We assembled 400+ of the gold collector's carts on Friday. They were tricky! My trusty mechanical screwdrivers were not strong enough for these carts. So we bought two special screwdrivers.
I numbered all of the circuit boards on the collector's edition. However, I do not recommend opening yours up. *points back up to the previous text about the screws*. It is possible taking the screws out could damage the cart. Just sleep well knowing that if you backed this project, your cart is under 999.
Building Together
We needed reinforcements! So everyone got together to make and box the carts this weekend! Warlic (and his family), Jongaar, Broomtool, Stryche, Glisel, my three children, wife, myself and.... my childhood NES.
Every cart tested on my childhood NES!
I do not know why this fills my heart with so much joy. But every single cart.... gray or gold... was tested on my childhood NES. I hooked it up to a screen, which quickly became swarmed by boxes.
This is the packing foam that we put at the bottom of your boxes. I have an adorable video of my 3 year old expertly putting these foam inserts into your boxes. He was so excited that he found a way to contribute building this for you.
I am soooooo bad at keeping secrets
Went to coffee to proofread this... uh.. random... magazine.... that needed proofed.
Gray Carts 100% complete
We completed building all of the gray carts and boxes on Thursday.
I was making 100 carts a night at my desk. Often with the help of my oldest son. I {"borrowed" one of my kids lunch box containers to hold my the screws. Need to remember to remove the screws before giving it back... or their lunch will have a little extra crunch.
Live Streaming while making carts
One night I live streamed while making them. It was fun! But my productivity dropped to waaaay less than 30%. (It was really fun though!)
The D&DK box building process!
Curious? Here are the exact steps to create a finished NES Box.
Get an unused plastic NES Shell
Open up a the NES Shell
Put the Circuit Board into the spot for it.
Close and screw the back of the cart together.
Make jokes about how you are "screwing up the game"... since you are. Literally.
Assemble a sleeve (they come flat)
Put the cart into the sleeve.
Assemble a box (they come flat too)
Put the foam at the bottom of the box.
Grab an instruction manual and one of the Carts in a sleeve
Place them together and flip them upside down.... because if you put them in the way that everyone things they should go, the sleeve and manual will get wedged int here and 80% of people will never see them. And put them in the box :)
Seal the box
Duel to the death with the other people trying to find a spot on the table to place their newly created box.
Feel good about yourself! (until you realize there are 1,999 more to go.)
Repeat
(Note: Our actual flow is far more streamlined. We have created a good flow.... well, we did until those gold carts gave us that unexpected challenge.)
Estimated Shipping Schedule
Oh boy.... we are close! We have just 200 more collectors editions to build until we have all of the boxes ready to fulfill the backer orders. However we need 13 more days to receive the not-so-secret bonus thing that is going in EVERYONE'S package.
This means you have 13 days or less to update your shipping information if needed.
This has been an amazing journey. The moment we have worked so hard for is nearly upon us. I am so grateful to you for making Dungeons & DoomKnights a reality. This feels pretty high class for an indie game project. OH! Jongaar and Broomtool brought their final versions of the Heavy Metal Remix of the Soundtrack. O_O IT IS SOOOO METAL!!!!!!! Collector's Edition Backers will be notified when it becomes available for them.
Happy New Year!
about 4 years ago
– Thu, Jan 06, 2022 at 07:45:02 PM
Happy New Year!
Greetings and salutations 8-Bit Undead Slayer,
A good start to the year! Ran live Live Years Eve events in AdventureQuest 3D all New Years eve until 3:30am. Then woke up early on the 1st and started making Dungeons and DoomKnight boxes with my son.
This project has been a surprisingly good bonding time for us.
Building the carts is super fun. Always expected to do this at the lab with an army of people. But with everyone we know getting sick with the new variant, we are playing it super safe. We turned into a really fun home family project.
It may be cool to know that the cart you are getting was put together by us here and tested on my childhood NES.
