt3D!, although not commercial and not open to public at the time (although it was in the long past), and its a lot older than I am comfortable to admit ;) I am originally a game engine developer, so I am using my own to develop the game.
I'm having this really weird bug on an old laptop of mine, where the mouse pointer is invisible (this was an older version, though. gotta try the updated one).
Hmm that's a first, do you have any steps to reproduce this?
The only way I can think of is when the item hold on mouse, it has bogus data. I think I solved such a bug, but if you have a save.dat or steps to reproduce this, would be great (through the new version though, as lots of things happened since)
I don't think there's a reason to have both versions. I'll still keep updating both itch.io and steam store with everything new and also with the final release, whenever that comes, with the same price as well.
I think I found a new bug, the Default Cleric has a Bow equipped. If you unequip the Bow it can't be equipped again. The Manual stated that a Cleric can't equip a Bow - so the Bow should not be included in a default configuration.
thanks for the bug report! I thought all these were fixed already :( I'll try to reproduce that and fix it for good. By default cleric, you mean a "prebuilt" cleric from character creation, right?
yes, it was a prebuilt character I was using Hilda the Cleric.
The first Prebuild Cleric that can be selected at the start always has a Bow equipped. This is the cause of the problem.
Playing through the latest revision (Feb 20/24) not all quests can be completed. Only 1 rune is dropped so the dungeon cannot be entered, completion of the Temple and Lair in Amphill do not register. Items in shops are not random and appear the appear to be the same.
The Missing Child and Old Graveyard Quests update properly in the quest log.
Cannot complete Eternal Matters quest, even after killing Sargolloz , Lisandro is still in party and cant be dismissed, still says go to Monastery , trigger missing?
apologies for the delay :( these days are quite busy.
hmm, so are you saying that even after killing the devil, the Lisandro wont come back with an event when you walk up a square, saying that his work was done? Event logic simply checks if the devil is dead. Did you fought him directly or by using the "bone" ? Indeed, if this quest fails, then only 1 rune can be obtained, not allowing access to last map. I will try to reproduce this one and come back if anything else is needed.
the Cult of Wizards (in Amphill) is accessible through a key obtained on Monastery, where you eventually can find the "bone". Its a part of "Infernal Matter" quest so no new quest is shown, only a special key is needed. Did you take that from monastery and still can't access it?
hmm, the shop items being the same sounds an issue. I'll try to reproduce through multiple restocks and fix if that's a case.
Lisandro only says Travel to the Monastery, even went talked to in said Monastery after killing the devil.
I did finish the Cult of Wizards area, the one issue in that dungeon was the wall with gap to the north and hidden button, if you are not facing north when you get the message and return to that area later the passage cannot be opened. The message only appears once.
thank you for your feedback, I copied it in my /todo things.
Indeed, sometimes that error shows up in logs and it was an issue of some enchantments not having an entry in the game, like "Potion of Cure Poison" (the "cure condition" enchantment was the issue here).
I added them all so these error logs shouldn't be shown anymore.
I uploaded already the newer update (20240125).
Regarding the "Short blade" skill, I checked it again and it seems there's no issue. What kind of short blade you weren't allowed to equip? Usually, when you can't equip an item, a "reason" shows up in message bar (above characters).
You can find the criteria for all skills under "7.4 Skills" in the provided RULEBOOK.pdf
I will consider some of your nice ideas as the content keeps building up :)
I played your prelude! I liked it! For what it was, it was well done except.
Your selling weapons and armor and not adding any way to buy those skills.
I think you should add that you can look at something and see more about it. Move an item in front of a character to see more details.
See details on spell, wand, weapon, armor, clothes.
Is there any way you can work on making some foley sounds better? Say clubs hitting. I would think about adding some VFX too.
The atmosphere for rain and thunder is well done.
What is in your full game?
Love old school. I actually thought I had the full game and when it ended I was surprised. Good job, I wanted to continue. I had one character dead and was carry tons of weapons and armor I couldn't use.
Music little off though but it works.
Some Might and Magic and some Eye of the Beholder.
Hey thanks, I appreciate that you liked this one so far :)
Actually, I have already setup some trainers for weapons and armor. There's a trainer for 'Leather armor' in Silkmoor and also a 'Short blade' almost next to her, in the same village :) These will allow you to wear leather armor and use small blades like daggers and short swords i.e.
Although, it wouldn't be good to put all kind of trainers in one village and one town. There will be more skills as well and more civilised areas with trainers.
Regarding the more details about items, spells and all that, it's something I may need to consider. Since I am after M&M 3-5 and EOB, I really don't like to modernise things too much. Copied the feedback though and will revisit it again, I could perhaps on what's already there.
Regarding the sounds and music, yeah its something that bothers me as well sometimes. I might rework all sound work so far, especially event music.
What's in my full game? well, the basic premise of the game was / still is to provide a very long single-based game, with tons of maps, lore, items, side quests and lots of puzzles and riddles, along with a major quest which is basically explained in the intro. Not AI, not super deep stories and generally modern stuff. Just the grinding single-based cRPGing experience of the past (M&M 3-5) and exploration / D&D based puzzling (EOB). I have put another screenshot in the list on right column of the world map to realise the length of the final game ;)
However I've encountered a problem reloading my saved game. I played for a couple of hours yesterday and almost completed the mine, saving multiple times as I went. However when I try and "Load The Last Game" today nothing happens when I push the button.
Looking at log.txt I see the following error message:
0.000000: error on 'load': can't find the game slot '-1'. => line: 20690, file: main.cpp
I had created about 6 saves in total and deleted 2 or 3 of them at one point to tidy up - I'm wondering if the deletion has caused an issue with the game slot counter possibly?
I noticed the save.dat file is xml - is there possibly a way I can edit this to point back to the correct save slot?
Hmm, strange, I fixed such issues before the release. Do you have the save.dat that causes issues with "Load The Last Game"? If yes, please upload it here as a file (if possible) or e-mail it to me: burzum_mewtwo@yahoo.gr
I will try to reproduce that as well, going through your excellent details. Are the save slots in save.dat, in sequence? Could you reproduce it? (backup the original save.dat somewhere else). Just to make it appear to me.
Yeah, you can simply remove the save slots until you end up with the one you want, preferably setting the slot = 0, but that's as much as my hypothesis go.
