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:
Midwest Gaming Classic Convention & Final Release Candidate!
over 4 years ago
– Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 02:32:04 PM
Midwest Gaming Classic Convention
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayer,
Are you attending Midwest Gaming Classic this year? Excited to announce that Dungeons and DoomKnights will be running a booth at the Midwest Gaming Classic Convention next month! The event takes place next month from Nov 5th to 7th, 2021 at the Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI.
So if you are in the area and would like to meet me, please stop by! I will be running the Dungeons and DoomKnights booth in the "Future Classics" area. In that space you will also find many creators from the NES Maker community and other retro systems. Hyped to finally meet them in person.
Amongst the creators there will also be Frank Westphal, who is printing our boxes, instruction manual, and other packaging materials as you read this update. He is well known for his work on other major new NES game releases.
The "Final" Dungeons and DoomKnights Rom!?
Backers can download it now on BackerKit
The final, finished, done, really-really-really-hope last version of the Dungeons and DoomKnights ROM is available for you to download now on BackerKit!
I also snuck a .PDF of the instruction manual for you to check out there too!
We have had a great deal of testing from the amazing crew on our discord server. We joined in the fray. Jongaar and Broomtool (who did our game's chiptune soundtrack and Heavy Metal Remixes) came over to my house for the final "full hardware playthrough". Took us nearly 6 hours. It was legit fun. Most memorable moment of the night was when we were trying to beat the secret Dage area (sooo hard!) and I started to take a sip of coffee and Jongaar did an emergency dance-like dodge technique that looked so ridiculous that the coffee sprayed out of my nose. (Even still, we were not able to beat that secret Dage area O_O.) Also, thanks to the cart's save feature we were able to switch from my original NES to a Retron and back without losing progress-- which was amazing.
The game is 99% done!
Full Game (99% Complete)
Demo (Done)
Instruction Manual (Done! - Currently being printed.)
Box (Done! - Currently being printed.)
Collector's Box (Done! - Currently being printed.)
Dust Sleeve w/ log (Done! - Currently being printed.)
Cart Labels (Done! - Currently being printed.)
Cart Back Label (Done! - Currently being printed.)
Convention Booth Banners (Done! - Currently being printed.)
Convention Handouts (Done! - Currently being printed.)
1,000 more boards/carts (Ordered and being manufactured)
Collector's Edition Extra (In Progress)
Trailer (Editing now)
Website (Editing now)
Almost there!
The creation of this new NES game has been an incredibly challenging (and long) journey. Thank you for being here for every part of it. I am excited to demo our creation at the convention... and show the rest of the world what we have been up to. It is important to note, that I WILL NOT be selling the game at the convention. We will be shipping your physical carts first before they are available anywhere else.
We have been completely sold out of our allotment of carts and boards for a while now. If you have been waiting to order the physical cart, or upgrade to collector's edition, then please know we will be re-opening pre-orders on backerkit soon. The extra 1,000 units we ordered should be arriving at the same time as our packaging, and other pieces (Late Nov/Early Dec).
Download and Test the Final ROM!
Grab the final (hopefully) Dungeons and DoomKnights ROM from backerkit and give it a whirl. Also, please accept this as my 100% permission to stream this version of the game.
Battle on!
Adam
P.S. Hope to see you at the convention. If you are going, please let me know here in the comments or on twitter. @ArtixKrieger
New! Dungeons and DoomKnights - Release Candidate Version 9
over 4 years ago
– Sun, Oct 03, 2021 at 10:32:10 AM
New! Dungeons and DoomKnights - Release Candidate Version 9
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
I am excited to announce that a new and improved Dungeons and DoomKnights Release Candidate ROM is available for you on BackerKit!
Dungeons and DoomKnights Progress Update
Our new video game for the NES is almost ship-ready. We definitely need your help testing this (possibly) final version. We only get one shot to get this right. O_O There is no way to HotFix, Patch, or update these carts once they’re flashed and sent to you. Please download and test the latest version. You can post any bugs you find in the comments here, or join our official backer Discord. At this point, we are unaware of any game breaking bugs.
What is a Release Candidate?
Release candidate translates roughly to "OMG! Is this the final version? Please, please, please let it be the final version!".
A release candidate is a big deal. The developer is saying, "This is the one!" Then someone discovers a weird game breaking bug. And other backers notice a ton of other little issues. And we spend a night fixing everything until it is 100% flawlessly perfect. >_> You may notice that we are currently on version 9...
Seriously though, each improved version reflects a massive amount of time and effort from the testers and team. Thank you to everyone helping test on the discord server! This newest version is the result of your herculean effort.