We are doing the normal Dungeons & DoomKnights boxes first. (Because I have to run over to the lab this week to pick up all the Gold Carts.)
I just finished the surprise bonus thing I am adding to every order. Alina had sent me 20 pages of edits for it. O_O I just finished them tonight before writing this update to you. We are still on schedule to start shipping this month.
Even 3 year old "Kygar" got in on the cart assembly
Sitting together with the family making carts... talking, teaching, learning.... and taking this project to the finish line together is legit the best feeling ever.
My mother bought us two electric specialty screwdrivers for the holidays. Almost like she somehow knew this was going to happen.
There are 2,000 boards here. Half of them are flashed with the final version of the game. (Which you can also download on backerkit now) . If you need me, I will be here zweee'whirrrr-ing away into the wee hours of the night to get your cart ready.
Weird note! We are putting all of the carts into the boxes upside down on purpose. Huh? Yeah... the boxes are so perfectly snug that if we put them in normal, the cart comes out, but the sleeve and instruction manual sorta stay wedged in there. The people we showed it to did not even realize there was a sleeve and instruction manual in the box! Putting it in upside ensures that EVERYTHING comes out when you open the box. There is foam at the bottom of the box, so it is safe and good. So, now you are in on the secret.
This final release candidate has survived well over a month and has been officially marked as our release build. We did it! Thank you again to everyone who helped test to make this the best version of the game.
8-Bit Christmas
Have you seen the new holiday movie "8-Bit Christmas" yet? I watched it with my kids last week. They said, "Did you ever get so mad at a game that you kicked a TV like the kid in the movie did!?" I replied "No! Of course not. ... But Uncle Warlic sure did. How that little screen deflected so many projectile controllers was beyond me." It was a good movie that hit the nostalgia... and the ending was great. There was one scene where this rich kid with a Nintendo and Power Glove would pick kids from a crowd in front of his house to come inside and watch him play. I remember going over to my neighborhood's version of that kids house. He would offer to take turns. But I would die in 2 seconds, and he would play for (what felt like) hours. So I would sit on his couch reading the instruction manual over and over and over again... hoping to find some hidden clue. There were so many relatable moments in that movie... moments that ultimately led to my love of video games and then to this project-- which really, truely, honest to goodness happened, thanks to you.
We are currently on track for our January ship date.
Boxes (Normal and Collector's Editions), Sleeves, Instruction Manuals are expected to be completed and shipped to us by the end of December.
The cloth map for the collector's edition should be at the same time
T-shirts, certificates, and other things we are producing here will be ready 1st week of January.
Posters are already here
The 1st batch boards and shells (which covers all current orders) are already here
A 2nd batch of boards and shells will be here next week
Jongaar & Broomtool have 2 heavy metal re-mixes left for the D&DK Sound Track
There is one secret bonus thing that I am creating for you (that despite attempting to keep it secret, I have definitely blabbed about it in the JLS gaming video interview last week) Naturally, with the rest of the holiday crazy across our game network I am super behind on it :D However, I allocated some time this week to work on it. Wish me luck!
Oh... and we are shipping soon! Be sure your address is up to date!
Have a warm, happy, and fun holidays.
Battle on!
Adam (Artix)
P.S. We have special holiday events happening across our all our video games. Come join us at www.Artix.com
*Checks watch* It is D&DK Convention Story Time!
over 4 years ago
– Thu, Nov 25, 2021 at 06:44:42 PM
The founders of Atari were playing the game Go on THIS board when they decided to make the company. They named it "Atari", because atari is the name of a type of move in this game.
The sign specifically said not to touch it. I touched it. Twice. Its power is ours now.
100% totally not staged booth photo of awesome people checking out the booth at Free Play Florida XD
"Why not Booth!?"
This was our display. But before we talk about that... how about we do a quick update on our game project too?