Hi, that's great to hear! I've sent you the save file to the email address above anyway in case it's useful. Not sure I could replicate it again - in addition to deleting some of the saves I remember also saving over the earliest slot and reusing it at some point as well so think of it as a stress test for your load/save system :-)
hey, I just updated the game to 1.2_20240111 version, you can download it from files =) I also playtested the save.dat you provided to me, it worked like a charm after the fix =) Thanks again!
Fantastic, I didn't know this game would get released so soon. I played the demo some time ago. Instant purchase for me! Congrats to the release and a happy new year!
edit: There is only the "prelude" for download. Is this the full game?
yes, its the "prelude" version only, that means a version with about all the major fixes and functionality and about ~3 hours of the main game's content. A "short" release of sorts.
it's a kind of early-access for itch.io, which however its fully playable; I mean, this is how the full release will start about. A version for anyone wanting to play in its current state.
I hope the publication of the new playable material is very close. I can't wait.....I love your project because it is closest to the games I loved eye of the beholder, lands of lore. ......games like legend of grimrock are beautiful and technically modern but they lack that little magic of finding an npc and being able to exchange a few words in a remote corner of a dungeon and enlist him in your group.... Sometimes it doesn't take much to change a soulless game into something you're passionate about. There was something magical in the Westwood Studios games and here you can breathe that scent of magic.
Yes, I am going to publish this very shortly. It could be even a matter of hours, although I have some work left. Thanks for your lovely words :) Yeah, I am after these games, their atmosphere and mechanics, as well as M&M but also infusing it with my own things. I just love their raw approach on D&D world, cutscenes and their huge graphics.
I liked the first Legend of Grimrock because it was quite close to EOB1 and DM. I mostly like to play games with similar atmosphere and (lower) technology to my own, Grimoire, The Quest, Legends of Amberland etc.
Not really interested in very modern takes, because I feel there's a lot of copy/pasting of the LOG formula, over and over again. Even M&M X tried to capitalise on that, sadly. Very few games ended being good enough compared to LOG, one of them being "Dungeon Kingdom: Sign of the Moon" and I heard good stuff about "Operencia" but never played it.
However, I much prefer to play Lands of Lore or watching some Dungeon Hack walkthroughs or even reading D&D modules, rather playing modern cRPGs these days :) I guess this keeps me close to this kind of games after all these years.
Yep, it takes first and foremost heart, soul but also a lot of persistence for the years that will take you to make a game. There's still so much more that I would like to add to the game but I feel its time to show a thing or three of what the game looks like now, a "prelude" of sorts of what is coming =)
Hi! I always follow your progress. Can I ask you when we will have next release.?...I think I read it won't be a new demo but already a small definitive version! .........Can't wait for it!!!!
Thanks a lot for still following this. Well, the game should have been already released but recently I gave it for thorough playtesting and I am still working on the enormous feedback I got from the people that played it, well, along with some bugs or five :)
I am not good with ETAs and stuff but what is left for now is adding one last level / map for the game to have a proper "mini" closure, a chapter of sorts, since the demo didn't had one.
And there are still some minor stuff to address, more like annoyances that need to be eliminated. There have been a lot of changes while I was designing the last version, which only got worse after the playtesting :)
So, yeah, this will be a demo no more, it will be more like a short cRPG that will last a couple hours, more closer to what the full game will look like in the end than previous demo.
Yeah, I posted this update on dungeoncrawlers discord for now. If you see major update there, or facebook or rpgcodex, then the game will be already published on itch.io (at first), so keep an eye, mostly in this month ;)
not really.. the v1.2 build, with all of its changes / improvements was simply merged to the short release, which was further enhanced after the thorough playtesting.
I decided that since the playthrough by other guys revealed some really nasty bugs on a content that was pretty much around ~60% of the short release.
Fear not though, I am really focused to get this out before the end of this month :)
No worries at all, this issue has long been fixed in new (and last) v1.2 demo. In addition, a window and a letterbox mode were added to support these large resolutions / monitors, without losing the original aspect ratio i.e. no stretching.
New v1.2 (demo) build has been already playtested and already working on last bits, expect it in few days with tons of improvements and original content :)
Hi! This looks really amazing, but I'm totally unable to get past the hordes of goblins at the beginning. My characters just miss miss miss miss endlessly until everyone is dead. Can you give some tips?
Hey man, thanks for playing the demo. Yep, its not the most balanced demo ever, so those low-level knights can't get past through goblin protection, especially those carrying low-damage weapons such as clubs. Better choose a wizard-oriented party on this one, since spells hit on resistances directly so you definitely do some damage :) Try to rest only when the spells are running out to save your remaining food as well (no taverns in demo either). The coming release is vastly superior to all these issues. Glad that you're liking it so far!
With your tips I managed to complete the whole demo, I absolutely love it! It's awesome! I even killed the doppelganger.
Some random feedback/things I noticed, in no particular order. I assume you've looked into/fixed most of these already as the demo is pretty old, but anyway:
1) You can't actually drink the potions of Cure Paralysis in the snake room. Since you're paralyzed. Heh.
2) The second level of Dark Sorcerer's Tomb seems to lack one iron key, that may be intentional though (I took the goblin gang).
3) I wish movement could be slightly faster/snappier. When moving about the forest for example it would be nice to simply move with the keys super fast like in EOB.
4) When the goblins shoot with bows, there's a strange delay where it seems you can act, but have to wait until damage is over.
5) It's really weird that clerics can start with fire magic/firebolt when they can't learn it in-game.
6) Related to 5), the random stat spread of the "premade" characters is too wild. A starting wizard can have 13 or 20 spells...
7) It would be very nice to get some more information on combat stats. Freezing Spikes seemed to be the by far best spell. I'd love to see rolls, hit numbers, damage ranges etc. Maybe a combat log?
8) Related to 7), Level ups seem to do very little, only increase HP?
Hey, thanks for the great feedback :) Some of these findings are really useful and some others have already addressed. Regardless, I have copied all this to my huge list of TODOs and will be handled properly in time.
Potions in general are now "targetable" items, that is, a user can target another character to use them (usually herself). So, another healthy character can simply consume an action to use this "Potion of Cure Paralysis" on another paralyzed character, no problem :)
As far as I remember, the only "Iron key" needed is the one to open up that room with goblin chief (which has this "Golden key" behind him), which you can find on a corridor. But since you can get the golden key and move below, its all good I guess. It was not intentional, perhaps I forgot something along the way; maps were always in a state of changing :)
I could just speed up the animation transitions between movements to simulate that "instant" feel and look; I can add such an option, I fully understand this one.
