DUNGEONS & DOOMKNIGHTS: An 8-bit AdventureQuest for the NES
Created by Artix Entertainment, LLC
Battle through a new 8-bit "zeldavania" game in the world of AdventureQuest. Available on a real NES Cartridge and emulators.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
The Story Cast of Dungeons & DoomKnights
about 5 years ago
– Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 01:04:39 AM
*You hear the rapid clicking of Dungeons & DoomKnight's pixel artists*
Introducing the main story cast of Dungeons & DoomKnights!
Greetings and salutations 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
Hope you had an awesome weekend! We had some killer breakthroughs on the code side-- especially with the new the character dialog scenes. Our horrifyingly Frankenstein'd code base now has the ability to display about 64 of these dialog screens. O_O We will not have that many though.
With so little graphics space, we had to carefully choose which of the characters were vital to the story-- so they could get bigger characters for these screens.
Want to meet them?
Artix, the Paladin
Backstory: Haunted all of his life by the evil undead, the young Artix is taken in and reluctantly trained by the Order of Paladins. Upon passing the last of their trails he returns to find his home town destroyed. Raided by an army of the dead, there is not a single soul to be found. But there is a note... and it has his name on it.
As the game begins, the hero of the story stands on the edge of a cliff with the DoomKnight's undead flying dragon castle looming in the background... (I think this type of starting screen is legally required for 80's video games)
Sepulchure, the DoomKnight
Once, he was the King's greatest champion and closest friend. Now, he is the cursed DoomKnight, Sepulchure. His talking sword manipulates him towards its goal of washing our world clean in a wave of darkness. With the ability to command skeletons, zombies, liches, death knights, and greater undead, he possesses the power to succeed.
Gravelyn, the Princess of Doom
Her entire life, she has been raised in secret by the undead. It is possible she thinks she is undead herself. She calls the DoomKnight, Sepulchure, by another title... "Father". Very few outside of the undead flying castle's walls even know she exists-- and for good reason. She may be her Father's only weakness.
NOTE: Gravelyn was introduced in the video game AdventureQuest Worlds and quickly became one of its most popular (and sometimes most controversial) characters. The events in Dungeons & DoomKnights take place prior to the invasion where the other heroes of our world first learned of her existence.
Daimyo, Undead Slaying Pomeranian
Once a generation, a slayer is born! A "chosen one" born as the ultimate weapon to hunt and slay the evil undead. This time 'round... it was an 8lb Pomeranian. "Arf! Arf!"
Moglins!
Moglins are magical forest creatures. Born under a special moon, each has a unique power and color. Above is Twilly, the red Moglin. His power is to heal. But thanks to the magic of NES color palette shifting, that could potentially be any Moglin! You will want to know about these three:
Twilly (The Red Moglin) - Friendly, optimistic, has the power to heal.
Zorbak (The Blue Moglin) - 100% Ebil, has necromantic powers.
Twig (The Yellow Moglin) - Lil' bit crazy. Likes Fish & Ice Cream, hugs.
DEATH
Ever get a "dead pixel" on your Monitor? Yup, that's the guy. DEATH is also known as the Grim Reaper, the Reaper of Souls, the Angel of Death, and sometimes Bob. From his realm in the underworld, he knows far more about our world than anyone else. You will have a run in with DEATH one way, or another, during your adventures...
If Dungeons & DoomKnights had a narrator, it would be DEATH.
MORE CHARACTERS
You will meet many other strange and unusual characters during your Dungeons & DoomKnights adventure. But the ones shown higher above get the full size character portraits :D
BONUS STORY: Surprise Birthday Party
Dale Coop, our 6502 Assembly language guru, had a major birthday this week! But how do you throw a surprise party for someone who lives on the other side of the world? We secretly created an NES game parody of his favorite show, Twin Peaks. We posted the ROM file in chat with the message, "Dale Coop, when you wake up and get your coffee can you look at this ASAP? It is time sensitive!" He really thought it was an emergency. XD Never expected it! Thought you would enjoy hearing the story. Happy Birthday Dale Coop :D
See you in the next update.
Battle on!
