Dungeons & DoomKnights Pre-BETA testing has started
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
I am excited to share with you that, as of 12:30am tonight, the testers on our discord have begun testing the Pre-BetaROM!
OK, "Pre-BetaROM" is a really silly name. But this is the first fully playable version of Dungeons & DoomKnights from start to finish!
This release features all three endings, new mini-boss fights, and all the bad jokes I could squeeze into that small gray (or gold) cart. See the full list of progress report below.
Once this release goes through testing and rapid bug fixes on our discord server, we will declare it the official Beta ROM and post it for you to download on BackerKit.
It is a big game O_O
Remember that friend of mine from New York who backed the project? He flew down this weekend. I flashed a cart and played it with him on real hardware. Checking the save feature, the Konami cheat code, and playing through the game. It was fun. He said, "I didn't think the game was going to be this big!"
I am sure there is going to be a lot of problems, fixes, etc... but this is the road to competition. I have not been this excited (and relieved) in quite some time.
Progress Report
Pre-Beta ROM has begun testing
New song: Warcry of the Paladin
SoundFX Improvements
All three endings complete!
Added Brutalcorn Mini-boss fight
Sneevil Forest Complete
Added King Sneed mini-boss fight
Pet Shop interior complete
Dragon Gate screen complete
Frost Lich Keep complete
"The Well" with Daimyo issues fixed
Buy your house complete
Ebil Dread Forest Complete
Added AWESOME evil tree boss fight - Pro tip: You need to hit the soul when it goes inside a tree and makes the face light up.
Finished Town of BattleOn & am now personally responsible for the things those NPCs say
Clarion created some new NPCs for town
Yulgars Inn Complete
Added Outhouse
Added pathway to the outhouse because of a logic issue
Added man eating seedspitters on the pathway because using the potty in fantasy games is hard-mode.
Chaos Labyrinth Complete
Added "Infinite Corridor" which requires Chaos Amulet to pass
Added Drakath Boss Fight
Konami Code cheats finalized - Will display red doomknight armor if you use it so people can tell.
Dale Coop fixed lots of stuff including a game breaking gold rounding issue
Mage Tower tested and finished
New Door Art (the other door art was too hard to use resulting in us never using it.)
I re-arranged the graphics banks so much that I cannot even remember what is real any more.
Added a boss fight in the basement of Yulgar's Inn.
Connected the ocean to the river so you can *ALMOST* boat all the way diagonally diagonally through the world. (You need to walk a little bit for some parts)
Clarion re-drew Death
Moved the Grim Reaper fight to the very beginning of the game.
Production Schedule
Finish testing, debugging, and polishing the Pre-BetaROM
Send you the official Beta ROM
Mega testing! (We we only get one shot at flashing these carts)
Ship carts & all your other stuff!
Thank you for making all of this possible. Cannot wait to ship you the final carts and Roms!
What 'Elsa' can I get done before the Hurricane?
almost 3 years ago
– Thu, Jul 08, 2021 at 04:01:29 PM
What 'Elsa' can I get done before the Hurricane?
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
As I write to you, it is 3:00am on Tuesday night and despite asking her to just "let it go", Hurricane Elsa is on her way to visit us in Tampa. She is currently a pretty weak category 1 storm. Power outages from hurricanes are about the closest we get to a snow day down here in Florida. I am finishing up the last screen of our Chaos Well dungeon before doing an offsite backup of Dungeons & DoomKnights just to be extra safe.
Our goal remains releasing the Beta ROM to you as soon as possible.
Here is the D&DK progress since the last post....
Ending 1 is functional (Some art & screenwork still needed)
Ending 2 is functional (Some art & screenwork still needed)
Ending 3 is done
10 new songs added by Broomtool and Jongaar O_O
SoundFX have been remastered
The Mage Tower is 100% complete
The Chaos Well is 90% complete
Xan the Pyromancer now teleports for his fight
Restructured/Fixed early parts of the game that were using hacky code...it is now using new, more proper hacky code.
New Music & SoundFX Improvements
Remember when we ran out of space in the music bank, but then CutterCross showed us how to optimize it and we freed up nearly half the space? Well, Jongaar & Broomtool filled it with new tracks and SoundFX! They also learned how to use some new fancy pants sound features. The new songs and SoundFX sound amazing. They went back and cleaned up a lot of the original tracks. I am so proud of them and the music in the game.
New Songs
SadNES (Voted best name for an NES song. Also... it is sad)
Heroes Rest (The "You got a new power song")
Town of Battleon
Subterrane
Polyhedron
Boss 1 (This is where the good naming apparently stopped)
Boss 2
HeroMart (Stores get a theme song!)
Lich Battle
Bad Artix
Old songs
In case you were curious....
