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:
Payments processed, Carts ordered, AQWorlds rewards preview!
almost 7 years ago
– Fri, May 17, 2019 at 12:09:53 AM
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayers!
Artix here, with a bag full of good news for you about Dungeons & DoomKnights. It has been 14 days since the Kickstarter successfully completed (Thank you once again). Last night, at long last, Kickstarter completed processing the payments. Which means....
Cartridge Ordered and Production begun!
Today, I am pleased to inform you we have already sent the down payment on the Gray Cartridges and PCB Boards (The circuit boards that go in the carts) and production has begun! Because we are going through Infinite NES Lives for production, this part has been really smooth. They also provided us with a backup plan should we run into any issues with the collector's Gold Carts.
I'll be keeping an eye on this
Gold Cartridges
As I write this, we are waiting on an invoice for the Gold Carts, so they can begin production too. We are ordering all of the parts, including the boxes, instruction manuals, and sleeves... and will be assembling all ~1,000 Dungeons & DoomKnights Cartridges here at our lab.
Mmmmm... Assembly Language Programming
Side story! So, I found a rare copy of this book and got it as a gift for a friend from the NESMaker community who has contributed greatly to this video game project-- and still is. This book is sorta the ultimate wizard spell book for NES programming. I can not even count the number of bugs, speed, and gameplay issues that Dale Coop fixed in the core game. While not an originally planned feature, the carts we ordered have a flash save feature-- yup, it looks like we will be able to save. This essential feature will allow us to restructure the game as it was originally intended... as an open, explorable world-puzzle to conquer.
AdventureQuest Worlds Rewards Sneak Peak
Your pledge likely includes in-game rewards in two of our other games. The AQWorlds (the 2D MMORPG) team sent me some photos to share with you.
I liked the gleam animations, but I felt the axe needed something more...
At first, we faithfully recreated the axe from Dungeons & DoomKnights into vector graphics as seen above. But it needed more of a punch. So, like what we did in the other game, we took some liberties.
The gleam animation will be added to this one as well. If you were *REALLY* in love with the ultra faithful one, please let us know. We can simply add it in for you too.
8-Bit Daimyo run in AdventureQuest Worlds
Arf! Arf!
Soooooooooooo cute!
"Badges? We don't..... oh, yes. Yes we do!"
To deliver your cross-game rewards we set up the badges, shops, and are currently generating the codes. Above are the badges I put together for your AdventureQuest 3D character page.
Thank you... and BackerKit is almost ready
Hope you enjoy this post. Last night, I was (still) re-arranging the texture atlases for Dungeons & DoomKnights to make them more efficient and modular. (The screenshot in the TV was a test image from it) Turns out, we have A LOT MORE ROOM that I thought. So, hope you do not mind if we just make the game as big as possible. My schedule the past months has been pretty consistent. If you see me in our official Artix Entertainment discord channel with Asesprite or FCEUX running, you know I am working on Dungeons & DoomKnights.
BackerKit is coming up next. This is where you will get your codes, download wallpapers, ROMs, and digital goodies as they become available.... and also enter any shipping information needed to fulfill your order. If you had problems processing your payment, this will let you fix it. It will also allow you to bump up your pledge or get an additional cart (like a gray one) if you wanted more. We just need to finish getting the codes together, setting it up, and submit it (we already paid the fee today.)
Sneak Peek: AdventureQuest 3D Rewards
almost 7 years ago
– Wed, May 08, 2019 at 10:14:48 PM
Greetings and salutations!
Your Dungeons & DoomKnights pledge probably contains one or more rewards in our 3D MMORPG, AdventureQuest 3D. Thought you might enjoy a sneak peek of them while we work on getting BackerKit up. BackerKit is where you will put your shipping info, and get your digital rewards as they are released. Including: ROMs, wallpapers, the sound track, bonus surprise items, and codes to unlock in-game items.
Here is the 8-Bit Dungeons & DoomKnights version for reference.
OMG... that 8-Bit Daimyo's run is perfect!