Regarding the delay between monster's attack and character's action, I think I've solved that already but will check again. I think you can simply can't act now, unless monster ends his turn/animated action, but will double check. Thanks for bringing this again to my attention :)
Spells have been reworked and rebalanced a lot now and there's no "Firebolt" for Cleric :) But will re-check on character generator to be sure; but I think this bug is long gone already.
Character generator has been reworked as well, so I will check feedback with newer version. I think I've fixed the issue of casters having many starting spell charges (slots), by rebalancing "Intelligence" impact. The spell allocation (per expertise) now starts from "10 / 5 / 2 / 1 / 0", and can go down/up based on "Intelligence"; previously the allocation was bigger, indeed.
Regarding attack & spells numbers, I am already providing the game's rulebook where everything is provided there (and even pseudo-code) but I tend not to show a lot of numbers in screen; I may add some combat log where player can look by clicking a button and might add an extra info on each combat line, but it wont be anything exotic like these D&D pc games :)
Yes, level ups are not doing much, at least vs what D&D does for that matter. The game is all about finding skill trainers and getting experienced on these on your own (not by getting levels and selecting them from lists). Its easier to see "Level" as another small statistic, like a level on a "skill". Levels on themselves are a bit abstract anyway and there's a big cap of 100 on them (and 20 for every skill)
Yes, this was indeed the premise from the very start of development, a game looking, feeling and playing like those games.
I was lucky to be there when those legendary titles came out, so hopefully enough of their traits will be preserved. Though, in the end will be more MM3-5 than anything else.
It will only take a few months to get this out, probably late 2022, for certain Windows & Linux.
Android needs a few tweaks, UI, sdk versions and restrictions and all that that lovely Playstore now requires from us. Hopefully I will deal with that in proper time.
I can't wait to see it in whole myself... Developing and testing in parts is enjoying but nothing beats playing the full release, which, for the most part, is not something we developers do as well, except in the end :)
Thanks again, its certainly coming in late 2022 :)
Yes, I am currently under heavy development of v1.2 demo which will be probably close the demo phase and will be very close to final product, at least aesthetically.
I have delayed this demo a bit to include many intended features, mostly gameplay ones. I want to include many things into this demo version as it will serve as a medium between the (coming) crowdfunding campaign and final version.
Will probably gets off next ~week. There was a mini update about that on my RPGcodex. Not much but finalizes the final direction on the game.
The character's development is a very special procedure that I pay a lot of attention to and this alone takes time. It's the deciding factor for the game's length and depth. The current approach (prebuilt characters) is but a glimpse of it, a middle ground solution that allows a demo for now.
However, the current issues of the game are taking the priority at the moment; character creation, content, polishing etc. comes in second.
Hey, not knocking your process! Just expressing both disappointment that the best feature of gridders (in my opinion) isn't in yet, and excitement that there's a cool looking project to follow. :D
No worries :) Yes, I fully agree that character development is the best feature of grid-based cRPGs; this is why I have to settle down when the time is better (i.e. no issues around from all feedbacks) and implement it properly. I didn't wanted to rush a character creation that allows only basic selections :D. I hope the next update provides something more on that ;)
Downloaded the windows demo .... fantastic game !!. I will continue to follow the development of this beautiful project. I bought my first pc to play Eye of the Beholder and Lands of Lore ..... this game is a love letter to those titles !!
I also bought my first PC, 486/DX around 1995 and one of the first games I installed was the first Eye of the Beholder, I think it came on 2 HD floppy disks. I guess that moment stuck very deep :)
I'm glad that you liked it, expect a lot more. Thank you for following it!
Played through and enjoyed the demo (windows). I'm very excited to see more, and have followed you/the project.
Feedback:
Quicker Turns. When a party member finishes their action, I have to wait a couple of seconds before the next party member can start their turn unless I hit the end turn button. The workaround, however, does not function when an enemy finishes their turn. I'd prefer no delay at all, but even just reducing it would be nice.
Retreat! That doppleganger got me good, hah. Would be nice to have a way to flee.
Hotkeys. You already mentioned this in a comment below, but hotkeys please!
Bug:
I noticed 1 bug while playing... If you choose a premade cleric with a bow + staff, they're able to use the staff/cast spells even though it is grayed out in the UI due to the bow being held in both hands.
Hey, thanx man! I'm glad that you liked this short demo, more to come for sure :)
I appreciate for taking the time providing the feedback, they're extremely helpful to fine-tune the game and trimming down the annoyances. There's only so much that can be done when you're solo :)
Quicker Turns. Yeah, I've already been provided with a number of feedbacks about the slow times on combat and it's already on my fix list, pretty high for that matter.
Retreat. I've to think about that & check my dusty D&D library for a good & intuitive way to handle that :) Not any promises though.
Hotkeys. Worry not! This is what I'm currently implementing. The game can also be played by WASD+QE plus F5/F9 for quick save/load (at the moment; more keys to add for a smoother mouseless experience). Those keys can be changed as well through game settings and saved.
Bug. Great! Its on way to fix.
That was a super helpful feedback and I already copied it to my pile of things to kill! Expect a number of these to be addressed by the next update. Thanx!
As for retreat/flee... I'll give some unrequested feedback, hah! Feel free to ignore.
Why not make it a dice roll that is affected by party variables (weight/types of items equipped, total party quickness/technique/perception, and status ailments)?
On a successful roll the party can be warped to the entrance of the zone. This isn't ideal, but I can't remember a turn based blobber that did fleeing well. However, I have found myself wanting it in many titles.
And on an unsuccessful roll the party loses a collective round and is more vulnerable to attacks since they would have their backs turned (ie, no shield bonus and increased chance for attackers to land attacks); I believe this is actually the ad&d behavior but you'd have to find a manual to confirm.
In my resources (mostly D&D) there's just not many rules about fleeing from a battle. I will certainly look into that but in the case that functionality gets in, it will probably use some combination of abilities (quickness?) and some skill (survival kind of). I will probably use the average of 2 party members with the highest skill or something like that. I'm all about providing simpler mechanics, which in turn are dumbed down versions of D&D.
This mechanic would be pretty good for turn-based games where monsters are spawned immediately before you (wizardry? final fantasy?). But this game have a fixed number of monsters and placed in specific position, which makes the flee-to-where question difficult to answer. Moving to the start of level still doesn't seem intuitive enough (run through other monsters?)
