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Intro
It’s been a while since we last talked. Almost a year? A lot has been going on in my life; a lot has changed, both kind and horrifying, as life tends to be. Ramlord released in February of 2019, and while I am not prepared to go into a development autopsy, I will say that in some ways I’m still reeling from that project.
I previously hung up my coat on video game design, and retired to focus on my writing as a principle hobby. That hasn’t quite remained the case. I’m here to talk about the status of Ramlord, my views on the current Moddb yearly contest, and the announcement of a future project. Thank you, for all of you who have supported my works thus far.
Ramlord – Mod of the Year Contest
And I would like to ask those same people to consider voting for The Shadow of the Ramlord in the Moddb Yearly contest. While it isn’t a coveted prize to attain for me, I still feel that it stands as the most complete and articulate vision of what I tried to achieve with my ten years at Dark Craft Studios, and bringing it that level of recognition would be a fun pursuit to undertake. And to see if there are enough who agree?
Thematically, and from a maturity of development and writing talent I’ve been sharpening, I still feel Ramlord to be the proper curtain call that ten years of mod designing should deserve. Even if only through my lens. Everything clicked, I found the right people for the right jobs who put up with the inexorable challenge of me learning a new engine only to immediately release a project with the ambition of Ramlord. While it is a contentious subject on whether or not it succeeded, since to this day it remains our least well reviewed title, to me it was an emphatic victory.
Ramlord & Dark Craft Studios - The Future
I should lead with the obvious. There will be no returning to Caecea Manor for Dark Craft Studios. Since February I have accumulated a list of six minor bugs, and zero game breaking instances that couldn’t be resolved with a quick PM to troubleshoot which was usually in regards to the users having conflicting mods, or Linux, both of which I cannot fix.
I originally had lofty goals for returning to the helm of another development pass and actually did quite a lot of work on the levels, ranging from lighting, particles, geometry and overall pacing. In general, the last two levels got a big face lift. But then I started to play-test, and ran into the usual HPL2 woes… and realized I didn’t have the energy or passion to run it alone. The soundtrack I hoped to receive never came to fruition. That was supposed to headline the 1.1 patch, and without it the whole thing felt like me just tinkering and not pressing goals necessitated by a community that was interested. So let this declaration stand final in that, Ramlord joins Triptych and Worry of Newport as completed, finished projects.
However, it’s not all grim on the horizon. Dark Craft Studios is currently in production of another project. What banner it will take place under, what time it will appear, or when I will feel comfortable enough to share more is still up for debate. However, it will be a retail release, and we’re striving to achieve as professional – or more – of a development pipeline than was in Ramlord. I’d like to tell you more about it tonight, but there’s a few more details we need to iron out before a media campaign really begins. I’d give us another six months at most before the grand reveal. But I wanted to share that with those of you who expressed disappointment at my retirement from games design. After a year break, I’m back in the saddle, surrounded by a supportive and incredible team once again. I’ve reunited with my writing team from Triptych, and honing in on my style, I’m hoping to bring a newly unique narrative for you to play in the future – one that could actually support us.
There will be more news in the future, and while perhaps not on this site, elsewhere. Stay tuned for the reveal of the project by Spring of next year, at the latest.
Release Development Diary
News 4 commentsThe final development diary for Ramlord, and subsequently, our release!
December + January Development Diary
NewsA look at the release to come for The Shadow of the Ramlord.
November Development Diary
News 1 commentA look at the winter months coming for the development of Shadow of the Ramlord.
October Development Diary
NewsA look at the last few months of progress in developing the Shadow of the Ramlord.
Files
Shadow of the Ramlord - Manual
Full VersionUser Manual = Install Instructions. If download isn't working, we provide mirrors below.
Shadow of the Ramlord - Installer
Full Version 1 commentUser Manual = Install Instructions. If download isn't working, we provide mirrors below.
Shadow of the Ramlord french version française
PatchVersion Originale Sous-titrée en français de Shadow of the Ramlord
The Shadow of the Ramlord - Russian Translation
Patch 1 commentImproved the translation (into Russian) for this mod as much as possible.It won't work even better because my English is very sad and complex texts are...
The Shadow of the Ramlord - Czech Translation
Patch 3 commentsNahraďte stejnojmenný soubor ve složce s módem.
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The dumbest CS i ever played!!
don't like? don't play, simple.
There is no shame in a CS that tries something different. Did lovecraft write his works to have crappy jumpscares and chases? no, so shut up and leave the rest of us in peace.
Confusing - is the best way to decribe this mod.