We had four fully functioning, final, Dungeons and DoomKnights prototype carts with us at our booth. We were shocked how many offers we got for them. A few collectors were VERY persistent. It was quite flattering to our little game project.
I proved my loyalty to you and upheld my promise of not selling any physical carts until after we have shipped to you and our other dedicated backers.
Well... after this moment we only had 3 prototypes.
My buddy Gil was showing of Hazard in the booth next to mine. He forgot his physical cart so we Flashed his game onto to one of our carts. (The yellow thing is a flasher.)
Fish and Chips! (Wanted: Fish)
Infinite NES Lives sent another batch of circuit boards. These chips are low carb, glucose and soy free. We currently have 1,500 out of 2,000 boards at our lab now.
Complete in Box-ing match!
All physical CiB (complete in box) assets, including a little something special we made for the collector's edition are in production.
I met a BUNCH of Kickstarter Backers!
There are no words to express meeting someone who supported your project in person... and seeing a legit impressed look on their face when they see what they helped bring to the real world.
Including that one guy that said, "A new game for the NES? Oh wait... I think I backed this. I did. Holy #$%! this looks amazing. Great job guys. Can't wait to get my copy. When are you shipping again?"
Aiming for the second week of January.
They made the mistake of giving me a mic....
Hair of the Dogcast
A lot of people made the mistake of giving me a mic.
(I loved meeting these guys from Hair of the Dogcast!)
Defeat Death Tournament
"Popular strategies by contestants here today include jumping.... and attacking." - Artix
Award Winning Booth!?
OK... I am not sure if they gave one of these to everyone that ran a booth, but getting this felt awesome! (Also, does this mean they are going to forget about what happened when they gave me the mic and let me back in next year?)
"Booth Babes? ...no, no, I said Booth Babies."
We took our kids to the convention. It was their first ever.
"Classically training" the next generation of gamers.
Free Play Florida
Lil' Kygar (level 3) is not even tall enough to see the pin ball.
"I LOL'd"
There were a lot of great takeaways from these two conventions.... Almost all of them involved the amazing people I got to meet.
George Lowe (Voice of Space Ghost Coast to Coast)
"Uncle George" did the voice over for our upcoming Dungeons & DoomKnights trailer. You may recognize his work from Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, American Dad, Space Ghost, and other TV/Radio stuff.
A highlight of Midwest Gaming Classic was meeting fellow NES game creators in person. Been talking with these guys on Discord and the forums for years O_O
Meet Bob
Bob is awesome. Long time player of our games. He came just to meet me. Helped run the booth most of the weekend.
John Riggs
Wow!!!! Jon Rigg's YouTube channel is famous for retro games, fixing carts, and how to videos on modifying old NES games. Also his insane cereal box collection O_O.
Better known as Ben Heck, this is the guy that fixed that Nintendo/Playstation Prototype. Wait, what!? Yeah. Before the Playstation as we know it came to exist, Sony and Nintendo were working together on a CD attachment for the Super Nintendo. At the last second the partnership fell apart. Several prototypes of this exist. One ended up at Midwest Gaming Classic and sold for $360K. It did not work. But Ben fixed it. You can check out the videos on his YouTube Channel.
Side note: This is also why the Playstation controller is very similar to the Super Nintendo controller.
Space Raft!
This is Jordan Davis from Space Raft. He is another good friend of our assembly language coder from France, Dale Coop. His game Space Raft is about their band... well, driving their band around in their van to shows.
In the game you drive an 8-bit Space Raft's iconic white tour van....
We got to see the real van!
But he would not let me try to recklessly drive it trying to collect hamburgers on the street.
NES Sim City Prototype!?
This rare Sim City prototype was placed in a Zelda cart by the devs. Apparently it was common to do these type things back then. This artifact was in a collection of rarities owned by the director of Mother 2 Earth. A cool documentary about the game, Earthbound.
