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:
Happy Halloween! (and 35th anniversary update)
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Oct 31, 2020 at 09:48:47 PM
Happy Halloween 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
In today's special Halloween progress update, I would like to cover feedback on the box, the NES's 35 anniversary, appearing in Retro Format Magazine, Jongaar's 8-bit music improvements, the dialog box fix, our new team member, and at least one more reason why you should never leave your phone unlocked around a 4 year old. Let us get started!
Thank you for your feedback about the Bitbox on the previous post. I always want to be experimental and interesting... but I heard loud and clear that the vast majority of backers want a "true to the era" style box. Rule #1: The Player is ALWAYS right. So I pulled a 180... and immediately hopped on the phone with one of the homebrew scenes top box makers. So please look forward to the classic retro style box.
Now, if you REALLY wanted one of those Bit Box ones, I will upload a downloadable that you can use with a Bit Box if you get one from their site. #QuickThinking
The world's monster iconic video game console just blew out 35 candles. Which means, no matter how behind schedule you thought Dungeons & DoomKnights was.. we are a bare minimum of 35 years late for this console XD. Go team!
Thank you for the back cover Retro Format magazine!
Incredible honored that Retro Format put our game on the back cover of the latest issue of their magazine. The retro community truly has some of the most genuine and amazing people in it. You should check out their new magazine at...
Our dungeons were taking far too long to build... so I am excited to introduce our new dungeon builder, FJ! He is a fellow NESMaker and Martial Artist who we have known through the community for a while. It was the quality and size of his ByteOff 2020 competition submission, Chaos Between Realms, that really caught our attention.
How crazy is it that his submission, Chaos Between Realms, and our small entry, ChronoKnight, appeared side in the latest issue of "CoolSh#t magazine" (I know.. that is literally the name of the magazine, I was so scared to type it in fear of filters O_O). Good magazine through.
So we kidnapped FJ to join us in finishing Dungeons & DoomKnights. Over the past few weeks we have worked together on the slime caves, darkness crypt, pyramid interiors, Frost Lich's Keep, and Tower of Magic. Currently we are working on the DoomKnight's castle leading up to the final boss sequence.
Dale Coop, once again has been fixing some of the hardest and most obscure 6502 programming issues in the game. Moving water (palette cycling) was doing terrible things to our text boxes. Also, when we restored the tiles under the text boxes on rooms that had been completed (i.e. the doors had been opened on the house) more bad things would happen. Now it works perfectly.
Finally....
Music Upgrade in Progress
Jongaar, who did our 8-bit chip tune sound track for Dungeons & DoomKnights, learned some new tricks. He has been going back and upgrading the songs in the game with them.
Across our games, our seasonal Halloween special event is called "Mogloween." Special areas, monsters, and challenges appear in the games for you to enjoy... and lots of candy. It is happening now in all of our weekly updated games and you are invited to join us. Including AdventureQuest 3D and AdventureQuest Worlds where you can bring your 8-bit D&DK items!
Boxing with the Evil Undead
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Oct 03, 2020 at 11:58:53 PM
Boxing with the Evil Undead
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
Happy October! It is officially the spookiest month of the year. (Extra spooky for me, given the Dungeons & DoomKnights production deadline O_O) A time of ghosts, goblins, ghouls, and the scent of Pumpkin spice fills the air. Everything from coffee to cars is suddenly available in Pumpkin spice. (Introducing new Pumpkinspice NES Carts! -- kidding.) In our last update we started talking about a more unique boxing for our undead-filled video game. Using my trusty printer, I whipped up a prototype to share with you.
I now have a growing collection of homebrew NES games. I have ordered many being made by friends from the community. It is nice receiving classic cardboard NES boxes. But they are notoriously flimsy and wear quickly. Some new NES games put an additional transparent plastic container around the box. Which is fine. But it makes it even harder to access your game. But then I saw that box that Mystic Origins came in...
It is awesome! This copy of Mystic Origins came in a solid black game shell created by Bitbox. It is closes super tight to protect the game, and even has an easy to access place built in for the manual. (or anything else that we can think to sneak in there.) I fell in love with the box.