Dungeons & DoomKnights theme
Symphony of the Knight
Crypt Crusader
Despyramid
Labyrinth of Chaos
FrostByte
Villains of Time (The ChronoKnight Boss song)
Heart Beat (new and improved)
Are we there yet?
Oooooh. This is the part of the update where I complain about how hard everything is, and how real-life problems keep jumping in my way and.... Pffft. Just kidding. I am so grateful to be able to work on and finish this game the way I envisioned it. It is a big game. It is also pretty weird. When I was little and playing games like Zelda, I really wanted to be able to freely explore with the boat. So, in our game, once you get the boat it opens up tons of places to go and use it. And you are free to go anywhere. Also, I wanted to fly. While bat form may be a strange skill for a "paladin", it is super fun and... might even make sense plot wise at the end. Flying will help you get into some very interesting places...
The reflect spell is now in the Mage Tower. It lets you block and reflect projectiles back at enemies. Originally it cost spirit skulls to use.... But it is WAAAY more fun just to be able to use it whenever you want. I highly recommend getting it as early in the game as you can. But you will have to defeat Xan the Pyromancer to get it. Figuring out how to just get to him is hard enough! When you do... beware of his teleport ability. Also the giant fire balls. OK, mostly the giant fireballs.
The Chaos Well is located just north of town. I have spent at least 8 hours re-re-re-re-designing the screen it lives on... plunging me into actual madness. It was really tricky transitioning from the green grassy areas to the purple tentacle areas. Once you fall down the well (Pro tip: just hurl yourself down all the wells in this game... they are all dungeons.) you will quickly find that you made a terrible, terrible mistake. This well requires some skills and powers to defeat that you will not find until after you stumble on it. I always enjoyed when games give a little previews of more challenging areas. Then when you get the skill you think "Ooooh! I can use this new skill to beat it if I go back there." Which feels really good.
With all the endings structured (which means they actually work), I am no longer scared of "Oh no, what if we run out of space!?" Not any more. With all of the important stuff allocated, now I am free to blow our remaining bits on anything that would make the game better. Which means I have been blowing through them like crazy.
As I review the areas, I keep finding missing stuff, new bugs that were created as the result of fixing something else in the game, and things that really deserve a little improvement. The only way to do this and verify everything is working, is to crawl through the game from the beginning. And that is exactly what we are going to do. This week, after the Chaos Well testing, we are going to start the mega clean-up game crawl.
Once the game is cleanly beatable from start to finish, then we will at long last release that glorious backer-on Beta ROM. Once it goes through your trials by fire-- and we have a release candidate, then we will flash and start shipping the physical carts.
Thank you again for your incredible patience and support. It is my sincere hope that you play it and say, "Oh yeah, this was 100% worth the wait."
Battle on!
Adam (Artix)
P.S. Oh. some peace of mind. Your physical carts are stored safely inside a category 5 hurricane rated building. So unless you see wind speeds of 245+ mph, we should be good.
D&DK Update... The Cartoon Edition!
almost 3 years ago
– Sat, Jun 12, 2021 at 04:04:00 AM
D&DK Update... The Cartoon Edition!
Greetings and salutations 8-Bit Undead Slayer,
Today's update post include great news on Dungeons and DoomKnights progress-- and weird AI created cartoons!
Because.... Seriously, is there a better way to deliver 8-bit game dev news than with these creepy uncanny-valley looking pictures?
PROGRESS UPDATE
Final Dungeon - DONE!
The Dragon's Lair - DONE!
Frost Lich Keep - IN PROGRESS!
See. Even my son's lite bright re-creation of 8-bit Daimyo is made horrifyingly weird with this.
Here is the reference sheet if you happen to have a light bright or something and want to do the same.
Here is the original pic for reference.
Since school ended, Aidan (lvl 6) has resumed helping me work on the game. Although, his sister is the only one that likes designing levels. His primary function has been recommending we add "MORE DRAGON HEADS". Which, in fairness pairs nicely with the existing theme of "MORE SKULL!"
Want to take a guess what his favorite Godzilla monster is?
On the topic of Dragons... the Dragon's Lair is now complete. Thanks to help from Dale Coop, I was able to make the fight on the backs of the dragons exactly what was originally envisioned. (Semi Spoiler: It ends on the ground... sorta.)
"Danaaa naaa naa naaa... i'm LAVA'ing it!"
I am working through the Frost Lich's Keep now. I was "talked down" from making it a frustrating as heck lever puzzle. You can thank both Glisel and Clarion. Because this is the 3rd to last dungeon and you will have most of your skills-- going to focus on making you put all those skills to good use.
Bug Fixes & Features
Dale Coop has done so much for this project. We have become super good friends. Here is a cartoon picture of him. If you have not already check out Dale's son's game, Kubo 3... you should definitely do so.
Reflect Shield Skill bug fixed - under some circumstances the reflect shield skill appeared on the wrong side of your character
Reflect Shield Skill no longer uses mana (Feature) - Reflect those projectiles all you want!
