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:
New! Dungeons and DoomKnights - Release Candidate Version 9
over 2 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 2 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.
This is the official BETA test of the crazy retro game we are building together.
The game is complete, and fully beatable with all three endings. But it still needs to be thoroughly tested for bugs, weird stuff, and anything else that needs improvement before we flash your physical carts and ship them to you. We will only get one shot at flashing those carts. So, our community of Dungeons & DoomKnights backers has an important quest-- to test the living daylights out of this ROM and send the team bug reports so we can make it the best game it can be before it ships!
For Backers Only
Thank you for supporting this game and making it happen. This is a friendly reminder that this and all of the Dungeons and DoomKnights ROMs that have been released are for backers only. Please do not share or distribute the ROMs. It is perfectly OK to invite friends over to play though. :D
The file is called "Dungeons and DoomKnights BETA ROM 2.0.nes"
How do I play?
I am starting work on the official instruction manual soon. Until then, here are some quick steps to get you started.
How to play the ROM on your Computer
To play any of our ROMS on your PC, Mac, or Android mobile device, you just need to download and install an emulator.
For PC/Mac we recommend MESEN as the best emulator to play Dungeons and DoomKnights on.
For Android devices we like PandaNES
How to play the game
Your goal is to reach the end of the game and defeat the DoomKnight. But the journey will be fraught with peril. Also, as a "Zeldavania" Dungeons and DoomKnights has both Adventure and Platformer style screens.
Controls
Joystick(D-Pad): Move around
B Button: Attack (or talk to an NPC)
A Button: Use special skill (jump on platformer screens)
NOTE! On platformer screens, you can press UP and B at the same time to fire a special skill.
Select - Changes special skill (once you earn them)
Start - Does NOT pause the game. We specifically coded it this way so the game would be as immersively real time as possible. (Just kidding. But yeah. Start does nothing.)
Powerups
Daimyo - The undead slaying pomeranian. Can go through doggy doors
Axe Throw - Ranged attack
Holy Wasabi - Goes kaboom!
Shadow Vision - Allows you to see in the dark
Rune Warp - Allows you to teleport between runes
Shield Reflect - Blocks and reflects projectile attacks
"Heal?" - Restores health
Axe upgrades - Allows your battleaxe to break new things.
???? - Other passive powerups exist
Where do I report bugs?
There are two ways to post your feedback and bugs from the ROM!
Join & post bugs on our official Discord server!
The BEST way to report bugs is in the 8-Bit Undead Slayer channel of our official Discord Server! I am on and working there nearly every night at 9:30pm EST. but you can post the bugs at any time and I will fix them as soon as I hop on. Once there, just send Clarion a message so he can verify you are a backer and give you access to the backer-only testing room.
(Note: I may take a night or two off after that crazy sprint the last two weeks XD) https://discord.gg/DfxXDhCwUy
Post bugs to the Artix Bugs Tracker
You can post your bugs here. Clarion (our pixel artist who is also in the discord server) will be checking them through the day and we will fix them at night. https://bugs.artix.com/tracker/category?appID=21
Thanks to the hard work of the testers!
Today's release would not have been possible without the unbelievable bug hunting efforts of our elite 8-bit undead slaying super testers. They tested all 277 previous ROMS. But I especially want to recognize and thank the people below for what they did in the past 24 hours (in random order)...
All of our games' best features, functionality, and bug fixes are thanks to Dale Coop. On top of being a great guy and a good friend, his 6502 Assembly Language skill is ArchMage tier. I added a little easter egg of him in the game if you can find it. Oh, and if you have not already checked out his 7 year old son's NES game, Kubo 3, please do so! (Game is in both French and English) https://dale-coop.itch.io/kubo-3-nes-game-by-sj-games
Dungeons and DoomKnights was announced on April Fools day. Today, on Friday the 13th we released this Beta ROM. This was a long and crazy journey to this moment... Now, the BOSS FIGHT to the release of this game officially begins.
It is a big game. Until this week, we have been testing the game just one area at a time. Putting the whole game together was equal parts excitement and chaos! The game takes 4+ hours to beat. Which is spot on our goal-- and a great way to spend some of your Friday the 13th weekend. Please join us in testing Dungeons & DoomKnights.
Once the game is fully tested and any polish is added... we will release the "Dungeons and DoomKnights - Release Candidate ROM"
TIPS & TRICKS
Dungeons and DoomKnights was designed for gamers that loved the original Legend of Zelda, but now have busy schedules and distractions. It features a huge world filled with bite-sized and rewarding dungeons and areas. There are lots of save spots. As you explore areas and gain skills, you unlock more shortcuts to move around the world faster. That being said... here are a few tips to help:
13 levels - Every major powerup you find will give you one level
Boat - At the top of the mountain there is a broken bridge.... If you could just find some way to fly over that....
Sneevil Box Fort - Sneevils keep their box fort high up in the trees
May the fates favor thee, Undead Slayers....
Congratulations and thank you. This day marks an important milestone in this project. I hope you love this game. If you are choosing to wait until the final, final, final version of the game.... That is 100% Ok. For all of you who are jumping in to play test this weekend....
It is Friday the 13th.... What could possibly go wrong?
P.S. Nasylum made a 100% Walkthrough guide. You can ask him for it on the discord server.
P.P.S. We are completely sold out of gray carts and very low on gold cats. I contacted Infinite NES Lives to see if they would be able to produce more gray carts & boards for us.
P.P.P.S. See ALL of the Friday the 13th special releases happening across our games this weekend at www.Artix.com