So, i think the atmosphere is unarguably the strongest point of the mod, good usage of events/sfx, sometimes it is really uncomfortable to play. The story is somewhere in the middle, it's original enough to keep you invested, but it could've been delivered better and there is a strong feeling of it being abrupted closer to the end.
The problem for me was the shortage and linearity of the mod. It's basically a walking simulator filled with dialogs and very basic tasks (go to the adjacent room to find a key) with absolutely nothing else. No enemies to hide from, no puzzles and exploration. I understand that it is all subjective, just don't expect much from gameplay.
I also didn't appreciate for how often the author took control away from the player in order to show/tell something and constant fuzzyness of the screen combined with very slow character movement.
Overall, nice looking little mod with great atmosphere, voice acting and visuals, but it really feels more like a demo than a full custom story.
Excellent feedback man, I fully agree.
Because of the complication of the development cycle and the timeline we were working with, quite a few concepts never fully developed. The ending two maps were one of them, as well as lack of puzzles.
So ultimately the focus was put fully on story, voice acting, level design and atmosphere. The concepts I could put the most polish into, given my limited skillset. This was my first, and only, mod for HPL2 ever. Learned the engine for this one.
I just finished it and I'm still really confused on what happened in that ending, and in the story.
Sorry guys, there are going to be spoilers here. However I trust you've all played it by now. Also I'm going to be bluntly stating some nasty, dark themes fyi.
Part 1
We are Johan, an aged and experienced Witchfinder. It is a sect of the Church tasked with finding and uprooting the occult. This can be viewed through a Lovecraftian lens in my writing.
A recently married Baroness, Emilia, has sent us a letter asking us to intervene with the Necromantic practices of her husband, Anton. He is building a web of acolytes and equals by hosting private events at his manor, and Emilia has seen enough to know where this plot is headed.
By the time we arrive, much of the story has already concluded. This is important to keep in mind, as you play through the game you are still in the past tense. Before the game starts, Emilia finds out she is pregnant, and it is stillborn. Whether this is her doing is up in the air. This enrages Anton, who rather stupidly reveals his plot to use their unborn son as a sort of Rosemary's Baby avatar to something called the Ramlord.
With time, he assaults her, and she is pregnant again. Unspecified but nonetheless severe circumstances cause Anton to leave the Manor, and Emilia enjoys her solitude among what was once her home and even dances to wonderful memories she has, before she ends her own life.
Part 2
Anton returns some time later to find her dead. He brings her back, chains her on the bottom depths underneath the manor, and she is pregnant again. Yeesh.
Johan arrives at Caecea to find the manor abandoned but, slowly with Emilia's help (Clues and messages she's left to guide us, magically, in essence.) finds his way into the secret bowels of the manor. A trap in the Library, however, is theoretically our downfall. This point in the story is rather important, as two key notes are left rather bare.
1: Johan is tortured to find out how it is he came to discover Anton, and the manor. He never cracks and succumbs to his wounds due to age. He is brought back from the dead.
2: Both protagonist and antagonist suffer a severe consequence of hubris here. Johan is so confident in his skills and ability that he is duped into a very last minute trap, and Anton is proud enough to want to turn Johan into a revenant himself since that is the very fate that would destroy a man of his faiths soul.
Part 3
Johan is delirious, inhuman and completely broken but still fights onward relentlessly given the new opportunity. He works to create a banishment ritual to unmake/kill all the revenants, himself and Anton and Emilia included, to reset the entire problem. As we wander the catacombs we discover Anton torturing another individual, his identity being established near the beginning of the mod. He reveals it was Emilia who sent the letter, and Anton is enraged and storms to kill Emilia. However, there is a cavein for Ramlord reasons, and Johan/Anton duke out the longest unintentional hoax of a theological debate. Sorry, that part's awful. My bad.
Johan discovers Emilia at the bottom of the manor in a tunnel. A sound of a baby crying is heard and Emilia allows Johan to... stab. The two share some delicate words and realize that, due to the prior cavein, they will live underneath the manor forever.
And finally, there are some elements I would have loved to do better. A second ending, where you could complete the ritual instead of pursuing the Ramlord problem, would have been an interesting dilemma.
Establishing the Ramlord itself as an identity was always a goal, but never happened. I couldn't find the space for it. One antagonist with a theatrical voice was enough.
Would have loved to find a way to frame the ending dialog better, and cut it way down, or perhaps even a boss fight of... some kind. Ish.
The cutscene in the middle feeling like a break between two different mods is now only obvious in post mortem, but I would have liked to fix that and make the pacing more consistent.
But ah well. Maybe I should write a post mortem.
Beautiful story! Keep it up!