There's still the difficulty of fleeing i.e. against a boss entity that would be extremely hard and/or impossible. Skill checking is still under development..
Against a monster such as Doppelganger (level 10), which still needs some fine tuning to be more lethal, that would seem difficult as well and trying to flee would probably be proven more fatal than trying to battle.
All in all, not an easy feature to add especially on a time of usability tuning, bug fixing and stuff :) I 'll still look into it. I have to check what other RPGs do on that department as well, especially games closer to this one.
Thanks! I hope you find the demo good as well. It's still a work in progress on every level. There will be a couple more updates to iron out a number of recent issues.
I have put in a little bit of time so far and enjoyed it, I have not progressed very much but it has been easy enough to pick up and enjoy, it is user friendly and not fiddly. Excited to see further progress so I'll keep a close eye on this.
Looks great! I'm a big fan of the Might & Magic games, and this seems a fantastic love letter to that franchise. However, upon starting the game, I took two steps and was promptly incapacitated by a large snail; How do I attack it? Right-click, as indicated above, seems to do nothing (nor left-click, middle-click, space, ctrl, alt, or any other key besides WSAD). I am able to turn, pick up my character's items (only allowed to put them right back where I got them, though) and "end turn". Everything else is "you cannot move while engaged in battle".
EDIT: ah, right-click the handed item! Not the enemy itself. I should have known. Disregard!
That doppleganger is a curveball! I am curious how your engine puts together the 2.5D scenes and does transitions and turns. I really like it. I notice my wizard will NEVER level up his dagger skill; he's not skilled enough in it to ever hit even the weakest enemies, which means he never gains any skill experience from inflicting damage, which means it will never gain a rank, which means he will never hit even the weakest enemies. :/ Overall, a fun experience!
Heh :) That doppelganger acts more like a "now you've done it" moment, there's no escape :) I had a planned event to add before the teleporter but required some skill check and that's not developed, yet... I had a lot of problems managing all those transitions, they're not quite easy as they seem. In short, I'm Y-rotating those 2D sprites to always face the party's camera direction, even when moving (like Trees). However, on sprites such as monsters I'm also doing some tweaking so they still rotate but ending without rotation in their final placement (not causing lighting effect or distortion looking the party -> necessary on quad-only sprites). There's also some harder situations like ground items, chests and NPCs; not only rotated but also "pushed" back (gradually) when you're standing in their square. Covering all cases in code was really exhaustive with all that smooth navigation but I managed. Oh, I need to deal with that, it seems quite a problem. I'm thinking of just allowing experience to flow, even when the character misses.
Thanks for all the help & great feedback @Medicine Storm and for those bossy items :)
Hey, thanx that you liked it @Medicine Storm :) Yeah, I need to add some sort of guide for controls when the game starts. Puny snails should not cause such troubles :) Thanx for that feedback. I'm also re-creating my game settings to allow key-binding and show all controls there. It requires some past experience with "Eye of the Beholder" to intuitively sense the controls :) I will work more into it. Regardless, shame on me that you had problems using those lovely items :)
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How do I get past the Dragon in The Barracks in Crimson Bay? My fighters don't even Hit and Magic does poor Damage.
Hey @shafk,
The dragon should preferably be fed, as its a pretty hard monster to fight, he hits hard and has a high protection. Its not really a monster for the current level of characters to fight.
Hint: feed him exactly 10 food rations in one go.
I love this, although it's unfair to judge from 10 minutes play.
Are there no hunger system ?, it seems I can abuse rest indefinitely .hey, thanks ;)
yes, there's kinda a hunger system; if you don't rest (either at a tavern or via camp), the party gets "exhausted" which pretty much halves party's efficiency. Then you need to rest, which is where the party eats as well.
Nobody's dies if you don't rest, but there's no other way to restore spell points (although you can heal through other means and reverse exhaustion, but that will a few spell slots which you may not have)
Hello, I'm actually having trouble finding information on how to determine my party's hit rate. I can't find it in the manual. Which attribute should I increase? My Barbarian always hits whenever he swings his club, but somehow the knight always misses, even though he has high Technique.
Is it like dnd 3rd Ed, POW=STR=Hit rate ?
There's no "hit rate" or "attack rolls" like D&D or anything like that, so you wont find anything like in RULEBOOK.pdf. TDB takes a very simple approach on melee, basically damage = (weapon damage - monster protection):
damage = power mod (i.e. if power = 24, power mod = 2) damage += rand(weapon damage min, weapon damage max damage -= (monster protection * 0.8)
if you knight can't hit much it could either be 1) his power mod is low / negative 2) his weapon damage is low
Check more on RULEBOOK.pdf under:
Much appreciated, btw when I entered the monastery(only when holding the gold key, can be resolved by putting them in inventory), the game suddenly exiting, I'm using windows version
hey,
indeed, to enter the monastery, the "golden key" has to be either in inventory or holding it on mouse or someone having it equipped (in hand).
Hmm, that sounds like an issue. Are you using the "Prelude" version (paid) and 1.4 version (shown on title), right?
If that happens always, could you send me your save.dat file with that save just before entering monastery, on my e-mail: burzum_mewtwo@yahoo.gr
so I can take a look. Can't think of anything at the moment, but usually its either a corrupt save or data issue on game's database.
Any chance for an Amiga version?
I thought about that a couple months ago but it will really needs some research first. I mean, it all depends on what AmigaOS version supports OpenGL 2.1 and C++11.
I'll give it a try after everything settles down, just for the fun of it :)
only OS 4.x and MorphOS support OpemGL . It can't be done for AmigaOS 3.x
anywhere like twitter that I can follow you, please?
I'm waiting to play this on android
Hey,
I don't really use social for updates but you can use the following threads, as these will be updated when I have something to show:
Steam (my main steam discussion forum)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2814790/discussions/
RPGcodex (my main developing thread - you can click "watch" to get emails when I have posted a comment)
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/the-darkness-below-a-retro-crpg-in-the-makin...
dungeoncrawlers.org - The Darkness Below (my discord sub-channel)
https://discord.com/channels/322472776562638860/1020797185639592058
These three (3) are effectively what I use mostly to update everyone regarding the current status of the game.
PS. Android version will get worked and published some time after the main release though, around end of the year.
Thanks!
Just bought this yesterday, LOVE the retro vibe of this game! Wanted to ask, is there a way to use custom character portraits for my characters? Also, is there a way to type in the character's names during creation rather than pick from a list?