Artix & the 8-Bit Team
DoomKnight Art, Cart Production, and Updated Schedule
about 5 years ago
– Mon, Oct 14, 2019 at 01:28:48 AM
Dungeons & DoomKnights
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayer,
Hope you are doing well. Have some new things to share with you today. What do you think of these new Dungeons & DoomKnight's dialog screens? These graphics are HUUUUUUUUGE on the NES, so we cannot have too many characters. We must pick and choose wisely.
Carts & Boards in Production
I paid the super scary & extremely large invoice $$$ on Friday! O_O The NES boards and carts for Dungeons and DoomKnights are now in production. (Wooohooo!)
Woah, woah.... wait. How is that possible?
"Um, Artix, last time I checked you are staying up until 5am every weekend adding insane new features that no sane person even considered requesting. I mean, is it true you guyssnuck a platformer into the middle of the game?The game's not even finished yet. How is that possible you're already producing the carts?"
We used to make Flash games, now we... Flash games!?
Great question! Glad you asked. (And yes to the platformer thing). We originally slated to create the hardware now, in October. We did not want to lose our production window, so we are getting ALL of the boards and carts produced now. They are all going to be sent to us along with a bunch of ROM flashers because.... yup, we will be flashing your Dungeons & DoomKnights cart right here at the lab! (Pretty good odds your cart will be tested on NES I grew up playing.)
Hindsight being 20/20, I should have titled that last section "Putting the cart before the horse" for maximum comedy.
Moglin, skull, and my wife's old TV from Trinidad sold separately XD. OMG, that TV is so old. Pulled it out of storage to test what Dungeons & DoomKnights would look like on a real tube TV.
Thank you for allowing me the time to make this game the best it can be. (Or the worst it can be, depending on how you feel about bad puns and retro game gags XD)
Digital ROM (Beta Version) - December, 2019
Digital ROM (Release Candidate) - January, 2020
Physical Carts Ship & Digital ROM (Official) - February, 2020
Dev Diary: "The smell of pumpkin-spice surrounds me..."
On Saturday, I went to this awesome used book store with a little coffee shop in it. Fired up my laptop for some Dungeons & DoomKnights map creation. It is October. My favorite time of the year. I live in Florida (USA). They weather is warm (like living in an oven, on the sun, and someone turned on the heater) all year around. So the only way we know the season changed to Fall, is when all the coffee shops start selling pumpkin spice lattes XD.
If you are a creative person too, then you know that sometimes inspiration just strikes-- and you have to go for it. My goal at the coffee shop was to be working on the intro maps. But at 3am the night before while wrapping up work, I created the graphic of Gravelyn above. Let me rephrase that: I "re-created" her. Gravelyn is a popular character from AdventureQuest Worlds. Starting with fan-favorite poster art of her by Dioz, I was fiddling to see if I could create a 46 pixels tall version-- while making sure it had style and you could still recognize who she is. I usually work in Photoshop, & Asesprite, but early attempts were comical. If you would like a more detailed story of how these graphics are created please tell me-- because I would love to share it. Short version, a friend in the NESMaker chat suggested a retro art palette tool which led to making an entirely new process for creating 8-Bit versions of... anything! It is not completely automated. The final step is sending it to our pixel artist Clarion who cleans it up, adds detail and polish.
After successfully making 8-Bit Gravelyn, I figured I would just use her on the "Win Screen" in the next boss fight challenge. But the entire time I was sitting in that bookstore... I was obsessing over how I could make cutscene dialogs like the ones in AQWorlds & AQ3D. Because, that would make the world feel so much more... personal.
So, I continued working on it after getting home. And figured it out! Something about this lit a contagious spark in everyone that saw it. It suddenly felt like "An AE Game". Hope you love it too.
Let me know what you think!
Battle on!
Artix & the 8-Bit Dugeons & DoomKnights Team
Backer-Only! Chaos Reflect Boss Fight Challenge
about 5 years ago
– Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 11:04:55 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Chaos Labyrinth & Magic / Reflective Shield
about 5 years ago
– Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 11:04:30 PM
Chaos Labyrinth & Magic / Reflective Shield
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
Got a new boss fight challenge test coming your way tomorrow in a backer-only post. We will be headed to the Chaos Labyrinth! You will be going face to face with Chaos.... without your axe.