It is more expensive than the typical cardboard box. Well, if you count in the extra things needed with the cardboard box (packing foam, extra plastic shell, sleeve) maybe it is not too bad. But the plastic Bitbox is better protection, easier to access, and you can display it upright on your shelf without it falling over...
Using this type of box, we would do two box cover variants.
Regular Edition - Similar to what is pictured (Not final)
Collector's Edition - A distinguishingly unique and special variant
Please let me know your thoughts, as we need to order the professional boxes for the game asap.
"Previously... On Dungeon's & Dev-Nights Z!"
The biggest win since our last update was the creation of "The Well". Inspired by one of my favorite gags from DragonFable. It starts when... our hero falls down ANOTHER well. But this adventure is special-- the way you play through it is something we cannot do in our multiplayer games. O_o
I worked 16 hours over a weekend on this, which will probably take you 6 minutes to play through. But 100% worth it.
To get this to work, Dale Coop coded a new way to travel between screens, and fixed a bunch of edge case issues.
Meanwhile, in the Pyramids...
"The Pumpkin-spice must flow!"
There are three Pyramids in D&DK's sandsea desert. Filled with mummies, sandsharks, and the heads of the "Un-fair-oh"s, you will unlock one of the most potentially game breaking skills in the game should you figure out how to unlock the final one.
This is the way the inside of a pyramid looks now. Resisting the urge to place triangles in tri-farce ways was challenging XD
Harvest Goon
Just outside of town there is a small wasabi farm. But a case of mad Chickencow disease has the place in chaos.
This "dungeon" is in the overworld. But most of my time right now is spent in the underworld. Very little room to cram in so many dungeons O_O
"What's wrong McFly? ...ChickenCow?"
I have been "re-building" the boss fights into their final(-ish) versions. This one works SO MUCH BETTER with the new monster spawning code. One of the tasks that has been "less fun" was going through the entire beginning of the game and updating/fixing it to work with all of our new code. What we have now is a lot better, but it did break all of the early stuff. So, currently making everything work smoothly again. Then, I think it time to start releasing some dungeons for testing!
The focus for a while now has been on the remaining game screens. The code portion of the game should be finished. We definitely would not want to mess with the core code any more at this point. Messing with the core code now is a bad idea XD
Dungeon & Game Testing
We are going to need A LOT of testing on Dungeons & DoomKnights. Unlike our online games, we cannot simply roll a fix patch live. I know some of you are patiently waiting for the full final game before you experience it. Which is fantastic. I also know some of you are already super testers and would love to be a part of helping us get this game ready to ship. We are going to need your help. In the past we had small ROMs of fights/areas-- which we will need to do to heavily test specific areas. We can block off areas, and pre-set the game so you spawn with exactly the right number of skills, hearts, and spirit energy for that location. It might be even better if we had a place to hang out, and a more organized place to post bugs, issues, and screenshots. If you have any ideas and recommendations, I would love to hear them. Also, let me know what you think about the box option at the top of this post!
8-Bit Shopping, Skins, & the NPC Matrix
over 3 years ago
– Fri, Sep 04, 2020 at 07:02:16 PM
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
Grab a drink and enjoy today's "way to deep" progress update on Dungeons & DoomKnights. Lots to talk about and not sure where to start so, how about.......
We have a working shopping system!!!
Want to buy this house for 99 gold coins?
I cannot think of an NES game that actually allowed me to buy a house. And it is not a time-share! (Also, it does not require membership, microcurrency, or a DLC... XD)
A super big thanks to Dale Coop for coding this awesome feature. It was the last major feature the game needed. We were torn on exactly how to display the shops. Dale had the really clever idea of working into the dialog boxes. It is really versatile, so shop keepers can now sell things like keys, information, or dragons that they may happen to be holding hostage.
Skin(s) in the game!
Remember in my last Dungeons & DoomKnights progress post where I showed you a screenshot of our game's memory banks?
You know, how the memory banks were all full.
Well, except for 2 unused banks....
Which I did not think we could use.
Oh, I was so wrong XD
WE ARE USING THEM NOW! AWWWWW YEAH!