Hey,
Apologies for the late reply ;)
thank you for the support and for your good words!
Yeah, this game is all about having a retro crpg gameplay experience, while respecting and borrowing stuff from the legendary old titles of the past, but also adding a few touches from my own vision and ways that I would like to play the genre. I am glad this seems to be liked by quite a few players so far :)
Yeah, I have some feedback already about custom portrait and typing a custom name as well, along with your now, somewhat high in my list. I will consider the best way to deal with this in time, no worries.
Thanks again!
Awesome! Can't wait for v1.4... (or whatever it ends up being).
Amazying game. I love the art style and how the effects and sound blend nicely to create an enjoyable experience. I was wondering if you are using any commercial engine or just 2D libraries for this project?
Good luck and continue the great work!
Hey, thanks for your words ;)
Yes, one of the main goals is to stick to the basics and details, as much its possible, while filtering out useful feedback. Can't get much wrong when I am after older titles ;)
For example, I liked how DM uses these sound and graphical effects (i.e. spells), so this is one of the main inspirations.
No, I am not using a commercial engine; in fact, I am using my own, called Jolt3D!, although not commercial and not open to public at the time (although it was in the long past), and its a lot older than I am comfortable to admit ;) I am originally a game engine developer, so I am using my own to develop the game.
Thank you again for you encouraging words :)
It seems the yesterday's demo 1.3_20240608 introduced a mapping bug (a map wasn't baked in on package).
Fixed already and uploaded, so please download the demo again
Thanks :)
Demo added with 1.3_20240602 version
Check the devlog on this link Demo added with 1.3_20240608 version
Thanks!
I'm having this really weird bug on an old laptop of mine, where the mouse pointer is invisible (this was an older version, though. gotta try the updated one).
Other than that, the game is absolutely great :)
Hey,
thanks a lot :)
It only gets better from now on, for sure ;)
Hmm that's a first, do you have any steps to reproduce this?
The only way I can think of is when the item hold on mouse, it has bogus data. I think I solved such a bug, but if you have a save.dat or steps to reproduce this, would be great (through the new version though, as lots of things happened since)
Thanks!
I'm going to try out the new version tonight and let you know. Thanks for the quick reply
Game was updated to 1.3 (20240602),
check devlog here 1.3_20240602
All major and minor issues were addressed.
Thanks!
is there a way to get a steam key if i already own this game?
Hi @Trevelyan83,
I don't think there's a reason to have both versions. I'll still keep updating both itch.io and steam store with everything new and also with the final release, whenever that comes, with the same price as well.
I think I found a new bug, the Default Cleric has a Bow equipped. If you unequip the Bow it can't be equipped again. The Manual stated that a Cleric can't equip a Bow - so the Bow should not be included in a default configuration.
Looking forward to the full release.
Hey,
thanks for the bug report! I thought all these were fixed already :( I'll try to reproduce that and fix it for good. By default cleric, you mean a "prebuilt" cleric from character creation, right?
Thanks!
yes, it was a prebuilt character I was using Hilda the Cleric.
The first Prebuild Cleric that can be selected at the start always has a Bow equipped. This is the cause of the problem.
Playing through the latest revision (Feb 20/24) not all quests can be completed. Only 1 rune is dropped so the dungeon cannot be entered, completion of the Temple and Lair in Amphill do not register. Items in shops are not random and appear the appear to be the same.
The Missing Child and Old Graveyard Quests update properly in the quest log.
Cannot complete Eternal Matters quest, even after killing Sargolloz , Lisandro is still in party and cant be dismissed, still says go to Monastery , trigger missing?
Hi Shafk,
apologies for the delay :( these days are quite busy.
Thanks a lot for all this work, so appreciated ;)
Lisandro only says Travel to the Monastery, even went talked to in said Monastery after killing the devil.
I did finish the Cult of Wizards area, the one issue in that dungeon was the wall with gap to the north and hidden button, if you are not facing north when you get the message and return to that area later the passage cannot be opened. The message only appears once.
I went back to the first Village and walked to the house North of the First Dungeon, when I Entered the House I appeared at the bottom of the Map.
Probably a Missing Asset or Dungeon.
Hey,
apologies for the delay :) Indeed, it was a bad name issue in the game's data, fixed in the newer update (20240125)
thanks for the report!
I give some comments at RPGwatch also even though I got the Short Blade skill I was never able to equip any found daggers.
Since the Cure and Bless Spell books require Soul Magic a Trainer in one of the areas would be nice.
To make the game a little easier there should be a healer in the first village
There also appears to be an asset missing because the game log states:
0.000000: variant_get_info error: stat affect variant '27' is not found. => line: 11492, file: base.cpp
163.774002: variant_get_info error: stat affect variant '27' is not found. => line: 11492, file: base.cpp
Hey,
thank you for your feedback, I copied it in my /todo things.
Indeed, sometimes that error shows up in logs and it was an issue of some enchantments not having an entry in the game, like "Potion of Cure Poison" (the "cure condition" enchantment was the issue here).
I added them all so these error logs shouldn't be shown anymore.
I uploaded already the newer update (20240125).
Regarding the "Short blade" skill, I checked it again and it seems there's no issue. What kind of short blade you weren't allowed to equip? Usually, when you can't equip an item, a "reason" shows up in message bar (above characters).
You can find the criteria for all skills under "7.4 Skills" in the provided RULEBOOK.pdf
I will consider some of your nice ideas as the content keeps building up :)
Thanks for the feedback!
I think you should be able to run into the women with the bow and again to learn bows in the final version of your game.
Another thing I would have liked, is taking the bones bringing them back to the monastery, giving the mages a proper burial.
nice idea, copied that to my feedback list, as well your other ones ;)
thanks!
I played your prelude! I liked it! For what it was, it was well done except.
Your selling weapons and armor and not adding any way to buy those skills.
I think you should add that you can look at something and see more about it. Move an item in front of a character to see more details.
See details on spell, wand, weapon, armor, clothes.
Is there any way you can work on making some foley sounds better? Say clubs hitting. I would think about adding some VFX too.
The atmosphere for rain and thunder is well done.
What is in your full game?
Love old school. I actually thought I had the full game and when it ended I was surprised. Good job, I wanted to continue. I had one character dead and was carry tons of weapons and armor I couldn't use.
Music little off though but it works.
Some Might and Magic and some Eye of the Beholder.