When Chaos gives you the evil eye... sent it right back to it!
Technically, this is going to be more of a combat skill test than a boss fight challenge.
New Skill: Magic Reflect
The Magic Reflect skill allows you to reflect enemy projectiles. Consider this a strategic game of chaos pong.
Side Story
There is a very, very special fight (to me at least) in this release. The very first one I designed together with my 5 year old son. He is *STILL* obsessed the the three headed monster "King Ghidorah" from the Godzilla franchise. So you know where the inspiration for this one came from XD. Feels good.
Keep an eye out for the Backer-Only post with instructions. Looking forward to your feedback!
Battle on!
Artix
Dev Dairy: The Legend of Artixvania
over 5 years ago
– Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 09:38:34 PM
Dev Dairy: The Legend of Artixvania
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
It was Sunday night. I was exhausted. Brain was mush. A starved Zombie would have looked at my brain and said, "Uh... I'll come back later." I had clocked in nearly 30 hours over a weekend-long Dungeons & DoomKnights coding spree. It was glorious. But now it was midnight. As I powered down my compytron (this is what I call it when it's good. I have other names for it when it's bad), it dawned on me that I had not had a chance to write you yet this week. So I laid down on my bed and took out my phone.
Turns out you can write Kickstarter Update posts on your phone! I smiled and thought, "This is going to be a first! I will write a long, super personal post and tell you how grateful I am for the opportunity to work on this project. I would write about the amazing people like Dale Coop, The UltimateGilby, Kasumi, and how far my 6502 Assembly Language Skills (That is what NES games are coded in) have evolved.
So I did!
I typed it on my phone for 50 minutes. It talked about the breakthroughs that happened this through this weekend. Talked about the Monster AI scripts that I publicly posted that made it possible to have custom monster animations, double-dragon like combo attacks, monsters that get smaller every time you hit them, and even monsters like the Grim Reaper from Kid Icarus which freaks out and does bad stuff when you you tap it on the shoulder.
It was nearly 1am. I had written you a small novel. The perfect way to end a Dungeons & DoomKnights filled weekend. I hit the preview button....
O_O
IT REMOVED EVERY SINGLE SPACE IN THE ENTIRE POST!!!!!
AHHHH
AHHHHHHHHHH
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
(Channeling my inner Sam Kinison there)
Apparently, making Kickstarter updates from my phone was not the best idea. So, I copy/pasta'd the entire thing and posted it into PushBullet. (A really neat app for easily transferring things between your computer and phone.) Figured I would just wake up, use my computer to remove all the spaces and make the post for you. Sure, it would not be as cool as me spending that extra hour at the end of the night. But surely you would get a laugh and enjoy it just the same.
O_O
Only 5% of the message was there.
Push Bullet had truncated my post to about a paragraph. /Facepalms Apparently there is character limit on messages you can send to yourself.
So, instead. For Maximum comedy...
I wrote you a post about how I wrote you a post after a killer spree of Dungeons & DoomKnights development.
All is now right with the world.
Also...
We now have a beautifully rewarding zeldaesque GET ITEM experience in game. Which is a really fun way to get all of your new items, powers, health, spirit, and other rewards.
The system for you to unlock these things in game was the final, and arguably the most important feature left on the code-side of Dungeons & DoomKnights.
Hurricane Dorian, that was headed for us in Florida last week turned, and went all the way north and landed in Canada? Taking out Clarion's (our Pixel artist's) power. O_O He has been checking in from a cafe. Most of the art for the game is already done. He is currently working on some unique projectiles to replace the default one most of the monsters currently use.
Also...
Its....
FRIDAY THE 13TH!
This Friday is a Friday the 13th. Also a full Moon. Be careful out there undead slayers. Also, across our games we have creepy events taking place. Dark, spooky, goth musician Aurelio Voltaire returns to AdventureQuest Worlds (2D), and a crashed space ship has been discovered in the middle of Camp Gonnagetcha in AdventureQuest 3D (See the trailer).