Double Death Sparkle bug fixed - We have a death sparkle. A previous fix caused there to be two. But there "can be only one!"
Warping screens after a Dialog bug fixed! - We can now chain dialog cutscenes (which I needed for the end of the game and lots of other places)
Monsters can now have their loot disabled (feature!) - This was a really nice feature to have. It was primarily added because I added Chuckles to the final dungeon and his head ends up on the ground. But if he dropped a spirit skull pickup, it sorta looked like his head which made it a little confusing.
The game now has 3 endings!
I am SUPER excited that the final dungeon of the game is complete and tested. The tester-backers in discord gave some legit kudos on some of the rooms. If 10-year old me played this game and got to see the inn... he would have needed to change underpants.
The final boss fight with the DoomKnight Sepulchure is a mutli-parter. Clarion re-drew the DoomBlade and updated all of the art with it. He also re-drew the transformation cutscene and created multiple versions of some of the monsters you will see at the end. It a feel good skull-filled finale of doom.
And you will play it soon! It should be possible to play the game from the start to the end by next Thursday. Then, we will need at least a week of bug fixin' and clean-up before.... The BETA ROM release!
(As I post this, I am grimly aware that the universe is listening... and is probably scheming brand new exciting problems to hurl our way. But no matter what challenges we face... we are taking this game to the finish line.)
If you need me.... I will be drinking extra hot coffee to stay warm while wading through the snow-filled Frost Lich's lair this weekend.
Battle on!
Cartoon Artix and the D&DK Team
P.S. Are these cartoon images cool or creepy?
Sneak Peek! "The Final DoomKnight Dungeon"
almost 3 years ago
– Fri, May 28, 2021 at 07:52:39 PM
Sneak Peek! "The Final DoomKnight Dungeon"
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
Have you heard the story of the flying undead dragon castle?
You can see it... sitting upon the top of the mountain in the blood red sky.
Rumors say that the DoomKnight built this castle upon the skeleton of the largest dragon that ever lived. Then... he raised that dragon skeleton from the dead.
Experts on the subject of Necromancy all agree that it is capable of flight, even with the castle on its back. Once the DoomKnight has finished gathering his army of the undead, he will take it to the sky... and nothing will stop his undead assault.
This week we have been working on the DoomKnight's castle-- the final boss dungeon! Before I get your hopes up too much-- I am still working on the fire and ice dungeons too. But the light at the end of the tunnel gets much brighter with each day. (Or should we say the darkness at the end of the dungeon?)
The final castle of the game is a boss gauntlet. You will face the unique boss monsters from the game again... but if they were in "adventure mode" before, now you will encounter them in platform mode. It makes the experience horrifyingly different.
I am being super nice though. Once you beat a boss monster it will mark the room as complete and you will not have to fight that boss again. So as you clear rooms in the castle you can just continue walking through it. I welcome any of you crazy elite gamers to do the entire boss gauntlet in just one life-- I could not even make it through the first three! O_O.
Also, our game has a save feature. Both the carts and your digital ROM allow you to save your progress at any "Save Book of the Dead". I had a talk with one of my lifelong friends who backed the project (and gives me hell every week on your behalf for it not being released yet) who was surprised that the cart supported the save feature. It is a pretty big game. You are going to need it.
At the end of the final dungeon, you will have to make an extremely important decision. If you are a long time fan of the AdventureQuest games, I think you are going to appreciate it. If you are new to our games, then I hope you find it fun and that it piques your interest to follow where one of the endings lead. I already talked to the AdventureQuest Worlds and AdventureQuest 3D team leads about it. I am a little concerned about space for the ending. If I am unable to fit both endings on the cart... I have a unique "above and beyond" solution that no old school game has ever done before (because it was not possible back then.)
"Axe-cellent!"
Clarion sure did draw a lot of different axe options! The in game axe is known as the "Blinding Light of Destiny." The 8-bit version of it in game received an art upgrade this week. It is weird how adding a little shading and shape can make your character feel so much more powerful! The swing just has... heft to it now.
Dungeons & DoomKnight's code base is SUPER STABLE right now. All major known bugs have been fixed.
All monsters are now in the game & working
New monster: Fire Imp
New Monster: Eyeball Train
New Monster: Fire Plume
Added room for 8 more NPCs (but a few of those will be used for things you can interact with that are not characters)
Added art for the Dragon Gate Portal
Art upgrade on Artix's Axe
Added a work-around that allows you to fight Dragons in platformer mode.
Created a new special tileset for platformer floors (with SKULLS!)
Re-did Gravelyn's sprite sheet for her cutscene. Using our alt-graphic banks we can use it in... other places :D
Random "diagonal throwing of axe after jumping" bug has been fixed
Also, the throwing the dog at an angle bug has been fixed (it was technically the same bug)
Dale Coop fixed an issue with our AI that caused all Monsters to stop moving when hit.