Hey thanks, I appreciate that you liked this one so far :)
Actually, I have already setup some trainers for weapons and armor. There's a trainer for 'Leather armor' in Silkmoor and also a 'Short blade' almost next to her, in the same village :) These will allow you to wear leather armor and use small blades like daggers and short swords i.e.
Although, it wouldn't be good to put all kind of trainers in one village and one town. There will be more skills as well and more civilised areas with trainers.
Regarding the more details about items, spells and all that, it's something I may need to consider. Since I am after M&M 3-5 and EOB, I really don't like to modernise things too much. Copied the feedback though and will revisit it again, I could perhaps on what's already there.
Regarding the sounds and music, yeah its something that bothers me as well sometimes. I might rework all sound work so far, especially event music.
What's in my full game? well, the basic premise of the game was / still is to provide a very long single-based game, with tons of maps, lore, items, side quests and lots of puzzles and riddles, along with a major quest which is basically explained in the intro. Not AI, not super deep stories and generally modern stuff. Just the grinding single-based cRPGing experience of the past (M&M 3-5) and exploration / D&D based puzzling (EOB). I have put another screenshot in the list on right column of the world map to realise the length of the final game ;)
Thanks again for the purchase!
I look forward to the full release. I wanted it to continue. I am old school trust me.
Music, just be careful of styles. Mixing rock to Celtic etc is a Japanese Role Playing cliche'.
Eclectic scores like that are generally what is found in Japanese RPGs.
All these things don't ruin the experience for most players though. What you have is enjoyable and addicting.
StrangeCat0
Firstly, great game, well done!
However I've encountered a problem reloading my saved game. I played for a couple of hours yesterday and almost completed the mine, saving multiple times as I went. However when I try and "Load The Last Game" today nothing happens when I push the button.
Looking at log.txt I see the following error message:
0.000000: error on 'load': can't find the game slot '-1'. => line: 20690, file: main.cpp
I had created about 6 saves in total and deleted 2 or 3 of them at one point to tidy up - I'm wondering if the deletion has caused an issue with the game slot counter possibly?
I noticed the save.dat file is xml - is there possibly a way I can edit this to point back to the correct save slot?
hey man, thanks a lot:)
The game for sure it will end up loads better.
Hmm, strange, I fixed such issues before the release. Do you have the save.dat that causes issues with "Load The Last Game"? If yes, please upload it here as a file (if possible) or e-mail it to me: burzum_mewtwo@yahoo.gr
I will try to reproduce that as well, going through your excellent details. Are the save slots in save.dat, in sequence? Could you reproduce it? (backup the original save.dat somewhere else). Just to make it appear to me.
Yeah, you can simply remove the save slots until you end up with the one you want, preferably setting the slot = 0, but that's as much as my hypothesis go.
<save slot="0"> ... </save>
Ok, I think I was able to reproduce this :)
I will go through it and provide a fix as soon as I have something ;)
thanks for the bug report!
right, bug is fixed. I had to rework the save system a bit, fixing a few other bugs as well :) I will upload a fixed version today, I will inform you.
Hi, that's great to hear! I've sent you the save file to the email address above anyway in case it's useful. Not sure I could replicate it again - in addition to deleting some of the saves I remember also saving over the earliest slot and reusing it at some point as well so think of it as a stress test for your load/save system :-)
hey, I just updated the game to 1.2_20240111 version, you can download it from files =) I also playtested the save.dat you provided to me, it worked like a charm after the fix =) Thanks again!
Yes, can confirm it's now working fine with the new version. Thanks for the quick fix. Keep up the good work!
Thanks !!!!....and Happy new year !!
thanks, I appreciated it =)
have a happy new year and crawl dungeons :)
Fantastic, I didn't know this game would get released so soon. I played the demo some time ago. Instant purchase for me! Congrats to the release and a happy new year!
edit: There is only the "prelude" for download. Is this the full game?
thanks =)
yes, its the "prelude" version only, that means a version with about all the major fixes and functionality and about ~3 hours of the main game's content. A "short" release of sorts.
it's a kind of early-access for itch.io, which however its fully playable; I mean, this is how the full release will start about. A version for anyone wanting to play in its current state.
happy new year =)
Ah ok, I understand. Thank you for clarifying. All the best!
I hope the publication of the new playable material is very close. I can't wait.....I love your project because it is closest to the games I loved eye of the beholder, lands of lore. ......games like legend of grimrock are beautiful and technically modern but they lack that little magic of finding an npc and being able to exchange a few words in a remote corner of a dungeon and enlist him in your group.... Sometimes it doesn't take much to change a soulless game into something you're passionate about. There was something magical in the Westwood Studios games and here you can breathe that scent of magic.
Hey :)
Yes, I am going to publish this very shortly. It could be even a matter of hours, although I have some work left. Thanks for your lovely words :) Yeah, I am after these games, their atmosphere and mechanics, as well as M&M but also infusing it with my own things. I just love their raw approach on D&D world, cutscenes and their huge graphics.
I liked the first Legend of Grimrock because it was quite close to EOB1 and DM. I mostly like to play games with similar atmosphere and (lower) technology to my own, Grimoire, The Quest, Legends of Amberland etc.
Not really interested in very modern takes, because I feel there's a lot of copy/pasting of the LOG formula, over and over again. Even M&M X tried to capitalise on that, sadly. Very few games ended being good enough compared to LOG, one of them being "Dungeon Kingdom: Sign of the Moon" and I heard good stuff about "Operencia" but never played it.
However, I much prefer to play Lands of Lore or watching some Dungeon Hack walkthroughs or even reading D&D modules, rather playing modern cRPGs these days :) I guess this keeps me close to this kind of games after all these years.
Yep, it takes first and foremost heart, soul but also a lot of persistence for the years that will take you to make a game. There's still so much more that I would like to add to the game but I feel its time to show a thing or three of what the game looks like now, a "prelude" of sorts of what is coming =)
Will this really be available soon? Each time you say it's almost ready to release I get my hopes up. :(
Yep, its basically ready =) Just finished a "short" playthrough of the first areas that took a good ~1 hour.
I am on publishing / uploading mode right now, just an hour after getting it into 2024 ;)
So, keep these hopes high and check again this page in a bit = few hours :)
released! =)
Amazing! A happy and prosperous new year to you!
thanks man,
happy new year =)
released! =)
Hi! I always follow your progress. Can I ask you when we will have next release.?...I think I read it won't be a new demo but already a small definitive version! .........Can't wait for it!!!!
