This is a status check on the three things I'm making in the same world: the dungeon crawler, the books and the card game. First, the world has a new name: FARR, after the old Persian idea of a divine glory that marks a rightful ruler.
Dungeons of Farr
Project DNGN has a real name now: Dungeons of Farr. The title screen is a placeholder painting I did: the Simurgh on a cliff above the ice, two suns in the sky, and a trail of light coming off a palace in the distance.
The title screen.
The setup: Farr has been stuck in winter for a thousand years because one king, Malkus, would not let go of what he lost. You and up to three friends go through a series of roguelike rooms toward him. Each main area ends in a boss. The first is the Lion, and it's the furthest along.
What's actually in the game right now (version 0.9):
- Combat. Light and heavy combo strings, a tight parry, a posture bar to break, critical strikes, dodges, and enemy parts you can break off. Parry a projectile and it flies back at whoever shot it.
- Three weapons. The shamshir (quick-draw cuts and ripostes), the gorz (a mace you charge until the floor quakes) and Yimsha's Chalice (magic that feeds on what you hit).
- Magic paid in memories. You cast by spending memories, and your skills reach out as echoes of you from somewhere else.
- Runs. Rooms with doors to choose between, puzzle and defense rooms, gaps in the floor to dash over, a station that sends your loot home before you risk it, and a downed state where your friends get you back up. When a run ends, the Simurgh comes down in fire and carries everyone back to camp.
- Camp. Crafting, weapon upgrades, gathering, fishing and a lot more, most of it rough.
- Co-op online for up to four players, plus touch controls, so it even runs on an iPad.
The art is the part that's furthest behind, on purpose. The look is pixel art with heroes about 32 pixels tall, seen side-on in rooms viewed from above. I draw the heroes on my iPad, starting with a Vara-born woman (the tall, elf-like people of Farr). Every animation gets blocked out on a stick-figure wireframe first, and the armor gets drawn over it after the motion feels right, so most of what moves on screen right now is wireframes. I also took a detour into 3D-rigged characters, played it, and shelved it. It wasn't the movement I wanted. The menus have been redrawn after old Persian manuscripts, with paper panels and ruled frames.
Next up: real hero sprites, redoing all the assets, playtests with friends, and the bosses past the Lion.
The First Book
It's a novel set in Farr, the same world as the game. Book One is outlined start to finish. Magic is paid for in memory, Rom rides towards Malkus, and the story runs on two timelines that meet at the end. The game and the novel share a map! The road you fight down in Dungeons of Farr is the road in the book.
The card game: Shahmat is now Farrmat
Farrmat, the hidden-role card game of Kings, loyalists and traitors, was playable on this site for a little while. I've taken it down for now. It's getting developed a lot more, and I'd rather show it again when it's closer to what I want. In Farr it's the game people play at the table, so it's coming back. It just isn't ready yet.
That's everything. Stay not cool? How do you sign off a blog post. K thanks.
NotCoolDuraan