But it is "HOW" we are using it that is interesting
While I was writing you the last post, I wrote that line about how we had those two sorta-unused banks. I popped over to discord and asked some of my fellow NESMakers if it would be possible to use those semi-empty banks to hold alternative "skins" for the monsters. They all gave me a funny look and said, "of course you can... but it will be a bit of a programming nightmare from where you are at."
Dale Coop overhears the conversation and says changing everything to work would be "easy for him", but we would have to do the graphics a different way. I told him the graphics part would be really "easy for me"..... There was a moment of silence. O_O Then we did it.
"Double the monsters, double the fun!"
OK, it is not REALLY double the monsters. But instead of just making monsters different colors, we can also change the art. Every monster can have an "alternate skin." Do we really have time to draw alternate art for every monster in the game? Probably not EVERY monster. But this will help a lot with different boss fights. Especially if you remember the feature we added in the previous update that allows monsters to have different attack and defense per screen. Not to mention the AI selector we made too.
For example....
Before the Frost Lich and the Pryo lich had to use the same body and face. Not any more XD.
The best part is, we can also use this for NPCs!
Which brings us to a related, but slightly more complicated topic...
The NPC Matrix
Of all the things needed to finish this game... I NEVER expected this part to be the hardest.
It is done now.
No one will ever know how brain-breaking this was.
Except for you, if you are still reading.
Which you are, otherwise you would not know I typed this.
Which is why you are my favorite person.
Thanks for being you.
We have a bunch of NPCs in the game. But our engine was only designed for 64 total game objects (monsters, npcs, items).
More so, many NPCs need to be on the screen along with other NPCs at the same time.
And NPCs need to be specific colors (remember, the NES has a very limited shared palette)
Adding "alternate skins" doubled the number of NPCs we could add... but compounded the problem because switching skin banks is "all or nothing."
So this is the story of...
"3D thinking in a 2D Game"
The first part was not eating up 20+ monster slots with NPCs.
So I jammed 4 NPCs into a single monster. Piggybacking off the system that already exists, I got a little sneaky. Depending on which way the monster is facing, it looks like a different NPC.
So now we get 12 monsters for the cost of just 3!
"But wait, there is more!"
Because we have those alternate skin banks too!
(3 monsters x 4 NPCs each x 2 skins = 24)
So we can have 24 NPCs for the cost of just 3!
I had already built an AI selector, which can change the behavior of a monster depending on which spawn spot I place it in.
But there is a huge limitation to this...
Because of how this works, you can only have one NPC from column 1, one from column 2, and so on...
So I created a matrix and started figuring it out.
(With handwriting like this, how did I make it past 1st grade?)
Then, after I got my draft done, I went to work re-grouping them based on the colors they use.
Town is by far the most crowded place. Things like making sure Yulgar was green, and Serenity and Twig were yellow, etc. The rest of the game got easier.
Finally, everything started to fall in place.
We also changed some of the NPCs.... old school AdventureQuest Worlds fans will probably enjoy seeing a returning character-- with one of my favorite video game jokes of all time. Although, I think it was actually removed from AQWorlds when the intro was re-written.
If we were doing this on modern technology, it would never have even been a thought. *draw graphic... stick in game!* But this is one of the challenges in making a legit retro game that is... hindsight being 20/20 really fulfilling.
Hope you enjoyed this update. Thank you for your encouragement and support of Dungeons & DoomKnights!
If you need me, I will be burning the midnight oil to ship you the bizarrest and most ambitious NES games ever made by the end of the year!
Battle on!
Artix
Chaos, Snow, and why you should ALWAYS jump down spooky wells!
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Aug 08, 2020 at 12:12:53 AM
Chaos, Snow, and why you should ALWAYS jump down spooky wells!
Greetings 8-Bit Undead Slayers,
Hope this 8-Bit screenshot-laced game dev progress post finds you well. I have been making crazy good progress on the game. The goal is still to finish Dungeons & DoomKnights, release the final ROM to you for testing, and then ship the physical cart & merch to you before the end of the year.
I just finished a huge work sprint, and wanted to share screenshots and story with you before diving into my Dungeons & DoomKnights development weekend.