I am in love with how this turned out in AdventureQuest 3D. The reflective gleam on the 8-Bit Golden Battleaxe was a nice touch. Xero does the monster/item modeling for AdventureQuest 3D. When I asked him to help us create the in-game items, he dove head first into a voxel editor and went for a pixel-perfect extraction. The first version of the axe was exact, but did not feel right. A few revisions later, and this new one is a winner.
In the animated GIF above, I am testing it out on our development server. The files will be rolling to the live servers along with the new City of Battleon with Thursdays new weekly release. The players just won the special world-event war yesterday. Oh.... we have the cartridge backpack item too. Also, your first surprise bonus-- if you are getting the back cart, you are also getting a floating pet version of it. (Not as cute as Daimyo, but pretty awesome!)
Our other MMORPG, AdventureQuest Worlds (the 2D one) says they will be ready this week too. I will send you a sneak peek when the final graphics for those come in too.
Once BackerKit goes live, these update posts are going to focus more on the Dungeons & DoomKnights NES Game content... but why wait? Let's wrap this post with another art sneak peek. In the graveyard outside of Vampire Castle... beware of ghosts.
Vampires, Skeletons, Ghosts, Liches, DoomKnights (Which are pretty much Super-DeathKnights).... there's a lot of undead of all types in Dungeons & DoomKnights. See you in the next update.
Battle on!
Artix
Golden Cart Sample
almost 7 years ago
– Tue, May 07, 2019 at 07:35:21 AM
Sourcing Carts and Taking names!
Not all parts of game design and fulfillment are glamorous. But this golden cart... is glorious. Got this sample golden cart in on Sunday and thought you might like to see some photos!
Let the quality testing begin....
It's in the bag!
It was surprising seeing a cart come in a bag. I remember fondly, those days of old when taking carts out of the retail game boxes from Babbages and Electronics Boutique. You know, the way you will be getting yours. We need over 500+ of these... and I am being extremely picky on quality. So far so good, but...
Chew toy test... check!
Obligatory Chew Toy Test
Nope, not real gold.
Side-by-side with the classics test.... check!
Side-by-Side Test
Oh yes. OH HECK YES. In this photo, I put our golden sample cart next to two of my favorite childhood carts... which have aged well. Those two carts are ~30 years old. Probably contain enough of my spit from blowing in them to replicate a clone of me. This sample golden cart looks... fantastic.
Think we have a winner.
Contacted the seller and they said meeting our order size would be no problem. (Spoiler: There's always a problem... the secret is just always anticipating it and being ready.) Will keep you updated as we make progress on every part of Dungeons & DoomKnights.
Battle on!
Artix
Welcome to our video game community!
almost 7 years ago
– Fri, May 03, 2019 at 01:06:34 PM
Greetings and salutations,
Thank you again for being a part of this 8-Bit Dungeons & DoomKnights video game project. I am grateful beyond words that you supported this passion project. Whether you are a fan of our other games, a friend who wanted to see me accomplish this major life goal, or a fan of retro games who is just now joining us-- thank you, and welcome to our video game community.
If you don't know who I am yet... hi I'm Artix, your video game making friend. My studio, Artix Entertainment (www.Artix.com) is located in the Dagobah like swamps of Tampa, Florida. We have a team of 34-ish game devs here. For the past 16 years we have been creating video games, many of them updated with new content and things for you to do every week.
Talking about weekly releases... this week has been a big one!
Week in Review
In addition to our massive victory with Dungeons & DoomKnights, we also released the first of our games from our 2019 Artix Game Jam...
At the beginning of this year, we had a Game Jam where we created 7 video game prototypes. DungeonBorne is the 1st of these to be publicly released. It is a story-based card game. You swipe right or left to make "death or life" decisions and try to stay alive as long as you can. The game's triumphantly inspiring music is by Jongaar, who also did the 8-Bit music for Dungeons & DoomKnights. Might be fun for you to try while you want for the first of your rewards to be delivered. DungeonBorne is available on the Apple & Android app stores.
