Dark Unknown status report
It's been nearly two years since I've posted anything to this journal, and over two years since I've posted about the game. Gamedev posts have mostly wandered into the Dark Unknown facebook project page I made. But, I was reminded yesterday that there are a few people who only followed it here, so I'm going to try to talk a little about where it is now.
I had originally made a Dark Unknown filter for my posts so people who aren't interested don't have to see them, but having not posted to LJ in 2 years I no longer understand anything about the interface and can't find how to add that screen. Hopefully what few people still read LJ at all won't mind one long post here.
Looking at the last few posts I made, one of them included a list of things I needed to work on. Looking at that list, they are all either done, have had some work done on them, or are the Save/Load system, which is the last major engine piece that I need to finish.
To start, the website got a major overhaul a few months ago. Just a week or so ago I updated the demo version of the game, which I have no idea if it works on Linux and I don't think it runs well on IE. Last I checked it was ok on FF and Chrome on mac and windows, but it's currently not very optimized so sometimes it lags if you're doing a lot of other things in the browser or have an older computer.
Right now, the things you can do or that will happen:
* Bandits spawn from the one spawner so far in place. They have a world AI, but no combat AI if they attack you. But you can attack them or be attacked on the world map and it will take you to a combat map, where you can beat them up and they will drop loot. The chests dropped might be trapped, even.
* All but three of the towns/settlements have maps. Most NPCs don't yet have dialogue trees written yet, but some do. There are a couple of merchants you can buy from and sell to, including one who will sell you spells if you have a spellbook. (Currently the only way to get a spellbook, however, is with a cheat code: (Y)ell BEAMAGE . )
* If you have a spellbook, you can cast the spells that have code attached so far- Light, Cure, Levitate, Transport, one or two others. I just haven't gotten around to the rest yet.
* Speaking of conversations, I wrote a conversation editor so I don't have to compose them directly into javascript data structures.
* Among the things that have conversations attached is a door. It challenges you to produce a password before it will open for you. In theory you can force it open with the right spell, but it is an obstacle in the way of getting to be able to cast that level of spells in the first place, so if you can't figure out how to learn the password you'll have to get lucky with scroll loot drops.
* Sound effects are slowly being appropriately applied. Music works but defaults to off on the demo- hit (M) for Music to toggle it.
* My brother, who has a growing interest in cartography, has drafted a map for me, which I intend to print as cloth maps for a Special Boxed Edition. It looks like this:
* I've been in talks with Denis Loubet, artist responsible for most of the art on the boxes and in the manuals for Ultima, and will be commissioning a piece from him just to have one. I have a few artistic friends who are going to be helping supply art for the manuals.
* Speaking of manuals, I've made a first draft of a Player Reference Card and the front cover for what I hope to have printed as a booklet like the ones that came with most Ultimas:
The Reference Card is split into 6 images and as such I will just leave that on the darkunknown.org website. It's under the Media tab.
* I'm working on drafting the Almanac, so I know what pieces of art I actually need.
* I also still need some tile art- I've had a number of offers from people that they'll try to make me some, but it is yet to pan out. I'm ok at modifying existing art but not so great at making stuff from scratch, so we'll see how that goes.
* I am toying with various ideas for a trinket to go with the boxed edition. Likely options are a coin or a dragon's scale.
So yeah... sometimes I'm deep in this and feel like it's not going anywhere fast enough, but sometimes I step back and go holy crap, there's almost a game here. Save/Load is the last system that needs to be added for me to consider the engine feature complete- everything else is specific to the game, like spell code, AI, and dialogue. I don't think I'll be done by the end of the year, but I am hoping to have an alpha by then- engine feature complete, working on making interesting puzzles for dungeons and the like.
One of these days when I feel up to it I am going to do a video walkthrough of what you can do in game right now. If anyone has recommendations for software to do this with I'd be happy to hear- currently I'm planning on trying to get it done with the 30 day demo of Camtasia.
A little over a year ago I did a demo during a google hangout and among the audience were Chris Spears and Starr Long. Both are working on Shroud of the Avatar now (Richard Garriott/Lord British's current game project), and Starr had worked on some of the Ultima series. He said he always finds it humbling when people are inspired by things he's worked on. Richard is aware of DU and thinks it's cool. I plan to send him a boxed copy once it's done.
Long term, I think once it's done the next step will be to port it to Unity. I have a Unity Pro 4 license and haven't done anything with it because I don't want to take time away from this project.
