KickStarter Retro Style Turn-based RPG (Diablo-style)

[ChristianAndersson]

Hello Game Lovers!

I hope to be able to announce a new game very soon, called "Lord of the Dark Castle". This YouTube link gives a short walk-through:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TImY0HgMPaY

Only a few more weeks of iterations, mainly level graphics improvements and a couple of additions of skills/enchantments is left.

There is a Kickstarter page where you can pledge a little amount to receive your reward at Christmas Day, AND/OR you can just download a free full-featured 1000 turns limited version from there:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...f-the-dark-castle-turn-based-rpg-retro-style/


Below is a screenshot and some main game features.

Features:
7 levels, all with their unique environments and graphics.
Randomized level builder. Randomization gives each new game a completely new gaming experience, including random monster, treasure and item spawns.
25 Unlockable Achievements: each achievement gives you bonus gold in new games
45 Unique Skills (E.g. First Strike, Charge, Pick Lock, Giant Health, etc)
18 Unique Monsters + Elite versions
15 Unique Weapon types
3 Full Sets of Armor: Cloth / Leather / Plate
2 Jewely Pieces: Ring and Amulet
7 Effects/Spells (Poison, Disease, Fire, Cold, Life Drain, Fear, Web)
6 Enchantments/Spells: Invisibilty, Regeneration, Speed, Freeze Time, Summon, Teleport
Enchanted items: weapons and armor can be enchanted with skills and spells.

Creator's Visions & Goals with this game:
Casual, Fast & Easy to get started. Have 30 minutes on the bus/train? Give it a go and see how far you get. If you have a good round and play well, it is possible to beat the game within 1-2 hours.
This is STRATEGIC dungeon crawler - NOT a no-brain-dungeon-brawler! Casual does NOT mean easy! Normal mode is pretty difficult, and you may have to try many times before you win the game.
Big replay value! Every new game is a new experience. Level randomness, monster spawns and different skill choices makes up for lots of variety.
Flat Skill Tree where no skill is dependent on any other. Each skill provides an important strategic advantage on its own.
Every hit counts! It is not wise to make a move that ends next to a monster, because then, the monster may hit first!
All monsters have unique strengths. Not even the rats are "safe kills".
The majority of monsters can wear EXACTLY what YOU can wear. If you drop something, they might pick it up and use it against you!

The main game forum page:
http://lordofthedarkcastle.freeforums.org/index.php

On this forum, you can read more about the game, view some screenshots, post bug reports and see the planned TODO feature list.

I hope you like the game, and I'm looking forward to some new downloaders and visitors!
If you want to discuss this game more, please message me either within the Kickstart project or within the Main Game forum.

Best Regards
/Christian Andersson, Craze Creative Studios

 

[Grimwulf]

After reading it the second time. You know, this is actually funny!

Casual, Fast & Easy to get started. Have 30 minutes on the bus/train? Give it a go and see how far you get. If you have a good round and play well, it is possible to beat the game within 1-2 hours.

That's exactly what everybody here needs right now. Too bad we already have that japanese alarm rpg that plays itself. That one kinda more user-friendly. Your game seems too hardcore.

This is STRATEGIC dungeon crawler - NOT a no-brain-dungeon-brawler! Casual does NOT mean easy! Normal mode is pretty difficult, and you may have to try many times before you win the game.

That sounds incredibly difficult. You mean, I MAY NOT be able to win this at first try? Sorry, I don't have time for this.

Every hit counts! It is not wise to make a move that ends next to a monster, because then, the monster may hit first!

Holy. Fuck. MONSTERS CAN HIT ME TOO?!

All monsters have unique strengths. Not even the rats are "safe kills".

Hey, that is actually original! When was the last time we saw hardcore rats? Freakin' ages ago. Wait.

Spoiler

Oh, shi

The majority of monsters can wear EXACTLY what YOU can wear. If you drop something, they might pick it up and use it against you!

You mean like in any other roguelike? Actually, the WHOLE feature list looks as generic as they come.

But when I look at ur post with humour, it's entartaining. Still,

 

[ChristianAndersson]

Hehe, well... Thanks for taking the time to comment and answer!

 

[a Goat]

Pro tip - old RPG's sometimes have the kind of interface layout you've used(also common in roguelikes):

For very, I mean very practical reason.
Computers back then rendered stuff in 320x240 and lower resolution(multicolor mode on C64 could output whopping 190x200) and even by mid-90's 17 inch monitors were big, in the 80's oh boy they've used TV's for this purpose. In both cases we were talking about either using something that would be really, really small which needed huge fonts or something with completely shit "pixel density"(it wasn't pixel density, CRT's don't work like that) which would render "small" fonts unreadable(remember that vector-based fonts weren't a thing back then). That's why they've did something you've copied, the interface was huge because you couldn't fit readable logs etc. on the screen back then.
Nowadays, some phones may need similar treatment but something bigger than 9-inch is already better than most "dedicated" monitors people could buy back then(hell, most of this stuff has 1080p screens so it's better than everything until like 2007 or 2008).
You've dodged "lol - retro pixelart graphics" bullet(which again - is a trap - old CRT's were much more inaccurate when it comes to their picture so games didn't looked like pixelated crap on them) but at the same time you've fucked up with "retro" interface.

Just change it, it has no purpose today, and ergonomically speaking - you're wasting a lot of space, for stuff that doesn't need as much exposure.

Also - the idea is completely unoriginal, but if it's your first bigger project - that's okay, I've seen worse.