Hey, sorry for the late reply :)
Thanks a lot for still following this. Well, the game should have been already released but recently I gave it for thorough playtesting and I am still working on the enormous feedback I got from the people that played it, well, along with some bugs or five :)
I am not good with ETAs and stuff but what is left for now is adding one last level / map for the game to have a proper "mini" closure, a chapter of sorts, since the demo didn't had one.
And there are still some minor stuff to address, more like annoyances that need to be eliminated. There have been a lot of changes while I was designing the last version, which only got worse after the playtesting :)
So, yeah, this will be a demo no more, it will be more like a short cRPG that will last a couple hours, more closer to what the full game will look like in the end than previous demo.
Yeah, I posted this update on dungeoncrawlers discord for now. If you see major update there, or facebook or rpgcodex, then the game will be already published on itch.io (at first), so keep an eye, mostly in this month ;)
Thanks :)
A thousand thanks. I wanted to ask you one last thing if there is currently a 1.2 demo around and where I can try it.....
you're welcome :)
not really.. the v1.2 build, with all of its changes / improvements was simply merged to the short release, which was further enhanced after the thorough playtesting.
I decided that since the playthrough by other guys revealed some really nasty bugs on a content that was pretty much around ~60% of the short release.
Fear not though, I am really focused to get this out before the end of this month :)
I really wanted to look into the game but it only supports full-screen and with that it looks like this on my 32:9 monitor: https://imgur.com/DdyLdQz
Could be nice to support a window mode as well, so that i can change the aspect ratio. <3
Hi simonschreibt
Thanks for the comment.
No worries at all, this issue has long been fixed in new (and last) v1.2 demo. In addition, a window and a letterbox mode were added to support these large resolutions / monitors, without losing the original aspect ratio i.e. no stretching.
New v1.2 (demo) build has been already playtested and already working on last bits, expect it in few days with tons of improvements and original content :)
Oh, that sounds great! Can't wait for it! :)
Hi! This looks really amazing, but I'm totally unable to get past the hordes of goblins at the beginning. My characters just miss miss miss miss endlessly until everyone is dead. Can you give some tips?
Hey man, thanks for playing the demo. Yep, its not the most balanced demo ever, so those low-level knights can't get past through goblin protection, especially those carrying low-damage weapons such as clubs. Better choose a wizard-oriented party on this one, since spells hit on resistances directly so you definitely do some damage :) Try to rest only when the spells are running out to save your remaining food as well (no taverns in demo either). The coming release is vastly superior to all these issues. Glad that you're liking it so far!
With your tips I managed to complete the whole demo, I absolutely love it! It's awesome! I even killed the doppelganger.
Some random feedback/things I noticed, in no particular order. I assume you've looked into/fixed most of these already as the demo is pretty old, but anyway:
1) You can't actually drink the potions of Cure Paralysis in the snake room. Since you're paralyzed. Heh.
2) The second level of Dark Sorcerer's Tomb seems to lack one iron key, that may be intentional though (I took the goblin gang).
3) I wish movement could be slightly faster/snappier. When moving about the forest for example it would be nice to simply move with the keys super fast like in EOB.
4) When the goblins shoot with bows, there's a strange delay where it seems you can act, but have to wait until damage is over.
5) It's really weird that clerics can start with fire magic/firebolt when they can't learn it in-game.
6) Related to 5), the random stat spread of the "premade" characters is too wild. A starting wizard can have 13 or 20 spells...
7) It would be very nice to get some more information on combat stats. Freezing Spikes seemed to be the by far best spell. I'd love to see rolls, hit numbers, damage ranges etc. Maybe a combat log?
8) Related to 7), Level ups seem to do very little, only increase HP?
Hey, thanks for the great feedback :)
Some of these findings are really useful and some others have already addressed. Regardless, I have copied all this to my huge list of TODOs and will be handled properly in time.
Looks amazing! Can't wait to buy the game :)
(Q: Will the character creation available in the final realse?)
Hey man, thanks a lot :) I appreciate that and your patience as well :)
Yes, the character creation is already in place and will be in the version to come.
cool :)
Gimme more!!!
Hey, thanks for the nice game play man :)
The real thing comes nicely in late 2022 and it's a lot improved!
Be sure - you have my money :)
:)
This looks amazing! Indeed it is channeling MM3-5 and a bit of Dungeon Master 2. Definitely buying it when it is finished.
Thanks man :) I really appreciate that.
Yes, this was indeed the premise from the very start of development, a game looking, feeling and playing like those games.
I was lucky to be there when those legendary titles came out, so hopefully enough of their traits will be preserved. Though, in the end will be more MM3-5 than anything else.
Thanks again, you definitely will in late 2022.
This game looks marvelous! Can't wait till it is finished. Will buy it for Linux and probably also for Android. :)
Thanks man :)
It will only take a few months to get this out, probably late 2022, for certain Windows & Linux.
Android needs a few tweaks, UI, sdk versions and restrictions and all that that lovely Playstore now requires from us. Hopefully I will deal with that in proper time.
Thanks for your patience and interest!
I will be patient. :) Thank you for your update!
Can't wait to buy the full game, amazing work!
Hey, thanks man :) I appreciate it.
I can't wait to see it in whole myself... Developing and testing in parts is enjoying but nothing beats playing the full release, which, for the most part, is not something we developers do as well, except in the end :)
Thanks again, its certainly coming in late 2022 :)
Hi!
Yes, I am currently under heavy development of v1.2 demo which will be probably close the demo phase and will be very close to final product, at least aesthetically.
I have delayed this demo a bit to include many intended features, mostly gameplay ones. I want to include many things into this demo version as it will serve as a medium between the (coming) crowdfunding campaign and final version.
Will probably gets off next ~week. There was a mini update about that on my RPGcodex. Not much but finalizes the final direction on the game.
Thanks for the support!
Looks really good, can't wait for the full game.
Thank you :)
*loads up game*
*sees create character button greyed out*
... sadface. I'll try it again when we can make our own chars.
The character's development is a very special procedure that I pay a lot of attention to and this alone takes time. It's the deciding factor for the game's length and depth. The current approach (prebuilt characters) is but a glimpse of it, a middle ground solution that allows a demo for now.
However, the current issues of the game are taking the priority at the moment; character creation, content, polishing etc. comes in second.