Entrance to the Chaos Labyrinth
Far too early in the game, you will stumble upon this place of tentacle filled horrors. This is the new entrance. It was surprisingly tough blending the green forest into this purple and eyeball filled area. The final result is nice. It takes place over three screens with an increasing number of tentacles.
The labyrinth itself requires the Magical Warp ability which you will have to find.
8-Bit Real Estate Broker
Once the game is ready for you to test, there is ONE question you need to ask yourself. Are you in the market for a house made out of pixels? Just north of town, this beautiful two room, no bath, luxury home build just for a hero like you. It is a steal for only 99 gold. Featuring a killer view of the DoomKnight castle and easy access to town, it is the perfect place to take a rest in between battling the evil undead. What is inside? Great question. No one knows. no one has opened the door since the last owner disappeared.
There is SNOW place like home...
You will find the entrance to an ice cave northeast of town. It will take you here, to the Frozen North... land under the control of the Frost Lich. Most higher level areas have a tiny preview so you can peek at them before you have the skill required explore the full area. There will also be an character there to give you a hint, so you know what you need to find.
As per the long standing tradition of NES games, expect snow colored versions of familiar enemies in this snowy area. You know, Frostzards, Ice Skeletons, and Snow Dragons. Because we filled up our memory banks to the brim and ran out of space for more monsters a LOOOOONG time ago! XD
See for yourself.
This is Shiru's NES Space Checker tool.
$14 Contains ALL of the code that runs the game. See that 0K free? Nearly empty. SCARY! Every byte left is a precious diamond O_O
$1C Contains all of the monster and character stuff! (AI, Animation, Data... it is also near empty. We are tapped.)
$13 Monster Art
$15 More Monster Art!
What are all of the those other bars?
Great question! The top row are the maps, When the top row is looking near-solid green, the game is done. Like, done, done. Getting closer! Those two that are empty can be used for more graphics. But we do not have much code left to make them do anything. Unless we just used those two banks for alternate "skins"-- that could re-skinned the monsters in the game. I have been making so much progress that I am not going to let myself get side tracked onto low priority stuff like this... but there are some super comical things we could do with this XD #AlwaysThinking
The configuration of this island and the location of that lever are suspicious
New Features
Here is what has been added since the last update (Thanks Dale Coop!)
Monster Difficulty! Monster health, attack power, and defense can now be modified on a screen by screen basis.
Night Vision Skill - Who needs candles or torches when you can simply see in the dark!
Unable to Break Block Sound - If you attempt to break a stone, vampire block, sarcoughagus, tentacle, or other breakable object but do not have the skill, it now makes a sound.
Monster immune to your damage sound - If a Monster's defense is so high that you are unable to hurt it, a special sound now plays.
Well, well, well....
"Well-come to your doom!"
Throughout Dungeons & DoomKnights you will encounter the occassional well. If you see one, there is a 100% chance you will be able to jump down it. Not sure why... maybe it was my fascination with the movie "The Ring", or that one episode of the TV Show "Lassie" where the boy fell down a well and the dog warned someone about it... but just between you and I, every well in the game has a purpose. It is your solemn duty to jump down every one of these things you find. Normally to comical adventure XD
"All is well that ends well."
On that subject, and talking personally for a moment... the year of 2020 is really a test of our character. We cannot control what happens out there in the world, but we can control our thoughts and actions. I feel we all deserve some sort of "I made it through 2020" achievement badge at the end of the year. The good news is we already made it past half of the way there. Good job! Keep going.
Battle on!
Artix
Dungeons & DoomKnights Progress, Kubo, and the New 8-Bit Heroes
over 3 years ago
– Sun, Jul 26, 2020 at 11:59:05 AM
Dungeons & DoomKnights Progress, Kubo, and the New 8-Bit Heroes
Greetings 8-Bit Undead slayers,
Hope you enjoyed the previous special post #50 telling the story of the DoomKnight, Sepulchure.
Now, here is your regularly scheduled Dungeons & DoomKnights update post!