So... that's where the project is right now. Check out the demo and fool around. This was originally the "small" project to prove I could get to the end of one, with a "large" project waiting for me to finish... now I've ditched most of the large project's idea and am 6 years into working on the small one. Shows what I know.
I had originally made a Dark Unknown filter for my posts so people who aren't interested don't have to see them, but having not posted to LJ in 2 years I no longer understand anything about the interface and can't find how to add that screen. Hopefully what few people still read LJ at all won't mind one long post here.
Looking at the last few posts I made, one of them included a list of things I needed to work on. Looking at that list, they are all either done, have had some work done on them, or are the Save/Load system, which is the last major engine piece that I need to finish.
To start, the website got a major overhaul a few months ago. Just a week or so ago I updated the demo version of the game, which I have no idea if it works on Linux and I don't think it runs well on IE. Last I checked it was ok on FF and Chrome on mac and windows, but it's currently not very optimized so sometimes it lags if you're doing a lot of other things in the browser or have an older computer.
Right now, the things you can do or that will happen:
* Bandits spawn from the one spawner so far in place. They have a world AI, but no combat AI if they attack you. But you can attack them or be attacked on the world map and it will take you to a combat map, where you can beat them up and they will drop loot. The chests dropped might be trapped, even.
* All but three of the towns/settlements have maps. Most NPCs don't yet have dialogue trees written yet, but some do. There are a couple of merchants you can buy from and sell to, including one who will sell you spells if you have a spellbook. (Currently the only way to get a spellbook, however, is with a cheat code: (Y)ell BEAMAGE . )
* If you have a spellbook, you can cast the spells that have code attached so far- Light, Cure, Levitate, Transport, one or two others. I just haven't gotten around to the rest yet.
* Speaking of conversations, I wrote a conversation editor so I don't have to compose them directly into javascript data structures.
* Among the things that have conversations attached is a door. It challenges you to produce a password before it will open for you. In theory you can force it open with the right spell, but it is an obstacle in the way of getting to be able to cast that level of spells in the first place, so if you can't figure out how to learn the password you'll have to get lucky with scroll loot drops.
* Sound effects are slowly being appropriately applied. Music works but defaults to off on the demo- hit (M) for Music to toggle it.
* My brother, who has a growing interest in cartography, has drafted a map for me, which I intend to print as cloth maps for a Special Boxed Edition. It looks like this:
* I've been in talks with Denis Loubet, artist responsible for most of the art on the boxes and in the manuals for Ultima, and will be commissioning a piece from him just to have one. I have a few artistic friends who are going to be helping supply art for the manuals.
* Speaking of manuals, I've made a first draft of a Player Reference Card and the front cover for what I hope to have printed as a booklet like the ones that came with most Ultimas:
The Reference Card is split into 6 images and as such I will just leave that on the darkunknown.org website. It's under the Media tab.
* I'm working on drafting the Almanac, so I know what pieces of art I actually need.
* I also still need some tile art- I've had a number of offers from people that they'll try to make me some, but it is yet to pan out. I'm ok at modifying existing art but not so great at making stuff from scratch, so we'll see how that goes.
* I am toying with various ideas for a trinket to go with the boxed edition. Likely options are a coin or a dragon's scale.
So yeah... sometimes I'm deep in this and feel like it's not going anywhere fast enough, but sometimes I step back and go holy crap, there's almost a game here. Save/Load is the last system that needs to be added for me to consider the engine feature complete- everything else is specific to the game, like spell code, AI, and dialogue. I don't think I'll be done by the end of the year, but I am hoping to have an alpha by then- engine feature complete, working on making interesting puzzles for dungeons and the like.
One of these days when I feel up to it I am going to do a video walkthrough of what you can do in game right now. If anyone has recommendations for software to do this with I'd be happy to hear- currently I'm planning on trying to get it done with the 30 day demo of Camtasia.
A little over a year ago I did a demo during a google hangout and among the audience were Chris Spears and Starr Long. Both are working on Shroud of the Avatar now (Richard Garriott/Lord British's current game project), and Starr had worked on some of the Ultima series. He said he always finds it humbling when people are inspired by things he's worked on. Richard is aware of DU and thinks it's cool. I plan to send him a boxed copy once it's done.
Long term, I think once it's done the next step will be to port it to Unity. I have a Unity Pro 4 license and haven't done anything with it because I don't want to take time away from this project.
So... that's where the project is right now. Check out the demo and fool around. This was originally the "small" project to prove I could get to the end of one, with a "large" project waiting for me to finish... now I've ditched most of the large project's idea and am 6 years into working on the small one. Shows what I know.