What is a ROM?
You can play NES games on your computer, phone or tablet. You just need the ROM. In regard to retro games, a ROM is the entire game in a single file.
OUR NEWEST ROM FILE IS:
ROM #5 Dungeons & DoomKnights Release Candidate (Version 9).nes
As I write you, the Dungeons & DoomKnights Instruction manual is officially complete! The centerfold of the manual is the world map. Long time artist, J6, took our 8-bit world and re-imagined it with perspective and depth. He put so much love and effort into making it, that I wanted to honor him by sharing his process.... you know, how he did it!
Bu first, here is a photo from tonight. This week I am working with the professional printer on the packaging, manual, and other physical stuffs.... been printing things at home to spot check them as I make revisions to the files.
Because our world loops around (which makes bat & boat travel really interesting), I took some creative liberty with the game's actual overworld. Specifically, moving the DoomKnight's fortress to the top of the map.
Then, I quickly mocked up this super oversimplified version of the map. In my experience, this is the best way to work with talented artists. Make something messy, yet accurate.... and then they start doing their magic.
J6 started by working on the areas closest to the person looking at the map. I was a bit stunned at how accurately the map was following the flow of the game. Down to the broken bridge, and dungeon doors.
Step 2: Town of Battleon
I really liked seeing this screenshot which revealed how he was actually drawing the map. Here you can see him starting on the Town of Battleon. Using Flash, he drew wire frames of things in Red. Then he filled them in and shaded them. These screenshots I am sending are actually the progress pics he PM'd me on Discord while he was working.
Here, you can see the Guardian Tower, Graveyard, FrostLich Keep, and Mage Tower coming together. Notice how each themed biome is in its own little group.
Step 4: Cookies
J6 and I realized we were both playing Cookie Clicker in the background while working. Orteil and Opti (the creators of Cookie Clicker) had just released it on Steam as we started working on this. Needless to say, J6 and I got a little competitive. I am forced to begrudgingly tell you he is whooping me.
But.. a fun fact that most people do not know. In Cookie Clicker, there is a dragon named Krumblor. He is a cookie dragon (of course). We created Krumblor when collaborating with those guys on our idle game AdventureQuest: Dragons. Krumblor was our surprise 13th Dragon, drawn by one of our other talented artists, Thyton. Really proud that he was added to, and became a fan favorite part of Cookie Clicker! I hold Orteil and Opti in the absolute highest regard. They are so creative and funny. If you have not played their genre-creating hit game about clicking on a Cookie.... give it a try!
Beautiful!!!! Everything came together perfectly. Just look at the Chaos Labyrinth and the Frost area. Building this creative was a huge project which took multiple days. Whew but at least it is finished now..........
When working with a skilled artist, the worst thing in the world is to give them a never ending list of tiny, ever-changing, changes. It is best to really study the art, think for a bit, and send a giant single list of honest and accurate changes. Which is what we do our best to do. J6 is such a creative and easy to work with guy. He has worked on nearly every game project we have ever made. (Secret: He was worked on 100% of the super successful ones.)
So in this final revision, we added the spooky cabin in the woods, an eye in the Chaos Labyrinth, and a tiny well to the right of town.
Here is the map added to the centerfold of the manual. By centerfold, I mean when you open the manual, this is at the dead center... so it will lay flat.
Dungeons and DoomKnights is a huge game. It simply was not possible to fit all of the locations in. So I focused on the major storyline places. This map, in your manual, will really help you should you get stuck navigating the massive 8-bit world.
Hope you enjoyed this random post. Hope you open your manual when you get it and smile.
Oh, this weekend I updated the T-Shirt art to reflect Clarion's new, better pixel art that is actually being used in the game. Tried to keep the composition an exact match-- just featuring the games newest art.
Oooh! Last thing. Dungeons and DoomKnights Release Candidate 0.08 will be dropping on BackerKit this week. Will post an update to you when it goes live. It is either "the one", or very close to "the one" so if you are able to help us test the living dead out of it, it would be much appreciated.
D&DK Instruction Manual Preview
over 4 years ago
– Wed, Sep 15, 2021 at 07:24:48 PM
D&DK Instruction Manual Preview
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
Thank you for all of your cheers, bug reports, and help with the Dungeons and DoomKnights Release Candidate ROM.
We are now on our 8th version-- and with only minor bugs being reported at this point, we are super close to the official launch of our ambitious retro game project!
This week, I have been focusing on the packaging, labels, and instruction manual.