It has been 3 weeks since I hired that time management coach with the sole task of helping me complete and ship Dungeons & DoomKnights without compromise. >_> It is working. It feels like I made more progress in the past few weeks than I did during the last year. Most devs would probably not make a public post that they needed some coaching help to bring out their A-game and get back on track, but I want our relationship to be 100% transparent. I am absolutely committed to the success of our retro video game project.
Magic Warp Ability - players can now unlock an ability that will warp them between special runes in Chaos Labyrinth.
Daimyo physics - Your undead slaying pomeranian ally now works properly on platformer screens (not sure if you tried this, but the issue was pretty comical)
Stone Smash Skill - now works correctly on both adventure and platformer mode and smashed stones will show the correct background when gone
Tentacle, Sarcophagus, and other special item break skills now working properly
Lava damage can now be assigned to work anywhere that there is water.
House Interiors - are now "platformer style" (still altering art)
Greenguard Forest (19 Overworld screens)
Vampire Graveyard (13 Overworld screens)
Pyramids of the Sandsea (25 Overworld screens)
Ebil Dread Forest (16 Overworld screens... still needs some clean up)
Caverns between Darkovia and Sandsea (11 Overworld screens)
Tree Monster boss art complete (Also, new pine tree art)
My next one week sprint is to clean up (finalize) the art for the screens between town and the DoomKnight's Castle that lies in the hills to the North.
Design Philosophy
It has been pointed out to me on multiple occasions that our D&DK overworld map is HUGE. Often followed by "We are busy gamers... how are you going to make sure I am not aimlessly wandering around, lost and not sure what to do next?" Other people are worried about back-tracking, or lack of exploration. For example, "I want to find happy secrets and be rewarded for doing things that other players who beat the game never found." This is so important... so the design philosophy of Dungeons & DoomKnights should intrigue you.
Dungeons & DoomKnights is a big game for busy gamers. It is intended to be fun and rewarding. The world unlocks, granting you more freedom as you gain more powers. Beating an area will unlock shortcuts allowing you to skip most of the backtracking. You will find prominent characters in the game will be standing at important areas of the game until you solve them. Then, that character will move to whatever the next major objective is. This is a strong visual clue as to what you are supposed to do next.
Each of the strongly themed areas in the game has one major goal... and always a boss monster inside a dungeon. Save points are typically located at the entrances to major new areas and on the first room of big dungeons. (Oh how I love the save feature!) In the overworld, you can normally "peek" at the dungeons & places you are supposed to go, making your quest just figuring out how to get to the entrance. If you played the intro demo, you have already seen this philosophy in action. The rest of the game expands on this idea. There are, of course, some areas you DEFINITELY want to return to once you have acquired new skills or completed quests. The Town of Battleon and that cliff at the very beginning of the game being very important ones.
Was a sunny day on Sunday, so did a little photoshoot with the kids.
Celebrating some victories!
Would love to share some other victories happening around the NES development community.
Kubo 3 by Seiji... a 7 year old NES Developer!
Dale Coop is a core member of our team, and a very good friend. He has helped solve our biggest technical challenges and written most of the custom code for Dungeons & DoomKnights. Another fun fact... his son is the youngest NES dev on the planet! Read this amazing article about them.
D&DK featured on the June 2020 new 8-Bit Heroes Showcase One of our major goals was to seek a seal of approval from the creators of the NESMaker community. Being featured on their showcase is one heck of a step in the right direction!
Space Raft for the NES hits 100% funding in 24 hours
Another friend from the community just launched a game for the band Space Raft yesterday. They hit 100% funding in less than 24 hours! There are 30 days left if this is your jam...
I have also been working with Stryche from our online shop, www.HeroMart.com, on getting the packaging, print materials, T-shirts, etc ready for Dungeons & DoomKnights. As you may recall, we already have all of the carts and boards (we are officially sold out of the gray carts as of the previous post). He had a few questions for you....
QUESTIONS!
Would you like a world map in your instruction manual?
Are you open to a more unique box option? We have found some interesting, and more future proof boxes that we are leaning towards.
One of our stretch goals was a signed instruction manual. Two people indicated that they did not want their instruction manual signed... what if I included "something else" in the box that WAS signed instead? (Backers of our Moglin Kickstarter probably know where this is going XD)