The director placed this mannequin that looked like the main character at the top of the escalator. Pretty genius. I bought and watched the movie when I got home.
During the first convention, I had to do a lot of talking to explain to passerbys what they were looking at. So, for the second, I really worked at making everything super intuitive.
Free Demo. Take One!
Not sure I could make it any simpler than this XD
Well....
Jongaar (who did our music) came over to drop off the projector the night before the convention and we were talking... had a fun idea....
Point and Click
When I realized that every phone camera automatically pops up the url when you aim it at a QR code... I made this!
It was really cool watching people walk up to the booth, take out their phones and aim it at the poster. #Win
Oh... I heard some people were having a hard time getting the confirmation email. Probably because they were already subscribed through our other games. I will be sending out a letter to everyone on this list with another link and some other stuff that was suggested by people visiting the booth.
But who watches the watchers?
Watching people smile and play the demo at the convention was really uplifting. Those tongue-in-cheek references in the game scored some critical hits. And the look of shock in peoples eyes when I showed them how big the full world was made my heart happy. Sure, I would love to go and redo every single thing in the game (I think this is a curse every passionate game developer has), but I think we created an awesome new "Zeldavania" which will give new and older players alike that magical experience for exploring a massive world and whooping epic bosses.
Note: Player of the year goes to this one girl who played on one of the computers for 4-hours non-stop. She was SO INTO IT! She would scream at the bosses and laugh out loud at the clever bits. Was hoping she would beat the game. She made it a little past the half-way point before she had to go :-(
"Do you REALLY need to pack all of these things!? We are only going to be gone 3 days!"
Also need shark repellent, extra socks, and audio patch cables.
Testing the projector before the convention
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Or... if outside of the USA, have a happy Thursday!
It is a time to be thankful, and I am so grateful to you for making Dungeons & DoomKnights a reality. Battle-testing our project at the conventions has left me in incredibly high spirits and confidence that made one heck of a good game. Hope you enjoyed these photos and stories.... and that we will also get a chance to meet up in person at one of these things in the future. As always, I will keep you posted as we receive all the parts and at long last assemble your game boxes :D
Be safe, have fun and....
Battle on!
Artix
P.S. We are doing Thanksgiving events and having Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales across our games at www.Artix.com
This weekend I will be running a booth at Free Play Florida. It is a gaming convention in Orlando, Florida featuring arcade games, pinball, special guests and.... yes, oh yes... our "new yet old!" retro game, Dungeons and DoomKnights!
Dungeons and DoomKnights the new 8-bit "zeldavania" game for your NES is officially complete. I am excited to share that the circuit boards are being flashed while the boxes, manuals, and "other stuff" are officially being printed/made/how-do-they-even-make-this-stuff!?!?!
Our official ship date is looking like the second week of January!
This is the gold foil treatment on the collector's box. It looks sooooooo goood!
That is my childhood NES.... testing the flashed games on it.
This is what our booth looks like!
This is what our booth looks like. But this weekend, for Free Play Florida, I am bringing my NES. Also may bring a projector...
Everyone who comes to the convention can play Dungeons and DoomKnights on my childhood NES! But I will not have any copies for sale. We will not be selling any until AFTER we ship to all of the Kickstarter backers and anyone who late-backs on BackerKit.
We have been working on this for so long, and have put so much love, energy, and creativity into this project. We have officially launched the website www.DungeonsAndDoomKnights.com . If you enjoy these letters from me, you should sign up for the email newsletter there too. Although, I will probably post the exact same things here O_O.... but still! You can also let friends know they can download the official demo there. This website is where the "Wall of 8-Bit Undead Slayers" will go, with your name in the official credits. It is also where we will be posting tips, tricks, secrets, broken links, 404 pages, and everything else you would expect from a proper video game website XD.
The FINAL Dungeons & DoomKnights digital ROM will be posted to BackerKit soon. (Editors note: Haha, Artix thinks it is really going to be final. )