The Sandsea area, and its pyramids, boss, and rewards are now 100% complete.
When a project is Draggin on, get on Dragons!
Updated Release Schedule
My #1 priority is finishing Dungeons & DoomKnights and sending you a BETA ROM. This will be a test version of the entire, complete game. We will be ready to do this after I finish these 3 remaining dungeons and clean up a few overworld things.
Once the game is fully tested we will flash the boards, assemble them in your carts, and at long last, ship your complete in box games! (That day cannot come soon enough.)
Thank you for making Dungeons & DoomKnights possible. I hope it goes down in history as being one of the biggest, funnest, most surprising, and humorous "new" old games ever made.
Today is the end of that 11 day work sprint. (days 8 through 11 were the weekends on both ends.) Between you and I... it was really nice to be able to focus on just one thing. Up till now, I had been working on D&DK every night and on the weekends. But we needed a big push to move this to the finish line.
So I treated this past week like a game jam. The production results matter more than the hours put in... but Monday was a 12 work hour day and it set the pace for the sprint. I made a whole lotta D&DK progress. But nothing short of being done was going to really satisfy me.
The Vampire Castle, and its highly prized wall meat is now complete. Making the wall meat work required some re-coding.
Organic, Non-GMO, 100% Corn-Fed Wall Meat
Actually, we re-arranged a lot of stuff, including the monsters. We added a Vampire Lord monster. You will encounter him as the second mini-boss in the castle. He is a ranged fighter that hides behind his Vampire Knights and casts a small fireball spell at you. Although, you only have to hit him once. Then he turns into his bat form.
Once again, I want to give a huge shout out to the super testers in our D&DK Backer Discord server. We are now on ROM #169. It is insane how good they are at testing every tile, finding every bug, and exploiting the living heck out of new rooms XD. So if you see Caddeus, Ululat, QuincyDao, Animee, RelaxBleu, TechnicStudios, Jbyrd, Slajerek or the other regulars... be sure to give them a digital high five!
On the topic of bugs... Dale Coop fixed some new ones the testers found! Also some improvements.
New Feature: "Change screens when the last monster is defeated"
There are a few places in the game that warp you to a cutscene or the next part of the fight after all of the monsters in the room are defeated. It used to do this instantly.... Like, the second you hit the monster on your killing blow... before the monster even seemed to finish getting hit, "POOF!" you teleported. But we re-did the way monster death works so there is now a controllable delay. It feels sooooo much better.
The Large Projectile Bug
There was an edge case where.... Projectiles would literally get stuck if they hit the edge.
Double Death!
Monsters were secretly double dying when you defeated them resulting in some of the weird sparkles and monster summon issues. This has now been fixed!
There are three Pyramids in the Sandsea Desert. Rumor has it the secret to the undying Pharoah's eternal life is in the third one.
We wanted to do an Indiana Jones-style boulder experience... you know, you take something or pull a lever and then a boulder starts chasing you. It was so cool that we got a little carried away. Also...
This was probably my favorite moment working on this game! Now... we are NOT using bank switching. All our graphics banks are already full of stuff! So to pull this off, I had to get super clever....
I created this tile block and used palette rotation!
"What!?!?!?!?!"
Yeah... the elevator effect is because I use this tile as the background. The red-green-blue colors are just paint masks. I can set them to be anything I want. In this case... I set them all to black! Except one. I make ONE the brown color. Then... I rotate the brown to each color. The end effect is it looks like the wall is going down.
The 1st Pyramid is officially my favorite dungeon in the game. It is... really unique. Because you do not reach the desert until after the 50% point of the game, it is really cool to have a new experience. The way skills & things unlock in the game is pretty satisfying.
The boss fight of the 3rd pyramid is pretty cool. I figured if you did all of the work to unlock it, you should be rewarded with a little treasure room and then go straight to the Boss Fight. Right now, the fight is too hard (even for me) so we will be playing around with that this week.
This is what the art looks like in the game's memory if you look in the PPU
Squeezing that giant boulder into the desert monster sprite sheet was fun. Here you can see every sprite needed for the Sandshark, Mummy, Royal mummy, Pharaoh, Serpent Spirals, Scarabs, and the pieces of mummy-wrap that certain mummies will rip off themselves and chuck at you. I love Clarion's pixel art. The only monster bank I have left is the fire/chaos one.
The next ROM test will be for Pyramid #2 which will feature Boulder/Bat puzzles, and then the Fire Cave where you learn "Weapon Throw". I am pretty amped for the fight scene on dragon back.
Then, to complete Dungeons & DoomKnights we just need the Frost Castle and the Final DoomKnight dungeon.... (and a whole lotta polish.)