Meanwhile, in AdventureQuest 3D... the bad guy burned our town to a crisp
Depending on your pledge tier, your Dungeons & DoomKnights also pledge includes in-game items for two of our other video games, including AdventureQuest 3D. A world event is happening there now. The VoidKing attacked our home town and destroyed it. As you read this, players are gathering stone and wood to rebuild it. But not as a town... this time it is going to be an entire city. You can log into this world and join us using your phone, tablet, PC or Mac. (It's a cross-platform game)
Our previous Kickstarter was for plush version of our video game's adorable mascots... Moglins. They have finished production at the factory and are boarding a ship May 6th to begin their voyage over the Atlantic to us. You can read more details on the official update posts there. But, LOL, our "Secret Underground Lab" is literally going to be a sea of 27,000 Moglins. Looking forward to shipping them to all of the backers.
Your pledge likely also includes in-game rewards for our 2D MMORPG, AdventureQuest Worlds (The regulars call it AQWorlds). Last week, there was a major shakeup in the main storyline as the... I really do not want to spoil this for anyone. But the game abruptly has a new main villain now. In tonight's new release, things are continuing to heat up.
Our web based games were created in Flash. We created the new Artix Games Launcher to "future proof them." The launcher allows you to play all of our web based games from your PC, Mac (Linux too!)
Something tells me you already heard about this one... XD
You were a part of our community's biggest win this week. The unbelievable success of the Dungeons & DoomKnights Kickstarter! Behind the scenes we have already gotten the ball rolling on the boards and physical cartridges. We are setting up BackerKit, where you will get your digital rewards as they become available and let you enter your shipping information so we can send you your physical carts when they are ready. Jongaar is working in Famitracker on 2 new, original songs for the game. This weekend, Clarion (Pixel artist) and I are working on a new boss fight. From here on out, my update posts to you will be are going to focus on the game's art, code, music, and design... also a transparent look at how we are doing all aspects of creating the physical products. I think this will be valuable for you ever intend to do the same, or if you are just curious of how it all works and how we handle problems when they pop up. (Or good for a laugh if you are already an expert watching me go through the process for the first time.)
I'm really glad you are with us. Hope you enjoyed this update... seeing the things the team and I did this week was an important for getting to know us. We love making games. Looking forward to getting to know you through the games and social media too.
P.P.S. Don't forget to grab a copy of DungeonBorne
Final Dungeons & DoomKnights Stretch Goal Unlocked!
almost 7 years ago
– Wed, May 01, 2019 at 09:37:40 PM
Final Stretch Goal Unlocked! An 8-Bit Map in the AdventureQuest Worlds MMO for everyone
Unbelievable. You have unlocked 100% of the stretch goals. This last one is a win for our entire video game community. We will convert fan favorite screens from Dungeons & DoomKnights into a playable, multiplayer series of maps inside of our massively multiplayer 2D game, AdventureQuest Worlds.
This bonus adventure is for the entire community-- so it will be free and available for you, your friends, and everyone to enjoy.
Other Dungeons & DoomKnights Stretch Goals you have unlocked....
Every backer gets their instruction book signed!
Every backer gets a signed physical instruction booklet (unless, for some reason, you do not want that... in which case we will add a drop down option to not have yours signed.)
Director's "Un-Cut" CHAOS ROM
We'll create and send every backer a bonus ROM (and make it playable on the web too) where you play as the villain and familiar places of the game are intentionally... strange, backwards, and wrong.
Your Name in the Credits
You and the other amazing backers of this Kickstarter will have your names in Dungeons & DoomKnights credits. Since we can't fit that much text on the cartridge, we'll create an official credits web page which will be linked in the instruction manual.
Other Stretch Goals and Surprise
We also got George Lowe, voice actor from the TV shows Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Robot Chicken, and other Adult Swim shows to narrate our upcoming trailer. We held our 1st Dungeons & DoomKnights LIVE STREAM last week, and if you missed it, do not worry. There will certainly be more. Also, while making your cross-game rewards (Depending on which tier you backed, you also get in-game items for two of our online video games) we felt that the 8-Bit versions were cool, but you also deserve something with a little more "punch". So I talked with the AQ.com team and they added 8-bit flaming fists based on our Dragon's Breath sprites. Every backer at the $12 tier and above will get those too :D
The Final 24 hours!
The Dungeons & DoomKnights Kickstarter ends at midnight! Please help spread the word. Here is the easier to remember link that I use...
