It's time for another progress report on Dungeon Deities! We've been working hard on it the last few weeks, and we'd thought you may want to know what new stuff we've added!
First of all, there's been a bit of a breakthrough on the homepage. We've decided to switch to a new system, based on a framework (instead of coding everything from scratch) for advantages in flexibility, security, comfort, and speed. Of course, that requires a lot of recoding. This last week, we've given the dungeon editor an overhaul. It looks similar to the old one, true, but it's much faster and more flexible, and simpler to use.
Dungeons are now saved automatically - finally, you won't forget to save and see your work from the previous, precious minutes disappear!
Wait, what's that?
Global options? In there, you can change settings that make your dungeon more athmospheric. For instance, you can activate the display of room names in the client. This allows you to tell stories with your dungeon. Perhaps it used to be a castle in which unspeakable acts were comitted (such as playing table tennis, who'd do that!?). Maybe it was a forest in which the cruelest of monsters roamed, feasting on unsuspecting visitors who were lost. Or perhaps you can think of better stories than we do (you probably can). In any case, your messages can now be displayed to players. Trust us, a room with a name just feels different. A square room with a few torches may look silly if it's called "The Room of Torch enthusiasts" - or it may look intimidating if you read that it's the "Room of dangerous rites". Well, more intimidating at least.
A few more tweaks to the graphics were added. For instance, the walls can now be higher than just one measly tile - this makes them seem more like rooms than a simple 2d-layout. This is done automatically, and adapts to the room size, so you don't have to worry much about it. It's not quite there, yet -- doors look a bit weird, and we need to find a better way to detect which tiles are edge tiles -- but it does make the room feel more real.
The shot above also shows the new "Waveblast-Orb" in action -- with it, you attack with a huge wave of water that pushes back enemies and damages them. Great if you need some breathing room (your enemies, naturally, get less of that). And since it's an elemental attack, it's especially effective against enemies of type fire, so finally you can show those fireball-throwing wizards. They had it coming, anyway.
Here's another quick video. It shows the new big walls, as well as fog. We find that it increases the athmosphere quite a lot! Not shown are the room names - that wasn't implemented at the time of recording.
or watch on YouTube.
CREDITS:
Hero sprite by Antifarea, via OpenGameArt.org
Music:
"Come and Find me - B Mix", by: Eric Skiff (glitchnyc.com)
Dungeon created by Cryaotic. Thanks!
Of course, as per usual, we love to hear your comments!
Itching to get my hands on this. Atmosphere is up and the game and editor look like they have gained a lot of depth!