I thought 24 pages would be a lot... but ran out of room faster than we filled up our game's data banks. O_O
Researching old NES Instruction Manuals surprised me. Most were black and white. I always intended ours to be in full color. They all featured art that was very different from the actual in-game sprites. Originally, I was going to use the in-game sprites... but using the characters they were based on looked WAAAAAY COOLER! (Both for fans of our previous games, and for those who are just joining us as of this game.)
This has been really fun to put together. Dage drew the skulls and filigree, Yoshino gathered up the Flash assets, and J6 is working on a 2-page spread of our game's world map.
Here is the World Map in progress....
BEAUTIFUL! O_O
Then, for the Good-guys / Bad-guys page I went full on "group photo".
Story Time
When I was little, I sat at my friend's house reading his instruction manuals over and over because he would not give me a turn to play... and always wished there was some secret, or something special hidden inside the pages. So I snuck (at least) one in.
So when you get your copy of the game, invite a friend over, leave your manual on the couch and do not give them a turn to play. Maybe they will find a secret.
Creating this is a weird flow of Adobe Flash or Asesprite --> to Photoshop --> to InDesign. The last time I did any print work was way back on the AdventureQuest Battle Cards game. It was fun to do this again. Tried to keep it informational, but not too serious.
Clarion drew some wicked pixel art controllers for this page. It was actually challenging explaining how our game randomly switches from adventure to platformer mode. "Uh, look for the boot icon?"
The ability to change your armor color is actually a secret in the game...
Go Go Power Paladins!
This weekend I finished up the box design, cartridge labels, caught up on all bugs, released a new ROM to our tester discord (next release Candidate is coming your way Friday!), and worked on the Instruction Manual. Currently 22 out of 24 pages are complete. As soon as it is complete, I am going to post a PDF version here for you to check out. An Instruction Manual BETA test? Also, going to call our packaging guy this week and make sure all of our stuff is formatted properly.
There are still a few more things to do, including the enhancements to the Collector's Edition Box, DungeonsAndDoomKnights.com website, T-Shirt art upgrade (it has our old style art, and needs to be updated to reflect the new better current art), finalize the sound track and Heavy Metal Remix versions (which sounds Amaaaaaaazing! Jongaar and Broomtool outdid themselves on the music), and the special bonus thing I am making for you.
Thank you for being so awesome, encouraging, and patient. It is exciting to finally be on these final steps. Almost there!
This is the moment we have been working so hard towards. We will only get one shot at creating the physical carts... so this is the most important test of our retro video game project. If you are able to help in this very final test of the game, please download it from BackerKit and play!
NEW (Secret Areas!?)
Secret area #1: Cloud Parkour.
Secret area #2: Dage’s underworld survival mode w/ countdown timer.
Shortcut Bat Cave - Leads from the door underneath the Vamp castle to the mountains where you are supposed to go next.
Artix Entertainment Splash Screen w/ fade out.
Red Orb now available for purchase at Alina's shop (25 gold).
Skullnado - Being touched by this will teleport you.... somewhere.
Color customizing your armor & save.
"God Mode"
Tons of bug fixes and screen improvements! (SOOO MANY!)
Thank you!
On Friday the 13th, we released the official Beta to backers. Thank you for all of the love and amazing feedback! A few of the highlights included a letter from a Rockstar Games dev, with 16 years of experience in the industry, who played the Beta and said he absolutely loved it. We have really appreciated ALL of the praise for the scale of the game world and how ambitious the scope of this now completed game is. Oh man, did we come a long way.
Once again, thank you to the amazing testers in the Dungeons and DoomKnights discord server. This is our 318th test ROM... it is only because of your dedication that we were able to move to the Release Candidate phase so smoothly!
Box Art & Instruction Manual
While everyone tests the release candidate, we are getting the box and instruction manual ready for the printers. Your CiB (Complete in Box) physical copy of the game is gonna look fantastic. Our next project update should include previews.
Jongaar & Broomtool finish Heavy Metal Remixes of soundtrack… 2 weeks!
Flash & Assemble Carts
Double check everyone's mailing addresses
Ship!
Story Time XD
We filled this cart to the brim. It is MAXED. So there I was on Saturday... deleting unneeded periods or words to free up just enough bytes to squeeze one more line of code in. It was comical to watch. But I was 100% in the zone. If releasing the BETA was the finish line... we were sprinting an extra mile just.... because we could. All of us were. Never expected Dale Coop to program that splash screen out of nowhere. Clarion kept re-doing and improving the art. Most people will never know how many times he redid monsters to keep making them better and better. We probably have a games worth of art on our cutting room floor.
So much love went into this game... and you are to thank for making this possible. Your support, your patience, and indomitable spirit to see this through to the end without compromise. I am extremely proud of what we created.