Hey, not knocking your process! Just expressing both disappointment that the best feature of gridders (in my opinion) isn't in yet, and excitement that there's a cool looking project to follow. :D
No worries :)
Yes, I fully agree that character development is the best feature of grid-based cRPGs; this is why I have to settle down when the time is better (i.e. no issues around from all feedbacks) and implement it properly. I didn't wanted to rush a character creation that allows only basic selections :D. I hope the next update provides something more on that ;)
Thank you!
I also bought my first PC, 486/DX around 1995 and one of the first games I installed was the first Eye of the Beholder, I think it came on 2 HD floppy disks. I guess that moment stuck very deep :)
I'm glad that you liked it, expect a lot more. Thank you for following it!
Played through and enjoyed the demo (windows). I'm very excited to see more, and have followed you/the project.
Feedback:
Quicker Turns. When a party member finishes their action, I have to wait a couple of seconds before the next party member can start their turn unless I hit the end turn button. The workaround, however, does not function when an enemy finishes their turn. I'd prefer no delay at all, but even just reducing it would be nice.
Retreat! That doppleganger got me good, hah. Would be nice to have a way to flee.
Hotkeys. You already mentioned this in a comment below, but hotkeys please!
Bug:
I noticed 1 bug while playing... If you choose a premade cleric with a bow + staff, they're able to use the staff/cast spells even though it is grayed out in the UI due to the bow being held in both hands.
Great work, Vlzvl!
Hey, thanx man!
I'm glad that you liked this short demo, more to come for sure :)
I appreciate for taking the time providing the feedback, they're extremely helpful to fine-tune the game and trimming down the annoyances. There's only so much that can be done when you're solo :)
That was a super helpful feedback and I already copied it to my pile of things to kill! Expect a number of these to be addressed by the next update. Thanx!
Sweetness! Looking forward to seeing more.
As for retreat/flee... I'll give some unrequested feedback, hah! Feel free to ignore.
Why not make it a dice roll that is affected by party variables (weight/types of items equipped, total party quickness/technique/perception, and status ailments)?
On a successful roll the party can be warped to the entrance of the zone. This isn't ideal, but I can't remember a turn based blobber that did fleeing well. However, I have found myself wanting it in many titles.
And on an unsuccessful roll the party loses a collective round and is more vulnerable to attacks since they would have their backs turned (ie, no shield bonus and increased chance for attackers to land attacks); I believe this is actually the ad&d behavior but you'd have to find a manual to confirm.
Thanx!
In my resources (mostly D&D) there's just not many rules about fleeing from a battle. I will certainly look into that but in the case that functionality gets in, it will probably use some combination of abilities (quickness?) and some skill (survival kind of). I will probably use the average of 2 party members with the highest skill or something like that. I'm all about providing simpler mechanics, which in turn are dumbed down versions of D&D.
This mechanic would be pretty good for turn-based games where monsters are spawned immediately before you (wizardry? final fantasy?). But this game have a fixed number of monsters and placed in specific position, which makes the flee-to-where question difficult to answer. Moving to the start of level still doesn't seem intuitive enough (run through other monsters?)
There's still the difficulty of fleeing i.e. against a boss entity that would be extremely hard and/or impossible. Skill checking is still under development..
Against a monster such as Doppelganger (level 10), which still needs some fine tuning to be more lethal, that would seem difficult as well and trying to flee would probably be proven more fatal than trying to battle.
All in all, not an easy feature to add especially on a time of usability tuning, bug fixing and stuff :) I 'll still look into it. I have to check what other RPGs do on that department as well, especially games closer to this one.
This looks incredible! I'm so happy more people are reinvigorating this unique genre. I'll try out the demo soon!
Thanks! I hope you find the demo good as well. It's still a work in progress on every level. There will be a couple more updates to iron out a number of recent issues.
I have put in a little bit of time so far and enjoyed it, I have not progressed very much but it has been easy enough to pick up and enjoy, it is user friendly and not fiddly. Excited to see further progress so I'll keep a close eye on this.
Looks great! I'm a big fan of the Might & Magic games, and this seems a fantastic love letter to that franchise.
However, upon starting the game, I took two steps and was promptly incapacitated by a large snail; How do I attack it? Right-click, as indicated above, seems to do nothing (nor left-click, middle-click, space, ctrl, alt, or any other key besides WSAD). I am able to turn, pick up my character's items (only allowed to put them right back where I got them, though) and "end turn". Everything else is "you cannot move while engaged in battle".EDIT: ah, right-click the handed item! Not the enemy itself. I should have known. Disregard!
That doppleganger is a curveball! I am curious how your engine puts together the 2.5D scenes and does transitions and turns. I really like it. I notice my wizard will NEVER level up his dagger skill; he's not skilled enough in it to ever hit even the weakest enemies, which means he never gains any skill experience from inflicting damage, which means it will never gain a rank, which means he will never hit even the weakest enemies. :/
Overall, a fun experience!
Heh :)
That doppelganger acts more like a "now you've done it" moment, there's no escape :) I had a planned event to add before the teleporter but required some skill check and that's not developed, yet... I had a lot of problems managing all those transitions, they're not quite easy as they seem. In short, I'm Y-rotating those 2D sprites to always face the party's camera direction, even when moving (like Trees). However, on sprites such as monsters I'm also doing some tweaking so they still rotate but ending without rotation in their final placement (not causing lighting effect or distortion looking the party -> necessary on quad-only sprites). There's also some harder situations like ground items, chests and NPCs; not only rotated but also "pushed" back (gradually) when you're standing in their square. Covering all cases in code was really exhaustive with all that smooth navigation but I managed. Oh, I need to deal with that, it seems quite a problem. I'm thinking of just allowing experience to flow, even when the character misses.
Thanks for all the help & great feedback @Medicine Storm and for those bossy items :)
Hey, thanx that you liked it @Medicine Storm :)
Yeah, I need to add some sort of guide for controls when the game starts. Puny snails should not cause such troubles :) Thanx for that feedback. I'm also re-creating my game settings to allow key-binding and show all controls there. It requires some past experience with "Eye of the Beholder" to intuitively sense the controls :) I will work more into it. Regardless, shame on me that you had problems using those lovely items :)
Looks very nice! Bookmarked to check progress frequently and not miss the release.
Thanks man! There will be a couple more updates before the release.
I really enjoyed it! Looking forward to more.
Thanks man, I'm glad that you liked it!
This looks awesome. Downloading now to give it a go
Thanks, I hope you made it to the end :)